Registration for the ASA AGM in Chicago

 

GREETINGS and WELCOME to the 2021 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (AGM) and CONFERENCE of the ANTHROPOSOPHICAL SOCIETY IN AMERICA (ASA) 

‘Building the Temple of the Heart’

Convening as a Hybrid Event in Chicago, Illinois

We are glad you have decided to join us in person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the ASA in Chicago 7-10 October!

Our Branch is one of 6 “HUBS” that will co-lead the conference content. At the same time, we will also be hosting attendees in-person. When you come to Chicago for the AGM, you will experience a conference that is a mix of Zoom presentations projected on the walls, in-person small group work, artistic activities, and catered vegetarian meals.

This new hybrid-to run a conference that is both online and in-person, is a format that we have been working with for a while here in Chicago. What a world we live in! Subsequently, we ask that you register twice--1st at the ASA site and also at this link through the RSBranch Chicago.The first registration covers the cost of the presenters and the ASA staff resources used in organizing the conference. The second registration covers local facility costs, meal expenses, snack expenses, and printing costs. We appreciate your willingness to give this new format a whirl!

Now, what must you do to notify us of your arrival so that we can be prepared for your participation?

• Make sure you are registered at https://www.anthroposophy.org/fallconference and have indicated that you will be attending in person at the RSBranch Chicago.

• Register by October 1st with the Chicago Branch using PayPal (this requires that you have a PayPal account of your own).

OR

• Register and write a check to The Rudolf Steiner Branch and it mail by October 1st to:

Rudolf Steiner Branch

Attn: Jenny Doty

4249 N Lincoln 

Chicago, IL 60618

OR

• Register and contact jenny.meyer17@gmail.com to make alternative payment arrangements.

How much is registration for the in-person portion of the AGM?

$75 or $40. Due by October 1, 2021

• $75 will cover the expenses for facilities, 3 lunches and 3 dinners, snacks, and printing. You will enjoy a pre-AGM dinner on Thursday Oct. 7 Doors open at 5 pm. Lunch and Dinner on Fri.and Sat. and Lunch post-conference on Sunday. As well as snacks and beverages during the breaks.
• $40 will cover only the bare expenses for facilities, snacks, and printing--no meals
• Be a patron for $100 or more to help pay for the tech costs

(Sorry there is no option for a reduced number of meals--it’s either pay for all meals or no meals, lest things become too complicated. Thank you for your understanding!)

How can you prepare to have the best conference experience possible?

• Dress in layers in anticipation of a fluctuation of inside temperatures.

• Chicago in October can be chilly, yet with all of us in a few rooms, the temperature may get warm quickly.

• Bring a seat cushion if you like.

• Free street parking is available on the side streets near the Branch, requiring a few-block walk to the conference.

• The nearest public transportation can be found here https://www.transitchicago.com/planatrip/

• If you opt-out of meals, you may contact jenny.meyer17@gmail.com for a list of restaurants within walking distance (bear in mind time restrants) or bring your own food (that doesn’t require refrigeration or kitchen usage).

• There are 3 bathrooms available at the Branch.

• If you need lodging, consider using AirBnb.com, Vrbo.com, or a nearby hotel. Contact Jenny if you have an interest in finding someone that would allow you to couch-surf or share an AirBnB.

• Be prepared to participate in the group work of Biography, Eurythmy, Singing, and Speech as well as being part of the Experiential Pageant—the culmination of the conference on Sunday 10 October.

• Bring your open heart and beautiful smile!

For any other questions, please contact Jenny Doty at jenny.meyer17@gmail.com.

Registration Link

Tone Eurythmy Therapy Intensive Courses with Jan Ranck

 Please see the brochure for more information about this event.

This event is also posted on our calendar.

 

Youth Section 2020 News

 Youth Section Reflections Summer 2020

‘Journeying Onward the road is long, walking forward and this is my song. Inspiration will you walk along with me? I see you in every rock and tree.’ 

It’s a good thing to get completely exhausted by living life all the way.  Last summer gifted my 33rd year, with trials of becoming who I wish to become. 

We have been slowly building the warmth body in Chicago, as Elderberries Biodynamic Outpost and Threefold Cultural Hub builds a special landing place as a shining star for the future well being and social vitality of our cultural lives, and for the Youth Section.

Who could have imagined all that would be hoping to happen, to find a home to happen, for the well being of our dreams last summer. 

Young people are hitting a threshold as education systems short circuit and cities lose form. 

Who can we learn from? Where can we be? We must strive for life like air.

Summer 2020, Rudolf Steiner Branch of Chicago gave us a space to take on being brave, bold and to care about this land. I want to share a sense here of our strivings, with gratitude for the space to anchor and unfold our earnest heartfelt striving for the good during a time of severe destabilization. 

As an overview Elderberries found ourselves as the hub for three summer initiatives happening one after another throughout the month of August. First was a Classroom Alive Chicago, a journey through the Heartland, then came the Youth Section event Questions of Courage: Earth Alive, and lastly How We Will: Threefolding Our Cultural Revolution, Forming Curative Communities. 

These three events brought friends together from all over the country, creating productive inquiries into the living questions of how to strive right now for a New World trying to birth between us. 

People found and forged new futures amidst all these endeavors. Classroom Alive brought eight young people together, with a few supportive friends holding the periphery online, to walk a rural expedition from Madison Wisconsin towards Milwaukee, for 10 days. 

We walked together from the cosmic visionaries of the Social Justice Center toward one another through the marshes, creeks, abandoned railroads, eternities of corn and soy, and our personal creative research questions. 

This is one way to try and get grounded in the physical world and totally transcend everything at the same time. True as all things the land held us and cared for us all the way to the golden falling sun at Scuppernong in the Kettle Moraine Nature Reserve. 

The sufferings, healings, and insights that began to sprout there, continue to shine as living research. 

Found in the questions were now friends, coworkers, deeper collaborations, new songs and poems, family healing, volunteering, new jobs, people moving and new communities forming. 

We had just one day! between those backpacking days of Heartland wonder, and the start of Questions of Courage: Earth Alive. This gathering too had no place to incarnate in this whole country, except for the graces of having a space in Chicago to anchor. 

COVID led our previous location for this gathering to close the doors, and this little warmth body forming around the Elderberries community and the Branch provided the vital relationship with farmers and educators to ground the Youth Section’s annual gathering impulse. 

Friends from the Branch again cared for us, supported, hosted living spaces, fed and led us, a new group of young people from around the country: from the sunrise on Lake Michigan to a home made fire pit of ashes and sacred fire at a members home.

The theme for this year’s Questions of Courage: Earth Alive, was how to collaborate with the elemental realms of nature, through our perceptions and through one another toward a sense of co-creative prayer making. 

We rolled from the mineral-city, to the plant etheric at Farmer John’s Angelic Organics, the animal-astral at Alizur Farms Veterinarian Home, to the ego-human return back to the city, the Branch and Elderberries. Here again was the sense of thanks that young souls could unfold their growing selves, in relationship with Anthroposophy. 

So new directions have been able to gain momentum, new works, new jobs, even new families. Life finds a way to live in these times, thanks to miracles and goodwill. Imagine though, as well, how much life still wrestles to find the light of day in community? 

This question, of courage, leads us to our third summer miracle made possible by this Chicago community, as a real space for culture and work, this being our How We Will – Forming Curative Communities. 

While our first two events set sail and lighthouse from the Branch outwards, How We Will found us gathering and pioneering the new model of On-Line and In-Person gathering. 

Again, friends flew in, drove in, and logged in, as a hybrid of research sharing, cultural systems, and the hope to join together as a whole community, bring our strengths together, and grow social capacities. 

The spirit was weaving as presenters chimed in from beyond, on a tour-de-force pushing boundaries of our own ideas of what community actually is, and how far we have still to go to bring about a true loving social well being. 

There was warmth, intention, and a foundation laid for future work. ALIANT Alliance began here Detroit shore forth as the future of healing in the United States, staggering feats of bravery are needed for a  healthy world to emerge in all this we are in right now. 

I know many people have suffered in striving to build a space for free – culture to grow in safety. We are grateful for these new friendships and the trust that is growing between us all. Our lives, with Anthroposophy moving in our hearts, are fully invested in doing real work in the world, for a true community to rise. 

Chicago holds us, as the land does, and we are thankful to them and you all for supporting us in these miracles. 

May good become in all we strive for together for a more beautiful humanity.