Possible Places

Claudia and I made a spread sheet where we can capture information on possible places. Please feel free to add..

Click link: Places

Appreciation!!!

What a pleasure to poke my head up from work-land and see your wonderful posts! I feel incredibly lucky to be collaborating with such wonderful people, and enormously confident that whatever we wind up doing with our time and energy, in the end it will be a great good thing. I love the online business idea -- feel like it could be in sync with our workshop-giving, growth-supporting gestalt, and yet independently beneficial in its orientation to productivity and profitability. It's starting to feel to me like a 4 legged work stool -- teaching, meditation, healing and self-sustainability.

Any of Katie's possible meeting times are possible for me -- and boy am I looking forward -- what do other people think?

Big big hugs to all,

C

Notes on Possible Software Business:

Claudia and I had a conversation which started with how my son Ben has made a business on the web. Our conversation transitioned to the possibility of creating a business model that could support our community.

Ben operates a consulting business where he provides software services to others on a fixed price or per hour consulting basis. It all began because he loves the idea and practice of creating the software for games. He learned to program in an Adobe language called Action Script. It is a popular language used in the production of 2D games and in the generation of animated web content. The production of either a game or a web animation is generally a collaboration between at least three parties.

1. The customer. This person has a particular need or idea and needs others to make it a reality. Generally this person is paying for the production, but often they are an intermediary providing project management for the ultimate client.

2. The artist. This person is skilled in the production of computer based art work that forms the basis for the animation. Parts of the image are created and assembled in a story board that shows the progression through the animation.

3. The coder. This person is skilled in computer programming. They will bring the static images to life by creating the motion and any response animations that will happen as the user interacts with the animations. Perhaps data is collected...

Example Projects:

You can see many game examples here:  http://www.2d-world.co.uk/

Some ad samples are here:  http://www.a4flash.com/design/flash_ads_intros.php

Perhaps I’ll get Ben to describe some of his projects for us.

See Ben's reviews of some of his favorites and play the games.

http://www.jaxbug.com/review/rejoin/

http://www.jaxbug.com/review/the-i-of-it/

Where Ben finds work:

There are web sites that specialize in hooking up clients with software professionals. They client posts the project requirement, the coder makes an offer at either a fixed price or a per hour rate. When the work is complete, the web site collects the fee from the client and pays the developer. They each review the other.  Ben started with small projects lasting a few hours for a few dollars. They may have involved adding text to an existing project or fixing a problem left in the program by the previous developer. Sometimes a developer had a problem and posted it so people could bid on fixing it. In this way, Ben created a good rating for himself and gradually worked into more complicated and more profitable projects. Now at 16 he is a successful professional charging $35/hr for his time!  :-)

How this relates to our community...

We could develop one or two month programs were people can immerse themselves in developing the skills for the creation of games or online content. Three basic skills could be facilitated:

Story Boarding - The creating of the story, the flow, the narrative and the basic points to be made. In a game, that is the goals, challenges and process.

Artwork - The art that supports the story. This is often complicated as each picture must be created. (almost frame by frame like in a cartoon)

Coding - Integrate the artwork into action that brings the entire story of game together. Collect data, etc.

The students could and should crate sample projects.. As soon as possible they should be engaged in real work. In the process of teaching, we would also introduce the participants to the process of getting work and beginning to generate their online reputation. For those who are ready for it, we can support them in profitable projects during their stay with us.

So...   I’ll work with Ben and see if I can put together an outline for the business and the related course work.

Reading List

Make additions and comments on books that may be helpful!!!


Click link: Books List

Communities to visit

I made a list of the communities we have talked about visiting or getting guidance from. Please feel free to comment, make additions, etc.

Click the Link to see the document: Communities

Action List

Hopefully this is a link to our action list.... 
Action List

Checking in...

Hey there friends!

Last night I dreamed of a second community retreat, so it seemed like today might be a good time to check in.

Membership/Ownership Structures
I have talked with Michael Johnson and others about different legal entity options.  The last issue of GEO Magazine (one of Michael's projects) included a contribution from two lawyers who Michael thinks might be willing and interested in helping us (http://www.geo.coop/node/628).

Tom and I have also been talking about putting together some kind of presentation/document outlining different forms of membership/ownership in community.  I have a friend from Colorado who has set up several cooperatives who will be visiting NYC in September.  Her name is Mac and she will be meeting with Tom to discuss some of these ideas/options.  I am hoping to come down for the weekend she is in the city, but will have to see how school goes before I can commit.  At any rate, I will share whatever comes of this process & hope it may be helpful for us as well.

I am also wondering if Jorge Canada might also be a good person for me to approach on this issue to given his involvement with both the Ganas economy and the FIC.

I am wondering if we might want to start brainstorming a more specific list of questions/thoughts/ideas we'd like to bounce off of all these folks.  Thoughts?

Until we meet again...
We had talked about meeting again in three-ish months.  I'm starting to look at my schedule for the fall and see the following as potential times/places I could be available to head south:

September 23 - 25 NY (the weekend my friend is coming to town)
October 8 - 10     NY or MA (Canadian Thanksgiving)
October 28 - 30   MA (American Translators Association Conference in Boston - I may attend the
                            conference on the 28th and/or the 29th)

There is also a good chance that one or two weekends will work for me in November, but I need to wait and see what my exam schedule is like before getting date-specific.  I'm happy to adapt to the schedules of the rest of the group and will do my best to have some kind of presence (in person, Skype or otherwise) whenever we meet again.

Books
We had talked about creating a reading list/library for group discussion.  Claudia and I talked about composting toilets on our way home from Guilford and The Humanure Handbook is a good resource for this topic :)  Cradle to Cradle: Rethinking the Way We Make Things is a systems-level book that I find really clear and insightful.  It may be useful as we are thinking about things from an overview perspective.  For farming/food, I love the book Farmers for Forty Centuries.  It's a fairly technical overview of agricultural techniques used in China at the turn of the century.  I don't think it's really a handbook we'd want to turn to for growing things ourselves, but it is also good for inspiring systems-level thinking.  Anyways... those are just my thoughts for now.  I'm eager to hear from the rest of you on this one :)

The echo of our last retreat has stayed with me - thank you all for that.

With love,

Katie

Cladia's Retreat Notes

SATURDAY

ENGINE

1.      Mission: create a space of sanity and sustainability where people can come for a retreat or workshop and go home with a doggie bag of sanity.  Workshops:

a.       Dharma

b.      Chinese Medicine especially birth

c.       Qigong

d.      Tutoring

e.       Writing workshops!  (& writing books, writing retreats)

f.       Computer gaming camp

g.      Organic farming

h.      Difficult medical problems

i.        Transitions

j.        Collect wonderful people

k.      Webzine, e-book publishing

FINANCIAL MODEL

1.      Investors with a plan to get ourselves bought out

2.      Two businesses, one profitable one not

MODELS TO CHECK OUT

1.      Who else to hook up with?  Could we join not recreate?

2.      Tergar

3.      Tassajara

4.      Green Gulch

5.      Sky Lake, Karme Choling, Gampo

6.      Earth haven

7.      Camphill – healthy people with disabled, mentally ill, dying

8.      Omega

9.      Sand hill – longer time, under 10, hoping to grow to 25-30; dancing rabbit started 20/30, does better

OTHER STUFF

1.      Priority to have no factory farm meat, agribusiness

2.      There could be one building that’s a Buddhist center

3.      Are there other communit

PEOPLE

1.      Other staff?  Only if it helps with outreach

2.      Number: 10-30

a.       We need a critical mass to start

b.      Finders are too few, 80 is too many

TOMORROW

1.      Concrete making the board

2.      Next steps

3.      I ching?

4.      Community in sand

a.       Roles

SUNDAY

ACTION LIST

1.      Name ideas

a.       Name it for the place

2.      Place

a.       Establish our shopping range and core wishes

b.      Look for places

3.      Texture

4.      Spiritual life

a.       Talk to Tergar – advice

b.      Statement about what our spirituality wants to be

                                                              i.      Inclusive

                                                            ii.      Experiential

                                                          iii.      Cultivated

                                                          iv.      Orientated to kindness, gentleness, right life

                                                            v.      Ritual – meet 1x 3mos – Albany is great!

1.      Check out communies

2.      Wooofing

5.      Values

a.       Research sharing/sustainability

b.      Food ethics/financial feasibility

c.       Seriously think through core values, get to core values

6.      Governance structure

a.       *JL write down questions (First, what IS the structure)

b.      Visit other communities

c.       What models are out there?

d.      Link with Michael J to ask if his stuff is relevant *KS

                                                              i.      October conference Montreal?

e.       Communities conferences – FIC? Look up.  (Jorge on board) *CC

                                                              i.      Bring John; also Twin Oaks conference

7.      Financial structure

a.       Try to find an expert – trust vs LLC vs coop?

                                                              i.      *KS contact Ricky, MJ

                                                            ii.      *EH write basic questions

b.      Are we investors, do we expect return?

c.       What’s the power and authority of the owners? (cf governance)

8.      Livelihood – profit *blank business plan EH

a.       Workshops *CC

                                                              i.      Dharma

                                                            ii.      Chinese medicine

                                                          iii.      Writing

                                                          iv.      Qigong, Martial arts

b.      Regular classes

                                                              i.      Sitting

                                                            ii.      Yoga

                                                          iii.      Qigong

c.       Consulting *JB

d.      Retreat center *JB has Karme Choling’s?

                                                              i.      Spiritual

                                                            ii.      Writing

                                                          iii.      Health

e.       Online businesses (depends on expert)

f.       Book writing and publishing

g.      Yoga and meditation as political movements

9.      Livelihood - maintenance

a.       Farming - *research on costs labor etc.

                                                              i.      Wooofers

b.      Maintenance

c.       Housekeeping

                                                              i.      Chore wheel vs dedicated staff member

EH makes blank business plan

We do pieces

Integrate @ next meeting

*Library of books/reading list – budget for that

            * 1 person per person per meeting, @ presents

Closing – burn papers

Summer Retreat 2011

We had our first planning retreat!  It touched me deeply and it has taken me weeks to sort out enough for myself to begin to work with it...  So here I go..  :-)

To Eric's thoughts: The love in this group is evident and deeply touching. Wherever we go in life it would be my wish that we stay connected with each other because this quality of the support and love seems to me, unequaled in "normal" life.

It seems clear to me that this group could form the foundation for a strong, supportive and gentle community. We each share the wish to be kind to ourselves, to each other, and especially to others. It is clear to me that this heart and clarity would get us through the ups and downs of living and working together.

So a bit of reporting from my perspective....

The Setting:
Eric and Jenny hosted the weekend in a very special setting. A beach house in Connecticut with the ocean sounds and smells, the beach, shells, osprey, sea gulls, sandpipers, hermit crabs, sea weed, oyster, sun shine, sea breeze... and a kayak..
The Shrine:
Our opening activity was to create a shrine together and each add whatever items we felt belonged on the representation of our spiritual aspirations or experiences. The shrine became a living and changing part of our weekend. It collected flowers, shells, feathers, incense, some artworks, pebbles, candles, a happy Chinese Buddha.  I think we all expected to meditate more than we actually did, but at the same time the weekend was filled with caring and mindfulness. Perhaps Eric will post a picture of the shrine? 
Wishes:
The first evening included a ceremony where we used juniper smoke to express our hopes and dreams for the situation. The creation of the shrine seemed to be pure harmony. Creating the charcoal bed for burning the juniper branches was much more full of the challenges that life normally gives us. We each had to work out how we differ in creating a burning coal and the activities we expected as contrasted with what we were actually experiencing. Control issues were experienced and released.. co-operation as a group actually began in these moments. As the sun set and the coals were finally hot, a miraculous stream of aspirations and wishes were carried to the heavens on the juniper smoke. We each added juniper to the coals as we expressed ourselves. We began to see each other as we are and to love.
Visioning:
We spent much of our time sharing out feelings, our visions, our hopes, our fears. Physically that took the form or drawings we worked on together. (The scans do not do them justice, but...)  Each of us started one and passed it to others; who added to them. The result follows; the credit is the initial artist....

Claudia:

John:

Eric:

Jenny:

Katica:

These drawings gave us a starting point for sharing and much was shared. I think we all will remember my stunned reaction to Katie suggesting income sharing as an organizing principle. I had never heard of such a thing, much less considered it for myself. We all learned from the ensuing discussion.


Joining Visions:
Claudia led a two day process where we all made short notes of ideas, feelings, wishes for a community. As we shared the notes Jenny made drawings which were intended to capture the main points, organize them and express them in a visual way. Much discussion ensued as to how to organize and capture all the notes. Here are the drawings:

This last drawing became the model for a large poster. The notes became leaves, flowers, fruit and birds on the poster. It captured the the spirit and the content of the weekend. (Sweet, sweet, sweet!!)

I promise to post a copy as soon as I can find someone who has a big enough scanner to capture it.

Closing Ceremony:
Another juniper smoke ceremony to burn our paper slips with the notes on them and carry the many wishes to the heavens. This time the fire was easily constructed, the juniper burned freely and we each read notes and added them to the fire..  We had become a settled, happy, unified and loving group.