Get Updates
Dear Ruckus Family! While we have always been the little lowbagger engine that could, this year it has become even more clear that Ruckus needs to be spending every dollar as effectively as possible. To that end, in August we created a Ruckus Sustainer Team (RST) made up of board, staff and network members, that has been looking at how we can do what we do in the world (and fund it) more sustainably and strategically. The first order of business of the RST is to prioritize our network!! While the Ruckus Network is always a huge focus of our work, we recognize that to truly be sustainable, we have to dedicate specific resources towards enhancing their skills over the long-term, especially since we rely on them more every day. In the short-term, we are going to have a huge Network Reunion this fall (November 13-16), packed full of advanced facilitation and training skills, opportunities for our network to exchange best practices in every area of expertise we offer to the public, a chance to geek out on the latest in action technology, and just get to catch up with each other! We have been outreaching to our network list - if you haven't heard from us and think you should, please let us know at valerie@ruckus.org. We will be offering our Training for Trainers track in the spring at our Tactics Summit. In other news, our Outreach Director Celeste Faison is moving on from The Ruckus Society. Celeste joined us just over a year ago from Selma, Alabama, where she was working with young people. She took on the challenge of getting us a high functioning training and action program through targeted outreach and setting up great internal systems, and the result was 45 trainings over the past year! She has brought her no-nonsense organizing mind to all of our work over the past year, particularly shaping up the Not Your Soldier action partnership, supporting the YAWR Student Walk-Outs during the Republican National Convention, and reengaging individuals and organizations we work with. We wish Celeste the best of luck as she returns to the field of youth organizing!
Read below for announcements about some things that are happening this week and next!
Keeping you posted, in love and light Adrienne Maree Brown --- Ruckus Stuff Happening! Right now!! Ruckus is at Bioneers training youth in the Direct Action Track, and Adrienne Maree Brown is speaking at this panel today: 4:30pm Edgewalking: Risk-taking, Pushing the Envelope and Cultivating Fertile Ground
In this time of transformation, risk-takers are working on the edges of movement-building and bridging networks to explore the far reaches of positive possibility. Hosted by Akaya Windwood, CEO and president of Rockwood Leadership Program. With: Adrienne Maree Brown, executive director of Ruckus Society; Diane Wilson, author of An Unreasonable Woman and Holy Roller; activist, farmer, artist and flow-funder Marion Weber; and Leslie Gray, founder and executive director of the Woodfish Institute. -- Then Monday! The Applied Research Center invites you to weigh in on a conference call exploring post-meltdown post-election scenarios and what it could mean for racial justice work. The fallout from decades of extreme inequities is piled on the backs of our communities, yet racial justice is poised to advance in 2009. Your input and energy, plus organized action will make a difference. Join us on the call. Please *RSVP* so that we have enough lines available to accommodate everyone. When: *Monday, October 20, 2008 at 1:00 PST, 4:00 EST* Call information: *866.682.6100* Presenters include: /Rinku Sen, Executive Director, Applied Research Center (ARC)
and Publisher of ColorLines magazine/ /Adrienne Maree Brown, Executive Director,The Ruckus Society/ /Deepak Bhargava, Executive Director, Center for Community Change/ ---- Ruckus Happy Hour!! in Portland, OR October 28, 5-7 RSVP adrienne@ruckus.org for details!! Come have a drink with Adrienne Maree Brown!! :)
