May 2010 Newsletter

Welcome to the new friends and members who've joined our newsletter list in the last month! We met most of you at one of our recent outreach events:

The Portland Earth Day was awesome! We set up two fun activities in our double-wide booth: a big Galaxy-shaped planter that people could fill in with organic soil and plant lettuce seeds in, and a huge canvas where anyone could pick up a paintbrush and contribute ideas for the SolSeed Eco-Village. Tons of cool people stopped by, to participate or chat with us, or occasionally just to get under our tents while it was raining or hailing. We even met a few ecology-minded space enthusiasts!

The online book club is getting started again, with a new bunch of people reading Parable of the Sower, the novel by Octavia Butler that originally inspired SolSeed, for the first time. We had a lively discussion at the first conference call on Sunday, and you can read the notes I took here. Check out the Google or Yahoo group to catch up, or just join right in with the next call. Ping me if you want to join the conference calls to discuss this or future books.

We've started the third round of our Peer Coaching Triads program, which is a structured way for three people to coach each other on whatever life issues they want to talk about. No actual coaching experience required, because Coaching Triads are based on the premise that each participant is creative, resourceful, and whole, and can come up with his/her own answers if guided by a little prompting from the coach. Some groups meet in person, others by phone. Contact Shelley if you think you'd like to try it out.

Upcoming events:

The third SolSeed Service, with the seed topic of meditation. This will include a five-minute guided meditation session, plus the usual blend of music, poetry, and discussion, fun activities for the kids, and a potluck afterward. Weather permitting (no hail please!), this will be held outdoors in Colonel Summers Park, near 20th and Belmont in East Portland, on Saturday, June 5th at 11 AM. Hope to see you there!

A Longest Day Party to celebrate the Summer Solstice, complementing the Longest Night Festival party from last year. Please join us on the evening of Monday June 21st for an outdoor picnic event. More details coming very soon!

Other projects we're working on:

The SolSeed children's book, Happy in the Sun, about a "curious little rocket" learning about the relationship between being and doing, which has moved into a new phase. The artwork is done (take a look at the above link!) and we're working on how to lay out the book for publication.

SpaceWiki.com, designed as a networking hub for people in the space industry. This is just getting started, and we're planning to get lots of content for it by talking to people at the New Space 2010 Conference in July and getting caricatures of them made (a strategy that worked quite well for Brandon during his time at ICANNWiki.org).

A big new event called Kindred 2010, where organizations ranging from space-enthusiast groups to intentional communities to environmental advocacy campaigns can meet, network, and find common ground. Date and location TBA.

Thanks for reading!

Ben Sibelman