Happiness Event Recap and Celebration

Sustainable Seattle is getting a reputation for putting on fantastic events. I say this as a completely unbiased source; Sustainable Seattle events with the aid of collaborators, performers and our dedicated donors truly are unique and wonderful outings that inspire, educate and entertain.

The Good Sheppard Center as a venue is beautiful. Our event corresponded with sunset and the stain glass windows colored our faces with reds, blues and yellows as Alan AtKisson took to the stage to perform a few of his witty and insightful songs and deliver a informative speech about the history of Sustainable Seattle. He spoke about the first meetings, the intents and the decisions that the group of founders made back in 1991 with a few winks and rib pokes to his fellow founders as they listened, shouted out anecdotes and laughed and laughed.

The night was a collection of talks, songs, music, potent potables, documentaries and socialization. The night started with a powerful performance by local band "Now We Are Six," a group that reminds one of "Muse," "Spoon," and an early "U2." We all crammed into the space which was not sufficient for the amount of revelers that arrived and we sampled food, booze and mingled with the founders raising a ruckus that lifted our hearts.

We showed a film documentary from the early nineties where the founders were featured talking about the launching of Sustainable Seattle. The crowd laughed, jeered and cheered when their younger versions of themselves spoke to the camera about their vision of the future. Many people shouted out at the screen yelling advice like "Get a haircut!" or "Shave!" The film brought back memories and challenged us as many of the issues and problems that the younger versions of the founders brought forth still are problems that we have yet to be solved.

We exceeded our fund-raising goals even when you include the ten percent offering that we are turning over to the Red cross for Japanese Tsunami relief. We would never had made our goals if not for the generosity of every single donor that reached deep into their own pockets and gave to an organization that is creating and maintaining innovated programs, projects and communication that will lead us to be more happier, more sustainable and more content.

Thank you for anyone who gave and thank you for any who attended, spread the word either word of mouth or social media. We really appreciate it and we will use your time and trust to bring about our mission "to be a resource and catalyst for positive change," by continuing to tie all of our work to our Happiness Initiative work.

Our programs and projects are based in and supportive of our indicator work. Our Happiness Initiative propagates and permeates all of our work. We are focused on the results and we have re-crafted and retrofitted all of our existing programs to be aligned with the Happiness Initiative. We are measuring our success and our work by the nine domains of happiness and targeting those domains in which the greater Seattle area scored low upon. We have even created a new program that focuses on individual actions and lifestyle changes called The Flow Campaign.

We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to all our partners and collaborators including: Taylor Shellfish, Honest Tea, Dry Soda, Yes! Magazine, Essential Baking, Ideal Network, EOS Alliance, Now We Are Six and many more. THANK YOU!

Sustainable Seattle’s Annual Event and Awards: An Evening in 7 Acts!

Get ready for Sustainable Seattle’s Annual Event and Awards: An Evening in 7 Acts! It will be held on Thursday December 16^th at Hidmo from 5-9pm. You can register now. Joining us for the occasion will be Pursuit of a Green Planet and Sustainable Central District.

We have been working to ensure this isn’t going to be your typical “annual event” snoozefest. Attendees should be prepared to be engaged, laugh out loud, and not know exactly what to expect next. Gelatiamo, Macrina, and Grand Central Bakery have all graciously agreed to supply treats to keep our tummies pleased throughout the night.

After an opportunity for members of the audience to win a number of truly unique prizes, John de Graaf, national coordinator of Take Back Your Time, and co-author of the best-selling Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, will help highlight our current work on the Gross National Happiness Project. Attendees will also have the opportunity to “figure out who”, as we highlight our volunteers in limerick form.

A silent auction will take place throughout the evening with proceeds directly supporting Sustainable Seattle. To see a list of auction items (still being updated), visit the event page. There you will also find out what each of the 7 acts will be for the evening!

Be sure to get your tickets and expect a memorable experience. We are all looking forward to it!

Vicki Robin Teleclasses Opportunities

Vicki Robin is co-author with Joe Dominguez of the national best-seller, Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving Financial Independence (Viking Penguin, 1992), available now in eleven languages. The official portal of the book is www.yourmoneyoryourlife.info which connects readers to support materials for implementing the nine-step program and to the networks of educators and practitioners.

Vicki has lectured widely and appeared on hundreds of radio and television shows, including “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “Good Morning America” and National Public Radio’s “Weekend Edition” and “Morning Edition”; she has also been featured in People Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Woman’s Day, Newsweek, Utne Magazine and TheNew York Times. Newspapers around the world have reported on her work on lowering consumption in North America. Fluent in Spanish, she traveled to Europe in the spring of 1997 to introduce the Spanish translation of Your Money or Your Life. In Mayof 2002, she did an eight-day publicity tour in Taiwan for the Chinese release. Both trips resulted in Your Money or Your Life becoming a bestseller in those countries.

Invitation to participate in 2 free learning calls ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Greetings! We're in the final week of The Whole Enchilada: Money, Happiness and Enough teleclass. I've loved sharing the 10 principles and 10 practices of living at that peak of fulfillment called "enough." Isn't "enough" an obvious measure for happiness? When we don't have enough, we're surely not happy, but too much is also a problem. Excess just gets in the way, whether it's being too busy or in debt or struggling to zip your clothes. I want to invite you to two free opportunities to hear more about enough and money and happiness. The first in coming right up! On Thursday, October 28, 10-1:30 AM PST I'm featured on the Enlightened Business Summit. Click here to join the conference and my conversation with the conference host Chip Conley.

JOHN ROBBINS ON "JUST ENOUGH" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please also join me for the Whole Enchilada Bonus Class with John Robbins on November 8, 5.15-6.30 PM PST. You can read more about John at his website if you don't already know this internationally acclaimed best selling author of Diet for a New America, May All be Fed, Food Revolution, Healthy at 100, and The New Good Life - and one of the most popular bloggers on Huffington Post. I'm calling this talk "Just Enough" because John so well and eloquently speaks both on justice and on "enoughness" (what it will take to live well together within the means of the earth.) Please join us. It's the final class for the Enchilada folks, and we've opened it for you to learn more and be inspired. Here's the link. LAST CALL FOR BRAZIL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Amazingly airfares to Brazil are actually down a bit from several weeks ago so if you have a passport you still have time to get your visa and join me on November 27 and a fantastic group of significant leaders in the field of sustainability for a 10-day Journey to the Heart of Brazil. We are meeting some of the prime change agents in Brazil as well as enjoying beauty, seeing sights, experiencing lush landscapes and learning from one of the best loved teachers of spirituality. As the days shorten here in the Pacific Northwest I am ever more grateful to be heading south in a month. You can come! If you have questions, email me at vickirobin [dot] 1 [at] gmail [dot] com. A MILLION DOLLAR GIVE-AWAY? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I've updated the ABOUT tab on my website, and if you click on the link to New Road Map Foundation you'll see some of the grants we made in 15 years of giving away all the proceeds from our educational offerings (including all proceeds from Your Money or Your Life 1992- 2004), which totaled $1,000,000 in 800 small grants. It's just one part of a joyful history of giving my best to shift us all to a thriving, just and sustainable future. Click too on the Community, Money, Happiness and Enough links to see my recent writing. I put a big dollop of heart and soul in those. Hope to "see" you soon on one of the teleclasses or on the trip. If you want me to come to speak to your group, be in touch at the email below! Vicki

Contact Information ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ vickirobin.1 [at] gmail.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Happy economy? The GNH Metric

John de Graff, author and filmmaker of “Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic” and writer of “What’s the Economy For Anyway” and founder of Take Back Your Time gave a fantastic brownbag tonight for Sustainable Seattle. Here is a summary.

Gross National Happiness is the measure Bhutan uses instead of the Gross National Product (GNP). Bhutan uses GNH to form policies and law, allocate resources and take action, just as the US uses the GNP. So what is the GNH? It has nine parts: Mental Health, Physical Health, Time Balance, Education, Cultural Vitality, Social Connection, Environmental Quality, Governance and Material Wellbeing. In other words, the gross national product counts for 1/9th of how the country measures itself.

What is the point of working such long hours, messing up the environment, allowing our health, community and family to fall into dilapidation just so we can have more stuff? Gallup, a marketing research company, surveys states in the US (Washington ranks #7 or so) and countries on our planet, and issues reports rating countries (Denmark is all smiley faces, US falls between 11 and 20 in any given year).

How is GNH measured? Surveys are taken- the Wellbeing Survey (June 2010). The Well-being Survey asks people to rate how strongly they agree whether “in most ways my life is close to ideal.” “The conditions of my life are ideal,” “I would change almost nothing in my life,” and how often they feel pleasant, cheerful, love, sad, anger, worry and stress. Nine scores are compiled for each part- these are the nine parts of the GNH. In the survey they are called: “The Pace of Your life” “Employment,” “Your Community,” “Social Support” (i.e. friends and family), “Psychological Wellbeing,” “Your Financial Security” “Your Culture and Education,” “Your Attitudes Toward Government and Public Institutions,” “Your Natural Environment” and You and Your Household.”

The Seattle City Council is looking into adopting the approach Greater Victoria took. Their summary report “The Happiness Index” (April 2009 www.victoriafoundation.bc.ca/web/node/353) is being used to raise questions, and, perhaps, at some point, provide answers. For government- towards more participation, for our personal lives- giving rather than spending money, volunteering and building trust in relationships. In our corporate governance where laws are imposed so that employees must elect half a board of directors, limiting work weeks to 40 or fewer hours, vacations and maternal leave is the law.

Gross National Happiness: USA gnhusa.org