Welcome, one and all, to the highly anticpated NextUp blog.
Keep us up to date with news, exciting stories, questions, problems, good recipes, and whatever else tickles your fancy!
Blogger is relatively easy to navigate; all you need is a blogger account and you're good to go.
Instructions on how to create an account (if you don't already have a gmail address or a blogger account) will be in the invitation email you all will receive! Give me (molly...molly.patton at yahoo.com ) a shout if you have any troubles.
Cheers team!
11 comments:
thank you Molly:)
Thank you Kevin for being the continuous thread from the interview to the present. That is a huge commitment on your part. I really appreciate you, your presence, your openness to trying things out and evolving as a group.
Topics to follow:
1) Micheal Byers–future directions
2) Malalai Joya
3) grouping before speakers
4) getting to know you folks
5) action project/praxis
6) speakers for next term/post December
1)Micheal Byers – future directions
I wanted to apologize to the group for being a wee bit late and then staying downstairs and reading instead of heading up when I got there. I was eager to finish reading but I am realizing now that we had agreed as a group to do logistics before hand. I got a lot out of the talk with Michael Beyers. I was worried that I was only going to be poking holes in his presentation of ideas and come across very pessimistic and negative. I am excited to continue learning form all you folks about the ideas you raised. I am also very eager to hear more about what folks brought up after the Micheal Beyers talk on Monday. I was worried that I was going to be only poking holes is
2) Malalai Joya
Sorry for my insistence during lunch on Saturday that the talk by Malalai Joya would be delayed. Thank you Serena for cracking the whip and keeping us on track. I found tons of material by her on line, including pod casts and videos. I know it’s not the same as seeing someone live. Did anyone Make it to UBC for the evening talk? Any reports back? Was it recorded?
3)grouping before speakers (neils’ point)
I do want to comment on Neil’s point about us perhaps talking before hand about what we wanted to cover in terms of issues before the speaker arrives so as to be able to get more in depth. I am mentioning that because I am trying to squeeze time to do some additional reading about free trade before Mark Lee’s presentation on free trade. If folks have time I would love to hear your thought on this blog medium before that talk to get started….
4) getting to know you folks
I want to get to know you folks better…sooner rather than later…(and I say this going into my second round of midterms.) Could we have an informal hangout somewhere? The Friday night before the next Saturday gathering? Or any other time folks can suggest. My home is totally open for this. I want to know more about what you have done thus far? what makes you get out of bed every morning? what inspires you everyday?…you get the idea huh?
5) action project/praxis
How about harnessing the energy and minds of 12+ folks to create some tangibleish change. (The + refers to our support folks/grasshopper advisors.) I realize folks have other commitments in their lives. (I am in five courses.) And since we have chosen to step up for this I am wondering if we couldn’t in some way use our resources towards some community/theory projects. It could just be a power point resource for teachers, exploring some policy changes, creating a program…I don’t know but every time I come to that space I keep wondering what we can create to give back not just take in….am I making any sense? I feel like folks could contribute in many different ways, by letting us know about resources, writing, generating ideas, etc., so as to accommodate our varied schedules…what say you?
6)speakers for next term/post December
Just looking ahead, I am not sure that the date we have scheduled for future planning--Jan to March is going to give enough heads-up time for our prospective speakers. Could we start that conversation earlier? I would like to hear from folks about any ideas they have for speakers on this blog site. I have about 4 to 6 in mind and I will be happy to share them soon. But for now I am off to bed as it’s 2am and I want to know if this blog medium is going to be useful for folks before sending more energy here Hugs!!
out of towners my home number is 604-876-7898. Welcome to stay over anytime. Heads-up may help guarantee clean linen:)
Address
1975 West 15th Ave.
b/w cypress and maple
basement
Kitsilano/westside Neighborhood.
Not quite as hopping/happening as East Van but centralish still and not too far from ocean:)
I made it on here! Eloginy- I'm glad that we have such an organized context of things to do. I work well with lists :)
I think pre-guest talks could be very helpful, with content overview as well as dialogue expectations. We were talking at lunch about how it felt like a Q&A and how we should sometimes set guidelines for a dialogue where we are speaking at least as much as the guest, and where there is space to stop and reflect without someone leaping into a new idea.
On the upcoming guest front, sooner is usually better, so we should discuss our ideas. That would help me get my brain working on it.
Yes to fun hang outs.
Yes to making something real happen in the world in a precise way.
If any of you do want the East Van ambience, I live on Commercial Drive, and you are welcome anytime. 604.763.1771
Thanks Eloginy - good thoughts.
1 and 3: Monday I'm going to be a bit down to the wire at work (last day of packing before moving our office), but I can make it a little early, if that's what folks are thinking, to debrief/discuss future directions with speakers. I'll try and get there by 6:15, or 6, depending on how well packing goes.
4: Also totally keen to get to know you all - I was thinking of inviting you all for cocktails and a potluck on Friday, November 23rd, but clearly many houses are also open to this. How about we chat about this on Monday?
5: I'm into tangible change - I just have so much on my plate, I'm not sure I can take on another project, but that said, I always say that, then get excited about something, and just fine the time dammit! So, I'm keen to collaborate, but I don't think I want to do something quite so large as taking down Sam Sullivan (although that would be pretty cool!).
6: Honestly, I haven't given too much thought to future speakers, but I will start to.
And, I just wanted to say that I'm feeling really happy about meeting and working with you all. It's pretty amazing to sit in a room with you and think about all the cool stuff we collectively do and/or will do with our lives. I'm looking forward to learning more about and from all of you.
It is awesome to be able to find and come to people on the journey of finding and defining their role in social change.
It is good to see the list and I will be happy to work with all of A you on it. Especially the get together :)
So, part of my current job will be defining how to integrate the latest and greatest web applications to create cool sites to facilitate outreach and social change organization. I am taking a web course and have minimal HTML knowledge that I can apply to this blog. In the next week, I hope to be able to post some videos and such that are relevant to the sessions and conversations we have. (if thats cool)
I came across this: www.mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg
A short video + blog that starts you questioning the role and current model of higher education. This is part of a very interesting project from Kansas University, History of cultural anthropology department. (maybe you have seen it)
Some of you may have seen this video from you tube.
I thought that this might be a good start to begin to think about what sort of event or ideas that high school students would appreciate when thinking of social justice/environmental issues - I would argue they are one and the same.
I thought I would throw this out to get all of your takes on this vlog, and seize the opportunity for a creative exercise with the minds eye to conceptualize the different forms and environments learning could take.
yeaaaah!! I am excited to keep exploring this medium for communicating...it is very new to me:)
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