NEXT PLANNING MEETING (via conference call): February 9 at 2 pm
Preparation for next call - Thinking into who we should invite. In order to do that, we’ll sharing existing list of invitees with the planning group.
Participating: Tree F, Peggy, Sheri, Merrilyn, John, Tree B, Tom, Halim, Susan, Kevin, Michael D, Margo, Bill
Rough Notes: Sheri
Agreements
Tom – post the ES3 synthesis statement to the wiki
Tree F – send out email for upcoming planning meetings to all who expressed interest
Sheri – post meeting notes to wiki
Halim – take the lead for the “invitation team” (Tree F, Halim, Susan, Tom, Margo) to craft an invitation to ES3
John – invite people who were on the waiting list to join the Evolutionary Nexus for dialogue
Brief Summary
Sharing and exploration of what calls you to this conference call.
Discussion of logistics regarding timing of ES3, planning, large number of invitees, venue restrictions (size of group – pros and cons of large v. small)
We do we invite and what topic?
Discussion of the focus/purpose for ES3 – getting clarity
This is a process, not an event.
Synthesis statement for focus/purpose that emerged
Listening into the Future: What is calling? Deep explorations about evolution, visions, where we are and where we might go as a planet.
Bell & silence
Margo – what we created was very powerful and wants to see where we can go and participate in that process.
John – there’s a closer coming together of colleagues in various movements; would like to see an evolutionary salon for software development.
Merrilyn – uses of imagery we could add to the proceedings that will be useful.
Tree F – thinking of herself now as a “money tree”; from the first moment she heard about the first Evolutionary Salon at Peggy’s house, she’s been carrying the field.
Sheri – feel called to this work and to what is emerging; went through powerful transformation at the Salon and want to support the process in support of nurturing the field we are all sitting in.
Susan – when I heard about it, my ears perked up and I had a sense that I needed to be at this gathering; it was extremely powerful; I feel called to support this movement.
Tom – what does the field want to do with the next salon? Sense into it, that’s how he sees his role.
Tree B – ditto; wants to tune in and see where things are and stay connected.
Kevin – has been to the first two salons, both interesting and personally transforming; wants to help form a salon for creatives and artists.
Halim – I was so thrilled and lifted by ES2; wants to see the website evolve; there are surges of energy through me and wants more of that.
Peggy – couldn’t possibly be anywhere else.
Bill – here to play
Michael – this is my passion, these kinds of evolutionary conversations; I may not be on this call every time, but I’m deeply invested in this process.
Logistics:
Who else wants to participate in the planning? Others who want to be involved in this process but could not attend this call – Dana, Katia, Carolyn, Jack, Alan, Ashley, and Alexander.
Conference Call Number – available thanks to Michael; if you want to use the line for ES3 planning, just let him know so he can schedule it.
Meeting Notes - Notes will be posted to the Forum for ES3 on Evolutionary Nexus (Sheri with additional notes from Tom, John and Tree; everyone is responsible for reviewing and making changes/revisions/additions/comments – collaborate and support the ongoing dialogue)
Using the Online Technology:
Forums are the best place for conversations;
Wikis are the best place for collaboration.
Deeper inquiry question:
Peggy – Wants to honor the question of reflection as a foundation for thinking about the purpose for ES3, so let’s take 15 minutes to do some reflections on ES2 as a reflection on ES3.
* * * *
Meeting date/location – Currently set for May 19-24 at Whidbey Institute; there’s still a question about whether we’ll start on the 19th or the 20th.
Need to Focus Quickly – Michael shared that they started inviting people for ES1 8 months ahead of time; same for ES2. This time we’re only 4 months away, so we need to get clarity quickly regarding (1) theme (2) purpose and (3) who to invite
Tom – ES2 successfully brought together people engaged in the work of Collective Intelligence. Who do we want to include in this next Salon?
Request for Reflection:
Sheri – would like to see some time spent on reflection about ES2 to better inform our thinking about theme, purpose, invitations, process. [What did we learn about collective intelligence that is informing our evolving work?]
Clarity of Purpose and the Need to Narrow the Focus:
Halim – question of purpose bifurcates into two:
There are many reasons why people show up – for personal growth, process laboratory, networking, identifying new initiatives, engaging the story field, engaging the design field. We want to welcome the rich variety that people bring, but maybe focusing on several topics/themes would be good.
Tom – There are different types of narrowing: (1) framing focus (2) topic focus (3) wide open; we framed the invitation for ES2 with the evolutionary frame story; we didn’t set the intention solidly at the beginning of the actual gathering (lack of focus). Therefore, people who were drawn by the evolutionary meme felt frustrated, even though it was loose and juicy. We need to try something with the evolutionary framing and have it clear at the beginning and keep it open.
Peggy – she saw the invitation, but didn’t really read it, but was called by the energy. The theme of community building that was implicit in ES2; much of the power happened at that level.
Michael – what is the uniqueness of something like the evolutionary salon, he was asking himself in early conversations leading up to these salons. The need to make explicit the evolutionary context. A real benefit is to create a solid evolutionary context. ES1 – complexity and evolutionary directionality; ES2 – catalyzing Collective Intelligence and social creativity; ES3 – what field or sector would be of great value and interest as this all evolves?
Kevin – several threads here: (1) who do we invite and what topic? (2) what’s the process and form of the salon? It would be very useful to soak people in the evolutionary perspective before the salon actually starts and right at the beginning. A critique – lack of focus and directionality. This time, have focus at the beginning and then in the middle let the river run full and wide, and then run it through a narrow gorge so we have focus.
Tom – “shadow presence” – dozens of people who wanted to be there are on the waiting list. We don’t have a clean slate. What about picking a focus that is broad and can be broken out. If there are specific sectors, then let’s do specific salons on those sectors.
Bill – question is what are the design principles of evolutionary nature that we’re using to make decisions. If you have a lot of diversity, interesting things happen. Convergence/openness. Will the question help us with the convergence? How do we enter into conscious evolution? How do we create a container that might move us to the next phase?
Tree F – she’s holding a lot of space for the people who wanted to come. Could we consider a different facility/venue to hold more people. It’s important to not close it down.
Merrilyn – agrees with this; she supports being open to those who feel they want to be there
Peggy – there is room for more. The assumption is that May won’t be the last ES. We set the intention that as we design ES3 and we have it first come, first serve, if we blow past our numbers limit, we set a date for ES4.
This is a process, not an event.
Halim – Whidbey Institute would limit us to 60 people or so [Note from Sheri - Joy said that Aldermarsh is not available on these dates]
Michael – Whidbey Institute is very turned on by ES2 and would like to see themselves as a space for these types of conversations.
Merrilyn – Can we invite people who were on the waiting list to join the website?
John – he’ll take this on.
Margo – this is a lengthy conversation; the pros and cons of large and small groups. We could have more that are smaller. If part of the design is to have everyone part of the whole. What happens in small vs. larger groups. There were a larger number of women vs. men, explore what that is about. The more balance – diversity.
Michael – likes the diversity. People said that the size wouldn’t have been a challenge if we could have met with smaller groups, so there are pros of less than 40 people.
Merrilyn – Bill’s context of conscious evolution and design principles.
John – he heard a lot about process and it seemed people really loved process, maybe the focus could be on process – evolutionary processes.
Evolutionary Salon 3 – PURPOSE/FOCUS
Bell/Silence
What’s the focus that would make our individual heart sing?
Taking responsibility for what you love.
ES3 Focus that calls you.
Merrilyn – where all of us could be out on one cutting edge, describing it, claiming our potential, being vulnerable, what are we here to do
Tree B – how do we scale up in terms of social evolution, rather than the pace. How can we be strategic about what we really believe needs to happen.
Michael – (missed it sorry)
Peggy – how do we become an enlightened community?
Tom – living as if we can make an evolutionary difference, asking what’s here?
Tree F – continuing to grow the capacity of collective field; take the content and the process and scale it up.
Susan – what are some of our collective images/visions of the future
Margo – listening in to the future, what’s being called
Tom – what is calling
Tree F – that’s what I was trying to say
Merrilyn – they all fit together
Kevin – this resonates; how we move this in a larger community, balance this issue of what is calling and what is this evolutionary perspective, do we have a story? What’s next? There’s a certain urgency and some clarity would be helpful in reaching out to more people.
Margo – speaking more personally, what’s calling to me is not the evolutionary perspective as much as what Joanne Macy calls the “Great Turning”; would like to have some deep listening about the conversation about evolution. It was on the edges of ES2, not in the center.
Kevin – the Great Turning would be a great evolutionary moment.
Sheri – collective visioning
Halim – one of the limitations of the evolutionary frame, is that the sense of emergence happens at the edges…
Tom – weaving several threads: listening to the future, deep conversations about the evolutionary vision, where we are and where we might go; what is calling…
Margo –also that we embody how we treat each other in an evolutionary context; how we are informed comes from the edges.
Susan – don’t want it to sound too monolithic; there are multiple visions possible. what are calling?
John – having a vision of a silent salon – 5 days / no words
Bill – is there a way to hold the question of vision and evolutionary channels and the relationship of the past and the future. There’s a richness around this territory. Just because we envision it and we want it, is it evolution? We vision it, we plan it and now it’s going to happen? Keeps us humble.
Halim – important elements of working toward vision, constantly revising; not left-brained style that is engineered, but taking step by step.
Sheri – would like to see us incorporating the evolutionary processes, including the presence of Scharmer in terms of sensing into the future. [added later for clarification: I am interested in what evolutionary process practices are calling us and what conditions can we set in place to allow us to come into the being state that allows us to connect more deeply with what the future is calling us into....]
Margo – appreciate the sense of history; conscious outreach to people in indigenous communities; presence of many people from indigenous perspectives.
Michael – welcome it and fear it; many indigenous people don’t see the deep time perspective; there are many people who reject the evolutionary story because it doesn’t fit in with their version of creation story.
Synthesis
Peggy – do we have a working theme? Tom named something. Is there support with minor modifications? It seemed we moved on because it was a good working draft theme.
Listening into the Future: What is calling? Deep explorations about evolution, visions, where we are and where we might go as a planet
General support expressed (with some modifications).
Tree F – scaling it up/taking to the next level? Is that theme in there? We’re living into it. What’s calling us is upscaling.
Bill – question based on the last time: what’s the specificity? Would I know more from that title? People will be responding to the call, does it need more specificity?
Tom – when we send out the invitation, there are more questions we include. We want a broad framing to begin with.
Summary of what was expressed by the whole:
Scaling up in terms of social evolution
Growing the capacity of the field
Evolutionary processes as key component
Collective visioning
What are the collective visions/images of the future – what are calling us?
Inviting the indigenous
Different frames - Great turning, listening at the edges, evolutionary
Crafting the Invitation
Peggy – anyone feeling a call to craft the invitation and statement of the theme?
Tree F
Halim
Susan
Tom
Margo
Halim will take the lead to convene the team.
We’ll use the wiki to collaborate on the draft;
We’ll radically trust the invite team to take the lead.
ES3 Conference Call Planning Meetings
We decided to do them every 2 weeks. Those who show up are the ones who make the decisions for that stage of the planning; notes will be posted in the ES3 Planning Forum: http://www.evolutionarynexus.org/node/184
Next Planning Call – February 9 at 2 pm.
We agreed that either Tuesdays at 2 pm or Thursdays at 2 pm are our ideal times (at the moment and taking into account others like Ashley who could not be here but could be available on Thursdays or Fridays). Tree F will send out an email to everyone who has expressed an interest in participating in this unfolding process.
Preparation for next call:
Thinking into who we should invite. In order to do that, we’ll sharing existing list of invitees with the planning group.
Closing
Great process
A lot of appreciation for how mindful everyone was.
Stupendous
Great to see the torch being passed
Would like to have a harvest time.