There was a conference call today!

Thursday Conference Call

2:00PM, 1.5 hours

note-taker: LionKimbro

Notes for the next call:

(Tree, this is your space, to put your introductory paragraph!)

(Right here! Erase this, and put your intro paragraphs here. :) )

(Something about deeply immersing ourselves in the larger field, next call, right?)

Agenda

Ritual Question: "What calls you to this work?"

What are people interested intalking about?

• AshleyCooper: online space
• Tree: registration process, design of event
• Margo: registration process
• Mark: design, Fri call w/ Michael
• Susan: logistics w/ Tree, & Seattle activity
• LionKimbro: defer to logistics
• Peggy: lgistics & design, ES3.5, larger pattern, bigger picture
• Tom: puzzlement, unknowingness
• Steven: curiousity, registration process, creativity into unknown
• SheriHerndon: conscious evolution, create & design process, commitment, inspiration, curiosity, creativity

So the table is:

• Tree – administration Questions & Updates
• the invitation process
• Ashley – online component of the EvolutionarySalon?, OnlineInteraction
• Tree, Mark – Friday Evolutionary Salon design call

Side points:

• Tree
  • wanted question to focus on: "What is the passion for this phone call?"
  • say "bye" when you sign off
• Sheri tells about sacred circle retreat

Tree's Administration Report

Tree:

• invitations: 20 say "coming," 16 have paperwork done
• policy questions, for the group:
  • scholarship money
  • marketing request for roster

Tree on scholarship money:

• we have 4 people under 30yrs, most everyone is white
• we are committed to supporting diversity
• $3,000 in scholarship money
• $1,500 set aside for minorities, under 30's.
• $$ for older whites, it's mostly gone!
• It's all in flux & in dialog: do we keep money aside?
• commited to 1st come, 1st serve

Steven: "Let's leave some aside, for last minute registering, at least 2 people."

Next, the roster:

• Some (nice) people wanted the roster, to mail everyone a free book.
• I didn't give it to them.
• What should I have done?

Steven: Ask them for a paragraph, and contact info, if we want to talk with them.

Ashley: Invite them to post to the evo nexus!

(Mark seconds that.)

Tree: Okay, what about more generally?

Ashley: Direct them to the evolutionary nexus website.

Invitations

"Is it happening? What's the response?"

People liked Ashley's intro paragraph. She invited 5 or 6 people, and 2 signed up immediately.

Sheri asks about how the invitation process works, who is invited.

Tree and Peggy tell that there was a lot of consideration about it last Tuesday, 5 PM. The result is: If you feel deeply passionate about this, if this is your life's work, you should be invited. But, it goes one degree: The person you invite shouldn't be performing inviting.

(Lion, transcription note: I may have screwed this report up; If you are Tree or Peggy, please correct this.)

There's a desire to expand the base: Youth (the "UnderThirty?'s,") and people of different races. We're mostly whitey's, and we don't like that.

We're concerned about what to do when we're full. What should we tell people? Do we have an answer for them?

And what about the WhidbeyInstitute?? Have we talked with them? What is our connection with them, and what do they think?

(a brief period without clarity)

Bill and someone else bring up something about the online dimension of things, community building, and the energy behind these issues.

Margo says something about a conversation with Tom & Peggy, about "What is the Evolutionary Salo?" A concern about "privatism" leading the discussion, rather than clarity & intent.

Bill wants anyone to feel invited to start a branch. (lion: not sure I recorded this right.)

Someone brings up the FourPrinciplesOfTheEvolutionarySalon. Next Thursday's call, he or she would like larger mindfulness to larger questions to be the focus.

Tree notes that she emails you if she needs help, and that she needs you to respond.

Someone mentions that she has a female NonViolentCommunication? Japanese friend, who wants to come. And Sheri knows a visionary artist who has a similar energy like Dana, who she'd like to invite.

Bill sent an invite. Steven sent 10, hasn't heard back yet.

Peggy notes that we have 20 registrations already, and we're only just starting.

Tree notes that many people seem ready for just this sort of thing. She ran into people by accident, (UnderThirty?s,) who seemed perfect.

Lion notes that ImagineCascadia? is there too, also in Seattle.

Online Support

Ashley opens up, noting we need a real awareness of how we're doing, how we intend to replicate it, and how our online presence fits into the whole thing. We need sensing into the larger picture, patterns, … Logistics can be arranged online, there's a responsiveness to it.

She's talked with Ria & George, about what the Nexus is, how to support it. The online space is a big place. Will planning teams make use of the wiki? Is it time for this? We want to find something that meets our needs.

Sheri brings some clarity to the questions. Is it (1) that we aren't engaged enough with the online space, or (2) that the space isn't meeting our needs?

Tree asks where the wiki is. LionKimbro says he'll post the session notes for 2006-03-16 to the wiki, and a link to it on the EvolutionaryNexus website.

Peggy asks about Basecamp and Backpack. Has anyone here used it? Would it be of service to people?

Backpack is the free version, it's normally $99/month to support 1,000 subscribers. Tree has great things to say about it. It's "Open Space software." Anyone can start a project in it.

Ashley suggests sensing into larger patterns, gaining value from the online experience.

Peggy, once a software engineer, says that, abstractly, she'd get a lot of value from the online world. But practically, she hasn't seen anything yet that helps, beyond just simple listserves. She's seen some good discussion software, but the search functionality was horrible. She's also had bad experience with wiki, dealing with wiki syntax.

Tree remembered a conversation she had with NancyWhite?, where Nancy (an expert) noted that: "software just isn't out there yet" for a lot of the things people want to do.

Sheri talked about 5 days at her SacredCircleRetreat?. They felt that the online component is a key piece. So, what they did, is hold a session where 5 people just learned to use a wiki, and got comfortable with it. She said it's important that we learn together in a virtual world. Engage with it, and be willing to experiment with it.

Sheri suggested training sessions at the Salons, for how to do it.

Bill said he needs to feel a need, and sense a purpose, before getting into it. He said he's not interested in paragraph-long, or multi-paragraph-long meditations. Discussion about the tools doesn't make sense, without a sense of purpose behind it.

Tree has been hoping for a session about this. (lion: I think I'm getting something wrong here.) Something about a thing called "SpiritedWork?," and someone named Gabriel hosting an orientation session.

Someone asks: "Are we willing to go there? To use the wiki? To do EvolutionarySalon3Planning? online?

Tree says she wants to experiment, play, and give it her best shot.

Marcus thinks we may be more interested in the tool, than identifying a need.

Sheri feels the need very strongly. She talks about creating and replicating the dialog in a way that's very different.

Bill notes that one major value, is that people feel an aliveness, more than "it was just an event."

Sheri notes that we're generating a lot of energy, and we can inspire greater engagement.

Marcus is still skeptical.

(Sheri & Margo need to sign off.)

"What is the purpose, and imagined use?"

Ashley is commited to holding the space.

Bill will play in terms of purpose. Bill suggests making space for coming participants to participate in the design process.

Ashley suggests inviting people to the online space, as part of the general invitation. Tree concurs.

Friday Salon Design Sessions

(lion: I was very confused by this section, so these notes are plausibly way off.)

MichaelDowd? has a design session on Friday. Something about focusing on the evolutionary story aspects of the larger picture. There's some confusion ("dissonance") about the relationship between the story and the salon, and Michael's thoughts about it.

Susan says that the intent is to make the salon coherent within an evolutionary context, replicable. At the beginning of the salon, there should be something about evolution. It doesn't necessarily need to be TheGreatStory?; it can be another evolutionary story.

(Stephen needs to sign off.)

Then there's something Tree says about an email from Michael, or Ashley.

Ashley says something about inviting everyone who comes to find their own sense of their evolutionary context, and encouraging people to exchange their ideas about their evolutionary context, whatever they may be.

Tree notes it's not necessarily TheGreatStory?; Just rolling things forward.

Then there's a question from Marcus, Tree responds; It has something to do with people who have passion for a subject deciding to work in a subgroup they feel called to.

Closing Silence

Peggy notes a deepening in our capacity to work together.

Tree feels overwhelming gratitude for the call. She was worried that things that need to be paid attention to, wouldn't be paid attention to. But they were! A sigh of relief.

Ashley feels like a huge deep breath, a nurturing breath, before the next session.

Tom thanks Peggy & everyone who held the space.

Lion says he had a blast, and asks for Tree, Ashley, and Susan's phone numbers.

Tree says, "We hope you get sick more often!" (Lion's here because he was sick today, and stayed home.)

Marcus says, "Thanks all! See you later!"

Discussion

I know, I know, "Lion, you got it all wrong!"

Or, "Lion, you should have written it differently!"

Well, here's your moment of glory!

Just hit "edit this page," at the bottom, and you can fix it yourself. :)

– LionKimbro

I've given an answer to Bill's question: "What is the purpose of communicating online?" … on the page: OnlineInteraction.

– LionKimbro