What motivates us?

Simply put, the state of the planet is what motivates us! At Sol Space Consulting, we believe that community-building, consensus, and facilitation are powerful tools for creating a more just and sustainable world. There are thousands of organizations out there doing good work, and most of them could benefit from better group dynamics. We understand the urge to contribute positively to the world because we share that urge.

We have three guiding principles for our work:

1) model cooperation
2) build the internal capacity of groups we work with for better leadership and group process skills, so they don’t have to continually rely on outside help
3) appreciate the challenge of moving toward better dynamics; interact with compassion, humor and understanding.

The inspiration for Sol Space comes from intentional community living, where conflicts and tensions can’t simply be “left at work”. This unique environment is a particularly potent place to learn about cooperative leadership, conflict resolution and inclusive decision-making. Sol Space is dedicated to bringing the best of what we’ve learned in this environment of social experimenting to work for your group, and all of our partners are community builders in their own right.

The Sol Space Team is composed of people who are all independently capable, love collaboration and care deeply about the world.

Ma’ikwe Schaub Ludwig, Director, Sol Space Consulting
(505) 514-8180 maikwe@solspace.net

Ma’ikwe has worked with non-profits, social change organizations and intentional communities for 19 years as an organizer, director, teacher and, most recently, as a consultant. Ma’ikwe’s organizational work is supplemented by 13 years of personal growth work (including teaching) with the Avatar materials. Her commitment to personal growth and service flavors her teaching and consulting with a solid understanding of human development, a sensitivity to undercurrents, and a healthy dose of playfulness and appreciation. She is a graduate of the Dynamic Facilitation training, teaches facilitation with Laird Schaub, and has been working with consensus (as both a facilitator and participant) for 5 years. Ma’ikwe serves as the Course Lead Teacher for Ecovillage Desgn Education Southwest, and is the main teacher for social aspects of sustainability within the course. In addition to her work with groups, she is the author of “Passion as Big as a Planet: Evolving Eco-activism in America” and is available for talks about leadership and sustainability.

Ma’ikwe’s clients have included the New Mexico Solar Energy Association, 611 Ecovillage (Oakland, CA) and Tierra Nueva Cohousing (Oceano, CA). She has presented at the Fellowship for Intentional Community’s Art of Community conferences, the NM Bioneers, the New Mexico Mediation Association’s Summer Convocation, and the North American Students of Cooperation annual Institute.

Interesting factoid. Ma’ikwe once ran a weekly underground restaurant—called “Yum! Club”– out of a coop house. You can still regularly spot her in the kitchen wearing a red on red tie-dyed chef’s coat, and a generous portion of whatever’s for dinner.

Laird Schaub , Principal, CANBRIDGE Consulting
(660) 883-5543 laird@ic.org http://sandhillfarm.org/canbridge.html
Works with us on: Consensus, group dynamics, organizational structure, & facilitation.

Laird Schaub has lived in the fire of intentional community for 33 years as a founding member of Sandhill Farm, an income-sharing, consensus-based community in Missouri. For the past 20 years, he has served as the Executive Secretary for the Fellowship for Intentional Community (www.ic.org) and worked with many groups and individuals as a process consultant and trainer. He is the creator of the Dynamic Facilitation training and has trained over 50 facilitators in the past few years through this in-depth program. Laird is a contributor to Communities Magazine’s “Ask the Experts” column, in addition to regular articles on process topics.

Laird’s clients include 35 cohousing communities in the US (including Westwood Cohousing in NC and Tierra Nueva Cohousing in Oceano, CA), and Mountain Mahogany Community Charter School (NM). Laird has presented for the Fellowship for Intentional Community’s Art of Community conferences, the CohoUs national conference, and the North American Students of Cooperation annual Institute, where he has been on the faculty for ten years.

Interesting factoid: Laird loves games: Bridge, board games, Sudoku, crossword puzzles… and an occasional game of beer pong—but only if the beer is really good.

Elizabeth Perrachionne of FireOwl Consulting

emc@fireowl.com (505) 699-8889 http://www.fireowl.com/
Works with us on: Facilitation, organizational development, leadership & mediation.

Elizabeth works with groups as small as two and as large as a town, city, or state, as well as individuals who want to create something in their lives, and/or come clean on some internal conflict that they’re experiencing. Elizabeth has worked for New Mexico First, a pioneering organization that facilitates town hall processes, and is a past board member of the New Mexico Mediation Association. As the sole proprietor of FireOwl Consulting Services, she brings over ten years experience with mediation, facilitation, and training. In addition to this strong skills base, Elizabeth always like to take on new challenges. She also has over fifteen years experience as a writer and editor, and these skills beautifully compliment her mediation and facilitation.

Interesting factoid: Elizabeth plays with rocks. Seriously! She’s an artist, and one of her many mediums is paint on rocks on canvass. (In fact you can see some of her work on the cover design of Ma’ikwe’s book, Passion as Big as a Planet.)

Who we work with…

We specialize in working with Sustainability and Social Justice groups, Intentional Communities and Non-Profits. However, we also see bringing better group dynamics into any organization or business as part of our service work in the world. We are a good match for ANY group that cares about cooperation, authenticity and empowerment.

References ar available upon request.