Hosting Gatherings - 2025 03 16

 


Yesterday I hosted my first hybrid gathering - in person and online attendance. I finally bit the bullet and paid for a Zoom account so I can have people join who can't attend in person and I don't have to worry about the 40 minute cut off. In honour of getting a paid Zoom account, I also pulled out my Meeting Owl. The Meeting Owl connected without any problems and it gave a nice view of the group working at the table.

This was also my first time using simpli.event to register participants. When participants register through simpli.events they are automatically issued a confirmation email. I was able to send out the Zoom link in the confirmation email. It worked quite seamlessly. 

At the dining table, we had our postcard writing and drawing materials laid out. We talked about important life events while we worked on our postcards. The work of creating the postcards opened up a social space for us to share and discuss, strengthening our relationships to withstand whatever difficulties lie ahead.

The challenges we face at the moment are a combination of personal, economic, and political. For some of us, the personal and economic challenges are a continuation of our life work - things have not come easily for us, we work hard to create the lives we live today. For all of us at the table, the political challenge is new and we have never been active before. We are now managing a third dimension of stress and difficulty - to defend Canadian sovereignty from US aggression. To find a way to pull together as a country. We are already working to pull our families together and to build sustainable cashflow. Now we are also working to strengthen democracy.

This is the leadership I hope my projects bring to our lives. Hosting gatherings that are designed to foster social ecologies of learning. Hosting gatherings that build strength in our families, neighbourhoods and micro-economies. Creating spaces, in person and online, to dissolve feelings of isolation and loneliness. Affirming our shared purpose that our life works contribute to improving conditions for the good of all concerned. Focusing on caring, equality, and justice as a foundation for our social systems and organizational structures. Leading the emergence of new egalitarian social systems aligned with the laws of nature and sustainable within our local ecologies - biological and social.

Now that I have the Zoom account, Meeting Owl and simpli.event accounts set up, I am ready to develop my programs of offerings - writing, music and art making. When we gather to work together we broaden our perspectives and deepen our understandings, not only of each other's lives, but also learning from each other's experience, strength and hope. 

This project is really coming together.

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