Summer, 2002, Update for Members and Volunteers
Contents
Alternatives Quarterly Revived!
Signs of the Times
United We Spend!
Progress Report
Board Members Elected
Members have re-elected Dick Kiefer of Des Moines, IA, and have elected Susan Phillips Davies of Omaha, NE, for three year terms as At Large Members of the Board of Directors. Congratulations, Dick and Susan.
Survey 2002 Report Summary
Alternatives is committed to be an interactive organization, producing and offering educational resources that meet our mission and that our stakeholders want. A stakeholder is anyone who has a stake in the health of Alternatives -- members, volunteers, customers, board members, staff members and others.
We have about a dozen committees, each one usually has at least one member of the board of directors on it to help relate the work of the committee to the board and vice versa.
An annual Stakeholders Survey is a effective way to relate to stakeholders in an open way. Phone calls and email between customers and staff are helpful but limited.
We received 275 responses from 2500 printed surveys and email to 6000 subscribers.
The respondents displayed a high level of involvement with the organization by reading the Update newsletter and the "Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway?" booklet. They also offered many comments on numerous subjects, including membership benefits, present and future resources and services, and our web site. The average age of the respondents is 44.5.
You're invited to add your comments on this report. We plan to conduct a survey each year, so you may submit questions for next year's survey.
Thanks for caring!
Gerald Iversen, National Coordinator
Survey Report Contents: I. Summary; II. Data; III. Observations and Notes; IV. Conclusions; V. Stakeholders' Comments (600+; not included). To read the full report, visit http://SimpleLiving.org/Archives/News/2002SurveyReport.php
30 Years of Alternatives - all on one CD!
Alternatives has been promoting social justice for 30 years. Now the bulk of its educational work is being released this fall on one CD-ROM.
The new collection -- "30 Years of Alternatives" -- shares the joy of simpler living, the urgency and practicality of sustainability, and the need for social justice.
This collection encourages and equips individuals to live more simply for their own happiness and for the health of Earth and all its creatures.
The CD-ROM allows anyone to "cut and paste" images and quotations electronically -- editors of paper-based and electronic publications, speakers, educators, organizers...
It accommodates both Mac & PC formats for only $15! It includes...
- Wedding Alternatives
- Simple Living 101: Toolbook for Activists
- Congregational Christmas Packets
- Who's Risen from the Dead, Anyway?--Lent & Easter
- Video Scripts: "Break Forth into Joy" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"
- Simpler Living Alternatives Calendar for Any Year
- Treasury of Celebrations
- Alternatives' Spanish resources
- Much more!
To read more, visit http://simpleliving.startlogic.com/indexoth.php?place=archives/MR/30YearsCD.php
Progress on Other Resources
"Worship Alternatives" has been postponed until 2004. In 2003, we plan to issue "The Simple Living Game," a year-round game similar to our popular "Christmas Game."
This fall we are working to issue a series of greeting cards called "Spirit of Simplicity" to help Send a Message!
We plan to issue our "Flex Talk" on an audio CD. You can help us convert the written speech to an audio-friendly script. If you have read it in "Simple Living 101" or elsewhere, and have ideas, please reply before September 1. To read an excerpt, visit [ http://www.SimpleLiving.org/main/WhatSimpleLiv.php ]
Success Stories
Share yours too! When you send a report or presentation, please send it on disk or email (in the body of the email message and as a simple text attachment), as well as in the mail. Please do not fax.
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Fairbanks
Fairbanks annually as a two day bazaar (bazaars are a big deal here) where tickets are sold for people to come MAKE as many gifts as time allows; low income families can get tickets in advance from Love, INC. (Love in the Name of Christ) for free. Everyone who attends is treated equally to help from the volunteers who help at the craft tables. Materials are donated by local businesses and service organizations. It's a wonderful bazaar that I liken to "God's gift workshop" - and I get to be one of the helper "Elves." The bazaar, organized by dedicated volunteers, is a fund-raiser for Love, INC. which is an organization coordinating help through local churches to the needy in the community.
Love, INC. is a great way to share God's love by serving others!
Rather than complaining about problems and the injustices of the world, I believe in "I will... (do what is needed)" rather than "we/or they should ____." Responsibility for change starts with the individual and improvements are measured one person at a time.
Leslye Korvola, Fairbanks, AK
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Thanks
This ($150) donation is in thanksgiving for the work of Mary Knightwright who led our "Unplug the Christmas Machine" workshop. - Tom Cordaro, St. Margaret Mary Parish, Naperville, IL
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Celebrating the Birthday of Jesus with a Parade
Each successive Christmas season has removed us further from the core value that Christmas is intended to serve as a Holiday - the birth or birthday of Jesus Christ.
This past Christmas members of St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church in Winter Park Florida decided that enough was enough. We decided that if Christ was going to be put back into Christmas it was our job and we had to take the initiative. We must aggressively go into our community and take the holiday back from those that remove Christ completely.
As a first step we decided to participate in the Winter Park Christmas Parade. While St. John has been a congregation in Winter Park, Florida, for nearly 50 years, they had never been in the parade, which has also grown during its 50 years as one of the biggest events of the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce. The parade has grown from a few participants to over 60 floats and annual attendance of well over 12,000.
Participating in the parade caught the attention of St. John's Elementary School that signed on with unbridled enthusiasm. They brought the many willing hands to construct a float for our entry in the parade.
After some discussion a design was agreed upon and the task of putting it all together began. Then the roadblocks that spring up began to spring up.
Insurance difficulties prevented us from using a flat bed truck for the float. Similar problems occurred when we found a large landscape trailer to use. Our original idea of having our youth choir ride on the float and sing Christmas carols had to be scrapped and replaced with a very large boom box.
Several years ago one of the "signature" statements St. John made to the Winter Park community was creating a huge Christmas tree by using thousands of white lights on the 60 foot bell in the front of the church. We duplicated this with an replica of the tower and the same white light tree surrounding the tower. This became our centerpiece on the float. Then the school children wrapped large empty boxes and placed the them around our light tree. The trailer was decorated with Christmas wrapping paper and dozens of helium balloons. Large brightly decorated poles held a banner that proclaimed "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS" in bright red, blue, green and yellow. More balloons adorned our banner to really set the birthday party tone.
We enlisted 8 members of the Christian Clown group that is a ministry for hospitals and nursing homes from St. John. They wore full costumes, and walked along the float handing out invitations for the parade goers to join us for Advent and Christmas services.
Our final contingent was made up of about 40 fourth and fifth graders who wore their school uniforms and carried their school banner. They had candy canes to hand out along the way. Clearly they enjoyed being in a real parade beyond anything that the adults could have ever imagined.
Our float and school children were featured on several news broadcasts about the parade. It was most interesting to hear the very positive comments from the parade watchers as they viewed our proactive and yet fun loving approach to putting Christ back into Christmas. Even several members of St. John that were not aware of our presence in the parade proudly shouted, "Hey, that's my church!" A parade watcher was over heard proudly telling his son who was perched on his fathers shoulders that he would be a student at that school next year.
It was a first step in our campaign to put Christ back into Christmas. The enthusiastic response had our people searching for more ways to do that. Next year we plan a "mall" where people can come "shop" at various booths sponsored by community groups, Habitat for Humanity, children's programs, and other community ministries. You can "purchase" a gift by making a donation and receive a certificate to present to their gift recipient.
At St. John Lutheran we are committed to putting Christ into Christmas! -- Steven L. Beumer
Editorials
by Gerald Iversen, National Coordinator
I lost a lot of money last year. I've learned that just because a Fund is socially responsible, doesn't mean it's safe.
Despite all the nervous investment analysts urging us to "stay the course," I've decided to learn from the experience. I'm doing what I've meant to do for a long time - give away a lot more and invest in funds that work to build community, like cooperatives.
I feel terrible that so much of my savings went into the black hole of the market when it could have been helping someone in need.
The recession has helped me do what I've been wanting to do - to be more generous - not just because there seem to be more needs during recession but because that lost money could have been doing somebody some good. I don't want that to happen again!
My faith has something to do with the shift too.
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Tyranny of Appearances
Rodale*, the respected health publisher of Prevention magazine and others, has started a new magazine for young adult women called "Organic Living." Why include fashions, as well as fitness and health care products? Because as vice chair Maria Rodale says (in an interview in LOHAS** Journal), the younger audience wants substance, but they want to look good too.... They want to do the right thing in their hearts, but they want to be comfortable and want to feel stylish while they're doing it."
To paraphrase: They want to DO GOOD... and they want to LOOK GOOD doing it.
I commend a long standing, respected organization for being in touch with times. I wish them well.
However, this is another example of why most men wear almost every day the most pervasive symbol of British imperialism - the neck tie. Or why women (mostly) buy enough cosmetics annually in North America to educate all the uneducated in the world! Or why people take diet pills or steroids to look like the latest waif or maxi-abs.
The tyranny of appearances. Heaven forbid that others see us the way we really are - physically, spiritually, intellectually, emotionally!
So we surround ourselves with stuff - expensive houses, multiple Earth-killing vehicles, inane collections. And we go into debt and mortgage our lives, dividing ourselves from our families to work to pay for all this stuff.
Let's consider living a lot more simply. Reduce stress and debt. Have more TIME to enjoy relationships. Stuff is a burden! It distracts from joy.
To break the tyranny of appearances, consider:
- Wearing simple clothing that keeps us warm or cool as needed and that meets our level of modesty.
- Living, working and worshipping in dwellings that meet our needs for shelter, that use as few resources as possible in construction and maintenance.
- Eating simple nutritious foods, processed as little as possible.
- Using alternative transportation - car pooling, bus, walking, bikes.
- Participating in sports and entertainment that respect people and the Earth.
Notice that money's not on the list. Some parts of this way of life costs more in cash than the "American Way" of doing it.
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*We carry an excellent book from Rodale, "The Joy of Simple Living."
**LOHAS means "Lifestyles of Health & Sustainability."
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The current mass-produced culture does not reward simple living, even though it capitalizes on "bargains." It's not a bargain if we don't need it or if its consequences (production, use and disposal) are not Earth-friendly. Sure pork and beans may be on sale this week at "Mall-Wart: your source for cheap plastic crap."* Instead, we buy fresh, locally grown, organic food instead because we care more about the Earth and her peoples than how great a bargain we got. Bargains are not for our benefit. They are inducements for us to buy more, or they reduce producers' overstocks, thereby encouraging them to produce even more!
An early step to simple living is frugality but we must not stop there.
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*Thanks to Northern Sun for that great bumper sticker!
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One volunteer who gives us a couple hours of her time almost every week loves to talk about her eleven great grandchildren. She is a lovely, kind, generous, helpful person.
Rita and I have given our two children permission not to have any children at all. Maybe we don't need more North Americans on the Earth now, no matter how bright and beautiful they are.
God told Adam and Eve to "go forth and multiply." That's one command humankind has obeyed! Now we can focus on preserving God's Creation.
Several options include adoption, foster-parenting, supporting orphanages, volunteering as a Big Brother/Big Sister.
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Outreach Report
Oct. 2000 - Oct. 2001
SLOw Down Network -- 32 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
Alternatives Quarterly Revived!
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 have started a free web site e-zine. Read the latest issue of "Alternatives' Reader" at http://simpleliving.startlogic.com/indexoth.php?place=archives/Review/AQIndex.php
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 just too much. So we sift and share what we consider the best, those items that deal with voluntary simplicity and our mission.
For Worth Reading, visit http://simpleliving.startlogic.com/indexoth.php?place=archives/InsiderInfoIndex.php#WorthReading
Also, get our free email newsletter by simply sending us your email address.
Called "Simply :60," it's meant to be read in under a minute.
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Page updated 20February 2013 (27 February 2003)
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MISSION: Equipping people of faith to challenge consumerism, live justly and celebrate responsibly // An all volunteer educational organization.