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.