Fall/Winter, 2001, Update for Members and Volunteers
Contents
- Alternatives Review May Be Revived!
- Fuel Consumption
- Starving Children
- Car Pooling
- Short Takes
- From World Ark
- Yes
- Earth Island Journal
Quiet Moment
Our thoughts and prayers
are with the people affected
by the tragedy of September 11th.
Really scary ads...
Life Stuff Storage
Where do you put the stuff that you're about?
All that you are?
(from an ad for California Closets
in Simplycity: the Art of Living Well, April, 2001)
Speech.
Entirely optional.
(from a billboard for a cell phone/wireless communications company)
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Progress
Report
"Spirit of Simplicity: Alternative Quotes & Art" is out!
This collection of serious, humorous, religious and secular quotations and illustrations on voluntary simplicity, social justice and related topics is for personal inspiration and for publications.
A few of the illustrations are included in this issue. For an "Art Tour" of selections from the collection's graphics, visit http://www.simpleliving.org/catalog/ArtTour.php
For selected quotations, visit http://www.simpleliving.org/Archives/Lent/LentCal2001.php
Scheduled for 2003 is a collection called Worship Alternatives. For submission guidelines, contact us. The collection will focus on discipleship as seen through our mission.
Worship Alternatives is available for sponsorship/underwriting. We intend to publish the collection on paper (loose leaf format for easy use) and on CD-ROM (both Mac & PC on one disk).
The project was highly rated in a recent survey of Alternatives' customers, members and volunteers.
To meet the scheduled release date, $5000 is needed for production and some marketing.
Recognition of the sponsors normally includes credits in the collection itself and in the extensive national marketing campaign, but is negotiable.
Sponsorship is a contribution to Alternatives, a nonprofit organization, and is therefore tax deductible. We welcome sponsorships of $1000 or more. Donations of any size are welcome.
How You Can Help
If you would like to contribute to the 2002 edition of our most
widely-read, family-oriented booklet, "Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway?"
please send ideas before January 15, 2002. That gives you time to prepare
something during the holiday season when it's really on your mind. An item
may be new or not, original or not. If it's by someone else, include a complete
description of the source.
We can use...
- Art (line drawing, photo) that depicts the tension between faith and culture.
- Personal experiences (especially intergenerational ones) related to simplifying Christmas or finding meaning in relationships instead of stuff.
- Ideas for worshipful ceremonies or family rituals.
We print about 150,000 copies and reach many more through our website. We intend to translate much of it into Spanish. Jim and Kathy McGinnis of the Institute for Peace and Justice, St. Louis, have written the biblical reflections.
To read past editions of "Whose Birthday," go to our website. Click on Information, then Archives, then Collections, then Whose Birthday. Or go directly to http://www.simpleliving.org/Archives/XB/XBindex.php
The article by volunteer Christine Leonard Osterwalder in the 2000 edition was picked by "Horizon," the national women's magazine of the Presbyterian Church (USA). The cover photo by volunteer Phil Claeys, "Prayerful Santa," was carried on the United Methodist News Service web site and was reproduced in dozens of publications.
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Remember Alternatives in your will. Consider giving appreciated
securities. Contact us (or have your lawyer contact us) for more information.
Our legal name is "Alternative Lifestyles, Inc., dba Alternatives for Simple
Living." We appreciate cash donations (they're tax deductible!) and
project grants.
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When you see or hear about Alternatives in the news - local, regional,
national (church or secular), print or electronic (TV, radio, cable) - please
send us a copy or report it to us with a brief description (content, time,
place, date). We can't afford a "clip service." We need help seeing if our
outreach efforts are working.
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Take one or more media releases to your local editor(s) and identify
yourself as a supporter of Alternatives. All our current releases are available
on our web site under "Information: Media Releases."
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Download your choice(s) from the web site. Or we will send the release to
your local editor in your name if you send us the publication's name, editor's
name and editor's mail and/or email address. Contact us for a copy of your
choice(s). Tell us if you want them by mail or email.
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Urge your Christian & Community Access TV channels to air our
videos -- "Break Forth into Joy! Beyond a Consumer Lifestyle" and "Have
Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." We'll provide free copies if they agree
to preview them. We request that you (or they) return the copies to us. If
you get a local TV channel to air it, we'll provide support materials for
you to promote viewing and follow-up.
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Link us to your web site. Put an excerpt from one of our resources
on your web site and link it to us. For help, contact our WebMaster:
David@SimpleLiving.org.
- Share our Resource Guide (catalog) with your church group, at a conference you may attend, as part of a display, at a meeting. A donation to cover shipping is welcome, not required.
Recent Customer Comments
We get so many Customer Comments that we put them on our web site and update them weekly. Visit www.SimpleLiving.org, click on Feedback, or Archives.
"A co-worker ordered Spirit of Simplicity: Quotes & Art. Now we ALL want it. I just want to say what a blessing it is to find you!" Theresa McDermott, Tacoma, WAThank-you! I have finally met some Soul Mates! Ann Bobbit, Stokedale, NC
I am very pleased to have found your marvelous site; thank you very much for the work that you do. Erin Shoemate, Huntsville, AL
We just received the notebook [Spirit of Simplicity]. It looks like such a great and generous resource. Many thanks. Blessings, Vicki Robin [co-author of Your Money or Your Life]
Worth Reading
For past Worth Reading, visit http://SimpleLiving.org/Archives/InsiderInfoIndex.php#WorthReading
Also, get our free email newsletter.
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Alternatives Review May Be Revived!
Help Us Decide.
From the mid-'70's till the early '90's, Alternatives published "Alternatives:
a Quarterly Review." Originally the organization's newsletter, it evolved
so that most of the articles were reprinted from other publications, focusing
on a theme.
We hope to revive the quarterly. A prototype is on the web site at http://SimpleLiving.org/Review/Review.php. It is critical that you view it and give your feedback, either through email or the enclosed 2002 Stakeholder Survey.
We get some 50 magazines and newsletters here and want so much to share articles with our readers, but we cannot justify using the paper to publish them all. There is so much valuable, helpful information. In fact, there's too much. So we sift and share what we consider the best, those items that deal with voluntary simplicity and our mission.
Fuel Consumption
The Navy's Blue Angels have used 5.5 trillion gallons of kerosene-based jet
fuels for training alone. New Yorkers used 2.2 billion gallons of kerosene
in 1997 to keep warm. --Fun with Facts, Sojourners, Nov., 2001, p. 12. To
read more visit www.Sojo.net. To subscribe,
contact Alternatives.
Starving Children
According to the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO),
approximately 35,600 children died from conditions of starvation on Sept.
11, 2001. --Utne Reader, Nov., 2001, p. 112.
Car Pooling
If every commuter in the U.S. car pooled daily with just one person, the country would save 600,000 gallons of gas and keep 12 million pounds of pollution out of the atmosphere each year.
From "Quick Change" in Co-op America's "Real Money: saving, purchasing &
investing tips for saner, healthier living," Winter, 2000. Also in that issue
"The 5 Bulb Challenge: the case for compact fluorescent." To read more visit
www.RealMoney.org. To subscribe, contact
Alternatives.
Short Takes
- Americans carry $1 trillion in personal debt - or nearly $4,000 from every man, woman, and child - not including real-estate and mortgages.
- Hunger currently afflicts 830 million people worldwide, including 791 million in developing countries.
- 10 children are killed by gunfire in the United States each day.
- 75% of the 1,500 lbs. of trash thrown away annually by the average American can be eliminated by composting.
Short Takes from The Other Side, March, 2001. To read more visit www.TheOtherSide.org. To subscribe contact Alternatives.
- By 2020, 45% of the U.S. population under 18 will be non-white.
- 2.7 million manufacturing jobs have been lost in the United States since 1979.
- U.S. military spending is 10 times greater than China, Iraq, North Korea, and Cuba combined.
- 5.7 million Americans are currently incarcerated or on probation or parole, an increase of 209% since 1980.
Short Takes from The Other Side Magazine, May 2001, p.6
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From World Ark
Eating outIn 2000, we spent $376 billion on food and drink in U.S. restaurants. At $256 billion more than we spent in 1980. -National Restaurant Association. (from World Ark, Spring, 2001)
61,000 square miles = area of U.S. land devoted to roads and parking lots
80,000 square miles = area of U.S. land devoted to wheat crops
For every five cars added to the U.S. fleet, an area the size of a football field is covered with asphalt. Paved roads in the U.S. connected in a straight line could circle the Earth at the equator 157 times.
One potato, two potato.30 to 40 = number of potato varieties grown on a single farm in the Andean highlands
4 = number of potato varieties that make up 99% of U.S. potato crops
Old MacDonaldIn the United States, farmers over the age of 65 outnumber those under 35 by 3 to one. Source: World Watch Institute
From World Ark: ending hunger, saving the Earth (Heifer Project International), Summer, 2001, which also includes organic gardening tips. To read more visit www.Heifer.org.
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Yes
Average hourly earnings of an American white-collar man in 1973: $19.18
In 1997: $19.24
Stories appearing in the newspaper that are planted by public-relations firms on behalf of paying clients: 40%
Increase in the amount spent on prisons in the last 20 years nationwide compared to the increased spending on higher education: 6:1.
Revelations from "The page that counts" in Yes! A journal of positive futures, #19, Fall, 2001. To read more visit www.YesMagazine.org. To subscribe, contact Alternatives.
In the same issue on the featured theme "Technology: Who Chooses?" Guy Dauncey claims in "A sustainable energy plan for the U.S." - "All that is needed is the kinds of support Washington gives to the coal, oil, and gas industry be given to the sustainable energy industry instead. Wind, sun, and geothermal take us well over our goal. With this much energy, we can close down the nuclear plants and remove dams that block the rivers."
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Earth Island Journal
Prophetic word - An energy policy of drilling and burning and cutting conservation and leaving a legacy of nuclear waste is neither virtue nor wisdom. It is a sin. -Reverend Fred Small, Co-chair, religious witness for the earth (www.ReligiousWitness.org)
Small was arrested at the Department of Energy building after delivering a homily during the Prayer and Witness for the Earth demonstration in Washington D.C., May 3rd.
Harvesting the force of the North sea winds could generate three times the electricity currently consumed by Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and the U.K. -German Wind Energy Institute.
Western multinationals pay an estimated $80 billion a year in bribes to corrupt foreign governments - enough money to eradicate poverty worldwide.
Bottled waters claims to purity are bogus, says a study by the World Wildlife Fund. Selling bottled H2O for 1000 times the price of tap water has given birth to a $22 billion-a-year industry, but the WWF's tests show that bottled water - if it isn't the same as tap water - can be less healthy than the stuff that flows from your faucet. While there are strict laws that govern Municipal Water Quality, private water bottlers are unregulated. Each year, 1.5 million tons of plastic are used to manufacture single use water bottles. A quarter of all bottled water is imported from the other countries: the added transportation fuels the release of greenhouse gases. Even when tap water is of poor quality, it is cheaper to filter or boil it than to buy bottled water. "Clean water is a basic right," says WWF's Richard Holland. And the best way to deliver clean water is by "protecting our rivers, streams and wetlands."
Japanese Leadership - Garage sales may suffer but Japan's landfills will benefit from a new law that requires manufacturers of TV's, washing machines, air-conditioners and refrigerators to reclaim their products for recycling. Japanese shoppers, who cast off some 20 million used appliances every year, will pay an extra $20 to $40 to cover recycling costs.
"Schools should be commerce free zones," syndicated curmudgeon George Will thundered in a May 7th column. Will's outburst was provoked by a report from the Motherhood Project of the Institute for American Values that called on advertisers to stop promoting "an ethic of selfishness." What riled Will was the report's collection of insider quotes that referred to children as "Consumer cadets" capable of forming "Brand Associations" at the age of 12 months. Infants are "born to be consumers," the corporate memos report. Believing that "the consumer embryo begins to develop in the first year of existence," corporate marketing wizards are plotting a brave new world for "toddler age consumers" and the "preschool market." One consultant notes: "Advertising at its best is making people feel that, without the product, you're a loser. Kids are very sensitive to that."
From Earth Island Journal: news of the world environment, Autumn, 2001 (www.earthisland.org) ###
Mostly for Volunteers
You are one of Alternatives' 800+ volunteers! The network is growing by 100+ per year.
You will receive this newsletter about twice per year to give you updates on the SLOw Down Network. Your comments, questions, concerns and stories are welcome. Please save this newsletter in your SLOw Down folder. Thanks for the Feedback!
Some worthwhile items not printed in "Simple Living 101: Toolbook for Activists Shy or Bold" ($10) are available on our web site at http://www.simpleliving.org/main/sl101.php. Updates to the book will be posted on our website so that you can download them and add them to the book anytime.
In summer many conferences and conventions may include a workshop about Voluntary Simplicity. If you're on a steering committee, suggest such as workshop. We'll send you catalogs and brochures to display at events, even if a workshop is not offered.
Try scheduling a short series (fewer than 13 sessions) about year 'round simpler living in the winter, possibly during Lent, and about simplifying Christmas in the fall.
We have displays of books too. Please call early to schedule your display materials. The books become committed quickly, particularly in the fall.
If you have a presentation or outline that you are willing to share, send a copy.
Please take the media release "Alternatives Offers Speakers and Support for Simpler Living" to your local editor(s). Get it from us by mail or on our website anytime under Information: Media Releases: Non-Seasonal.
Also, if you do not want to be interviewed when reporters call us, mark that on the enclosed SLOw Down Reply.
Take the initiative. We'll back you up! Thanks again. - Sharene Schwarz, SLOw Down Coordinator, and Gerald Iversen, National Coordinator
Outreach Report
Oct. 2000 - Oct. 2001
SLOw Down Network -- 41 requests, 424 volunteers referred
Display Requests -- 24 requests (9 local)
Bulk Material Requests -- 3553 catalogs, 850 brochures; 20,000 "Whose Birthday" flyers
Consignment Sale Requests -- 11, averaging $500+/invoice
In-store Volunteer Hours -- Jan.-Dec., 2000: 470 hours, which is equivalent to 3 months of labor; 2001 (to Oct. 12): 482 hours = 3.1 months of labor
Ashley Nedeau-Owen, our former Business Manager, is now back on the staff.
Success Stories
Share yours too! When you send your presentation, please send it on disk or by email (in the body of the email message and as a simple text attachment), as well as in the mail, but not by fax.
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Alternative Christmas Markets have been a big interest for me for about 10 years. I started one at our church (Winter Park, Florida, Presbyterian) and the first year we had tables representing 5 nonprofit organizations, accepting donations and selling products, if they had them. We realized for those organizations, a little over $4,000 in 2 days. The market has grown over the years by leaps and bounds, we are now open to the community, have 17 organizations represented (all nonprofit) and we take in approximately $22,000 to $25,000 in 2 days. (ALL of this goes to the organizations.) We are limited by the size of our fellowship hall and church size to grow much more but we are very happy we are able to do this much.
Two years ago I found new chairmen for the market and decided to concentrate on writing a manual on how to conduct an Alternative Market. With some great help and lots of ideas from others, I put together an 80 page "Alternative Christmas Market Guide" and a floppy disk with all the forms, letters, media materials, etc. that can be printed out and duplicated.
Along with this I created a workshop on how to conduct a market. For the past 2 years I have been conducting these workshops across the U.S. wherever someone wants one. I have a slide presentation, an overhead projector Power Point step-by-step presentation, that takes about an hour. When they attend the workshop they receive the 80 page Market Guide and the floppy disk. The cost to take the workshop is $10, which just covers all the materials. The only requirement that I have is that when a church or organization contacts me to come to their facility, that they must invite all the churches in the area, regardless of denomination. That way the word is passed to as many as possible. My only charge is for transportation and housing.
When I flew to Houston last year I was housed in a church member's home and their only expense was the plane fare. We had 40 churches attend the workshop and as far as I have been able to tell, around 15 or 20 have started markets at their churches. In Orlando we have close to 30 churches conducting markets, and the last workshop I gave, had 15 churches attend, and I think all but one have started markets! This is sooooo exciting to me, because in my grandiose dreaming, I like to think that someday every church could conduct a market on some scale! Thank you for your time.
In Christ's Service, Sue Rudolph (suru@worldnet.att.net)
A resource to consider -- free Alternative Event Organizer's Kit.
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To read past issues of "Let's SLOw Down" newsletter, visit http://www.simpleliving.org/Archives/News/SLOwDownNews.php
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Yes, "Member Update" and "SLOw Down News" have been combined into one newsletter. We hope you approve.
Your comments are welcome.
On Our Website...
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We offer an "eStore" or Shopping Cart. This allows you to order resources
without typing the information into an order form. While in the eStore, just
click on the item code. You can view the items in your shopping cart and
take some out if you choose at any time before actually placing the order.
You can move between the eStore and its order form (or the Catalog and its order form) by using the "back" and "forward" buttons on your browser.
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We offer specials - 50% discounts on selected titles at
http://www.simpleliving.org/cgi-bin/Specials.pl
We add new items, so check back often.
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We keep adding articles to our web site archives for personal inspiration
& for editors at
http://SimpleLiving.org/Archives/index.php
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Our catalog has an alphabetical title index.
- We get so many Customer Comments that we now put them on our web site and update them weekly. Visit http://www.simpleliving.org/cgi-bin/blurb.pl
Email Newsletters
Look What You're Missing If You Don't Receive Alternatives' Free Email Newsletters!
- Announcements of new titles
- Encouraging information about valuable work being done by like-minded organizations
- Quick links to timely articles in Alternatives' expanding archives
- Simple ways to be involved in the Voluntary Simplicity movement.
To subscribe, simply send us your email address. If you change your mind, unsubscribing is easy; just tell us "personal email only."
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Need a speaker or workshop leader for a church event, a community club, a school? Alternatives "SLOw Down" Network now has over 800 North American volunteers.
Whose Birthday? Contest
WHOSE Birthday? "Contest"
Art's tricky. Each year we try to portray visually the tension between faith and culture to help people question the way we celebrate Christmas. Sometimes the point is obvious. Sometimes a caption for subtle art helps to focus the reader's mind.
The cover of "Whose Birthday Is it, Anyway?" for 2000 - Santa kneeling at the manger - provoked interesting, thoughtful responses. Some excerpts appear in the 2001 edition, plus a new piece of art.
This "contest" makes a good discussion starter - at home, at church, at work.
Use it and then tell us the results by February 15th. Your response can be as short or as long as you choose. Or write a caption for the picture. We will publish selected submissions.
Both the previous year's and the current art appear in "Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway?" which is released in early June. "Prayerful Santa" is available as a greeting card.
Page updated 20 February 2013 (27 February 2003)
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