Hey Team,
Congrats on a successful fundraising event! The art auction / concert / dinner "A Change in Season" brought in between $500 and $600! Well done for working hard as a team to pull off this event. We heard nothing but great feedback from the community. Also, special sparkles go out to Shiew-wen for getting $500 for her rain barrel project and Adam for getting $100 for the bamboo garden beds, and Kelsy for completing an astoundingly professional sponsorship letter! Let's keep supporting each other like this for the rest of the summer; it's amazing to see people working together!
See ya'll tomorrow!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Our First Community Meal!
I'm so excited it's finally here!!! And Ryan & I got to contribute 4 bags of tomatoes from Ozark Slow Foods, which is exciting. Going to drop work and help cook now.
Update one hour later:
Dang that was good. :)
Update one hour later:
Dang that was good. :)
Monday, July 19, 2010
Minor Technicalities
Wanna know a secret? I wish I could be in SoS! All your projects sound so amazing, and have the potential to get at the root of many problems facing our world. But instead of building a mobile marketplace or window farms, my time is spent in trying to address whatever comes up. Why didn't 4 people show up to the meeting today - are they still committed to their projects, or not? What should I tell the library about the time frame for completing the herb garden installation, and why is it so far behind? Why is the shed locked and the key missing - who took it? Why is someone's parent angry at me, and someone else's parent making them leave training early? Is it illegal for 14 & 15 year-olds to get paid, and how much, and what's the necessary paperwork? Why aren't most people fundraising and how can they be motivated? Can non-profits give out interest-free loans?
Meanwhile, I should really be arranging farm trips, guest speakers, creating TLC curriculum, OMNI strategic planning in membership development, checking in with mentors and partner organizations, hiring a program coordinator for next year...
But it would be a dream to be a solutionary!
I want to garden, too!
Meanwhile, I should really be arranging farm trips, guest speakers, creating TLC curriculum, OMNI strategic planning in membership development, checking in with mentors and partner organizations, hiring a program coordinator for next year...
But it would be a dream to be a solutionary!
I want to garden, too!
Saturday, July 17, 2010
The Simple Life
I really adore not having internet at home and focusing on making it a home instead of entertainment. But, because after my work was done for SoS today I only have 10 minutes of internet time left at the library, I am choosing to read your blogs rather than write a long post. Suffice to say I'm busy, but excited to see how things are going with all of you! :)
Monday, July 12, 2010
Work as a Choice
Work is a really odd word. My high school science textbook explained it as any action expending energy or force, or something like that.
What's even weirder are the actions we choose to define as work, our measure of effort, and the choices we make based on mismeasurement.
Since the storm just got stronger here at OMNI, guess I'll elaborate...
I was in college once not too long ago. Whenever there was something I truly wanted, I'd put any amount of work into getting it. Usually it was a trip, since I love traveling. I'd invest tons of energy planning the route, researching destinations, buying maps / gas / tickets / lodging, etc. When a challenge came up, like a blocked road, broken down car, lack of money - I'd even lose sleep over ensuring that I could still take that trip.
But for homework, college jobs, or something I had to do but didn't really want, I'd invest tons of energy avoiding it or trying to minimize the amount of "work" that needed to get done.
Let's compare a few common measurements of work:
Not Work:
Concerts
Arts & Crafts
Reading
Work:
Time Management
Sewing
Research
One day in 2008, when I was working as a secretary who felt forced to staple papers forever in order to pay for graduate school, it dawned on me that the difference between work and not work is CHOICE.
If you noticed, the "Not Work" category can be made into a job, and the "work" category suddenly becomes "Not Work" when paired with its job. Time Management is super fun when you're a musician arranging a tour or series of gigs. Sewing isn't that bad if you're suddenly getting paid for your handicrafts. And research is definitely better if you're reading because of something you really want to learn, or being paid as an editor to check the facts for a publication.
So, in January 2009 I quit my job, lived off savings for 8 months and helped write a grant for OMNI Center to get them 3 AmeriCorps*VISTAs and started working with TLC. It was hard, but the best investment of my life.
If many people realized that they did have a choice in their work (or at least their perspective of work) and invested as much energy in that choice as a college trip (with all the sleep deprivation, planning, and expenses) the very least consequence of that realization would be the instant abolishment of fast food.
My actions were extraordinary, yes, and I think that's a crying shame.
What's even weirder are the actions we choose to define as work, our measure of effort, and the choices we make based on mismeasurement.
Since the storm just got stronger here at OMNI, guess I'll elaborate...
I was in college once not too long ago. Whenever there was something I truly wanted, I'd put any amount of work into getting it. Usually it was a trip, since I love traveling. I'd invest tons of energy planning the route, researching destinations, buying maps / gas / tickets / lodging, etc. When a challenge came up, like a blocked road, broken down car, lack of money - I'd even lose sleep over ensuring that I could still take that trip.
But for homework, college jobs, or something I had to do but didn't really want, I'd invest tons of energy avoiding it or trying to minimize the amount of "work" that needed to get done.
Let's compare a few common measurements of work:
Not Work:
Concerts
Arts & Crafts
Reading
Work:
Time Management
Sewing
Research
One day in 2008, when I was working as a secretary who felt forced to staple papers forever in order to pay for graduate school, it dawned on me that the difference between work and not work is CHOICE.
If you noticed, the "Not Work" category can be made into a job, and the "work" category suddenly becomes "Not Work" when paired with its job. Time Management is super fun when you're a musician arranging a tour or series of gigs. Sewing isn't that bad if you're suddenly getting paid for your handicrafts. And research is definitely better if you're reading because of something you really want to learn, or being paid as an editor to check the facts for a publication.
So, in January 2009 I quit my job, lived off savings for 8 months and helped write a grant for OMNI Center to get them 3 AmeriCorps*VISTAs and started working with TLC. It was hard, but the best investment of my life.
If many people realized that they did have a choice in their work (or at least their perspective of work) and invested as much energy in that choice as a college trip (with all the sleep deprivation, planning, and expenses) the very least consequence of that realization would be the instant abolishment of fast food.
My actions were extraordinary, yes, and I think that's a crying shame.
Is Deprivation the Key to Empowerment?
So, tonight I'm stranded at OMNI Center due to the thunderstorm, and figured I may as well do work while I'm waiting for the lightning and rain to stop. (We bike to OMNI frequently.)
I've had yet another breakthrough in my understanding of capacity, and the SoS program in general. Lately, I've been racking my brains trying to figure out how to empower the team, and OMNI Center as a whole. Empowerment seemed to be a unicorn; quite fanciful, out of reach, and potentially a hoax.
Suddenly I realized what empowerment means: wanting something you deserve but can't have, and to be shown how to get it for yourself.
This could be civil rights.
This could be education.
Or it could be a green job.
Do we want green jobs, really? Have we fully, deeply, and comprehensively come to understand the deprivation we experience daily: our immediate need for money, being
forced to acquire money in unsustainable ways, use it to buy food that's almost poisonous, take jobs with no concern for us, other people or the planet...it goes on and on.
My swirl of confusion as to why SoS Fayetteville has at least double the resources and less than half the motivation of all the other cities may be caused by one simple oversight on my part: we don't really want green jobs, because we don't realize how much we need them.
We have television sets and cookies, how could American youth ever be deprived? For one thing, when presented with the tools of empowerment, they ignore them.
What does that say about our daily lives, if we can actually reach our dream but choose not to? Most of us are not faced each morning with horrible segregation, or prevented from voting, or beaten. A much more subtle yet destructive deprivation is going on inside our own heads, in moments when we purchase food, in moments when we apply for work. It's got very real consequences, and real solutions; but still we may choose to ignore them merely due to their subtlety.
When a youth becomes an entreprenuer, it's "extraordinary". When a youth succeeds in a career in acting, music, art, science, literature, you name it - this is considered a special case, a child prodigy, a gift from God just for him/her, or at best an ability that all other youth lack.
This is a lie.
There's a good book called TALENT IS OVERRATED by Geoff Colvin proving that this cultural misconception needs to stop. It's obviously disempowered too many of us.
Deprivation may be the foundation for empowerment.... but the key to empowerment is to want it.
I've had yet another breakthrough in my understanding of capacity, and the SoS program in general. Lately, I've been racking my brains trying to figure out how to empower the team, and OMNI Center as a whole. Empowerment seemed to be a unicorn; quite fanciful, out of reach, and potentially a hoax.
Suddenly I realized what empowerment means: wanting something you deserve but can't have, and to be shown how to get it for yourself.
This could be civil rights.
This could be education.
Or it could be a green job.
Do we want green jobs, really? Have we fully, deeply, and comprehensively come to understand the deprivation we experience daily: our immediate need for money, being
forced to acquire money in unsustainable ways, use it to buy food that's almost poisonous, take jobs with no concern for us, other people or the planet...it goes on and on.
My swirl of confusion as to why SoS Fayetteville has at least double the resources and less than half the motivation of all the other cities may be caused by one simple oversight on my part: we don't really want green jobs, because we don't realize how much we need them.
We have television sets and cookies, how could American youth ever be deprived? For one thing, when presented with the tools of empowerment, they ignore them.
What does that say about our daily lives, if we can actually reach our dream but choose not to? Most of us are not faced each morning with horrible segregation, or prevented from voting, or beaten. A much more subtle yet destructive deprivation is going on inside our own heads, in moments when we purchase food, in moments when we apply for work. It's got very real consequences, and real solutions; but still we may choose to ignore them merely due to their subtlety.
When a youth becomes an entreprenuer, it's "extraordinary". When a youth succeeds in a career in acting, music, art, science, literature, you name it - this is considered a special case, a child prodigy, a gift from God just for him/her, or at best an ability that all other youth lack.
This is a lie.
There's a good book called TALENT IS OVERRATED by Geoff Colvin proving that this cultural misconception needs to stop. It's obviously disempowered too many of us.
Deprivation may be the foundation for empowerment.... but the key to empowerment is to want it.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Revolving People Fund
Today I had a huge breakthrough in my understanding of SoS.
WHO WANTS TO NEVER FUNDRAISE AGAIN?
Me, me!
So I thought, why not delete that word from the SoS program structure?
We can replace it with a revolving fund!
Organizations, businesses, and even individuals can loan each SoS full-time participant the amount of their stipend. This becomes an investment. After your green job is created and you're receiving income from it, you can pay back the loan with little or no interest. Then the loan goes on to another peer who wants a green job, too.
We have to figure out the details, but I think it will be a heck of a lot easier getting you all paid and showing real results in SoS if we're being loaned the money and then paying it back with the fruits of our labor. None of this "you'll only be paid if you fundraise your stipend" stuff. You'll get paid up front, and be expected to succeed in creating a job that can then support you in the future.
WHO WANTS TO NEVER FUNDRAISE AGAIN?
Me, me!
So I thought, why not delete that word from the SoS program structure?
We can replace it with a revolving fund!
Organizations, businesses, and even individuals can loan each SoS full-time participant the amount of their stipend. This becomes an investment. After your green job is created and you're receiving income from it, you can pay back the loan with little or no interest. Then the loan goes on to another peer who wants a green job, too.
We have to figure out the details, but I think it will be a heck of a lot easier getting you all paid and showing real results in SoS if we're being loaned the money and then paying it back with the fruits of our labor. None of this "you'll only be paid if you fundraise your stipend" stuff. You'll get paid up front, and be expected to succeed in creating a job that can then support you in the future.
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