July 30, 2017: Business Call

Revision 43253

Date
Author
SolSeed archive migration
Comment
Create maintainable Markdown archive revision
Size
6555 bytes
Delta
+22 bytes

Agenda

Next business call

Check-in

Opening Blessing

Half of life, or at least success in life, comes from showing up. May we continue to appreciate the half that we have been getting and find a path toward getting half of the other half. May we encourage each other and persevere. --Blessed Be

WW(W)s from Last Time

WW(W)s

Weekly Events Logistics

Service rotation: Eric, Ben, Brandon, Rico, Shelley

Year Plan

Lammas … at Service time on Saturday morning (August 5th)

Equinox trip

Newsletter

SolSeed contributing members' individual projects have been flourishing this spring, even as our collective projects have been moving more slowly. We made some progress on our shared strategy, but we still haven't reached any conclusions about tactics. So I'm going to try a different format for this newsletter, focusing on each of our participating households one at a time.

Brandon and Ted have been exploring how the potential near-future emergence of silicon-based intelligent life connects to our belief that all Life is Precious, publishing six new episodes of their Concerning AI podcast this spring. Topics have ranged from brain-computer interfaces to the importance of explanatory fables, as well as responding to listener feedback from the podcast's Facebook page. For the Beltane cross-quarter, also known as May Day, the Sanders signed up for another Arboretum work party, which I joined. Then for the Summer Solstice, they took a canoe trip to Ross Island like the one we did for the SolSeed 10th Anniversary celebration back in 2015.

Eric and his son Patrick have nearly completed their project to set up storage in their garage and basement, freeing up space for future Auberge Paradis bed-and-breakfast customers. Eric has also been hard at work surveying the site at Buckleberry, the first property specifically purchased for and dedicated to SolSeed, as part of the planning for a five-bedroom hobbit hole. He was planning to plant some cedar trees at Buckleberry for Beltane, but weather prevented it. However, he did manage to do a YayLifeTri of sorts for the Summer Solstice, adding a swim the day before he participated in the Perth Kilt Run and a bike ride the day after.

I've been accelerating my work on my SolSeed-themed novel Flight in a Cage, and I sent out a partial draft to friends and family for the first time in ten months, including three new chapters no one else had seen before. I'm almost finished with the part of the book set largely on Europa, and I'm looking forward to bringing my main characters to Earth to learn about an isolated society that bears a remarkable resemblance to a generation starship. Meanwhile, I've been taking several trips in addition to the one for the Arboretum work party, including a camping trip near the Solstice at the Windward ecovillage.

This summer, we're returning to our long-postponed project of updating the SolSeed Creed, with new insights from our strategic planning around the need to focus on the present more than the distant starfaring future. The Sanders and I will be watching the big eclipse in Oregon, while Eric works on our first original Gaia statue for Buckleberry. We'll all be visiting him for the Fall Equinox to help complete and install that statue as part of a dedication ceremony for the Buckleberry land, which will be an exciting turning point in SolSeed history!

Thanks for reading! Ben Sibelman

SolSeed Creed: Eric’s New Draft Version

Assembled from his text messages here: SolSeedCreed/2017-Revision

Evaluation

Closing Blessing

We showed up to do the work. We made progress toward finishing some pieces of the work. Let us rejoice in each step knowing that there is no end to this journey. May we persist in working toward our highest aspirations for the rest of our lives. --Blessed Be