Denver: February Meeting Notes

Denver, as always it was a wonderful confluence of the Abundance League. For this gathering we chose the more intimate environs of Susan’s home, and to focus our time just on member announcements and mingling. Because this meeting focused on passions, needs and gifts of all of us present, we devoted more time to the check-in portion and exchanged some quick feedback, saving the deeper conversations for mingling afterwards.

As a new approach to note-taking, we followed Susan’s idea of passing the laptop around so that each person who spoke took notes for the person speaking after them. This enabled each to transition from speaking to listening; it also ensured that nobody spent all their time typing and all could give their attention. I think it worked pretty darn well: we got good notes that required no very little  editing, which allows us to be faster at posting to the blog!

While I have your attention, our next confluence will be Tuesday March 10, 2009 (location TBA) at Hooked on Colfax.

Now, here are the notes from those in attendance. If you couldn’t make it but see someone you want to connect with, please join us at social.abundanceleague.org.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Name: Taj

Passions: social networking, post-modern photo safari (social photography in new and forgotten places), Colfax photo safari (colfaxlove.com)

Needs: bring people to the Abundance League, tell people about photo safari, presenters for tAL

Gifts: marketing & social networking consultation

 

Name: Christy

Passions: language, experiences in life, microfinance (small scale banking targeted towards women)

Needs: needs social “pressure” to get art projects done (polaroids, phones) … “accountability partner,” needs an illustrator for a children’s book about tumbleweeds, to get a business plan together by the end of the year (maybe around communal living)

Gifts: technical expertise, critical thinking, financial planning … MBA skills, big pickup truck to lend

 

Name: John Shapiro

Passions: he wants to serve. non-profit called cooperativeaction.org which is an interactive website were people can participate in issues they agree on in order to create a mass to take action. Non-partisan. Not advocating for a solution, but saying political and corporate should work together. Also teach voice and guitar lessons and working on instructional DVD. Learning French and needs French speaking partner.

Needs: He has the framework of the site, and needs help with site content. People who have interest in doing research and writing content (e.g. global warming, health care costs, freely available credit score). Needs male singer.

Gifts: thinking through issues and identifying processes for rectifying those issues.

 

Name: Deb

Passions: want to create a social network for lesbians over 45; want to do something only for women because gay/lesbian sierra club is 80% men; want to be able to schedule things last minute without technical expertise

Needs: technical help setting up women: feminist/lesbian/fun/etc. social group; suggestion: meetup.com; need a team of support to form community

Gifts: Know about a lot of things; talk about parenting, adoption, feminist in 60s, life/death

 

Name: Elizabeth

Passions: (former) insight speakers series, community of intellectually curious of diverse backgrounds, networking,

Needs: job, global concept, and meaningful work, marketing, sustainable, socially entrepreneurial, contributing to others

Gifts : great community and network to share,

 

Kendall Thiessen – just quit corp job, practicing lawyer, did the corp thing and culture and process. Not who he wantedto be. When left, everyone was like “this is the worst economy, how can you leave?” He sees lots of opportunities and possibilities and that at the end of the day, really cool things can happen. Did IP and property law. Company = “Trivial Pursuits” Like youtube, a pretty trivial idea can become a powerful system of exchange. What he is attracting is idea people who want to make things happen and make things possible. Want to see things happen and expect abundance to come if you follow your natural state of being. Huge fan of social media, interested in how things spread. Recently joined Twitter, seeing information exchange in a new way. If you can express it in a simple enough form, can reach an amazing number of people in a short time. Still a newbie. (Deb says “Think about salt and Gandhi and the fact that salt belongs to us – it is a simple thing.”)

needs = connection, once a month creative people – present that problem and bounce around idea. Highland City Club meets those needs.

Gifts he brings – lawyer, IP and idea of working with inventors, social media.

 

Name: Scott Perlman

Passions: growing myself (all areas) and helping others to do the same (landmark, Burning Man, Buddhism); Started company—thinklikeagenius! Helping others create.

Need: Money and clarity—what it is and how do we distribute it? How do we involve people in this process? Marketing and distribution channels. Social media

Gifts: Giving clarity in the lives of others—helping to give guidance; enrolling people into projects (project management)

Help: Conscious capital investment fund; rockies venture group

 

Name: Laurie Miranda

Passions: feng shui and design, helping people create homes that nurture them, helping them create what they want to create, making an impact, teaching, empowering people

Needs: roommate

Gifts : great friend, very supportive, helping bring living spaces into integrity around intentions, will recommend a (feng shui) remedy for tAL members

 

Name: Beth Erlander

Passions: Creativity, art therapist and counselor. Cultivating private practice (wants to grow), dilemma-offers art for those who can’t afford it.

Needs: Website, marketing, dating, looking for a partner who can dance and is creative and dedicated to their career.

Gifts : Good at spatially putting things together, can illustrate a kid’s book, great at being silly, therapist-good at listening and giving guidance.

 

Name: Susan

Passions: group dynamics, contact improv-lab in boulder, project—living laundromat—building creative community in public spaces

Needs: ability to reflect and check in even though I’m facilitating, website for Living Laundry, business financial planning (shifting beliefs around money), people need to come to super fun dance (www.superfundance.org)!!!

Gifts : preparing containers for personal and group retreats, women’s retreat in 2009