December 2010 Newsletter

From SolSeed

Well, it's the end of another year, the first full year of SolSeed newsletters. A slightly momentous occasion, and a good opportunity to look back and assess how we're doing:

• The One-Page Plan: We're getting a lot done and proud of it (see below for details!), but we're not quite hitting all our goals in the current plan. It looks like we bit off more than we can chew for the last quarter of 2010, so we didn't quite make "yellow" status for two of our five quarterly goals (Outreach and Media) and missed two of the four yearly goals (Income and Media), although we got parts of them done. I guess if we want to work on this many things at once, we'll need more SolSeed "Members by Declaration" to up their involvement to Contributing Member status--let us know if you would be interested!

• SpaceWiki: Our new website needs more content, so we decided to get students and alumni of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) to write some for us! The three SEDS chapters that contribute the most value to our SpaceWiki site by the end of January will win cash prizes. Check out the SEDS Contest Leaderboard to see how they're doing.

• Longest Night Festival: Our second annual Winter Solstice celebration was a huge success. Our core community and family, friends, and neighbors all showed up at the Seed Village to celebrate the Solstice night with fire, food, and song. This also marks the fifth SolSeed celebration of a Solstice or Equinox, an unbroken tradition we hope to continue far into the future.

• Speaking of the Seed Village: We've been investigating how to add the "Eco" back to the name. It looks like solar panels won't work for main house, but should be an option for the planned backyard cottage (otherwise known as an Accessory Dwelling Unit). We're meeting with an architect soon to see if we can create a plan for the ADU, for which we're hoping to start construction sometime next year.

• The Music Festival: Please join us at 11 AM on Saturday, January 15th at the Seed Village with singer-songwriter Lori Henriques, who led us in some traditional holiday songs on the Solstice. This time she'll be performing her own work, which is geared toward both kids and adults and guaranteed to engage both the heart and mind. She's also planning to write some music especially for SolSeed!

Thanks for reading, and Happy New Year!
Ben Sibelman