Wednesday, October 27, 2010

I'm looking for a few companions to be part of the new Franklin Circle I'm forming to help me as I start your new, free Small Business Chamber of Commerce, a group that will meet every other week or so to help each other start and/or grow our individual careers, project, campaigns, and/or businesses.

A mastermind group? Sort of. To understand the difference, join us for this free, open 4-week session either Friday afternoons at 4:30 p.m., or Sunday evenings at 6:15 p.m. Contact me if you are interested or have questions at (303)861-1447 or JohnSWren@aol.com.

Here's the Craig's List posting I just made about the free 4 weeks session that starts this week:

Companions (Capitol Hill)

Community Room College

This free, open group studies the new book The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything-- A Spirituality for Real Life by James Martin, SJ. and helps those who are interested organize Franklin Circles, independent self-directed learning groups.

I've been organizing and facilitating groups in Denver based on the Ignatian spirituality so well expressed in James Martin's new book, The Jesuit Guide to Practically Everything.


Jesuit Guide Discussion Group

Friday, October 29, 2010 at 4:30PM

Ignatian spirituality is the guiding philosophy of Community Room College, the Denver IDEA Cafe, Franklin Circles, and the new, free Small Business Chamber of Commerce http://meetup.com/Small-Business-Chamber.

Join us any week as we gather to read a passage from the book and discuss our experience focused on these topics:

Week #1: You are OK now, start where you are.

Week #2: Heros: Lessons in living.

Week #3: Higher Power: Spiritual living.

Week #4: Proceeding: What's next?

At each meeting we'll follow this agenda:

*Introductions/ Where are you now?

*Reading

*Discussion

*Final words/ What's changed?


No RSVP is required to attend this meeting, but if you do RSVP you'll get a reminder about our meeting each week and it's an easy way to invite friends who might be interested.


There is also a meeting each Sunday evening at Denver's only Jesuit parish, Loyola Church, 23rd & York, Denver, right after the 5:30 p.m. mass.

Check out what members are saying about Community Room College and Franklin Circles:
"BIG Benefits" - Larry Nelson

"I believe that with more members this could be a great group.
Interesting and diverse group of attendees" - Jay Gegenberg

"Good chance to meet some new people with similar interests in business development / networking." - Michael Ballou

"If you have a curious mind, and enjoy an open and honest exchange of ideas, within a structured-yet-open framework, you'd probably enjoy it. If you are all about yourself, you might be in the wrong place." - Barry Wolfman

Sunday, October 10, 2010

New, free Small Business Chamber aquires Community Room College

Community Room College is now part of the new, free Small Business Chamber of Commerce.

Announcing the change, the founder of both groups, John Wren, said, "I've always said the best form of adult learning is to start a new business. The Small Business Chamber will be using the Community Room College approach to adult education through independent self-directed learning groups to help our members start or join business peer advisory groups. Other topics such as adjusting to retirement, the arts, and good citizenship will continue to the focus of groups formed by our Community Room College division. More will be announced about this in the next few days."

Wren has been organizing and facilitating adult learning groups since 1994. Groups he has started included Franklin Circles, Denver Socrates Cafe, Denver Speakers Corner, the Denver IDEA Cafe, and the Jesuit Guide Discussion Group. Wren is past president of the University of Denver Graduate Student Association, the Denver City Club, the Ro cky Mountain Direct Marketing Association, and the Metro South Optimists Club. He has taught for the American Management Association, the University of Denver, Arapahoe Community College, Casper Junior College, and many adult learning programs such as Denver Free University. He attended Cornell College and the Univeristy of Denver where he earned a BA ('69) and an MBA ('78). He is the father of four adult childeren.