Dear Colleagues and Friends of the ICA, We want invite you to the first Global Archives Research Assembly (GARA) to be held in Chicago and online during the week of September 20-27th. There are numerous ways you can participate and the amount of time you can is up to you. There are many current collections that already are ready for public viewing and will be active sites for continuing additions and new areas of both theoretical and action research. For example both the Imaginal Education Collection and the Social Process Collection will have active research before, during and after the GARA. We are also looking at what might be a Spirit Life for the week as well. James Wiegel is looking for ideas that could be helpful for all who participate and any ideas you have for such a component are certainly welcome. I am enclosing two items to help you in your thinking. One is a link to the site where you can see the invitation we sent to all the Global ICA’s as well as a place where you can add your name and information regarding participation. It also has a place where you can ask questions of clarification that we can answer for you. In addition, we plan to add a space on the bottom where active research teams can post a brief explanation of the work they intend to do for the GARA. So you may want to check on this site as it will be the place to find out more information for you. <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FpWOFYJOiRqvulHuMy9-kjrqCxAoTl0B8jxuLxrX5FY/edit> The second item is a chart of the Accessioning work we did of what we have in the ICA Chicago archives. This is not a Collection chart, but the areas where collections can be created that use the resources. We especially need people who might come for the week and help in assisting the working Collections in finding and scanning archived material. We have already scanned hundreds of pages, but there is much more to do. Also, we are building the GARA around the date of the Solar Panel Dedication event that will happen in Chicago. We see this as a part of the GreenRise Collection (could be expanded to other environmental work being done by you and other ICA’s). So please go to the Google.doc site and take a look and join us in this creative adventure, which we are calling “Creating the Future of our Past!" Peace, Jack Gilles For the GARA Design Team