This week, I began attending a workshop offered by the Climate Stories Project (https://www.climatestoriesproject.org/) called the Climate Stories Ambassador Workshop. The goal of the workshop is to create more Climate Stories Ambassadors, people who are wanting to go out and encourage more people to share their climate stories and engage more people on climate change. Over the 3-workshop course, we […]
Method Initiative (Round 4) – Exercise 9 – Second Personal Essay
For the first time ever, I’ve made it to the final exercises in Josh Spodek’s Initiative book on bringing your passions to life. It took four rounds of going back to square one and building up a project and over 4 years, but I finally found a project that resonated enough with me to keep wanting to push forward: a […]
Method Initiative (Round 4) – Exercise 8 – Details, Sustainability, and Financials
For Exercise 8, the goal was to come up with a spreadsheet detailing out the financials for The Campfire (still my working title for this event!), per my visual model from Exercise 7. I started out basic and tried not to add any of the extra stuff like sound/lighting techs, marketing teams, or anything that just felt like it would […]
Method Initiative (Round 4) – Exercise 6: 10 People Closer to Your Field
The purpose of Exercise 6 of Method Initiative was to get more advice, but this time from people “closer to your field.” This means we’re going a step beyond friends and family to people who may actually have some experience in the field of your project. Since my project is creating a story-telling session with nature as a theme, initially […]
Method Initiative (Round 4) – Exercise 7: Create a Visual Model
If you’ve been following my Initiative exercises this time around, you might be wondering where my Exercise 6 reflection is. The answer is: I’m still working on exercise 6, since getting 10 people who can give me advice on my project takes some time. Because finishing exercise 6 wasn’t really hindering starting exercise 7, I just went ahead and did […]
Method Initiative (Round 4) – Exercise 5: 5 People Who Feel The Problem
The goal of Initiative Exercise 5 was to find 5 people who feel the problem my project describes and hear the problem in their words, not mine. Initially, when I started looking for people who possibly feel the problem I described, I assumed I’d be talking to just two main groups: people who are already involved in the world of […]
Method Initiative (Round 4) – Exercise 4: 10 Friends & Family Members
Project Reminder In case you were trying to remember what my newly select project was… Problem: Environmental conversations carry a stigma that hinders people from discussing their feelings of joy about nature, and horror, alarm, and grief over it’s destruction. In the end, they just end up feeling alone and misunderstood. Solution: Organize a Nature Story-Sharing Meetup, fostering a community […]
Method Initiative – Exercise 3: 5 Close Contacts
Post-Exercise Reflection The purpose of Initiative Exercise #3 is to reach out to the people you are most comfortable with (and therefore easiest to ask something of) and to ask them for advice on your 5 problem/solution pairs. Also important is working on a few skills as you do: Before the exercise Because I had done the Initiative exercises before, […]
Method Initiative – Exercise 2: 5 Unsolved Problems
Post-Exercise Reflection: For Initiative Exercise #2: ‘5 Unsolved Problems’, the goal is to identify 5 unsolved problems that a specific group of people feel, and come up with a rudimentary solution for them. The exercise was one that I found pretty difficult the first time around – it’s surprisingly hard to think of a problem before a solution…My mind wants […]
Method Initiative – Exercise 1: The Personal Essay
Exercise #1: The Personal Essay Am I ever going to accomplish something truly significant? Am I too old now for becoming someone that could change the world, or even a small group of people only 1 degree of separation from me – a.k.a friends and family? Am I just not good enough to become someone that important? Or that well-known? […]