Up the River on Martha's Vineyard

Enroute to Martha's Vineyard
Back from working on Martha’s Vineyard. I know - tough work if you can get it - and tough work it was for everybody involved at a meeting I facilitated which included: a consortium of executive directors and senior staff members of organizations working nationally and internationally towards a better world; the gracious and generous funders and their charming daughter and provocative question-raising son; three very special guest participants (distance swimmer and author Lynne Cox; evolutionary biologist Patty Gowaty; author and media discussant Martha Nochimson with her special husband in tow); and Marsha, the wonder chef, and her daughter who catered to all our individual needs. With a great deal of passionate debate and open-hearted intelligent conversation, more than twenty of us worked together to identify root causes of the world’s problems and strategies to make the world a better place. Click Up the River Endeavors for a partial list of member organizations.


Up The River With A Smile
But it wasn’t all work. After what seemed like days of chilling rain and wind, the warming sun burned off the remaining fog (much like the process the group went through!). There was birthday (mine!) pizza in Oak Bluffs, contra-dancing at the Chilmark Community Center, skinny dipping in the lake, a lobster-fest complete with birthday cake (yippee!). In addition, I had a swimming lesson with world-class swimmer and new friend Lynne Cox, the author of the magnificent Swimming To Antarctica.To read about my triathlon training which began after Lynne's extremely beneficial swimming lesson click MY LIFE.


Happy Birthday To ME!

To address the root causes identified over the course of three and a half days, the meeting resulted in the following over-arching theme: "Dismantling the Culture of Violence." At the end of the meeting teams formed to work on the five subtopics identified: Education; Empowering Women; Over-consumption; Men’s Work; Strategic Development.


Oak Bluffs

I can hardly wait to see what blossoms over the next 12 months when this dynamic group meets again.