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"Allow things to flow through you,
to enrich you, but not to fill you."
Reaching Out -- Finding Your Treasure, Jerry Scott, page 60

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Mike, Bazil, Lenny, Terry, Sue, Ceilia, Colin, Julie, Laura, Jill, Roberto, Ian, Nancy, Ross, Dave, Jeff, Mark and Dave, welcomed Mike and Jane to their first meeting.

Following a brief round of introductions, Mike reminded everyone the Crossroads Center will be closed on weekends this coming June, July and August, and thus be unavailable to host our Saturday meetings. Ian has secured meeting space at the DePaul University Library, corner of Kenmore & Fullerton, in Chicago. Our June meeting will be at DePaul.

Mike also reminded everyone of the tremendous generosity of the Crossroads Center. VSC has been meeting at the Center since 1998, and our hosts have been wonderful. The enthusiasm that ensues during our meetings often becomes a detriment to others using the space around us. We all need to remember to avoid conversations in the hallways, to keep swap items in our meeting room, and to vacate the building by 12:00 noon. Again, we greatly appreciate the Crossroads Center, and are very thankful for their support of our group, and of the simplicity movement.

We then began posting discussion topics. Following are brief overviews of each...

Part Time Income Opportunities (Laura)...
Working with Temps Agencies have their pros and cons:

A few pros include the variety of work one gets exposed to, the clarity one has of their role/responsibility within the organization; and the flexibility it offers.

The cons include not being respected by some staff members, not always getting the opportunity to do interesting work, the knowledge that it is temporary and that one will need to search another opportunity shortly if they want more income.

Tips:
Sign up with more than one agency;
Look for agencies that specialize in your area of expertise;
Know your value/worth

Other part-time income opportunities:
Participating in focus groups
Teaching what you know
Check out www.narms.com

The importance of making a good first impression when interviewing was stressed, even applicable for part-time/temp jobs.

What are you holding onto... why not let it go... How to be here now, have everything now... (Roberto)...
Here's a topic you needed to be there for. While hard to summarize, discussion included... Memories and stuff keep you from living more fully now. Review your perspective. You are who you are, not what you have. Live more fully now by being creative and by accepting the present. Find value in everything, including suffering.

Creating an intimate circle of Friends (Bazil)...
More great conversation of cultivating what is around you. Begin by being open to your local geography and to local groups. Find ways of volunteering locally -- it's a great way to meet and bond with others who have common points of interests. It's also a great way for others to see you "in action" -- to see your interests and talents. Just asking the question, "How can I create an intimate circle of friends?", puts things in motion -- when you're clear about what you are looking for, those things open up. Sometimes too, it is necessary to close a few doors -- friendships/relationships that have moved on, holding onto to things... let them go so others can enter.

Are we "intentionally" keeping VS Chicago small? (Laura)...
Many mixed opinions/attitudes shared, including:

Acknowledgment that we've never really asked the question.

We've been about attraction not promotion

Viewed as a support group by many

Fear that letting others in may mess up a "good thing"

While many people have attended a VS Chicago meeting at one time or another, few have remained part of the "core" group for one reason or another

While the VS Chicago meeting group size has remained relatively stable at 25-30 participants each time, the workshops that Mike now lead are exploding. Possibly because there is a specific focus and outcome.

The following question was posed but a consensus was not reached: Have we reached maximum efficiency/effectiveness for our current style of meeting focus and delivery?

No desire to advertise but open to informing others of this meeting

No one had a problem with a notice going into the Chicago Reader about the group as long as it didn't create additional work for them and some actually wanted the public to be notified of our meeting for a variety of reasons.

Negative events -- how can we transcend them into something good? (Lenny)...
Lenny hosted a great discussion on making better use of the many "negative experiences" we encounter every day. How do we avoid generating a negative response in return? Everyone faces many different kinds of stress, from the most common, to stresses from world events. When someone cuts us off in traffic, how do we respond? Is there something else we could do instead of stewing in anger and somewhere "down the road" returning the same, to someone else? Mike defused a conflict recently by simply listening to the person, and then agreeing with them -- they were angry, and there were reasons for their anger. The purpose for agreement wasn't to placate, but to acknowledge the situation and move quickly to a resolution. It would have been easier to argue a counterpoint, but little who have been resolved.

"Aligning Personal Finances with Values" (APFwV)-- YMOYL open discussion (Mike)...
Linda and Mike have held eight APFwV workshops since January. Based on the nine steps outlined in the book, Your Money or Your Life (YMOYL), the workshops focus on the core of the YMOYL program -- aligning your spending with your values. The first workshop includes an overview and use of the YMOYL program. Participants are then encouraged to track the spending from their wallets for 20 days, then call the Leniches. Response was so overwhelming, Linda and Mike offered follow-up workshop sessions. To date, approximately two dozen folks continue to track their spending, moving along to creating categories, monthly tabulations, wall charts, and asking THE alignment questions ("Did I receive fulfillment for spending this amount of my life energy?", "Is it in alignment with my purpose?", "How might this expenditure look if I didn't need to take money for the work I do?"). Some have even moved some of their resulting savings into 30 Year Treasury Bonds. Feedback includes "automatic" reductions in spending, "automatic" increases in income, feeling hopeful instead of hopeless, and getting the kids involved. Everyone reports increased satisfaction -- just the opposite of what our culture tells us, ie, we need more to be happy. APFwV is about learning to listen to your inner voice (to learn you even have an inner voice). The more you hear and listen to your inner voice, the less you hear the outsides voices -- as one increases, the other proportionally decreases. The workshops are held at a pair of Unity Churches in Hammond and Valparaiso, Indiana. If you'd like more information, contact Mike at Linda at VSCHICAGO@Juno.com.

We adjourned and closed the meeting space at 11:58am, to continue many fine conversations over lunch. For those keeping count, no rinsing hair in freshly squeezed lemon juice was mentioned today.
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(Recorded by Mike Lenich)