​​Round Two Topics and Discussion
​​"Weaving the New Economy and Community Resilience Movements" produced by the Post Carbon Institute and the ​+Conversation Collaborative,​ in collaboration with the New Economy Coalition and the CommonBound 2014 conference.
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​​You are invited to propose a new topic for our dialogue, and/or join conversations on topics others have initiated. Our suggested focus is on what is happening and what is possible in the New Economy and Community Resilience movements. It is seeded by this report and ​+the interviews​ on which it is based. See ​+here​ for more on our purpose and intentions.
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​Full Group Harvest from 9/25 Call

​​Leslie: got a lot of collective validation for this path, and that others are on it too. Food and water as theme for highest leverage issue. Community Resilience challenge as a good anchor for L's work. also, from the Institute folks, confirmation they are working with such hubs already.
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​​Helene: the question is still how to connect this diversity of possibility? Make it visible? Continue this discussion in a way that has practical impact?
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​​Artemis: a good strategic leverage point is the California land grab in the San Bernadino valley. People see it as a wasteland, but so much can be done there. Zoning laws that limit us don't apply there. so a small group, without a lot of money, can have an impact. Many things can grow there, e.g. dates, pomegranates and more.
​​water cachement, sound development of land would be a little flame in the midst of what most consider a wasteland.
​​irrigation, tiles, build cisterns like they did in ancient Babylon. looking at the brass tacks - figure the water thing then figure out how to feed each other, take a bleak picture like the desert and make it look like paradise. honor the master of your creation - plants - you open yourself to beneficial forces that offer power & independence.
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​​Ben: how incredibly important the impact is of practical solutions on the ground
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​​Marissa: takeaways = leverage point: regenerative agriculture & water management
​​changing local policy to scale-up the work
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​What's Working?

​​Initiated by: ​+Rev. Earl​
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​​Topic description 
​​What's working for you in effecting a just transition to a sustainable society?
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​Online Discussion
​​Many have been my failures in trying to ignite climate activism. Some lessons learned include:
  • ​​Ignore the deniers
  • ​​Hang out w/ other activists and learn from them. Call them on their b.s. and gratefully acknowledge when they call u on yours. :)
  • ​​Focus on those who are concerned and want to [do] more, but who are too depressed to act or who haven't figured out how they can help. Remind them that the problem is indeed too big for them; they must join and contribute to community.
  • ​​Join w/ activists in "sacrifice zones" already suffering the toxic consequences of our extractive economy and concerned how climate change is and will accelerate that toxicity.
  • ​​Find the best thinkers and learn from them. See who's doing the best work. In addition to the PCI, check out Movement Generation, Climate Justice Alliance, and many others.
  • ​​Bring the problem to your audience's back yard. NIMBYism is powerful. Use it to paint a clear picture.
​​As those who were in the subgroup w/ me during the first session know, I could go on and on. :)  However, this is a good start.
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​​Ben (9/20): Thank you for taking the lead in this next round, Earl! One way to get a sense of "what's working" is to look at the answers we received in all ​+our interviews with movement leaders​ when we asked them "what is most alive in your work right now?" Here's part of what ​+Mateo Nube of Movement Generation​ (which you mention above) had to say, which I think touches on some of our earlier discussion regarding the need for coherence within the Movement:
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  • ​​[W]hat's really alive for us is to anchor ourselves in the the pillars of the economy we're trying build  out, and in thinking of those five pillars, to root ourselves in an understanding that: 
  • ​​Resources we are going to utilize in this economy need to be created through regeneration.
  • ​​Labor needs to be applied though cooperation.
  • ​​The purpose should be collective well-being, and the limits should be truly defined by ecological systems, which starts alluding to the reshaping of governance, which should be defined by boundaries instead of borders - embracing ecological concepts of boundaries like watersheds, foodsheds, energysheds, etc. and rejecting the arbitrary nature of borders. 
  • ​​The culture of this economy should be one of sacredness.
  • ​​The pillar of governance should be rooted in deep democracy, from the workplace to statehouse.
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​​I've posted ​+some more detailed thoughts on this here​ as well. 
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​​Other responses?
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​Next Steps
​​Please add your lessons learned.
​​Let's discuss the distribution of local/regional/state best practices nationally and internationally.
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​Pilot projects to create whole-system "Local Co-Leadership Hubs."

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​Leslie Meehan: Room 6
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​​Topic description 
​​What puts thriving/resilience on the mainstream radar? How can we mobilize local inclusive resilience system “engines” that everyday folks and mainstream business, government, and donors want to invest in? Let's help create the local infrastructures where divest/reinvest money can go!
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​​I'd love to think together about pilot projects to create whole-system "Local Co-Leadership Hubs." I'm dreaming of both a smaller-scale incubation project (say $50k) feeding into a larger one (say $500k-1M). I work with the Thriving Resilient Communities Collaboratory (TRCC) of movement leaders including Art of Hosting, Bioneers, Daily Acts, Evolver, Movement Generation, PostCarbon Institute, Shareable, TransitionUS, and more. Please help us cook up strategies to work together!
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​​Dream Project Goals
  • ​​develop collective wisdom about local resilience collective impact best practices and measures currently used in North American communities: both social & knowledge/mapping technologies
  • ​​create the conditions where leading place-based and technology networks collaborate to strengthen community commons “co-leadership” hubs in several pilot locations catalyzed around a specific theme relevant to each hub (e.g. food, water, energy, resilient business, compassion)
  • ​​inclusive - networks span class, race, gender, privilege, generations
  • ​​live social and online knowledge hubs supported by technology experts 
  • ​​hosted by local anchor institutions across sectors (biz, govt, NGO, institutes)
  • ​​varying size of locales from small to large cities - rural too? 
  • ​​varying phases of resilience from emerging to developed
  • ​​provide infrastructure support so that hubs can be locally self-sustaining in 3 years
  • ​​collaborative “co-project” management modelling the communities we want to see
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​9/25 Call Notes
​​Participants:
​​Noel: brilliant idea - need this!  create a bigger national hub that builds them out & helps/supports
​​mapping exercise needed - not only for the hub but so we can see the stories & invigorate people
​​New England New Economy Hub - Transition - New Economy pilot initiatives, have experimented w/ a couple
​​model can be exported/recreated in different areas, now working in Maryland too
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​​Ken: PCI has been thinking in terms of hubs too - not regional hubs but sharing stories/models to support regions
​​shoutout to work on the ground in Boston - IPS doing great work there! at geo-level and collaboration
​​important work that exists w/in silos now - doesn't span across. it's a need they could fill.
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​​Marissa: supporting/coordinating to raise up local efforts is really important, see it happen in a way that's supporting existing groups that're already working beyond their capacity - sharing best practices & stories really needed
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​​Artemis: ground rules for getting actual results: water. political, social empowerment involves control of water.
​​most unsound agriculture practice is using oil to irrigate instead of the rain manna from heaven.
​​deciding something is a weed is a silly idea. to form a hub, I have to look at water & how I'm using it.
​​any community needs a cup/vessel, cisterns, small-scale artistic community centers where we're making tiles to create swales and water cachement systems. localization organics are using plastics. 
​​I don't see African rain garden backyard support anywhere - even purification systems use plastics.
​​7 plants can filter water to make it drinkable (who??). physical application of arts to liberate human condition.
​​independence-claiming - food forestry - backyard gardening
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​​Philip: different community movements are trying to do things at different scales. like the idea of hub & sharing best practices. there are things you can and can't do in communities eg. can't have rain garden 'cos of codes. 
​​a main advantage of hub is to share policy limitations and how different groups have overcome them.
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​​Leslie: Vessels!  H2O and food campaigns are priority issues.  Learning about groups that are doing community resilience work.  These groups could collaborate and we are now moving into a project proposal phase ($50 grand!) and we need to determine who are the partners who can work together (eg. PCI, TUS, IPS are candidates for project anchors). 
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​​Artemis: travelled a lot, met a guy in the Jordanian desert (we're making the world into a desert) - can we thrive there?
​​Greening the Desert youtube - swale design growing many things that don't typically grow in the desert. this year in CA there's a landgrab and you can make your own town- one date tree yields 750 lbs dates in a year. 
​​have seen watershed depletion, eroding soil. Hopi's originated in CA. I'm alone and in debt - know how to work the land but don't have people with me to have a footprint to see what we did.
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​​Marissa: likes Artemis' point of leverage point being CA food and water - community resilience challenge! connected to local policy which is important too.
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​​Highlights 
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​​Next Steps 
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​Online Discussion
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​How can we build on the momentum created by the Climate March and all the other related actions?

​​Initiated by: ​+Rev. Earl​
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​​Online Discussion 
​​Sorry I cannot be on the call this week, but I look forward to reviewing your discussion afterward.
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​​Next Steps 
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​How to let go of the need for coming up with shared visions, and what we need to work on instead.

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​​@Helene Finidori​: Room 4 
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​​Participants:
​​Helene, Rachel, Ben
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​​Topic description 
​​Offer a brief description, as well as any links you wish to share for more background. 
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​Discussion on 9/25
​​Helen resonated with ​+Rachels comments from the 9/18 call:​
  • ​​The movement is completely fragmented, and there are too many conversations but not enough between groups. Difficult to build momentum and get traction. Too many choices: locally, nationally, internationally. Information overload. Clutter. Too much to focus on: climate change, econ justice, sustainable agriculture, etc. Difficult to connect to and build allegiance.
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​​Rachel: everyone is passionate and says they want to be inclusive, in truth they want people to do their thing and drop you if you don't align. Focus on the needs of indiv orgs, not on the broader needs of the movement. a matter of leadership, and of knowing how to connect with "the other." also recognizing that no one has THE answer, and today's answers won't necessarily work tomorrow as things are moving quickly. All keeps changing we have to be flexible and fluid and see how things are moving. 
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​​Ben: sense of urgency to align what we are doing. we know what the solutions if we had a magic wand to implement it. Thousands of different things. We don't know what we can get to do now. It's not clear where to put our efforts. 
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​​R: every moment seems like the most urgent. There's not one most urgent moment. We have a variety. 
​​Ben: there is a sense that we don't have time to align, whether that is true or not, and it holds us back.
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​​H: how do we LET GO of wanting everyone to choose OUR solution because we "know" it;s the best?
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​​R: a lot of thinking that change will come from "the outside," i.e. an non-p, or govt, or an idea. My heart says that each of us changing from within is what will make the difference, so we walk our talk and are more honest. 
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  • ​​Ben: two initiatives that really get this idea of change from within are:
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​​R: limits to growth relate to this too, i.e. our unwillingness to live a simpler, less resource-intensive life.
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​​H: agreed. Sees many change agents who are waling their talk--making internal changes as well as 'evangelising' others to change. Doing things differently. Demonstrating alternatives. Showing there are possibilities. Making things visible and providing people with experience.
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​​R: I don't see that. There is no trust. We need trust. There used to be a moral fiber and a sense of ethics in the leadership. 
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​​Next Steps 
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​Topic Title

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​Your name
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​​Topic description 
​​Offer a brief description, as well as any links you wish to share for more background. 
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​​Online Discussion 
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​​Next Steps 
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