Anyone want to step up to organize a bi-district con this summer?

Hey y'all,

There are some folks in the NorthWest are stepping up to do what is looking like a 5-day, partially-leadership oriented (think Goldmine-style) conference. This organizing is coming out of the old dream of having a "Winter's End" camp, and from discussions from OPUS this summer about having an all-west-coast conference for the autonomous groups here in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest.

There have been some premature rumors that I had stepped up to co-dean this conference, which I'm sorry to say are not true. However, I'd like to invite anyone who is interested in making this conference happen to shoot me an email, and we can talk more formally about organizing the California contingent for this conference at the upcoming New Year's Conference!

In faith,
Michael Tank

2nd annual food, family, and the sacred, Potluck!...in Portland OR

The Circle of Free Unitarian Universalist Network (C-FUUN) in cahoots with The Lighthouse Project, is having a second annual potluck and circle worship with the theme of food, family and the sacred, here in Portland!

The Sunflower house (a lighthouse project home) here in Portland is caring on the tradition we started last year and having a circle worship and potluck during harvest season. Last year's was a great success. It was amazing to hear everyone's stories about family and eat all that love filled food. The Sweet Petter was especially good. We are looking forward to gathering once more around food and celebrating the beauty we collectively create.

Waffles and Smuuthys

Suzanne Bernardi

Thanks For Helping Make GA Happen!

It's been a whirlwind for me coming home from GA and diving right in to my summer travels. I wanted to relay a quick update to all y'all who have contributed to this project.

What we accomplished as the Free Unitarian Universalist Network:

• Organizations like FUUN, working independently and in right relationship with current UU institutions, are emerging on the national scene with equal significance to regional and national UUYAN + the UUA YaYA office.

• We made connections with the folks organizing the independent non-profit MUUYAN - the Mitten UU Young Adult Network - in Michigan. We have the conversation open to creating a national alliance of such organizations.

• We met folks both in national and congregational leadership that are doing fantastic work within the circle tradition. One young leader said to me: "I have feeling that circle worship will be the norm in 20 years."

• We also learned of folks outside of Unitarian Universalism who have used our circle traditions, as they are "for everybody."


What we accomplished as the Lighthouse Project:

• We found connections with emerging co-operatives in Boston and a minister in Queens who is offering his parish house as a community house, both of whom have also partnered with their local Moishe House for events.

• We also found potential houses in Boulder, CO and Kansas City, and planted seeds in the Twin Cities, Chicago, Ohio, and Olympia, WA.

• The pieces of the national house network have strong foundations, similar intentions, and the potential to grow rapidly.

Again, a big thank you to everyone who contributed funds to make the booth happen. The booth was super-effective at inspiring new people to get involved in the house network by starting houses. I'm excited at the direction we're going. Thanks, y'all!

Circle of Free Unitarian Universalists at GA next week!

I haven't been writing blog posts for a while since I've been working on other projects (namely, working full time for the census - but now that I'm done with that... phew!). It's time I shared some excitement about what's going on next week in Minneapolis.

UU General Assembly is next week, and we've got a sweet space in the exhibit hall for the Circle of Free Unitarian Universalists and the Lighthouse Project. I'll be there staffing the booth the whole week. I'm planning to have mailbags available for people to share mail (just like we would in a conference community setting), some inflatable couches for folks to relax and share conversation on, and its looking like I'll be doing some live silk screening in the space as well. T-shirts! In addition, we'll have a photo exhibit of different models of young adult community from different faith traditions, and some brochures promoting the idea of the Lighthouse and the ecstatic tradition. I have a feeling it's gonna be a rockin' space.

If you are headed to GA, I could definitely welcome a couple more volunteers to help me with the booth, though I am sure I could pick some folks up in person as well.

Thanks to everyone who has helped make this happen, and I'm looking forward to seeing folks next week!

Introducing MUUYAN.

I was just invited to the facebook group for MUUYAN: The Mitten's UU Young Adult Network. Via their website:

“The most radical thing we can do, is introduce people to one another.” ~Anonymous

The Mitten UU Young Adult Network is dedicated to bringing together UU Young Adults, working with UU Congregations, and young adult and multi-generational event planning, in the Lower Penninsula of Michigan.

We were created in April 2010 at the First UU Congregation of Detroit.

http://themuuyan.wordpress.com/

Everybody lets offer a big high five to our folks from Michigan!

GA Open Space Planning Call - Friday April 16 @ 6 PM.

Those of us who are heading to GA in June are holding our first
collective GA planning call this Friday, April 16th, at 6 PM. In the
interest of keeping the planning process for our exhibit hall booth as
much of an open and collective effort as possible, I would like to
extend the invite to that call to all of you. We will have open space
to discuss FUUN as an organization and what we as a community want to
represent ourselves as in Minneapolis. You don't need to be coming to
GA to participate.

Please RSVP to me at uutank@gmail.com for call info if you would like to be on the
call. I will send out the agenda later in the week as we develop it.

February Update - Lots of Exciting Stuff Coming Up!

It's been a while since I've written any updates, and I don't want to give the feeling that the ball has been dropped. I'm personally very busy working with the Census full-time, but I'm renewing my commitment to work towards building this community at least one evening a week. We've got a lot going on and I want to make sure y'all are in the loop.

I want to thank everyone who helped make the GA fundraiser happen - we did make it nearly three-fourths of the way towards our goal, and I am confident that we will bridge the gap. I put down the deposit on the space at GA and we are well on our way to Minneapolis this summer!

We're looking for folks who are interested in living in community together in the San Francisco Bay. I already have my eyes on a couple folks who are looking for housing this summer and fall, but if we haven't spoken yet, holler at me and I'll give you a call soon.

In addition, We're planning a really fun Mini-Conference for the last Sunday of March - we're going to be joining the Ecstatic Dance gathering in Oakland, and going to the Gamelan X Kecak Workshop. In between we're opening sort of an experimental space in conjunction with the Oakland Moishe House. We're looking for ideas for what to do with the afternoon - workshops, worships, anything! Please contact Kelsey to get involved with planning the March Mini-Con.

There will definitely be GA-planning, house-planning, and possibly mini-con planning calls coming up in the near future. I'm really looking forward to seeing what this community can create! Please let me know if you are interested in getting involved in event planning!