29 September 2009
Fall 2009 Programs
Posted by Admin under: Events; Forum; Organization .
A lot has been happening since our first full-day program in July, and we’ve been doing a lot of rethinking, discussing, and following up on member projects. We are now ready to present a new series of programs and events, as detailed below.
This communication covers three things regarding the Sustainable Leadership Forum (SLF):
- An Update on progress
- Proposed Schedule of events and locations
- A Reflection on SLF’s mission
1. Update
Based on the feedback from our initial meetings, we’ve made some adjustments to the SLF which we look forward to sharing with you in upcoming meetings (see schedule below)
Victoria and I have been following up on a number of member projects – from Paul Heitmann’s electric vehicle pilot project, for which we’ve created the NJ EV Working Group, to Elyssa Serrilli’s Green Collar Futures group – and I have been pursuing several alternative energy projects through the Sustainable Business Incubator at FDU, involving small hydro, community aggregation, and an eco-industrial development project for the town of Woodbridge.
This doesn’t mean that everything is plain sailing; there are real obstacles facing several of these projects right now, some of which we anticipated, which was one of the main reasons for establishing the SLF.
Victoria has been attending conferences and workshops around sustainability and leadership, including the Ultimate Leadership Camp, and she spoke at the Science, Wisdom, and the Future Conference in California.
2. Our Schedule
The SLF’s multiple initiatives and venues are:
Member Meetings, to learn, share, get peer coaching on projects, inspire and support one another, and to introduce prospective members to the SLF
Saturday, October 3,10 a.m.-noon – 8 Revere Drive, Basking Ridge, 07920*
Wednesday, October 21, 7-9:00 p.m. – 8 Revere Drive, Basking Ridge, 07920*
Monday, November 23, 7-9:00 p.m. – 8 Revere Drive, Basking Ridge, 07920*
Volunteer Program, for those who will help us build the SLF and/or defray costs of participation, we will meet to strategize and design roles of value to both SLF and volunteers
Saturday, October 3, noon-2 p.m. – 8 Revere Drive, Basking Ridge, 07920* Potluck lunch open to all
Saturday, October 10, 10 a.m. to 12 noon, – 8 Revere Drive, Basking Ridge, 07920*
Introductions, for prospective members, which you are welcome to attend and/or bring guests
Every Member Meeting will be preceded by an introduction between 6 – 6:45 p.m., with prospective members invited to the Member Meeting and staying on after to the Member Meeting until 9:30 p.m. for Q&A and enrollment. Additional sessions devoted exclusively to prospective members are also available as follows:
Tuesday, October 13, 7-9:00 p.m. – 8 Revere Drive, Basking Ridge, 07920*
Monday, October 26, 7-9:00 p.m. – 8 Revere Drive, Basking Ridge, 07920*
Wednesday, November 4, 7-9:00 p.m. – 8 Revere Drive, Basking Ridge, 07920*
Sunday, November 8, 12-2:00 p.m. – 8 Revere Drive, Basking Ridge, 07920*
One-day Transformational Leadership Course, providing participants with empowerment and expanded resources for their own projects
Friday, November 13, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.-Rice Lounge, Fairleigh Dickinson U
Saturday, January 23, 2010, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.- Hartman Lounge, Fairleigh Dickinson U
Fund meetings, for those participating or interested in investing money in sustainable projects
Wednesday, October 7, 7-9:00 p.m. – 8 Revere Drive, Basking Ridge, 07920*
Wednesday, November 18, 7-9:00 p.m. – 8 Revere Drive, Basking Ridge, 07920*
*Locations: Certain meetings will continue to be held at Fairleigh Dickinson University, 285 Madison Avenue, Madison, NJ 07940, in rooms as specified including Hartman Lounge (in the Mansion) and Rice Lounge (in Stadler/Zenner, the new academic building next to the recreation center). We are looking for free or very low cost meeting sites; until alternatives are arranged, some meetings will take place at our home, 8 Revere Drive, Basking Ridge, NJ 07920, which is 7 minutes from both I-287 and I-78. Please let us know if you know of appropriate locations in central NJ, as we would like to spread meetings across a wide geographic range.
We want to emphasize that this program is not endorsed by Fairleigh Dickinson University, the Institute for Sustainable Enterprise, or any other group except as stated.
Members and Volunteers: Please let us know which meetings you plan to attend, and please invite a friend to meetings to hear about the SLF.
3. Reflecting on What’s Going On and on SLF’s mission
The SLF is a vehicle for exploration, experimentation, collaboration and improvement for individuals who are leading or undertaking projects in the area of sustainability. Personally, because the SLF is an initiative outside of the everyday framework of my professional work activities, I find that it strengthens my own convictions in the course of meeting challenges and setbacks, and helps to maintain a sense of both urgency and direction.
I mentioned the fact that I’ve encountered obstacles in some of the projects that I’m engaged in. This brings me back to the purpose of the Sustainable Leadership Forum, which is to support all of us in overcoming obstacles, making a greater impact, and moving us all toward a more sustainable future.
At this point we simply can’t afford to go down wrong paths and allow ourselves to be defeated by individuals or institutions or even by our own fears, considerations, and very normal resistance to change. Change is, frankly, already upon us; we need to set a steady course toward making our society more just, more restorative, and more meaningful, and we need to be paying attention to what is changing around us.
In many ways the Green Movement is gathering momentum; we are seeing not just increased media attention, but also the appearance of several important new developments, organizations, events, and books. Legislation and funding are both starting to appear out of Washington, despite the resurgence of ultra-right wing and nativist rabble-rousing.
If health care reform is derailed, and climate change legislation watered down, we will face a different situation. As former Governor Jim Florio remarked on Friday, America is known as a country that always arrives at the right answer – after it’s tried everything else.
But one of the central tenets of the SLF is that what we do is a function of who we are, who we are committed to being, and that working on our own being is just as important as planning projects, enterprises, and programs. As the folks at Genesis Farm remind us:
“An inadequate understanding of our place and purpose as humans in the natural order of things has brought us to the current reality of Earth in severe crisis. Industrialized societies are unraveling Earth’s fabric of life. This unraveling is not due simply to a failure of religious or moral values. It is, rather, our framework for thinking and action that must change.“
(Genesis is offering an “Introduction to a New Cosmology,” October 2-4, devoted to deepening the new evolutionary creation story that is emerging from the intersection of science and religion. For more information, see http://www.genesisfarm.org/.)
Transforming our framework for thinking and acting is what our programs are about, and the SLF is a vehicle for offering these programs, and for turning our shared insights into collaborative, inspired, and effective action.
We look forward to hearing which meetings you will be able to attend, hearing what’s happening on your projects and how the SLF can support your success. If there are people you know that you will not be able to invite, but you think we can, please let us know. And, of course, let us know your comments and ideas. Thanks.
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29 September 2009 at 11:57 am.
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