What Evolvers Are Up To: "Give It Up" Report Backs?

So, the question has been going around the Evolver blogs. What actions do Evolvers engage in? Are they all talk or are they creating positive change in their communities? Well, this ain't no SpaceBook or MyFace. Each month, our intrepid Evolver Regionals bring together people in their local community to explore, discuss, and act upon topics important to our time.

Last month was our "Give It Up" Spore, featuring the ins and outs and ideologies of gift economies. Each month, we ask the regional coordinators to send back a "Post-Spore Questionnaire" so that we can see how things went, provide support, and learn and improve as we go along. In response to all the blogs asking what we are up to, the coordinators suggested we post the results to the larger community to share our efforts, successes, and lessons learned each month.

So, take a minute and treat yourself to finding out what's been going on across the network. And please remember, ask not what Evolver can do for you, but what you can do to help evolve consciousness. If you'd like to start up a Spore in your area (or help organize one already going on), just email me at jonathan(at)evolver(dot)net and we'd be happy to get you started.

See pictures of Baltimore's Burning Man inspired party.

GIVE IT UP: POST- SPORE QUESTIONNAIRES

Atlanta

Regional City: Atlanta
Your Name: Stephen Thomas

How many people helped organize the event? 3

How many people showed up? 35

Did you collaborate with any groups? If so, which ones? No

Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)?
ParkGrounds Coffee

What did you do that night (give brief outline/description)? This
Spore was our experiment with an open-mic style format we are calling Open Spore. Essentially we put the call out a couple of weeks beforehand for local Evolvers to present for 15 minutes on a topic of their choice. We collected signups via email and put together a schedule a few days before the event.

We had 7 presentations over the night, on topics ranging from energy healing to alternative currency networks. 5 of the 7 presenters used PowerPoint to give their talks, which really made for a fun and diverse evening. The idea for this Spore was to get the community involved in sharing their ideas and passion (which I tied into the Gifting theme), and to do something a little different. Initially we’d hoped to encourage people to use the Evolver Regional page to present from, perhaps in a Topic posting, but the limitations of the site at this stage made this difficult. PowerPoint was definitely the way to go.

How did it go? What was the response?

The Open Spore was well received, I think. I spoke with several people who have been attending Spores for some time now, and they all thought it was a fun departure from the typical format. I learned a lot myself from the talks, and it was such a diverse blend of information that it never got boring or felt tedious.

What themes came up?

The list of topics was:
The Rhythm of Collaboration: Using the Mayan Calendar to Guide
Community Work, Play, and Conversation
Building Wealth in the Community
Cloud Busting and Healing Energy
Open Space Church
What Is Consciousness, and Can It Be Defined?
Appropriate Technology for the 21st Century
How to Connect to Our Body Through Emotions

What worked well?

The 15-minute length was perfect, just enough time to give an overview
of a topic in a little detail, and usually with time for a couple of
questions afterward. PowerPoint was definitely the way to go, to give
people some flexibility and functionality in giving their talks.

What could be improved on?

Next time we do this, I think the one restriction that will be made
explicit at the outset is no commercial solicitation. Otherwise, I think this format works
solidly, kept everyone’s interest, and was a great way to open up the
platform to the community to share our gifts with each other.

What did you learn?

I learned a little bit from every talk. I also learned that there are
some truly inspiring projects brewing in our backyards, and people
with some powerful and innovative ideas.

Did this give you ideas of what might be done for future Spores?

I could see an Open Spore theme work across the whole Evolver network
one month. It is a great way to get the community involved, to give a
voice to people with important ideas and initiatives, and it’s a nice
break for the Spore organizers from having to put together a detailed
evening of programming.

* * *
Baltimore

Your Name: Robin Gunkel
Regional City: Baltimore

How many people helped organize the event? 8
Mike Moorstein and I were the two main organizers, but everyone really stepped forward to collaborate on this.

How many people showed up? At least 250

Did you collaborate with any groups? If so, which ones?
We collaborated with a lot of artists- body painters, face painters, DJs, dancers, poets, a performance artist, visual artists etc.

Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)?
The Annex, an artist warehouse space

What did you do that night (give outline)?

The event was last night but we began set up for this on Thursday, working through the details, making signs, constructing the gifting altar, building the hookah tent area etc…

The party was scheduled to start at 8 last night. I was a little surprised when we had some people start coming at 7. We had a full line up DJS, some of them coming down from NYC for the party. It was an incredible night of dancing, body painting, altar gifting, live painting etc.- a lot going on simultaneously, but I’ll mention some of the highlights. One highlight was our performance artist, Paco Fish on stilts in a gifting costume. Paco had sown bright colored, different textured pockets all over his long black slacks, and in each pocket was a different gift tied to a ribbon. People could come up and pull a ribbon from his pocket to receive a gift. Another amazing element was The Effervescent Dance Collective who did a performance where they just went into the crowded dance floor, and took the space over with their dynamic and gestural free dance style that culminated with them as a sculptural heap of bodies on the floor. We also had some amazing scoposcope action, interactive-kaleidoscopey-art cast on clear marbles on a light table that folks could play and interact with in the hookah lounge. The gifting altar was flooded with candy, gourds, knickknacks, baked treats, soup, shoes etc. And the live paintings both on body and canvas, really helped create multiple points of interaction, allowing people (especially with the face painting) to uncover their own inward and radical/expressive self. We were also delighted to experience a spontaneous break dancing circle that emerged in one of the chill/art spaces- a seriously, talented and diverse crowd. In addition, to making money to pay for the space and pay our artists, we also made $200 in donations for Haiti relief that will be donated to Avaaz.org.

Here’s a list some of the artists we worked with:

Cj3j (Baltimore/Miami)
http://www.myspace.com/cj3j

Soohan (DC) with Special Guest: Alexa Grey
http://www.myspace.com/soohansmyspace

Alvin Risk (DC/Maryland)
http://www.alvinrisk.com

Aligning Minds (Aleph Zero, Eighty Eighty DC)
http://www.aligningminds.com/

MegaDrives (Baltimore)
http://www.myspace.com/themegadrives

Performing Artists:

Paco Fish
http://www.pacofish.net/

Effervescent Collective
http://effervescentcollective.com/

Artwork By:

Matthew Muirhead
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZiLQ1dnaz8

Dayna Harris Smith

Jeramie Bellmay
http://www.JeramieBellmay.com

Scoposcope Interactive Visualization
http://www.Scoposcope.com

Featuring:

The Magic Hookah Lounge
http://www.facebook.com/#/group.php?gid=101861362886

How did it go? What was the response?

Everyone loved it and was delighted. I heard overflowing positive response from everyone I spoke too. We had to end at 3, our agreement with The Annex, but had we not have stopped, it would have gone full force into the morning. I was told by multiple people that this was like an Alex Grey event. I was told that this art was totally engaging and non-pretentious. Another person said that this was coolest event that she’s ever been to in Baltimore. I realized last night after the work, after the holding of breath, after and in between all the running around, that we’ve birthed a collaborative consciousness scene here.

What themes came up?

Just this continual deep sense of appreciation that we made the gift of this night together.

What did you learn?

A lot…

- That you can never have too many extension cords
- That you can set the tone and dynamic of a night just with your own (our own) positive vibration (For ex, There was a police car outside most of the night. Instead of the police calling in more police and shutting down the party, that one car just stayed outside the warehouse all night making sure that everyone outside was safe. The neighborhood we hosted in is inhabited by a lot of young artists, but it’s still a rough section of town full of boarded up row homes- our hosting warehouse sitting caddy corner across the street from an old-skool-white-marble-angel-cemetery. I was glad to know that everyone was being looked after and safe, delighted that the police were doing their job as it was meant to be done.

-That Evolver is really an opportunity for members of the community to discover their own gifts. I don’t mean this as platitude. Mike, the other main organizer told me that he’s never been able before to share his gift with the world before (he believes his skills and strengths don’t find analogy with the dominant cultural paradigm) but Evolver has finally allowed him to recognize and realize his true gift.

What worked and what could be improved on?

Organization- last night worked, but we need to think about more logistics in the future: recycling, trash, water etc. If we do more of these events, we will need to have an Evolver staff working the night. But, people were stepping forward last night to say that they would like to help with the next event, so I think this can happen.

***

Boulder
Your Name: Jason Bowman
Regional City: Boulder

1. how many people helped organize the event?
1, yours truly

2. how many people showed up?
18

3. any group collaboration?
none to speak of

4. where did the event take place?
the laughing goat cafe

5. what transpired?
the night served as meet and greet among various subcultures and evolvers of boulder. it was the first spore meeting since i took over so we spent a good 45 minutes just casually getting to know each other over steamy beverages and boisterous repartee. once ample time was allowed for every one to get settled and comfortable i opened it up to a group discussion regarding alternative currencies and gift economies. we talked about the amazing burn on the bayou video and also discussed bernard lietaer's most recent published interview which can be accessed here: http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/money-print-your-own/beyond-greed-and-.... i wholeheartedly encourage any of you who are not familiar with lietaer's work to take a gander at this article as it serves as a great introduction to his amazing work and ideas.

6. how did it go?
discussion was fruitful and multifaceted. connections were forged. for the first meeting since the spore fell dormant months ago, we felt like it went really well. we enjoyed each others' company and found insight by listening to the different perspectives provided by different backgrounds. there was a great sense of freshness as well as an excitement to move forward in creating a resilient and well connected network of people not only dreaming of a better world but taking action to help create one.

7. what themes came up?
we touched mainly on local currency, time bank and gift economy ideas. one of the main themes that came up was trust. we agreed that in order for a mutually beneficial alternative economy to blossom, there needs to be a level of tenacious trust in the positivity of the rubric as well as in the drive of every member of the community to infuse zest. this leads to another theme of passion. when each and every member of a community connects with what it is in life they are passionate about and offers it freely to the community than there is a great sense of abundance. with trust in ability to interface in non monetary ways and passion for each individual's gift, a lattice of amenities and services blossom. we came up with at least one tangible step forward. we brainstormed about an web-based community calendar in which people can communicate dates and times they would like to share their products and services with the community. this site could be intertwined with a discussion forum as well. the vision was to begin a grassroots campaign to simply share and exchange the things we do best with each other using the connectivity of the internet to provide a central calendar of events.

8. what worked well?
it was really nice to connect with other evolvers in boulder and make plans for further engagement. it was really fresh to hear everyone's individual thoughts ideas and qualms in regards to bothe the current rubric for social interaction as well as idealistic visions for the future.

9. what could be improved on?
more people, more organizational participation, less distracting meeting space.

10. what did you learn?
i personally learned a good amount about time banking systems which i found to interesting. i also gained an deeper understanding of the fears people have in letting go of a debt based system and moving into a trust and passion based way of sharing abundance.

11. the future?
is bright....
∞

i am happy to be a part of this awesome community and look forward to begin turning spores into mycelium with each of you.

***
Los Angeles

Regional City: Los Angeles
Your name: Erin Shaw

How many people helped organize the event?
3

How many people showed up?
about 25

Did you collaborate with any groups? If so which ones?
Burners without Borders, Growcology

Where did the event take place?
Crescent Heights United Methodist Church in West Hollywood

What did you do that night?
Baza opened with a quick description of Evolver and then introduced
Emma Hawley, who previously co-led Seeding the Gift Culture workshops
with Charles Eisenstein. Emma initiated the ritual by pairing up spore-
goers at random to gaze into each others' eyes as an offering of the
gift of attention. We discussed how it felt to give and receive
attention in an uncommonly direct way. The conversation touched on how
one has to desire to give and receive. The ritual also highlighted the
challenges of "getting what you want and wanting what you get," the
need to be clued into community needs in order for a gift culture to
work. Emma segued into Brent Heyning's and Nick Heyming's presentation
on Burners w/o Borders work in New Orleans and abroad. Then art
conservator J. Claire Dean spoke about preserving culture in times of
crisis, which entails salvaging any material culture from areas struck
by disaster. Brent's wife Evonne Heyning concluded with a little
information about her relief organizations crisiscommons.org and
virtualhaitirelief.org, a collaboration of Second Life activists.

How did it go? What was the response?
The response was positive. The aligning ritual was an ambitious ice-
breaker, but nearly everyone participated and the presentations flowed
and addressed the theme really well.

What themes came up?
The main theme was the need to understand the person or community to
whom you're trying to give. The aligning ritual was a great individual
experiment that linked to Nick Heyming's points about cultural
imperialism; one of the pitfalls of volunteering abroad, especially in
the aftermath of the disaster, is that the locals are excluded from
the re-building process when big corporations and even well-
intentioned non-profits enter the scene. To best rehabilitate the
community, BWB gets to know the local population and includes them in
the effort so that what is built gets maintained even after the relief
workers leave. The awkwardness of maintaining eye contact with someone
unknown to you mirrors the awkwardness in trying to help a disaster-
stricken community- you have to address the emotions that come up in
yourself and your partner on the receiving end. Thus, referring to the
local community is a major part of giving more intelligently. The
discussion about humanitarian relief related to a recurring spore
theme of localization and setting intention in all charitable efforts.

What worked well?
Having a variety of speakers was a real boon- and having a relatively
low turn out because of a Friday night turned out to be a blessing.
The aligning ritual was particularly effective and everyone was able
to participate in the conversation. For future spores (with hopefully
greater attendance) I would consider breaking into small groups for
discussion. The open floor works, but I want to get the inclusive
intimate quality on purpose next time : )

What could be improved upon?
Evolver LA in general could use an audio-visual sporganizer and better
equipment. Everything that could be improved upon is up to me and Baza
really.

What did you learn?
I learned that intentional communities are a sporganizer's best
friend. The residents of a local intentional community called the
Sugar Shack have been very forthcoming with their time and energy in
both hosting spores and holding a space to discuss possibilities
within a creative community. I highly recommend finding an intentional
community and starting an energy exchange to cut down on overhead.
This is a cool directory: http://www.ic.org/.

Did this give you ideas of what might be done for future spores?
I think it would be good to focus on intention for a spore. Since
we're able to cover a topic as broad as love, I think some clarity on
intention would benefit the Evolver community. Hurray for specificity
and discussion! Viva Evolver!
* * *

Long Beach

Your Names: Tony Damico and Angie McMath Leek
Regional City: Long Beach, CA

How many people helped organize the event?: 5

How many people showed up?: 70+

Did you collaborate with any groups?: No, unable get any Burners involved. Tried, though.

Where did the event take place?: Light + Space Studio

What did you do that night? (Outline/Description)
7-12pm.
began with a welcome
screened 2012 spore vid
screened burn at the bayou
welcome, reading from Thich Naht Hanh
explained the spore, preview
gifts were brought to the altar
electronic music performance
time bank presentation, Q&A, signups
gift exchange: people chose from the altar, found those who chose their gift
discussion in small groups ensued
poetry feature (three poets spontaneously chosen)
DJ set, dessert
Alyssandra nighswonger (acoustic performance w/burn at the bayou video behind her)
DJ set, ended about midnight.

How did it go? What was the response?
First of all, we raised $207 for Doctors without Borders! A lot of folks jumped into this event because it was a benefit, and there have been so many benefits in the past two weeks in LB.

Folks especially seemed to enjoy seeing members of the Evolver community step up to the mic and share their gifts. The food was excellent, too, as we invited several good cooks to contribute. People also mostly showed up within the first half hour of the event this time around. People really dug the Burn screening, it really opened up some folks to that culture who may have disregarded it previously. Most importantly, we gained a lot of interest in starting a time bank, and now have a potential committee of 6-8 people who want to do it, and at least 25 people who would want to participate (ran out of room on signup sheet).

What themes came up?
Gifting, Time Banks, mindset of Abundance, going beyond currency

What worked well?
The spontaneity of the planning. Our main speaker cancelled, and I didn't find out until the spore was underway. Everything came together perfectly.

What did you learn?
Again, Evolver is a great outlet for people to find their gifts. Also, to trust Universe a bit more with the programming. Moreover, SO many new people came into the community and were inspired to contribute to future spores, that we will soon have a great council for sporeganizing.

Did this give you ideas of what might be done for future spores?
It's really just another rendition of our format that includes performance, art, film, discussion, and food. Learning to be flexible with that format and to have an open ending time really helps. We will involve the core members more in future spores, as giving people a chunk of time (15-20) to program themselves worked really well.

* * *
New Orleans

Regional City: New Orleans
Your Name: Ben Kappel

How many people helped organize the event?
1

How many people showed up?
20

Did you collaborate with any groups? If so, which ones?
Swan River Yoga, Burners Without Borders

Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)?
Swan River Yoga

What did you do that night (give brief outline/description)?
We started by showing Burn on The Bayou, followed by a talk given by
Summer Burkes a longtime Blackrock DPW volunteer. Following that we
had a talk and presentation by author and Burner James Oroc

How did it go? What was the response?
It went extremely well. The movie resonated personally with most of us
since we were all acutely aware of post katrina life and challenges.
The speakers were lively and engaging. Attendees were very tuned in.

What themes came up?
Burning Man and Gift Economy. Local Outreach opportunities

What worked well?
The movie was a great intro but the presenters really made the night
as they were both great and James's slideshow narration was a real
treat

What could be improved on?
Getting the event published and sending out press releases and doing a
bit more leg work on the publicity end .

What did you learn?
It was great to collaborate with the burner community.

Did this give you ideas of what might be done for future Spores?
Yes we are definitely having James Oroc back to speak in March on
psychedelics.

* * *
PORTLAND

Regional Coordinator: Kent Bye

How many people helped organize the event?
4

How many people showed up?
22

Did you collaborate with any groups? If so, which ones?
We contacted the regional Burning Man group, and they tracked down a
sociology professor who has been attending Burning Man for a number of
years. Dr. Kim Smith specializes in the more environmental / leave no
trace aspects of Burning Man, but came to facilitate a discussion around
the dynamics of gift economies.

Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)?
Jessica Park's home.

What did you do that night (give brief outline/description)?
We usually gather at 6:30 and had a potluck and mingling for 45 minutes.
We moved upstairs and we did a brief introduction of Evolver and Dr. Kim
Smith.
Dr. Smith covered the 10 principles of Burning Man, and then we watched
Burn on the Bayou.
Dr. Smith then gave a brief presentation of her experiences of the gift
economy at Burning Man and posed a couple of questions such as 'What are
the blocks to gifting and receiving?' and 'How can we bring this back
into our lives and local communities?'
Before diving into a discussion we went around the room to introduce
ourselves and talk about what we need and what we have to provide. There
were a lot of desires met over the course of the half hour, and then we
took a 15-20 minute break to follow-up and connect with people on our
respective desires that we needed or wanted and gifts that were being
offered. This was probably the most powerful exercise of the night and
it felt like an awesome community-building exercise.
About 1/4 of the people left at this point (around 9:15), and then we
reconvened and had a really intense and focused conversation about gift
economies.
We also asked people to bring a gift for the gifting alter, and about
half of the people brought something and we encouraged people to take a
gift whether they brought something or not (to encourage the idea of
abundant gifting rather than just equal bartering).

How did it go? What was the response?
People seemed to really get a lot of the night, and it was a good and
interesting topic.

What themes came up?
Transforming the Tragedy of the Commons into the Triumph of the Commons.
The way for this to spread is to just do it.
Pay it forward.
Sometimes receiving is harder than giving, but to complete a gift, you
have to be able to receive.
An abundant society only comes if everyone is participating.
How to bring the radical principles of Burning Man into our daily lives.
It's okay to have exchange of money because paying for something is an
energetic exchange too.
Paying for something can also declare that an exchange is over, and that
gifting expands the time of exchange over time and has a lot more focus
on relationships and communication.
Community is built through the process of gifting.

What worked well?
The exercise of declaring your desires and what you had to offer.

What could be improved on?

I thought that while the movie was well-done, but that 25-minutes
was too long. Our previous experience with 10-minute clips worked a lot
better. The film didn't really go into the great depths about gifting
that we got into from our discussion about it afterwards, and I felt
like through the course of the evening it actually seemed to drain some
of the conversational energy rather than support it (as evidenced by
having 6-7 people leaving when we took a short break).

What did you learn?
Ask ONE question at a time to a group. Rather than sprinkle 10 questions
over 30 minutes in a presentation... and also see above.

Did this give you ideas of what might be done for future Spores?
More weaving of presentation and dialog rather than speaking at the
group for 30-40 minutes. Also shorter clips that are more focused and on
point.

* * *
PHILADELPHIA
Regional CoordinatorRob Snyder

How many people helped organize the event?
2

How many people showed up?
29

Did you collaborate with any groups? If so, which ones?
local Burner connections (regional list, PEX Disorient)
Charles Eisenstein was our speaker, so we spent some time plotting a
course for the evening.

Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)?
Studio 34 Yoga, official home of EvPhi

What did you do that night (give brief outline/description)?
Welcoming and intro to the Spore Project and Evolver
Some Evolvers brought food to share
Introduction of our guest speaker, Charles Eisenstein
I spoke briefly about Burning Man and the Burners w/o Borders project.
I shared that while I hoped to screen “Burn on the Bayou,” I knew that
Charles had a good deal of relevant ground to cover.
Group introductions
Fran lead a guided meditation
Charles spoke to us on gift culture for the better part of the
evening.
Charles lead us through 2 excercises.
1) everyone partnered off, gave each partner the gift of attention for
3 min
2) participants were invited to share with the group 1 gift they would
like to share, and 1 need they would like to have met.
This second exercise sparked some discussion of Time Banks.
I encouraged everyone to begin using Evolver as a message board to
post other gifts and needs.
We concluded the group
Charles signed books and talked to participants

How did it go? What was the response?
Overwhelmingly positive. We had many new folks joining us, and there
was great enthusiasm across the board for the Spore and for the ways
that we can more freely share and appreciate one another’s gifts.

What themes came up?
Gift culture, redefinition of gratitude: the recognition that you have
received something beautiful, and the subsequent desire to share
generously, Time Banks, community creation, resource sharing

What worked well?
Charles is a top notch speaker, and the group was most attentive to
his message. Using the local Burner network brought in many first
timers.

What could be improved on?
Timing definitely felt crunched, especially as I had to leave to drive
Charles to the train station immediately following the closing of the
Spore. I also missed having an open discussion period. I’m considering
changing the timing around. Since people are consistently showing up
over the first 30 minutes, I may start the next one 30 minutes
earlier.

What did you learn?
I learned that one Spore may not be exhaustive of a given theme, but
instead may serve more to open up a conversation that will be
revisited again in time. I also learned that google video’s uploading
software is finicky. I learned this by attempting to upload the edited
footage we got from the evening.

Did this give you ideas of what might be done for future Spores?
Already, the Evolver Philly page has a pretty robust gift/needs
thread, and there has been some discussion of putting together a time
bank.
Charles offered to come back for a future event.
In the future, I’d like to try setting aside perhaps 20 minutes at the
end of the Spore for people to share anything with the group that
they’d like to. I know that I need to open up the coordination efforts even more,
since I will be away for the March Spore.

* * *
Sacramento

Regional City: Sacramento
Your Name: Chris Hopkins

How many people helped organize the event?
3

How many people showed up?
19

Did you collaborate with any groups? If so, which ones?
I have recently started building a friendship with someone who is part
of a group that is trying to build off the grid communities in three
different places. Him and I are kind of joining forces with each other
to spread to as many people as possible. I also am working with my
Girlfriend now on her/our website called TheEmpressProject.com, which
we are using out podcast and community forum to connect with more
people, as well as the Evolver Sacramento page.

Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)?
I had it at the shop I work at bonehead tattoos.

What did you do that night (give brief outline/description)?
We opened with the meditation that I sent out to the regional page.
Then we showed Burn on the Bayou. Then we arranged our chairs into a
circle and talked about four people that I learned about looking for
people that dedicated their lives to humanity (Hermann Gmeiner, Greg
mortenson, Sima Samar, who were all 2009 Nobel Peace Prize nominees,
and Wangari Muta Maathai, who won the Peace prize in 2004). Then a few
of the people that attended talked about what they had done as far as
volunteer and free stuff to help people. Then we asked if anyone had
success with the meditation, and seeing their gift to humanity on the
piece of paper, and we asked if they would like to share. They all
did. After the group discussion a few evolver’s brought oranges,
grapes, and some bread. Another evolver brought hoola hoops that she
made with some hard core tape and PVC pipes. We all ate food and
sucked at hoola hooping, except the girl that brought them.

How did it go? What was the response?
It went great, it was the best spore yet! Everyone that came was very
inspired and enjoyed it a lot. I think it helped people feel very
comfortable about sharing what they are passionate about with the
group, the meditation really helped that. One evolver brought his mom
and she at one point said “where were you people fifteen years ago?”

What themes came up?
I think I covered most of this with what we did. I talked about those
four people that gave their lives to humanity, and everyone went
around and shared what they felt was their gift to the world.

What worked well?
The energy always gets better when we turn out chairs into a circle
after screenings, or speakers. The meditation worked very well. I
think adding the thought provoking bit at the end of the meditation
made half the night.

What could be improved on?
I still think we could do something to promote better, like every
other month, but its getting better.

What did you learn?
I learned a lot about what different people that I had barely known
are passionate about. More in this spore than any other I saw how much
people want to want and need this. There were a ton of very happy
people after this spore.

Did this give you ideas of what might be done for future Spores?
I’m definitely going to write a new meditation for each spore. I also
think that short screenings go very well and I think I will continue
to try to have those ready for the spores.

* * *
San Francisco

Regional City: San Francisco
Your Name: Carmen Mauk
How many people helped organize the event?
Two people- Carmen Mauk and Laura Buchbinder Clein
How many people showed up? 35
Did you collaborate with any groups?
Not this time but I did bring people in from www.shoutingfire.org as well as www.safetycenterofamerica.org
Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)?
Sera Phi center where all of the spores have been held.
What did you do that night (give brief outline/description)?
Group Meditation
Screened Burn on the Bayou
After the film, we talked about BWB and how disaster relief is only a very small part of the projects we have going around the world. We also talked about our relief efforts in Haiti and had some of the lockers available for people to see from this project we just launched. www.operationhaitirelief.org
We then got into small groups and exchanged Blessings that we had written for each other and discussed the following questions for 15 min. each
1.What is your favorite kind of gift, both to give and receive? What are some ways that gifting has shown up in your life? What was the impact of that gift?
2.What are some of the gifts that are inherent and unique to you? Who or what in your immediate world is in the greatest need of these gifts?
3.What kind of support do you need in order to more fully realize your gifts in the world? Can you identify some ways in which your community can create more opportunities for alternative exchanges like gifting?
At the end, we put up big white sheets of paper on the wall to capture the projects and ideas that came from the discussion. People then signed up for those that they were interested in.
How did it go? What was the response?
Great! People said that they liked getting into small groups for discussion. They also said that they liked the fact that there was something that they could actually do to back up the conversation.
What themes came up?
How we can help Haiti. Challenges of creating alt. currency.
And the challenges of taking ideas people have and putting them into action.
What worked well?
It was great to open with a short inspirational film, to get everyone on the same page. The small groups and the questions worked well-trusting the group to go deeper once they were inspired.
What could be improved on?
Before the Spore, the process for getting our announcement posted on Evolver and all of the correct pages was a nightmare. The announcement was sent out on the Facebook page by somebody with the wrong date, and then was cancelled for a few days. This definitely affected the turn out.
What did you learn?
That the above process needs to be streamlined so that people can step up and lead a Spore without the hassle of posting.
Did this give you ideas of what might be done for future Spore.
Yes, I would like to see more project ideas thrown out there to people so they can connect the ideas we are talking about with physical action in the world. People in the room suggested that the group needed guidance in this over the long-term.

** *
Stockholm
Your Name: Henric Hemmerlind

How many people helped organize the event?
2

How many people showed up?
16

Did you collaborate with any groups? If so, which ones?

No, but next time we might. One of our guest had a similar thing called music meditation and we might put our things together,
Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)?
In my friends photo studio. It’s really amazing and free of charge.
What did you do that night (give brief outline/description)?
We started with a presentation of our vision and evolver. We did a facebookevent where we invited our friends with the idea of “moving our friends from internet to real life one night a month” and discuss around a topic. In that way we got peoples attention and they loved the idea. So, we waited for everyone to come, we played Bob Marley and people could have snacks and drink wine or tea. We showed a commencement speech by Steve Jobs and we invited people to show their own clips. After watching we sat on the floor and sofas and just talked. It was such a amazing talk and my friend held a meditation. We also had a reggae artist playing his music.
How did it go? What was the response?
The response was great! People got inspired and they really look forward to the next spore.
What themes came up?
EGO, Love, Gifting. Everything

What worked well?

The event itself. It ran smooth and people felt comfortable.
What could be improved on?

The invitation of people. Many of the ones we invited never showed up and did not even tell us. We want to let it grow by itself by letting people bring their friends

What did you learn?

We want to invite people outside of our friends circle and make it more of an open event for anyone.

Did this give you ideas of what might be done for future Spores?
Since we introduced this idea, positive energy has flowed and we see how young people are interested. We want to make it cool to be spiritual and meditate. We want to welcome creativity with music and art and let people contribute to our events. We really believe we can create a kind of revolution among young people in Stockholm. If we just keep it at a level that is easily accessible and inspiring.

* * *
Sydney

Regional City: Sydney
Your Name: Tim Mansfield

How many people helped organize the event?
2

How many people showed up?
8

Did you collaborate with any groups? If so, which ones?
We invited the local Burners, but they couldn't make it. We drew a few people from Sydney Integral, the local Ken Wilber people.

Where did the event take place (name of café, yoga center, etc)?
We thought we organised a local cafe to open in the evening for the meeting, but the owner was sick and it didn't happen, so we waited outside until most people had showed and then moved the meeting to my house.

What did you do that night (give brief outline/description)?
Luke spoke a little about the theme, then led a 20 minute shamatha meditation, then spoke about his experience with Burning Man. We showed "Burn on the Bayou", talked some more about gift economies, hospitality, generosity and then made some plans for the local spore and recruited some more hands to help out. Oh, there was pizza.

Our mango tree is in fruit right now, so everyone left with the gift of a mango.

How did it go? What was the response?
It went well, despite the venue confusion. The attendees were pretty much all enthusiastic about helping the spore to grow by lending their time and talents. The conversations flowed freely and I think people got inspired by the ideas.

What themes came up?
I think I covered most of this with what we did.

What worked well?
Actually, for the size of group and the theme, offering people hospitality at my house seemed to work better than a cafe. More personal and connected. We think we'll persist with home meetings for the next couple.

What could be improved on?
More connections to local groups. A bit more promo - we intended to do flyers, but both Luke and I were too busy again. We need to get more people active in the local organisation team.

What did you learn?
Check with the cafe owner during the day before an evening meeting. And get his mobile number!

Did this give you ideas of what might be done for future Spores?
Short screenings seem to work well. I think short talks from related groups would be great as well.