Agenda
- Check in
- Opening Blessing
- Review WWWs
- Weekly event logistics
- Year Plan
- Samhain
- Review Agenda
- Gaia Statue Documentation
- Newsletter
- Gaia’s People Provisional Name? … including gaia.wiki
- Evaluations
- Closing Blessing
Next business call
- Year Plan
- Samhain
- SolSeed Creed revisions
- New Videos
- Strategic Planning
Check-in
- Eric: I am really glad that we are having one of these meetings finally.
- Ben: I’m really hoping that we can get back on track.
- Brandon: I am so curious about what this work bee is going to include because it has been so long and it is not like we have continuity going.
Opening Blessing
Sometimes the sun shines. Sometimes the rain falls. In all things natural, there are cycles. There is the ebb, and there is the flow. We come together to begin another of these cycles. May our work together be guided by wisdom, powered by passion, and infused with empathy. --Blessed Be
WW(W)s
- Ben … find and add my new ideas for the Creed to the wiki … by next call
- Ben … write a draft of the newsletter … by next call
- Brandon … find and add my new ideas for the Creed to the wiki … by next call
- Brandon … ask Shelley to share the pictures from Gaia’s Dedication
- Brandon ... Consider writing a blog post about our family’s thoughts on scouting journey
- Brandon … Ask about gaia.wiki … by today
Weekly Events Logistics
Service rotation: Eric, Ben, Brandon, Rico, Shelley
- Oct 21 Service: 8:30 AM PDT / 11:30 EDT … Ben (Eric may be on Montreal trip)
- Oct 22 Business Call: 8:30 AM PDT / 11:30 EDT (Brandon may be in frantic Sequoia’s BDay prep) (Eric may be on Montreal trip)
Year Plan
Samhain
November 6, 10:00 AM PST / 13:00 EST
- Could we get ourselves invited to that Druid group's celebration again?
- Ben: I can only make it if it's on a weekend
- Our celebration could be on the evening of Saturday November 4
Gaia statue documentation
- Brandon took a WWW to request photos from Shelley
- Ben: Would we want to put photos on our front page given the possible nudity concerns if anybody has any?
- Eric: I don’t have any
- Brandon: No closeups of her crotch, but otherwise I don't have any
- Eric: Agreed!
- Eric: Should we do a blog post?
- Ben: Humanistic Paganism? Godischange.org?
- Eric: I could write blogs for several places
- Thumbs up from Ben and Brandon
- Brandon: Link to your Gaia prayers from the SolSeed Book of Days
Newsletter
- Do we have anything to describe other than the big trip?
- Topics
- Big trip
- Concerning AI
- Considering using a different name for a while
- Considering Scouting … Boy Scouts, Spiral Scouts (Pagan thing), Gaia Scouts
Gaia's People provisional name
Web presence
- Top-Level Designs owns Gaia.wiki, and the hosting service Wiki.wiki is shutting down, which would kill Gaia.wiki
- Brandon will make a play to get the domain
- Ben: We could also get gaiaspeople.org
- Eric: Or gaiaspeople.wiki, and port over the SolSeed content if the name change became less provisional
Proposal:
- Trial period … Up to the Summer Solstice
- Updated Creed
- At the Summer Solstice we will decide if we want to keep the rename or not or do both
- (Tentative) 3-day unconference to help us decide
Concerns:
- Could be a lot of work to re-brand everything
- Sounds like a generic pagan woo-woo group
- To what extent are still talking about space … does it make sense to still include family of living worlds in the Creed? (of course it does) … marketing concerns about space
- Sounds like we're trying to make ourselves special (sounds like we’re saying “We are Gaia’s chosen!” rather than “We dedicate ourselves to Gaia”)
- Ben: I’d like to do a name-brainstorm
Considerations:
- Are we going to try it from a marketing perspective?
Name Brainstorm
Parameters
- Something to do with Gaia
- Clarifies we’re pointed at her?
- Vivid
Go
- Gaia’s People, Children of the Living Earth
- Gaianism (has new-age associations already)
- Explorers for Gaia
- Naturalists for Gaia
- We belong to Gaia
- Dedicants of Gaia
- Church of Gaia
- Seeds of Gaia
- Lifeseed
- Shiny Gaians
- Temple of Gaia’s Spacefarers
- Gaia's Champions
- Gaia’s Little Ones
- Gaia’s Forest Keepers
- Biospheric Communionism
- Church of Gaia/Earthseed
- Children of the Biosphere
- Biospherism
- Church of the Biosphere
- Gaia’s Biosphere
- Gaia's Covenant
Advantages to the rename
- Personal (kids talk about walking around on Gaia’s belly, and taking care of Gaia … never would do the same about SolSeed)
- Warm
- Immediate (Not abstract, I get it)
- Not confusing (Oh, soul seed)
- Accessible metaphor
- Grounded (Focused on present-day concerns (and being present to this moment) rather than distant future visions)
- Covers the work of caring for Earth more than SolSeed which was more destiny-focused
- Talks about community more than SolSeed
- Has a stronger who (stronger identity)
- No disambiguation with some band from Eugene
Evaluations
- Brandon: Fun
- Ben: Not sure what to say; it's "ah good to be back" and then we change everything which is familiar and then not
- Eric: I’m pumped to start a new adventure with you guys
Closing Blessing
The feeling from today is that the flow has begun. We are coming back from a period of dispersion to a period of working together. Thank you for your enthusiasm. Thank you for your work. May our energies continue for long enough that we may feast on fruit. -- Blessed Be