A Conversation about Building Community
Learn how to build real community and connection online from people's who've done it from the ground up.
Free discussion panel on Thursday, September 22nd at 12pm ET
A Conversation about Building Community
Learn how to build real community and connection online from people's who've done it from the ground up.
Free discussion panel on Thursday, September 22nd at 12pm ET
Next week we’re hosting a very special discussion panel on building community. This is our first time running an event like this and the intention is to surface hard one insights from community leaders building community from the ground up. Our panelists include Ted Rau from Sociocracy for All, Patsy Eisenstein from Charles Eisenstein’s A New and Ancient Story community, and Brian Stout from Building Belonging.
Over the years, we’ve had a chance to connect meaningfully with all three people. We’ve been inspired by the sincerity of their effort to create meaningful exchange online. If you’re interested in building real belonging and community, this conversation will go deep into the reality of what works and what doesn’t.
Brian Stout is a systems convener, curator, and initiator of the Building Belonging collaborative. His background is in international conflict mediation, serving as a diplomat with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Washington DC and overseas. He also worked in philanthropy with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, before leaving in early 2016 to organize in response to the global rise of authoritarianism and far-right nationalism. He recently returned to his hometown in rural southern Oregon, where he lives with his wife and two children.
Ted is an advocate, trainer and consultant for self-governance. His main focus is sociocracy. After his PhD in linguistics and work in Academia, he co-founded Sociocracy For All and spends his days consulting, teaching and leading the member organization as Executive Director. Ted identifies as a transgender man; he has 5 children between 9 and 18. A German citizen he, has lived in Massachusetts since 2010. He is co-author of two books on self-governance, Many Voices One Song (2018) and Who Decides Who Decides (2021).
Patsy Kuo Eisenstein is a native of Taiwan. She moved to the US with her children and former husband, now her dear friend and family, Charles Eisenstein in 1998. She has been an entrepreneur across many fields since 1990. She's also an artist, graphic designer, naturalist, Tao practitioner, meditator, yogi and a playful child at heart. She is the co-founding host with Charles Eisenstein of A New and Ancient Story Community, a reverence based global community.
Hosted by Lorenz and Natasha Sell
We've been guiding and facilitating small group experiences since 2011. We started with hosting meetups in our living room in New York City. Lots of them. Over the years, we realized that group process is our thing. Today, we're the co-founders of Sutra, a platform that is home to thousands of people participating in group learning experiences. And our Transformational Teaching Online program has helped hundreds of people discover what's possible with relational spaces online.
Our work with Sutra has supported the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma, leadership programs at UNICEF and the Presencing Institute, as well as many other organizations and individuals in creating online learning experiences that foster deep connection and communication.
Our background integrates a masters study from the Harvard Graduate School of Education with Theory U work from MIT professor Otto Scharmer and Immunity To Change methodologies from Harvard professors Robert Keegan and Lisa Lahey as well as relational practices inspired by Thomas Hubl.
If you really knew us you would know... that we're both certified yoga teachers and we love meditating with our dog Dakota :-)
