Furthering the Movement Conference Call[]
Background[]
Michael gave us some background on the reason for this conference call.
His book has sold over 10,000 copies and is about to go into its 4th printing. The current publisher, Council Oak Books, is a small publisher without a lot of reach. Literary agent, Jillian, and Paul West are looking for a large publisher. There will likely be an increased cash flow when this occurs, allowing for a reinvestment into the ministry and the hiring of some people to fill specific roles.
How We can Help[]
Michael is able to handle scheduling events at UU Churches and Unity Churches at this time. He outlined other specific areas in which he and Connie would like support:
- Schedule presentations at college campuses all over the country.
- Schedule presentations at liberal to moderate Christian churches across the country.
- Build a database of email lists in order to contact 100 new people each day.
- Be a major presence on social networking sites.
Discussion about who could volunteer for these roles:
- The two scheduling positions need to be more defined, and then sent to the larger group to query for interest.
- Social Networking: Bobby, Harold, Jim (and Joe Garofalo with the Atlanta Ken Wilbur Group) volunteered to work in this capacity. Michael will follow up with them.
Introductions[]
Introductions were made, discussing what “movement” means to each of us, and how we see ourselves working in that movement.
Harold Wood is from a small town in California, part of a UU fellowship. He has done networking on Facebook and is connected with a TGFE site on Facebook.
Herby Bell is from Santa Cruz, CA and is “on fire with desire” to bring this movement into a fuller articulation. He is writing Quantum Sense and is interested in relaying information about this movement and disseminating information any way he can.
John is from Michigan and became involved with the Great Story about five years ago. He has a PhD in Material Science and teaches chemistry, physics, biology, and math. He is interested in sharing his knowledge regarding these areas. He also has knowledge of the history of the Bible, comparative religion, Paganism, and Unitarian Universalism.
Jim Schwartz is from Topeka, KS and is married to the minister of a UU church. He is a website developer by trade and is also interested in communications. He is interested is helping to share important information of this group however he can.
Peggy Holman is from outside Seattle, WA and became involved with Michael and Tom Atlee about 3 years ago through the “Evolutionary Salon.” She sees movement as thinking in terms of increasingly conscious social systems. She is interested in serving in face to face gatherings.
Bobby Quinn is from Stillwater, OK and is preparing to enter an Ashram. He feels it is time to end the science and religion duality and is particularly interested in helping with online social groups. He is also a member of the Immortality Institute who are interested in interviewing Michael.
'Tom Atlee is from Eugene, OR and is author of The Tao of Democracy. Movement to him is people spreading an idea, being engaged in activities around it and creating change. He is interested in answering the question: what do we do next? He thought it would be useful to have a paid evolutionary movement coordinator to facilitate people’s involvement in activities that forward the movement. Tom is interested in helping with visioning, writing, strategizing, and intellectual infrastructure.
Paul West is from Jacksonville, OR. He grew up traveling and singing the gospel as a child. He spent most of his 20’s as an agnostic. After being diagnosed with MS in 1997 and subsequently experiencing a spontaneous healing, his thoughts on spirituality changed. He has been involved in the entertainment business and has moved toward work focused on healing the Earth. His passion is to bring this movement to the attention of mainstream media.
Sarah Boulac is from South Bend, IN. She learned of Connie and Michael’s work in 2005 when Michael spoke to the UU congregation where she was Director of Religious Education. She has an MA is psychology and is interested in helping bring these ideas into a way of daily life for people, in particular parents and children. She is also available to help build email lists to spread the message of this important work.
Discussion[]
We expect more people to get involved with these calls and that the will have diverse interests. We discussed the probable need to break up into calls for specific purposes so they don’t become overwhelming in terms of the number of people involved in each call. We determined the next step would be to discuss how we organize ourselves to grow. This Evolutionary Spirituality Wiki devoted to evolutionary theology could be a place where groups could form and the movement could consciously evolve what it is and does. (Social networking or collaboration sites may also be useful for this; we'll have to experiment. -- Tomatlee 15:11, 5 March 2008 (UTC))
We determined to meet the first Wednesday of each month at 1:00pm Pacific/4:00pm Eastern and the third Thursday of each month at 2:30 Pacific/5:30 Eastern with the understanding that not everyone will be able to make each meeting.
Upcoming Meetings[]
Thursday, March 20th at 2:30pm Pacific/5:30 Eastern.
- Where do we go from here?
April Meeting Dates
- Wednesday, April 2nd at 1:00pm Pacific.
- Thursday, April 17th at 2:30pm Pacific.
Sarah 02:30, 5 March 2008 (UTC)Sarah