For help now starting a Franklin Circle, see http://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Franklin-Circle-Adult-Self-Directed-Learning-Group

Franklin Circle Alpha Group Forming

If you might like to be the leader of a fee based Franklin Circle, please contact John Wren. There are still a couple of seats open in the Franklin Circle Alpha Group for fee based leaders still open. Call Wren at (303)861-1447 or email John@JohnWren.com

Or attend the free session that is held each Friday right after the Denver IDEA Cafe "How to start a Franklin Circle, and why you should," for more info and optional RSVP see http://meetup.com/CommunityRoomCollege

The new Franklin Circle Alpha Group is starting next Thursday (Jan 27) at noon, it's a great group and we have a couple of seats open. It will be the last Franklin Circle I ever personally organize and facilitate. If you'd be interested in more information let me know.

We'll be doing a free, open meeting of Community Room College each Friday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. right after the Denver IDEA Cafe at 13th & Grant. We'll give those who attend enough information to start their own mastermind group, or to join one of the new groups that are being formed now in the metro-Denver area. If you want to attend, there is more info and an optional RSVP if you click here, or let me know if you have any questions.

John

John S. Wren, MBA+
Founder, your new, free Small Business Chamber of Commerce
IDEA Cafes * Franklin Circles* Monthly "Big Event"
http://Facebook.com/Small.Business.Chamber or http://www.sbccblog.com/
(303)861-1447  or  John@JohnWren.com

Accomplish more!

Interested in starting or joining a Franklin Circle? Attend a free information session next Thursday (Jan 20) at noon or next Friday (Jan 21) at 4:30 p.m. You'll be given enough information at the meeting to start your own group, and if you want you'll be given help finding a new group focused on your specific interests. For more information, contact John Wren at (303)861-1447  (303)861-1447 or John@JohnWren.com.

Also, contact John Wren if you need a speaker for your service club or other group.

New Denver Franklin Circle now forming.

We hope to start a new Franklin Circle here in Denver soon, it will be the last one John Wren will personally organize and facilitate. If you are interested, contact him at (303)861-1447 or John@JohnWren.com.

If you'd like to start a new IDEA Cafe and/or Franklin Circle, attend the Denver IDEA Cafe. No meeting this Friday because of the holiday (Happy Thanksgiving!), join us December 3 when Ken Wyble from the South Metro Chamber of Commerce will be chairing the meeting. We hope to have a new South Denver IDEA Cafe starting soon. For more see http://meetup.com/Denver-IDEA-Cafe.

Want to start a Franklin Circle mastermind group with your friends. For tips about how to get started see http://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Franklin-Circle-Adult-Self-Directed-Learning-Group

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

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.

IDEA Cafe Now Also Sample Franklin Circle

Starting this week, I'm trying something new at the weekly Denver IDEA Cafe.

In addition to the speakers who share their startup experience and the brainstorming, I'm going to change the format slightly to make it a sample Franklin Circle. I'll be encouraging people who are interested in starting a Franklin Circle in their neighborhood to attend, as well as the people who are normally in attendance, people starting in a new direction with their career, starting a new campaign or project, or starting a new business.

If you're interested in starting or joining a Franklin Circle in your neighborhood, contact me and we'll discuss what would make sense for you as a next step. Contact me at John@JohnWren.com or (303)861-1447. 

The New York Times most popular articles at the moment have to do with education.

We can all agree there is a big problem with how our children are being educated, but there is little agreement about what needs to be done.

My goal is to encourage the formation of an adult self-directed learning group in each neighborhood in Colorado by the elections in November, 2012.

To find out more, join me any Friday at the free, open Franklin Circle I facilitate here in Denver. Can you join us this week? To find out more and to RSVP, click on the link to the right . --->

I've been slow organizing my thinking about how to proceed with this. Watch for an announcement tomorrow in an email from me.

Can you join us tomorrow for the free, open Franklin Circle? 4 p.m. at Panera Bread, 13th & Grant. Hope you can make it!

I'm recruiting potential group leaders on new topics for next fall. If you know anyone who might be interested in leading a Franklin Circle focused on their topic, please forward a link of this site along to them, OK? They will thank you, and so will I if you'll let me know what you've done. Questions? Contact me at (303)861-1447 or John@JohnWren.com.

Open Franklin Circle canceled today because of the weather, hope you can join us next Friday.

Caucuses Tonight!

Being involved in politics is one of the best forms of adult education!

To learn how to participate tonight, take 15 minutes and quickly read through: http://www.COCaucus.org

Attend tonight's caucus in your neighborhood, then join us this Friday, 4 p.m. at Panera Bread. We're going to announce the formation of a new Franklin Circle focused on getting more good people elected in 2012. You?

Do you have a passion for grassroots business and/or politics? Would you be willing to share what you know with others who are just getting started?

Then consider leading a Franklin Circle adult self-directed learning group.

You'll help others get off to a better start in their business or political career, and you'll take advantage of the most powerful principle of adult learning: Adults learn best by being teachers.

Help others, advance your own learning, and have fun doing it as a volunteer or as a paid staff member.

For more information, contact John Wren at John@JohnWren.com or (303)861-1447.

A 4-week online seminar Action Class in Practical Politics will start February 15. Each Monday morning an opening "lecture" will be posted, then online discussion will continue through out the week. The class is free, a certificate of completion will be available for those who actively participate each week. For more information and to RSVP see Action Class in Practical Politics Session #1 on Facebook.

Are you interested in getting elected to public office or helping other good people get elected?

A group is now forming of people just like you, newcomers to Colorado or Colorado politics who want to help each other learn through mutual exploration using the powerful format for an adult learning group invented by Ben Franklin. Join us if you can this Friday, January 29th (see link to the right) or email me at John@JohnWren.com for more information.

The Denver Open Franklin Circle meets this afternoon, hope you can join us. (For more information click on the Community Room College link to the right.)

We are trying to form a drop-in group with enough members who attend regularly for new people to take a "test-drive". No preparation is required, and it's ok to attend without  without an RSVP.

If the Denver Open Meeting this afternoon is at a bad time or place for you, think about starting one near where you live or work at a time that works for you. Help is available online for starting a new Franklin Circle, see the Wiki: Start a Franklin Circle link under Topics to the right, or contact John Wren at John@JohnWren.com or (303)861-1447.

Happy birthday Ben Franklin! (January 17, 1706--April 17, 1790)

Franklin invented many, many useful things, from fire insurance to swim fins. His best invention, in my opinion, was the powerful format for for adult self-directed learning groups we now call Franklin Circles.

To celebrate, Denver Speakers Corner is having a special meeting today and inviting those attending to take a turn on the soapbox to speculate whether Ben Franklin (and/or Martin Luther King who was born January 15 and has a national holiday in his honor tomorrow) would affiliate with a political party today, and if so which party. Should be fun. For more information and optional RSVP see http://meetup.com/Denver-Speakers-Corner

Interesting article in today's Denver Post about proprietary schools (click here to read it.)

Years ago, I called the head of the Colorado Department of Education to complain about the Barnes Business School (now defunct) slogan "A better education, cheaper" or words to that effect.

He defended the school.

I had the great privilege of attending Cornell College for 2 years and then finishing a BA at the University of Denver. The schools taught me how to learn on my own.

It is hard to continue learning in isolation. If you get together regularly with friends to share what you are learning, great. If not, consider forming a group or joining one focused on a topic that is of interest to you.

If you'd like help, attend the free, open meeting we hold each Friday. You'll get enough information to start a group of your own if you want, and help connecting with a group that's forming if that's what you prefer.

Community Room College Begins

After getting front page treatment in the last two issues of the Colorado Statesman...

http://www.coloradostatesman.com/content/991462-wren-disturbs-new-dem-nest

http://www.coloradostatesman.com/content/991482-wren-leaves-dem-nest-becomes-unaffiliated

I'm trying to decide the best way to have a positive impact on the grassroots here in Colorado. Whatever media release I send out on Monday should get picked up, at least by the Statesman. One reason: The last week in December is almost always a period of slow news.

So I've spend this morning in deep thought and contemplation. How can I best use this rare opportunity to do something that will be of the most benefit to the most people.

My initial thought is to just do a website or Facebook page about the 2010 Colorado Caucus. But that's not enough to be interesting and really catch peoples attention.

Yes, newspapers should promote the caucus. People who go to their neighborhood caucus are newspaper readers. But that's just not a big enough story to get the papers to write about it.

There are plenty of things going on to help the people at the extreams of our society, not so much for the people in the middle, the hard working salt-of-the-earth, what some have called the "silent majority." If they are mobilized, our country will turnaround and once again prosper.

The million or so millionaires in this country don't need my help. They have access to the best, from medical care to education.

So who am I trying to help?

1.  We all need to do what we can to help the poor. The safety net of our society is critical.

2.  The middle 90%. These are the people that get forgotten. People on the way up, and people on the way down. Money is tight, there is not enough time, and it's very easy to get discouraged. To build social capitol with this group will help the poor the most.


So that's who I'm going to try and help. Question is, do they want the help? Or am I being like the Boy Scout trying to help the little old lady across the street who doesn't want to go across the street. We'll see...

What is my message?

1.  Read print: Books, magazines and your local newspapers.
2.  Be a good friend: Join or start a small group.
3.  Be a good citizen: Affiliate & participate.

I've got small groups right now that are important to me. But my groups aren't necessarily right for everyone.

How will I get this message out?

1.  This website.
2.  A Facebook page
3.  A meetup.com "Community Room College" alumni meeting once a month, pattern after Denver/Boulder New Tech, have 5 presentations a month from small group leaders that I select.

Community Room College activities;

1.  Annual awards dinner for the best small group education efforts.
2.  Monthly meetup.com "alumni" meeting.
3.  News on this website.
4.  Encourage participation in the Colorado Caucus.

Is this too complicated?  Better to just focus on the Colorado Caucus? Maybe do Community Room College after January 19. Just writing this much.