Happy Earth Day Spherical SeThInk Friends and Family
My last blog post was at the beginning of the year when we set our intention on 2011 being the year of building sustainable models, structures, and systems...just goes to show how setting an intent can definitely lead to the 'chop wood, carry water' on the ground 'doings' and 'actions'.
Our team has never been so absolutely tasked and tacked to the calendar we were laughing about how nice it would be if in reality 2012 was the end of the calendar and time so we could at least enjoy a day sleeping in or at least a vacation from the computers around here!
I am not complaining, would not dream of doing such a thing on such a special day. I am spinning this blog report to recapitulate our activities and endeavors since the beginning of the year so let's begin with the biggest project first: The Earth Charter U.S.
Background:
Some of you may remember that in 2010 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Earth Charter my awesome and hopelessly philanthropic/idealistic CEO wife, 'Dar of Dandarius' was granted my, her hopelessly practical humanistic/cautious Prez husband, permission to create and gift (with SeThInk $ponsorship) the Earth Charter U.S. a new network for their Earth Scouts program (which at the time was a network of super dedicated folks all over the US hanging-in-there on multiple seriously outdated Yahoo groups).
The Earth Charter is one of the Interdependent Project's 'Fellowship' organizations but we had never formalized any kind of partnership with Earth Charter U.S. and had only had contact with the founder Jan Roberts and then Earth Scouts coordinator Genie Skypek through an interview for the Interdependent Project Radio.
So the Earth Scouts Network was created and gifted to a very surprised and appreciative founder and board of directors January 2010. By fall 2010 dialogue and conversations with ECUS board members about their website issues (no one to man the helm without it costing them way more than their budget would allow) and we proposed to them an 'interdependent partnership' customized for their needs and the needs of our long term 2020 goals and strategies to weave a new model of online collaboration and networking amongst all the far flung and disconnected organizations whose missions were driven by sustainability themes.
The planning and work began in November but did not become official until the first of the year. The plan was to rebuild their current website and build a community network capable of bringing together all the Earth Charter supporters, activists, and endorsers so that they could share and showcase their Earth Charter related activities. Also included in this was to position Earth Charter U.S. to be the first organization to participate and test drive the 10% for the Planet system that our team has been in the think tank about for quite a few years. By March we began the data base migration and launched the new website/network. Their main list of supporters were asked to 're-commit' and we were very impressed with the quality of individuals who emerged to become the core community of the network. On this Earth Day we began to cross-pollinate the networks and send out broadcasts about the Earth Charter to lists of people in our matrix to begin the next stage of the Earth Charter U.S. evolution.
Alongside this we entered into another 'interdependent partnership' with an Austrian film maker named Stefan Wolf who produced a film called 'A New We - EcoVillages and Ecological Communities in Europe'. This film was available in hard copy DVD but not as a digital download so after a great deal of dialogue with Stefan we set about the task of publishing the digital download English version for release on Earth Day. A % of SeThInk's share of the proceeds will be donated to the Green Fire Foundation and earmarked to fund a committee that is emerging from the Transition California community's EcoVillage Network to specifically take on the task of importing into the US the criteria and protocals that granted the Lammas EcoVillage in Wales precedent setting planning permission through the local government.
And SeThInk enjoyed being able to sponsor its first 'event' through the Transition California Community Network this year. Bay Localize had a 'Roots of Resilience' 5 year anniversary gala on April 2nd and we were delighted to be able to contribute as a sponsor and gift members of the Transition California Community free tickets to the event as part of our sponsorship. Although we were unable to attend the event the main organizer sent us copies of the evenings program and we were stoked to see the full page 'Titans of Transition' banner that promoted the Transition California Community Network at the event. We are still waiting for photos from the folks who attended on our behalf and will post them when available.
The Seeds of Sustainability DVD is on que for a complete revision this coming summer and the new release will include recipes and a great deal more information about the 'living oil'. Every person who has purchased the DVD will receive a free digital download of the revised edition. The online community network is evolving at a steady pace and we are confident that the new edition is going to please those members a great deal.
There is a great deal more that could be reported but I just realized how long this report is getting and so I will save the rest for later. I am going to sign off and enjoy the rest of the midnight hour doing something that I rarely have time to do....read from a good book!
In Sustainable Solidarity
