Agenda
- Check in
- Opening Blessing
- Weekly event logistics
- Review WWWs
- Review agenda
- Open Space Festivals
- Outreach/Recruitment/Missionary work
- Evaluations
- Closing Blessing
Next business call
- Year Plan
- Imbolc/Riverrain
- Equinox
- Create Meetup invitation for Equinox
- SolSeed Creed
- New Videos
Check-in
- Ben … I felt sleepy yesterday but I actually got a lot done including on my novel.
- Shawn … Yesterday I was out doing trailwork for the Nature Conservancy at Cascade Head. NC property, laying down mulch.
- Brandon … I'm excited about SolSeed/Gaia's People/Foundation/Biospheric Communionism/whatever it's called, and I look forward to making some grandiose plans and then executing on them
- Eric … I'm not quite awake yet, even though it's almost noon … I played games last night with Patrick and Michelle and we had a lot of fun. I hope to bring that sense of fun to this meeting … yay!
Opening Blessing
We come together to do the work, the work we are called by Gaia to do. May we find the right work or may the right work find us. --Blessed Be
Weekly Events Logistics
Service rotation: Eric, Ben, Shawn, Brandon, Rico, Shelley
- Jan 13th Service: 8:30 AM PDT / 11:30 EDT … Shawn
- Jan 14th Business Call: 8:30 AM PDT / 11:30 EDT
WW(W)s from last time
- Brandon … Get Gaia.wiki online
- Brandon … Talk to Shelley about how to maintain energy through holidays next year and put more into Solstice and Space Elevator celebrations
WW(W)s
- Ben … update the SolSeedCreed call and response … by today
- Brandon … Get Gaia.wiki online
- Brandon … Talk to Shelley about how to maintain energy through holidays next year and put more into Solstice and Space Elevator celebrations
Open Space Unconferences/Festivals
- Designed to imitate meeting people in the hallway on a coffee break at a regular conference
- Opening circle where you create an agenda on a wall
- Each person commits to being at a particular place at a particular time for each item they create, even if no one else is there
- Inviting people to the Open Space: Invite maybe 10 people, maybe hope it goes viral
- Recent Changes Camp got 150 people
- At the other end of the spectrum: Just for the people who are already the most dedicated
- Duration
- Usually 2½ days
- On short notice, we can do a shorter one
- WikiVanning is a simpler, usually much shorter version of Open Space with one session track
- Shawn thinks this is a great idea … at tech conferences, he's found breakout sessions and meeting like-minded people at lunch to be the most important things
Outreach/Recruitment/Missionary work
- We used to do a lot of unsuccessful recruitment at conventions/conferences/Earth Day festivals
- We did a bit of cross-pollination with similar-ish groups like Terasem
- Our only success before Shawn was with the link from the Earthseed article on Wikipedia (which also has a link to Terasem)
- Shawn: I wonder how many people who go out of their way to help nature already have a very strong belief system that might be able to be coaxed into.
- Ben: We don’t really talk about us at park work parties.
- Eric: I have tried. When I have talked about it I’ve gotten some interest … but never to the point where they might join.
- Shawn: If we were all to go to one with SolSeed tee-shirts then it invites the question: What are you all about?
- Brandon: I'm ready to try being "crazy" again, rather than just blending in like when we help at work parties. A kind of crazy that's approachable, harmless, not angry or needy.
- I think we should try out an event where we do some of this, maybe even just wear our t-shirts to a work party.
- Ben: Do we want to create new t-shirts for Gaia's People?
- Brandon: Shawn, what name appeals most to you?
- Eric: Many of the name options come from the fact that everyone who's ever become a contributing member has founded their own religion first … Biospheric Communionism, the Church of Gaia/Earthseed, and now Foundation?
- Shawn: Sci-fi people would mostly not be into Paganism
- Ben: We're trying out Gaia's People because we're currently feeling more drawn to a focus on Earth-based concerns and existential threats
- Brandon: The people we've been trying to attract are mostly not interested in joining a group … Pagans are all about themselves (and their current religious affiliation), sci-fi people just want to have fun, space enthusiasts tend to be libertarian … how do we find the few people at events who are the exceptions to this?
- Shawn: At sci-fi conventions, have a banner that emphasizes we're really trying to create the kind of awesome future they love watching/reading about
- Shawn: Elon Musk fan club?
- Eric: Elon is the person most aligned to our vision
- Brandon: I don't like his vision for the memes that run our world
- Eric: Three main thrusts of our ideas
- SolSeed: Spreading life beyond Earth
- Gaia’s People: Cherishing the Earth (Conservation/Maintenance)
- Religious Practice ... Practicing in Community
- Brandon: Related to groups like Landmark and Lifespring, which are powerful and somewhat dangerous
- Shawn: Social technology for creating community and trust, which is what allows organizations to work efficiently
- Brandon: The mechanism for identity formation is practice … a community of practice is about allowing us to become who we aspire to be, collectively and individually … start with who you want to be (see Happy in the Sun)
- Ben: Embracing Science?
- Eric: That seems to underlie the other three, telling us that they're worth doing
Evaluation
- Brandon … I am so excited about the new energy that Shawn has brought and about getting more of it, creating a sustainable Foundation with him. I am riding lightning.
- Shawn ... I"m also very excited to be here and to have found people who share a vision with me, and hoping to create a sustainable Foundation of Gaia's People for SolSeed.
- Brandon … The name and the language we use with others is marketing, not who we are.
- Eric … I’m coming up on my sixth year of SolSeed and when I joined my practices were pretty flimsy and my dedication was pretty weak and now I have Buckleberry. And that definitely comes from being a part of SolSeed and practicing and forming my mind around being obsessed with its vision.
- Ben … I have a confession to make. I’ve been feeling less attached to SolSeed lately. With everything that has been happening, particularly in the White House, I’ve been feeling like the positive vision of spreading life is more and more just a fantasy. I am really glad, Shawn, that you are bringing some more energy about what to do when things go horribly wrong. I’d like to be part of a group that does things that make sense given what is actually happening.
- Shawn ... collapsing in doesn’t mean we can’t spread out … we can shape the collapses of God … collapse is a great opportunity because it wipes away the illusion that you can just be self-absorbed
- Ben … I recommend the book A Paradise Built in Hell
Closing Blessing
- Brandon: We got the idea from Ruth Halstead, who told us that's what Mormons do at their business meetings
We came together to find the work and the work is finding us. We are swept along by a new current of energy and this brings us great excitement and new possibilities. May we ride this current of lightning without getting singed. -- Blessed Be (I=V/R)