Diplomatic Corps Newsletter
November 2019
Looking for Leaders
Towards 2020
As we move towards winter and a new year approaches, we have a great opportunity to grow and enrich the Cascadia movement. With our department structure developed and a vision towards 2020, we’ve often asked during our weekly diplomat meetings, how would we prepare ourselves as a movement, community and Diplomatic Corps to be ready to galvanize 10,000 volunteers if they showed up today? From organizing through the last general election, I know that number is not far off the mark of passionate and motivated Cascadians who, like us, hope to see positive and palpable change that betters our Bioregion. As Diplomats, we have an opportunity to shape and influence that change. We are also well positioned to be leaders when those waves of support arrive.
Taking up the responsibility of leadership, whether it be starting a new Embassy, leading a Department or spearheading a project, means being a positive touch point as more Cascadians join our movement. One of the hallmarks of the Diplomatic Corps is engendering constructive community, a trait I’m proud to see at our meetings, in our posts, and our interactions. If you’re reading this, you’ve already contributed to this atmosphere of change and growth. If you’re compelled to do more, or can think of someone else who might also be, let’s link up and build a foundation for change as we prepare for 2020 and beyond.
Bioregionally yours,
Trevor V. Owen, Dean of Diplomacy
Diplomat Wesley D. Irwin (Right) joins Dean of Diplomacy Trevor V. Owen (Center) and Cascadian Jordan Brashears at Camp Cascadia this past summer.
Introducing Diplomat: Wesley D. Irwin
As an educator, author and activist, Wesley D. Irwin represents Cascadian values to the core. In the past year, he’s parlayed his passion for children’s education into a series of books revolving around a central character Aleia (based on his daughter) that delight all ages with humor and messages of equality, ecology and justice. His background in political organizing brings an experienced perspective on running campaigns and grassroots organizing. As a Cascadian Diplomat, he’s pursuing projects focused on Indigenous Sovereignty and Storytelling. Check out his Diplomat Bio HERE
Developing Departments - Creating Community
As we define and refine the Department of Bioregion, our organizational structure is strengthening. From our beginnings in the summer of 2018 to now, we’ve focused on creating resources and websites that will connect Cascadians to our bioregional movement, while creating a foundation framework that can grown our independence and interdependence. To do this, we’re developing five departments; Education, Indigenous Sovereignty, Commerce, Public Relations and Legislature. Through these, we envision an organized and interconnected system of Cascadians collaborating towards common goals and projects. It is our goal to have leadership teams leading each of these departments as we enter the new year. For more information about how you can join a leadership team, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Administrative Updates
What the Sasquatches have been up to this month.
Expanded Website Menu:
We are excited to expand our website menu to it’s final top navigation structure. This is a large jump for us, so we will be filling in blank pages over the next month.
Ultimately, the About section will focus on our organization & our theory, Campaigns is the work we are doing, Departments are how, and Movements that will connect our context in it’s ultimate global setting.
New Diplomat Drive:
In addition, Trevor has been hard at work helping us pull our resources out of the Google Drive. We will retain hard copies of all our materials and drafts there, but the Diplomat Drive will provide a front end interface from our website to directly connect with resources and ways to plug in.
Internal Diplomat Blog for Meeting Notes
For internal meeting notes, and other organizational resources, reportbacks and notes - we have created an internal blog. This will be linked into our embassy and department pages to keep a running and transparent account of meetings, without clogging our primary blog feed.
Testing Social Media Advertising
Lastly - we’ve got new media up and running in a test for social media. Our goal is to create a self managing system that can support itself, and effectively outreach and grow our movement, support base, volunteer base, and overall online presence. We’ll be running these threshold tests through January 1st to help us get a better picture of where we currently stand.
