Alan Seid

Founder, Vision Conduit and Chief Floor Sweeper

Favorites:

Frank Zappa

Disc golf

Playing drum kit in unconventional time signatures

Contributing to my neighbors and community

Supporting people to be the most powerful change agents they can be

Surfacing dissenting views constructively in groups

Play, humor, trust, and integrity

Alan’s Story

I grew up bilingual, bicultural in Mexico City, Mexico.

At 16 (1987) I decided to be part of the solution rather than the problem, and to discover or create best practices for living in harmony within ourselves, with each other, and with our home planet

At 18, I realized that my life needed to be about service and contribution, and that that would probably look different than traditional employment.

At 21 I began following the steps in the Financial Integrity Program detailed in Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez, which taught me how to be very clear and empowered in relation to money.

By 27 I had enough savings to — while living simply — embark on a seven-year self-directed period of intensive research and learning.

It was during this time that I:

• became a Certified Trainer in Nonviolent Communication

• acquired my Certificate in Permaculture Design

• took many classes with Wilderness Awareness School

• participated in several 10-day silent meditation courses

• researched and visited intentional communities and learning centers

• studied Dynamic Facilitation and conflict resolution

• was given permission by Jon Young to teach the 8-Shields Model

• immersed myself in Integral Theory, including a 6-day Integral Ecology and Sustainability Seminar

• conducted a search for our dream property, which we bought in 2002, in order to live in community, closer to the natural world, and have a base from which to share everything I had learned

• served in various volunteer leadership positions, gaining valuable skills along the way.

Since then my passion has been to work with people and organizations who are committed not only to their own growth and development, but also to leaving the world a better place than they found it.

Certified Trainer at the Center for Nonviolent Communication since 2003

Seminar Leader at New Road Map Foundation since 1994

Board President at New Road Map Foundation from 2006-2009

National Team Member and Local Director at Sustainable Global Leadership Alliance (SGLA), 2007 – 2008

Certificate in Permaculture Design, Bullock Brothers Farm, Orcas Island, WA, USA, 1999

Training and Education:

Wilderness Awareness School, including Coyote Mentoring, Art of Mentoring, and Mind of Mentoring

Dispute Resolution Center, 60+ hours of training

4-Day Intensive offered by Jim Rough and Dynamic Facilitation Associates

Outward Bound, participant and volunteer

School for Field Studies, Sustainable Development in Costa Rica (College Semester)

Denison University, self-designed major in Whole Systems Sustainability (“Eco-Studies”)