Newsletter – Jan 2016

Download the PDF version of the newsletter here.

Chairman’s MessageThisEdition

By Mark Boitano

In early 2014, a group of elder and younger Unificationists started Origins Partnership with a mission to “incubate and support ideas and projects that model and teach the revolutionary principles taught by Sun Myung Moon and solve real world problems.”  After years of discussing projects and solutions among peer groups of elder Unificationists it dawned on us that unless we engage the next generation, all our foundations will be  lost.

BoitanoFamily2
Mark and Cory Boitano with family

As a first step in that engagement, we spent a weekend at Sports Fest interviewing more than 50 young Unificationists discovering what help they needed.  Their response: we want successful careers, leadership training, to be financial free and have healthy marriages and families.  We developed the Project Fusion event around those needs. We presented that content in Barrytown in Spring, 2015 and Pasadena in Fall, 2015 and have plans to present in Ohio, the Bay Area, NYC and the DC area.

Our mission states, “we will build capacity, create accountability and develop sustainable foundations.”  The feedback from our events has been positive and we have a database with several hundred names.  We have monthly donors. We’ve mentored numerous young Unificationists in careers like life coaching, non-profit development, real estate, and politics.  Dozens have joined the Millennial Millionaires Club and we continue to meet and plan on weekly conference calls.

Origins Partnership recently co-sponsored a remarkable event in Las Vegas where there were presentations and brainstorming on varied topics like building a compassionate society, mobilizing the Abel culture to enact social change, and understanding the Providential role of America in world history.  Later this month five older and five younger Unificationists are meeting for 3 days in Phoenix to assess this event and plan for the future.

Starting a new non-profit with a great idea but no budget is not an easy task.  But, the commitment of our volunteers is extraordinary, as is our mission.  We’ve built a great team and appreciate the support of friends like you in helping OP remain faithful to it’s mission.  Onward!


2015 Origins Partnership Year in Review

by Mark Anderson

The year 2015 was a year of substantial progress in the development of Origins Partnership. In between the two major events, there were weekly meetings of the executive team. These weekly meetings were held via the Internet, and resulted in hours and hours of planning and organizing whch enabled the organization to move forward in a variety of ways.

For example, OP became an official 501(c)3 organization with tax-exempt status enabling donors to take a tax deduction for their contributions.

In addition, a website was launched with detailed explanations of the mission and purpose of OP, along with educational materials, and reports of the various activities going on around the nation.

Henri Schauffler
Henri Schauffler at the April Project Fusion

The most visible aspects of OP were the two Project Fusion events which took place this past year. One event was on the East Coast and one on the West Coast. The East Coast event took place in April at UTS in New York. It was attended by 90 people–a mix of older Unificationists and young Unificationists. This Project Fusion was a two-day event which featured a full day on financial freedom and full day on marriage and communication skills. The presenters were outstanding and attendees were able to establish ongoing mentoring relationships with the presenters in both the career/investing field and the strong families arena.

The second event was held in Pasadena California in October. It was a one-day event which focused on the two main areas of finances and families. The presenters again were excellent and the 50 attendees felt that the experience was very worthwhile. Rev, Kevin Thompson was the keynote speaker at lunch and brought a compelling message about living a life of excellence.

The third major event of the year took place in Las Vegas Nevada in November. OP co-sponsored an event entitled “Top Gun Advance” which was primarily attended by former American Freedom Coalition directors and other Unification Church leaders. OP had one session where the attendees were briefed on the background, mission and focus of OP. A number of attendees donated on the spot and other signed up to be regular monthly contributors.

The Board of Directors of OP are all volunteers and there is no paid Executive Director or staff at this point, Therefore, the fact that so much was accomplished this year is a testimony to the dedication of those Board members who invested time and resources into the organization. 2016 promises to be another year of development as we take the organization to a higher level through additional public events, a professional newsletter, upgrading the content of the website, and partnering with like-minded individuals and organizations to provide educational content and opportunities for mentoring to our supporters and contacts.


 

Marriage and Family – an OP cornerstone

DavidBurgess
Dr. David Burgess, OP’s Marriage and Family Coordinator

by Dr. David Burgess
Based on the survey responses of Younger Unificationists, we created Project Fusion to meet their overwhelming interest in successful careers and successful relationships.  The program has sought to create healthy marriages and family relations, by teaching relationship skills in our Project Fusion events.  During our two-day program at Barrytown in April, we conducted a number of different workshops aimed at different demographics.  There was a track for single individuals preparing for future marriage, one for currently married couples and another on parenting.

A special thanks goes to Bento Leal, who flew in all the way from the Bay Area, to share his communications skills workshop, applicable to all three tracks.  Also presenting were Lynn Walsh on personal growth and development for singles and John Williams on creating better marriages.  Both are experienced social workers who have given presentations for the Blessed Family Department.  Finally, Susan Dunn, a trainer for Dr. Greg Baer’s Real Love curriculum, gave presentations on parenting.

BentoLeal
Bento Leal

At our one day event in Pasadena last October our presentations were geared for a somewhat younger demographic although our tracks remained the same.  Once again we are grateful to Bento Leal for driving down from the Bay Area to do his communications skills workshop.  From the L. A. area we were fortunate to have Peter and Klara Chen, long-time directors of the Blessed Family Department, previewed a marriage workshop that they have been developing.  Rachel Curry, also from the Bay Area and a certified Life Coach, gave two different workshops – one on parenting a teenager and another based on her coaching career.

We would simply like to express our gratitude to these professionals for their time and talent.  Without their dedication and support, we would not be able to offer this kind of program.  One interesting feature of our programs is that in addition to Younger Unificationists, some of their parents and parents’ generation also participated.  It’s never too late to learn valuable information.


Mentoring for Career Development and entrepreneurship

by Henri Schauffler, Certified Small Business Coach & Advisor

One of Origins Partnership’s major areas of focus is helping the younger generation succeed in life based on the values
indicated by the revolutionary principles taught by Rev. Sun Myung Moon. This work is focused in two main areas: marriage and family and developing a strong financial foundation.

Many of our next generation are very idealistic (surprise! ), finding themselves driven to pursue careers or business ventures that have a strong values-driven basis. This is at once inspiring, but can sometimes lead to a lack of focus on a strong financial foundation as one of the outcomes.

Origins Partnership has worked with a number of young Unificationists over the past year to directly assist them with developing their career or business idea. Among them:

  • Mentoring several young leaders who are pursuing coaching enterprises
  • Supporting a young entrepreneur who endeavors to create an aggressive growth plan for his personal development workshop enterprise
  • Helping a couple of creative young leaders get clarity on developing online communication offerings. Main goal: make sure they either know what it takes or realize it really a dream that they will not pursue. This sounds cynical, but is actually very helpful to idealistic young people who need to create a strong financial base
  • Supporting several budding real estate investing entrepreneurs on the finer points and strategies of this tough but rewarding business.
  • Coaching and training a number of young professionals in the principles of accumulation and money management

Origins Partnership is proud to offer this important service to the Unificationist community as we grow to fulfill our larger commitment to serving the larger population with our vision of a Principle-driven view of life success.


CoSponsor of the TopGun Advance meeting
TopGunAdvance