Maastricht congregation

This is a good question for the hivemind so I started a Twitter thread about it :)

https://twitter.com/RichDecibels/status/1256173468221087746

Hey all, during our call Rich mentioned that there are some sparks around the US relating to Microsolidarity / mutual aid community. As a US citizen, I'm curious to learn more about this sphere. I also have some disheartened US friends and family who currently believe that "this kind of stuff" (Microsolidarity-esque care) is only happening outside of the country. @Richard D. Bartlett , can you share a bit more on this?

Hey Ronen, I haven't listened to the latest Maastricht call myself yet, but just read your comment here and felt to share that I appreciated your lines of enquiry and enjoy how your brain works. In our own Collective in Chiang Mai we've just noticed how recently we've become more much globally inclusive as many key members have moved overseas but stayed engaged in a meaningful way online. I thought this might somehow dilute the core bonds of the community but it has actually added a beautiful new element, and also dispelled fears for others that if they choose to leave Chiang Mai they won't lose their connection to the group they have come to love so dearly. With increasing us of AR and VR tools on the horizon for community building, I think the trend will continue in that direction, as well as lead us to form closer bonds in our closer proximities.

@Ronen Hirsch

The drink is Mate from South America (I'm from Argentina) :)

1: Wider/deeper reverberation?

As I was listening to this conversation I was wondering what it would be like to have one or two more people in the call. One person from the next circle of 3-4 people who are more active in the group. One person from the long-tail of the participation curve.

I imagine that there may have been reverberations both into the call and from the call out to the group.

I wonder about this as a pattern ... I sense a presence of power structures, leadership, ownership ... and I feel an urge to want to "mix things up" a bit.

2: Physical proximity as bias.

I have a deep respect for physical proximity and experience (still!) a yearning for it myself.

However, for me, personally, the Coronavirus has had a positive "flattening the field" effect. Because I live in retreat and am disinclined to travel, the online space is the primary participation space. When groups are founded on physical proximity (whether people live close together or share nomadic tendencies making it natural & appealing for them to travel in order to meet) I experience this as a systemic bias that draws in certain qualities of people and keeps out other qualities.

Beyond experiencing personal alienation (which I consider to be a valid outcome if that is, consciously or unconsciously, a group's choice) I believe that it seeds additional social and cultural biases that limit a kind of "genetic makeup" of the group (eg: a leaning towards fast-moving do-ocracy cultures that leave little space for qualities of presence & well-being).

If memory serves me correctly, it is Matt Mullenweg (project lead for WordPress), whose company is distributed all around the world, who suggested something along the lines that face-to-face meetings should be had as if they were continents apart - that things like documentation and decision making be respectful of the distributed nature of the shared space (if distributed is what you aspire to be).

Listening to this call I was left with questions ... I'm not asking for answers ... merely pointing out some lack of clarity:

• am I invited / would I be welcome to partake in this congregation or is this a Maastricht-only?

• I heard mention of people from other places but feel unclear about their standing in the group?

• which evokes in me question: what does characterize a congregation?

3: @Nati Lombardo 's drink :)

... what was that cup-ish container (small with two handles) and what was in it that is best consumed through a small straw?

I feel more brewing in me and will try to followup in the context of the "virtual meetup group" thread.

Thank you for having and sharing this conversation.

We had another conversation today, @Beatriz and @Joshua Glass sharing their latest updates and upcoming plans, and me and @Nati Lombardo sharing our impressions and advice.

We recorded the conversation so you can catch up on video or audio

future anthropologists and historians are going to be so happy with this pristine documentation 😂

An update from our 2nd congregation meeting aimed to orient the newly invited. We were 14 plus Ria and Simon who facilitated and did technical hosting : https://www.notion.so/microsolidaritymaastricht/Meeting-II-What-happened-in-April-fb0faf6355264e3fa3b782799293e46f

honestly I am so so happy to see this documentation, thank you for sharing your work in progress 🙏

Yay transparency! Yay consent!