Systemic Perspective

What are the roles of secrets in a community?

For example, say a resilience-building foundation had been telling you they had a secret for MONTHS and refused to say much else about it? Would you scoff and unsubscribe from their smug newsletter, or would you make sure you came to their June 4th launch party from 5:30-7:30?

From a systemic perspective, you would go to the party and be there in time for the big reveal around 6:00.

But resilience is born of diversity. It's important that we all approach things differently to avoid all the eggs in one basket. For example, certainly some folks will come to the party next Thursday by car, and park in the Pepperwood Plaza lot. But others will approach the situation on bike, and join our departing bike bus around 7:30 for safety in numbers on the way back home. Still others will take the bus from downtown to Dream City and then walk the half block to 1927 Keokuk St.

Feedback is important too! The bus riders will say, "How could you bike when you could have just got on Route 1 from the old capital mall at 5:05 or 5:35? Did you not know the bus is free, you can just hop on with no ticket or anything, and will leave to return downtown at 6:45 or 7:15?" And the bikers will say, "I get it about shared transportation being more financially sustainable for our community, better for our air quality, and reducing the pressure on our racist carceral system, but have you not biked on a warm Iowa City evening?"

And of course the drivers will say, "driving was the only feasible way for me to get to the party in time for the BIG REVEAL at 6 PM. Plus, I really don't mind the walk from the parking lot to RSFIC, which is about the same as the walk from the Graduate parking ramp to MERGE!" and they'll also be right because the infrastructure of our society heavily favors individual vehicles! And we do have a few car-parking spots closer to the building for folks who can't make the walk easily.

So from a systemic perspective that means it's important to get information from diverse sources and actually react to it. To be resilient, when something changes, the system (or parts of the system) needs to actually react to that change, rather than trying to ignore or suppress the change. So please do your part and fill out this survey: How will YOU be getting to the party?

Local Events For You To Take Smaller Steps Towards Systemic Launch Partying

It's important that we find healthy ways to take small steps towards resilience. We will not be able to "fix the environment" or "stop colonizing" next week. Some of us may not even be able to attend a Thursday-evening party with free music, tacos, pizza, secret announcements, and passionate neighbors from all over town! But there are certainly parts of our behavior and culture we CAN change.

We're entering the season where almost every day of the week has multiple events that are both fun and make systemic impacts in small, achievable ways. Here are a few coming up. 

• Celebration of Stories of Community - Saturday May 30th, 12:30 PM (just after the Farmer's Market). We'll be holding up three groups of local leaders, watching films featuring them, and gathering in our local non-profit cinema, FilmScene (at the Chauncey). The films are very short, arrive on time :)
  
  
• Lucas Farms Clothing Swap - Saturday, May 30th, 2:00 PM at Faith UCC. Swapped clothes are not only free, they keep plastic out of the landfill AND keep money in our economy. Heck yes!
  
  
• Inaugural Northside Neighbors Music Festival! - Sunday, May 31st, 2-5 PM. This is a model of resilience culture - a great idea from one part of town has spread to another, but with a whole different set of people doing it their own way. Learning lessons from the Longfellow organizers but not burdening them with more responsibility, not consolidating power, and keeping the flexibility of tailoring the experience directly for their neighborhood. I love to see this and will be there performing with Family Folk Machine!
  
  
• ICVZ Homage to Public Access - Sunday, May 31st, 5 PM. Featuring multiple video installations, tabling by local orgs that offer FREE PUBLIC MEDIA, a discussion panel with PATV leaders, food & refreshments alongside good company and the screening of the ICVZ season finale!
  
  
• We Do Recover is holding an NA meeting Monday, June 1st, at 11 AM. They're in the RSFIC building at 1927 Keokuk St regularly every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Come on by!
  
  
• Community Fridge Celebration - Tuesday, June 2nd, 5:30 PM. Everyone loves the fridge and what it represents: let's get together and make food free by working and sharing. Come celebrate its first birthday. Bring a chair!
  
  
• Community Pilates - Tuesday, June 2nd, 6:30! Get strong in more ways than one. Free RSVP required!
  
  
• June 4th is the RSFIC launch party from 5:30-7:30, pretty sure everyone else canceled all their plans. You know, for resilience. Or did you not like sustainable futures?
  
  
• Student Build Dedication Ceremony - Friday, June 5th, 4-6PM. Did you know our schools teach our younger neighbors how to build homes for the community? Like they design and construct the whole frickin thing and then people can live in them. Let's go to this event and tell them how much we appreciate it. Tours at 4, dedication at 5.
  
  
• Wonderful Westside cleanup - Next saturday, June 6th, 9 AM. The IC Litter Crew is at it again, helping folks take responsibility for their neighborhoods in fun and effective ways. If you live in the area meet at the grassy spot between the ponds by Fareway!

 

Ok, but seriously

Full transparency is pretty hard to work with. If you're in an environment where folks will latch on to certain things and never let it go, then it's harder to ask questions, admit ignorance, brainstorm, and all the other specific techniques that make up "leadership" and "collaboration." So, the program that we've been developing at RSFIC for the last 18 months or so has been a little under wraps. We've spoken with hundreds of people about different parts of our ideas and combined their perspectives with our own to make something we think is pretty great. But we're also nervous! We're trying something that's pretty new to us and, we think, unique in Iowa City. So we're starting pretty slow (as you'll learn on Thursday) and will continue to seek feedback (and react accordingly!) as we go along.

We're honored to be part of a city full of folks who care so much and do so many different things to try to break away from the fragile, extractive, and extortionist infrastructure that we've built. We know RSFIC doesn't have "the" answer, but we hope we're at least building communal knowledge and experience about different things we can be try. We hope to see you next Thursday!

Peace,

Riley
Co-founder of RSFIC

Systemic Perspective

Our culture is full of little nudges away from our roots. We banned most neighborhood businesses, but allow uber & amazon to drive anywhere they like. With 1:1 chromebooks in our schools, we pay for tech bros to have minute-by-minute access to our kids, while our plumbers struggle to keep apprentices employed. We build car lots on land that used to be alive.

Grants applications sometimes include clauses like "this money can only be used to do new things." What goes unsaid is, "this money cannot support what you already know to be working, or the people who are doing that work." Abandon the past and try something new.

Rebuilding Roots

Last weekend, it was a pleasure to work with Martha, Terresa, Lilli, Susan, Karen, Emmie, Colleen, Fred, Jen, Gina, Ryan, Ilsa, Michal, Tyesha, and Sara on reclaiming paved land as a beautiful place for some non-human neighbors. Since we have started de-paving, I've seen rabbits and birds and squirrels in the RSFIC back yard, not just scampering across hot asphalt, but resting in the shade, getting a snack, and contributing to the community. I've seen human kids running and playing and groups of people eating lunch.

The city high geometry & carpentry class is making great progress on the stage at the same time - a literal platform for community members. It's starting to feel like a real place of power with so many folks putting their time and love into it. 

Eid Al-Adha Bazaar on Sunday

The Immigrant Welcome Network is hosting a community celebration this Sunday May 24th from 1:00-8:00 PM at the RSFIC building.

This bazaar will feature immigrant entrepreneurs offering:

• Delicious traditional dishes and desserts
• Perfumes, clothing, spices, and more

Vegetarian and vegan options will also be available.

The bazaar is supporting local immigrant-owned businesses and helping bring our community together. If you don't often celebrate Eid personally, this is a great chance to join in the great food, culture, and community.

Remember: car parking is a quick 90-second walk away. Please reserve the few close spots at the building for folks for whom the walk would not be quick. See the parking directions here.

And other good uses of shared space

• Stories of Community, May 30th, 12:30, at the Chauncey!
• Summer Launch Party, June 4th, 5:30-7:30, at RSFIC!
• Community Pilates, May 26th, 6:30 PM, at RSFIC
• Low-Maintenance Container Gardens for Real Life, May 27th, 6:00 PM, Big Grove!
• GPAS Community Conversations - New Jail?, May 28th, 6:00 PM, GPAS!

Could we replace "growth" with "adaptation?"

I like our work of reclaiming our asphalt as a place for life rather than a place for cars. It's a way of responding to external stimuli that doesn't involve growing. We know cars divide us, destroy our environment, incentivize violent global conflict, endanger our children, make our housing less affordable, and even drive down city revenues that could go to basic services like clean water and energy. By reclaiming some of the car infrastructure for bazaars, gardens, education, and music, we're reacting to that knowledge - but we're not increasing our expenses or our obligations. We don't need a loan that we'll have to pay back with interest, and it will take LESS energy to maintain than the asphalt.

I'm not saying our work would like "solve" cars, but it's a way to adapt in a small step. Maybe if we had more systemic pressure to adapt in small steps, rather than to grow, we could be more resilient as a whole.

Peace,

Riley

 

• Huge thanks to Denny with We Do Recover, the NA group that meets at RSFIC - they are always contributing to the community, and this week they installed shelves in a closet that's basically been unusable without them. Thanks folks!!
• Jose! You helped us install hooks for the lights in the back yard - this will make our secret announcement much more atmospheric on June 4th :) Thank you!
• Thanks to Ed for donating gardening tools and tomato cages, and to Karen for the rattlesnake master!
• Claire: thanks for agreeing to host the Sip 'n Hang this week!
• And thanks to our advisory board, who's been helping us for years unrecognized on this newsletter due to a certain negligent newsletter author. 
• I'm pretty sure I'm missing some folks - sorry! Please let me know.

Systemic Perspective

We've spent hundreds of millions of dollars on roads in our town. The car infrastructure we created influences our cultural superstructure: we value convenience and individualism at least in part because we've subsidized convenience and individualism so dang much.

We can't actually afford the roads unless we keep growing (complimentary Strong Towns rabbit hole). It's pretty uncomfortable to reckon with the idea that maybe we've built our infrastructure in an unsustainable way, and I believe our cultural value of "Growth" is a superstructural result of our car infrastructure. Everyone who's studied entrepreneurship has heard proverbs like "if you're not growing you're dying," and many economic development theories list growth as the number one goal. Maybe it's a basic instinct - it seems like every organism does its best to grow, not just people - but now that we know we're going to run out of space and fuel, shouldn't we start planning ahead?

The cognitive dissonance around depending on infinite growth on a finite planet is intense. Some people have been driven so far as to to believe we will grow into outer space! They find it easier to imagine terraforming alien planets than to imagine a stable economy that doesn't grow. Guys, we're barely able to keep Earth habitable, what the heck do you think we are gonna eat on Mars?

Coffee Bike Bus!

Longfellow neighbor Jacob is organizing a fun step towards car independence: a bike bus to school. He writes,

Next week on Thursday May 21st, Longfellow parent Jacob Simmering and Matt Burkey from the Safe Routes to School program at the Iowa Bicycle Coalition are hosting the first-ever Longfellow Bike Bus and would love for lots of biking families to join! Families meet at Chadek Green Park (off Friendship St) at 7am for "Coffee Outside" (bring your own coffee, donuts provided) then we all ride together to school at 7:35am. 

I love this as a fun thing anyone could organize. Thanks to Jacob for his leadership in making this one happen. If your kid goes to Longfellow, consider joining on May 21st! And if you don't, ask us about getting help organizing your own. Here's a picture from a Peninsula bike bus from a couple years ago for inspiration.

It's Bike Month!

May is Bike Month! There are quite a few ways to get started biking - check out Bike Iowa City's events page.

Biking to RSFIC

It's bike month, and you're already planning to come to:

• our June 4th Launch Party and / or
• TOMORROW's Garden Day.

Could you bike?

Here's a map we made showing routes that require a moderate level of biking experience. Beginners could safely do these routes as long as they have a more experienced friend with them. The routes are all paved, either on separate bike paths or on slow, low-traffic roads. They minimize hills and don't require any mad dashes around uncontrolled intersections!

I would not send my experienced 13-year-old son on all of these routes by himself until I had escorted him several times. Would YOU like an escort? Let me know and we'll schedule something around your route :)

 

County Politics Acknowledgment

RSFIC stays focused pretty locally because we have the most power in our own homes, neighborhoods, and city. But there's a lot going on through town about county politics, an election is coming up, and many great people in our city ARE paying attention to higher-level government activity. So here are some links to some of those folk's stuff! 

• GreaterIC created a guide covering all the details of how to vote, plus a questionnaire the candidates filled out. If you'd like more information about the imminent election I think this is a really good primer. LINK!
  
  
• Jail stuff: this won't be on the ballot but there's a whole lot going on around town about it right now because it MIGHT be on the ballot in November, and right now people are debating what should or shouldn't be on there. Great Plains Action Society has been running Community Conversations with the intent of getting to a productive level of discomfort - getting outside our own echo chambers in a productive way. Their next convo is about potential solutions to our jail problems. Learn how to join!
  
  
• Disagreeing productively: Frederick Newell at Dream City wrote an important message about working together through disagreements without isolating ourselves from each other. Read it here!

 

Peace,

Riley

 

 

 

Big thanks to Claire, Roger, and Lilli this week for helping RSFIC with our mission to help neighbors get organized! They hosted groups in our space and helped support a neighborhood event! Learn more about volunteering. Also, shout out to Houses into Homes for letting us use a reclaimed table in our space :)

Systemic Perspective

Iowa City has a document called the "Comprehensive Plan." It has legal power because buildings and activities have to match it before they are allowed.

The Comprehensive Plan marks areas where it would be illegal to start a coffee shop, or other areas where no one can build homes, and other areas preserved for nature or factories or public areas. If we want to become a more industrial town, the comprehensive plan should say where to build more factories. If we want denser housing, the plan should say where we want it.

The plan becomes a systemic force, influencing decisions across the entire community for decades into the future. It has the power of setting the default for city development. Everything in the plan is easy to make happen, everything not in the plan is hard to make happen. Over years, that systemic force accumulates a massive impact.

The plan is being updated right now. So how do we make sure the new version says what we want? Who actually gets to write this thing?

Compare to the School District

The school district has been in the news a lot for our sudden scrutiny of their finances. Almost none of us paid much attention to their finances before (myself included)!

Now consider: the Iowa City government spends more money and also plans the future infrastructure of our whole town. Steering the comprehensive plan is one of the most powerful levers our city councilors have, and it's the perfect time for them to press it. Are we, the public, paying any more attention to this than we were to school finances?

If you voted for a city councilor for a particular cause, now would be a great time to follow up with them and ask them what they are doing to make sure that cause is represented in the new plan. If you care about local businesses, you could ask how your councilor is making sure they are prioritized over global businesses. If you care about housing, you might consider asking what the new plan will change from the old plan to affect quality affordable homes. If you're wondering about education, ask for the council's view on how the plan will affect the school district or private schools.

Personally, my question is "how are you steering the comprehensive plan so our town becomes more resilient to global changes outside our control like AI, climate change, trade routes, energy prices, and others?"

If you have a question or idea but don't want to write a councilor about it, you can also fill out RSFIC's anonymous survey just to get a little taste of political engagement :D

Programming Support for Culture-Shifting Leaders

Folks who are working to make change face backlash from all corners - powerful companies, governments of all levels, our neighbors, and even our own families. But the one thing we can plainly see is that change is necessary: our mainstream culture is destroying the earth. So, we can be confident that we are right that we all need some big things to change.

Almost all our programming at RSFIC is aimed at supporting people doing the hard emotional work of cultural change. Here are some upcoming opportunities to join us in solidarity:

Sip 'n Hang  Every Wednesday, 9-11 am, at Zoetic on the south side. I make it to about half of them. I personally just put a recurring calendar event on my calendar to remind myself about this one. Makes it easy to pop by when I can.  We just hang out without fear of gaslighting or condescension. Sometimes we compare notes, share ideas, or just reaffirm our sanity to each other.

Stories of Community SATURDAY, May 30th, 12:30 PM at FilmScene Chauncey I messed up the date last week, it's Saturday May 30th at 12:30. But we'll still be celebrating three new stories of folks making change in Iowa City, and feeling a little more sense of community ourselves. Refreshing :)

Launch Party Thursday, June 4th, 5:30-7:30 PM at RSFIC, 1927 Keokuk We're developing a new program with some trusted partners around town. Come hear all about it - plus tacos, pizza, and music!

 

And some literal grass-roots civic engagement

Last night Michal & I attended the EarthMind book launch. Fred & Jen have been working on righting Iowa City's relationship to nature for many years, and they are redoubling their efforts with a new book and series of events.

If you're feeling anxious, stressed, sick, or any other version of unhealthy, EarthMind can help you think about small, achievable steps you can take to take a nature-based approach to a healthier life. There are a bunch of their events coming up - surely one of them will work for you!

Click here to zoom in and see classes through October

 

And at RSFIC, we're having our Garden Day the morning of Saturday, May 15th. We have a lot of weeding and other cleanup to do, and a lot of proactive gardening and other ways of making the yard a powerful gathering space.

 

Peace,

Riley

Co-founder of RSFIC

 

PS: Fun fact, y'all clicked last week's wheel of mystery FIVE TIMES MORE than when I just tell you "hey, obviously you should learn more about the Bike Library <> EarthMind event tomorrow." RSFIC tries to use techniques like that for solidarity. Please be aware that many companies use these techniques to drive us apart for profit. Subtle shaming is the basic skill that anti-social media platforms use to corrupt our social fabric!

RSFIC programming is maturing

June 4th, Early Evening (exact time TBD) at RSFIC

I'm proud of what we've accomplished so far at RSFIC - 200+ projects across town, 30+ short films, thousands of people gathering in our space, dozens of other organizations supported, and millions of dollars invested locally. Beyond the numbers, I just feel like our culture is shifting. I see random events requesting folks to bring their own cups, I see people re-using old furniture, I hear leaders giving each other credit, and I see powerful organizations evolving.

We've also learned a lot. Through hundreds of interactions with leaders we've seen common approaches, successes, and obstacles. There are many, many systemic barriers to cultural change and we've seen them trapping and diluting energy in every part of Iowa City.

So what are we going to do next?

We are throwing a launch party so you can come find out on the evening of June 4th! We'll take you through what we're thinking, how we're evolving, and we have special guests lined up to give you their take. OooOoOo, I wonder who they are!?

We have the strategic values "Demonstrate Integrity" and "Demonstrate Humility." They encourage us to tell you what we're trying to do, even when we know that we don't have a perfect solution, so that you can help us improve our work. Please come and help us!

 

Celebrating Stories of Community

Sunday, May 30th, 12:30 PM at FilmScene Chauncey

Part of the culture-shifting thing is focusing on positive, proactive ideas. We can't just say the parts of colonial capitalism we hate. So, RSFIC does a lot of work amplifying stories of the culture we want to see, and on May 30th we're working with our partners at FilmScene to screen three short films we've produced. Please come help us celebrate those stories. The celebration is the culture-shifting part, showing each other that this is what we want! Afterwards we'll mingle with the heroes of the stories and think about how we might take a next step together.

 

Volunteering with RSFIC

Wednesday, May 6th, 4:00 PM at RSFIC

RSFIC is helping neighbors get organized. We want people all across Iowa City working together to bring about a change to a resilient, sustainable future.

Want to help us do that? Come to our next volunteer orientation on Wednesday, May 6th, 4 PM, at 1927 Keokuk St. If you're already signed up with our volunteer portal, check out the upcoming opportunities to help here.

• Roger has been helping us host groups in the Gathering Space, which spreads the word, builds solidarity, and makes the space affordable for more people!
• Claire helped us help others by volunteering with an event in her neighborhood
• A bunch of folks are signed up to help us prep the garden beds in the next couple weeks
• Some others are going to help us improve our signage and interior design
• Dave, Jacob, and their city high class are helping us build a stage in the back yard. Both the garden beds and this stage will make the place a more powerful platform for growing solidarity!

Love RSFIC but not quite ready to start organizing your neighbors? Come on May 6th to hear about smaller ways to jump on board :)

Do these Wednesday times not work for you? Contact tyesha@rsfic.org directly.

 

Just Hang

Any/every Wednesday, 9-11 AM, at Zoetic Coffee

Want to spend a Wednesday morning with people who know the joys and sadnesses of working on cultural change? Join us any/every Wednesday at Zoetic Coffee on the south side of Iowa City (not Solon). Coffee's on us from 9-11, and we won't explain to you why experts have already studied your area of interest and know the Real Answer. We also won't explain that it would really be better for you to get involved with an establishment organization rather than try and change anything yourself. And we certainly won't focus on one little thing you're not sure about while we ignore the main thrust of what you're saying!

 

Fun Event Wheel of MYSTERY

Love doing fun stuff, but hate having to decide exactly what you're going to do? Try RSFIC's Wheel of MYSTERY!

 

RSFIC WHEEL OF MYSTERY!

1. Pick a random number between 1 and 20. 

2. If you picked 7 or 17, use this more random number generator to pick again

3. Click the corresponding link below and go to whatever cool event it links to!

MYSTERY EVENT #1	MYSTERY EVENT #2
MYSTERY EVENT #3	MYSTERY EVENT #4
MYSTERY EVENT #5	MYSTERY EVENT #6
MYSTERY EVENT #7	MYSTERY EVENT #8
MYSTERY EVENT #9	MYSTERY EVENT #10
MYSTERY EVENT #11	MYSTERY EVENT #12
MYSTERY EVENT #13	MYSTERY EVENT #14
MYSTERY EVENT #15	MYSTERY EVENT #16
MYSTERY EVENT #17	MYSTERY EVENT #18
MYSTERY EVENT #19	MYSTERY EVENT #20

Good luck!!

 

Peace,

Riley

Co-founder of RSFIC

How do we think systemic change happens?

I was at a community conversation hosted by GPAS last night, where we were aiming for the "uncomfortable, but not dysfunctional" level of discourse about the No Kings rallies. At one point, someone said they had a curiosity about how everyone else in the room thinks social change happens.

So today I thought I'd just share a brief overview of RSFIC's theory of how we're trying to shift our culture. 

1. Everyone is starting to understand that, because of our unhealthy relationship with nature and each other, our current way of life is not sustainable. More and more people are starting to take that literally, and understanding that our current way of life will end.
   
   
2. Our attention is regularly drawn to the national and global scale, where we are powerless. The biggest leverage points we have for meaningful change are hyper-local - our city, our block, our home.
   
   
3. Therefore,
   • We should get our money off wall street and into our community
   • We need to reconnect as humans. Meet our neighbors, speak face-to-face, borrow from each other, do each other favors, have fun together, re-build networks of trust.
     
     
4. If RSFIC provides achievable steps towards appealing new ways of life by...
   • helping neighbors get organized to make local change,
   • helping celebrate people who are growing solidarity, relocalizing power, consuming less, demonstrating integrity, and demonstrating humility,
   • facilitating skill- and information-sharing, and
   • connecting local money to local people...
     
     
5. then...
   • we'll build capacity locally for constructive collaboration and conflict
   • money will circulate through our local community rather than be extracted to huge multi-national companies that don't care about our community
   • folks will save money by borrowing and sharing, which will reduce other secondary costs like transporation and marketing
   • the community will be more resilient in disasters because neighbors have networks of trust and know who needs help/who can help

We'll create more diversity and faster feedback within our culture locally. Diversity and faster feedback will organically bring us towards right relationship with nature and each other in incremental, achievable steps. Whichever new ways of life we develop together will be more resilient and sustainable.

Systemic Perspective

We’ve been writing about the powers that our cultural values give us, what it might look like to give up some of that power voluntarily, and what new powers we might gain from a change in perspective.

A quick rundown:

• Slowing our adoption of new technologies might boost local communities or protect our water
• Refusing internet delivery might foster local economies and increase local skills
• Only accepting food from people we personally trust might make us healthier and stronger
• If we deprioritized efficiency, we might be in a stronger strategic position for resilience
• Being flexible with our plans instead of expecting stability might help us prevent human-caused climate change
• Driving less can save us money, make our children healthier, and foster economic development (if you’re into that sort of thing)

One reason Michal & I wanted to start this mini-series of newsletters was to highlight how many of our cultural norms are just human thoughts and behavior. These are not laws of nature, and we can change them. Our City Council is about to spend another quarter-billion dollars directing the development and maintenance of our infrastructure, and they can change how they do that. As individuals we behave in certain patterns that we are able to choose to shift in incremental ways.

I want to wrap this series up with a note about individualism. We have a strong cultural value of individualism, from the idea of “property rights” all the way across the ideological spectrum to “respecting people for who they are.” Anyone should be able to do anything they want. You do you. 

This gives each of us a lot of power. I love being able to innovate and move quickly. I love not being constrained, and, if I’m honest, I also love the feeling of breaking constraints. It’s great to be able to order whatever you want, get whatever job or education you want, and believe whatever you want. It's frustrating to work with people who see things differently.

But individualism only gives us individual power. Is it any wonder we have an epidemic of loneliness? Why we don’t seem to have the political power to protect our own water, despite the fact that everyone who lives here needs it?

What parts of individualism might we be able to let go of to gain more powers under solidarity?

Celebration of Stories of Community

Working in solidarity is difficult. It takes skill, logistics, time, and a belief that solidarity itself is a valuable outcome. If you want some trees planted, you can get them planted sooner with a shovel than with your neighbors. But at RSFIC, we value growing solidarity over short-sighted priorities like speed or efficiency.

Hundreds of groups of people around Iowa City choose to work in groups instead of alone, and RSFIC regularly holds a few of them up in a place of honor with our friends at FilmScene.

The next celebration is Saturday, May 30th, at 12:30 PM, downtown at the Chauncey. Please come and help us show these folks that we value their contribution to society, and would like to see more people working together like they do. It makes a big impact for a small team to see a hundred folks clapping for them. More details here. 

One of the films will be about the Iowa City Repair Cafe. It was started by the unincorporated Transition Town Iowa City, which I think is one of the most interesting and inspiring examples of our budding resilience culture here in town. Now the Repair Cafe is its own separate organization, and Transition Town is regrouping to cause the next small step towards a post-carbon world. 

• Mark your calendars for the celebration! Saturday, May 30th, at 12:30 PM
• Preview the Repair Cafe film here.
• If you prefer the more abstract level of transition, come to the next Transition Town event!

Volunteer to help us build solidarity

RSFIC’s main call to action is basically “organize your neighborhood to relocalize power!” but we also need help at the organizational level. We share space with thousands of people for free, and that takes intention, planning, and elbow grease. We create gatherings and make connections which takes expertise and… elbow grease!

In the last week, Denny fixed a baseboard which makes our space more welcoming to people and less welcoming to rodents. Kady helped the Tai Chi Class know how to close up the space and leave it ready for the next folks to use for free. John, Wangui, Michal and myself helped RSFIC stay on track in an advisory board meeting - and a big welcome to Adam, Tamy, and Ryan who went through our volunteer orientation so they’re more ready to help in the future.

Here are some opportunities to help coming up - if you’re already in the system you can sign up at https://portal.rsfic.org/shifts ! 

If you’re interested in doing this type of work, there are a few especially easy ways to get involved:

• Next volunteer orientation is Wednesday, May 6th, at 4 PM. Email tyesha@rsfic.org with questions
• We’re having a garden day on Saturday, May 16th, at 9:00 AM to get the yard ready for our super-mysterious launch party!
• Also we’re just hanging out every Wednesday morning at Zoetic Coffee around 9 AM.

Other Solidarity-Building and Power-Relocalizing Events Around The Community

Here’s just a sampling:

• Tuesday, April 14th, 6:30 PM - Rematriating Urban Spaces: Indigenous-Led Resilience Hubs and Land Liberation, hosted by GPAS
• Thursday, April 16th, 6:00 PM - Is No Kings Helpful? Hosted by GPAS
• Saturday, April 18th - Voice of Resilience, hosted by IWNJC
• Consider checking the calendars of the library, PS1, Wright House

See more at our events page.

Denaturalizing Power

There are lots of rules we live by. Some of them are natural laws, like “we need water to live” and “gravity.” We can’t change them. Others are not natural laws, like “you have to build parking spots for cars” or “we subsidize factory construction.” 

As we’re going through the world, I think we should remember that the un-natural laws have proven that they are unhealthy for our relationship with the natural ones. When considering changing, we shouldn’t start from the point of view that the way we’ve done things is the way we should keep doing things - that’s not even an option.

Peace,

Riley

Systemic Perspective

A lot of folks are looking for ways to build on the momentum of the huge anti-authoritarian rallies going on. Anger and awareness are important, and now many of us are looking for ways to turn them into systemic change. 

One of my answers is to take small, achievable steps away from the car-centric infrastructure that separates us and empowers oligarchs. 

We spend billions of dollars on roads, which gives us the power to drive anywhere easily. It also gives large companies the power to use massive, streamlined scale to undercut local businesses and exploit the rest of the world. The ease with which we travel gives us the power of flexibility, opportunity, and exploration, and lets us learn about other cultures and environments. It lets us do more with our time when a ten-mile trip takes fifteen minutes instead of a day. It gives us the power to strip previously inaccessible nutrients out of the ground for economic productivity, which also gives us the power to kill the land and ruin the water.

Could we all choose a specific bit of the power that easy driving gives us, and voluntarily replace it with another, better power?

We’ve done this before: by giving up the power to drive to Donnelly’s or Merge, we gained a community stage that we can use for music, gathering, and political rallies. We gained trees and a place for our kids to play - a library that’s safe for young folks to run in and out of without worrying about traffic. Now that we’ve done it, can you imagine giving up all of what the ped mall gives us, just so it was a little easier to drive to Riverside Theater?

We could scale it up. Imagine a grassy pedestrian park running down Burlington instead of tens of thousands of cars and trucks. We’d lose some of our power to drive easily, deliveries would be a hassle, emergency vehicles might respond slower - it would be a real sacrifice. But might we gain healthier children, stronger community, lower crime, cleaner water, and less dependence on oligarchs?

Big RSFIC News!

Tyesha Perry has accepted the position of Executive Director for RSFIC! Her role now explicitly includes developing partnerships with other organizations, managing our progress on our strategic plan, and other vital responsibilities that she has been performing as Associate Director for over a year. 

As for me, I’m moving off the RSFIC payroll to become volunteer VP of the board. I’ll still be managing this newsletter, our tech stuff, bookkeeping, and helping with program development.

Congratulations Tyesha, and thank you for accepting this responsibility! 

Opportunities to help us!

RSFIC is in its fifth year of helping neighbors get organized so we can all transition to a resilient, sustainable future together. We’ve helped folks start over 200 projects, produced 25+ short films celebrating them, created dozens of gatherings to bring people together, and shared space with over fifty other non-profit organizations literally thousands of times, saving them well over a quarter-million dollars they might have to spend on rent or fees otherwise. But these achievements are just a drop in the bucket of real systemic change, and we are focusing on how we can create more opportunities for more people to jump on board.

We’re starting to identify goals that volunteers could help us tackle, either in whole or just chipping in with a bit of elbow grease. We’re starting with things we’re already working on so we can ease into having a volunteer program. Our overall vision is an Iowa City where we’re in right relationship with nature and each other, and our mission is to help groups of neighbors get organized to carry out the transition to that future. To those ends, we’re helping people practice sharing space in our Gathering Space, which means welcoming people, helping them understand where things are and what the expectations are, and making sure they know how to leave the space in good order when their event is done. We’re also making the RSFIC back yard into a space with a bit of wildlife, which will take gardening, nurturing, cleaning, painting, signage, and creative & critical thought about what would make the space more effective. And if anyone likes organizing and interior decoration, we have unused office space that could be, you know, used office space. We let folks use the space for free, but we have several rooms that are just disorganized messes, and they want furniture arranged, artwork hung, maybe some painting done, and just some love.

TL;DR: We need help with all this. If any of these goals seem like worthwhile uses of your time, please come to one of our volunteer orientations! The next one is April 8th at 4 PM.

Opportunities to join others!

One event I really have my eye on is ReMatriating Urban Spaces: Indigenous-Led Resilience Hubs and Land Liberation. The technologies and practices for living in right relationship with the earth do not need to be invented new - they have existed for millenia. Let’s make sure to remember what some cultures already know about the subject.

You can also check out a few other events we happen to know about on this events page.

Things to try that can realistically reclaim power

• Shift your energy for federal politics to city politics. Our City Councilors spend about a quarter billion dollars each year, and a lot of that goes to car infrastructure. They also maintain laws that require organizations like RSFIC to invest in car infrastructure and make some experiments with new forms of housing illegal. It takes millions of people and a really long time to change federal laws, but it takes like ten people and a year or two to change local laws. What better way to change the world than to demonstrate what you want locally? Email me directly and I can help you understand how things work here and how you might usefully transfer your energy to start seeing direct results.
  
  

• Gather some neighbors. In my neighborhood some folks have organized “small group dinners,” which is just neighbors getting together for dinner. This is building power, and you don’t need a car! We can help you think about how to get started. rsfic.org/grants
  
  

• Don’t Drive So Much. Parking sucks, traffic sucks, pollution sucks, noise sucks, and driving is really convenient. Choose one car trip you know you’ll  probably make this weekend and just don’t make it.
  
  

• Just Give Money To The Bike Library. This won’t change YOUR behavior so it’s not the most powerful thing you can do, but they’re so close to their capital campaign goal, like 95% of the way there. Give ‘em whatever you can.

• Stop shopping online. Every dollar you spend online at a global company weakens us. I’m not blaming you, I’m just stating the fact, and if you could stop, please do.

The whole car thing drives me nuts because we foot the bill for streamlining our own demise. Michal points out that in every movie with a beautiful urban scene, the streets are full of people at a cafe, in a park, playing soccer. Nobody likes a busy street. Paris has closed over 500 streets to cars and opened them to people. It’s like, kind of obvious. Would you let cars on the pedmall!?

But what I love about it is how easy it is to change. We just stopped driving on that one block of N. Linn St, painted the road, and put some picnic tables in, and it’s flourished since then. The community benefits are obvious, but it also costs Amazon a little more to deliver there, and the people there are a little less hooked on their phones, and authoritarians have a little less power.

Peace
Riley
Co-founder of RSFIC

Terresa is keeping our new trees alive. Thank you!!! Jacob, Dave, and their City High class are building us a stage! This will elevate so many people literally and figuratively - thank you! SAVE THE DATE: June 4th, 5-7 PM. ooo, mysterious!

Systemic Perspective

“Normalcy” is a cultural value we all share. We frequently say “when things get back to normal,” and we prefer stability over change. After the 2008 financial crash, our government bailed out certain companies at huge expense to maintain the status quo, and during covid, businesses got billions of free dollars to keep people employed in the same basic economic system. To be totally transparent, during the pandemic the federal government gave the software business I started with Michal, Dan, and Anthony S. $750,000 so we could keep paying employees and our landlord! With that money we could keep assuming things would get back to normal - and that was just for our little 90-person team - $8k per person!

This cultural value gives us a lot of power. We can plan long-term when we can depend on things staying the same, which means we can undertake bigger projects more efficiently. Unfortunately, that can damage our overall resilience, because it makes us slower to react to new information. What powers might we gain if we valued flexibility over normalcy?

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, “getting back to normal” was a top priority. What if more of us had asked, “What opportunities does this give us to change?” 

2020 was also the year we reduced our fossil fuel usage by the biggest margin ever. Animal populations across the globe recovered more than they have in decades. But, since we prioritized returning to “normal” without really considering how we might flex, we lost those benefits. Now we pollute with more carbon than ever. 

At RSFIC, our core purpose is resilient access to water, food, shelter, energy, and community. “Normal” for all five of these sources of power is, to quote the news, “not good.” That’s why we’re helping groups of neighbors get organized so they can make impactful, incremental changes in their areas of influence, in the ways that are most important to them.

We all know we need to change.

The corollary is: now it's time for all of us to start changing.

Local opportunities to prioritize flexibility

Our city government is contemplating a new “comprehensive plan,” which is a document that defines “normal” for many of our bureaucratic processes. They have an online interface with their planning process you can access here. I appreciate that they are taking time to collect input from us! They’re also considering some specific ways to add more flexibility to our culture, like relaxing their car-parking regulations (which cost RSFIC alone almost $100,000!). Rad, let's go.

But fundamentally, at RSFIC we think folks need to take more direct responsibility. Please check out the films we’ve produced about local folks doing this, and if you’d like help thinking specifically about what you might do on your own block, come to one of our sip ‘n hangs or apply directly for a grant.

Want something in between? Here are some events you might enjoy. They’ll boost you up emotionally, connect you with more people, and also help you think through how you might prioritize flexibility over “normalcy.”

• IC Community Sing - Tomorrow at 3 PM. Maybe today if you are reading this on Saturday! If you’re like, “what does singing have to do with any of this” then you should definitely come.
• Discover Tai Chi - Monday at 6 PM
• Community Pilates - Tuesday at 6:30 PM
• Sip ‘n Hang - Wednesday at 9:00 AM. Just come hang out with people who don’t think you’re crazy.
• Indivisible Iowa - Wednesday, April 15th, at 7 PM
• Voices of Resilience - Saturday, April 18th at 6:00 PM
• Climate Cafe - Thursday, April 30th at 6:00 PM

And please mark your calendars for these upcoming RSFIC events far in the future!

• Saturday, May 16th, 9:00 AM - RSFIC garden day!
• Saturday, May 30th, 12:30 PM - the next Celebration of Stories of Community
• Thursday, June 4th, 5-7 PM - RSFIC Summer Launch Party! (oo, mysterious 😀)

You can see details for all these events and more at our events page. 

Just look for it

Warning: once you start seeing our cultural bias towards the status quo, your life might get significantly less comfortable. If you’re interested, the next time you witness a decision-making process, ask yourself questions like: 

• Was one option subject to more scrutiny than the other?
• Were the proponents of one option subject to more scrutiny than the proponents of the other?
• Was one option assumed to have more benefits, while the other was assumed to have more risks?
• Were the people who got their way the same people that usually got their way? 
• And most importantly…
• Were the changing realities of our environment and social order considered in the discussion, or did the entire process unfold on the unspoken assumption that our next fifty years will be basically the same as our last fifty years?

And seriously, if you don’t want to ask yourself questions like that all the time, you don’t have to follow me into these rabbit holes. But, we do need everyone to do something. You’re probably already doing something! If you’re not, consider starting by throwing a neighborhood potluck :D

Peace,
Riley
Co-founder, RSFIC

PS: Here's a scale model of the stage Jacob is building w/ his City High class. June 4th, 5 PM Save the date! OOO MYSTERIOUS!

Systemic Perspective

Sometimes prioritizing efficiency reduces resilience. Imagine you're working on building a deck, so you go to Menards and order the exact right number of screws. You save money by not buying any extra screws, but now your project is not resilient to a single failure, dropped screw, change in plans, or miscalculation.

In some parts of our culture it's common sense to build in a reserve. I think most folks would advise having some extra screws for a carpentry project. But in other parts, we have a blindspot, and it causes us to become more and more fragile.

• We book our days wall-to-wall with meetings and appointments and TODOs, and where we can see that obviously we should have some extra screws, we can't seem to see that obviously we should reserve some extra time. We all feel the costs of being too busy, but our culture doesn't help us prioritize staying un-busy!
• We take out debt to pay for maintenance. The Iowa City government relies on new development to fund existing infrastructure (like almost all city governments). This is an efficient use of capital, but makes us more fragile.
• We order things online instead of shopping local. This lets us take advantage of many efficiencies of scale, but destroys our local businesses, which makes us less resilient to economic and social changes that we don't control.

What might the world look like to us if we let go of some of the benefits of efficiency, and valued resilience as a first principle? 

• If we all had more flex time, could we lower our expenses overall and build multiple overlapping ways of getting food, water, and community?
• If we only built infrastructure we could afford, would we be able to focus on health and nature instead of being beholden to build another unnatural subdivision?
• If we thought it was better to go without than to order online, would there be more options to support our friends directly by buying from them instead? Might we even have to buy less stuff overall if we had a simpler and more resilient economy that was a touch less efficient?

Local Event Related To The Theme!

RSFIC and the Great Plains Action Society are teaming up for another weekday webinar from the Post Carbon Institute. Here's the webinar description:

Forests are much more than a collection of trees: they’re complex, living systems that communicate, cooperate, and nurture one another. In a natural, diverse forest, trees are so well connected that they behave as a single organism in many ways. For generations, Indigenous communities have understood their deep interconnections within and among forest elements—and in recent decades, science has explored how these fascinating systems work.

Dr. Nalini Nadkarni, forest ecologist and one of National Geographic’s ten Explorers at Large, and Dr. Teresa Ryan, a Tsimshian scientist, Indigenous knowledge practitioner, and fisheries/aquatic ecologist, will take us on a journey from root to treetop. 

Together we’ll explore questions like: 

• How do trees share crucial information and resources?
• What happens in the treetops when trees share a robust connection at the root? 
• What lessons have Indigenous communities traditionally gleaned from forests that we can learn today? 
• Why is it essential for all of us to see forests in a new light? 
• How can we be better stewards of our own community forests?

 

On Thursday, March 26th, we'll meet at the GPAS Resilience Hub at 11:45, watch the webinar at 12:00, and discuss aftewards. If you register here, GPAS will have lunch ready for you!

This webinar is really related to efficient vs. resilient because forests are BOTH! The individual animals and plants look inefficient to us from our capitalist mindset, almost never planning ahead or streamlining any processes, but as a whole, the forest uses every scrap of energy and nutrient over and over and over again, and is resilient to all kinds of disasters. I'm really interested in what we can learn about them.

If you can't join us, you can also register to watch the webinar separately. I recommend almost everything from the Post Carbon Institute - they are interesting, realistic, positive, actionable, and more!

Mindset

I've been questioning the value of efficiency in an explicit way for a few years. It's been interesting! Sometimes I'm really like, "no, in this case, efficiency actually is what I want." In other cases I've realized that I'm rushing for a reason I don't quite understand, and there might be some benefits to deprioritizing efficiency. 

I always took "stop and smell the roses" as a sort of admonition to not miss out on beauty, and thought "yeah yeah I will." But I've come to understand that there's much more power in that advice than I thought. Resilience and patience are investments that pay off when changes happen, and changes are always happening. It's been interesting to try and notice when my cultural context pushes me to ignore that wisdom in favor of efficiency.

There are some decidedly inefficient events you can participate in at RSFIC's event page. You might also consider, rather than attending a special event about it, just noticing and naming the efficiency value when you come across it! 

 

Peace,

Riley

Co-founder of RSFIC

Thanks to Kady, Sara, Lilli, Sydney, and Terresa for helping us greet people, water trees, and make our gathering space accessible to other groups this week! Next volunteer orientation is April 8th.

Systemic Perspective

Our culture tells us the myth, 

“if it’s legal to sell, it must be safe.”

By default, we assume things for sale are fine to buy. For example, you can go to a restaurant in any part of the country and feel pretty confident eating the food, even if you never met a single person who works there. Surely there’s a health inspector in this town, right?

This story streamlines a lot of different parts of our society and ultimately enables us to get a lot of stuff done that might be impossible otherwise. We fortify it with spin-off stories like “surely they have a permit,” “their license is clearly posted on the wall,” and “look, it clearly says the employees must wash their hands.” In return, we get the power to trade goods and services with billions of strangers, without needing to invest time in relationships or precautions.

What if we told the story from a different angle: 

“this is for sale, so someone is trying to get my money?” 

This story defaults to suspicion of things for sale. The spinoffs from a myth like that might be “they might be hiding downsides or side-effects,” “this might have been produced immorally,” or “local shops are less likely to be stealing from you.” 

If our culture was aligned to the second set of myths, we might lose the power to do global commerce. We might not be able to confidently eat in strange towns. If we felt that tech companies would intentionally harm our mental health, we might not buy their phones or apps, which might mean losing the power to text from a concert, take photos from a mountain, or stay connected with friends across distances. If, in general, we believed companies were actively trying to trick us, we might not be able to do any of the stuff we can pay for today.

So, we’d lose a lot. Would we gain anything under the second mythology?

If we’d puzzled over what big ag companies were hiding in their prices and sweet foods, would we still have clean water? 

If we’d been suspicious of how tech companies would manipulate us with social media, could we have avoided our loneliness epidemic?

If we’d wondered how the meat for sale at the grocery store could possibly be cheaper than the meat from our local farmers, or why so many companies want to sell us soda and alcohol, would we be physically healthier and literally stronger?

Taking control of our mythology

A few weeks ago, we packed FilmScene with folks who wanted to spend time celebrating stories of community. We heard the story of neighbors in the Miller Orchard area who planned an Easter egg hunt, folks who gather at the Green House to have important conversations in the context of death’s universal inevitability, and the story of the Northside Kitty Walk, a simple joy for the cat lovers in the area. 

When we deliberately share stories together like “making events for kids is valuable” or “meeting our neighbors is safe and joyous” or “talking about hard things can heal us,” we are taking control of the stories that guide our collective behavior as a society.

For this event, we partnered up with the public library to bring more free collaboration to the table, and some of our excellent librarians brought a whole table of books and archival news articles that reminded us that these alternative stories have been around for a long time. Check out the books they recommended in the postscript! Did you know you could put holds on books at the library for free, and they’ll bring them to the front for you to pick up!?

The next Stories of Community celebration is May 30th. This week, there are a ton of free things you can do to shape your own internal mythology. Here are just a few!

• Tonight at 6 PM - IWNJC is hosting a storytelling event with a meal.
• Saturday at 3 PM - IC Community Sing is hosting a song-sharing event.
• Sunday at 2 PM - ICSURJ is hosting a neighborhood resilience conversation.
• Tuesday at 6:30 PM - Goddess Grounded is hosting free community pilates.
• Wednesday at 9 AM - RSFIC is hosting a sip ‘n hang with the guiding question, “Small but mighty - How neighborhood teams can get a lot done.” Free coffee!
• March 26th at 11:45 AM - RSFIC & GPAS are teaming up for another webinar event about the Hidden Power of Forests
• And other upcoming events on our calendar. Note: most of these events are not hosted by RSFIC directly but by separate groups.

 

There are many more things to do around town that prioritize art, music, community, strength, safety, education, and more. Let’s keep sharing stories about these things!

Suspicion of free stuff

Our current culture tells the story that stuff for sale must be safe to buy. We also tell it from the other direction. “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” which makes us suspicious of things with low price tags. Take this example I learned from Curt, our mentor at the EDC: If I’m selling a luxury car for $100k, wow, it must be really dang nice, right? But if I was trying to give you the same car for $5,000, wouldn’t your first thought be, “what’s wrong with it?” or maybe "what's the catch?"

For me that example helped me see the systemic forces pushing us to spend more money. Even in a fictional example I noticed myself trusting the higher price tag automatically. Can you imagine how selfish actors could abuse my reaction? I think it makes it a little clearer why we might have an affordability crisis on our hands right now. 

What if giving up the power to easily buy stuff from other people granted us the power to trust each other when money is not involved?

The stories of community event was free, and we celebrated stories of other free events. Most of the events we link you to are free as well. This is part of RSFIC’s strategic value, Consume Less, because consuming less gives us more power and more control and more flexibility when conditions change. Plus it’s cheaper, lol. The next time you see something inexpensive, just take a moment to wonder what narratives are at play in your heart as you react to it.

Could you practice trying to override our cultural defaults and start to think, “wow, this event is free, maybe the organizers are in it for community rather than to take my money?”

Peace,

Riley

PS: Here are the books our public librarians recommended to go along with the narratives on the screen. You can put any of them on hold for free from icpl.org , or of course just stop in and ask for help!

 

Community and Community Building

• Built to Belong - Franke
• No shortcuts - McAlevey
• On Community - Plett
• Progressive Community Organizing - Pyles
• Solidarity - Hunt-Hendrix
• We Need to Build - Patel
• Local is Our Future - Norberg-Hodge

Cats

• Cats on Catnip - Marttila
• Kitty Language - Chin
• Cat Training in 10 minutes - Fields-Banineau
• The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Cats - Edwards
• The Goodbye Cat - Arikawa
• Cat's People - Guerrero
• The House of Rust - Bajaber

Kids - Cats

• Why Do Cats Meow? - Crumpton
• Max Attacks - Applet
• Cat - Dumbleton
• Angus and the Cat - Flack
• Millions of Cats - Gag
• Cat Jumped In! - Weaver
• Do you really Want a Cat? - Heos
• Taking Care of Your Cat - Piers

Death

• Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? - Doughty
• Something, Not Nothing - Leavitt
• American Afterlife - Sweeney
• How We Live Is How We Die - Chodron
• Advice on Dying - Dalai Lama
• Let's Talk About Death Over Dinner - Hebb
• Death: An Oral History - Jarman
• Obit - Chang
• Obitchuary- Henry
• Monstrilio- Samanoco
• The Death of Ivan Ilyich - Tolstoy

Kids - Death

• How they choked - Bragg
• I found a dead bird - Thornhill
• The Death book - Stalfelt

Easter - Kids

• Rechenka's Eggs - Polacco
• Big Bunny - Rand
• Looking for Easter - Chaconas

So many resilience-focused events, we made an online calendar! Here's a preview of just this week: Free Community Pilates Tuesday, March 10th, 6:30 PM Crop Planning your Market Garden or Farm Wednesday, March 11th, 6-8:30 PM Green Drinks Thursday, March 12th, 5:30-7:30 PM Voice of Resilience Friday, March 13th, 6-8:00 PM Neighborhood Resilience Conversation Sunday, March 15th, 2-3 PM Check out all these and more at portal.rsfic.org/events

Considering Powers

Today, let's start with the power of convenience. 

We have become incredibly accustomed to having what we want right now. It's an amazing power of modernity that we very rarely have to wait. Whether we are pulling up the show we want to watch (remember when you had to wait a whole week for the next episode), getting fresh tomatoes in January (...you might not remember when you had to wait until July to get fresh tomatoes, but I assure you, that was a thing), or ordering whatever you want to be delivered to your door within 1-24 hours. (As I sit at the coffee shop, an amazon delivery man is bringing in two packages - amazon is an excellent example of this power).

Why is this power a problem? It sounds pretty great.

The just in time economy requires huge, globalized infrastructure, financial vehicles, and labor practices that not only have a huge environmental impact, but also extract from vulnerable people and concentrate wealth to unfathomable degrees. 

Just think about what it takes for that tomato (or fill in any other ingredient) to get here in January. To achieve that kind of scale, we aren't talking about small farms in the south. We are talking about the clear cutting of the Amazon to make more farmland. Think about the labor to prepare the land, harvest the toms, the fuel to transport it across an ocean, then to the middle of the country. Think about the logistics involved. Think about who profits.

Could we give up some "nowness?"  Maybe it would mean eating seasonally from local farmers whenever possible. Maybe it would mean not buying from Amazon. Maybe it would mean just not getting something that would be nice to have right now. 

The story that we should easily be able to get what we want right now is a very powerful myth that is in full force. It almost sounds crazy to suggest that we might ought to wait for something or not get something. It's practically sacreligious, so strong is this myth.

What other powers could we find through giving up this convenience?

• Rather than rush off in a car to get that missing ingredient, maybe we would borrow from a neighbor. It wouldn't be as easy as ordering it from instacart, but we would build a bridge, and maybe even a friendship.
• Rather than get that movie off Amazon Prime right now, when we realize we have to wait a week to get it at the library, maybe we go for a walk, again meet some neighbors, or feed some birds, or pick up some litter making our neighborhood a nicer place to be.
• Rather than order a new vacuum cleaner off Amazon when ours isn't working, maybe we sweep for a couple weeks until the next repair cafe where we learn that the fix isn't that hard. (And maybe we share with a neighbor in the meantime).
• Rather than order in food after a long day at the computer, maybe we invite folks for an ingredient potluck. See what everyone has in their fridge and cook together.

By giving up the convenience of having what we want when we want it, we can gain new powers that get us things like:

• friends
• trusted neighborhood relationships
• neighborhood care
• strengthened local economy
• supported regenerative farmers

See if you can practice giving up the power of convenience this week and let us know if you gained something in its place.

Peace be with you,
Michal
Co-founder of RSFIC

RSFIC's first official volunteer orientation was this past week! Many people have helped us in many ways over our 4ish years of existence, but special thanks to the folks that are getting formally involved in helping us with our work. Shoutouts this week to John Engelbrecht, Terresa Maas, Roger Goedken, Kady Fleming, Lilli Scott, Sydney Andresen, Eva Fiedler, Wangui Matheru, Rod Sullivan, and Sara Barth, who contributed a total of 14 hours of work in the last couple weeks! Sorry if we missed you - just let us know! Interested in joining in? Our next orientation is April 8th.

 

What might we gain if we voluntarily gave up some power? We’re doing a series of emails about some specific cultural mythologies, the powers those myths give us, and what alternatives we might explore.

This week’s myth: “technological advances are inevitable so we should adopt them as quickly as possible.” 

You can see this story behind businesses using social media to advertise, schools teaching kids how to use AI, and law enforcement agencies rolling out surveillance technologies like Flock cameras. Each act is justified by the myth, and gives us new powers:

• Social media lets you communicate to a wider audience than just the people you know 
• AI gives us the power to write quickly and complete many other complex tasks much faster
• Flock cameras help police solve crimes 

Under our prevalent mythology, these powers are good, and it’s OK to proceed adopting the tech in exchange and taking advantage of the powers. There’s not much in our mythology that encourages us to consider what powers we are forfeiting in the process, though!

If our cultural mythology taught us that “it is anti-social to roll out technological advances without a careful consideration of its potential impacts, and a process in place to roll it back if it doesn’t go well,” then we might notice some of the powers we could have if we chose not to adopt the new tech:

• If we didn’t use social media, our kids would have more power to actually socialize. Many parents around Iowa City are starting to cast off the benefits of social media so that their kids are better able to make actual social connections.
  
  
• If we chose not to use AI, we’d retain the power of knowing when someone has chosen to spend real time on something, and use that as a signal for trust- and collaboration-building. We’d keep the power to trust video evidence. We’d keep the power to believe it was our son on the phone just because it sounds like our son.
  
  
• If we chose not to use Flock, we’d retain the power of meeting privately. Our city council (and Coralville’s) recently chose to give up the benefits of solving more crimes so that we can keep protecting vulnerable populations, keep protecting spaces that resist authoritarianism, and keep having good times without feeling like the gd government is watching.

I see a lot of hope in things like our parents and councilors rejecting some of these powers. I think we’re starting to realize we can’t just trust tech companies and governments to look out for us, and we need to start bringing our own judgement to the table. Let’s keep going!

Resilience-Building Events For You!

We’ll figure this out together. Come to one of these for fun and solidarity!

Stories of Community

Saturday, February 28 at 12:30 PM
FilmScene at the Chauncey

This film festival celebrating local leaders is less than 10 minutes long. Don’t be late!

 

Sip 'n Hang

Wednesday, March 4 at 9:00-10:00 AM
Zoetic Coffee Shop - 947 US-6, Iowa City, IA 52240

No agenda, just come & chill if you like. Coffee’s on us. 50% chance we end up talking about something heavy that makes us feel more seen and heard and together. Heavy conversations 100% optional.

 

RSFIC Volunteer Orientation

Wednesday, March 4 at 4:00 PM
RSFIC - 1927 Keokuk St

Interested in RSFIC’s mission and looking for ways to pitch in? Come to our inaugural volunteer orientation! Please park across the street.

Ideas for your own experiments with culture shifting

Almost all of us have been following the myth of technological inevitability, and we can see that it is destroying our world. There’s not going to be some technocrat who comes up with the solution - experts have been calmly saying we’re killing the planet for 60 years, and we still use more fossil fuels every gosh darn year. The change we need is social, not technical, and that means we need all 8+ billion of us to shift our behavior. 

But how? Here are some ideas we’ve had that might help you think about what you’d like to try.

• If, like me, you bought a cloud-connected security or doorbell camera, consider disabling it. Let us know if you gain anything!
   
• Social media platforms do give us the power to connect, and they also corrupt elections, polarize us against each other, and seem linked to child suicide - you could try to use them less and see what happens. 
  
  
• AI bots give you a lot of new powers, and are also putting the whole economy at risk, and stressing the environment more. You could try rejecting them and see if there are any benefits you might share with the rest of us.
  
  
• Have another idea for something to try? Lemme know and I'll share it out next week!

Peace,
Riley
Co-founder of RSFIC

I’m Michal, co-founder and president of RSFIC. I just listened to the latest episode of Crazy Town in which the host has a conversation with the founder of American Resiliency (an Iowan by the way, named Emily Schoerning). Dr. Schoerning is very clear and to the point about what our climate data and models are telling us and what they mean for specific regions of the country.  She made one thing very clear to me in this episode: we have already reached 1.5 degrees of warming and the window for adaptation is right now. 

To break that down a little bit, we have reached 1.5 degrees of warming above pre-industrial levels (and remember, that was the original level we wanted to stay beneath in order to avoid certain tipping points). 

I hadn't fully clocked that we reached that level in 2023 and have stayed there. I really hadn't clocked that we reached that level of warming suddenly and sooner than expected. 

She also explains that, when talking about climate solutions, we often hear about mitigation strategies. Meaning, we are talking about reducing greenhouse gases by transitioning to renewable energy sources or to eat less meat. While yes, we need to reduce consumption, the time has passed to avoid said warming. Instead, we need to get ready to adapt now, before we hit 2 degrees. 

That is such a clear and understandable call to action. 

It made me think about what adaptation strategies we (as in our community, not we as in RSFIC) have/are deploying here in Iowa City. 

For example, 

• the University has done significant adaptation work around the river. Knowing that we are likely to experience future flood events, they have built infrastructure to be ready to protect buildings that will likely be impacted.
  
  
• the Iowa City government has been investing in street trees. Knowing that we will experience more extreme heat events, the city is finding ways to cool our neighborhoods. When the hot summer sun bakes cement all day, it raises temperatures; thus, we plant more trees along the roads to shade streets and homes.
  
  
• the county government has been investing in local food production through their work supporting growers on the historic poor farm, direct grants to local producers, and support for our local food hub that connects producers with large consumers, like the school district.  Knowing that our global food system is fragile and will become more so as extreme weather, pest, and political events wipe out crops, developing a strong local and regional food system now is critical work. 

These are a few examples of the top down adaptation underway. 

There are also examples of more grassroots adaptation in our community that you can participate in this next week. Schoerning points out that mitigation strategies are often about things we shouldn't do and humans are bad at hearing things we shouldn't do. But adaptation strategies can often be about positive visions of our future; they can be fun and creative. 

• The Iowa City Repair Cafe is adapting by reorienting us to repair over buying new. Knowing that the availability of cheap consumer goods will deplete in times of more expensive fossil fuels and global disruption, Repair Cafe aims to not only fix things that might otherwise end up in the landfill but also teach folks repair skills. Check it out this Saturday 11:00am-3:00pm at the Eastside Recycling Center.
  
  
• Iowa City Transition Town is an informal group that works on helping Iowa City make a positive transition to a post-carbon reality. On Thursday you can come to a discussion series to talk with others about these issues. Climate Cafe, February 19th, Green House in downtown Iowa City, 6:00-7:30 PM.
  
  
• RSFIC's Stories of Community event shares stories of people in our community building resilience by getting together. Come celebrate three stories of local solidarity on Saturday, February 28th, at 12:30.

Given that we are in such a critical time for developing and implementing these adaptation strategies, what else might we be doing to be ready for floods, droughts, extreme heat, food system disruptions, and power outages?

It's budget season for our local government. Are there adaptation projects you think should rise up the priority ladder?  Now is a good time to contact your councilors and supervisors. 

Peace be with you,

Michal

_____

PS

Our county government set a one year moratorium on data center construction in Johnson County. The energy and water demands of AI are great.

So not having massive power-sucking data centers is a pretty important strategy for being resilient to extreme weather and having control over our destiny. 

Say thanks to a county supervisor next time you see them.

Organizing Tip

RSFIC helps groups of neighbors get organized, and so far we've helped with over 200 projects. Sometimes we see a group of excited neighbors get started, but by the end of the project everything has kind of fallen to one or two core people. Sometimes it can seem like neighbors just don't really care that much, which can feel frustrating, lonely, and confusing.

When people aren't participating, there's a natural impulse to try & make it easier to participate. Do all the work yourself so that others can just show up. "Maybe if I make it more convenient..." But folks looking for convenience will stay at home no matter what you do.

Don't compete on convenience - you will not beat Netflix.

Instead, create opportunities for people to contribute meaningful work to your gathering.

1. Write down a few things you were planning on doing that would take you more than 10 minutes but less than 30 minutes. 
2. Ask someone else to do one of them.

In my experience, people who agree to help will be more engaged with you afterwards, even if they say they can't help this time. After all, you have given them an opportunity to be a more important, contributing member of the group. You must really want them to be involved!

Upcoming Events

 

Free Community Pilates
Tuesday, February 10th, 6:30-7:30 PM. Led by certified instructor Kellee at Goddess Grounded. RSVP here.

 

Climate Cafe
Thursday, February 19th, 6-7:30 PM. Join in community conversation exploring realities of climate crisis, uncertainties, and our emotions in this time we are in. Let us also meet the opportunities of the moment, as we work to build relationships, resilient local systems, and create a better quality of life in our communities. Free and open to the public at the Green House!

 

Stories of Community Celebration
Saturday, February 28th, 12:30 PM. RSFIC and FilmScene are excited to share a premiere film screening, discussion, and reception event that promises an engaging afternoon for the community. We are bringing folks together to celebrate the neighborhoods portrayed in the Stories of Community short film series. We look forward to having meaningful conversations about our neighborhoods, community building, and resilience. More details.

 

Meta: Notice that I am just broadcasting these events to a large group. I'm not saying why I think you specifically would improve each event. We regularly see organizers blasting generic updates like this one. It's fine and useful enough to do, but don't consider it an invitation. Can you just imagine for a moment the difference between this impersonal blast and actually getting a phone call from me, telling you how much I got out of the first event last night and how much I would like you to come and share your thoughts about your project, because I think it would really add to the conversation?

 

Bonus Tip - Asking for help also requires skill

I've gotten a fair number of group emails that say "we need someone to pick up the food," followed by days of awkward silence on the thread. The organizer ends up picking up the food themselves and feeling like no one wants to help. But they literally have not asked for help!

It is way better to invite a specific person for a specific reason. "Sarah, I thought the snacks you brought to that other thing were great - can you please bring something similar to the next event?" or "Mike, I know you have a folding table, will you please bring it to the block party a few minutes early and set it up?" This kind of direct invitation is more personal, shows that you value something about someone else, and shows them a clear way they can contribute. For extra effectiveness, ask them in person or on a phone call. Never in a group email! 

Expanded instructions:

1. Write down a few tasks that would take you 10-30 minutes.
2. Think of specific people who have the resources or skills or interest to do them.
3. Tell those specific people why you need to accomplish the tasks
4. Let them know that you'd like their help, for the specific reasons from #2
5. Tell them when you need it done by
6. After they do it, thank them and remind them why it helped you!

Works for invitations as well as favors!

 

Peace,
Riley
Co-founder of RSFIC

Systemic Perspective

We have a cultural narrative of technological progress and growth as inevitable. This narrative sets us down paths of action kind of automatically, and there are paths we pass by without even seeing them because the narrative has blinded us.

For example, consider AI. I've heard teachers say things like "well, we know it's coming, so we've got to teach the kids how to use it." There's a general sense that it's definitely happening, and definitely going to keep happening, so we should figure out ways to mitigate the devastating environmental, economic, and social impacts that we predict it will cause.

The myth of technological progress prevents us from seeing another possible path: we could choose to NOT use AI.

If you're a writer, you can choose not to use AI to write. If you're a software developer, you can choose not to integrate AI into your products. If you're a tech exec, you can choose not to orient your company around AI. If you're a government leader, you can choose not to incentivize data centers. If you're an investor, you can choose not to let your money touch such a self-defeating project.

AI is a self-defeating investment for humanity. I think it's time to join the Crazy Town guys and just start cackling when someone suggests AI is a reasonable pursuit.

 

Local Stories

If the myth of progress is blinding us to easy solutions like "choose not to shoot ourselves in the feet," what could we replace the myth with?

At RSFIC we'd like to see cultural narratives of relocalizing power, consuming less, and growing solidarity become the norm. So, we produce short films of examples around town where that's already the story, and our partners at FilmScene help us broadcast them.

We've got some new ones online today! I'm proud of our town for having so many great examples to choose from. In a time when the mainstream narratives are blinding us to healthy options, it's really cool that we're finding the options anyway.

Click here to see them all!

Also, hold the date: February 28th, 12:30, for the next Stories of Community Celebration at FilmScene!

Want help making your own neighborhood stories?

We are looking for great examples of neighbors working together that we could film in the next few months. We especially want to highlight stories where neighbors who live within walking distance of each other are working together on something that helps resocialize the neighborhood or building, or helps build skills, grow food, generate energy, saves money, or other examples of relocalizing power and consuming less. We won't be able to produce a film for everyone, but if it seems like something your group might be interested in, let me know!

Peace,

Riley

Co-founder of RSFIC

 

PS: Transition Iowa City, my favorite unincorporated direct action group, is doing yet another cool thing! Thursday, February 5th, 6-7:30 PM, at the Green House.

Systemic Perspective

Individualism and consumerism are linked. If you don't want to work with other people, you have to buy what you need with money. They're two sides of the same coin.

Unfortunately, a cycle seems to start once you start down the individualist/consumerist path. There's never quite enough money to pay for everything you need, so you work longer hours to get a little more money, but the longer hours mean you have more things you have to buy. Just for one example, say you're paying for daycare - well now you need more money, so you need more hours of work... so you have to buy more daycare. For another example, let's say you're a city and you need more jobs, so you give a subsidy to a datacenter - and before you know it water is more expensive so you need to attract more jobs. Especially since the data center used itself to automate the jobs it gave you in the first place.

The good news is that this is all voluntary. We can start choosing to de-grow individualism and consumerism in tandem. People have had self-sustaining economies for thousands of years, and it's only recently we started paying faraway "investors" a cut of our productivity. Let's work on reducing their take, one piece at a time.

Many people are already working towards this common-sense goal, and have been since the beginning of capitalism! This week we have a couple opportunities to learn more about the positive work people are already doing to work towards a more resilient, sustainable economic future!

Local Training & Solidarity

• Resilience Course: How to rebuild our social fabric and local resilience in a time of chaos
  Starts Monday evening, meets weekly for five weeks. Check out the details and RSVP today - there's some reading to do ahead of time.
  
  
• Community Gathering: Nourishing a Bioregional Economy
  This is a 2.5h event on Thursday. Donna Morton (cofounder of Salmon Returns) and Michael Shuman (community economist) will share their knowledge of investing locally, supporting the local economy, and building bioregional institutions, including ideas for moving your money from Wall Street to Main Street. You can also watch on zoom if you can't make it in person.  More details here.
  
  
• Banat Mendy Fundraising Dinner & Gathering
  Join Iowa City's own Banat Mendy girl's club for dinner and community on February 7th. These folks are educating themselves, growing solidarity, and relocalizing power. Check out the video and inquire about attending!
  
  
• And many more
  Check out PS1, Dream City, Wright House, the Library, Little Village, IWNJC, Great Plains Action Society, IC Mutual Aid, Family Folk Machine, and dozens of other calendars full of powerful solidarity-building events.

Silver Linings

I've heard stories in the last weeks of people facing extreme violence and choosing solidarity & community as the best response. It's scary, but it makes me glad to know that when it really comes to it, we stop trying to get ahead and start trying to get together. I believe this is a powerful strategy that can really work against corrupt capitalists trying to use mere money to control us. Thanks to you and all of us following the path of solidarity - especially to those risking a lot. You help us all see how much power we have and how much joy we can wield it with!

Peace,

Riley

Co-founder of RSFIC

Systemic Perspective

A physical object is in "stable equilibrium" if, when you nudge it, other forces naturally occur to push it back into place. For example, a rake hanging from the garage wall is in stable equilibrium because if you push it a little, then gravity torques it back to its starting position - it just swings back. On the other hand, imagine a rake standing upright on the floor, perfectly balanced long-ways up on its handle. That's an unstable position because even a small little nudge will make it so gravity torques the rake farther and farther from its original orientation (aka "falling").

Some configurations of matter just seem to be favored by the universe. These favored patterns seem to be why wild populations of animals and plants naturally stabilize in their environments, why rivers form, and also why galaxies are mostly circular. Nature just sort of gets rid of unstable stuff - piles of rock fall, houses deteriorate, acids neutralize.

We're all watching what's happening with various levels of our legal system right now - lawmakers, judges, and law-enforcement officers are all dealing with some pretty major nudges (and adding their own nudges!). I think some folks are looking at the situation as a rake hanging from its hook, perturbed but fundamentally stable. I think others are looking at it like a rake balancing on its end on the floor - natural forces are accelerating things and the rake is never going to stand back up (if we even want it to).

Wouldn't it be nice to know for sure which one we're looking at?

 

Upcoming Events

How to rebuild our social fabric and local resilience in a time of chaos

Starting Monday, Jan 26th 6:00pm - 7:30pm (5 sessions total) at the RSFIC Gathering Space

RSFIC co-founder Michal Eynon-Lynch is running another 5-week resilience courses. Folks who participated in the last one started a local foods group and a neighborhood shade-and-food group that are still going almost a year later. 

Michal's had experience in many different forms of intentional community, has been the president of several multi-million-dollar companies and non-profits, has a masters in contemplative education and is a master food preserver. This is a pretty cool opportunity to learn more about systemic resilience and positive ways we can build more of it.

Free Registration Required

 

Nourishing a Bioregional Economy Webinar

Thursday, Jan. 29th 11:45am - 2pm at the RSFIC Gathering Space

Gather with us for lunch and to watch a webinar led by the Post Carbon Institute. On the zoom webinar, Donna Morton (cofounder of Salmon Returns) and Michael Shuman (community economist) will share their knowledge of investing locally, supporting the local economy, and building bioregional institutions, including ideas for moving your money from Wall Street to Main Street. Then we'll turn off the zoom and be together in person. We'll be more connected afterwards - our goal is to relax in our strength as we hear about interesting work and ideas, and realize we have a strong community around these topics already. Lunch will be provided, limited seats available! 

Let us know you can make it!

 

Let us know you can make it!

 

Volunteering at RSFIC

We've helped groups of neighbors start over 200 projects in their neighborhoods in the last couple years. One of the patterns we've seen is leaders that want to take care of all the little details for their neighbors to make it as easy to participate as they can. A natural and good-spirited idea, but we've slowly realized it's a mistake!

The little details - bringing the drinks, delivering the invitations, sweeping the floor - are also the easiest details. So, they make the easiest ways for other people to get involved! We've seen that when our neighborhood leaders leave these small details for others to do, it's a natural on-ramp for those people to take their own leadership in an easy way.

And then, ha, we realized we were making this mistake ourselves. We were trying to make everything easy for everyone, when really we think people are looking for meaningful ways to contribute (not easiness). 

In 2026 we're going to focus on identifying ways for people to contribute to RSFIC's mission in meaningful ways. We've been honored by folks pitching in in the past - from helping us renovate our gathering space to helping us set up our gardens - but we're working on being more intentional about it. We're inspired by the open way that the bike library has created opportunities for hundreds of people to pitch in, and we're seeing that the community they've created is strong and passionate and cool and genuine and powerful, and we're going to try to follow their lead on this.

TL;DR: We've identified a few ways we could really use some help. We're not the best at this, but please respond if you're interested in helping us with:

• Cleaning our shared gathering space, where dozens of groups and thousands of people have gathered in power for free
• Opening & closing the space and helping others know how to care for it
• Making our gardens grow (we already have a lot of folks helping us with this but the more the merrier)

Peace,

Riley

Co-founder of RSFIC

 

 

Systemic View

In this episode of Terrestrials, they detail how the small actions of a family of beavers and their friends made 7+ acres resilient to raging wildfires by enabling a whole community to make small, independent changes.

We Iowa Citians operate under incentives that make big actions attractive. Comprehensive plans, giant warehouses, sprawling housing developments, big roads. When we're feeling like we have large problems, it's easy to be convinced that we just don't have time for small solutions.

But it's small actions that scale up to big impacts. We can, collectively, do an almost unlimited number of small things. The beavers and their dam make it so snakes, birds, frogs, turtles, and all their neighbors can take more small actions towards resilience, and together they transform their entire ecosystem. I'd like to see our leaders continue to make small, local projects easier and safer for more of us. I'd like to see less encouragement of large-scale projects controlled from other places.

For a resilient, sustainable future, smaller is better!

 

Upcoming Event - Bioregional Economy Gathering

On January 29th, RSFIC, Field to Family, the Coralville Community Food Pantry, and the Great Plains Action Society are bringing folks together for a relaxing and interesting lunch gathering centered around the concept of "bioregional economy." We'll share food, watch a webinar presented by the Post-Carbon Institute, and discuss the work already happening in our area. We'll leave with our work reaffirmed and stronger social connections - but no additional obligations :) 

For more details and to register for lunch (free), click here.

And a community study group: Values and Practices for Kinship Living

From community leader Peggy Garrigues:

Indigenous cultures developed spiritual, life, and community practices based on kinship with all beings, that helped them live in sustainable and regenerative relationship with the earth and within their ecosystems. Peggy Garrigues will meet twice a month with a small group to study kinship values in Cocreating with a living intelligent Earth: Pathways towards Kincentric Leadership (by Justine Afra Huxley and Anna Kovasna). Each session we will also try out some outdoor kinship practices for both individuals and groups from the handbook.

Sign up here to express your level of interest, and to sign up for one of two orientation sessions in January. Contact Peggy with questions: revpeggyg@gmail.com

 

Hard to stay focused

At RSFIC we believe we have the most power locally, so that's where we should spend the most time and energy. We think the best way to make the world better is to make your neighborhood better.

But jeez, lotta stuff going down right now which makes it pretty hard to stay focused and healthy. It's hard to be confident about our choices right now, which I think makes us all more likely to be defensive and/or judgmental when we see that others are making difference choices.

I dunno. But listen to that podcast. The beavers aren't organizing a rally or volunteering at a food bank, but they helped their little community thrive when the rest of their world was on fire.

 

Peace,

Riley

Co-founder of RSFIC

Systemic Perspective

Most financial investments made in Iowa City this decade were given to companies that undermine our power. For example, many of our retirement accounts have helped Amazon build warehouses here, and those warehouses make it easier for Amazon to undercut our local businesses. Vape shops are proliferating because we haven't invested in the local businesses we wish would replace them.

But I think things are changing. We're learning that billionaires aren't necessarily geniuses, they might just be anti-social. We're realizing our consumption is an addiction thrust upon us by manipulative advertising. The thing that gives me the most hope is that we're remembering that what really makes us happy and healthy is being connected to other people, and re-learning the skills that build connections!

And we have some real innovators who've been working for a long time to re-create community-strengthening organizations. Field to Family makes it easy to buy stuff from dozens of local food companies, and it's really working - because of Field to Family, Iowans spend about a million dollars a year locally that they would otherwise have to send out of the state. Backyard Abundance has been teaching folks ways to live more connected to the land since 2006! The Housing Fellowship has been building economically productive and regenerative housing patterns since 1992, serving 13,000 people with affordable housing and demonstrating we can make money doing it. 

So we're all waking up, AND we have many mature examples of things we know work here in Iowa City. These are two ingredients of a pretty strong strategic position! This is going to be an exciting time of relocalization and solidarity. And I think if we play our cards right, this could all lead to a low-energy future that also comes with lower stress, less loneliness, and more satisfying purpose for all of us.

RSFIC's Contribution So Far

RSFIC started in 2021 with our longest-running program: local financial investments. We've invested millions of dollars in making accessible space for Wright House, Tamarack Discovery School, FilmScene, MDCIowa, Immigrant Welcome Network, Great Plains Action Society, the Bike Library, community theaters, food coalitions, affordable housing coalitions, and more than 50 other groups. Because this is solidarity, not charity, this makes RSFIC stronger as well as our partners, and today RSFIC has a monthly income of tens of thousands of dollars from these investments. At the same time, our partners are also saving millions of dollars. According to FilmScene, they would not have been able to purchase their ped mall building without the type of local investment we are modeling.

That's exciting because it's inspiring other folks to think about regenerative investments. Johnson County is exploring creating a $2M affordable housing fund based on our FilmScene model. Other private foundations are asking us how to invest locally. Groups of neighbors are pooling their cash to invest in their neighborhood. Individual people are asking if there are ways they can put smaller amounts of money to work locally. The Unitarian Universalist Society created a microloan program with MDCIowa.

Two years ago, RSFIC started our Neighbors to Neighborhood grant program, helping groups of neighbors invest time, skills, and cash in their own neighborhoods. These are much smaller projects - many requiring NO money to execute, just some structure and support. To date, we've helped neighborhood groups start over 200 projects they designed to strengthen their neighborhood.

This is exciting because it's also part of a cultural change. Big Grove started their own neighborhood grant program similar to RSFIC's. Strong neighborhoods are becoming regular parts of strategic plans. We don't claim to have invented the idea of strong neighborhoods, but we're happy to be adding so much momentum to the idea that real economic development starts with diverse groups of powerful people who live in community.

What's Next?

Our vision is an Iowa City where everyone's living in right relationship to nature and has resilient access to water, food, energy, shelter, and community. To make that happen, we need to get to a point where, among other things, we have a regenerative economy - local successes funding local investments which create more local successes, without value leaking out to the global extraction machine.

The really exciting part for me is that many parts of the regenerative cycle are already in place, and have been operating for decades!

The parts in bold are already happening in Iowa City. We just need to keep shifting our cultural structure to fill in the dotted lines, and we can be free of the extractive engines that keep us busy, isolated, poor, sick, hungry, and anxious!

 

How's that for a job advertisement?

RSFIC is a core team of six folks today, and we need help filling in the dotted lines. We have an immediate full-time employment opportunity for an Admin Assistant role.This role will be responsible for calendar & time management, communication support, and administrative support - things like coordinating meetings, corresponding with community members, managing filing systems, and doing errands and tasks as they crop up. We pay well and provide health insurance, plus aligning your day-to-day work with a hopeful path for surviving climate collapse and the end of cheap energy. We're looking for folks who can be mission-driven, have strong communication skills, and technically proficient with officey software like google docs / calendar / slides / etc. We'd like to fill the role and get started by February. The full job description & process are attached to this email.

If you're interested, write tyesha@rsfic.org for more information!

If you're not interested, please think of three folks who might be interested and forward this to them :)

 

Re. Hope & Despair

I was honored to receive some critical feedback about my newsletters from a mentor of mine (thanks Curt!). As I heard him, he was saying that maybe, especially at this tough time of year, my newsletters would depress people to the point of hopelessness. One very bad effect was that I might significantly harm readers. Another less bad but still bad effect was that I might just not get very much done. Like my mentor, I believe positivity is more effective than negativity, and maybe I've sometimes had too much negativity.

A piece of artwork from Tumblebug Press is in the RSFIC office, quoting Wendell Berry, saying:

"The news from the land under our feet is not good, but the most hopeless thing we can do is ignore it or pretend it is not so bad."

"If we see, by many observable signs, that during our history here we have lost much that we had, we will also see that much remains."

I guess I want to share that I have a fair amount of despair. But I'm also really hopeful for a future with less anxiety, isolation, sickness, hunger, and guilt. All species on Earth will be going through huge changes in the next couple years here, and I expect them to be difficult, but I'm earnestly hopeful they will teach us new and better ways to relate to each other.

 

Hope is powerful and regenerative

We have so many resources at our fingertips, almost anything we can imagine is possible. The obstacles in our way are as thin as human decisions and just require a bunch of different decisions. Momentum is building, and if I'm reading my Watterson correctly, snowballs gonna snowball. We'll have a resilient, sustainable future, one way or another, and I think it might be great :D

 

Peace,

Riley

Co-founder of RSFIC