Services for Inspired Propinquity

[Discussion list for COMM-ORG]

[ed:  Phil has some questions about the program that others may be able 
to address.]

From: Phil Prehn <phil at sunaction.org>


This program that was touted on a recent e-mail top the list smells like 
a scam to me.  $5K for amorphous services to organizers that are readily 
available for free in other formats?

What's up with this?

Discussion list for COMM-ORG wrote:
> --------
> This is a COMM-ORG 'colist' message.
> All replies to this message come to COMM-ORG only.
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>  
> From: Windy Cooler-Stith <windy_coolerstith at yahoo.com>
>
>
> Dear Friends and Colleagues,
>  
> Announcing Services for Inspired Propinquity!
>  
> After months and months of work, SIP is truly up and running and does 
> indeed have a working website. Please visit it at 
> http://inspiredpropinquity.com and join the mailing list to be a part of 
> the very new on-line community we hope to grow with, currently, a 
> newsletter and community calender.
>  
> For those of you who may not know, I began a very novel project this 
> January. It is a counseling/mentorship and direct service provider 
> solely for social justice organizers - that emphasises the humanity of 
> the person who is the organizer. I don't know of any other organization 
> offering identical services.
>  
> After years of organizing we all know that organizing is hard work. It 
> is necessarily so. We associate intimately and empathize with people who 
> have been institutionally abused as we try to make them whole, to move 
> them with others, democratically, to their own vision of justice. We 
> must face our own "isms" and other issues in doing so. We must work odd 
> hours to fit into the chaotic lives we serve. Somehow, we must also meet 
> our own needs for family, love, and a private world. The work is often 
> made harder still for the most vital volunteer organizer by the myriad 
> effects of poverty. For the paid organizer, who may also be living in 
> some form of poverty, the role is made harder still through 
> bureaucracies that sometimes don't support the real work at hand and an 
> encouraged, unrealistic sense of his role as worker. Organizers are 
> knocked out earlier than professional boxers as a result. Though no one 
> seems to be studying us, we succumb to depression, alcoholism, and other 
> health problems at alarming, visible rates. And my lord, for some 
> reason, some of our brightest young organizers desire to become lawyers, 
> not veteran organizers, after a couple of years grueling in the field.
>  
> SIP intends to reach out to this community through highly personalized, 
> confidential, one-on-one listening sessions, once a week, for an entire 
> year - one organizer at a time. We provide excellent clerical and 
> research services for that organizer, to inform, and lighten her load. 
> We also offer strategic advice, skills training, networking 
> opportunities, and brainstorming sessions.  The mission of SIP, in 
> short, is to build communities through healthy organizers. We will build 
> whatever works for each unique organizer for a flat annual fee.
>  
> To avoid limitations on the types of aid we can offer - and to whom, we 
> have registered as an LLC. Donations are therefore not tax deductible. I 
> hope, though, you can consider including us in your giving plan this 
> year as we grow a scholarship fund and put out our first few newsletters 
> this summer. We will be sure to follow up with you on how your money as 
> used.
>  
> Thanks and Best,
>  
> Windy Cooler-Stith
>
>
> Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862):"It is not enough to tell me that you 
> worked hard to get your gold. So does the devil work hard."
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