MSI Director & VP Present at Conference

16/09/2010 by

Assoc. of Experiential Ed

R. Richards and Bob Stremba, Ed.D, will be giving a presentation at the 38th Annual International Association of Experiential Education Conference on November 4th in Las Vegas, NV, USA.  The two will share MSI’s unique mission and how MSI blends the world of experiential education with practical spiritual facilitation.  Ther a number of presnetation categories, and the two are slated for a workshop during the conference under the Body/Mind/Spirit category.

The conference, bills itself as “Connecting Communities, Sustaining Educators” which brings together more than 900 experiential educators and practitioners for professional development and networking.

The title of the presentation, “Exspiriential” Education: Integrating Spirit with Experience, comes from the term coined by MSI Founder Richards, which combines Spirit and Experiential education.  The MSI website states: “We’re a hybrid organization – a cross between an experiential wilderness program and a holistic learning center, with elements of both experiential education and spiritual development.”

Stremba is a former board member of AEE, and continues to be actively involved in the association. He currently runs the Outdoor Pursuits program at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. Richards has recently joined again as an individual member of AEE.

vegas_conference_head_template.jpg

November 4-7, 2010- Workshops

2010 Workshops (pdf)

2009 Workshops

2010 Workshop List (subject to change)


Adventure-Based Programming

3rd Annual Trends and Issues in Outdoor Education Programs Panel Discussion
Andrew J. Bobilya,  Tom Holman,  Betsy Lindley, John Gookin, Tim O’Connell, Nina Roberts, Bobbi Beale, Bob Stremba & Jay Roberts

Accreditation 101
Shawn Tierney

Adventure Education and Motherhood II; Are they Mutually Exclusive or Mutually Beneficial?
Erin Lotz

Building Respectful Learning Communities: Setting Positive Behavioral Norms through Adventure
Jane Panicucci & Larry Childs

Chiji Cards: Beyond Processing
Chris Cavert

Designing Skill-based Initiatives
Paul Nicolazzo

Developing a Self-assessment Study
Shawn Tierney

Facilitating Inclusion in Outdoor Adventure: Decisions in Management and Modifications
Alison Voight & Catharine Bishop

Girl, You Got it! Empowering Girls to Develop Technical Skills
Priscilla McKenney & Nadine Budbill

Good Judgment: The Ultimate Facilitator Skill
Chris Ortiz & Jim Grout

Into Thinner Air: More on Adventure Programming at Altitude
TA Loeffler

Intuition or Cognition: The Dual-Process Approach to Judgment and Decision-Making for Outdoor Leaders
Wynn Shooter & Nathan Furman

Leadership and Challenge Center ¡Lánzate! Empowering Agents of Change
Juan Carlos & Echavarría Flores

Outdoor Ethics – How AEE Members Can Easily Implement Effective Leave No Trace Education Programs
Catherine Smith & Sarah Folzenlogen

Project Venture – Evidence Based Prevention Programming
McClellan Hall, Bart Crawford, Neal Ferris & Heather Yazzie

Standards, Legislation, Regulations, Certification, New Technology. What Does This All Mean for My Challenge Course Program?
James Borishade & Bill Weaver

The Living History of Experiential Education
Tom Lindblade

The Ropes of Ecology
Shawn Moriarty

The Use of Emotional Rescue In Adventure Based Activities
Joel Cryer

Thematic Programming: Unifying the Experience
Patrick Torrey

What’s Nature Got To Do With It?
Jacquie Medina

Willi Unsoeld: Outdoor Education Philosophy and Practice From Risk Taking to Rites of Passage
Krag Unsoeld

Experienced Based Training and Development

A Foundation of Trust
Sam Sikes

Accountable Team Building in a Web 2.0 world
Jason Kipps

Alternative Mediums in Experiential Learning
Anand Upadhyay

Experience and Reflection to Inform Design:  Outward Bound and Professional Development for Educators
Billy O’Steen, Andy Mink & Jim LaPrad

Explore the World of EBTD: A World Cafe Experience
Marc Levy & Jonathan Clark

How To Hear What Is Not Being Said
David Kampfschulte

Is Team Building a Set Up?
Claudia Valle & Tim Arnold

Judgment and Decision-Making: How Our Brains Are Wired… and What We Can Do About It
Jeremy Johnson

Overcoming Language Barriers in Facilitation
Sarah Kauntz & Kathleen Day

Secrets of Successful Networking
Jeff Richardson

Spiritual Dimensions of Team
Al Wright

Using Personality Assessments To Become A More Effective Educator
Chris Gee

Facilitation/Processing

A Book of One’s Own: How to Make Books for Processing
Gretchen Newhouse Berns

Building a Sense of Community Experientially
Jeff Jacobs

Creating Transfer of Learning Through Intentional Program Design and Framing
Gregory Paninski

Dramatic Problem Solving
Steven Hawkins

Enhancing Flow in Classrooms Through Experiential Education
Marleah Blom

Focus Your Locus
Justin McGlamery & Mike Gessford

Going GA GA For Global Games
Rich Keegan

Got Tossables?  10 Team Building Games Using Tossable Props You Already Have
Michelle Cummings

Green Mentoring Program
Melinda Campbell & Maryam Davodi-Far

How to Turn Your Support Group from Mediocre to Magnificent
Lynne Downey, Jenni Jardine & Ian Prinsloo

Nature Experiences, Use Them or Lose Them
Francine (Frankie) Piela , Clifford E. Knapp & Mike Bingley

Raccoon Circles, 2010
Thomas Smith

Shifting the Paradigm: from Challenge by Choice to Conscious Choice – An Evolution in Ideology
Jody Radtke & Lizzy Slatt

Systematic Family Sculpting
Gary Hees

Team Interaction Mapping
Mark Rose

The Art of Experiential Group Facilitation & Teaching
Jennifer Stanchfield

The Assessing Matrix
Nate Regier

The Fine Art of Team Building
Adam Ames & Andrew Bordwin

Turbo-charging for Character
James Fish      

Mind/Body/Spirit

“Exspiriential” Education: Integrating Spirit with Experience

Your Food Supply #23: Engaging in Life

16/09/2010 by

A wrap-up discussion about what it means to be a local farmer, and who benefits..

Snatam Kaur: Lebanon Opera House

08/09/2010 by

Snatam Kaur performed in Lebanon NH. The evening was a Mountain Spirit Institute fundraiser concert. Here’s a bit of footage from that night. The band stayed in the small town of Sunapee, NH and prepped for their fall tour while at Lake Sunapee.

Snatam Kaur on Tour

07/09/2010 by

Snatam Kaur’s music touches the soul. Seeing her live in concert can be a transforming experience. You can follow her on Facebook or check out her tour schedule on Spirit Voyage’s website.
Thanks to all of Snatam’s group for coming to New Hampshire.

Your Food Supply#22: A German Perspective

03/09/2010 by

A German Perspective on the “American Nightmare” .
The discussion with Randy Ramsley continues…when a German couple vacationing in Utah stop in and add to their perspective to the American Food Supply.

Snatam Kaur MSI Fundraiser, A Success

03/09/2010 by

Snatam Kaur &....

We’ve just had an amazing Mountain Spirit Institute fund raising concert:  Snatam Kaur, Guru Ganesha Singh and Ramesh Kannan played at the Lebanon Opera House, New Hampshire, USA.

GuruGanesha Singh

Not only are we grateful for their music, but for who they are as people. We were fortunate that they made time in their schedule to come to central New Hampshire, and we responded with an enthusiastic audience, (301), and lots of willing volunteers who did everything from move gear, provide flowers, to cook wonderful meals. Thank you Snatam, GuruGanesha, Ramesh, Shanti, Sopurkh, and Japreet!

Snatam Kaur & Family/Band at Lake Sunapee/MSI

As we prepped for the fundraiser by printing brochures, prepping our booth, and coordinating volunteers, Snatam’s band rehearsed in our living room, here in Sunapee, NH, which was really tough duty for us, not.

I learned a lot about what music is meant to be, a spiritual communion – with good discussions about why Snatam and her band do what they do. Also I talked with Ramesh Kannan, and discovered that a book I’d bought in a Durango bookstore, is one of his favorites, on the treatise of the spiritual nature of making music. The book is called The Music Lesson, A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music.

Ramesh Kannan

Stay tuned for some wonderful footage, pending the band’s approval of course. Meanwhile here are some pix.  Again a BIG THANK YOU to all the volunteers, support team, Snatam’s family, band members, the Lebanon Opera House, and especially to our sponsors who made this fundraiser possible.

Randy Richards,
Founder
Mountain Spirit Institute

Your Food Supply #21: Farming the Desert, with Heart

26/08/2010 by

Meet Randy Ramsley, a “farmer hero like Salatin and Allen” says blogger Lorna Sass in a post about Ramsley. We came across Ramsley’s farm just east of Escalante, UT. See the video below.

From: The Wasatch Journal
By Chip Ward

Caineville, Utah, is a remote, dusty outpost between where we have been and where we are going next. Under a harsh sun, its bare mesas, with their pleated skirts of pale ash, may seem plain, especially compared to their more colorful and celebrated redrock neighbors down the road. Most visitors zoom by it on their way to or from Lake Powell or Capitol Reef National Park. It is easy to miss the dance of luminosity and shadows that define the horizon, but there are subtle hues of violet, yellow, and blue among the gray tones. This is a landscape of nuance, patina, and pentimento.

Those who do stop are often towing all-terrain vehicles behind their trucks, using Caineville’s wide-open spaces and extreme landforms to test their machines against the limits of gravity. You could say that Caineville is what you make of it—a haven of solitude and beauty, or a carnival of combustion, depending on who’s in town.

Randy Ramsley is one of a handful of Caineville residents who is always in town. For a decade now, Ramsley has been farming the bottomlands of the Fremont River as it makes its slow descent toward read the rest of this article

Your Food Supply #20: Meat-Packing Plants

22/08/2010 by

Jeff Mannix describes a tour he was given of a meat packing plant in California. Also, getting local foods in local schools, and what is in your hamburger?

Your Food Supply #19: Selling Toasters or Food

21/08/2010 by

Jeff & Linda Mannix of Santa Rita Ranch talk about the huge feedlots and the dirty secrets of industrial farms, and growth hormones in our food supply.

Your Food Supply #18: Organic Beef

21/08/2010 by

Meet Linda & Jeff Mannix of Durango, Colorado. They’re Texas Longhorn cattle ranchers and suppliers of good organic beef. They own The Santa Rita Ranch. According to their website, they “raise a reputation herd of full-blood, registered Texas Longhorn cattle on their Santa Rita Ranch near Durango, Colorado. They range free in lush mountain meadows in the spring, summer and fall, and are fed locally-grown hay during the winter months. Market steers are finished at the ranch on the Animas River with hay, vitamins and minerals, and nutrient-rich, local brewer’s grain”

I shot this footage at the Durango Farmer’s Market. I think you’ll like it.