Q&A from our FIRST evolver SLO event / counter 2012

1. How many people helped organize the event?

2

2. How many people showed up?

40

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

I invited indigenous grandmothers, sangoma friend, environmentalists, solar business people, natural builders, energy audit folks, transition towners, burners, bioneers, cultural creatives, artistes for social change, mediators, NVCers, sacred activists, etc.

The folks who did come through who also sent out the requests to their specific lists and contacts are the Transition Towners and the Cultural creatives and some Burners.

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

San Luis Obispo Public library ($60 for 3 hours for non profits, capacity 120, large screen, I bring my own equipment)

5. What did you do that night (give brief outline/description)?

I introduced evolver.net, told people about the sign up sheet (only 4 people signed up since prolly most are already on one of the 17 listservs Ive created over the years), had fair trade organic chocolate both freebies and bars for sale, various literature, flyers for future events, magazines, and a table of 2012 books (including entheogens, sacred plants, shamanism, authors of T. McKenna, D Pinchbeck, MV Summers, Colin Wilson, Graham Hancock, etc. I also explained my need to expand from merely sustainability events and seeing it only as the way for solutions... but needed to include more evolver type/living universe/shamanistic, consciousness change genres.

I showed the 3 core films plus interjected them with two trailers: YES MEN FIX THE WORLD and NO IMPACT MAN to the delight of the audience. After the films I felt compelled to NOT deal with 2012 specifically (especially since the local 2012 expert could not make it to this event; she has been with other 2012 events we put on in the past) but to initiate the conversation/dialogue with our own personal shifts and shiftings since I sense there needs to be much more support and encouragement to feel community around these shifts, these personal paradigm shifts, which may even heighten them, place them in a context of welcoming rather frightening, etc. People opened up and spoke from their heart around intentionality, the foundation of joy that was drawing them into mystery, that pain and misery were actually results of resistance to the shifting, that the only permanence is impermanence. One person spoke about how she loved training people in non violent communication, others spoke about a deeper listening, a deeper trusting. I spoke about MV Summers latest book about the great waves of change where he speaks about a deep evaluation process by which we evaluate our possessions, friends, lovers, jobs... and to make room and space for something else to emerge.. and people spoke about the uncomfortableness that emerges when one allows room for something else....

A number of people presented briefly their positive projects locally: Transition Towners spoke about their expanding initiatives throughout the county with workshops, trainings, meetings, film gigs, salons, their recent Heart & Soul all day workshop (which was very intimate and foundational for further work), the food forest demonstration garden that had been accepted by city of Paso officials in a park that will be designed via permaculture principles... (Can you imagine seeing a park area with cardboard on the lawn to create habitat for soil for spring planting!!?). She spoke about funding and trees and garden tools which brought up suggestions from the audience. I spoke about the new magazine edible SLO that connects the dots for our local food sources so we become more resilient and celebratory as well as supporting a genuine local economy. Another woman spoke about how she attended a TT meeting only for it to evolve into a theatre group to portray the necessity and examples of the TT concept... Tree spoke about creating and supporting eco schools throughout various schools in the county.. Also what was surprising to me is that she has a JOB where she actually gets PAID to do what she loves to do around children and sustainable education. She spoke about a food forest that they designed last year at the botanical gardens.... and on and on....

I ended the evening with a laughter yoga exercise. I had people stand up, face a person and at the count of three just start laughing even if you gotta fake it... After a minute the room was lit up with lightness, giggles and laughter. I also explained that this was a minor example of a SHIFT that people can participate in any time of the day! People clapped and started talking with each other, milling around. I had a number of people come up to me privately to talk about their changes, what they are now up to, congratulating me for initiating the personal experiential conversation, etc......

6. How did it go? What was the response?

fantastic. People chatted afterwards, ate chocolate, laughed, looked at the books, picked up flyers, magazines, etc.

7. What themes came up?

see #5

8. What worked well?

see #5, basically speaking from the heart about our personal SHIFTS rather than another intellectual discussion,, which can be fine but when we talk about shifts it seemed more important to talk experientially...

9. What could be improved on?

more food, perhaps drinks, a longer film.. (but more of that below). I could have invited certain people individually and perhaps on the phone rather than a mass email... or with twitter, wiserearth, hopedance, CCT, mainstream media, evolver, transition ning site, facebook, etc. It rained that night and we typically dont show films on a weekend night since theres so many other things to do... but that was the only date that I could reserve at the library.

I think that having a feature film would work better. perhaps we can turn this into a discussion... especially since we showed the 13 indigenous grandmother film a couple weeks ago and we had more than 100 people and a lively discussion with one of our local indigenous grandmothers, Hua, whom was funny, contagious, infectious and wise.... but more later.... see #11/

10. What did you learn?

I learned that people have a need to speak in public, to hear their voice, to get engaged and to feel safe... The more I can create a safe place, a safe space for that to happen, other more magical things can happen and more connections and collaborations and deeper insights, etc. can occur and expand and stretch....

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

Films with panelists or speakers or that "town hall" feeling have worked well with us in the past. Ive been screening films for 10+ years in this way. There are many excellent films out there, documentaries that can focus on an issue or theme that can draw people in.. to have other speakers available to speak afterwards who BRING IN the audience rather than talking at the audience is fantastic and vitally necessary to "build community." We had audiences in 200 plus area when we showed positive films like MAD CITY CHICKENS or FRESH or FOR THE NEXT 7 GENERATIONS... Its a way to combine entertainment, film, food, drinks, conversation, safe space to connect with people, share their concerns, feel their voice, feel listened to and to participate in some action, support, project, etc.

I also show films so am trying to grasp how I can do both... stretch into evolver themes while continuing showing films... Since Jonathan wrote me awhile back about the December theme was going to be energy / food I thought of NO IMPACT MAN and sure enough new american dream made a deal with Oscilloscopes, NIM's film distributor to show the film between dec 7th and the 19th for a reduced rate.. So with this film for December thats what we are gonna do... so hopefully that will be very productive and stick with the evolver theme.

And since so many of the spores are now familiar with screening portions of films and have found cool venues, it might not be that much of a stretch to show feature films.. We showed the grandmother film and we made $350 for them and $350 for us and our expenses, an evolver cottage industry??? We can talk more about all the various negotiations working with film distributors to make it worth our time and energy. it seems many people are living in bigger cities than where I live and it could be quite lucrative.... Ill stop. Or work with a current indy theatre, but there’s not many of them out there anymore; the "indies" are mostly experiments with the corporate theaters but they might rent you the theatre but it can be mucho more expensive than a bar, deli, cafe, library or outdoors in the summer.. look at rooftop films in NYC for an example....

ok I will really stop.

bob
for evolver SLO.
for a chapter in our eBook called "How to Screen Films in your local community," please download it freely here:
http://transitioncalifornia.ning.com/forum/attachment/download?id=237976...