The Pulse is a monthly newsletter with updates on recent work from Illuman's governing bodies, operations councils, and local chapters. You can also find it on the Council Leaders Corner of the Illuman website (password: councils2022).
Please submit your Council or Chapter's monthly report via this form.
Dear Illuman Leaders,
Just a few weeks ago, over 260 men gathered in person for a powerful Soularize experience at the Tamaya Pueblo in New Mexico. Many of you were there with us. It was a much-needed time of renewal, reconnection, and recommitment to the relationships and mission that define Illuman.
As you'll read below, Soularize also provided opportunity for several Illuman leadership groups to meet in person. That an in-person business meeting at Soularize is a pleasant exception to our usual online Zoom meetings in itself shows just how much Illuman has grown over the years. When we started ten years ago, almost all of the work of Illuman was managed in two annual in-person meetings (at Soularize and Oracle) by a small group of Board members and (soon after) Wisdom Elders. Now we have almost two dozen leadership councils and working groups, most of whom meet every month, managing everything from communications and outreach, to our Spanish-language efforts, to the development of new curricula and programs, and much, much more.
All of this is a testament to each of you - your passion, dedication, and hard work as volunteers to help bring Illuman's vision of healthy, whole masculinity for all men into reality. None of this would happen without you.
With Gratitude,
Mike Clawson
Illuman Administrator
P.S. - Many of you also support Illuman not just with your time and talents, but financially as well. Thank you for that! If you didn't get a chance to donate during the Fire Stoker campaign at Soularize, you can still make a year-end gift now at illuman.org/give. Thank you in advance for your generosity!
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- Wisdom Elder/Board Joint Meeting
- Board of Directors
- Community of Conveners
- Curricula Council
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- Chapter Development Council
- Program Council
- Reweaving Council
- Technology Council
- Wisdom Elders
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Charters, responsibilities, and contacts for each of Illuman's Operations Councils can be found here.
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Board/Wisdom Elders Joint Meeting - November 3, 2022
Members Present: 18 men including Board, Wisdom Elders, and four men from the Reweaving Council
The Board and Wisdom Elders met during Soularize in our second joint meeting in three months. We spent some of the time on the urgent issue of our use of the word AHO/HO at Soularize and unanimously decided to pause our usage for the event. Since then both the board and WE have decided in separate meetings to continue the pause on using AHO or HO while a bigger process plays out.
The majority of our time was spent tending to the Reweaving conversation of the relationship between the Wisdom elders and the Board. This conversation goes back years, but has been making steady progress for the last 18 months, during which we've been considering the pros and cons of every possible model we could imagine. We met jointly in August and got clear that there was one model that held the most promise for us, which has been called a "trustee" model. In that gathering, the Board and the WE asked four men to flesh out the details of what this would look like and bring the proposal to Soularize. At Soularize we went through this proposal in detail, and began a process of revisions/affirmations/questions. Importantly, we voted again as a group to continue to move towards adopting this model. Our next steps are to get the details into a final draft, with a goal of adopting the new model at Oracle.
The model we originally set out with 10 years ago had a number of intentions, for instance, centering wisdom and prayerful discernment. However, as Illuman grew the structure gradually became less functional and points of friction simply due to the growing pains continued to crop up. By some estimations, many of the problems existed due to the structure itself and, thus, were potentially avoidable with different models. We believe the model we're moving towards will deliver on our original intentions but in a healthier way for a community of our size.
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Board of Directors - November 17, 2022
Contact: board@illuman.org
Members Present: Steve Hicken, Ned Abenroth, Terry Symens-Bucher, Jamey Bontrager-Singer, Chris de Lastic, Tom Reid, Mike Clawson
Board members reviewed the nominees that were called and approved four of them. Two have accepted and two will be completing their discernment before Thanksgiving. There are three more people to call and interview. A fifth person will be elected from this group of three.
Board members also reviewed and discussed the Delegation of Operational Responsibilities to Board Members to be implemented January of 2023.
Finally, the Board, after discussion at Soularize and in this meeting, unanimously supported pausing the use of the word Aho.
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Community of Conveners - November 9, 2022
Contact: conveners@illuman.org
The monthly Convener's meeting is trying out a new meeting format to better serve the convener's within our one hour time together. Each meeting will orient around a specific theme for the month (e.g., chapter development) to help focus our collective conversation. We will then invite participants to state a bud (opportunity), rose (strength) and thorn (challenge). The new format will include identifying the next month's theme and at least two conveners to lead the bud-rose-thorn discussion for that month.
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Curricula Council - November 14, 2022
Contact: curricula@illuman.org
Members Present: Mark Funkhouser, John Lew, Ned Abenroth
- Choosing to add members and invite using nomination process
- Clarifying and drafting our Council charter
- Discussion of men's work in general, Illuman programs, and how the Howling Cohorts and Deep Masculine Cohort fit into the overall programming, including pre-and post MROP.
- Discussed the proposal to transition Elders at the Gate from a chapter to a national program.
- Suggestion to review the roster for the Curricula Council on the website and update the names as well as moving the listing to a sub-heading under the Program Council. There was also discussion about how this council fits within Program Council considering the various programs that have been developed and need to be maintained.
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Chapter Development Council - November 3 & 16, 2022
Contact: cdc@illuman.org
Members Present: Al Selder, Tim Callan, Seth Burgess, John Ball, Mark Funkhouser, Arturo Diaz, Mike Clawson
Soularize was a beautiful time for reconnecting and sharing our stories. It was long overdue. At Soularize, men from the Chapter Development Council met in person for the first time. The men from the CDC were John Ball, Tim Callan, Arturo Diaz, Jamey Bontrager-Singer, Al Selder, Mark Funkhouser, and Mike Clawson. We met in council and had an extended check-in and open discussion to get to know each other better. We had some discussion on the topic of using Ho or Aho. John provided details on his work in selecting a new location for Soularize in 2023. There was some discussion on the Chapter Resources page of the website (password: conveners2022). It is a huge improvement over what we had. However, including some sort of search function would improve efficiency. Some suggested the new CRM system could help. Lastly a comment from the joint Board and Wisdom Elder meeting was brought up, noting that it lacked attention to how the chapters fit in. The hope is that through the Reweaving process, the connections will be solidified. Regarding Reweaving, there is concern that there has not been sufficient communication of progress.
This was followed by attending the Conveners meeting at Soularize where we provided a booklet with our interview summaries from March 2021. This also included updates of progress made and a commitment to reconnect with chapters for follow-up surveys to update the health and needs of the chapters. Arturo proposed a change to the monthly Convener meetings to have more time to focus on a specific topic or theme. To this end, Joe Gabaeff recommended a Buds-Roses-Thorns process he has used for assessing health and needs. Buds are things growing which show potential. Roses are things that are well-established and working well. Thorns are items of concern, need, or trouble. We completed a round of this at the next Convener call on Nov 9th. Several items were brought up.
During Friday lunch at Soularize, the Board and the CDC held a joint council. The Board attendees were Steve Hicken, Ned Abenroth, Chris de Lastic and Terry Symens-Bucher. CDC members included Al Selder, Tim Callan, Mark Funkhouser, and Arturo Diaz. Jamey Bontrager-Singer, representing both the Board and the CDC, carried the council. We focused on understanding each other's roles and how to better work together. Al handed out some extra copies of the updated chapter interview to the Board. After a quick review, we left with a commitment to meet regularly to continue improving the communications between the Board and Chapters.
The CDC also met on November 16 to review this Soularize experience and discuss several other items. It was noted that there are now four conveners connected with a mentor through our new Convener Mentoring Program. Our feedback so far is that these connections are working well. For our next CDC meeting on Dec 6th we will invite Ned Abenroth and Geno Gallegos as well as some conveners to join us in order to continue some of the work started at Soularize.
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Program Council - November 22, 2022
Contact: programcouncil@illuman.org
Members Present: John Ball, Ned Abenroth, Terry Symens-Bucher, Mike Clawson
The Program Council is responsible for planning and executing Illuman events and programs, primarily the annual leadership retreat (called Oracle) and an annual conference. The annual conference has been called Soularize up to this year and has been renamed Awaken for next year. The term Soularize was used for years with the consent of another organization. That consent expired this year so Illuman is seeking a new term for our annual conference. For next year, we are using Awaken, which was the theme for this year’s Soularize. In addition, the location for the conference will be held at a new location: Shrine Mont Retreat Center in the Shenandoah Valley near Washington, D.C. from September 14-17. A team is being formed to plan the content of the event.
Oracle 2023 will be held at John Knox Ranch outside of San Antonio, Texas, from April 13 to 16. There are 50 spaces available for men in Illuman leadership roles. Invitations will be sent out in the next month. Content for the leadership retreat will be developed by an Oracle planning team.
Additional work this month:
- Reviewed Soularize Evaluation Form responses and discussed several possible improvements for next year's event.
- Discussed creating a planning team for Awaken 2023 and Oracle 2023, and suggested potential members.
- Discussed invite list for Oracle 2023. Ned Abenroth suggested asking current Illuman leaders to recommend younger men with leadership potential to be added to the list. Ned created an email and form for this which was sent out shortly after the meeting.
- Discussed possible themes/foci for Oracle 2023 (with possible multiple tracks for different kinds of leaders or levels of experience). These included chapter development, leadership training, reweaving, inner work, decision making processes, and stoker training. Decided to put the question of what would be most helpful to the wider Illuman leadership by including it in the form sent out by Ned.
- Reviewed recent discussions and decisions by the Curricula Council (see above).
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Reweaving Council - November 29, 2022
Contact: reweaving@illuman.org
Members Present: Bill Priesmeyer, Bob Bulanda, Brian Sullivan, Daniel Harris, David Tillman, Hector Garcia, Jared Adams, Jeff Nichols, Joe Gabaeff, Lousi Volpi, Mark Mehlos, Matt Hardin, Mike Anderer, Mike Whitman, Scotty Johnson, Tim Callan, Mike Clawson
Smaller Working Groups were formed at the Oct. 25 Reweaving Council (RC) meeting to deal with expectations described in the RC Covenant. The focus topics of these task groups are:
- Diversity
- Events & Wisdom
- MROP, Ritual, Ceremony
- Organism Development, Leadership, and Backbone Operations (OLB)
- Relationship and Community
These categories were taken from the “energy centers” of Illuman identified at Oracle 2021 and Illustrated in the Book of Proceedings. RC brothers, having expressed desire to get on with the work, were enthusiastic about joining their small group.
At Soularize in early November, the RC conducted round table discussions for any who wished to attend, getting input on our task groups and what they mean to our Illuman brothers.
The main action at the Nov 29 meeting was a continuation of work in the Working Groups on the topics listed above. There were two other highlights. First, a video of an interview with Steve Hicken and the OLB group about plans for reorganizing the relationship between the Board and Wisdom Elders was sent to the RC (along with a written summary). A brief mention of this at the meeting led to a spirited request for dialogue about all the implications for the RC's work. This will be a major topic for an upcoming meeting. Second, a summary of the Soularize Round Tables were sent to provide input and direction for the Working Groups.
The next official meeting of the RC is scheduled for Jan 17. There is a tentatively scheduled optional meeting on Dec 13 for the Working Groups to gather if they so choose.
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Technology Council - October 19, 2022
Contact: it@illuman.org
Members Present: Andy Gray, Anthony Monticchio, Brian Mueller, Jared Adams, Mike Clawson
We had a brief personal check-in with all present sharing. Regardless of how busy our days have been, we all typically comment on how centering and pleasant it is to connect together.
The topics presented for and discussed included:
MemberLeap process status updates and review of the on-boarding questionnaire, Cohort page being consolidated with 'Online Offerings,' web pages and corresponding Soularize flyers prepped, application processes for future MemberLeap build out, workflow for passion circle signups, automated global community and chapter level reminders and/or announcements for MROP's etc to send out reminders and follow ups for signups based on interest and page views, automation of events signup workflow with If/Then conditional statements. We transitioned to a slightly less techy conversation and brainstormed about our new database featuring a small profile for members with minimal info but could hold social links, short bio, etc. and then an optional radio button for private or member display.
Then we considered the benefits of this for internal Illuman usage while balancing the tension of functional profiles and privacy. Perhaps it can support forums and 'group' type module or elements to enhance inter-communication of members in specific circles. We also discussed a central Zoom management approach that could be done within Member Leap.
We discussed the hope that MemberLeap might handle any workflow options they don't currently have available as feature requests' The goal in choosing this CRM was that many options are already hosted within MemberLeap.
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Wisdom Elders - November 21, 2022
Contact: wisdomelders@illuman.org
Members Present: Bob Juarez, Giovanni Perez, Joe Lonergan, Terry Frisbie, Steve Hicken, Jim Taylor, Mike Clawson
- Discussed the use of Aho/Ho, along with other indigenous practices used by Illuman, and the process we want to use to address these concerns, including reaching out to Native American groups for their input and guidance. Affirmed the Board's decision to pause the use of Aho/Ho while engaging in this process.
- Had a witness round regarding the in-person meeting at Soularize.
- Discussed the possible restructuring of the Board/Wisdom Elder relationship and noted that, as part of this, both bodies would be simultaneously dissolved and then reconstituted into the new structure.
- Discussed adding a line to the 2023 Budget for the Wisdom Elders to engage in discussion with Native organizations. Decided to request $2,000.
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Didn't see an update for your Council?
To ensure your Council is included in the next edition of The Illuman Pulse, please assign a member to write a short summary following your next meeting and submit it via the form below.
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“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
― Rob Siltanen (shared at an Illuman Board Meeting)
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