Past GCI Salons

GREEN CENTURY SALON AT AUROVILLE – 1/24/05

Agenda

• Overview: GCI Activities, CIIS group, Auroville visit

• United Nations World Environment Day, San Francisco June 1-5
Green Cities Solutions Exhibit produced by Green Century Institute

• Auroville Sustainability Elements/Initiatives

• Auroville Exhibit at WED Green Cities Solutions

• Arcosanti and Auroville

• Califia Project - Bay Area Eco-City

• Discussion: Interconnections, synergies, plans

FESTIVAL CULTURE AND INTENTIONAL COMMUNITIES – 5/20/04

Guest Presenters:

Larry Harvey, founder Burning Man Festival
Stephen Trichter, Executive Director of ExploreSpirit; Producer, Altered States and the Spiritual Conference
Matthew Schmookler and Matt Berkeley, co-organizers of the Promise for Peace Festival

Discussion moderated by Michael Gosney

Topics explored include connections between the "new tribalism" evidenced by music and culture festivals worldwide and the intentional community movement and whether the temporary communities formed during a weeklong festival (or even a one-night dance party) evolve into actual living communities. We already know that the answer is in the affirmative, but the examples are few and hard to track. We wonder if better information exchange and collaboration between producers and groups lead to larger scale, more impactful intentional community projects.

GLOBAL INTERCOMMUNITY NETWORKING – 4/20/04

Guest Presenter:

Ron Anastasia - on Arcosanti, Damanhur and Auroville

Discussion moderated by Michael Gosney

The focus of the April Salon is on major intentional communities around the world - and networking with them. We welcome ideas and connections relating to larger intentional/sustainable communities.

This month we are pleased to welcome Ron Anastasia from Los Angeles, a prolific thinker, doer, and explorer of the new edge. Ron has participated intimately in 3 major intentional communities in recent years: Arcosanti, Damanhur, and Auroville. He will be sharing his experiences, insights and ideas from working with these inspiring projects, as well as helping us map out a strategy to network among these and other communities around the world in building the Green Community Network of sustainable resources. As part of his presentation Ron will share a current, information-intense 30-minute video on Auroville.

FINANCING STRATEGIES FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES – 3/23/04

Guest Presenter:

Rupert Ayton, Chief Financial Officer, Rudolf Steiner Foundation. Rupert will review the Rudolf Steiner Foundation’s innovative investment alternatives that can better serve the ideals of sustainable communities than banks or traditional mutual funds.

Roeland van Krieken, Chief Financial Officer of Fillmore Solari, LLC . Roeland has worked at Intel and Hewlett-Packard and founded three technology start-ups. Roeland has expertise in creating operational and business plans, as well as sophisticated financial analytic modeling tools.

Roeland will discuss business entity formation, capital structure formation, financing options, sustainability in accounting principles, asset distribution and shareholders' returns and rights.

Randi Ryan, Co-founder of ProMortgage, a real estate lending group located in Corte Madera. Randi provides real estate loans for purchasing residential property, land and construction. As a mortgage broker, she has access to hundreds of different loan programs such as 100% financing, stated income programs, equity lines of credit and conventional mortgages.

Randi will address creative solutions for a wide range of real estate financing scenarios, including credit issues and FICO scores and how they affect your life.

Reinhold Ziegler, Environmentally Sustainable Design and Technology Consultant; Associate Professor - Renewable Energy Systems, Vista College/U.C. Berkeley (1979-86); Co-Director of Synergy International; U.S. Operations Manager XGEM Hybrid Electric Vehicles. He is an inventor, educator, and co-author of Village One, The Integral Urban House Book, Global Eco-Estates and numerous other publications and video documentaries.

Reinhold will focus on the development of enterprises and service companies that support sustainable communities, and the creation of cooperatives, real-estate investment trusts, and new models for revenue-generating sustainable land projects.

Michael Gosney, Moderator
Managing Director, Green Century Institute

BAY AREA MICRO-COMMUNITIES - 2/26/04

This GCI Salon will focus on a theme that has continued to emerge at previous Salons and in recent exchanges: local co-housing and sustainable land community projects. Our discussion this month will be with and among representatives from co-housing projects in the San Francisco Bay Area.

GREEN COMMUNITY SALON WITH MATT GONZALEZ - 12/6/03

Presenting Progressives United for Gonzalez, we brought together San Francisco's leaders in sustainable community development, socially conscious technology and green finance to raise awareness in support of Matt Gonzalez's candidacy for Mayor of San Francisco.

Co-produced with Anon Salon, PlaNetwork, Fillmore Solari and Ursa Minor.

GREEN CENTURY SALON #2 AND ROUNDTABLE WITH DUANE ELGIN - 10/17/02

Green Century Institute
3220 Sacramento Street, San Francisco

Please join us for an evening of evolutionary ideas and practical steps towards changing our world of communities - and our world community.
Salon, followed by DJ Cybervixen in the main room, and side room video theaters.

Special Guest:

Duane Elgin
Duane is a well known and loved author, speaker, educator, and media activist with a life-long concern for sustainable living and sustainable communities. His books include Voluntary Simplicity, Promise Ahead, and Awakening Earth. He was formerly a senior social scientist at the think-tank SRI International where he co-authored numerous studies on the long-range future. Duane is also the co-founder of a national, non-partisan organization - Our Media Voice - that has launched a campaign for media accountability. Founder of AwakeningEarth.org

Moderators:

Henry Dakin, Founding Director, GCI
Henry S. Dakin Company

Michael Gosney, Founding Director, GCI
President, Verbum, Inc.

Marc Kasky, Founding Director, GCI
Director Emeritus, Fort Mason Center

GREEN CENTURY SALON #1 AND ROUNDTABLE
WITH KEVIN DANAHER AND HUEY JOHNSON - 8/22/02

We are pleased to announce the first Green Century Salon in San Francisco, a fund and awareness-raising event offered by the Green Century Institute.

Green Century Institute
3220 Sacramento Street, San Francisco

Please join us for an evening of evolutionary ideas and practical steps towards changing our world of communities - and our world community.

7 pm to 9 pm - Roundtable Discussion - with special guests
9 pm to 12 pm - Salon - with DJ Cybervixen in the main room, and side room video theaters

Roundtable Details
The discussion will include an overview of Green Century Institute activities, brief introduction and statements by guest speakers, open discussion on small and large intentional communities and co-housing developments, specific Bay Area resources and contacts for new community and co-housing developments, related events and initiatives.

Special Guests:

Kevin Danaher
Co-Founder, Global Exchange
Co-Director, Green Festival

Huey Johnson
Founder and President, Resource Renewal Institute
Former Secretary for Natural Resources, State of California
Founder and former President, Trust for Public Land

Moderators:

Henry Dakin, Founding Director, GCI
Henry S. Dakin Company

Michael Gosney, Founding Director, GCI
President, Verbum, Inc.

Marc Kasky, Founding Director, GCI
Director Emeritus, Fort Mason Center

 

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GCI Salons
A forum for education, networking and enjoyment. The Green Century Institute hosts a series of Salons to bring experts and visionaries in Sustainable Development to San Francisco to engage in interactive strategizing and knowledge sharing.