The Abundance League … plenty together

Denver: On Hiatus For Now, And Wonderful Reasons Why

Published on July 10, 2009 in Denver Events by Taj Moore. 0 Comments

The Denver Abundance League will be on hiatus for the next few months, so meetings for now. It’s actually good news, and it’s exciting. Here’s why:

“People of Denver, we see your abundance. Some of you come to the Abundance League gatherings. Many of you meet with other groups. Some of you have started your own abundant groups. We have seen Denver grow so much since we started this chapter that we feel it’s time to assess our evolution in this community.”

Instead of a gathering this month, Susan & Taj will be meeting with the tALented Elizabeth Weiland to go crazy on the white board. We will be asking a lot of questions of ourselves, and we welcome your ideas on them. For example:

What does Denver need to thrive?

Where might the Abundance League meeting format fit in?

What needs to change for us to be relevant? What needs to stay the same?

What else can we do?

You can help us out by asking your questions, giving us your thoughts, and collaborating with us to create events, groups, and projects that matter and have impact. You can start by commenting on this blog post with your ideas, and you can contact us at denver@abundanceleague.org.

Stay tuned for our stage in evolution for Denver.

Susan + Taj

The History & Future of Money - SF July Meeting

Published on July 2, 2009 in Meetings+Events Calendar and San Francisco Events by Neal Gorenflo. 0 Comments

Money they say is the root of all evil. But does it have to be? We’ll explore this question in our July meeting with guest host Ken Lynch. Here’s what Ken told me about what he’ll share:

“If you were to redesign money, what would you do? Ken Lynch of SCCBank.com, a monetary innovation startup, will be presenting an short history of American money, and where this has brought us. We’ll talk about what’s happening at the international level, including IMF money, and what’s happening at the local level, including Carbon Coins, Ken’s concept currency.

The discussion will focus on what you think money should be based on, what values it should support, and what our options are with the future of money.”

I hope to see you there for our discussion with Ken.

MEETING
When: Thursday, July 16th, 6:30-9:30pm
Where: Citizen Space , 425 Second St., #100, San Francisco

AGENDA
6:30 - 7:00 Arrive - mingle, nosh
7:00 - 7:30 Member announcements lightening round: share your passions, needs & gifts quickly
7:30 - 8:00 Break - exchange support, mingle, nosh
8:00 - 9:15 Presentation & discussion
9:15 - 9:30 Clean up, take the discussion to the 21st Amendment

BRING
-Healthy food and drink for the potluck
-Yourself, friends

RE: Invention

Published on June 29, 2009 in Abundance by Neal Gorenflo. 1 Comment

Abundance League ally Cathy Georz made this documentary short with her friends about how the economic crisis offers us an opportunity to reinvent ourselves. Emily Shurr sent me this link because it’s similar in spirit to the Abundance League “Thriving in Chaos” brainstorm she participated in last week. We should not underestimate the power of role models in discovering more liberating ways to see ourselves and the world. It’s heroic to show others that it’s possible to transcend or transform challenging contexts. And that’s what this short does. The great thing is that each of us has the power to be heroes in this simple way every single day. Thanks Cathy for telling these inspiring stories.

How to Thrive in Chaos - San Francisco Meeting Notes

Published on June 26, 2009 in Abundance and San Francisco Events by Neal Gorenflo. 0 Comments

Last week 20 people gathered to brainstorm about how to thrive in chaos. While there’s much in this world that is out of our control, we learned as a group that there’s also a lot we can do right now to thrive no matter what.

The ideas we generated about how to save money, have fun, and make a difference are below. We used the brainstorm to model how other social organisms often deal with challenge - they swarm to find food, avoid predators, and build shelter. It seemed to work. Not only did we learn a lot about our own power, but the format to energized us.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS. The next meeting is July 16th. We’ll be discussing alternative currencies.

How to Save Money
The discussion at the “Saving Money” table centered around a few main ideas. Generally, we found that there was a lot of overlap with both having fun and making a difference. The main topics of discussion were:

-Budgeting. We had a lot of useful ideas for figuring out ways to save cash, but a general consensus was that monitoring the cash was equally as important. Ideas included withdrawing all spending cash at the beginning of the week, using mint.com and also the “secret to the millionaire mind” strategy of allocating percentages to where you want your income to go. Monitoring and saving energy was another big part of the budgeting discussion.

-Sharing. There are lots of online resources for this: Freecycle, Craigslist, Book Couch Surfing. You can also create your own sharing community by sharing meals with friends or organizing a book swap. We also talked about a skills swap or a trade of services to help others.

Continue reading ‘How to Thrive in Chaos - San Francisco Meeting Notes’

Principles At Work In Professional Collaboration: Denver June 2009 Notes

Published on June 10, 2009 in Abundance and Denver Events by Taj Moore. 0 Comments Tags: denver, jessica bergthold, mile high photographers.

We had a great time last night with Jessica Bergthold of the Mile High Photographers. While her group is all about professional photography in the greater Denver area, it follows the same principles of any other collaboration network. And as Miyamoto Musashi said, “From one thing, know ten thousand things.” So what I take away from Jessica’s experience I think we can all apply to the many collaborative projects we have.

To paraphrase her main talking point … In the old, dark days of freelance work (not that long ago, actually), photographers sat alone in their offices, scared of their competitors. Then came that spark of realization: “nobody is doing anything new or secret, so why should we hide our knowledge?” Thus a new model of collaboration was born among photographers.

Continue reading ‘Principles At Work In Professional Collaboration: Denver June 2009 Notes’

SF Event: Support Indy Arts @ Tonic Friday 6/19, I’ll Be Guest Bartending

Published on June 8, 2009 in San Francisco Events by Neal Gorenflo. 0 Comments

Hey y’all, I’m guest bartending to support Indy Arts in a couple weeks. Indy Arts is a convener of the DIY arts and media community in San Francisco. It does cool stuff like hosting DIY media workshops and putting on the long running Expo for Independent Arts. It’s a volunteer driven nonprofit that helps foster a culture of democracy in San Francisco and beyond. Come pay me a visit! All tips go to Indy Arts to support this year’s Expo. See event details below:

Wanna Cocktail? Save the Date!

On June 19th from 6pm-9pm, Indy Arts board and staff (and some special celebrity guests) will be guest bartenders at Tonic, a stylish little lounge located at 2360 Polk Street (@ Union). All tips received for the evening will be donated to our arts programming! Hurray!

Just to prove that you’ll be in capable hands, here’s a special Indy Arts Cocktail Recipe!
Continue reading ‘SF Event: Support Indy Arts @ Tonic Friday 6/19, I’ll Be Guest Bartending’

SF June Meeting: Thriving in Chaos

Published on June 5, 2009 in Meetings+Events Calendar and San Francisco Events by Neal Gorenflo. 2 Comments Tags: chaos, fun, thrive, world cafe.

How to have fun, save money, and make a difference in a punk economy.

We live in uncertain times. “Civilization” seems to be falling apart. What to do? Like always, nature has an answer. Insects, mammals, birds, and fish often “swarm” to find food, built shelter, or evade predators. We’re going to model nature for our June event by using the World Cafe format - a conversational swarm - to generate ideas about how to thrive in today’s crap storm. Thriving in Chaos will focus our attention us on the possibility, freedom, and fun offered by the unwinding of the zombie economy.

Here’s what we’re going to do:

There will be one table for each of the evening’s topics:
- Table 1: Having fun in a down economy
- Table 2: Saving money
- Table 3: Making a difference

Continue reading ‘SF June Meeting: Thriving in Chaos’

May SF Meeting Notes: Top 5 Lessons from Shapeshifters.net

Published on June 5, 2009 in San Francisco Events by Neal Gorenflo. 0 Comments Tags: culture, San Francisco, shapeshifters.net, tips.

We had a great showing for the discussion about Eric Poettschacher’s Shapeshifters.net, a global network of creatives. Thanks to everyone that attended and to those that brought food for the potluck. We had a truly abundant potluck including some wonderful home-cooked Japanese food. Below are Eric’s top five lessons from his work plus member announcements:

1. You don´t know what you don´t know. Have you ever considered that the solution for your problem lies in the hands of a South African papermaker? Get your daily dose of serendipity and consciously connect with other worlds that are absolutely foreign to you. Make use of your cultural blindspots. It pays.

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Denver: June 9 Gathering – Mile High Passions & Collaborations w/ Jessica Bergthold

Published on June 4, 2009 in Denver Events and Meetings+Events Calendar by Taj Moore. 0 Comments Tags: Abundance, colorado, denver, mile high photographers, photography, wedding photography.

Wedding Photographers: hopefully they don’t get a lot of repeat business.

I kid … but seriously, when your livelihood is built on referrals & “hittin’ the bricks”—and in a time when the economy has people looking at spending less—you might think photography is a cutthroat profession, but not so in Colorado. The Mile High Photographers have been practicing an abundant form of professional collaboration for over a year.

“This is a group of photographers in the Denver area who strive to create a great network of gifted, talented and caring professionals working together for the gain of each individual and his/hers respective business.” —MHP Website

Mile High Photographers features monthly meetings with members presenting their expertise in photography, business, and the photography busines. They also organize photo shoots and professional workshops for members. What I most admire about their work is the collaboration I see among people doing what they love to do.

This month we bring you Jessica Bergthold to present the Mile High Photographers group, how it connects to people’s passions (not always photography), and how it positively affects the communities of photographers and Colorado businesses. (We love local business.)

Continue reading ‘Denver: June 9 Gathering – Mile High Passions & Collaborations w/ Jessica Bergthold’

Good On Ya Rushkoff, You’ve Caught Up With Abundance League Thinking Circa 2005

Published on May 31, 2009 in Abundance by Neal Gorenflo. 0 Comments

Life Inc. Dispatch 01: Crisis as Opportunity from Douglas Rushkoff on Vimeo.

Seriously though, it’s nice confirmation of our little community where we have been practicing and celebrating “engaging one another in small ways” for four years as a way of opening a new life affirming cultural space that gives our humanity some oxygen amidst a suffocating corporatist vacuum.

Rushkoff also points out the opportunity our f’d up economy presents us which is also familiar Abundance League terrain, “we’re actually forced to start to look towards one another and ourselves to what value we can create.” Maybe Rushkoff’s book catalyzes a shift which leads to more breathing space for all of us. Great if so. In the mean time, we”ll just keep doing what Rushkoff describes so well right here where we live with friends and family.

I can’t help but note that despite his wise words, he’s contradicting himself more than a little bit. While he articulates the dangers of corporatism, his book tour, promotion, and web site completely embody it. His is a very slick warning, but probably useful nonetheless.

The Abundance League