Choose your battles Pic of Poppy, Geoff, Roland, boys

You can choose to battle Pic of breakin in AZ Sometimes it's an easy choice, games? To battle doesn't mean to FIGHT. Could be a breakdance battle, where everyone can win...

You can choose to sit it out Pic of Ted G in AZ Which is still a CHOICE, to be clear, my lesson from my dad mostly related to what is important enough to fight over? Something that must be answered truthfully! So... If we get jumped, will you back me up? If you don't stand for something, you may fall for anything (malcolm x)

Maybe to battle really means to engage, or to stand for something Maybe to battle really means to engage, or to stand for something. And to do that, we must be passionate... Family Friends Crew Principles? Interests? And... there may be an element of unreasonableness in this passion. This concept became my passion. To support other's in their own interests and passions.

Beatbox - 1997 I moved back to FF Wanted to do a project in support my own friends, and other FF youth. The concept was simple, support young peoples passions. Story from phoenix. Same in FF 1999 started the beatbox, breakdancing & sat night all ages clean parties Pic of cleaning the basement, then basement parties 2000 bought the old American Legion, expanded Pic of opening party 2001 expanded to 111 N. Court off the square, 8000 SqFt, 125 participants a day, technology, etc, etc Several pics, collage One of the contributors to the Beatbox's success was the ownership of the space. It turns out we set-up a space that was truly owned by the participants. We are here to support, etc., with very little agenda... so isn't there the chance it could go wrong?

Vulnerability Safety, Security, Project, Process, People Requires trust in the principles and people participating. And then

Story of graffiti in the bathroom Pic of rules.

let go Scary right Pic of andrew paddling out Support of our projects, support of our people. This is not to say, you must not be involved... remember, we're in the middle of a breakdance battle, right? This just means you trust your crew. Which brings me to my next point.

You should build a KRUU Grew out of the Beatbox, goal is to be the voice of fairfield, open to all, important institution which provides a feedback loop for the community. Like a family, communication and celebration is key to happiness and evolution. So what happens when we open the airwaves to the whole community! Well, some vulnerable situations first pic of Dwight Then some amazing things. 100 hosts producing 80 shows a week. 100,000+ volunteers hours Pic of whole KRUU Once you get used to engaging with passion and letting things roll, you trust that things will continue to roll. You become optimistic.

Optimism On 9/11, I presented to the Fairfield optimist club @ 7:30 And a number of my friends in NYC had to overcome the immediate effects of the 9/11 attack. Stacey story Pic of towers from Stacey

Troubleshooting My experience is that at the moments of greatest adversity there can be the greatest achievement. Once engaged in a passionate activity, and generally believing in a positive outcome, whether reasonable or not, we must overcome obstacles in our path. We must troubleshoot. I don't believe we focus much on this, and I believe it is a skill that can be learned (not just a natural ability). If we do not learn how to do this, there can be spectacular failure:

Bad kids – examples of NOT troubleshooting I won't let my kids hang at the beatbox because that's where the bad kids hang out. Please close the beatbox before 9:30, so that my children won't want to go out.

So, we must do something. I read an article about south america, where when you ask “what do you do?” it means, what do you do for fun, for your community, what activities are you engaged in... it does NOT mean “how do you make a living” I like this definition of “do”, which requires passion and engagement and I think our community will be a better place the more people do things.

I'd like to finish by asking you to do two things after this presentation: Ask the person sitting next to you: what do you do? and Ask your friends: If someone were to jump us, would you back me up?