Just putting my two cents in... I think the concept of Saturday House lacks focus. It is a weekly meeting where people get together and do stuff. That's pretty vague, and hard to explain to people. Sure, I'm totally butchering the vision by saying that, but I think that's how outsiders percieve it.
I can tell you what I get out of Saturday House, and what I want it to be, but that is different from the vision. I see it as a place for software developers to get together, share tips and tricks, ask questions, work on projects, share ideas, etc. If I were running the show, I would focus it on software developers hacking on open source projects. -Kyle On Monday, April 13, 2009, Robert Eickmann <[email protected]> wrote: > > Action is vital and crucial, however it must be directed. You can hit > a diamond with a sledgehammer and nothing will happen, but if you hit > it with a little hammer in just the right spot.... > > Saturday House as a group has had two ways of attaining action, and > both of them have very significant failure modes. The two methods are > of course management by committee , and mini emperor. > > Our cigar chomping meetings have been wonderful examples of management > by committee. We all needed to agree on something needing to happen, > however no one steps up and takes the initiative and ownership to get > that ball rolling. We decide that we need XYZ, however no one really > owns XYZ so no one feels obligated to work on XYZ and XYZ doesn't > happen for months. Everyone agrees but no one owns, so no one acts. > > The other method is mini emperor where one person decides that > something is a really good idea (mumble host a conference mumble) and > goes of and does it, with little feedback from the group. The one > person goes off into the woods sometimes dragging others along but the > rest of the group which doesn't really own the action so the group as > a whole ignores it, or worse yet feels alienated by the idea and > slowly drops out. > > Both of these methods have lead to the current impasse that we face. > No one felt that they owned the G labs space, so they didn't really > make it their home, others haven't felt included as others have gone > off chasing their ideas, others have gotten the wrong idea(s) about > the group, we have had leaders off facing their version of MT > Everest... > > Saturday House if it will go on, needs to have someone step up and say > in their best 300 voice, "THIS IS SATURDAY HOUSE AND THIS IS WHAT IT > IS AND THESE ARE THE ACTIONS I MAKE HAPPEN FOR IT!" > > -Rob > > > > > > > > On Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 5:51 PM, Lion Kimbro <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Action is crucial, primary, hard, and without it, nothing can >> happen. Action must be conquered daily; And more than action, -- >> working with others. This is clear, and I will never debate >> against it. >> >> This said: >> We can make things endlessly, and take things apart endlessly. >> What would be gained? What is the point? To what end? >> >> I type this letter "x" to make a symbol in a sentence, and the >> sentence is here to serve the point, and the point is to serve a >> communication, and the communication is here to challenge vision >> proposals, and the challenge is here to keep our future lives on >> track for high ends, and keeping our lives on track for high ends >> is to serve the heart at the center of all of our judgments: to >> serve the highest values and ideals we can conceive to act by, in >> the hope that higher values still will be able to make some use of >> our greatest imaginings, hopes, and aspirations. >> >> Without a chain of embedded links, leading straight into the heart >> of life, I do not understand how we are doing anything of value at >> all. >> >> If we perform our acts, we may be able to impress people, and we >> may be entertained for a time, but ultimately, our minds must see >> through the emptiness of our fabricated fancy. There is a force >> at the center of our hearts that can see straight through anything >> we invent. >> >> Who can I act with, from this sober and sometimes stern center? >> >> Right now, surface crises include the biosphere and the economy. >> These are ripe fields full of meaning. Less urgently but perhaps >> more deeply, crises include human happiness and our sense for the >> value of life. >> >> Art can be a weapon to defeat sadness, and the background >> depression that clouds our culture. We need to strive for >> cheerfulness, felicity, creativity, exploration, imagination, and >> artistic projects -- no doubt. >> >> But I honestly do not understand the merit of our actions if they >> are not rooted, performed in the spirit of Love, and in service to >> high ideals and values. >> >> >> I appreciate the fresh spirit: The challenge, the provocation, the >> rush to act -- possibilities latent, and hinted at, becoming real. >> The power of dream. A 17 year old young boy, $100 in the pocket, >> and a car. Such things require no justification- There is purpose >> and meaning enough in opening the door of possibility. The spirit >> makes itself visible. >> >> But we are confused if we believe that we can leave things here, >> unexamined further, endlessly repeated; We will wither in one >> meaningless project after another. >> >> >> When I first envisioned Saturday House, I envisioned a place of >> creativity, shared projects, perpetual new ideas. I envisioned >> that we had bought a house, and transformed it; Made it our >> "school" (our post-grad Sudbury school, or the "Xavier Institute >> of Higher Learning,") that we went to on the weekends. I >> envisioned a place of radical change and transformation, of new >> efforts, of discovery, of cross education, of humor, of love, of >> freedom, of people connected at the heart, and impossible ideas >> made possible. High spirits, all around! Open Source >> development, people scheduling conversations, people learning and >> teaching science, people applying creativity to all things, in >> effort, cooperation, and generosity. >> >> I imagined a structure emerging, and also a way -- A way for >> people who wanted to live this way, to learn, so that they too >> could bring to reality this kind of life, if it was something that >> they could see their own face reflected in. We would need to >> learn this way ourselves, of course, but I held (and I hold) a >> faith that it is something that we can find out; That there is >> nothing -- -- Kyle Mulka http://www.kylemulka.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Website: http://saturdayhouse.org/ Post: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
