Hi. Attached is a version of the Annual Spirited Work Invitation that goes out at the beginning of each four-season cycle. The schedule dates are for the next cycle (Cycle 4: 2002).
I apologize for the length of the description: The Online Community that supports Spirited Work is not publicly available. So you can't find or see the website. May this be of benefit to you . . . Mark R. Jones Chief Information Officer: SEA-IS Executive Vice President: SEA P.O. Box 1457; Lynnwood, WA 98046 Direct Line: 425-413-6000 Mobile Line: 206-696-7000 Message Line: 504-304-2460 e-Mail: mark.r.jo...@seabase.com _____________________________________________________________ We Invite You To Participate in SPIRITED WORK! 2002 A Creative, Innovative Learning Community Meeting Seasonally at the Whidbey Institute Spirited Work brings together professional people from the Northwest and other parts of the continent who feel called to participate in a conscious learning community with a committed group of people who offer each other support, challenge, and inspiration in our work on behalf of a hopeful and sustainable future. Our fourth cycle begins in January 2002, Spirited Work invites your participation. It is designed especially for: * People who see themselves as both learners and leaders * People who are cognizant of the environmental, social, and spiritual challenges facing our generation and that of our children * People who want to share their experience and learn together about innovative organizational and leadership dynamics * People who are making a courageous commitment to a hopeful and life-sustaining future * People who want to join with others in imagining and implementing innovative strategies that can help change the cultural course The Spirited Work community uses the "open space" model as a primary way of organizing our learning process and the seasonal archetypes of cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien. Each gathering includes "market place" seminars, art, music, ritual, experiences in the natural world, time for personal renewal, and wonderful celebrative meals. Between our face to face gatherings, we are linked in an online learning community served by Big Mind Media. Primary conveners: Anne Stadler, Fritz Hull, Peter Donaldson, Vivienne Hull Dates: January 24 - 27 2002 April 11 - 14 August 1 - 4 November 14 - 14 For Further Information please write, call, or email Vivienne Hull at the Whidbey Institute, P. O. Box 57, Clinton, WA 98236 Telephone: 360-341-1884 Email: fvh...@whidbey.com ____________________________________________________________________________ ___________ Spirited Work! 2002 Dear Friend and Colleague, We invite you to join the third cycle of Spirited Work! We are an innovative, creative, and enthusiastic learning community of professional people from the Northwest and other parts of the continent who meet together for a weekend retreat each season, with online conversations and projects in between. Our new cycle begins in January. Since we came together four years ago, Spirited Work has evolved into a very exciting community of practice offering support, challenge, and inspiration as we all work on behalf of a hopeful and generative future. We see ourselves as learners and as leaders. The learner within us is curious, open to the unknown, self-disciplined. The leader within us feels called, divinely so, fiercely at times, to take what we know and put it to service in the world. And we have extended our community to include colleagues and gatherings in India ! Four people, Anne Stadler, Peter Donaldson, Fritz Hull, and Vivienne Hull are the primary conveners of Spirited Work. We are joined by members of the Spirited Work community who have been involved in this unique program since its beginning. We want you to consider this as an opportunity to nourish the continuing spiritual transformation of yourself, your life's work, the people and organizations you touch, and your commitment to the shared future of our earth. We consider these times urgent in nature yet fertile with opportunity, demanding from us new forms of conscious spirit and dedicated action. We seek people like you to join with others from many disciplines, traditions, persuasions and experiences, who are ready to deepen our own call to Spirited Work. We look forward to this creative adventure! For further information, please call or email us at the Whidbey Institute, 360-341-1884; whidi...@whidbey.com. Anne Stadler Peter Donaldson Fritz Hull Vivienne Hull ____________________________________________________________________________ __________________________ SPIRITED WORK 2002 INTENTION A community of learners and leaders gathering four times a year to deepen our commitment to personal transformation through to the world. GUIDING QUESTION How can we build personal and collective capacity to support healthy and productive relationships, organizations, and communities for "Earth, Spirit, and the Human Future?" CRITERIA FOR PARTICIPATION People with awareness of themselves as both learners and leaders. People who feel called to participate in a conscious learning community with a committed group of people over a committed period of time. People who are firmly cognizant of the environmental, social and spiritual challenges facing our generation and that of our children. People in touch with the spirituality of their being who possess the courage and openness to explore the universality of human wisdom as it appears and reappears in diverse faith traditions. People who seek a new "economic imagination" in organizing for productivity and sustainability. ORGANIZATION Gatherings are held at the Whidbey Institute, a beautiful retreat and conference center nestled in the intimacy of a hundred acres of forest three miles from the ferry dock on Whidbey Island, one hour travel time from Seattle. We meet seasonally beginning our fourth cycle in the winter of 2002. Our gatherings are conducted in Open Space, a method of self-organizing based on the simplest structural principles inviting the highest level of personal integrity and responsibility. Our content focus for each season of learning is based, in part, on the work of anthropologist and educator Angeles Arrien. See attached excerpt from her book The Four Fold Way. COMMITMENT We ask participants to commit to being part of a community of practice which gathers seasonally and whose members are linked in an on-line learning environment. We ask participants to familiarize themselves with the work of Angeles Arrien, author of The Four Fold Way, and Harrison Owen, creator of Open Space Technology. Reading through the information in this packet is a good start but for those who like to read from the source we recommend The Four Fold Way by Angeles Arrien (Harper San Francisco, 1993), and Expanding our Now: The Story of Open Space Technology, by Harrison Owen (Berrett Kohler, 1997). We encourage participants to suggest (and to bring) your own favorite resources to contribute towards a community bibliography. SCHEDULE Winter, January 24, 25, 26, 27 The Way of the Warrior "Show up. Choose to be present." Spring, April 11, 12, 13, 14 The Way of the Healer "Pay attention to what has heart and meaning." Summer, August 01, 02, 03, 04 The Way of the Visionary "Tell the truth without blame or judgment." Fall, November 14, 15, 16, 17 The Way of the Teacher "Be open to outcome." Each gathering begins with supper on Thursday at 6:30 pm and ends in a closing circle Sunday at 3 pm. Each gathering begins with dinner on Thursday at 6:30 pm and ends by 4pm on Sunday afternoon. BASIC (SHARED) COST We are committed to sharing all costs related to facilities, food, materials, supplies, mailings, and administrative overhead. We have not yet completed our estimated cost per participant for all four retreats, including accommodation and all meals. We want to make it possible for people to join us from varying income levels. Costs are adjusted for participants who do not need accommodation at the Center. The Cost Model information will be available in October. We are also building a scholarship fund and welcome your contribution. If you need scholarship support, please let us know. REGISTRATION To register fill out the enclosed form and send a $100 deposit to SPIRITED WORK, Whidbey Institute, PO Box 57, Clinton, WA 98236. We appreciate full payment by our first gathering. We are also happy to work out a financial arrangement that works best for you. ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________ PERSONAL STATEMENTS FROM THE FOUNDING CONVENORS ANNE STADLER I want to be part of a gift-giving learning community, in harmony with the earth¹s cycles and rhythms. I want to experience how that affects my/our capacity to engage fully in spirited work and in life. The gifts I bring: my life experience includes being a child, wife, mother, grandmother, friend, lover. I have worked as a community organizer, TV producer, learning organization consultant and sometimes teacher. I bring enthusiasm for learning and following the creative spirit. At this stage of my life, I am particularly interested in co-creating learning communities in which individuals are fully engaged and fully responsible for themselves and the evolution of the collective. PETER DONALDSON I am interested in learning more about service leadership, and I want to be in the company of others who are similarly dedicated. My focus is creativity spirituality, education and the arts. I work in schools a lot and here¹s why: I believe that artsdrama, dance, music, writing and the visual artsmake the teaching/learning experience intrinsic to the spirit, meaningful to the mind and of practical value to the long term sustainability (creative response) of our culture, our country and the planet. My life¹s work is to bring forth beauty. To tell and retell the stories that make us powerfully human. I see my work through the imaginative possibilities inside this one question: "What if there were no distinction between art, religion, and life?" This fascinates me. And I don¹t wonder any more about how the story is going to come out. I¹m in it. FRITZ HULL Raised in my early summers on Whidbey Island, I grew up loving this place with its islands, magical waterways, old farms and forests. Kayaking became a passion. Since 1966 I have been working to make Chinook a unique, resource-rich learning center. I have had a hand in shaping the exciting new facilities for the Whidbey Institute. I am committed to discovering ways we can craft a new relationship to the natural world, strengthen the human community, explore our spiritual depths and work together for a hope-filled and sustainable future. I want to work with others to encourage creative leadership as we seek to serve our world. VIVIENNE HULL Though Whidbey Island has been my home since 1972, my soul¹s landscape is the mythic and spiritual geography of Ireland where I was born and spent my childhood. Because of this, I am intrigued by each of our stories and our poetic imagination, as we seek to understand ourselves and our place in the greater story of life. Though the human adventure is poised at a critical threshold and the challenges we face in the next decades are staggering, I am unapologetically hopeful. I believe that together we can bring forth the necessary wisdom to engage our time in history with imagination and creativity. I think the help we need will be found as we go deeply into the "open space" of our inner lives, draw on the power of Spirit, and go out into the wild and elemental spaces of the natural world. A sense of humor and a bit of blarney will also help! ____________________________________________________________________________ ______________ SPIRITED WORK 2002 A Leadership Learning Community Name ________________________________________________________________ Address______________________________________________ ____________ City________________ State __________ ___ Zip____________ Phone: Day _______________________Evening ___________________________ E-mail _________________________________________ Deposit of $100 enclosed to hold my registration ________ I will pay quarterly. Amount: _____________ Full payment enclosed. Amount _________ I would like to donate additionally to the SPIRITED WORK scholarship fund. Amount ____________ Thank You! Scholarship request (attach personal letter) TOTAL ENCLOSED_________________________ Payment: Check_______ Credit Card ________________________ Signature___________________________________ Date _______________ Thank you for joining us! The Whidbey Institute PO Box 57, Clinton, WA 98236 Office Phone: 360-341-1884 or toll free from Seattle: 206-467-0384. Email: whidi...@whidbey.com Website: www.whidbeyinstitute.org _____________________________________________________________ -----Original Message----- From: Winston Kinch [mailto:ki...@sympatico.ca] Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2001 5:27 AM To: mark_r_jo...@worldnet.att.net; mark.r.jo...@seabase.com Subject: Re: Response to Inquiry Regarding Collective Buddha Hi Mark: Would you please point me more specifically to the "Centers for Spirited Work" to which you refer? I would like to find out more about both the OST aspect and especially the ways in which children have been involved, as I may myself be becoming involved with an organization which is headed in the same direction. Winston Kinch (a Tich Nhat Hahn fan) ----- Original Message ----- From: Mark R. Jones To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2001 10:45 PM Subject: (RESPONSE): Inquiry Regarding Collective Buddha "Story of a recent 2.5 day OST" Hi. Tich Nhat Hahn is the Buddhist teacher that made the proclamation regarding the "Collective" as the next manifestation of the Buddha. I believe that Open Space as a life practice creates the minimal structure required to begin to grok "Community / Collective" -- in terms of intention, communication, and behavior. I believe that communities like the (Centers for) Spirited Work that practice ongoing (3 years now) community, organization, and business model using Open Space as the core practice -- are the training grounds for the manifestation of the Buddha as the Collective. I note that the active inclusion of children into the Spirited Work community in the USA has had a positive and profound transformative effect on the community and the practice of Open Space as a Life Practice (in contrast to using Open Space as just a "facilitation" tool. Mark R. Jones Chief Information Officer: SEA-IS Executive Vice President: SEA P.O. Box 1457; Lynnwood, WA 98046 Direct Line: 425-413-6000 Mobile Line: 206-696-7000 Message Line: 504-304-2460 e-Mail: mark.r.jo...@seabase.com <mailto:mark.r.jo...@seabase.com>