Festival
of Conscious Parenting Mission Statement
The Festival of Conscious Parenting is an event scheduled for the Summer
Solstice Weekend of June (21—23), 2013, at the Jackson Theater and Sonoma
Country Day School campus in Santa Rosa, California. The Festival will
showcase spiritual practices and wisdom that can support parents and caregivers
in providing consistently loving and
nurturing environments for children. The Festival is presented in
the conviction that spiritual tools (meditation, prayer, mantra, body-awareness
practices, etc.) of various spiritual traditions offer resources invaluable to
the endeavor of conscious parenting. Those resources can help adults deliberately
model loving, generous, and effective behavior for children, help us
consistently treat children as we would wish to be treated, and help provide an
appropriately elastic yet fully secure foundation for every child’s healthy
growth and exploration of life’s possibilities. The Festival will be a forum for presentation of resources to bring mindfulness
practices directly to children. Other resources offered by the Festival will focus upon enabling parents,
teachers, caregivers, and friends to consistently open their hearts to
children, and avoid harm through application of the principle of non-violence:
the goal of embodying physical, emotional, mental and spiritual non-violence
towards children. The purpose of the Festival is to make these resources
far more widely available than they have been, to audiences that may never have
suspected that such resources exist.
Great start! Here are some refinements..
ReplyDelete- With the date 21-23, it makes it seem a 3-day event. Is it?
- Jackson Theater & Sonoma Country Day makes it sounds like two venues, but Jackson Theater is On SCD, and then you will spread out, so I suggest picking one or the other
-When I read the word "Mantra" in the list of practices, perhaps because of my background, I think that the tools will be 'sectarian', in the sense that you would have to be a practitioner of a specific sect in order to use the tools. I don't think this is what we mean as our audience is more general. So I wonder if we could somehow include the idea that the tools are tools useful to anyone regardlesss of their spiritual background or inclination
- The sentence "The festival will be a forum for presentation of resources to bring mindfulness practices directly to children" could be more general..."The festival will present resources for teaching age-appropriate awareness practices to children."
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteRob,
ReplyDeleteGenerally, a mission statement is much shorter than what is given here-although I am sure its stated. Can this be said in 1 or 2 sentences? Ill take a shot at that edit after sitting what you have presented a bit more.
Hi Friends,
ReplyDeleteIn response to Laura's questions/comments:
Either a two or three day event, to be determined by whether we get enough marquee speakers to necessitate Friday evening added.
They are the same venue, of course, but I agree--we should choose one, which would probably be SCDS.
I don't fully grasp the point you're making about mantra, unless you're saying that mantra is inherently sectarian. I think of it as non-sectarian, which is why I presented it in a list of "generic" tools, although I get why your background might lead you to have a different response than mine. I agree that it's important to communicate that all the tools presented need not require "signing on" to a particular sect. Does that respond to your concern?
OK to your last point Laura--I agree that my original sentence was too specific.
To Jay's point, I agree that this is way too long for a mission statement, which I'd like to tailor down to three sentences if possible, or maybe four. Ginny told me that she had a comment that has not yet been posted, so as soon as I see that I'll start the rewrite. But I welcome others starting that process too, if so motivated!
Rob
Yes the mission statement is very short. It encompasses the original mission. I think the word “intent” could be used too. 2 lines to express the “original intent” which becomes a tool to return to when we need to relocate our compass if we get off course or too expanded…
ReplyDeleteI would start with these two lines taken from above and refine them to your liking
The Festival will showcase spiritual practices and wisdom that can support parents and caregivers in providing consistently loving and nurturing environments for children.
Maybe add in the word resources?
xoxox
Theresa
I had thoughts along this line. what you wrote was wonderful and could be used as a statement of intent or purpose. When mission statement is used it has come to imply the shortest complete focused statement of mission.
Delete<3
j
Dear Friends,
ReplyDeleteMelissa Smith Baker, who has not been able to attend either of the Seed Meetings, has authorized me to post her message:
I read your notes from the last meeting. My only comment would be to focus on parents -- only parents. That's what makes your concept unique. There are family festivals, but I don't know of parenting festivals.
You can't do everything in a weekend. Keep honing your focus. I think your mission statement was too long, but it's good. This is what I understand from it --
Spiritual and Non-Violent Tools for Parents
If you accomplish that in a couple of days, that'll be fantastic.
Keep that theme in everything that you do. It'll help you pick the best speakers and make for a successful event.
Melissa
Dear Theresa,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback. You're right, this mission statement is designed to help us maintain clarity of focus of intention. So I think it's time to try again! Stay tuned!
Rob
Dear Friends,
ReplyDeleteHere's a new, shorter version to consider:
The Festival of Conscious Parenting is a community event scheduled for the Summer Solstice Weekend of June 2013, at Sonoma Country Day School campus in Santa Rosa, California. The Festival will showcase a wide range of spiritual practices, tools, and wisdom from many traditions that can support parents, caregivers and children in creating consistently loving, nurturing, and non-violent environments for child-raising. The purpose of the Festival is to vastly expand the availability of these resources to new audiences that may never have suspected that such resources exist.
Comments, please!
Rob
Rob,
DeleteI came up with something very similar:
The Festival is presented in the conviction that spiritual tools of spiritual traditions offer resources invaluable to the endeavor of conscious parenting that support deliberately modeling loving, generous, and effective behavior for both parents and children. This festival has a premise to provide an appropriately elastic yet fully secure, non-violent foundation for every child’s healthy growth and exploration of life’s possibilities.
...and did a small edit on what you wrote:
The Festival will showcase a wide range of spiritual practices, tools, and wisdom from many traditions that can support parents, caregivers and children in creating consistently loving, nurturing, and non-violent environments for child-raising. The purpose of the Festival is to vastly expand the availability of these resources to new audiences that may never have suspected that such resources exist.
i like this. it has more energy. we really want to remember we are introducing/providing access to resources. that is a good 'fine tuning' tool for me.
ReplyDeletegood job
xoxo
Theresa
Dear Friends,
ReplyDeleteThanks to Theresa and Jay for their comments/suggestions. We seem to be in agreement that we've gone in a productive direction from the original. So perhaps, if I'm reading this correctly, the "shortest complete focused statement of mission" as Jay puts it would be the one he edited from my second go-around, eliminating the date and venue information:
The Festival will showcase a wide range of spiritual practices, tools, and wisdom from many traditions that can support parents, caregivers and children in creating consistently loving, nurturing, and non-violent environments for child-raising. The purpose of the Festival is to vastly expand the availability of these resources to new audiences that may never have suspected that such resources exist.
I'm OK with this version. Comments?
Rob
i like it.
ReplyDelete