SEPTEMBER AGENDA

Below is a super flexible schedule with agenda items that we'll need to come to the time prepared (with information, ideas, resources, etc....) to cover in an efficient manner (2 days will go by quick!).  We can tweak this as we see fit.

Everyone can add things that they think may need to be covered at this meeting to bring "phase 1" to a close and get us started on "phase 2."
Let's just say that Doug has the final say on this one, so a couple weeks before the meeting we'll just need Doug to make some sort of agenda and schedule with space to cover all the items that he feels are the most important at this time.
September 15th
3:00 pm - Meet at ____________ for Relational Time
                  Dinner, etc...
Sometime that night - Meet to Cover Final Visioning and Plan for the 16th and 17th.
                  It might be helpful if we are each prepared with something that night to bring to the table responding to the prompts that Bob sends out.  We could each start out by sharing the metaphors that have stuck out to us, and the ideas that we have come up that will help finalize the actual structure that we want to shoot for.
September 16th - 17th
Here are just some agenda items that we each need to come prepared to discuss and contribute to in one way or another.  It might help us if we each write our thoughts, resources, and ideas for these things down before we get to the meeting. Then we can each share what we've got and then go from there.  This might help us from getting side-tracked  (this and a big bat or a whistle or something... :-)).
Planning People (People that need to be a part of Phase 2 Planning)
What Specific Goals and Deadlines do we need to set for Phase 2?
Ramping Events (Events that are taking Place between now and the 07 Event - how will they be effectively used to promote and ramp up to this event?)
Spaces in the City (What spaces are available and appropriate to use? or aren't available or appropriate?)
City Hoops (What logistical things need to be taken care of?)
Partners
How are we going to present this and promote it to possible partners?  What needs to be in place before we can start doing so?
Roles (What areas do we need to make sure are covered at this point, and who can be responsible for them?)
That's all I have for right now.... Please add and tweak by posting a comment.

July 21, 2005 | | Comments (34)

PARTNERS

As we've kicked around the possibilities for the 07' Event, one of the things that we've determined is that we don't want to do this alone.  By that, we mean that we want to make sure that this is an event that brings people from all sorts of journeys and focuses together in one space and time in the spirit of a gathering of tribes.   

Obviously, in order to pull this off, we need to get the word out to other "tribes" and make sure we get an invitation their way with as much information as possible.  The first step is to brainstorm who we would like to invite.  The floor is completely wide open on this one, so please feel free to list those people, organizations, sects, etc... that you feel might add and benefit from such a thing in a comment to this post.  It would help if you would add a little information about who each suggestion is, and some contact information if you have it.

July 21, 2005 | | Comments (35)

LOCATIONS AND LOOPHOLES

Before the September meeting we should have a pretty good list of locations in San Francisco under the following categories:

   
    Definite Yes - Places and Spaces that will definitely be available in May of 07'.
    Definite No - Places that were possibilities that we now know WON'T be available.
    Maybes - Places to consider and follow up with.
We also need to consider the San Francisco city ordinances and codes that we need to abide by, licenses we might need, insurance policies that are required etc... for an event of this size.  It would be great to get some people who have hosted events like this in the city before (or even in other cities) to visit this site and add their input of what they know, or what they've learned to ask, not ask, and get cleared in the past.
Comment to this post with what you know, or know that we need to be asking.

July 21, 2005 | | Comments (31)

INVITATIONS

This is who is currently planning on attending the San Francisco meeting as we wrap-up "phase one"  ("skeleton" of the event - date, place, overall intention) move on to "phase two" (putting "flesh on the skeleton".):
        Hosts:  Mark
                    Bob
        Attendees:    Damien
                              Doug
                              Jules
                              Brian
                              Spencer (Waiting Confirmation)
                              Kelly
                              Tim and Saranell (Waiting Confirmation)
As we discussed this planning meeting, we agreed that we most deffinately need to beging expanding the team as we move into "phase 2," but also that for the purpose of this meeting, it would be best to keep the number of people in attendance small and only include those that really need to be there at this point.  (Even though there will most likely be a lot of people that we would like to have there, who would not realy benefit from the time or be able to contribute much to it at this point.) This will help us to get through all of the details that need to be covered, and will also keep us from wasting the time of those who want to help (and that we'll need to help) once we are further along in the game.
With that in mind, use this post to suggest those people that you feel would really benefit and contribute by being present at this particular meeting as we close out "phase 1" and enter "phase 2."  Below are categories of people that might help "tickle our brains."  Feel free to add categories as well:
    Event Planners (Experience with Big Event Planning)
    Administrators ('nuff said)
    Publicity People (Website, Graphic Artists, Etc...)
    Networkers (People that know people that know people, etc...)
    Financers (Talented Fund Raisers)
    Sales People (People who are good at spreading the word and selling an idea)

July 21, 2005 | | Comments (21)

TRAVEL for San Fran Meeting

As each of you attending the "Phase 1/Phase 2" Planning meeting in September know, travel is at your own expense.  Meals and lodging have been graciously covered, but we need to each need to make sure that we secure our transportation to and from San Francisco and to the final destination once you get to the city. 

Mark and Bob will be heading up the rest of this stream, but it would be helpful to post comments here with information on the following (and other things of the like):

The actual address of where we need to go once we reach S.F. (though maybe it will be better to send that via e-mail).

Transportation possibilities to and from the airport.

Lodging needs.

July 21, 2005 | | Comments (33)

New Title for Reimagining Spiritual Formation

This fall Reimagining Spiritual Formation will be re-titled Church Re-Imagined. Churchreimaginedlr

There are two reasons for the change:
1. People had a hard tim knowing what the book was about. For so many people "spiritual formation" means individual, and often contemplative, practices. Not to mention that 94.3% of the people who try to say the name of the book can't say "reimagining". I can't tell you how many times people say "reimaging".
2. The preaching book is going to be titled Preaching Re-imagined, and it seemed to be a good time to make the change.

The layout of the book is also being redone. The journals will each have their own page, rather than being spread throughout the book, and the size is being adjusted a bit.

But same content - Because you know how important it is to change the packaging but never the message :)

March 17, 2005 | | Comments (18)

Location

Location, Location, Location

First question when I think about location is how many people are we planning for? Maybe that is another post, but from San Diego conversation it seems like we are talking 2000-3000. What are your thoughts on numbers??

What about a universoty campus? I think if we could get a campus exclusively for us, we could really set our pace and, depending on the campus, could really get a secluded feel to the week. I remember as a kid my parents were Mariners in the Presbyterian USA and we'd always go to a college for a week retreat thing as a family every year. We stayed in the dorms, ate in the cafeterias, and never left the campus. The whole family thing was a pretty cool dymanic as well.

East coast?? West coast?? Nebraska??

February 15, 2005 | | Comments (87)

Marketing & Timing

MARKETING . . . I started this post to ask if we wanted to develop a marketing piece to promote the overall rhythm/calendar (see Yearly Rhythm below from From Damien) for the emergent events?

First of all, I don't know if that is our place, but as we are going to produce this whole new event for '07, should we announce what are plans our for the future? I think most people are obiously waiting to see what is in store in the post-YS era. I was thinking we should produce something that we could even use in Nashville and that the Translation Team (see below from post From Damien) can pass out at all of their events and "on-ramp/front door" opportunities.

I was thinking of a very simple, high quality brochere to present the opportunities there are to further enter the discussion. This also allows those who are not able to attend every event the chance to decide which events they would like to participate in (as Doug mentioned in San Diego) . . .


From: From Damien

Our Yearly Rhythm:

Fall – Gathering in Santa Fe

Winter - Theological Conversation/Arts, Worship, and Liturgy Conference

Spring – Family Reunion/Teaching (Open Invitation) at the Convention

Summer – Local/Regional Cohort Meetings

Other things we do:

Translation Team
A team of people that intentionally attend other events and conversations for the purpose
of authentic engagement and discovery, as well as to intentionally educate others about
the space available in the friendship of Emergent and inform others of the thoughts,
questions, and discoveries being processed.
NPC
Willow
PDM
IVP/Urbana
YS
Soulerize
Nu-Monastics
Artists

TIMING . . . . All this to say: do we want to do a marketing piece at all? And do we want to have it ready for Emergent @ Nashville? And if we do, what do we need to have confirmed/decided with our event and the others before we can do this?

February 12, 2005 | | Comments (70) | TrackBack (1)

Catching Up

Thanks Doug for allowing me access to this blog.

As I told Doug via e-mail, there are several of us who weren't able to be in San Diego who will be at the Nashville EC and want into this conversation. Doug has given a great overview regarding the San Diego gathering, but it would be interesting to hear your perspectives on the discussion there. Specifically, what sort of partnership relations do you envision, what venues do you think appropriate for a general "convo" like this, and what is your personal vision for the event?  What have we learned from the Emergent/YS partnership, and how do we need to structure partnerships in the future to reflect what we have learned? Are these partnerships primarily relational between "emerging" congregations (the gathering of tribes) or are we looking for financial and programmatic partners?   Help those of us who weren't able to be with in the flesh get caught up on your thoughts.
Peace,
Jay Voorhees

February 10, 2005 | | Comments (24) | TrackBack (0)

Vision

So, I wanted to jump ahead and start a stream for the name, but it makes more sense to establish a clear Vision for the event first and then develope a name that illustrates that vision.  So perhaps we can add our "2 cents" by adding comments to this post.

To start things off, I liked Mark's idea of "A Gathering of the Tribes" - a place where the different expressions and communities of the parts of the church that are Emerging can come together, share with one another, reason together, challenge, and encourage.    Maybe this can be a base from which we develope the event.

February 09, 2005 | | Comments (40)

07 Event

by Doug Pagitt

Here is a copy of an email I am trying to send to those who were at the 07 contributors meeting at the San Diego Event.

Hello all, thanks for coming to the contributors meeting in San Diego or for your interest in being part of the future steps of the Emergent National event.

On Saturday morning the group of us who offered to put the next steps together met. After much discussion it became clear to all of us that to really pull off the kind of “big tent” event with multiple partners we are hoping for we need more time. So we are suggesting that we schedule this big event for May 2007.

This will give us 26 months and afar more time to invite partners to join in the creation process. Michael Toy asked a very observant question, “With 2007 being so far away are we really saying that we have no plans to do this?”
We all agreed that that is not at all our intention. We all agreed that we need to get working on this immediately if we want our partners to feel part of the event from the ground up. We also feel that we can use the Fall Emergent Gatherings in New Mexico, the theological gatherings, WALP, and even summer “institutes” as a building events to keep momentum and connections alive between now and then.

I also talked with the folks from Zondervan and if they decide to do the NPC again at the Town and Country next year, which it looks like they will, then perhaps we could have a “Mini-emergent convention” (think Mac Mini – all the power of a Mac but you bring your own keyboard and monitor). The initial discussion of this looks like it could be really great. We are discussing creating a rhythm of worship to the day turning the entire facility into a labyrinth (the sunrise in the morning, the pools as water of healing, the meals a refreshment – that sort of thing) and not having a music driven worship event. To make a theme of the day and have seminars and meetings fit the theme. We would try to make it simple and inexpensive. This would mean a fewer number of presenters and very little production. But this event is not the one that would capture the attention of our conversation over the next year.

We hope to intentionally try to get people to the Fall Gathering and other events and use the mini-convention to pick-up any who would be predisposed to the NPC partnership. So the next step is to create a plan and vision for the 07 event (which will include 08 and 09). This initial planning group will begin work immediately and have goal of having location, date, budget conception and partner invitations ready by April 1 (if Allah wills ☺).

We will then bring together an additional group to start the work of planning the event. So after this first phase we will need to draw from additional people to start putting the event together. We do need a name and input on the vision. We will have a planning blog to share ideas and give input. We are hoping to use this more than email for the exchange of ideas.

I know this all seems like a lot of work, but I think we are at a crucial point with a brief window of being able to turn the public perception of Emergent from the Brand to a catalytic network of friendships and these events may help that.

February 09, 2005 | | Comments (72)