worldpeace:meetings [Assay and Acquisition of Radiopure Materials]

This page is read only. You can view the source, but not change it. Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong.
===== Meetings =====

==== Mid July  - see Doodle poll====
==== MINUTES: DC-Area Team Meeting at Plum Point on Saturday, June 11, 2016, 2-4pm ====
  * Members present:
    * Leader: Dr. Deidra Roach Quarles, MD (NIH)
    * Phyllis Chesley (Ret., IT Admin. Schl Bd.)
    * Sudha Haley, Ph.D. (Ret., Schl. Bd & U.S. Govt.)
    * Ms. Cheryl Hodge (Ret., U.S. Govt.)
    * Ms. Sherri Lumpkin (Nonprofit Business Owner, Visual Artist)

**Vision, Mission, and Statement of Purpose**

Dee Dee opened the meeting with prayer, followed by a review of the draft vision and mission statements for the project and the statement of purpose. There was little discussion of these at the time, but Sudha has subsequently proposed revisions: See [[worldpeace:bigpicture|The Big Picture]]. During a phone call after the meeting, Priscilla suggested that adjectives like “respectful” and “inclusive” could convey the spirit of interfaith cooperation in lieu of an explicit reference to faith traditions, which could alienate some by suggesting that this is primarily a “religious” event.  We agreed that everyone would give further consideration to the vision and mission statements and provide input prior to our next meeting on July 16 (tentative) so that they may be finalized at that time. 

**Festival Date** 

Proposed options are Wednesday, January 17 – Sunday, January 21, 2018 or Wednesday, January 16 – Sunday, January 20, 2019.  Dee Dee suggested that 3 years may be needed to plan an event of this scope, but Phyllis thinks that, in this age of social media and other advanced communications technology, it may be possible to plan on 2 years for now.  All committee members are encouraged to weigh in on the date as soon as possible (no later than 1 month from now), as obviously this is critically important to establishing timelines and to advertising.  

**Proposed Main Activities**

A conference on models for peaceful living is proposed as one of the main activities at the Festival.  Dee Dee briefly reviewed the list of 7 possible conference themes, including spirituality and interfaith cooperation, social and economic policies essential to building open, democratic, and humane societies, etc.  Cheryl observed that a conference with 7 different themes or “tracks” could be too diffuse and therefore ineffective in advancing key objectives of problem-solving and helping to develop and disseminate models for peaceful living.  She suggested that we may want to focus on one area with potential to have the greatest worldwide impact, such as universal high quality education.  Dee Dee explained that the 7 suggested themes actually represent a menu of possible topics that may be selected by participating communities based on their unique challenges in various domains (e.g., education; environmental protection; promoting gender equality and preventing violence against women, etc.).  A participating community could choose to focus on only one or more than one topic depending on local priorities and resources.  This led to a discussion of the format for the Festival, as it emerged that everyone did not understand up until this point that the festival will actually comprise multiple electronically linked festivals taking place simultaneously around the globe. 
 

**Festival Location and Format**  

Cape Town, SA is proposed as the “hub” or central site, as SA is the home of the proposed “Peace Champion” to be honored at this inaugural One World Festival, Rev. Desmond Tutu.  Table Mountain, the proposed site of the primary cultural celebration, is also located in Cape Town.  However, it will be important to emphasize in all future presentations about the Festival that there will be events taking place simultaneously all over the world, as originally proposed by Priscilla.  Phyllis suggested that we incorporate the phrase “virtual festival” into our brief description of One World, One Heart to immediately convey this concept to “techies”. Priscilla has since commented that “virtual festival” could suggest to some that the festival isn’t intended to be an actual physical event, and that perhaps we should think about something along the lines of “multiple synchronized festivals”.

**Festival Logo**

Also see Sherri shared several beautiful Festival logo designs that she created 3 years ago when a small group of us were contemplating organizing the inaugural festival to honor Nelson Mandela prior to his transition.  The design that we decided on at that time features a heart and a silhouette of Africa representing the Festival title we chose at that time, “One World, One Heart”.  Sudha pointed out that silhouetting only the African continent could suggest that the Festival is only about people who are of African descent.  Sherri said that the topic of making the logo more “global” had come up during initial discussions 3 years ago, but trying to silhouette the entire globe had proven to be technically very difficult (i.e., giving overall shape to such large empty spaces).  Silhouetting only Africa also helps to convey one of the key messages of the Festival (perhaps the key message):  that we are one human family and all descended from African ancestors. Many people are not aware that, according to our best science, homo sapiens originated in the Oldevai Gorge in East Africa and spread out over the globe from there.  It is a primary goal of the Festival to help make this fact common knowledge. During our phone call after the meeting, Priscilla suggested that we consider a flower design with Africa at the center and the other continents depicted on the surrounding petals, symbolizing the migration of our ancestors from our common ancestral home to all parts of the globe. A design such as this would be more inclusive, while still acknowledging the centrality of Africa.  She graciously offered to send a sketch of this design for the committee to consider.  The final Festival title and logo design must also be decided upon very quickly, as they will be needed for the first press kit to be developed by early August. 

**Festival Song**

Priscilla suggested that we reach out to a celebrity pop artist to compose an original theme song for the Festival.  Participating sites would be encouraged to adapt and perform the song as they see fit, but all sites would include the song in their activities.  Perhaps there could be a unifying opening ceremony where the song is performed.  “Off the top” Priscilla suggested Shakira, who performs the song “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)”.  Dee Dee chimed in Stevie Wonder, India Arie, and Janelle Monae. Hopefully there will be a bevy of international celebrity artists who will sign on to participate. This could be much fun for the committee to think about!  


**Additional Potential Partners/Sponsors and Funding Sources**

Before we could review the existing list of potential partners/sponsors, Phyllis and Sherri of one voice chimed, “Unity!”, providing double and triple endorsement of this idea, as Unity Churches International is already listed as a potential primary sponsor.   In particular, Phyllis said that Michael Beckwith’s church in California would be “all over this!”  T.D. Jakes was also mentioned as a potential partner.  Sherri suggested that we contact the organizers of activities related to the United Nations “International Decade for African Peoples” and the organizers of “The Year of the Girl.”  Organizers of “The Year of the Girl” have already developed press and activity kits that participating communities may use to develop their local programs.  Sherri also suggested that we strongly consider starting a crowd funding campaign using Indigogo, Kickstarter, etc. Dee Dee suggested that we look into partnering with an existing international network of communities engaged in innovative projects to protect the environment and slow the rate of climate change.

**Communications and Advertising**

Phyllis and Sherri led the discussion re:  the need to:  1) set up an on-line mechanism to support communication among planning committee members (e.g., a SharePoint site, etc.) Priscilla subsequently offered to set up a Wikipage that would allow us to collaboratively edit documents, etc.; 2) establish a presence on FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, etc; 3) set up a simple temporary website, to be followed by a more sophisticated one that will allow people to contribute goods and services; make donations, etc.; 4) set up a g-mail account, P.O. Box, Google mail, etc.  A communications subcommittee will be set up within the next month. (Fresh thought as I’m writing this: Would it help to think of One World, One Heart as an international Peace Olympics where broadcasters move from venue to venue to cover the largest events in each world region?  Just a thought.)  

**Festival Launch**     

For several months now Sudha’s brother, Arun Bhagwat, has been planning an international celebration of world unity and peace to take place in January – February, 2017 in his home town, Sarasota, FLA.  With Arun’s consent, Sudha suggested that the Sarasota Festival could serve as the platform for the launch of One World, One Heart.  Her preliminary plan for collaboration between the planning committees for the Sarasota and global festivals is as follows:       

**Proposed Organization and Planning**

A Steering Committee will be convened from the DC-Area and Sarasota Bay Area Teams to plan and provide oversight.  This Committee will include member-experts providing:
•	A Logo for this Project
•	IT for Website/Facebook/Social Media
•	Worldwide satellite groups’ connections
•	Monthly Newsletter
•	Press Kit
•	Potential Celebrity/Elected officials/Educational Institutions/Foundations as Sponsors
•	Interfaith/Non-profit/Service-oriented Contacts

**Proposed Activities**

This Project of One World One Heart will be launched in Sarasota, Florida, in February 2017, under the leadership of Arun Bhagwat and Deidra Quarles.  Activities, which would be live-streamed to worldwide satellite groups in India, South Africa, the Middle East, Canada, Europe, and other global areas will include:

  * An opening celebration involving International dancers, singers, musicians and artists
  * Celebrity statements in person or via video supporting our vision and mission
  * Deidra announcing a future 3-year plan to promote global peace and cooperation, to bring together the world’s most well-known social activists, artists, scientists and healers, to exchange information and to collaborate in developing sustainable solutions.

** Next Steps**

  - Conference call with Arun, Sudha, Dee Dee, and another member of the D.C. area planning team to begin developing detailed plans for festival launch. Development of an attractive press kit and perhaps a short video will be a top priority, as these will greatly enhance our chances of recruiting sponsors:  Week of June 20, 2016.  
  - Refine and finalize Festival concept:  June 11 – July 16, 2016
  - Set up communications subcommittee:  June 11 – June 25, 2016
  - Finalize Press Kit:  August 1, 2016
  - Enlist U.S. Organizational Sponsors:  August – November, 2016
  - Establish U.S. Planning Committee:  October – December, 2016
  - Inaugural U.S. Planning Committee Meeting:  January, 2017
  - Festival launch in Sarasota, FLA:  January – February, 2017
  - Establish Regional Planning Committees:  January – April, 2017
  - Inaugural Regional Planning Committee Meetings:  May, 2017
  - Inaugural Global Steering Committee Meeting:  June, 2017
  - Finalize U.S. Festival Plan:  June, 2017
  - Finalize regional Festival Plans:  October, 2017
  - One World Unity and Peace Festival:  January, 2018 (or this could be a warm-up to…)         
  - One World Unity and Peace Festival:  January, 2019

 **Next D.C. area Planning Committee meeting**
July 16, 2016 or thereabouts at the home of Dee Dee and Ernie Quarles (tentative).  A Doodle poll will be sent out to facilitate scheduling.
User Tools

Page Tools
