LBCreative! Connections #2

LBCreative! is having their next Connections Meeting tonight from 7:00pm-9:00pm as local artists, art collectives, and organizations assemble to hear progress from each of the collaborative teams, network, and learn about shared resources.

The meeting will be at:

Immanuel Community Center
3215 East 3rd Street
Long Beach, CA 90814

Getting Ready for Grand Opening

Our recent Community Pulse talked about our Grand Opening for the new Catalyst Space. It'll be this coming Saturday, Sept. 12th from 4-10pm. It coincides with the Latin American Parade & Festival which converges in the East Village right in front of our Space and it also coincides with the 2nd Saturday Art Walk happening at our cross street at Linden Ave.

Please come by and say hello! We're at 430 E. 1st Street, Long Beach, CA 90802. In the East Village Arts District, that's on 1st Street between Elm Ave and Linden Ave.

It's been amazing to see all the renovations that have happened in just a few short weeks. Catalyst Operations Director, Ryan Blanc, spearheaded organizing volunteers to paint, demolish, and build things for the new Space. Thanks so much to all the volunteers! It really looks great!

In just over 3 months at this new Space, we have connected with over 200 people from over 75 different community organizations. The Catalyst Space has been used by 13 collaborative teams as they work on their own member-driven projects and initiatives. The Space has also been a place where catalysts and community members could regularly hang out to connect. We've held a Catalyst workshop and a Bike workshop at the Space too!

We've also got four computers available for community use. We used Linux (open-source free Operating System) and we have Open Office (free word processing software) installed on all the computers so we've been able to make the computers functional without cost. Now, we'll be putting together a series of workshops and presenting the Catalyst Space as a Community Growth & Learning Center. We're hoping to get funding and get this Center subsidized by a couple sponsors. Cross your fingers!

Community Pulse - September 2009

The new Catalyst Community Pulse is out!

In this issue:

*Vital Signs for Sept 2009
*Catalyst Community's Grand Opening
*Two New Collaboratives Launched
*LBCreative! Completes 1st Round of Team Meetings
*Green Long Beach! Continues Projects
*Building a Team
*Investing in a Vision

Click here to read the September Pulse!

Workshop: The Catalytic Approach

What does it look like to be a catalyst in your group, organization, or neighborhood? How do you catalyze a tangible sense of community among your circle of relationships?

Date and Time: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 6:30pm - 9:00pm
Location: 430 E. 1st Street, Long Beach, CA 90802
Email RSVP: info@gocatalyst.org

The Catalytic Approach is how Catalyst Community uses a blend of organic concepts, starfish peer to peer (P2P) decentralized movement concepts, and grassroots organizing concepts to catalyze collaborative teams and communities around common causes.

The workshop will cover introductory concepts to the catalytic approach to community building. It will include topics on how to organically catalyze tangible community in your local group, organization, or neighborhood.

Register for this interactive workshop and explore how the Catalytic Approach could help you advance your group, organization, or even movement.

Cost investment: $10

Refreshments provided.

Please RSVP to info@gocatalyst.org.

GreenLB! Upcoming August Team Meetings

Check out upcoming collaborative team meetings for GreenLB! Get involved! All team meetings listed will be held at the Catalyst Space, 430 E. 1st Street, Long Beach, CA 90802. For questions, please contact Elliot Gonzales at greenLB@gocatalyst.org. For more, go to www.greenLB.org.

August 10th, 4:00pm - Bike Team Workshop
RSVP w/ Ron: rlsandlin@hotmail.com

August 10th, 6pm - Community Gardens/Green Spaces Team
RSVP w/ Chris: harmonyleague@gmail.com

August 12th, 6pm - Food Co-op Team
RSVP w/ Ty: lbccoop@gmail.com

August 17th, 7pm - Green Art Movement Team
RSVP w/ Elliot: greenLB@gocatalyst.org.

August 24th, 6:30pm - Food Systems Team
RSVP w/ Andrew: andrewgruel@gmail.com

Sept. 1st, 7pm - Government Action Team
RSVP w/ April: afresh@earthlink.net or Sarah: sarahmills@gmail.com

Sept. 2nd, 6:30pm - Community Education Team
RSVP w/ Stella: stella.ursua@yahoo.com

LBCreative! Community Social - August 2009

Come check out the upcoming LBCreative! Community Social where you can connect with others in the creative communities. We'll be at The Cellar, 201, E. Broadway, Long Beach, CA on Monday, August 24th at 7:00pm. 21 yrs and over.

Contact Tanya Quinn, catalyst for LBCreative! at tanya.quinn@gocatalyst.org.

LBCreative! Upcoming August Team Meetings

Check out upcoming collaborative team meetings for LBCreative! Get involved! For questions, contact Tanya Quinn at tanya.quinn@gocatalyst.org. For more, go to www.LBCreative.org.

Creative Art Spaces Team
Next team meeting: Wednesday, August 12th, 7pm
Location: Phantom Galleries on 3rd Street and Elm Ave.
Contact & RSVP: Evan Kelly, EPKvision at EPKvision@gmail.com

Education & Workshops Team
Next team meeting: Wednesday, August 12th, 7pm
Location: Catalyst Space, 430 E. 1st Street, 90802
Contact & RSVP: Peter Dopulos, Project Oasis at peter@lblocal.com

Cultural & Community Diversity Team
Next team meeting: Thursday, August 13th, 7pm
Location: Catalyst Space, 430 E. 1st Street, 90802
Contact & RSVP: Keith Lewis, Project Oasis at keith@greenworld365.com

Green Art Movement Team
Next team meeting: Monday, August 17, 7pm
Location: Catalyst Space, 430 E. 1st Street, 90802
Contact & RSVP: Elliot Gonzales, Green LB at elliot.gonzales@gocatalyst.org

Festivals & Events Team
Next team meeting: August 17 - 21 (Date being finalized)
Location: Catalyst Space, 430 E. 1st Street, 90802
Contact & RSVP: Aaron Elimelech, Collectivei at elimely@hotmail.com

Government Policy Team
Next team meeting: Tuesday, August 25, 7pm
Location: Catalyst Space, 430 E. 1st Street, 90802
Contact & RSVP: Evan Kelly, EPKvision at EPKvision@gmail.com

Catalyst PulseCard - August 2009

The Community Pulse is a monthly multimedia compilation of quick updates and reports FROM the community ABOUT the community. Think of it as a catalyst-style non-email newsletter. Check out this month's Community Pulse here:

http://www.gocatalyst.org/page/Community+Pulse+-+August+2009

A PulseCard is what you'll see below. It contains vital signs of Catalyst Community. This is a quick way to see how Catalyst is doing - seen through the lens of relational impact.

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Catalyst Community PulseCard
Vital Signs for August 2009

Building Relationships
-Were intentional about nurturing new friendships and building trust among community catalysts and members of the collaborative communities.

Establishing Partnerships
-Worked with over 60 people from more than 40 different community groups in 5 collaborative teams for Green Long Beach!
-Collaborated with 3 other groups to organize the first LBCreative meeting, bringing together over 60 local artists and organizations to form 6 new collaborative teams working to strengthen the arts and culture in our city.

Encouraging Contribution
-Empowered 4 new volunteer community catalysts, 15 new volunteer collaborative team facilitators.
-Had 10 individuals volunteer to support events, meetings, and work done at the new Catalyst Space.
-Received financial contributions donated by 2 individuals.

Inspiring Growth
-Coached 4 new community catalysts.
-Began to introduce catalytic concepts to community building.
-Encouraged catalysts to stretch past their comfort zones in public speaking and use of technology.
-Introduced a new strategic planning tool that community catalysts and team facilitators used with their teams.

New Computers for Catalyst Space

So we just took advantage of a great deal and we acquired 8 used Dell computers for only $500. Part of the deal was that we also had to take a ton of other working/non-working office equipment and supplies. These included telephones, fax machines, paper folder, shredder, monitors and more! We'd have to go through and see what works and what doesn't. A $500 donation made it possible for Catalyst to purchase the package deal. But we'd need more donations to cover the costs of repair or other services.

The main reason we got this package deal was because it included the computers. We want to set up some work stations inside the Catalyst Space and make them available for catalysts to use, for community workshops and classes, and we're exploring ways that we can make the computers available for community members. We probably only have space for four of those eight computers.

The computers' hard drives were all wiped which means they don't have any software, including operating systems. So we're planning on having volunteers set up the computers, install the Linux operating system, and also the OpenOffice software. These are all Open Source applications which means they are all free. The philosophy of Open Source is that knowledge belongs to the world and any programmer can add to the internal source code to improve or adapt the software for the public. It's cool because it really does fall in line with Catalyst's approach to community collaboration and sharing resources.

It's still gonna require more resources for us to set up the computers to be fully functional. If you can help or if you can contribute your time or financial resources, we'd definitely appreciate it!

Click here to make a donation.

GreenLB! Collaborative Community Mtg - July 2009

This was our second collaborative community meeting for Green Long Beach held at the Aquarium of the Pacific. We had over 40 people come out for the meeting. The six collaborative teams have been continuing to meet during June and July for strategic planning and implementation of their goals. Each team facilitator gave an update to everyone in the collaborative community on their progress. Afterwards, everyone broke out into the teams for further planning.

I was so proud of Elliot and all the GreenLB teams and facilitators! After months of helping to catalyze this community and empower leaders from within, I was able to take a hands-off role during this meeting. They all did a fantastic job!

Check out more pics of this awesome meeting here!

LBCreative! Collaborative Community Mtg - July 2009

We had a great first meeting last Wednesday to connect and begin the collaborative process of strengthening the arts and culture in Long Beach. Over 60 members of the creative community came together to share their visions and build new relationships. This led to the creation of 6 new collaborative teams that you can get involved with:

* Creative Art Spaces
* Cultural & Community Diversity
* Education & Workshops
* Festivals & Events
* Government Policy
* Green Art Movement

Check out our website at LBCreative.org for regular updates and details about each team. Check out a few more pics from the meeting here.

Stay connected,

Tanya Quinn
LBCreative! Catalyst
www.LBCreative.org

Upcoming GreenLB! Mtg - July 2009

Our next Green Long Beach! Community meeting will be held next Tuesday, July 21st, 7:00pm at the Aquarium of the Pacific, 100 Aquarium Way, LB, CA 90802, in the Watershed Room. All are welcome! Please RSVP. This will be a time for reconnecting, meeting new people and organizations, sharing common vision for a green Long Beach, hearing about the progress of our collaborative teams, and advancing forward together.

Our collaborative teams have been meeting since our last community meeting together on May 28th. They are looking forward to updating everyone at next week's meeting. There are a lot of exciting things happening and there are a lot of ways that you can get involved to help Green Long Beach! So far, we have active teams for:

• Green Restaurants Initiative
• Bikes
• Community Gardens/Green Spaces
• Government Action Team
• Food Co-op
• Education

We'll have the notes from the team meetings up on the web site soon. If you would like to know more about a team or participate in a team, go to the Collaborative Projects page and contact a facilitator.

I'd appreciate it if you would RSVP for next week's collaborative community meeting on Tuesday, July 21st at 7pm by replying back to this email. If you have any questions, you can also contact me at (562) 786-3874.

Looking forward to seeing you all again! Together we can Green Long Beach!

Elliot Gonzales
Green Long Beach! catalyst
www.greenLB.org

Upcoming LBCreative! Meeting - July 2009

Hello Friends,

The LBCreative! Connections Meeting on Wednesday July 15th at 6:30pm, will take place in the Phantom Galleries at 390 E. 3rd Street (corner of Elm) in Downtown Long Beach. At the meeting we are asking you to list three things you would like to see happen within Long Beach's Creative Community over the next year. We would also like to know about any events or projects you are involved in over the next year to help promote them and connect with possible resources.

Please feel free to email us any responses to those requests above before-hand so we'll have lots of info to share during the meeting.

In the spirit of community, all our guests are invited to bring a dish to share for a Community Potluck!

Please RSVP for the meeting by emailing tanya.quinn@gocatalyst.org

Thank you very much and see you on the 15th!

Tanya Quinn

LBCreative! catalyst

Catalyst Space Allowing Collaboration

There has been so much activity in our Catalyst Community lately! And the fun part is that I've been on vacation for two weeks!

So while I've been gone on a road trip from Chicago to Long Beach on vacation from July 1-11, there has been numerous collaborative team meetings led by many of the Green Long Beach team facilitators. They've all been using the Catalyst Space too to have their meetings which is exciting because this is what it's here for - to inspire and empower and resource people to be catalysts!

These teams for Green Long Beach have included a Government Action Team, the Co-ops Team, the Green Spaces/Community Gardens Team, the Green Restaurants Initiative Team, the Bikes Team, and the Education Team. Each team has been meeting in the Catalyst Space to conduct their strategic planning of their vision and projects.

In addition to the team facilitators making active use of the Catalyst Space, the community catalysts are also helping out to cultivate an awesome catalytic space for people in the community. Tanya has been working with the LBCreative! folks. Elliot has been working with the Green Long Beach! facilitators. Ty has been helping everyone out and really helping to maintain the Space. Ryan has been living into his new role as Catalyst's Operations Director and he's been taking care of much of the facilities issues for the Space.

All in all, I'm very excited that all this can be happening while I'm not even around. It's showing that a lot of the foundational ground work of investing in and empowering catalysts is paying off and bearing fruit.

BTW - vacation is awesome!

LBCreative! Media Advisory - July 2009

PRESS RELEASE

LBCreative! teams up to empower the creative community of Long Beach with a focus on strategic planning, communication and partnerships

LONG BEACH, CA - with a large community of active artists, musicians and creative talent that constantly has to leave the city to be recognized, we are left with the questions of why and how to fix this. LBCreative! is stepping up to address these issues and find solutions.

Catalyst Community, Project Oasis, Collective I and EPKVISION have partnered together to form LBCreative!, a collaborative network dedicated to strengthen the arts and culture within the city of Long Beach. “We’re hoping to build tangible connections between local artists, organizations and resources in an effort to create stronger outlets for Arts and Culture on all levels”, says Tanya Quinn of Catalyst Community.

The first LBCreative! Connections Meeting is set for Wednesday July 15th at 6:30pm in the Phantom Galleries at 390 E. 3rd Street (corner of Elm) in Downtown Long Beach. Guests will be asked for input regarding the future of the creative community of Long Beach, to post upcoming events, and get involved in breakout sessions addressing the most pressing issues.

For more information please contact Tanya Quinn at Tanya.quinn@GoCatalyst.org or visit www.LBCreative.org

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Planning LBCreative! Connections Event

Catalyst Community and Project Oasis has continued to meet and work together to plan the first connections event for LBCreative! to bring people together and cast vision for the broader creative communities. Collective I and EPK Vision has joined the planning team to help facilitate this collaborative effort.

Working with all of these groups is very exciting because it's fun to see people so ready to collaborate. I suppose when our communities seem fragmented with everyone doing their own thing, a message and vision of collaboration can be so refreshing! I hope that Catalyst can continue to catalyze numerous communities towards collaboration.

Team GoCatalyst at AIDS Walk Long Beach 2009

The Birth of LBCreative!

Since meeting with Peter and Keith from Project Oasis a couple weeks ago, we've all continued to dialogue and strategize about how we can catalyze creative communities in Long Beach. Together, Catalyst Community and Project Oasis decided to name our collaborative: LBCreative!

LBCreative! is a collaboration of local artists and organizations working together to strengthen the arts and culture in our community.

We'll be continuing to meet and talk with other folks. We're inviting others to the team who will help catalyze this collaborative community. Stay tuned!

Catalyst Green Statement

At today's Catalyst Community Board of Directors meeting, we approved the following official Green Statement:

"Catalyst Community recognizes the interconnectedness between the world we live in and the people that live in it. Just as each of us can have a catalytic affect on the relationships in our community, each of us can have a catalytic affect on our community's environment. We support the proper stewardship of our environment by encouraging community members in all areas to take steps towards sustainable living and to adjust our practices in ways that reduce our carbon impact on our world."

Preliminary Planning for Creative Communities

Tanya, Elliot and I met with Keith and Peter from Project Oasis to talk about how we might work together to catalyze the creative communities in Long Beach. The creative communities are pretty fragmented and we'd like to explore ways of bringing people together collaboratively.

So we decided to plan a connections event where we could all gather each of our networks to share a common vision, to meet each other, and begin a collaborative process. We're planning to have another meeting to touch bases and to begin functioning as a planning team.

We're looking forward to working with Project Oasis! On the same day that Catalyst hosted the Green Long Beach! Festival on May 9th in the East Village, they hosted the Top of the Town Festival on the North side of Long Beach. Both festivals brought together artists and musicians so we're going to continue working together cooperatively, not competitively.

Let's see if we can catalyze the creative communities to do the same.

New Catalyst Meeting Space

Exciting news!

Catalyst now has a new Catalyst Meeting Space in the East Village!

We signed the lease and we're located at 430 E. 1st Street, Long Beach, CA 90802.

This is the same space that we used for the Green Long Beach! Festival Control Center. It's got 800 sq ft. with an additional 800 sq ft. basement underneath. It's an amazing space!

We want the space to be a place where people can be inspired to be catalysts in what ever passion they have. We want to empower and resource people. We want to have workshops here. We want the space to be used for collaborative meetings.

We're going to be able to do a lot of good work in the community out of this space.

GreenLB! Collaborative Community Mtg - May 2009

Tonight was our first Green Long Beach Collaborative Community meeting following the festival. We had said from the very beginning that if Catalyst was going to help put on the festival, then we're going to want to make sure that there is ongoing collaboration after the event.

So here we are, continuing what was started! We came together to share common vision for working together strategically to see a green Long Beach. Then we broke up into groups to begin a strategic planning process towards six initiatives.

The www.GreenLB.org web site has been converted over from a festival site to more of a collaborative community site. There you can check up on the collaborative teams that were formed coming out of tonight's meeting.

Sarah Mills also presented some of her findings from the Sustainability Audit that she conducted of the Festival. Check it out here.

Click here to check out more pics from this awesome meeting!

Festival Pics in The District Weekly

Check out a full page of pics from the Green Long Beach! Festival in The District Weekly!


See more pics of the festival here!

Big Thanks for Festival Support

A message from Elliot Gonzales, festival organizer:

To all volunteers of the Green Long Beach! Festival,

Thank You!!!

Without your help this event would not have been as great as it was. If you were very busy, just imagine how much more difficult it would be to have done this without you. It was a pleasure working with every one of you and I hope you all enjoyed yourselves very much. The feedback for the event has been great with everyone already asking about next year. Next year? Let's finish this week first!

I hope that as you volunteered you also got the chance to meet other great members of your community. One of the broader, definite goals of Green Long Beach! is to bring together community and offer the experience to meet your neighbor. We are all one community and all human beings who need to take good care of all the creations of the planet, especially each other. You all did a great job in helping host the first community-based Green Long Beach! Festival ever.

We broke records:

• Largest East Village farmer's market since it opened
• Possibly most activity in the Art Park since it opened
• Largest "green" event by and for the community in Long Beach - ever

We all did it, by taking some time from our busy lives to commit to something that helps everyone, something that created a vibe that is part of a movement. All over the world, people are waking up and seeing the need to do what they can to help change the way we live, not only to help our environment as in our planet, but our environment in the area around us, our communities. We are seeing how important it is to work together, that together we all bring something larger than ourselves into existence, and this, this my friends, is a beautiful thing.

Congratulations to you all for your help in putting on this event! Since there is not a single organizer, or single entity we can all take a bit of credit for our part in making this event such a success! You all did an amazing job and your hard work definitely paid off!

Let's continue to do our part and integrate respect and stewardship for our environment into our lifestyles and our communities. We will have a Post-Festival Meeting on May 28th, at 7pm location to be determined, we will send invites or evites and post it on the website. The purpose of this meeting is to connect and collaborate with other green groups. We can do anything we set our minds to - imagine when we all put our minds together. Hope to see you all on the 28th and thank you once again for making a difference.

Peace and Love,

Elliot Gonzales

Green Long Beach! catalyst

Post GreenLB! Festival

Wow, what a festival, right?! Thank you so much for being a part of it!

Among the many lessons we've learned in the short two and a half months of planning and organizing the festival, we've learned that we could not have accomplished what we've done without each other. Each of us has a collective contribution that builds our sense of community - that sense of common unity.

The festival wasn't just an event. It was a catalyst for ongoing collaboration to green Long Beach. As we move forward together, let's not just think of next year's festival. Rather, let's think of what we can do between now and the next festival. So what now?

1) A Home for Green Long Beach!

The festival started as a collaboration between individuals so it didn't really have a home, per se. Now that the event is done, we can continue to organize and collaborate together. Green Long Beach! will now be housed under the umbrella of Catalyst Community - a 501c3 non-profit organization. Read more about it here. Elliot Gonzales, the festival organizer, will still head up Green Long Beach! with the support of the Green Team (you!) and also the Catalyst Team.

This will give Green Long Beach! some stability.

2) Green Long Beach! Collaborative Meeting

We're all having a post-festival collaborative meeting on Thursday, May 28th at 7pm to begin an ongoing process for getting to know each other and strategically working to green Long Beach. We all comprise a wide array of community groups, businesses, and passionate individuals. We can do so much together! The location of the meeting will depend on how many people we can expect. So this means I'll need you to RSVP to let me know you're coming. I'll send location information to you later as we approach the date. Just save the date! =)

This will give Green Long Beach! some sustainability.

3) Festival Photos and Videos

The fun part after a festival event is seeing all the pics and vids! We've already posted over 120 festival pics over at www.GoCatalyst.org. Go check em out! We want to see your festival pics too! Anyone can add their festival photos to this same photo album by getting a gocatalyst login. Once you login to the site, you can add pics to any album or even create new albums of your other community events. So share your festival memories with the rest of the Green Long Beach! community!

I also added a photo album for the pre-festival meeting here.

I've got some cool videos of the festival that I'd like to put on youtube then share them on the site. I'll do that soon. But if you'd like to share your festival videos or share your videos from other community events, you can do it here.

What about www.greenLB.org? We'll still have it! You'll start to see that website evolve from a festival event site into our Green Long Beach! Collaborative Community site.

So this will give Green Long Beach! some visibility.


What an exciting time this is! At the festival, we talked about how this is our time in the green movement to shift from individual responsibility to a community responsibility. What would it look like for a whole community to own being green? Imagine Long Beach becoming known as a "green city"?

Let's stay connected so that we can continue working together to green Long Beach!

Green Long Beach Day

Check out the Proclamation from the Mayor of Long Beach and the City Council!

Pre-Festival Meeting Recap

We've got 2 more days before the Green Long Beach! Festival this Saturday!

It was awesome seeing over 50 people come out for Tuesday's pre-festival meeting and it was fun meeting and talking with many of you. Thank you to all those who were able to make it to the meeting! For those who couldn't, here's a quick recap:

- Elliot Gonzales, festival organizer, shared from his heart why he wanted to host this festival.
- We talked about the "Down to Earth" theme and how after only 2.5 months of planning, there has been incredible community ownership for the festival - all of us sharing a piece of Elliot's vision.
- The festival Logistics Team were introduced and each team member shared about what his or her role has been for the festival.
- Team members took general logistical questions.
- We emphasized the importance of ongoing collaboration and asked everyone to Save The Date of Thurs, May 28th for a post-festival meeting for strategic conversation. Please RSVP for it with me here at eric.leocadio@gocatalyst.org.
- We broke from group time and gave everyone an opportunity to look at their booth assignments or stage schedule, ask specific questions to the appropriate Logistics Team member and also to mingle and meet other participants.

It was a fun time of cultivating even more momentum going in to the festival this Saturday!

GreenLB! Festival Ad in District Weekly

Back page advertisement of the District Weekly!

GreenLB! Festival Media Advisory - May 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Mayor Foster Proclaims Green Long Beach Day As 270 Community Groups and Individuals Participate In Festival

LONG BEACH – With just two and a half months of planning, over 270 community groups, individuals, and businesses will be involved in an all-day festival in the East Village Arts District on May 9, 2009, a day Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster proclaimed as Green Long Beach Day.

News of the Green Long Beach! festival spread quickly through a grassroots viral response to be a part of a growing movement of thinking differently about the way we use our community’s resources. Festival organizers are hoping to catalyze an ongoing conversation about shifting from personal responsibility to embracing a sense of community responsibility for creating a green Long Beach.

“By pooling together our resources and talents we are proud to bring our community together as we celebrate our planet and community through Green Long Beach!” said Elliot Gonzales, festival organizer, on the event’s web site at www.greenLB.org.

The Green Long Beach! festival will feature four stages of entertainment involving 64 bands, musicians, performers, artists, workshop speakers, and kids activity groups, 35 East Village businesses hosting an event or offering discounts to festival guests, over 98 booths and vendors, 13 sponsors, 7 event hosts, and about 60 festival volunteers.

Organizers estimate attendance of approximately 3,000 people. Get “Down to Earth” by bringing your own reusable water container and tote bag. Bring your old cell phones for recycling. Take the bus or ride your bike to get a free tune-up. Bring your own t-shirt after 4pm and get a $5 festival screen print.

Major sponsors include Southern California Edison, Downtown Long Beach Associates, and East Village Arts District, Inc.

Festival hosted by 2nd Saturday Art Walk, East Village Farmers Market, Catalyst Community, DeAvy Art Gallery, T’s Space, East Village Arts District, Inc., and Long Beach Depot for Creative Reuse.

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Green Long Beach! Festival Update 05.04.09

Hi friends,

I remember first talking with Elliot Gonzales in February about his crazy idea for having a festival for local green groups in the community to get together and raise awareness about some really important issues that he cared passionately about - supporting the environment and appreciating the arts.

It was back in February when I decided that I wanted to be part of Elliot's vision and so Catalyst Community partnered with him to explore what this might look like.

But the thing is . . . he wanted to do it in May.

This May.

After laughing, whimpering, and crying, we rolled up our sleeves and assembled a team of passionate and talented folks to see if we can work towards making Elliot's picture of a locally-focused festival that supported a movement towards a green Long Beach a reality.

We knew that the festival would only be an event. But the more important goal was to have this event serve as a catalyst for ongoing conversation and collaboration among everyone who cared about a green Long Beach. That's what we're headed towards!

So the Festival planning team started work in March and in only two and a half months, there are now OVER 270 community groups, individuals, and businesses participating in making this all-day festival happen! These include 98 booths & vendors, 64 bands, musicians, performers, artists, speakers, and activity groups, 35 East Village businesses hosting an event or offering discounts to festival guests, 19 hosts and sponsors, and 60 festival team volunteers.

It is truly amazing to see how so many people stepped up to be part of this community vision!

The festival web site has been updated constantly these past few weeks and we've tried to put everything that's happening up there so that we can all see the amazing momentum that is happening. So go to the web site at http://www.greenLB.org to see all kinds of stuff on festival schedules, stage and activity times, participants, and more!

We are now only six days away from the festival. If you've already got something planned for Saturday, please come afterwards! The festival will run from 9am - 10pm. Be sure to bring your reusable water container, tote bag, and old cell phones for recycling. Ride your bike and get a free tune-up! Bring your own t-shirt after 4pm and get a $5 festival screen print on it.

Please help spread the word about the full day of fun this Saturday on May 9th. Grab a logo or image and change your profile pic for the rest of this week to help promote the festival. Post the web site link to your FB wall. Email your friends.

Thanks!

Eric Leocadio
Green Long Beach! Festival
Logistics Coordinator
Communications Director

Green Long Beach! Festival Update 04.22.09

Hi GreenLB! friends,

I've got tons of fun festival updates for you (down below) but first I wanted to wish you a Happy Earth Day! Will you celebrate with us and help promote the Green Long Beach! Festival by changing your Facebook profile pic for the next several days to a GreenLB! logo or image? You can use one of the promo logo images in the FB event photo gallery or at the festival web site's promo page here:

http://www.greenlb.org/PromoStuff.html

Would you also please post the GreenLB! web site to your profile and ask your social networks to pass it on? www.greenLB.org

Huge thanks!

With limited resources it's amazing to see what we can produce and accomplish - both in our world and in an event.

The GreenLB! Team has been working on festival planning for only two months now and we're rapidly approaching our celebrations together on May 9th. I can tell you that it's been fun to see plans coming together in such a short period of time as we all draw on each others strengths, experience, and relationships to contribute to making the festival a success! We are literally simply working with what we've got so we invite as much support, resources and participation from everyone as possible!

This really is a local organic event as we are seeing local artists, organizations, businesses, residents and people who care about seeing a green Long Beach all pulling together to start an ongoing collaboration of green groups. We hope this will catalyze a conversation about working together to Green Long Beach!

I wanted to give you some quick updates:

* We have an exciting main stage entertainment line up with band and musician confirmations so far from:

+ Jack Maness
+ The Reactives
+ Kristi Jo
+ Trevor Green
+ Love Wings and the Deep Seed of Desire featuring Drew Brooks
+ Mulch
+ Llama Lipstick
+ Down & Dirty Dub
+ Miranda Rondeau
+ Big Moke & the Contract Killers
+ The Wandering Of
+ ...and a couple more that we're trying to secure confirmations from!

* We're planning a really fun festival finale with fire dancers Sirena Serpentina and a drum circle.

* We've got local artists teaming together to design an amazing creative landscape for the East Village.

* There will be lots of fun activities and workshops including:

+ GreenLB! Festival T-shirts on sale - get 'em cheaper by bringing your own T-shirt and we'll screen print it right on
+ Adult yoga in the morning at the Art Park
+ Speaker Daren Butler from Ecological Designs
+ Kids activities in the afternoon at the Art Park
+ Recycled crafts workshops
+ The 1st & Elm Organic Community Garden will be open
+ A Live Art Mural
+ Lots of local artists featuring their work
+ Henna artists
+ Workshops on organic foods and on urban herbalism
+ A fun "green march" is in the works
+ Fun street performers including A Delicate Balance of Sound, Wild Wood Border Morris, and hoop troupe Mademoiselles Monsoon
+ ...and TONS more!

* We've also got vendors and booths for you to check out. We've got room for night booths so check out the web site if your organization still needs to get in on all the fun!

There's SO MUCH more that's in the works. I'll try to keep you updated periodically so that you can help pass the word along about how much fun the festival is gonna be. We've been gradually updating the web site and I'm hoping to add pages for all the main stage bands and musicians, media, vendors and booths, activities, and other stuff. Stay tuned!

We need all the volunteers we can get so if you're available or if you know peeps, please let us know!

Remember to switch your profile pic to a GreenLB! image. ;)

Let's generate more buzz!

Thanks so much friends!

Eric Leocadio
GLB! Communications
www.greenLB.org

The Green Team

The Logistics Team for the Green Long Beach! Festival has been working like crazy every single week several days per week. Some of us have been working 30+ hours each week on top of our normal day jobs! But it's been fun working together and we're really excited about all of the community support and team volunteers.

Check out who's on the festival Green Team here.

Green Long Beach! Festival Update 04.09.09

Hi Friends in our Local Green Communities!

We are exactly one month away from our Green Long Beach! Festival in the East Village Arts District on May 9th! The festival planning team is plugging away working out details for a successful event and we are all very excited about the incredible response and interest that there is both locally and from out of state. The festival theme of "Down to Earth" really describes our local Long Beach community - we are neighborhoods connecting with each other, helping each other, and encouraging each other towards making sustainable choices. This is not only Long Beach's first "green" festival, but this is "our community's" festival. And it will be a fun time too!

We've done so much in a short period of time and we are in our last month's stretch before the festival. The team wanted to thank you so much for your support and willingness to be part of our broader green community. We hope that further connections with other green groups, businesses, and individuals will bear much fruit for you!

If you have submitted your participation forms for vendors, booths, performances, volunteering, or workshops, we will be sending you a confirmation packet and will contact you soon to work out details. If you have yet to submit your participation forms, you can get the forms here: http://www.greenlb.org/about.html

Festival Reminders:

+ Bring your own reusable tote bag to the festival.

+ Bring your own T-shirt to the festival to have the festival logo printed right on for just $5! Keep an eye out for pre-festival opportunities to get your early-bird festival T-shirt.

+ Ride the bus to the festival or ride your bike.

+ Bring your own water bottle or jug, straw, utensils or chop sticks to the festival.

+ If you'll be passing out materials at the festival, think green and creative - use multi-purpose type advertising like t-shirts or buttons or write on someone's shirt or tote bag or some other fun way to tell others about your group or business. Let's try to minimize paper flyers! Or at least, let's use recycled paper!

Here are ways that you can stay connected with us:

+ Check out our Web Site: http://www.greenlb.org/

+ RSVP on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=159300590108

+ Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/greenLB


Here are ways that you can help out:

+ Pass word along to your family, friends and social networks about the festival. Here's a Social Media Release that you can use: http://www.gocatalyst.org/page/Social+Media+Release%3A+Green+Long+Beach+Festival

+ Volunteer for set up and clean up crews, assist with various errands, and more. Go here for more on volunteering: http://www.greenlb.org/page05.html

+ Artists join the Creative Landscape Team to help design a street, alley, the art park, or the main stage. Contact Ryan Blanc at ryan.blanc@GoCatalyst.org.

+ Join the Marketing Team to help get the word out to the local community. We'll be meeting every Monday and Wednesday at 7pm at the new coffee house Sipology on Broadway and Linden. Contact Ryan Blanc at ryan.blanc@GoCatalyst.org.

+ Support the festival by becoming a Sponsor! You can offer financial support or have your organization offer an endorsement. Go here for more on sponsoring: http://www.greenlb.org/about.html


Thanks everyone! Let's stay connected and let's get "down to earth"!

Eric Leocadio
Green Long Beach! Festival Communications Director

GreenLB! Festival Media Advisory - April 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Green Long Beach! Festival Brings Locals Out to Get “Down to Earth”

Hosted By 2nd Saturday Art Walk, East Village Farmers Market, Catalyst Community, DeAvy Art Gallery, T’s Space, East Village Arts District, Inc., and Long Beach Depot for Creative Reuse

LONG BEACH – Working together to inspire the Long Beach community to see “green”, local organizations come together to host the Green Long Beach! festival to show the local community the kind of resources we have right in our own neighborhoods. Local green groups are pooling together for collaboration, celebration and education on Saturday, May 9, 2009 for an all day festival in the East Village Arts District. Teams of local artists will design the creative landscape of streets, alleys and the East Village Art Park featuring a common theme of getting “Down to Earth.”

“This event is intended to unite the many aspects of the green community that we have in Long Beach,” said Elliot Gonzales, festival organizer. “We want to create awareness that we are one people on one planet. When we work together we can create positive change.”

The Green Long Beach! festival will feature a main stage with live entertainment along with a wide array of visual and performing artists, activities, music, booths and vendors, farmer’s market, and informational workshops. Organizers estimate attendance of approximately 3,000 people. Get “Down to Earth” by bringing your own reusable tote bag to the festival and your own t-shirt to have the festival logo printed right on. Pre-festival events are scheduled for early t-shirt printing and art displays. For more information and to volunteer, go to www.greenLB.org.

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Catalyst on Facebook and Twitter

We've got a new social media presence on the Web!

Be sure to check us out on Facebook and join the group here:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=62739636851

Are you on Twitter? Follow us at: http://twitter.com/gocatalyst

Happy 3rd Birthday Catalyst!

So three years ago today, April 1, 2006, I incorporated Catalyst Long Beach in the state of California. Woooo hooooo!

At the time, it was an interesting season of my life. I was transitioning out of Kingdom Causes, the first non-profit I co-founded in 2002 and during that same time I was concurrently imagining broader things - things that eventually led to birthing a new organization that would hopefully continue bringing people together, much like KC is doing within faith-centered circles.

It's been a fun and crazy three years. I had to get a day job to pay the bills since my only previous income had been coming from KC (when I was with them). I'm still at that day job until Catalyst can get sufficient funding so outside of the work hours, I've been building relationships with folks in the evenings...getting to know people, hearing their passions, and sharing hearts and vision for what could be.

The vision for Catalyst Community is to see every area and region inspired with a greater sense of community, collaboration, and citizenship through meaningful relationships.

So in a nutshell, we catalyze collaborative communities to build relationships, establish partnerships, inspire growth, and encourage contribution.

"connect and affect"

Big thanks to Ryan Blanc and Dario Calderon who have been a huge part of shaping the direction that we are now going with Catalyst. Since 2008 they've been Board members and an awesome team. We could sure use the help!

Would you consider joining the Catalyst Team?
http://www.gocatalyst.org/page/CATALYST+TEAM

Thanks friends and Happy Birthday us!

Create Long Beach Public Forum

I was part of a public forum hosted at MoLAA by Create Long Beach and the Arts Council for Long Beach. The goal was to share findings from community input regarding the arts and culture in the city over the next 20 years.

Create Long Beach has been conducting a community cultural planning process to identify the city's creative assets and generate ideas to invigorate our culture of creativity.

This process has identified six emerging themes:

1. Improving communication and collaboration within the cultural/creative sector and between the cultural/creative sector and the community.

2. Building on Long Beach's diversity to strengthen cultural and creative participation throughout the city and in its neighborhoods.

3. Emphasizing a range of creative learning opportunities for residents of all ages to support a city-wide culture of creativity.

4. Fostering a sustainable ecology of creative individuals and collaborative, innovative cultural organizations of all sizes, ages, disciplines and locations.

5. Encouraging more effective use of cultural assets including venues, districts, organizations, and programs in support of economic development.

6. Strengthening inclusive cultural leadership to identify, advocate for, and obtain the necessary financial and human resources.

It'll be interesting to see what kind of follow up takes place after this forum.

Spring Connections Party 2009

The Connections Party on Saturday was awesome! We had a great turn out of about 60 people from about 20 different groups.

We had folks from the community share with everyone a little about their group, business or event:

• Elliot Gonzales - upcoming Long Beach Green Festival on May 9th
• Evan Kelly and Ten Terrell - Phantom Galleries and 2nd Saturday Art Walk
• Carina Cristiano-Leoni - Connected Corridor
• Mark Hawkins - Ink Peace
  
• John Steffans - Gay Christian Network
  
• Dr. Becky Kuhn - Global Lifeworks

Big thanks to community groups who donated door prizes:

• Aquarium of the Pacific
• Museum of Latin American Art
• National History Museum of Los Angeles
  
• Long Beach Museum of Art
• Nino's Italian Restaurant
• Baba Ganouj - Food of Lebanon Restaurant
• Ink Peace, LLC
• AMC Theatres
  

Thanks to local band Wings for the Queen for playing for us! You guys were awesome!

More thanks to the Neighborhood Resource Center for lending us chairs and tables and also thanks to everyone that helped out too!

Preliminary Planning for Festival

So while working with Elliot regarding the Green Festival, we decided to first bring together some people that Elliot had been talking with about it.

We had the meeting and it looks like there are folks excited about the event. It'll be fun to work with them!

Alright, let's roll up our sleeves!

Upcoming Connections Party

We've been planning a Connections Party the past several weeks to provide a context and an opportunity to bring together many of the connections we've been making in the community over the past several months. The goal is to facilitate introductions between folks and to allow people to share about their own organization or business or event that's coming up.

We'll learn about volunteer opportunities, hear from community groups, enjoy live music by "Wings for the Queen", grub on some Mexican tacos, and win prizes donated by community businesses!

For more info, check out the viral flyer here.

Catalyst Workshop

This afternoon, I led a workshop on "Catalyzing Tangible Community in Your Local Group". This was our first open-to-the-public workshop and I thought it went well. It was a small group where we could talk more intimately about things. If it helps them be a catalyst in their own group or organization, then I'll consider it a success.

Much of the concepts I introduced were a lot of the Catalytic Approach that we've implemented in Catalyst and also some of the organic principles from The Starfish and the Spider by Brafman and Beckstrom. It'll be fun to do this workshop again!

Catalyst to Host Green Festival

So after meeting with Elliot earlier this month, we decided that we will work together to see about making his idea for a Green Festival a reality. I gave him some tips on how we should proceed. I told him that he'll obviously be the event organizer for the festival but I'll be there to support and assist him logistically.

One other stipulation I made was that Catalyst isn't about events for event's sake. We're about ongoing relationship. So if we're going to be part of putting on this festival, then my focus will be on catalyzing ongoing relationship and collaboration after the festival. Elliot liked that idea. Sweet!

So it's official! Catalyst Community will be a host for the Green Festival!

But uh oh. Elliot wants to do this in May. oy!

Arts & Culture Focus Group

The City of Long Beach is making development plans over the next 20 years and they are particularly interested in developing the city's arts and culture. The city's project is called Create Long Beach and they're basically trying to get the input of people and have them speak into their process as they make future plans for the city. It's actually very exciting that they're wanting to do this!

I heard that they weren't getting a whole lot of input from people under 30 years old so Catalyst organized a focus group for today targeting that age group. We arranged for a group of 9 men and women ages ranging from 20-30 years old.

It went really well and Create Long Beach got a lot of great feedback! It was fun to be part in putting this together for the city!

Catalyst Info Meeting

We had an info meeting tonight for people interested in hearing more about Catalyst and possibly being on the team. We packed my lil apartment with folks, had potluck, and even had Pru video cast from Atlanta, Georgia! It was a great time of connecting, sharing vision, and exploring ideas.

Meeting Elliot Gonzales

I could tell that Elliot was a catalyst.

He's this fire ball kid - 21 years old - super excited about this idea that he has about having a Green Festival here in Long Beach. He saw a Catalyst brochure, called me up, and we scheduled a coffee shop meeting tonight to talk about his idea and to hear more about Catalyst. Our visions seemed to click and I'd like to see how I can empower him if at all possible.

We'll continue a dialogue to see how we might continue working together.

Catalyst Team Retreat - Jan 2009

January 2009.

This begins a new year. It also marks the beginning of a new Catalyst. We've spent the last several months (and even previous years) hashing out vision and direction. Last year, formed a Board of Directors and we secured our 501(c)3 status to make us a legit non-profit organization and now with a new team, we're ready to begin working more publicly to catalyze communities!

We had our first Catalyst Team Retreat on January 23-25, 2009 at Idyllwild in the San Bernardino mountains. It was a fun time of team building, getting to know one another, unpacking the vision and mission for Catalyst Community, and brainstorming.

Check out some of the pics here!

Pru took some pics too!

Mission of Catalyst Community

Our mission is to provide tools for individuals and organizations that empower them to connect around shared interests and affect the broader community.

Our Slogan: “Connect and Affect”

We accomplish the vision by catalyzing collaborative communities to build relationships, establish partnerships, inspire growth, and encourage contribution.

To “Connect”:

* build relationships
* establish partnerships

To “Affect”:

* inspire growth
* encourage contribution

We catalyze collaborative communities:

* Creative Communities – Arts & Culture
* Green Communities - Eco- Friendly & Sustainability
* Faith Communities – Religious & Spiritual
* Growth Communities – Education & Learning
* Business Communities – Business & Professional Services
* Care Communities – Health & Support
* Recreational Communities – Sports & Recreation
* Neighborhood Communities – Residents & Neighborhood Groups
* Other Common Communities - Any other community of common interest

Common Community Values

As a diverse community, we may disagree about any number of things. But we can find our common ground in our Common Community Values. These are what bring us together.

Building RELATIONSHIPS - we believe that intentional connections that foster authenticity and understanding enhances the peaceful climate of our community.

Establishing PARTNERSHIP - we believe that the strategic partnerships of individuals and organizations in collaboration towards a common interest make us more effective in our community.

Inspiring GROWTH - we believe that experiencing a broader understanding of ourselves, the community, and our world enhances our potential.

Encouraging CONTRIBUTION - we believe that the strategic sharing of resources and the active participation of residents giving back to their community is the most effective way of addressing our practical and tangible needs.

Vision of Catalyst Community

Our vision is to see every area and region inspired with a greater sense of community, collaboration, and citizenship through meaningful relationships.

*community - the tangible experience of relationships within connected people

*collaboration - the cooperative partnerships of individuals and organizations around a common interest or purpose

*citizenship - the expression of hospitality towards our neighbors and the participation of residents in shaping our community

Our core approach to community development is through meaningful relationships. A common cause may bring people together, but it's relationships that keep people together. The goal should be something sustainable and long-lasting. Often times, organizations will host an event that brings people together but few stay meaningfully connected after the event. We believe that effective and long lasting partnership can't occur without trust; we can't have trust without relationships.

So that's where we start.

From "my"space to "our"space

In an age of social media, Web connections, and viral technology, people are increasingly using tools to stay connected with peers and partners, news and current events, trends and issues. As these “tech tools” become increasingly popular, we could easily replace important real world interaction with email, text messages, and social networking message systems. Instead of replacing relationships, we can find ways of using online tools as a way of facilitating and nurturing offline connections.

In addition to using the Web to connect with others, people are also finding ways of engaging the community. What does the pulse and personality of a city look like? How connected are the residents of a city? Do we celebrate the life of our city? Do we participate in the life of our city? How do we measure the life of our city? How do we map the relational infrastructure of our city?

Catalyst Community fills the gap. It’s where we connect, give back, promote events, and mobilize on common ground. It’s a place where we all hold a stake; a community that we all help shape. This is where we catalyze the shift from “my”space to “our”space.

Catalyst Community is a registered 501c3 non-profit grassroots organization with a vision to see every area and region inspired with a greater sense of community, collaboration and citizenship through meaningful relationships. Our mission is to empower both individuals and organizations with tools that enable them to accomplish their own passions for the broader community. We are a community of catalysts.

Our campaign is to “Connect and Affect” – to catalyze collaborative communities to build relationships, establish partnerships, encourage contribution, and inspire growth.

Often times, organizations will host an event that brings people together but few stay meaningfully connected after the event. We believe that effective and long lasting partnership can’t occur without trust; we can’t have trust without relationships.

So that’s where we start.