7/19/2004
My Crazy/Sober plan
Please write to me if you'd like to know more about this or have questions or would like to stay connected with this effort or participate in any way.
The subsection (council) of the Humanist Movement from Chicago of which I am a part has about 1200 people right now, almost 99% of them in Africa. The orientor of that council is also my orientor. Her plan is to grow tenfold between now and December and thus split away from her mother-council. This writing is my personal brainstorming about what I'm going to do to help her. It's not to be measured or specific, but wild and crazy and creative and fun and light and wonderful.
My first thought is that I will have structral members of the Humanist Movement in my team in many states, Nevada, Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois to start with. I currently have 72 people (including myself) in my structure, all in Africa (not including myself) but I aim to have at least 4 that have at least 100 each here in the US. This involves inspiring people to see what they're already doing for themselves and their communities as part of something larger, namely the humanist movement.
Thinking next of the admi function (then coming back to my own team in Africa in a minute), I want to be a permanent influence with my peers and their admis, humanizing the process of opening up the craziness that represents this project. No more limits, no more controls, no more litmus test, no more pettiness. I'm going to find a way to connect with each of my peers and each of their admis each daily from now until Dec 21st. This will allow us to see everything as daily action within the larger process. The idea is to help the admis see that they can help their peers to loosen up and learn without limits while keeping track of the lists and details as we go. All of these people already know how to keep the lists, but they need to show the next level down how to do it, without keeping control of the whole. Communication includes email, telephone, fax, postal letters, post cards, visiting, etc. I would like to use all of these methods this semester. The idea is for us to get to the base the idea and more importantly the action of helping each group delegate register 50 adherents who each register 10 friends.
Back to my structure in Africa: Everyone that we're recruiting to participate is someone that can be registered. Without regard to ability to pay or desire to surpass limits, invite each one to talk about our project and register those around them, not with some high bar of structural membership, but with the simple idea of staying involved and connected with the malaria project or any other action front. We've talked with over 1000 people in the refugee camp in Ghana but somehow exclude those people because we ask them if they want to help and they say no. Or they say yes but then do not come. We can go to the houses, to the people we know are interested, or even just our neighbors that we know like us and ask them to spread out our ideas to their friends and to register the people. We will then come back to them a week later to see what happened. Everyone gets registered and we cover the whole camp in the next 5 months. Other organizations can also be contacted and regsitered, churches, local NGOs and international NGOs are all already doing some good work so let's ask them to come play with us. The churches are certainly about reducing suffering through human action so let's approach them with this point of view, even adopting spiritual/biblical language if need be. Same with the NGOs, let's speak their language.
Connection with the Rotary Club for the malaria stuff also gives us a way to influence large numbers of people all over the US and all over Africa. Bikes are another way. Working bikes, Johnny, Alex, Sarah and Dan can help. Working with Regula to reach the Freddie/Elsbeth network is anotehr way to reach far more people, including them in this project and strengthening what they're also already doing.
My peer Julius came up with the following during the same Crazy Planning Process:
The subsection (council) of the Humanist Movement from Chicago of which I am a part has about 1200 people right now, almost 99% of them in Africa. The orientor of that council is also my orientor. Her plan is to grow tenfold between now and December and thus split away from her mother-council. This writing is my personal brainstorming about what I'm going to do to help her. It's not to be measured or specific, but wild and crazy and creative and fun and light and wonderful.
My first thought is that I will have structral members of the Humanist Movement in my team in many states, Nevada, Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois to start with. I currently have 72 people (including myself) in my structure, all in Africa (not including myself) but I aim to have at least 4 that have at least 100 each here in the US. This involves inspiring people to see what they're already doing for themselves and their communities as part of something larger, namely the humanist movement.
Thinking next of the admi function (then coming back to my own team in Africa in a minute), I want to be a permanent influence with my peers and their admis, humanizing the process of opening up the craziness that represents this project. No more limits, no more controls, no more litmus test, no more pettiness. I'm going to find a way to connect with each of my peers and each of their admis each daily from now until Dec 21st. This will allow us to see everything as daily action within the larger process. The idea is to help the admis see that they can help their peers to loosen up and learn without limits while keeping track of the lists and details as we go. All of these people already know how to keep the lists, but they need to show the next level down how to do it, without keeping control of the whole. Communication includes email, telephone, fax, postal letters, post cards, visiting, etc. I would like to use all of these methods this semester. The idea is for us to get to the base the idea and more importantly the action of helping each group delegate register 50 adherents who each register 10 friends.
Back to my structure in Africa: Everyone that we're recruiting to participate is someone that can be registered. Without regard to ability to pay or desire to surpass limits, invite each one to talk about our project and register those around them, not with some high bar of structural membership, but with the simple idea of staying involved and connected with the malaria project or any other action front. We've talked with over 1000 people in the refugee camp in Ghana but somehow exclude those people because we ask them if they want to help and they say no. Or they say yes but then do not come. We can go to the houses, to the people we know are interested, or even just our neighbors that we know like us and ask them to spread out our ideas to their friends and to register the people. We will then come back to them a week later to see what happened. Everyone gets registered and we cover the whole camp in the next 5 months. Other organizations can also be contacted and regsitered, churches, local NGOs and international NGOs are all already doing some good work so let's ask them to come play with us. The churches are certainly about reducing suffering through human action so let's approach them with this point of view, even adopting spiritual/biblical language if need be. Same with the NGOs, let's speak their language.
Connection with the Rotary Club for the malaria stuff also gives us a way to influence large numbers of people all over the US and all over Africa. Bikes are another way. Working bikes, Johnny, Alex, Sarah and Dan can help. Working with Regula to reach the Freddie/Elsbeth network is anotehr way to reach far more people, including them in this project and strengthening what they're also already doing.
My peer Julius came up with the following during the same Crazy Planning Process:
A Humanizing Network
The Humanist Movement has the aim of Humanizing the earth. Humanists aspire to building a Universal Human Nation. We are now building a network of sympathizers or supporters of the Humanist Movement and its aim.
We humanists believe than many, maybe most people share our aim. They denounce the current state of affair, the unjustices and the violence occurring both in peoples personal environments and on the social scale.
We are building a human network of likeminded people willing to join forces to make a change in ourselves and in our environment with the common aim in view to create a Universal Human Nation. We are therefore appealing to peoples in all factions of life regardless of religion, economy, race, gender, age or any other distinction that might tend to keep us apart as human beings.
This will be will be instrumental in bringing about the necessary personal and social changes since only with massive unity of the ordinary people of this planet it is possible to turn around the unfortunate direction suffered in current times.
With massive movement of people it is possible to put tremendous pressures on the existing powers and influence public attitudes in favor of humanizing the world we live in.
We invite all human beings without any limitation to adhere to following statements, signifying our common aims and attitudes with the following
DECLARATION
To be a part of this network means to agree on its aims and attitudes and be registered as an adherent or sympathizer of the Humanist Movement no further commitments are required.
- I denounce all violence both in personal relations and on the social stage.
- I aspire to aquire coherence between my thoughts, my feelings and my actions in the world.
- I want to learn to treat others like I want them to treat me.
For those who want to participate further can choose one or more of the following options:
Plan for action:
- Attempt to apply the above attitudes in my personal life.
- Share my views with other people.
- Take part in gatherings in my neighbourhood sharing ideas with likeminded people.
- Receive information on humanist projects.
- Support humanist projects, financially or with voluntary work.
- Help the Humanizing Network to grow by inviting others.
Activists go around, door to door, in the streets, in the coffee houses, work places schools etc. and gather adherents of the Humanist Movements.
Weekly gatherings are organized where people can meet and share ideas, in the neighbourhood, in the workplace, in the school etc..
The themes of the meetings will be decided by those present and organized by same people. In the meetings there might form action groups on various themes or not, all according to the interest of the participants.
Material: In the meetings there will be available material from the HM, but any participant can bring his or her own material just as any topic agreed on can be put on the agenda. In the meetings there will be available newsletters about humanist activities and about projects that they can support or promote.
In the meetings there will be open possibility to join as a structural member of the HM.