June 30, 1999
Dear SNI Supporter,
I come with good news couched within the framework of perhaps unsettling news for some. On June 21, the night before our SNI team left for SethNet ‘99 Elmira, I decided to resign as president of SNI. I made the announcement at our membership meeting on June 25 to the almost 200 attendees, and have subsequently announced it on SNI’s mail list, and Bettie Kielty announced it to SNI’s CompuServe group.
As most of you are aware, my partner Stan Ulkowski died in March. I sent you a letter regarding his passing, and another in May saying SNI would stay in place, but that a major reorganization of its structure would be necessary in order to distribute the workload. The receipt of that letter generated many kind responses and great ideas, and I felt we could start to define a path for SNI that would meet my needs as well as yours.
But as the days progressed and Elmira loomed closer and closer, I realized how different my level of excitement and focus was without Stan at my side. What for seven years had held meaning and purpose for me became rote. Stan and I formed SNI in 1992, we worked it together, shared its fun and its trials as one. His absence is deeply felt by me, and I can’t see how the hollowness I feel can be filled until I move on to other times and places. Stan closed a chapter in his life when he passed on; I believe it’s time I do the same, in my own way.
After dozens of hours of talk between SNI members and supporters, a plan has emerged that our Board of Directors has approved. SNI will legally become inactive; that is, the non-profit entity will officially stay in place, but there will be no activity generated by it. It will, in essence, become a shell that can be filled in the future if and when the time presents itself. Some of its assets will be sold, some will be stored. Its records and files will be kept intact, but the office space will be terminated as of September 30, with our last day of business being September 10.
That’s the dry, “official” picture. But what of the heart of SNI: our network, our get-togethers, our people? How do we stay in touch? We finally “found” each other; surely we’re not meant to give up our interaction! No, indeed we’re not. And there are ways to help assure we’ll stay close.
Here is what we propose.
* Data Base: First, the pot of gold that SNI developed over the years is our data base. It is the only Seth-oriented data base of its kind in the world. We have over 5,000 names in it, and would have had over 20,000 if we hadn’t cleaned it periodically. It takes constant care and activity to keep it current and growing; if it sits dormant for even a year or two, it will become virtually useless. So the overriding concern is that we develop a method of securing the data base’s integrity.
Our solution is thus. Michael Steffen and Mary Rouen (members of SNI’s Board of Directors) have taken over the Brass Ring Bookstore and will continue to offer product to the marketplace through their catalog and web site (Brassringbooks.com). SNI proposes that Brass Ring Bookstore (BRB) becomes the keeper of the data base, since they will have on-going activity with the current base of people, and will be adding new names virtually daily due to their advertising, etc. Then, anyone who wishes to rent mailing labels from the data base for a nominal fee for their own activities can do so. If, in the future, SNI decides to resurrect itself, the data base will be intact for its use.
* Conferences/Workshops: With the data base in place and ready to support their efforts, the creativity of Seth readers can assert itself. For instance, Jay Foley and Kerin Forsyth (who will be married in September after meeting on-line several years ago) have committed to holding a conference in New Haven in October, 2000. And they plan to pattern it somewhat after our venerable SethNets, yet with its own unique name and flavor. The SNI data base will offer them an immediate, inexpensive method of reaching Seth readers with their news, and since SNI has held 25 conferences and workshops since 1994 we’re well equipped to offer suggestions, if desired. (Others are talking about holding a SethNet-type conference on the west coast, also, and we’re encouraging smaller groups to create simpler get-togethers in their parts of the world.)
As to Welcome 2000, the millennium non-conference we announced for December 29/January 2, I’m sorry to say it’s been canceled. Just before Stan died I had almost completed a flyer to be mailed to you suggesting you make your reservations at the Hallmark Resort in Cannon Beach, Oregon, as soon as possible. Then SethNet ‘99 Elmira and my personal business took over all my focus. So today I talked to the resort and found out they are completely booked.
If any of you wish to take on the light organization of a non-conference (no registration fees, no planned events, no hotel interfacing—nothing much more than securing a central room in which we can meet, and making sure there are a good amount of sleeping rooms available in town), let me know, and we’ll make our data base available to you for mailings. (We’ll help promote it in other ways, too.)
* Reality Change: What of our quarterly magazine? Two requests have been made to SNI by different people to take over the printing of RC, and I encouraged that action at the Elmira conference. Subsequently, however, the Board has had time to think through the implications of it and has decided not to assign the magazine to anyone else, but to keep the name intact for future use. What we do encourage now is that anyone wanting to create a magazine for Seth readers contact us and we’ll be more than happy to give you advice and all the wisdom (!) we’ve accrued from printing, distributing and marketing 24 issues since 1993. We’ll also offer you access to our data base for your marketing efforts.
* Newsletter: In order to stay connected, we need a central “place” we can meet to find out what’s happening on the Seth scene. I’d love to see some soul launch a newsletter, minimally in hard copy and hopefully on the web, also. (Not the other way around, however. Many people in our data base do not have computers, and one overriding concern they’ve expressed is that they not be bypassed by an electronic-only newsletter or magazine.) The newsletter could then become the vehicle that brings us together inexpensively, and offers us a place to announce our individual upcoming projects and events, and to write letters and express opinions to other Seth readers. (The Brass Ring Bookstore is also planning a section in their catalog and web site that will list future events and offer links to the home pages of those holding gatherings of some sort.)
* Internet Activity: Here are the plans for our current involvements.
SNI Web Page (sethnet.org): James Thames, our webmaster, is in the process of restructuring the web page as we speak. I’ll write a letter that will be posted as an introduction explaining SNI’s inactive status, and suggesting people use the available hot link to the Brass Ring data base in order to register their names. Another hot link will take them to the web site of the SethNet mail list (see below).
SethNet Mail List: Paul Helfrich has graciously agreed to continue to administer the mail list and its attendant web site for at least 90 days, and then decide whether or not to continue with it. The list will keep the “SethNet” name and definition of purpose, but the references to SNI will be dropped from the boilerplate. If Paul later chooses to redefine the list’s purpose, he will then drop the name SethNet and create another. (To check out the mail list, go to onelist.com and search for sethnet.)
CompuServe Chat Room (GO NEWLIFE): Bettie Kielty, our CompuServe facilitator, has been handling the SNI chat room once a week for four years. She, like Paul, has graciously agreed to continue her role, but she might cut back to holding an on-line session once or twice a month. Bettie will keep everyone on CompuServe posted as to her intentions.
SNI E-Mail: Probably 85% of our e-mail is requests for literature. So, we’re going to close our e-mail account and forward responses to the Brass Ring e-mail account.
* World Roster: And what of our 500-name SNI World Roster of Focal People and Seth Groups? Well, the Brass Ring Bookstore will become the provider of that service. This very valuable document will stay in existence, thanks to Mary and Michael. (Over the years we’ve estimated that about two dozen Seth groups have formed from networking at our conferences and through the Roster.)
* Seth Store: We will continue selling product from the Seth Store until our supplies run out, or until September 10, whichever comes first. After that, the store will be picked up as a department in the Brass Ring Bookstore. Mary and Michael will be mailing a new edition of their catalog next week (allow several week’s delivery time from that point), but the Seth Store will not show up in it until their fall edition.
* Contributions: Once SNI goes inactive, we will no longer solicit contributions. However, until September 10, our last day of business, we strongly urge you to continue your support of the network. Between now and then we will have all of our usual bills to pay, as well as close-down costs, and therefore must continue to see an inflow of funds. Many of you have been generous to a fault with SNI, especially this past year. Please do continue to help us wind down the network as effectively as possible, and we, in turn, will do our best to assure that communications can continue between us for years to come. (Monthly credit card contributors, please note: we’ll continue deducting your pledged amount from your cards through September, unless you tell us otherwise.)
So, there you are, my friends. I started this letter by saying good news was wrapped in the cloaking of bad news, and I sincerely mean that. With SNI closing, the probabilities open up for many wonderful creations and contributions from individual Seth readers and groups which will form in order to offer products, services, casual get-togethers and conferences to us all. Perhaps that’s really where we’ve been headed this past year, anyway, without quite knowing it.
Between now and the end of the year, I will be completing the unfiled taxes for SNI (as well as my personal ones and those of two other companies). My plans also include preparing our house in Washington for sale; completing the renovation of the Eugene house, which Stan and I started months ago; finding adoptive homes for the balance of our as-yet-unplaced “island” cats and four office cats; physically emptying the 2,000 square foot SNI office space of its contents; and, of course, winding down the business of SNI. The only trip I intend to take until this is all accomplished is to attend the Rocky Mountain Seth Conference in September, to which I made a commitment to speak before Stan passed on. Since this annual conference—their sixteenth—is to be their last, I encourage you to join us for what will prove to be an historic event on the Seth scene. (Call Helen Walker at 303-761-0217.)
After I accomplish all of the above, I intend to take one long vacation! And then, well, we’ll see. I told my inner self not to open any new directions for me until I have sorted out my life and have the energy to refocus toward new ventures. (I wonder if our inner selves listen closely to such directives?!)
Actually, I’ve decided I’ll follow the words of wisdom I received from the tail end of a dream about Stan several weeks after he passed on. In it, my daughter and I were in an upscale department store searching for a gift for Stan for the millennium. The store was about to close, and I was feeling more and more anxiety because time was running out. The dream faded and the transition to the awake state began. Then I heard the clear, strong words: “Your gift to Stan is your love and your happiness.” He has my love, and always will; I intend to rebuild my life to a point where I can also offer him my happiness.
I’ll be sending you one more letter, probably in September or October, to tell you the final status of things and to say good-bye. Until then, do feel free to contact me with questions, concerns, suggestions, or simply to say hello. I have the greatest affection for you all, and sincerely want this transition to be comfortable for everyone concerned.
With warmest regards,
Lynda Dahl
P.S. By the way, SethNet ‘99 Elmira was a watershed conference, as we suspected it might be. Rob Butts made the day with his warm, casual, caring demeanor and his love of good discussion. He brought some of his artwork and we placed it around the ballroom on easels for all to enjoy. His 80th birthday party was poignant, in some ways, and so much fun in others. On all of our minds during the conference was Jane and Rob’s major contribution to the world, and certainly to our personal lives. (We cajoled Rob on to the Ouija board with Michael Steffen Sunday night after SethNet ‘99 ended. Thirty-four of us spent several hours together in what was another historic moment, I believe.)