HIVE ll: GROUP PROCESS

 GROUP PROCESS – 12 Steps to Action:

A structured group process for creative problem solving, facilitated by someone who can write everyone’s thoughts on flip charts and guide participants through the steps below, can help move diverse groups to action.

1. Two or more people start the HIVE.

 

Jerry Lee Miller in sun glasses and Kevin Miller, thinly disguised as a clown, “Connected the Dots of Climate Change” and then formed our Lancaster HIVE.

2. One is Convener and Task Owner. Jerry Lee Miller has been an environmental thought leader for years. He has recruited our HIVE and he is our leader and guide.

 

Jerry has been very active in the Tar Sands Action, organized by Bill McKibben to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline. None other than NASA climate scientist James Hansen declared "It's essentially game over for the climate!" if the dirty Alberta tar sands oil is extracted and burned. Jerry was arrested with 1250 others during a 2 week period in front of the White House, including several from Lancaster,York and Harrisburg PA.  He then organized 2 buses from central PA to join the Surround the White House demonstration on Nov 6, 2011. Above, Jerry in DC.

3.  Another serves as process facilitator. Kevin Miller has been a consultant/facilitator to Fortune 500 companies for 22 years and now uses those skills for this cause.

Kevin is also an artist. He drew our theme posters.

4. Gather a diverse hive of worker bees. Offer coffee, drinks, food, music, toys, art, paper and pens. Ask all participants to introduce themselves and express a goal. Write everyone’s goals numbered up front.

5. Rules of the Road for Brainstorming:

To avoid speeches and encourage rapid ideation, it is wise to offer and enforce Rules of the Road.

6. Everyone gives ideas in 7 to 10 words. The facilitator stays out of content and writes what is said without editing or judging at all.

 

Encourage offering all ideas to the facilitator for writing on flip charts so that no ideas are lost. Ask participants to report the content of side discussions.

7. Circle and initial ideas to develop. Each participant selects one or more wish ideas to write up in more detail as Concept Sheets.

8. Write Concept Sheets.

Each participant writes Concept Sheets including: A.) A short title for the concept, B.) The name(s) of the author(s,) C.) “What is the idea?” — words right off the flip chart or new words, D. “How would the idea work?” — more details, next steps, etc. Kevin can draw rapid images such as these to provide concreteness to ideas.

9. Report Back Concepts to the group. If there are artists present, ask them to draw rapid images to go with each numbered Concept. Create a display wall.

10. Advisory Group Vote on Concepts: Give each participant 5 or 10 stick-on dots to put next to their 5 - 10 favorite concepts.

11. Nominate Concepts for Action. Each person may nominate a concept or cluster of action concepts. Team names. Next steps.

12. Regular HIVE Support Meetings: Teams report progress and/or problems with various projects. The HIVE offers creative problem solving and support. Cohesiveness is important. Accept different approaches to activism within the HIVE. Don’t waste time arguing about those differences. Just act!

THEME POSTERS help define the task and inspire group ideas

Themes for posters were identified in conversation with key players in the HIVE about core issues and needs, prior to our second brainstorming session. 

The cover poster for this document was inspired by Bill McKibben’s 7/19/12 Rolling Stone article, “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math,” and served as our central theme image for the HIVE’s ideation sessions.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719

August 24,2012 Jerry arrested in front of White House, One of 1250 in the Tar Sands Action, led by Bill McKibben.

Photo by Steve Liptay

Contact Jerry Lee Miller to start a HIVE in your community. jerry_miller@verizon.net

HIVE of Planet-Loving Activity

“HIVE of Planet-Loving Activity”

Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Responds to Bill McKibben’s Message

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

·      Cover letter from Jerry Lee Miller to Bill McKibben and 350.org

·      HIVE Action Projects (distilled from our 44 Concept Sheets)

·      Group Process (and Theme Posters)

·      Our 44 Illustrated Concept Sheets

·      Initial “Wish Brainstorming” Idea Lists (prior to writing Concept Sheets)

HIVE ACTION PROJECTS:

HIVE participants produced 44 illustrated concepts for “Earth-Loving Activity” in Lancaster (See Group Process.) Our last step before planning action was to nominate eight concepts or clusters of concepts that we felt would be most compelling to implement. We selected action teams and scheduled some meetings. 

1. ARTS

• Concept #1, Fossil Fuel Free Festival: A festival of artists, musicians, storytelling, dance -- weekend at various Lancaster venues.
• Concept # 34, Climate Change Cantata: Combine already written songs (about Susquehanna, fracking, etc) and do history or have a story line about climate change. This "show" could be performed throughout Lancaster or at schools, with a handout of practical ideas to the audience.
• Team: Jerry, Tovie, Paul, Kevin -- Jerry will schedule a meeting.

Jerry Lee Miller playing flute at an open mic event. He is passionate about moving the public to action through the arts.

2. ORGANIC FOOD

• Concept # 44, Guerrilla Gardening/ Seed Swaps/ Seed Savings: Grow food everywhere. Do vertical gardening in apartments/houses in city and use every space possible to grow food. Reconnects us to nature in the city while taking back our empowerment from corporate mega-markets, and reduces waste. Organize seed swaps to create variety and contact in community.
• Concept # 27, Rush on Organic Foods: Create a rush on buying all organic foods off the shelves at one Giant supermarket in Lancaster. Choose one day and orchestrate with up to 100 people + so by day's end these shelves are empty. Repeat this action 2 or 3 times at different Giants in the area. Wrap it up with a media story about organics.
• Team: Kate, Brandon, Tom

3. SPIRITUAL

• Concept #21, Prayer Circle Turns Climate Change Flash Mob: Prayer Circle of 500 people in Brunswick Square downtown Lancaster, to draw awareness to climate change. Staged for 3 to 5 hours. Once each hour everyone does a flash mob dance to appropriate songs and then goes back to sending out prayers. Bring chairs and signs. Arrange chairs in concentric circles. Advance sign-up.
• Concept # 13, It's Our Kids' Planet: Spread the spirit of saving the planet in a way that touches people -- e.g., it's our kids' planet. This could be done with art contests, music, festivals, etc.
• Concept #29, Lancaster County Religious Leaders: Engage and educate the religious community of Lancaster County regarding the urgency to preach, pray and practice climate change awareness.

Jerry Lee Miller ministers through music in his church

• Concept #2, St. John's Letters to the Earth: Interest St. John's in becoming advocates for anti-fracking and  MDGs. Form groups around each cause identified. Create a book of art, stories, St. John's Letters to the Earth.
• Team: Jerry, Spencer, Tom, Deb, Paul

Toys, art, food, music, dance & creativity exercises help groups to invent and move to action. These eight concepts are still in a rough beginning stage. Project Teams will meet to discuss what they actually plan to do, and the eight concepts will evolve. Each Project Team may expand or shrink. The full HIVE will review each team’s progress and offer support.

4. COMMUNICATION

• Concept #36, KickStart a Billboard!: Design billboards. Have a group vote on designs. Put it on KickStarter to fund it.
• Concept #17, Buy a Radio Station: Buy a radio station and only report news that isn't reported by the mainstream media.
• Concept #42, Create a HIVE of Planet Loving Activity e-Book: "How to Make Lancaster, PA and Your Community into a HIVE of Planet Loving Activity." Make all these concepts into a Kindle e-book.
• Team: Kate, Kesse

5. THE MESSAGE

• Concept #20, Citizens' Climate Lobby: Initiate a Citizens' Climate Lobby group in Lancaster for Fee & Dividend legislation. Empowerment, democratic involvement, united action.

Steve Izzo is involved in the Citizen’s Climate Lobby and would like to start a chapter in Lancaster to promote Fee & Dividend legislation.

• Concept #18, If Not Now, When? If Not Us, Who?: Mass media campaign to publicize urgency of climate crisis. Unite Hollywood and musicians (Musicians United for Safe Energy -- Jackson Brown, etc) to fund and to raise grass roots action to influence policy makers. Use celebrity magnetism.
• Concept #39, Develop Bill McKibben/ 350.org Relationship: The time is ripe and McKibben has the nation's ear. Let's amplify his message and develop a synergy between 350.org and the HIVE.
• Team will meet Sunday Aug 26, 5:30pm: Jerry, Spencer, Steve, Kevin, Tovie(?)

6. NATURE CONNECTION

• Concept #19, Susquehanna Smiles: Susquehanna River Awareness Walk -- come to the river at a time of crisis. The Susquehanna smiles as inhabitants flock to her banks. Banners costumes, long-term walk along prime locations of the river in designated locations -- ceremonial activities -- healing activities.
• Concept #26, Creating Community in the Forest: Encourage local residents to spend time in a wooded environment, promoting appreciation, stewardship and humor.
• Team: Sarah H., Kesse, Tovie, Deb

Sarah Henry (4^th from left) is organizing a Susquehanna River Walk at a time when our river is in crisis.

7. PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS

• Concept #38, Electric Car Project: (to be planned with Brandon Hollinger's Leadership.)
• Concept #35, Wind Turbine; Solar Array: Get a vote on the city government ballot to buy, create and make it happen -- bond to pay for it rather than raising property taxes.

Brandon Hollinger has been converting internal combustion engine cars into electric cars for years.

• Concept #37, Recycle for Life!: Huge recycling festival to raise awareness of the importance of recycling to sustaining the economy. Art contest from recycled materials. Fill a huge object with clean recyclables. Recycled object companies come and share their wares.
• Team: Brandon, Kesse, Tom, Steve, Spencer

8. TARGET SEGMENTS with SOLUTIONS

• Concept #32, Soccer on a Parched Field: Speakers' Bureau -- Contact women's organizations and educational institutions, to raise awareness about the urgency of the climate crisis. Women sense urgency better and connect to safety of their families. Counter the deniers' position.
• Concept #29, Lancaster County Religious Leaders: Engage and educate the religious community of Lancaster County regarding the urgency to preach, pray and practice climate change awareness.
• Concept #22, Magic School Bus: Local high schools/ colleges take 1,000 people by bus to discuss environmental concerns -- organizations led by students and concerned individuals -- speakers/ presentations about relative problems.
• Concept #13, It's Our Kids' Planet: Spread the spirit of saving the planet in a way that touches people -- e.g., it's our kids' planet. This could be done with art contests, music, festivals, etc.
• Concept #6, Home School After School: Develop home school or after school program about climate change, fracking, gardening, non-violent civil disobedience, etc. Show the movie "Gasland" to core group of teachers, one or more with K-12 certificates. Kids write climate songs and poems.
• Concept #2, St. John's Letters to the Earth: Interest St. John's in becoming advocates for anti-fracking and  MDGs. Form Groups around each cause identified. Create a book of art, stories, St. John's Letters to the Earth.
• Team: Susan, Kevin, Jerry, Steve (possible initial conversation Sunday evening Aug 26?) 

Project Teams, your project definition is still evolving. Resist the temptation to interpret your concept cluster literally. It belongs to you. Let it evolve and change according to what will work and have the most impact in the real world. Be creative in your approach to developing your project. Bring in additional team members, if it's appropriate. Expand your project, shrink it, or change it as needed.

Courage! Creativity! Compassion

A Day for BOLD Love. Not a Time For The Timid.

On a hot August morning last summer I sat down in the middle of Pennsylvania Ave, the White House at my back.

I turned to my left to see many men and women sitting or kneeling beside me. I turned to my right and saw still others, some with grey hair some just teenagers. Pivoting my head, I turned to see the people standing on the sidewalk behind me…a scientist from the DC area, a restaurant owner from Philadelphia, several students, and a chimney sweep from New York. There were 53 of us waiting to be arrested along with a couple dozen supporters who planned to get up and leave before the arrests were made.

An officer walked to the middle of the street, bullhorn in hand, to issue a warning that we would be arrested if we did not move. Just before he spoke, Amanda, a recent college grad from California who sat immediately to my right, turned to me and said " There's no better place we could be anywhere in the world right now than right here."

Over the course of 2 weeks in late August and early September, 1,253 people agreed with Amanda and were arrested at that site. Each of us, men and women, young and old from across the US felt the need to take a stand to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline.

For me the compelling factor…the reason I stepped up… is the need to stop and hopefully reverse climate change. "The earth is a house that is made for us all" (as Streetbeets sings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVbydpZDTSg), but currently 200 species go extinct -permanently disappearing from our

house each day -mostly due to global warming.

Global warming ,as I'm sure you know, is caused by the emission of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels as well as other industrial activities and land destruction.

Do you know what's happening in the tar sands under much of northern Alberta, Canada in an area the size of the country of England or the state of Florida?

Oil companies literally scrape away the living forests (among the most pristine natural areas in all the world) and scrape away the soils. Then they dig out the sand, taking about 2 tons of sand for every barrel of oil they produce. Next massive amounts of water drained from nearby rivers are used to wash the oily bitumen out of the sand- several gallons of water for every gallon of oil produced- leaving a toxic water-oil byproduct that kills fish, birds and indigenous people living in the area.

"If you simply hated the land and wanted to destroy it, you would be hard pressed to find a more vicious way of doing it" say the authors of Deep Green Resistance:Strategy to Save the Planet.

After the bitumen is washed from the sand, huge quantities of natural gas, much of it fracked in my home state of Pennsylvania, are used to cook it into a synthetic oil.The energy required means that oil produced from tar sands produces 5 times as much greenhouse gases as conventional oil.

That's why James Hansen, chief NASA climate scientist, warns that if the Keystone XL Pipeline is approved it's essentially 'game over for the climate'.

Now listen again to what Amanda said to me as we sat on Pennsylvania Avenue waiting to be arrested: " There's no better place we could be anywhere in the world right now than right here."

I believe she was correct on that day. But where would I need to be today for Amanda to say the same thing to me? Amanda's assertion has become my daily challenge.

Could it also become yours?

"Where's the 'no better place' you need to be right now? Where does the earth, (the water, soil and air) need you to be? Doing what? What do the creatures need you to be doing today?Tomorrow? How about our fellow humans and the next generation? What do they need from you?

Feminist poet and essayist, Adrienne Rich, wrote

try telling yourself

you are not accountable

to the life of your tribe

the breath of your planet

Isn't this all about love? Love for your neighbors of all species? Love and accountability, right?

Your love and sense of accountability may lead you to a different place than where my love and sense of accountability leads me. But it won't allow you to be passive.

One thing I know. These are not days for the timid. These are not the times for half measures. At the State of Our Earth 2012 Conference in Baltimore last month, Dr. Susan Shaw ,a marine toxicologist and Doctor of Public Health

warned us that "This is not a political issue. It's a survival issue! The next 10 years may be as important as the next 10,000 years!"

Yes! This is a time for bold love!