ComPost: Issue 4, February 2008
Welcome back to ComPost, our quarterly newsletter supporting and connecting you, our alumni, as you build whole communities through your work.
NEWS AND NOTES
Announcing our new website! We encourage you to check out the site's new videos, including "What We're About," which distills Center for Whole Communities' raison d'etre into an eight-minute presentation. Poke around and find more videos under the Photo and Videos section, and don't forget to pause long enough on our home page to see a slideshow of "whole communities" images. WATCH "WHAT (the heck) WE'RE ABOUT"
Finding Your Prophetic Voice: Read a letter to alumni from our director, Peter Forbes, who has been traveling the country lately finding -- and occasionally losing -- his voice. READ LETTER
Would you like to gather a diverse group of leaders in your region to talk about vision, values and collaboration to build whole communities? We invite you to send us a short proposal detailing your idea for convening a Whole Thinking Workshop, led by Center for Whole Communities. SEE REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
Twenty-one thousand, six-hundred thanks to all of you who gave to our fall appeal: a thank you for each dollar that Whole Thinking alumni gave to us over the course of 2007! Your support is crucial in helping us reach new leaders through the Whole Thinking program and expanding our capacity to support you, our fabulous alumni.
In mid-February we convened our first ever "Voices" program: a group of Whole Thinking alumni who gathered to talk deeply about the art of speaking about whole communities work. Enrique Salmón, alumnus and faculty member, describes the experience. READ STORY
Entering This Land: A History of Knoll Farm is now out! It's a beautiful book describing the story of this place. Learn more about the book, and how to buy it for your favorite fellow alumnus...ORDER BOOK
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
Melanie Ingalls, Vice President for Education and Outreach at the Trustees of Reservations, talks about her organization's work cultivating community and a conservation ethic in Massachusetts. READ INTERVIEW
Alumna Donna Meyers of the Big Sur Land Trust forwarded us a vivid, entertaining description of an event that combined storytelling, local foods, preserved agricultural land, an old barn, owl pellets and locally-made wines to great effect! Perhaps the story will give you an idea for a fundraising event for your own organization. READ STORY
Speaking of the Big Sur Land Trust -- if you want to work for a great organization grappling with how to build whole communities...they're hiring. SEE JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS
UPCOMING EVENTS
Peter will be giving the keynote presentation and leading a one-day workshop on Whole Thinking in Conservation at the 2008 Pennsylvania Land Conservation Conference this April 4-5 in Malvern, Pennsylvania. REGISTER TO ATTEND
Whole Thinking alumni and faculty will be presenting at the annual Land Trust Alliance Northeast conference this April 10-12 in Westpoint, New York. Register to attend and join faculty-member Steve Glazer for a half-day seminar focused on Building Community Connections through Questing on conserved land. You can also attend a Building the New Land Movement seminar with Peter Forbes and alumnus Andy Kendall, president of the Trustees of Reservations; or learn more about Whole Measures at a seminar on Redefining Conservation Success. REGISTER
On Monday, April 21 at 4pm, Peter will be speaking on the Power of Story in Strengthening Conservation at Yale University's Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven, Connecticut. The talk will be open to all. SEE DIRECTIONS TO PEABODY MUSEUM
It seems a long way off, but this June we will be hosting a "Work Song" workshop for the first time. Join us to spend the weekend with friends new and old, enjoy being on the land, learn traditional work songs from many cultures, and help out with a fun spring project – which, weather permitting, will be painting Knoll Farm’s iconic red barn. The workshop is free and open to all. LEARN MORE
KNOLL FARM UPDATE
Where the Wild Things Are: In mid-February, naturalist Sue Morse took the Whole Communities staff on a tour of ... Knoll Farm. Seen through the eyes of a brilliant wildlife tracker, Knoll Farm was like a new place. READ STORY
That's all for this quarter. Send us your news, stories and whole thinking resource ideas for our next issue of ComPost, coming out when (climate allowing) Knoll Farm is snowy and cold.