NEXUS: Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium

Below is an exciting opportunity from NEXUS, the University of Auckland Sustainability Group, to find out more about sustainability and your role in promoting it.

Working Locally as Global Citizens

You can no longer save your family, tribe or nation. You can only save the whole world. -Margaret Mead

On Thursday 9 April, you are invited to participate in a half day (four hour) inquiry
into how we bring together our work as global and local “active
citizens”. The International Symposium  "Awakening the Dreamer,
Changing the Dream" is being presented at the University of Auckland
for the first time, in partnership with Nexus - a student
sustainability group in Auckland.

The invitation is open to people interested in local action who want to operate with a global vision.  In particular, the invitation is extended to people:

• Who are part of or connected with the university community

• Who are active citizens in their organisations or community and want to take a fresh (and transformative!) view of our world.

This is an open invitation to attend, entry by koha. Please note that
spaces are limited and registrations will be accepted on a first in
first served basis- details below.

The Symposium will be led by Carl Chenery, Damon Birchfield and Bridget Marsh – local facilitators of the initiative.

Details of the Symposium

Date/Time Commences: 9am Thursday 9^th April 2009

Completes by 1:00pm. Registration will begin at 8:30am.

Venue: Decima Glenn Room, Level 3, Owen G Glenn Building, University of Auckland Business School, 12 Grafton Road, Auckland

Cost:  A Koha is invited ($10, at the door).

Registration: To register, please do so online here. or email contact@nexusnz.org and provide names of those who will attend, email address and contact phone.

About the Symposium

The Symposium takes a fresh look at our most critical current
concerns - environmental sustainability, social justice and spiritual
fulfillment - and explores and exposes what connects them. Participants
interact together in pairs and small groups, between video segments of
well-researched information and interviews with some of the world's
most respected thinkers and doers, including Paul Hawken, Van Jones,
Desmond Tutu, Julia Butterfly Hill, Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry.

The Symposium was presented, for the first time in New Zealand in
June 2008. Since then, the symposium has been presented twenty times
around New Zealand.  Each time demand has been strong, for further
symposia and for facilitator and leadership training.  The video
material used in the symposium is available for use by people who train
locally to present it.  If after participating you would like to train
as a presenter, ask the facilitators.

You can find out more at http://awakeningthedreamer.org/  or the parent group, the Pachamama Alliance, on the web http://www.pachamama.org

Participant Warning!

The Symposium is an invitation for you to find yourself with a new
perspective on the world – and a new clarity on your stand for the
future.  Not just a position – another set of facts backing you further
into a corner you are familiar with – but a fresh stand which calls you
into committed global citizenship – without making others wrong. We
recommend you participate with an open mind and an open heart, and be
listening for how you can become a more effective global citizen at a
local level.

This event is for people who are open to awakening to and engaging
with our highest purpose in a period of global transition.  The
initiative has no political affiliations, and is intended to embrace
all spiritual traditions. It has a highly researched and verifiable
factual basis, and draws on interviews with many global thinkers and
leaders.  While we are developing some New Zealand content, it is
currently a global resource which addresses people in the developed
world.  The Symposium is deeply moving, and we strongly suggest you
participate fully for the duration.

"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing."   - George Bernard Shaw

NEXUS-Reflecting on the state of the world and empowering tomorrow’s leaders

Unprecedented
times call for informed leadership.  Nexus is a student sustainability
group based at the University of Auckland, growing the next generation
of change-makers.  We provide a platform for the student community to
discuss and take action on the issues that matter, and influence the
world around them.  Crossing a wide range of economic, environmental,
social, and cultural *issues* we organise public forums and give access
to expert knowledge and experience.  We connect young people: through
partnership with professional networks and institutions we involve them
in affordable development opportunities.