The Hurricane Has Passed & (S)elections are Over

This was our absolute favorite photo of Hurricane Sandy - like the eye of Jupiter on the surface of our planet this super storm raged across the eastern seaboard right before the elections.  We are in the process now of updating all SeThInk Media networks, websites, blogs, and projects in preparation for the 'Earth 2020' agenda...more soon!

Summer 2012 Report

We’re back!
What a hot tumultuous summer it has been for our team!  The whole SeThInk Media matrix and networks have not been updated or managed since Earth Day and we hope no one has missed us too much.  We did receive some emails asking what is going on and why no broadcasts were being sent on our networks that we sponsor and there were many new members of our networks who had to wait sometimes 2 weeks for approval because we were not at the wheel.  So what has been happening?

Everything….

Many of you can understand the spring frenzy of planting food gardens and of course April/May daylight hours were absorbed by such endeavors.  We decided we were going to do container planting this year which we had never done before so we had to take the little green house starts through their whole birth to suitable pot.  

The 20+ yards of awesome compost/soil that we moved from our old place to this new headquarters got sucked up pretty fast and figuring out the water needs of all the different veggies in their containers took some time to master.  It is not as big as a garden as last years but all the plants are flourishing as you can see from the pics. 

July has been a big month for us as well because with the new team members joining us we needed to expand our infrastructure and we decided that yurts were exactly what we needed to accommodate everyone’s basic needs.  Planning for the sites and building the platforms are still in process as I type but it should be completed the first week of August. 

 
Another major thing that set us back on the clock was the land we are on has a serious water issue (well) and several times the well would dry up and we had to do all day shifts giving CPR to our fruit trees, veggies, plants, and areas that needed irrigation.  That was pretty frustrating and the weird thing was when the guy came to check the well his tests showed a good flow and nothing wrong – since last week when he came it has not dried up once.  We think he is a ‘Well Whisperer” or some kind of water mojo priest. 


We knew at the beginning of 2012 that our calendar/clock paradigm and activities for the year would most likely be challenged and we expect the rest of the this closing of the cycle is best not overly ‘planned’ so I am going to just apologize ahead of time for our absence in cyber-space and I am confident that most of you would agree that spending hundreds of hours online during this year would not be what your first choice would be either. 

So until next time when the universe allows me to sit at the screen I trust you are all staying cool this summer and riding the major waves of change with hearts and souls intact!

In Sustainable Solidarity
PrezDar

Benefit Corporation Approved in California

At last California approved at the beginning of the year AB361 which will allow SeThInk Media to officially incorporate within the desired framework that we have been working so hard over the past years to establish under:

New Form Of Corporate Entity Approved In California:
Meet The Benefit Corporation

Governor Brown recently signed AB 361 which authorizes the creation of a new form of corporate entity in California known as a benefit corporation. 

Previously general corporations and non-profit companies represented the two ends of the corporate spectrum, with general corporations acting as for-profit enterprises answerable to shareholders, and non-profits created for public benefit, mutual benefit or religious purposes.

The new benefit corporation, organized under the general corporations law, would be a for-profit company but one formed for the purpose of creating general public benefit. “General public benefit means a material positive impact on society and the environment.” Cal. Corp. Code 14600(c)

Benefit corporations may also specify a specific public benefit in their articles of incorporation. Section 14600(e) of the Corporations Code states that a specific public benefits can include:

(1) Providing low-income or underserved individuals or communities with beneficial products or services.
(2) Promoting economic opportunity for individuals or communities beyond the creation of jobs in the ordinary course of business.
(3) Preserving the environment.
(4) Improving human health.
(5) Promoting the arts, sciences, or advancement of knowledge.
(6) Increasing the flow of capital to entities with a public benefit purpose.
(7) The accomplishment of any other particular benefit for society

Due to the nature of benefit corporations, directors of such companies have a duty to consider the impact of any decision not only on shareholders but, among other things, on employees, customers, the community and the environment. Cal. Corp. Code 14620(b)

 

Earth Day Coming

Earth Day always feels like the actual beginning of a new year.  It is after Spring Equinox and other spring holidays and something about the 22nd of any month always feels like an end/beginning marker.  I have been contemplating how it would be if everyone created their own calendars and clocks.  The Mayan Tzolkin is awesome because the end/beginning falls at a different season with each passing year giving a spiral feeling to time.  But back to Earth Day....

Isn't everyday really Earth Day - a day alive on Earth?  It is a time to celebrate that fact though in a billion different ways according to the Earth Day Network.  We usually spend Earth Day planting new spring starts and stewarding the land but we have also hosted gatherings and participated in Earth Day events.  

April 20th will be the 2 year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and every since the media blackout that happened after the spill was supposedly 'capped' our team has discussed the potential aftermath.  Well this Earth Day community's have an opportunity to host screenings of a new film called 'The Big Fix'...

"The Big Fix rocked audiences at the world famous Festival de Cannes, it caused the New York Times to spill the beans on the truth about the oil spill and was called by the Village Voice "smart, covert reporting that shames our news media." Despite the slick ad campaign paid for by BP that the Gulf has been "made right," the oil is still washing ashore, shrimp are coming up full of oil and people everywhere are sick. The fate of the Gulf of Mexico, the animals, the ecosystem and the residents there still hangs in the balance - and in many ways - depends on all of us getting the word out."

We do have some surprise on-line launches that will be broadcasted on Earth Day and as we move forward into the 2nd quarter of 2012 (from the Jan1st point of reference) it is our teams goal to see this coming time of warmer weather be spent in ways that feed our well being and peace of mind during these tumultuous times.  

Next post will be 'post' Earth Day so until then be well and be free...

In Sustainable Solidarity 
PrezDar

Facebook & Twitter - Why We Don't 'Like'

A few people have asked us why we don't have facebook/twitter integration on our sites, blogs, and networks so I wanted to explain so that there is no further assumptions that we simply lack the ability to do such simple add-ons across our matrix.  

The reason is so simple yet a bit ahead of its time - it is about 'Quality over Quantity' folks...

We did not build our online matrix to attract the attention of mass quantities of people - we have always felt having great numbers of people either visiting our sites or joining them was not going to automatically increase our effectiveness or impact...from experience we know it can be just the opposite.  

We actually launched the Interdependent Project with some built in 'turn-off's' that we knew would turn away some very specific mindsets that we did not want to be burdened with.  It worked and we also intentionally practice other web strategies to deflect other unwelcome energies that seem to do nothing but create vacuums wherever they are allowed access.  

Before we even embarked upon this matrix weaving journey we saw that by 2020 the internet would have worked through a great deal of its initial development tasks and that the 'mass' and 'hype' that were the cornerstone of all media in the age of television will exhausted itself and there will be no audience for it.  How did we see this?  

There is a certain amount of predictability in any given situation and when you study social behavior patterns it does not take a genius to discern probable directions that the river is bound to take in its journey down the mountain.  

Community stops being a community when people no longer know each other or have any real way to develop authentic relations that can be relied upon.  Human beings have been so isolated for nearly a century that it is no surprise that during these early decades of the internet's development people would flock to MySpace first (something they were used to getting) and then Facebook (a place where they could put on their social face).  And then Twitter was born out of the simple fact that technology suddenly sucked more time in the already existing 'not enough time in the day' 20th century man's paradigm that he/she could only tweet out 140 word expressions that eventually melted into the url link pot that Twitter has become.  

I don't care if anyone 'Likes Me' on Facebook - our work advocating and promoting sustainable solutions is not a popularity contest and it makes me sick to see all the organizations and businesses that at one time I had respect for going down that road.  And the tragedy for me is the knowledge that it was my generation of web designers that sold them down that road with promises of some kind of impact or financial benefit would come.  The truth of the matter is that if you were to take the amount of energy and resources that has been spent trying to be "Liked' (including fees to web developers) a nation of EcoVillages could have been built by now.  

So we intentionally choose to not participate in something that is going to be non-existent or completely corrupted by the government by 2020 anyhow.

We value our time and energy in ways that do not allow superfluous meanderings down popular trends and fads.

We are not blind to the value or role these social network empires have played in the bigger scheme of things, but we also know that taking the time to have Facebook & Twitter integrated across our networks will not yield the quality online communities that we are not only sponsoring, but have worked hard to cultivate real and lasting environments for sustainable communities - both online and on the ground - to evolve.
 
If someone likes our content and/or networks and wishes to 'share' then they will find a way to do so.  The reason our culture has had so many challenges approaching the whole transition to sustainable systems, models, and structures is because of our built in need for instant gratification, convenience, and disposable everything.   For those who preach how to shift world-views and how to build sustainable communities to cater to the 'quick fix' mindset hardly opens space for even little shifts to occur.  

The audience/members of our content/networks are intelligent minded folks who have expressed appreciation for the absence of all the flash/hype multi-media vices that plague the web.  In the long run 'quality' will always prevail over 'quantity' and one genuine/true friend will impact ones life far more than a thousand 'friends'.

In Sustainable Solidarity
PrezDar

Happy Spring Equinox 2012

We have always loved the Spring Equinox and the perfect balance between day/night as we move toward the summer.  We have also noticed that at this time of 'balance' or 'equal' time we usually find ourselves taking stock of things that may be out of balance so that we can add+ or subtract- energy in appropriate ways to achieve the balance we need in our day to day lives.  

Growing and nurturing this company has been like a garden in so many ways.  We just updated the website and 'pulled weeds' so to speak.  We also planted some links to the projects that are funded by SeThInk profits.  These projects include the Transition California Network, Global EcoVillage & Sustainable Communities Network, and the Believe Africa Network.  

Not only does SeThInk fiscally sponsor these networks but our team spends hundreds of hours annually managing and administrating these online communities so that they can grow and evolve to serve the global sustainability agenda.  

The Seeds of Sustainability program has been the primary source of revenue and our companies 10% Pledge to the Green Fire Foundation has been able to cover the hard expenses (example: server, subscription, websites etc).  

We just did a major update of the Seeds of Sustainability website and we are stoked that the private community network has grown to almost 500 people.  We have always believed that smaller communities versus ones with tens of thousands of members are more ideal for fostering and creating a real sense of community so we have never wasted time trying to recruit or attract members to any of our networks.  We have simply figured folks who are meant to be a part of the community always find a way to it.  It has been challenging at times being able to provide content and personal connection with everyone on all of our online communities but we strive as best we can and many community members have sent us emails of understanding and appreciation for our unpaid dedication and efforts.  

The 'unpaid' part is kinda tricky though because how can one measure compensation simply in monetary terms?  Our team has been blessed with abundance and have felt supported during this whole journey so we never feel 'unpaid'.  

2012?

In my last post I mentioned that our team was working on setting our 2012 goals and priorities.  We really feel like 2012 so far has proven to be quite unpredictable in terms of direction that we are going to play the safe game and simply act upon necessity and preference so that we can remain fluid and available for the 'moment'.  We have discussed a great deal about 'beyond 2012' and how after this year manifests itself a great deal of our goals and priorities will be able to more easily be accomplished and implemented. 

So for today in this perfect balance between day and night we are sending all of you our heartfelt blessings to you and yours.

In Sustainable Solidarity
PrezDar

2012 - Year of the Black Water Dragon

We stepped out of the January 1st 'new year' hoopla in favor of celebrating the beginning of this epic year on the 'Lunar New Year' as celebrated by the Chinese culture for millenniums.  The ending of the Mayan 13th Baktun and the beginning of the 14th inspired us to switch our own clocks and calendars around the traditional 'new year' and we expect more interesting calibrations will be occurring throughout the year for us.  So Happy New Year everyone! 

SeThInk Media's goals for 2012 are still being formulated by our team and we have spent the past few weeks looking back on 2011 - the year we deemed as the 'Year of Building Sustainable Structures & Systems and Laying the Four Corners Foundation'.  

Now that it is over we are calling it the 'Year of DeConstruction' because old structures and systems had to be torn down, bulldozed, blown up, annihilated, and occasionally simply flushed down the toilet before we could even think about building anything.  And the four corners foundation?  That was an idea we had around establishing solid partnerships with various 'non-profits' and indigenous groups for the purpose of furthering the 'Low Impact Sustainable Development' agenda.  The comedy in those efforts provided ample cushion for the disappointments that our team experienced when those whom a great deal of energy was given to were either to afraid to trust something 'new' or simply did not understand the opportunity that was being presented.   

Last week we were inspired with a conversation with the authors of 'Collaboration Soup'...they contacted us to interview us about our business and projects efforts to form partnerships and group initiatives.  They wanted to know what kinds of challenges and obstacles we have faced so we gave them a good overview that we hope gives their next publication some solid material around the subject.  After the call ended we realized that we had lost a great deal of heart this past year and we resolved ourselves to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and get back into the ring.  Not all of our efforts were in vain and Paula & Delia (authors of Collaboration Soup) had a special way of re-inspiring us to go forth.   

So our first commitment for the year is going to be broadcasted on Monday - Chinese New Year - on the Transition California Network. 

We hope your year is starting out with heart and determination!  It is the year of the Dragon so there will be plenty of fire for our collective and individual dreams and goals...

In Sustainable Solidarity
PrezDar