RSFIC is a private operating foundation building long-term, systemic resilience in Iowa City. We say "rizz-fick!"
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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?
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.
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
RSFIC is a private operating foundation building long-term, systemic resilience in Iowa City. We say "rizz-fick!"
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