Kunena Site Syndication http://www.zmca.org/ Fri, 10 Sep 2010 03:51:11 -0400 Kunena 1.5.8 http://www.zmca.org/components/com_kunena/template/default_ex/images/english/emoticons/rss.gif http://www.zmca.org/ Kunena Site Syndication http://www.zmca.org/index.php/forum-a-resources/forum/8-chapter-updates/196-meeting-minutes?limit=6&start=30#530 California Chapter Meeting Minutes – TS3 9/5/10, 7:00 pm, Sunday -powerline Introductions and Announcements Zeitgeist III: Moving Forward Chapter members from all over should start thinking about setting aside some time toward the end of the year to participate in screenings for the big premier of Zeitgeist III. -Thunder How To Represent the Movement When Event Scouting Are we an organization? We are organized, our communications are organized, but we are not actually an organization. We don’t have a corporate office, we don’t have quarters, we don’t go to work, and we’re not paid. So when your event scouting and talking with governmental or corporate structures about having a free or at-cost event using their venue, property, forum, etc., feel confident in using the language that this is really just an awareness project, an idea, for the common good and benefit to the public. This steers them away from thinking that were some sort of NPO or other legal entity, which we are not. -Jason Long beach Sub Chapter We Looked into the legal side of having a screening on the beach with a projector. Talked to the city and were given the “ok”. Now we need to look for a hotspot on the beach with lots of traffic. We also contacted a coffee shop and some local theaters to see if they would be interested in screening. -Mico Sacramento Sub Chapter Had a meeting…discussed the “Second Saturday” monthly local event in the downtown area where like-minded organizations assemble with booths and spread awareness. Will be there next Saturday 9/11 to do a trial run and walk around and hand out flyers and dvds, and if it goes well we may get a booth for next time. We want to have a consistent presence at these “Second Saturday” events. Members are planning on starting up clubs at the local colleges they go to. One of the perks is that as a club you get access to the schools facilities which works out good for future meetings, screenings, etc. We have some graphics design skills within our chapter and are planning to make flyers, bumper stickers, and small things like that. Arya San Francisco Sub Chapter Had a meeting between some core members to talk about what they could do to get more people active and generally how to bring in new members. Also ordered a ZeitgeistMovie.com banner. -Dan Ventura Sub Chapter Had a meeting last Tuesday. We will be attending a city meeting regarding permanent security cameras in a certain part of town. Cameras are going up because of violence and vandalism and we see this as a good way to bring up the movements understandings to people who otherwise wouldn’t think of what causes these problems in the first place. Participating in the state-wide banner activism next week. We want to start an ongoing calendar to keep track of events way in advance because we’re finding that if we want to set up a booth at an event we usually have to act on it at least a couple months prior. -Danette Los Angeles Sub Chapter Had a recent meeting, 20 attended, people from Ventura and Santa Barbara showed up. Lots of new faces. Handed out introductory guide to activism to members at meeting. Membership on the whole is active. I’m struck by the number of people carrying on projects in their own time. Looking to further projects that typically get discussed which are promotional materials. We had some members who talked about having access to events and venues for low cost or for free as because of the type of work they do, -Eevee Had a good Day-Z, talked to an anti-Obama-health care rep. about the movement. Also we have some musicians (Sebastion and Sean) spreading TZM awareness through their music. -Brandon San Diego Sub Chapter Held a screening for the film “The End of Poverty” at local community center. 30 people attented. Before the screening we brought up several aspects of TZM/TVP to anybody who many not of been familiar with the subject material to clarify what we were representing before we started the film since the film doesn’t really go into any solutions. We also had several materials laid out with Dvds, brochures, etc. and people grabbed a healthy amount of those as they came in and left. Also displayed our ZeitgeistMovie.com banner outside the venue. I highly suggest checking out your local community centers for screenings or events. Next event were planning will be sort of a workshop format with several lap tops set up in different sections around the room where one section will be education on the monetary system, another may show technological understandings about transportation, city systems, etc. -El Don Misrepresenting the Movement If a group presents itself as an official TZM group and your unsure of what they are, unsure of their message and haven’t hear of them before, check with Jason, Thunder, Gilbert, or Jenn because when a group misrepresents themselves as the movement its damaging. Do not participate in the ‘noise’ in such an event. -Jason Activism Tip When you’re out there doing an event or at a festival, screening etc a handy tool is having an ‘email address sign up form’. People get bombarded with information so much that if all your giving someone is a card or flyer the probability of follow up is very low. If you grab their emails at your event then that opens up the channel to actually send them a link to join and get involved. -Jason RSS Feeds I’ve assembled every chapter’s news/event feed from their sites so that people can see what’s happening in each chapter in one place, all at once Fill out this document to submit your sub chapters site. https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dFVURHZpZ3RLOGJuVUVCS2J1c3BYcGc6MQ#gid=0 Text Plus An easy way to keep in touch with your Chapter members. An app. on I-Phone and I-Pod – however you don’t need an I-Phone to use it. Text Plus is basically a “text” chat room. We can coordinate, set meeting times, and bounce ideas off each other via text. -Danette State-Wide Banner Activism Having first state-wide banner activism Wednesday Sept. 8th from 2 – 6 pm. Orange County, Ventura County, San Diego, and Los Angeles Sub Chapters are participating by going out with their banners above freeways and in busy intersections to promote the movement. Displaying banners above freeways is called ‘Freeway Blogging”. Freeway blogging is its own thing, there’s more to it than just taking a banner up over a freeway. Anyone who plans on freeway blogging should review these links: http://zmca.org/index.php/take-action/projects Review the vehicle and highway codes, know the ins and outs, and know the language needed to interact with authorities. http://www.freewayblogging.com/ Learn from the countless others who have gone out and done this Active Teams: Communication Team – includes anyone who has conversations about TZM, people who create media, people putting on events, screenings, etc. Lecture Team – Email Thunder@zmca.org if you have interest in lecturing. Linguistics Team – Translates the literature and media of the movement into as many languages as possible. If you’ve got anyone who strolls into your chapter and has talent in any of these areas, point them to one of these teams. Zeitgeist 1 Update Peter updated the first Zeitgeist Movie. As the conversation evolves, some of the things originally in the film are no longer relevant to the problems we address, as to not confuse people who come to the movement now. New Book for Reading List Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds Thu, 09 Sep 2010 20:01:12 -0400 http://www.zmca.org/index.php/forum-a-resources/forum/7-chapter-discussions/529-net-neutrality#529 I found this article about net neutrality. Do you guys think this can affect the TZ movement? http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/company-news/google-verizon-fcc-war-over-internets-future/19605776/ Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:40:39 -0400 http://www.zmca.org/index.php/forum-a-resources/forum/7-chapter-discussions/528-how-decisions-are-arrived-at-a-thread-from-tzm#528 There was a radio show done last week on V-radio with Peter Joseph and Douglas Mallette on the topic of Arriving At Decisions in an RBE. There have been a couple people in the global forum continuously projecting the value system of 'government' onto the Zeitgeist Movement and (in my view) stay stuck as stone in their views regardless of the reasoning offered. So if there is a stubborn person in your chapter that can't talk about anything else, or you (reading this post right now) are the stubborn person that claims you're part of the movement - I came across this well written reply that sums up the entire "way" things are done right now. Right now the movement projects teams operate in a similar fashion to the Venus Project's Interdisciplinary Teams vision to the best of our ability. One reason why many people who are active in the movement aren't asking questions about it being run like a democracy is because they did their homework. They read the Zeitgeist Movement Orientation Guide where democracy is discussed. From page 60 of TZM Orientation Guide: Interdisciplinary Teams would be selected and organized by the Central Database Program, based on what they have already contributed to the system. This is a true "election", based on what a person has done, not what they say they will do. Please see that entire page 60 for more information on the concept of "democracy". A central supporter database with skills assessment has been proposed and is in development. In the meantime, people who lead projects for the chapters communication, linguistics team, development team, the newsletter team, and the moderation team for example, are usually people that get work done and have stepped up and proven themselves dependable and knowledgeable of the movement material such as the Orientation Guide. If they don't do anything, another volunteer eventually steps in to pick up slack. The positions are entirely voluntary, but the people who volunteer for projects tend to volunteer for projects they have experience in and tend to do so generously without pay because they agree with the existing direction of the movement as outlined in the Venus Project literature and website and the Movement Orientation Guide. The material is freely available online for anyone with an internet connection to download and read and has been translated into many languages. People who are familiar with this material will know that there is no mention or suggestion of the intent to run the movement via a free-for-all, feel-good, democratic voting system nor do they desire such a system be put into place because they are aware that with our current environmental conditioning, we would inevitably end up with a system that operates like ...uh...a government or corporation with strict rules and regulations and an elected committee to enforce those rules. ZM folks recognize that it's not everyone's input that is desirable but rather the input of those who have proven their skills and expertise in some way that would lend solution to the given problem. As we grow as a movement, we will have access to an even larger pool of volunteer talents. If what we did as a movement right now was distribute material resources without a technical solution set up to serve as the Central Database for the allocation of those resources, then I would see merit in questioning all over the place who is in control of those resources and discuss ways to avoid corruption, but that simply isn't the case. What we do is organize networks to spread the word about a global RBE and educate the world on why this is necessary. From the top to the bottom we are distributing the same digital materials for educational purposes, replicating ourselves like a hologram. There is not even a hierarchy to access the material we distribute. It is freely available to all, so long as we have had the volunteers to translate it into your language. This is not to say the project teams don't take into account the views of volunteers on the team, as they absolutely do. They are collaborative teams that meet for the purposes of contributions and constructive feedback to further our goals. We are all seeking the best solutions toward our awareness goal of critical mass. It's when suggestions fall outside of the movement's defining material about our direction that you will find people suddenly aren't as supportive. It's not any big mystery to be uncovered and exposed that this occurs. It's the ideas presented in those materials that are the very glue that hold us together as a unified movement. We are the activist arm of the Venus Project. There is nothing covert about that; it's written all over our materials. Public acknowledgment in support of the movement IS a person's completely voluntary "vote" for what we are doing, so I recommend people become as familiar with it as possible before representing themselves as supporters. Rest assured, it's not as if someone who wishes to rewrite our Orientation Guide to reflect a democratic incarnation would get denied resources in a global, RBE because they disagreed with how we operate. If anyone is seriously afraid of that, it's unfortunate; they have no understanding of our movement's values and are projecting onto us a government structure they are more familiar with, such as socialism or communism. Also, it's important to mention, we're not the only movement on the planet. Movements and non-profits are practically the 'new black' in today's dismal economic and ecological climate. If you find the Venus Project and Zeitgeist Movement to be lacking in vision and direction, chances are the movement that is more your style is only a few mouse clicks away. Or, you could always start your own and put your ideas out there for the world to check out. The evolution of the most workable processes will prevail over time. Let's all work towards positive change in the ways we feel most impassioned to do so. There is plenty of room on earth for people to explore options that bring positive change. Cheers to all who are truly dedicated educating the world about a global, resource-based economy in they way they see fit: within and without TZM. - TZM Coordinator Wed, 08 Sep 2010 23:38:55 -0400 http://www.zmca.org/index.php/forum-a-resources/forum/7-chapter-discussions/527-zeitgeist-movement-global-newsletter-issue-2#527 The 2nd issue of The Zeitgeist Movement newsletter has been published. View & Read online: Here (http://www.calameo.com/read/00038202889baecee94b3) Or download PDF version: Here (http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/English%20NL%20Aug-Sep-2010.pdf) Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:34:52 -0400 http://www.zmca.org/index.php/forum-a-resources/forum/6-announcements/526-changing-over-newsletter-mailing-system-reopt-in#526 Hi Everyone, A good problem to have is a userlist for the ZMCA Newsletter that is getting so large that we have to find a new method of sending it out! As of right now there are well over 800 people on the mailing list for the newsletter. Unfortunately the new service does not allow for import of a current user list. So people are going to have to re-opt in (re-sign up) for the Newsletter at this point. The way to do this is to go to the www.zmca.org homepage and enter your email in the signup box. Or do it here [center] Re-subscribe to ZMCA Newsletter by Email [/center] (http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=ZmcaNewsletter loc=en_US) Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:04:03 -0400 http://www.zmca.org/index.php/forum-a-resources/forum/7-chapter-discussions/525-why-tzm-is-not-at-q9-11q-movement#525 Since this day is upon once again I'm posting a blogpost from the CA Coordinator here: Howard Zinn was asked to speak to a Jewish group on the topic of the Holocaust while he was teaching at Boston University in the 1980’s. The anticipated topic from the faculty was WWII and the genocide of 6 million Jews. Instead he ended up speaking about the US-supported death squads in Central America that caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of peasants in Guatemala and El Salvador, victims of American Policy. There was an article published a week later that was a strong objection to extending the moral issue of Jews in Europe during the war to people in other parts of the world in our current time. The article claimed the Holocaust was a unique event and the author was outraged that since Zinn was invited to speak about the Holocaust, instead he spoke of other matters. Zinn’s point is that the memory of the Holocaust should not be encircled by barbed wire. It should not be morally ghettoized, that is: kept isolated and separate from other atrocities in history. Why? Because to remember what happened to 6 millions Jews serves no important purpose unless it arouses the indignation, anger and action against all atrocities, anywhere in the world. At the core of the memory of the Holocaust is a horror that should not be forgotten. But around that core, whose integrity needs no enhancement, there has grown up an industry of memorialists who labor to keep the memory alive for purposes of their own. Such as: Preserving one’s identity, Zionist thought uses the memory to justify Israel’s war on Palestine. And politician can be seen in the course of history to use the memory for voter influence. When understood in this context, the awful event is truly ghettoized. Now, replace the statements I’ve just read with 9/11 in place of the word Holocaust. To build a wall of uniqueness around 9/11 (or the Holocaust, or Iraq, or Vietnam) is to abandon the idea that humankind is all one, that all people are deserving of equal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If we are to take seriously any admonition that 9/11 was “Unacceptable” we must ask ourselves (as we observe other atrocities in the world around us) if we are using the argument as a beginning or and end to our moral concern. This is why TZM in not a 9/11 movement. What happened to the citizens of the US from 9/11 (or the Jews of the Holocaust of WWII) is unique in its details, but it shares universal characteristics with many other events in human history. (ie. The Atlantic Slave Trade, the genocide of the American Indians, and the injuries and deaths of millions of working people who have been victimized by capitalist ethos, that put profit before human life. The outcomes themselves, if taken as ALL unacceptable outcomes, then a question must be brought forth as to how can society create better outcomes? And that’s where the conversation from The Zeitgeist Movement, The Venus Project and a Resource Based-Economy comes in. We are not here to fight with the establishment, or to be anti-anything, but to encourage a bio-social pressure via awareness and education about the root-causes of the outcomes themselves. Mon, 06 Sep 2010 22:30:29 -0400 http://www.zmca.org/index.php/forum-a-resources/forum/7-chapter-discussions/521-things-our-movement-should-do#523 Hello and thank you for responding. The Movement isn't a "should" or "shouldn't" be doing "this or that" group. Such as you find with a typical organization, political party or company. So WE the one’s who’ve received spiritual awaking from zeitgeist and are essentially the people who’ve promoted the Zeitgeist movement in the first place shouldn’t have a say in what the TMZ should and shouldn’t do to better our chances of success in the future. Let me ask you this. Why is there a suggestion box if the suggestion isn’t to be considered? Everyone can learn from everyone. Like you. You are telling me this isn’t a should or shouldn’t be doing site. Then what is it? Just a place where the Zeitgeist movement can tally up how many supporters they have world wide. A place to chat with others just to make you feel happy because you’re not alone in your beliefs. A place where you read about up coming events. It can be all these things but not a place to maybe enlighten others on what the TMZ should do to help ensure success. And the goal here unity. There is a difference between unity and uniformity. I was using the word “unity” to describe all the groups coming together as one. To ultimately accomplish much more then just ourselves. Because like us they are enlightening others but without seeing the end goal of the resource based economy. If one sees TZM with the view of: "...just some little conspiracy group separated from one of countless others groups..." It suggests a grave misunderstanding of the core tenets of The Venus Project and the Zeitgeist Movement itself. A projection of personal view onto the movement is often a cause for distortion of what it is. Look I do not see the Zeitgeist movement as a “little conspiracy group” because I believe in everything the Zeitgeist works to accomplish. How does that make sense. I also do not have a personal view of the Venus Project and the Zeitgeist movement it‘s pretty self explanatory. All I was trying to do was prove my point in saying we would be better off working together with other groups instead of apart because I honestly don’t see why it wouldn’t be. There is no conspiracy in understanding a systems-approach to resource management and evolving out of a mode of scarcity via the application of the scientific method to social concerns (ie humane application of technology uninhibited by monetary constraints.) Of course there is no conspiracy relating to that but the mainstream media has the people believing that it is what organizations like us are. You may not like the word organization but that’s what we are. We are a group of people working together to accomplish a common goal. Like Peter Joseph said in his interview people all the time are using the scientific method even without realizing it everyday. I most certainly thought out how coming together with other groups could greatly help our cause. I’ll end with that. Thanks for suggesting that I watch “where we are going” and “where we are now”. I’ve been meaning to watch it but I’ve been studying other things lately. You know the internet being the ultimate source for information and all. Sun, 22 Aug 2010 02:01:07 -0400 http://www.zmca.org/index.php/forum-a-resources/forum/7-chapter-discussions/516-some-of-my-concerns#520 I agree with El Don. If we can educate a majority of people, especially those who work in law enforcement and energy distribution, that those elites won't have the power to stop us from putting the Resource Based Economy forward. Education is definitely key, but isn't also they way we approach people in presenting these ideas? Like how Jacque Fresco managed to dismantle that Klu Klux Clan group in a month. I'm guessing he had to be careful how he approached to educate them. Fri, 20 Aug 2010 05:03:53 -0400 http://www.zmca.org/index.php/forum-a-resources/forum/4-projects-and-events/519-venus-project-world-tour-in-canada#519 As of right now (August 2010) Canada will be the closet the Venus Project World Tours will come to the United States. That being the case, there are some cities (Like Toronto or Vancouver) that are easy destinations for people in the US to attend. Please help promote these lecture dates on your chapter sites. All the graphics, videos and other information are posted below. In Solidarity, Social Design --------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear TZM Members, Many US locations are quite close and are actually driveable and many more are just a short quick flight away. This will be a very unique opportunity to meet and hear Jacque as a tour such as this featuring himself will likely not happen again. We are also hoping that some very close chapters, those just over the boarders could actively promote the lectures nearest them. We will be contacting these individuals ourselves in these chapters but still an email blast would also go a long way. We can provide any materials such as web posters and flyer hand outs and I can re-design any materials for chapters that want a personal touch. This is a great opportunity for both Canada and the US to be apart of this Venus Project tour. Please let me know if you have any questions at all. And anyway that we can help US chapters to become apart of this great opportunity we will make ourselves available. Thanks, Cliff TZM Canada [center] --> Link directly to Tickets and Event Dates Sun, 15 Aug 2010 20:36:26 -0400