Hi everyone!

I am writing to update you about a few things related to our work together. Let me begin by apologizing for the amount of time it has taken to reconvene the group. I will present options for monthly meetings in my next email.

Welcome to baby Zara
Undoubtedly many, if not all of you, have heard that Judy Tso gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Her name is Zara and she is a beauty!!! Congratulations Judy! and big welcome Zara!

Spiritual Leadership Development Project - WTC's current work plan
Donna and I have begun naming the work we are doing together with our partners the "Spiritual Leadership Development Project." This has come out of our attempts to secure funding that can sustain us as we develop the trainings, create more structured partnerships with you, build this community of partners, and begin creating other "products" in spiritual leadership development. As we have conceived the project, we see that this process will take at least three years. I am attaching two documents that I hope will make clear to you how we conceive the project, what activities are involved, and what time line we are working with. Please let me know if you are unable to open these documents.

As you review the work plan document, please consider things that you might be interested in working on -- obviously, there is more than enough work to go around.

Writing curriculum for the Internal dimension
As you can see from the work plan, February is "Internal" month. We've had two meetings so far this month to do work on the curriculum for the Internal dimension of spiritual leadership. The team so far has included Lisa, Gladys, Katsuko, Donna and me. Conversations are rich! As we work on this dimension and see the complexity of it, I am reminded of something Malidoma Some once said, "The cosmos is as big as it is in order to reflect the vastness within us." The enormity of the terrain becomes increasingly clear. We have our work cut out for us, but at this point I feel confident of our capacity to create something powerful and useful. Since we said anyone wishing to join in the planning is welcome to attend meetings, let me tell you that the next two meetings for the Internal are
Feb 18 - 9 to 12 and
Feb 24 - 9 to 12

Writing curriculum for the Interpersonal dimension
March is "Interpersonal" month. The schedule for meetings to develop curriculum for this dimension is
March 1 3 to 6
March 9 - 9 to 6
March 15 - 3 to 6
March 24 - 9 to 12

Meeting with E.D. and Board President of SUNY's CWIG
Donna and I met with two wonderful women from the Center for Women in State University of New York (Albany) Center in Government and Civil Society yesterday. We were introduced to them through Alethia who will begin working at the Center in the Fall. Alethia told them about Leading from Spirit and other spiritual leadership development work and they got very excited about the possibilities of working together. Our two-hour meeting was very rich -- a deep exchange of ideas, vision, dreams, possibilities. The meeting laid the foundation for ongoing connecting. We shall see where the journey takes us. It is unfolding.

Advertising upcoming LFS trainings
I am attaching a brochure that we have developed to market the LFS overview training. It's in a PDF format. Please have a look at it. If you have ideas for strengthening it, please let us know ASAP. I am going to redesign it a bit in order for it to be a self-mailer. We have found another really good printing deal for four-color printing and I want to get this off to the printer soon.

Please note that there are two upcoming dates for trainings:
April 1 (7 to 9) and April 2 (9 to 5) and May 13 (7 to 9) and May 14 (9 to 5). Please spread the word to people you think would be interested. We have LOTS of time to fill these two up, so LET'S DO IT!!!

Scholarships
Marketing, of course, brings up issues of scholarships. Donna and I have decided to try a technique here that another organization we know uses. For every 8 people who pay full price, we can offer 1 scholarship. This might be applied to one person who can't afford anything or spread out over 2, 3 or more people who just afford a part of the cost. We would, therefore, have to keep a running list of who needs scholarship and how much they need, and then as people who pay full price register, we can register people on the scholarship list on a first-come, first-served basis.

Almost done
I have a feeling that there's more to add -- but I need to send this off before I leave today, so I will. If more comes to mind, I will send another note.

Please respond with and questions, comments, of concerns that you might have about anything I've presented. Looking forward to seeing each of you again soon.

Meck