April Meeting Notes

Thanks to everyone who made the meeting happen, including our featured facilitator Seth Lepore, our host the SOMA Creativity Center, and everyone who attended.

Seth created a series of experiences for the group centered around understanding how we can use our voice - combined with our intuition - to connect better with ourselves, others, and to the immediate environment. It was an eye opening experience for many, as voice is a resource that is often taken for granted with its powers not fully explored. The open floor plan and positive environment of the creativity center was perfect for this evening of experimentation and experiential learning.

If you'd like to learn more about Seth's work as a voice coach, please go here:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/4/803/02A

Our next meeting is Thursday, May 15th. We're featuring Dmenace, who will give a short motivational speech then facilitate a discussion about public speaking, a communication skill, along with many others, that enable citizens to better inform and support each other.

We hope to see you then to create culture and connection that support us in our quests for fun, friendship, meaningful work, intellectual stimulation, authentic connection, health, and happiness.

Please mark you calendar for upcoming events at the SOMA Creativity Center:
May 11: Party for Progress (Community Gathering)
May 17: Women Leaders in Sustainability

More information about the center here:
http://www.somacreativitycenter.org

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MEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS

Name: Neal
Passion: bring people or organizations together to help each other
Needs: some sleep, stress relief
Gifts: book recommendations in social sciences, strategy, business plan review

Name: Bruce
Passion: To be healthy
Needs: none today, very content thank-you
Gifts: knowledge of health

Name: Maritza
Passion: changing western culture
Needs: new music, please recommend your favorites!
Gifts: communications and marketing strategies, knowledge of nonprofits

Name: Jen Burke Anderson
Passion: Writing thoughtful yet politcally charged commentary, Rock n' roll, expressing myself politically, learning more about the world, travel, transcendent live music experiences
Needs: Clients! I will make your web site text and structure rock!
Gifts: I'll read a story at your party for free!

Name: Dmenace
Passion:People!
Needs:Someone to help me take the leap of faith to fullfill my dreams. An inexpensive life coach??
Gifts:Can motivate, inspire, encourage. Willing to provide you or your organization with a motivational speech.

Name: Josh
Passion: Narrative of all sorts
Needs: funding, patience, strength
Gifts: writing, editing, banjo

Name: Bosco
Passion: Ideas
Needs: Ideas
Gifts: Ideas

Name: Pearl
Passion: People
Needs: Marketing ideas about a new biz venture - drill bits
Gifts: good listener

Name: Revi
Passion: Connecting and Creating
Needs: Interest and Intention to Co-Create
Gifts: SOMA Creativity Center Space and Project Achievements that can be leveraged

Name: Mary
Passion: Art, music, food, ideas, people's stories
Needs: beach where I can have a bon fire for my birthday party, invitations to things around town, because I'm new to town.
Gifts: non-profit management skills, fundraising, etc. invitations...

Name: lucci
Passion:the concept of universality and how the interrelatedness of things unfolds within it, and design planning to align human endeavor with social cohesiveness.
Needs:think tank oriented personalities interested in exploring asset and capacity-building design aspects of social development. real estate and land stewarding consultants to advise on land trust planning.
Gifts:design and logic oriented planning. 501(3)c sponsorship of social development projects that expand social cohesiveness.

You're Invited: Abundance League Thurs. 4/17 @ 6pm

This month Seth Lepore, a voice coach and musician, will be facilitating a discussion about using your voice to authentically connect to yourself, others, and your surroundings. This will be a fascinating and unique exploration of the relationship between voice - an amazing gift that we all possess - and personal and social health. We'll explore such questions as:

-What is your true voice and where does it come from?

-How do you speak from the heart with integrity and without sounding woo-woo?

-Do you notice yourself clamming up and overwhelmed with certain people and talking forever, completely engaged with others?

In addition, we'll discuss and do exercises to explore the unlimited possibilities of the voice in relation to yourself and others. The energetics of space and where different aspects of our voice reside in the body will be opened. We will look at how projection has everything to do with intention and spatial awareness. We will also examine the sociological and psychological effects of not speaking your truth. This will be experiential and participatory but nothing is required of you other than to be present. Learn more about Seth's work here and here.

VENUE CHANGE: we're holding this month's meeting at the SOMA Creativity Center (SOMACC), see location info below. SOMACC brings together creative individuals, organizations and businesses aligned around a shared commitment to heal the earth, promote social justice, achieve spiritual fulfillment and maintain economic sufficiency. What a great place for a league meeting!

Thank you Revi, Sam, and the team at the center for hosting us.

Please join us Thursday April 17th for our meeting. And as always, come prepared to tell us about your passions, needs, and gifts (in two minutes tops!) during announcements so that we can help each other lead lives aligned with our passions.

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MEETING
What: The Abundance League
When: Thursday, April 17th, 6:00-10:00pm (you can come and go anytime during the meeting)
Where: The SOMA Creativity Center, 81 Langton Street, Suite 13, San Francisco
Learn more about the SOMA Creativity Center here.

Call 415.867.0429 if you need help finding the meeting while in transit.

AGENDA
6:00 - 6:30 - Mingle
6:30 - 7:15 - Member announcements (your passions, needs and gifts)
7:15 - 7:30 - Break, nosh, mingle, exchange support
7:30 - 8:30 - Seth Lepore, presentation & discussion
8:30 - 10:00 Nosh, mingle, exchange support, clean up

Learn more about our meetings here.

BRING
-Yourself, your friends!
-Healthy stuff for the potluck
-Shares: books, CDs, DVDs or anything that you'd like to loan or gift at the meeting.

Facilitators Welcome

Most months Abundance League welcomes a guest facilitator to lead discussion about their project or passion. Topics vary, but the thread that ties it all together is how working together for the common good leads to abundance. For instance, we've had talks about compassionate communication and storytelling, which help people work together, and talks about public projects, like clothing swaps and cooperatives, that allow people build common wealth together.

Sometimes we have a guest artist whose work inspires a culture of generosity. The format for performances is similar to discussions, though performances may be longer than 15 minutes.

If you'd like to facilitate a discussion or perform at Abundance League, please e-mail gorenflo at gmail dot com. Check here to learn about the meeting format. Basically, facilitators get 15 minutes to present their topic and 30 minutes to guide discussion.

Below are some tips for facilitators based on what has worked well in the past. Feel free to add to these ideas in the comments.

• 15 minutes isn't much time to set up the discussion, so come prepared with a focused message. Find one or two things to focus on that you can convey in a memorable way.

• The presentation is set up for the discussion. We embrace the ethos of participation, so the discussion is important. Plus, at this point in the day, most people can't sit and listen for more than about 20 minutes!

• Talk about your topic in the context of your personal story. How did you come to the work? What does it mean to you? What impact has it had on your life and on others?

• Connect your topic to how your ideas can be used by members today to make their life better. Abundance League is about putting ideas into action.

• Have a short list of good questions to get the discussion going. One way to get discussion going is to ask how people feel about some aspect of your topic.

• Listen carefully to member announcements that precede discussion. Find ways to personalize your talk based on what members say in announcements about their passions, needs, and gifts. Connect your story to members' stories.