2011-09 Seattle, WA: Lighthouse-keepers' retreat

 

Storm and I would like to invite you to join us on a retreat that will aim to further our individual and communal explorations of the nature of both external and internal reality.

 

The retreat site, the Point Robinson Light Station and Lighthouse Keepers' Quarters (which is a park on Vashon Island near Seattle) offers pebbled beaches, wooded areas, and rather incredible vistas of sky, sea and bits of city with Mt Rainier and the Cascade mountain range in the background -- all for inspiration and personal and group exploration.

 

Facilities
The Lighthouse Keepers’ Quarters (LKQ) at Pt Robinson, Vashon Island, will be our home base.  Its kitchens, sleeping quarters, wifi and cellphone access should meet our needs.  However, if the weather and our interests suit, we have access to 7 acres or more of deep woods, including several old growth cedars and Douglas firs, a 25 minute car ride from the LKQ.  This woodsy location with a spacious cabin could accommodate our group gatherings including lunch for a day if we as a group so choose.

We will have 2 or possibly 3 cars available for off-site sojourns, ice cream emergencies and Vashon craft shopping as desired.

We will have catered lunches and dinners prepared by a local caterer who specializes in local, very fresh food (mainly vegetarian); we will also have plenty of breakfast fixings and Maxine also hopes to provide a couple of pre-prepared home made desserts such as berry crumble and cheesecake.  In addition we will have at least one dinner out, including a ferry ride.    We also have the possibility of exploring the small island community of Vashon.  

Dress
Dress will be casual, with various layers as the days may be cool, though warm in the sun; evenings will be cooling off; Sept weather is generally clear and becoming crisp.  Vashon is a very relaxed place.  Footwear for the beach might be tennis shoes, and these will also do for any walking in the woods.  Restaurant wear may also be very casual; not much formality in this part of the world.
 

We arrive Sunday September 25th and the retreat starts with dinner in the evening.  Then we have 5 full retreat days, Monday through Friday. Finally we leave on Saturday morning, October 1, after breakfast.

 

Depending upon the number of people (up to the maximum of 9) who confirm, we originally estimated the cost for lodging and food as somewhere between $575 and $840 for Sunday evening through Saturday breakfast (plus one dinner out extra). We're currently estimating around $700. As of Sept 6, 2011, with 6 attendees the costs are $635. per person.

 

~ Maxine and Storm

 

Current list of attendees:

Maxine

Storm

Aphrodite

Susan

Lucinda

Riddle

Note: The quarters allow 9 maximum for comfort and privacy

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Recommendations to PaB from the Vashon Island Retreaters

1. Issue:

• We need a place to present and discuss contentious political or religious issues.  Should we separate them out from our Pavilion discussions or integrate them? There are those who intentionally avoid those who have a need to voice with this group. Is PaB the appropriate audience for these individuals?

   

    Recommendation: 

• Any PaB avatar is invited to raise a topic, for a single theme session or a series of workshops, and schedule and present it at the Kira cafe, their own plot of land, the Pavilion or the Pub (small groups)
• If it is to take place at the Kira Café or the Pavilion the request should be presented to and processed through the Working Group who will approve and help schedule it.
• The language of the debate should be respectful
• These could be open invitations to all Pabbers (eg Sofia Placebo’s discussion on Islamic women.)
• Any political signs, banners or manifestos can be placed within a guardian’s plot but not at the Pavilion, Kira café or Pub without permission of the WG.
• Any such items should be signed and displayed in such a way as to be clearly not the views of PaB nor of the Kira Institute but only of the individual.

 

2. Issue:

• We need a way of greeting arrivals and departures to the Pavilion that doesn’t end up taking up a lot of space in the chat log.

 

Recommendation:

• Only the GOC welcomes each new arrival and departure in the chat box
• If others wish to welcome or say goodbye to an avi they can do so in an IM
• The GoC will explain this at their session.

 

3. Issue:

• We need a place to store the references (e.g. Recipes, Books, Videos, Translation hyperlinks, abstracts re virtual worlds) that are given out during chat sessions at the Pavilion and Kira Café. It can be cumbersome to search through the chat logs to find them again.

 

Recommendations:

• We set up a location in our wiki for this, linking each entry to the discussion it came from.
• Susan/ iwandertoo has agreed to do this. Thank you!

 

4. Issue:

• It is often difficult for the GoC, especially new Guardians, to deal with people at the Pavilion who are emotionally fragile, disruptive or disoriented. They need to have tools (skilful means) to diffuse a difficult situation.
• They also need to know what is appropriate to post in the log and what isn’t.

 

Recommendations:

• Stevenaia, in her role as mentor + perhaps someone else can help prepare/train new Guardians for such an occasion.
• We discuss this further at a Sunday Guardian meeting and in the WG

 

5. Issue:

• Sometimes the editorial comments in the chat log are opinionated and colour the discussion.

 

Recommendations:

• Editorial comments are limited to explanatory descriptive statements like,”x arrived at the Pavilion in a bus” or  “everybody did the ongokko exercise”.