Hello Members, 

Tomorrow, April 1st is not only April Fool's Day, but also Office 
Junction's 2nd Anniversary and my 10th Wedding Anniversary. In honor 
of these milestones, we will celebrate at the office with stone soup 
(the more the merrier), drinks, snacks, friends, coworkers, cake and 
music from 6.30 pm til about 10 pm. 

Please join me if you can. Guests are encouraged to bring one soup 
ingredient (no raw meats, please) and dress up in wedding attire, 
cocktail or casual. 

Christine ​

Alice Kuder reached out to her neighbors to start a group of local authors coming together to promote their books. Alice's plan is to have a local group present their books at the Morgan Junction Festival on June 20th, 2015.

Alice hosted a meeting on Sunday afternoon and Monday evening.

We don't want to miss the opportunity to also promote the books:
Downwind: A People's History of the Nuclear West by Sarah Alisabeth Fox
Since I Last Saw You by Alice Ann Kunder
Red and Grey by Christine Brant
The Brandon Roy Story by Dan Raley
A far cry from here by Mickey Theresa McCormick
Heart Tending: Creating rituals that nurture you and those you love by Karin Watson

If you attended the meeting on Sunday and your book isn't listed here or if you would like to join Alice's group, please email us.

Thanks for everyone participating in the doodle poll for our member 
event this month. 

So, the results are in and the winner is... 
Friday 3/27, 4.30 pm at Salty's on Alki it is! 

Looking forward to hanging out with you, 
Christine ​

Lisa, Eric, Christine, Raeann, Stefan, Pelegrine, Bea

Talked about rainy street art, planning the escape, magicians, NoonDay Parties and Raeann's 1st Anniversary, NW Hope & Healing Fashion Show on April 30th at Showbox, Hugo House for Poet Readings, the Bee Garden, a potential Beer Garden, Life Coaching, the Open Invitation approach, Passion instead of pushing, exchange students, Business Coaching with 'Passion, purpose & profit', 12 years entrepreneurial experience, potato chips vs. pretzels.

Eric brought mint chocolate to share. Stefan had gluten free noodles from Lee's and shared his sandwich with Christine. Raeann's lunch was, as always, the healthiest. Meeting was done at 1.15 pm.

Message from Alice:

I’m thrilled to report that I got a really positive response both from authors and from the festival organizing committee, so it’s time to do some serious planning. Thanks for your interest in participating in the First Annual Morgan Junction Community Festival literary booth! (The 10th Annual MoCA Festival.)

Christine Deppe, the brainchild behind the Office Junction here in West Seattle has generously offered to let us use their facility for our planning meetings. 

My intention is to keep this festival event really simple so I anticipate just one, 1-hr. planning meeting. 

In order to accommodate as many schedules as possible, I have scheduled two meeting times/dates — I will then combine the ideas and feedback from both and report the results. Choose whichever one works best for you. If you can’t attend either one, but still want to participate, let me know, but those who actually attend will get preferential treatment when it comes to publicity and scheduling of the reading times.

The Festival itself is Saturday, June 20th. I believe it starts at 10 or 11 AM and booths are usually open until 6 or 7 PM, but the exact hours haven’t been announced yet on www.MorganJunction.org.

Meeting times/dates: 
Sunday, March 22, 3-4 PM and Monday, March 23rd, 6:30-7:30 PM (you only need to attend one or the other but you are welcome to attend both)

Meeting place: 
West Seattle Office Junction, 6040 B California Avenue

Agenda:

• Purpose and general description of the festival booth as I envision it — suggestions for modifications are welcome
• Introductions of those present and their works — bring a copy of your book(s)
• Brainstorm a name for the group/booth
• Design on the physical set-up for the booth — does anyone have folding chairs we can use? A tent? A book display table? Etc.
• Booth signage — ideas? resources?
• Discussion concerning the length and order of readings — how to create the schedule?
• Discussion concerning how to implement book sales — this is likely to be the biggest logistical challenge
• Proactive troubleshooting: What do we do if a scheduled author doesn’t show up?
• Sources of free publicity for the event? e.g. West Seattle Blog, our own websites, Social Media posts, etc.

If you know other authors, feel free give them my contact info and/or invite them to join us.

Looking forward to meeting you all!

Alice Kuder
The Telltale Scribe

www.SinceILastSawYou.com

Meeting 3/4 started late at 12.30, ended at 1.45

Stefan, Bea, Josh, Christine and Charlie

We talked about 'experiences'. Experiences that are worth sharing, bucket list worthy, stand out, that we want to do or that inspired you or others.

Stefan likes to emerge himself in one project and finds that a challenge. So we brainstormed about a couple of strategies to shut all the other demands out for a while, by setting boundaries for himself and others, not answering the phone, prioritizing tasks to gain more focused time while still maintaining good customer service, 80/20 principle, tips from Stephen Covey's books on time management, how to managing expectations of self and others, avoiding and ignoring the busyness, nervousness and urgency that daily life demands of us, embrace that we all do a lot. His favorite experiences were Burning Man, a month in Italy and playing soccer.

Bea shared about her around-the-world trip experiencing people everywhere first and first hand without barriers (before weighing in differences in government, religion, lifestyle, wealth and values. Everyone wants to life in peace and be friendly. Traveling and hosting exchange students opens the mind to this.

She focuses by doing her personal Top 6 list every night and takes time to celebrate her accomplishments. She likes to recharge by walking the beach feeling the power of the ocean.

Charlie shared his story about biking 12,000 km from China to Vietnam before ditching his bike for a motorcycle and being welcomed everywhere without knowing the language or habits or anyone before.

Josh really enjoyed the slow travel of a long Amtrak train ride over a plan ride, 2 hours of uninterrupted time with his son. He is looking forward to finishing the latest recording of his band 'Modern Relics' (Country Soul) and loves to get more local gigs to play.

Christine shared a couple of her bucket list items - riding an old convertible one summer, going to Burning Man and giving a TED Talk some day. All experiences that involve a stretch out of the comfort zone and overcoming an inner fear, but would be potentially lead to a long lasting life experience.