| Hey AuthRev Community- Sara here, with an update on the State of our Collective Chaos.
Most of you know, by now, that Authentic Revolution is planning to close its doors on October 31st. We've had a great run - 10 years since I helped found the Austin and Houston Authentic Relating communities, and 8 years since Pete, Chad, and I formed Love Juggernaut, LLC (yes, that's our legal name - did you know!?).
Over that time, we've trained more than 2500 people in Authentic Life and Facilitation practices, and led many thousands more through individual events. We've created 8 versions of the Authentic Relating Games Manual, and helped create communities across the world.
There are many reasons we're closing. We fulfilled our mission of spreading Authentic Relating to many new places. We're navigating exhausting and expensive changes in marketing norms and competition. We can't make this profitable enough to meet more than our basic physical needs. (Thank you all for your many suggestions and resources to help us stay open -- and, that's not where we're headed at this point.)
Most of all, however, I feel like we've played our hand out beautifully, and it's time to move on. More specifically: I, Sara, am ready to move on, and I’ve never been able to divorce the identity of this company from my own face and name.
So! What is next for the programs you love??
The Authentic Leadership Training
The ALT and Authentic Relating Retreats are what started it all, turning the AR Games Nights in Austin and Houston into a living all-Texas community. We will run one last ALT in October under AuthRev’s banner, which is now totally full for both staff and participants. HOWEVER, in exciting news, community member extraordinaire Tyler Morgan has volunteered to organize TWO ALTs in spring and fall of next year within the Austin community. Those will run on the same format as the AuthRev ones, so reach out to us if you’re interested in being on the list as staff or participant!
Also, our good friends at Connect Humanity will restart running All-Texas AR Retreats next year. Keep an eye out on the Connect Humanity Facebook page for more information on those.
The Authentic Facilitator 15-week training
Sara and Geof Krum, Dean of our Facilitation Academy, put countless hours into this training. We’ve been sad to contemplate its closing. Thus, as Sara is stepping away, Geof is going to take over running TAF and some of our other co-creations (such as the Art of Difficult Conversations course we ran super successfully for Rebel Wisdom) under a new brand. We’ll announce that when we have more information, but are generally excited to have new life and a new face on our most resource-rich products.
COnnect
The future of COnnect is still TBD. However, we will continue to take care of the membership after AuthRev closes, either by giving options to continue with our platform, or with a similar AR and Circling organization, and we’ll keep in touch with all current and past members as we work it out.
The Authentic Life Course
The ALC is running for what may indeed be the last time, beginning this Sunday, September 25th. We will maintain an on-demand version of this course (and The Authentic Facilitator) indefinitely on the newly-redesigned www.authrev.org site.
The AR Games Manual
On this front, we have some very exciting developments coming out in the next few weeks. We’ve been working with editors and a designer to completely re-write and revamp the Games Manual to be MUCH more navigable and usable - and, we’ll have a print-on-demand version available when we release it! Plus, we’re well into development for an app version of the manual, which hopefully we’ll have out before the end of the year.
Relating Languages / Sara Ness
As for me, I am going to branch off into a project I’ve been creating behind the scenes for the last two years. I want to explore ways of bringing connection practices on a much larger scale than we've been able to. And, I think I’ve discovered how, through the Trojan Horse of a communication typology/developmental system called the Relating Languages. I’ll be occasionally updating this email list on progress with that, but you can also follow my Patreon at www.patreon.com/sness for more regular communiques.
And, last but not least…
Authentic Revolution
Our beloved company, and the longest relationship I’ve ever had. We couldn’t put you in the ground without a fanfare. On October 31st, we’ll be hosting an online party complete with toasts, roasts, wine (if you bring it) and song (if you sing it). Invite coming next week.
ALSO, we are VERY excited to announce that we will be using any leftover profit from Authentic Revolution to create a Mini-Grants Program for connection-based events!! That’s right - if you have a program you need money to get off the ground, and it involves bringing more connection to the world, we’ll open applications for that in the next few weeks. The closing of one thing should always, I think, be the seed for many others to bloom.
>>>We’re also accepting interest for fund-matching donors, and business mentors for the projects that get chosen for grants. All donations will be tax deductible through a partnership with our sister 501(c)3 Seek Healing. Reach out to us if you want in.
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All right, y’all. We are, as always, open to thoughts, feedback, memes, and memories about our closing.
In fact - a deep personal desire of mine is to get actual, real-life letters from anyone and everyone who has been impacted by Authentic Revolution’s work over the years.
Send me a post, get your community to sign a card, make me a collage, write “thank you” on the back of an empty envelope - whatever; I would just treasure having something to keep and remember from this decade (1/3rd!) of my life that I’ve given to AuthRev. I’ll share all of these with the team as well. (And, many of you who have been influential to the company over the years will be getting letters from me as well!)
Write to me at: 235 Woodlands Dr, Bastrop, Texas 78602
Thank you all, always, for your support.
Hugs,
Sara |
