Category Archives: long-range planning

Our Community University: Thriving in a Changing World: Class 1: Thursday, July 22nd, 10am-3pm

Our Community University: Thriving in a Changing World

In the spirit of sharing our creative energy and knowledge with one another. I have gathered together with Michele Brooks, David Franklin and Noelani Rodriguez to bring you part one of Our Community University.  We all have interesting and important skills to share and I intend to create a series of gatherings for that purpose.  Since many of us have daytime hours free it makes sense to use that time to learn, compare notes, network, and grow ourselves and get better at what we do.  Here is the first offering.  I hope you will join us.  If you’re not able to come, please pass this invitation along to others who might benefit from 4 hours  of interesting information-sharing, networking and skill-building.  Also, if you’d like to become a presenter in this series, please let me know.  Here’s to our emotional, spiritual, and mental growth and thriving, in a changing world!

Day 1
Thursday, July 22nd, 10am-3pm (1 hour for lunch)
Cost: $10 per class or $35 for all 4. (come for one talk or all four) (checks and cash accepted)
Location: 1823 NE 13th Ave. (close to the 8, 9 bus and Red and Blue Max lines) (just north of the Lloyd Center, parking is easy)
Wi-Fi available
Tea available
Please RSVP to albertkaufman@gmail.com

Class 1: 10am-11am Albert Kaufman: Albertideation:

The Who What Where When How and Why of using Social Networking and Email marketing to promote yourself, your ideas and your business.  Albert teaches businesses and individuals how to use social networking to organize and promote ideas, causes, and improve your bottom line.  With 14 years of high-tech business he is familiar with a variety of software and how they can be networked for greater success.  To see what Albert is up to on a given day, find him @ work thinking @ http://albertideation.com

Class 2: 11am-12pm  Michele Brooks:

The life and times of an economic refugee or how to make money in South Korea.  Michele Brooks: http://abundancecompany.com/michele_brooks.htm

Lunch: 12-1pm (please bring your lunch, or there are many places nearby to pick up something to eat)

Class 3: 1-2pm: David Franklin: Radical Presence: Creating Authentic Community in the Midst of Global Change

In these rapidly changing times, we are being called into deep integrity. We have an opportunity to move beyond the addictions, distractions, and suffering that keeps us in separation, and to learn how to love one another.

Our modern times call for spiritual practices and lifestyles that serve both the self and the collective. It is time to move beyond our individualistic, fear-based ways of living, and come together in community to support one another. In order to do so, it is essential to learn and engage in practices that create relationships that are sustainable, co-creative, and call forth our gifts.

In this experiential presentation, we’ll talk about the shifts that are occurring in our society, and how they are creating an opportunity for us to show up more powerfully and thrive. We’ll also learn and practice ways of being in authentic presence and community with one another. You’ll leave with a sense of new possibilities, hope, and connection.

David Franklin is a spiritual activist devoted to creating a new paradigm for masculinity that includes living the embodied path of spirituality, sexuality, leadership, and presence. As an experienced facilitator and ordained minister, he is masterful at creating and holding safe space for transformative experiences that utilize practical, body-centered modalities and down-to-earth spirituality. For more information, visit http://www.RadicalMen.com

Class 4: 2-3pm  Noelani Rodriguez: The Quickest Way to Double Your Sales

These days, businesspeople are resorting to new strategies to attract customers in the New Economy–many are promoting Classes and other Promotional Events. The quickest way to double your sales is to double the effectiveness of your “Irresistible Offer,” or the way you describe your business. Whether you want to promote a class, a service or a product, you can sell yourself with an irresistible offer that no one can refuse.

As a Google Certified Consultant and $1M selling marketer, I have a proven track record with over 1 million ad clicks in the top 1% of ad profitability. Let’s have some fun as I show you how to double the effectiveness of your “9 second elevator speech,” honing it into an irresistible offer. Let’s play at doubling the effectiveness of your offer to double your sales!

Lani’s website: http://ebooks.thebestever.net/

3pm: schmooze, network, talk, compare notes, over tea, wine and bisquits

Oregon Country Fair 2010

Well, that was fun!  I just got back last night from this year’s experiment in family, art, music, craft, thought, science, and transitioning to a different way of thinking and being.  This year I worked in the Wileyware booth, helping Marcia Wiley show off her beautiful glasses, taking pictures, fetching lemonade and carousing with our boothmates – Michelle, Lori, Dave, Nicky, Olivia, Teresa and their friends.  Lots of people stopped by to say hi, give a hug and share smiles and stories.  At night the Fair becomes a special place with little parties in booths, lots of great food, The Ritz (my favorite place at the Fair) and time to wander the pathways through the forest to the background of a variety of music and special lighting. The Fair has become a very special place for me.  One where I get to reconnect with those that I’ve known the longest out here – Todd Pawolski from Klamath Falls, Amira from Brownsville, Michael Townsend from Eugene and people who I see only at Pacific Northwest Festivals like the Summer Solstice Healing Retreat at Breitenbush, Beloved, Burning Man and Northwest Folklife.  The weather cooperated this year – hot days, and warm evenings. Even Monday’s barter fair which is a special tradition was blessed with overcast weather for much of the time, making walking amongst the various vendors easy on the skin as there’s no shade and it can get hot out in that field.  My feet hurt!  So much walking, and talking, and playing the guitar and flirting and fun!  Yeah!  Here are a few pictures from in front of our booth to whet your whistle.  Thanks to the Oregon Country Fair staff and volunteers for making this year’s Fair fantastic!  A tired, sunburnt, and happy Albert

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The world might feel like it’s unraveling… hold yourself, friends and family tight

In doing some interesting reading and then noting what I’m seeing in our world – It feels that our world is unraveling a bit. There are a multitude of things going on at the same time, some of them tragic, some of them unseen in the past and thus a little hard to wrap our heads around. The natural world also seems to be going through changes – for anyone who is paying any attention at all to various scientific papers to recent conferences on the climate and just plain looking out your window (if it’s not frozen shut as the East Coast of USA experienced a bunch this year) – the climate is changing. Then, there’s the political/media circus of giving the Tea Party movement a lot of time and attention = cacophony in the political and social sphere.

All that said, and more. So, what to do when overloaded with stimuli – there are many reactions that people have. Some clam up, hide. Some pretend that nothing different is going on. Then there are some who are speaking about the change – and many who have been speaking about it for a while – Bill McKibbon comes to mind. But other authors, like James Kunstler, Richard Heinberg – these folks are tracking the change and writing about it.

But what I might suggest is for us not to forget ourselves.  Our strengths. What we each bring to the world – and not let the strong winds of change push us around too much, make us lost. That would be unfair. It’s unfair to you because this is your life, and it should be as sweet, powerful and wonderful as you wish it to be. And, it’s not fair to the rest of us and future generations – for a large group of us to sleepwalk through this next period of time – the next chapter in our lives.

So, learn to dance with the change – learn to see the signs of something changing and instead of “holy shit!” your mantra could be “how interesting?” or “hmm, how will I dance with this in my life?”

This is also a good time to remember to take the best care of yourself that you can – physically and emotionally. Take your vitamins, get plenty of sleep, move that body, and make sure to stay connected to people. Your friends. Your Neighbors. Your Family. and new friends. If I’ve learned one thing at Burning Man lo these past 10 years, it’s that friends and close connection is key in life. Also, the ability to make new friends quickly is an art and can be learned. Start by introducing yourself.

Albert Kaufman
3/29/10
Portland, Oregon

Welcome Alternatives Magazine fans!

my writing from The Eleven has made it (edited and embellished, no less) into the current issue of Alternatives Magazine: http://www.alternativesmagazine.com/53/kaufman.html – welcome fans of that great magazine that is free and available all over Oregon.

Message from John Seager, President of Population Connection

I just read this letter from the President, John Seager, from Population Connection’s Reporter, and thought I’d share it with you. The magazine (pdf) can be downloaded at

http://www.populationconnection.org/site/DocServer/Reporter.pdf?docID=1221

Species evolve as their world
changes. So do organizations.
Founded in 1968 as ZPG, our
mission has evolved from “stop at two”
children to its present form:

Overpopulation threatens the quality of
life for people everywhere. Population
Connection is the national grassroots population
organization that educates young
people and advocates progressive action
to stabilize world population at a level
that can be sustained by Earth’s resources.

As for the still-relevant goal of “zero
population growth,” will the earth be
sustainable if population stabilizes at
nine or ten billion? I think not.
ZPG played that early role urging
Americans to “stop at two” children. It
worked. Currently, our two biggest
challenges are unplanned births and net

migration.
Global population growth is different.
Unless one believes that extraterrestrials
walk among us, no one is migrating
to—or from—Planet Earth. Addressing
the unmet need for contraception of
200 million women worldwide is the
top priority these days.
How can we move toward population
stabilization? One part seems easy, in
theory. Just get 218 members of the
House and 60 members of the Senate
to pass bills addressing various aspects
of the issue with funding and programs.
President Obama signs them into law.
Mission accomplished.
Watching the Senate debate health
care provided a sense of just how excruciating
that process is these days. As
Teddy Roosevelt said, politics is “the art
of the possible.” Alas, it demands compromise
that’s often hard to swallow.
At Population Connection we work
on solutions. We reach three million
students each year. We painstakingly
correlate our curricula with thousands
of state and national standards.
We work with Congress, which is
besieged on all fronts by groups, each
convinced that its own issue—from
farms to schools, from energy to cities
—is most important.We work with prochoice
legislators who carry the banner.
We also work with legislators who
oppose abortion, but support family
planning.
All things considered, 2009 was a
very good year for our cause with the
rescission of the Global Gag Rule,
restoration of UN family planning
funds, and a remarkable 40% increase
in congressionally-appropriated international
family planning funding.
I have a certain fondness for those
early “glory days” of ZPG. Times
change, though. Today, we measure
success in terms of training 11,000
teachers annually on hundreds of campuses
and elsewhere.
We also measure it in terms of getting
legislation through the labyrinthine corridors
of Congress, where awkward
compromise lurks around every corner.
Thanks to your support, we can tell legislators
that people “back home”
expect them to take action. That matters
a great deal.
Population Connection will continue
to evolve as circumstances change and
new opportunities present themselves.
Evolution is essential.

John Seager
john@popconnect.org


Albert Kaufman
Portland, Oregon

Population growth affects the quality of life for everyone. Population Connection is the national grassroots population organization that educates young people and advocates progressive action to stabilize world population at a level that can be sustained by Earth’s resources.

Click the link below to make a donation:
https://donation.populationconnection.org/form/donate.php

Note to PGE regarding Google PowerMeter

Hello PGE,

I read the Oregonian article below which talks about Google’s PowerMeter application, and I’d like to know what it would take to bring this service to Portland?

here’s a link to the article: http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2010/02/qa_with_googles_green_energy_c.html

and here’s a link to the application. http://www.google.org/powermeter/

I assume this will take some action on PGE’s and Google’s part to make it happen.

Albert Kaufman

If you’re in the mood to ask PGE about this, here’s a link to their contact form. https://cs.portlandgeneral.com/Secure/ContactUs/Default.aspx?cookie_test=true

Thanks!

Talking about population issues on TV

I was asked to be on a local cable access show recently to talk about population issues.  Here’s the video.  The sound quality is not great in the beginning, but clears up quickly.  I’d love your feedback.

I was a guest on OPB’s Think Out Loud – 12/22/09

I got to talk live on OPB’s Think Out Loud show today.  Here’s the show for your listening enjoyment!

OPB Think Out Loud 12/22/09

World Population Growth Chart

A Graphic Simulation of the History of Human Population Growth

A Graphic Simulation of the History of Human Population Growth © 2000 – Please forward this link on to friends and family. It’s crucial that everyone on this planet who cares watch this video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_9SutNmfFk If you’d like to help work on this issue, please contact Population Connection @ http://populationconnection.org – many hands make light work.