World Congress Assistance Fund

Subud Greater Seattle is offering two grants (at least $260 in cash plus free registration, lunch and dinner, and a round-trip bus fare from Mexico City Airport to Puebla) to assist two members to attend the Subud World Congress 2014 in Puebla, Mexico from August 2 – 17, 2014.

Anyone that is a member in the region may apply, but they must show the ability to pay for their lodging (approx. $30/day for 14 days plus airfare which is approximately $700 round trip).

For more information on the congress go to: http://www.subudworldcongress2014.com.

As many of us know, World Congresses are often life changing experiences since we connect with the global nature of Subud and we often deepen our latihan experience. Sharing and doing latihan on a truly global scale with members from now over 50 countries can be a very life changing experience. Plus, connecting with the rich culture of Puebla, Mexico, an ancient colonial city, is also a plus.

If you have not donated to this fund please give a check to Subud PNW-Greater Seattle Center and earmark it World Congress Travel Fund. If we have more funds we can give more grants and assist more to go to congress. Give the funds to Sherwin O’Bar, our Treasurer, or mail to Subud Greater Seattle, 1101 15th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122-4523.

If a member wishes to apply for a grant please email marston.gregory@hotmail.com and he will send an application form to be filled out by May 20 and the final decision of who gets grants will be made by May 31, 2014. The grant review committee is made up of Marston Gregory, Sherwin O’Bar and Oswald Norton.

Dewan Meeting Minutes

Subud Greater Seattle Dewan Meeting

Minutes:  Sunday, April 6, 2014

Present:  Sherwin and Hadijah O’Bar, Marston Gregory, Paul Nelson, Elisha Gullixson, Jim O’Halloran, Hadiyah Carlyle

Last Month’s Minutes
Accepted unanimously by the committee.
 
Financial Report

SGS financial results thru the first quarter of 2014 (January thru March 2014) are overall favorable. However, the favorability is primarily driven by greater than anticipated hall and guest rental income ($5,308 thru March 2014, on a full year budget target of $20,000) which may not be sustained through the remaining months of the year (April thru December). Conversely, member donations through the first quarter are trending less than anticipated ($4,020 thru March on a full year budget target of $18,500.)

Increased member donations, as well as increased member participation in Subud Greater Seattle (SGS) activities, are key to sustaining and growing Subud’s beneficial influence through local communities and the world in general.

So please participate through SGS in any way you can.

Helper Report

Mens’ helper group is doing well. We have an applicant who has met with the Eastside helpers a few times, and will meet with Seattle helpers this Wednesday. Sunday Latihans are well-attended, as are Friday; Saturday and Thursday are sparse-Saturday more so thanThursday. The Men on the Eastside have been meeting with new candidate who is expected to be opened this month.

Women’s Report: Lucy Brown is now back to active helper status. The only day women are attending latihan in Seattle is Sunday.Wednesday nights have some attendees and Friday night also on the Eastside, though not many. How do we get better latihan attendance? The Regional Helpers have been supportive.

Spring Street Center

Paul reported that the gross income for March was over $2,300 and we’re getting a huge response from Airbnb in terms of lodgers. This is a great way to create awareness of Subud in the general community. This will also require that we act more quickly on maintenance issues, including a new toilet for the upstairs bathroom.

We’ll need volunteers for the Cascadia Poetry Festival to staff a table to give information on Subud and Spring Street Center. This is GREAT P.R. for Subud and the rental business and Oswald is coordinating volunteers. Gold Passes, good for any event during the fest (May 1-4) will be given to volunteers to attend events and they ARE transferable. The house will be full of lodgers that weekend andThursday latihan will be canceled. (Paul also suggests we cancel latihan Saturday, May 3 as well.)

Paul will enlist Hadiyah Carlyle and a friend of his who lives nearby, Rachel Hug, to handle rental business during the World Congress as he and Marston will both be in Puebla.

Repairs
 
(See above.)
 
Upcoming Events
 
Next General Meeting has been moved to May 18th.
Next Dewan meeting is June 1.
 

 

SICA in Puebla

The Subud International Cultural Association will be very active (& INTERACTIVE) in Puebla, Mexico, during the upcoming World Congress. From their flyer:

Join the conversation, Engage, exchange, and interact with art, culture and creativity from around the world in the heart of a fabulous UNESCO World Heritage City, Puebla, Mexico.

See the whole flyer here or click the image below. Nos vemos en Puebla.

SICA Puebla Flyer

General Meeting Notes from Friday 3/15/14

A group of 11 Subud members gathered for our monthly general meeting in the comfortable anti-room of the Bellevue First Congregational United Church of Christ to enjoy hot tea, cookies, and fresh fruit salad while listening to reports from those conducting the business of our small community.

We began with a report on activities at the Seattle facilities and in particular a recent rental by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) events held at The Center and lodging by attendees to that event who stayed at the Subud house.  One of the attendees, Amalio Madueño, President of the Taos, (New Mexico) Poetry Circus felt that Spring Street Center could rival the Hugo House as a facility for literary events in Seattle. Promotional ideas began to percolate.

The report from the Eastside Group included news of a new male candidate (learned about Subud from Garett Thomson).  The group has also moved back into the church.  Though the church has been sold, movement is not expected for a year, during which Subud will continue to use the facilities.

Sherwin O’Bar was ill, so Oswald Norton brought copies of the Treasurer’s report which Marston reviewed with members.

Upcoming events

  • March – A testing session on Growth and Renewal will be conducted by helpers on a Sunday after latihan. Date to be announced.
  • April 6th – Dewan Meeting 9 am.
  • Sunday April 13th– Subud Greater Seattle at Subud house in Seattle after latihan.  Potluck lunch

–       It would be great to have a story a member was willing to share about the Subud work they’re doing, or how Subud is impacting their life’s work. Any Volunteers – talk with David.

  • May 1-4, 2014 2nd Cascadia Poetry Festival, at Spring Street Center & Seattle U
    • Volunteers Needed to staff a table promoting Spring Street Center
    • Opportunities for Subud

Marston’s Party/Fundraiser

From Marston Gregory:

Marston named "Honorary Mexican" at his 70th birthday party.

Marston named “Honorary Mexican” at his 70th birthday party.

Thanks to everyone who came to the Salsa Birthday party. 

 
We raised almost $400 to assist in travel to the world congress.  I would recommend we now ask for members to apply for use of the funds and give two $200 grants.  We would give priority those who have never attended a world congress.   Deadline to apply would be byMarch 31.  The candidate would do a letter explaining why they wish to attend and the local committee would review them and let the person know by April 15.   We can announce in the newsletter. Also, would the center add $100 to the pot so we can bring the grants up to $250 each?  These funds
are for Subud PNW members only. 
 
Thanks again to all who donated. 
 
Marston
Photo by Rachman Cantrell

Photos by Rachman Cantrell

Marston's Party Photos 1

Marston's Party Photos 2

Marston's Party Photos 3

Marston's Party Photos 4

Poetry as Subud Outreach Volunteers Needed!

Cascadia_Header_2

Viva Cascadia!

The second Cascadia Poetry Festival happens May 1-4, 2014 at two venues in Seattle and one of them is your friendly neighborhood Subud House. (Spring Street Center.) The lineup is world class, featuring Joanne Kyger, George Bowering, George Stanley, Kaia Sand, Stephen Collis, Daphne Marlatt and many other poets from around the bioregion known as Cascadia. That this is a cultural investigation is right in line with the work of SICA, the Subud wing concerned with culture that comes from the jiwa. That events are in our house and that Spring Street Center has a table at the festival’s Small Press Fair means that Subud members are REALLY NEEDED as volunteers to staff the table and make sure guests in our house are welcomed and that the house is protected. This is the most ambitious cultural offering ever in the 40 year history of Subud Greater Seattle.

Oswald Norton (onorton [at] hotmail [dot] com) is coordinating volunteer efforts and the Small Press Fair starts Friday at 4 (load-in) and goes until 10P and Saturday and Sunday from 8:30A to 10P. The passes are transferable, and there will be no charge to get into the Small Press Fair, so different people can take advantage on different nights. The house itself will be full of poet-lodgers, so please respect their space. There will be no latihan Thursday, but WILL be happening Saturday and Sunday. We’d love if folks could show up early for latihan just to be sure the rooms are in order, though we’ll be doing are best to ensure that is the case.

And it would sure be nice to have Subud folks support this effort. That means buying a pass if you can afford one, telling folks about it or helping us find a sponsor or two, as we still have a few thousand bucks to raise to cover the basics. Thanks for considering. Thanks for entrusting the house to me and this project.

 

Seattle Dewan Meeting Minutes: Sunday, March 2nd, 2014

The minutes of our January 5th meeting are now available for you to read including our financial report, link to the 2014 Donation Information form for SGS so we can complete our 2014 budget and an update on Testing for March and news about our Spring Street Center’s recent rentals as a location for a national meeting offsite in February.

Enjoy them here.

Poetry Reading at the Subud House

Dar SafiWith the AWP in town, there will be 14,000 writers in Seattle this week. The Subud House will be full of lodgers by tomorrow night and there was a remarkable poetry reading last night as the debut of Dar Safi Press was celebrated. 

Subud members who attend the Poems for Peace event last September will remember Faiza Sultan whose poems about war were frank, ironic and incredibly moving. She is the Publisher of the Press and welcomed Iraqi poets living as far away as London and the Philippines to read. Wafaa Abdul Razaak had stunning war poems of her own and read them with a bold performance style before they were read in English by Faiza. War Child

Traditional Kurdish drumming and singing was provided by Ahmed Yousefbeigi, whose mastery of the frame drum was mesmerizing. And the first half concluded with Falah Saik, who was introduced by the reigning winner of the Stranger Genius Award for Literature, Cairo native Maged Zaher, who said Salah was the most important Arab poet in the world.

Maged read the English translations which had a broad range of references, from Hamlet to Marx and his own anatomy. The conversation the poet described at the grave of Karl Marx was especially deft. Amalio Madueño closed out the 2nd half of the reading which also featured two local poets.

Ahmed YousefbeigiSalah Faik

Tomorrow (Thursday Feb 27) there are TWO MORE readings at the Subud House. I can’t tell you how amazing last night was and how disappointed there were NO SUBUD PEOPLE to witness, to talk to the gathered about our community, our house, SICA and other topics I engaged in briefly. Please try to attend and remember, there is no latihan.

BEI, Thursday, February 27, 7:00PM- 11:PM. The event is sponsored by Black Earth Institute and we are inviting writers who have had work in About Place Journal, BEI Fellows and various friends and colleagues. Part of the impetus of this event is to explain more about the mission of Black Earth Institute, a progressive think tank of artist-fellows and scholar-advisers to work toward a society based on justice, spirit and earth-centeredness, as well as to get together many of us who have been involved in About Place, the literary journal BEI publishes quarterly to give voice to their mission.

Colorado Review, Yalobusha Review, and Ahsahta Press are proud to present A Midnight Triptych, AWP’s biggest late-night event. Join us for last call on Thursday night/Friday morning for an all-star line-up featuring Carmen Giménez Smith, Matthew Cooperman, Lucy Ives, Danniel Schoonebeek, Gillian Conoley, and C. Violet Eaton. 12M Thursday night/Friday Morning. The reading will be held in the basement of the Spring Street Center chapel (1101 15th Avenue)–just one mile from the conference center. Doors open at midnight and we’ll get started shortly thereafter, so don’t be late. Beer for sale or bring your own drinks. See you there!

Colorado Review
Yalobusha Review
Ahsahta Press