Notes from Feb. 16 Planning call for Evo Salon 3

Notes from Feb. 16 Planning call for Evo Salon 3 

Present: Peggy Holman, Tom Atlee, Halim Dunsky, Margo Adair, Tree Fitzpatrick, Susan Cannon, Stephen Feig, Ashley Cooper, Michael Dowd, Sheri Madrone Herndon, Marc Tognotti (and noted that Finn wants to be, is out of town, and will participate when he can)

Brief overview (from Ashley and Sheri): This call was a fast-paced, action-filled call in which people’s concerns, passions, intentions, and wishes for the ES3 invitation and regarding who gets invited were offered, explored and discussed. Next conference call for Evolutionary Salon 3 will be Thursday, Feb. 23rd at 2 p.m. West Coast Time.  Dial 413-461-0333 and enter pin code 408. 


After a quick review of the invitation (nearing finalization) and applauds to those who have been working on it, the majority of the time was spent looking into the question of who should be invited and how to be responsive to agreements and commitments that were made to people. It was clear that integrity was a key guiding principle for working out this part of the decision.

A subgroup of Tree, Margo, Marc, Susan (and Sherri if needed) will continue to work on the invitation with the intention to have it finished as soon as possible. The invitation will be sent out in a couple of waves. The first recipients will be the people who are on the waiting list to attend ES2 and were promised that an ES3 would be happening in May. After receiving responses from the first wave, discussion will continue around deciding who is invited in the second wave (based on the number of slots available in the total 60 people capacity). There was lots of discussion around this that focused on criteria arising from a diversity matrix as well as what would be our ideal in terms of the theme and purpose of ES3… Read on for more information.

Another subgroup formed to handle the logistics of registration. Tree and Halim will take this on, with Susan and Stephen sensing into their roles, Ashley helping with communication, Margo being kept in the loop, and Sheri is available if the need is there.

The topic of money and languaging around how we are approaching money came up several times. There’s a lot to be learned from this conversation and given that -- it was recognized that this topic needs more space and it will be revisited in greater depth in the next call. In the meantime, a space on the Evolutionary Nexus will be set up so that there is a specific place for everyone to particpate in this conversation. A lot of great dialogue is happening on a cc list and we want to move it to a larger forum. Tree and Halim agreed to take on stewardship of the finances for ES3.

We ended by reflecting on how we are working together on our calls. There was recognition and appreciation for the dynamic tension and dissonance that arose, was deeply respected, and able to be fluidly worked with in the pace of the call. An idea came up to experiment with having a chat room available as a back channel for future conversations. On concern raised was around how to make sure to bring back into the larger call whatever salient points were made in those back channel conversations. Ashley and Sheri will look into the logistics of setting up a chat room for the next call.