fusclimate Mailing List: Proposals for the January 8 EcoMinds/Climate Change Changers monthly meeting

[Scott Jackson (sjackzen46]

At the November 14 CCC meeting we voted to unite as the MUUSJA EcoMinds
working group. Before the vote there was no actually working working group
anymore; after the vote there was, sort of.

The 'Issue Working Groups' page at the MUUSJA website still has an
out-of-date description. The link to the working group on the left side of
the homepage yields a 'default index file not found' response. The last
announcement on the EcoMinds listserv was posted on June 28; when I
recently sent an announcement to <editor-ecominds [at] muusja.org>, there was
neither a posting nor an acknowledgement. If the working group has a
leadership structure, it has yet to be publicized.

Clearly it takes more than a vote to resurrect a moribund 'legacy' working
group. I propose that a visible leadership team be put into place - at
least until MUUSJA's spring membership meeting - and that its first order
of business be to bring its part of the MUUSJA website up to date. I'd be
happy to serve on that team.

I also propose that the leadership team consider training options and
opportunities for MUUSJA climate disruption/climate justice activists after
determining if there is sufficient interest in EM/CCC. In October I
attended the first day of MN350's weekend Climate Leadership workshop.
(Unfortunately, I became ill late that evening and couldn't attend the
second). I strongly recommend the experience. Although MN350 has no
workshops scheduled at this time, it is able to offer custom workshops to
interested groups. (One of the facilitators, Erika Thorne, was hired by
MUUSJA to facilitate its first organizing workshop.) MN350's description of
its climate organizer workshops can be found at
http://www.mn350.org/mn350-fall-workshops-register-today/.

I agree with Ralph Wyman that we consider the spiritual context of our
work, and I recommend we schedule a workshop based on the writings of
Joanna Macy, a Buddhist scholar, eco-philosopher, and general system
theorist; and facilitated by Kaia Svien, a local teacher of Mindfulness
Based Stress Reduction who has been trained by Macy. Although I wasn't able
to attend Kaia's workshop in October, a description of which I sent to CCC
folks, I've known her for more than 40 years and think highly of her. Her
description of the variety of Macy classes that she offers can be found at
http://www.mindfulnessforchangingtimes.com/index/Macy_Classes.html.

I'll continue to post training opportunities in the metro area as I become
aware of them.

Scott Jackson
sjackzen46 [at] gmail.com