CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution : Updates

May 2026 at CMMi

CMMi — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 20:08:01 GMT

Hello friends!

I find myself feeling particularly inspired as I reflect back on what this past month has brought for the CMM Institute. At the beginning of May, the CMMi Board of Stewards met and talked about our vision for this organization and community. We agreed that there remains a need for CMM in the world and we renewed our commitment to exploring creative next turns for what is next. I find myself wondering what is next for you, dear reader of this newsletter? If you’d like, would you message me and tell me if you have any ideas or desires for the CMM Institute community around how we gather and what we explore together?

Another question at the forefront of our minds is the financial sustainability of the Institute. Realistically, we know that we cannot continue this important work at the level we hope to without money to help make our grand dreams into reality. We are so glad that so many of you have opted to become CMMi Associates and financially contribute to our ongoing work in that way. We are always finding new ways to say ‘thanks!’ to our Associates, so we encourage you to consider if that is a possibility for you. Your support means everything to us!

We are also eager to create more partnerships and find new opportunities for collaboration with other like-minded groups. If you know of an organizations or individuals that may want to help fund our work, please reach out and let us know. We are excited to make the most of our relationships!

Below you will find some information on what we’ve been up to and what you can look forward to.

Relationally yours,

& The Board of Stewards

‘Communication Creates’ Webinar Series

Event Recordings

CMMi Associates can now watch the recordings of our two most recent webinars:

Upcoming Webinar

Calling all Educators!

We are excited to invite you to an information session on integrating our free social emotional resources- CosmoKidz and CosmoTweenz- in conjunction with existing curriculum and programs to strengthen students’ relational and communication skills in the classroom and beyond.

Join us on Monday, June 29, 2026, at 6:00 pm Eastern US Time (UTC-4) for CosmoActivities for Educators: Giving Students Tools to Improve Relational and Communication Competence with longtime educators, Amy McDonald and Katrina Telles, who will offer a “how-to” for using CosmoKidz and CosmoTweenz with various student groups across ages and contexts.

We hope to see you there!

For more information on the CosmoActivities, check out our new CosmoActivities Substack here:

Registration: https://events.humanitix.com/cosmoactivities-for-educators-event

Date: Monday, June 29, 2026

Time: 6:00 pm Eastern US Time (UTC-4)

Location: Zoom (link provided upon registration)

Cost: Pay What You Can*

*Group Tickets are available for schools or programs that would like to purchase multiple tickets together. Email abbievanmeter@gmail.com to assist in this process.

Stories Lived. Stories Told. Podcast

This month on SLST, is joined by of the Quantum Social Change Substack, and offers some reflections on the Central States Communication Association Conference to wrap up ‘The Stories of CSCA’ Mini-Series.

CosmoActivities

We heard you loud and clear- you LOVE our CosmoActivities, but are feeling lost on our cosmoactivities.com site because there is simply too much to explore! Well, in order to help this issue and to breathe some new life into our existing resources, we have turned the CosmoParenting Substack into the CosmoActivities Substack!

Now, you can simply navigate over to cosmoactivities.substack.com to easily access the materials you are looking for. We recommend starting at the About page for a quick orientation to the site and the activities.

Plus, starting in August, we will be sending out a weekly newsletter containing one of the CosmoKidz Scenarios and the corresponding prompts to go with it. This weekly dispatch is designed with educators and caregivers in mind who want to integrate the CosmoKidz Activities on a weekly basis. You can subscribe (for free!) below:

April 2026 at CMMi

CMMi — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 19:32:26 GMT

Dear CMM Community,

As always, we have been busy here at the CMM Institute this past month! We have a new homepage at www.cmminstitute.org, which we hope will make things a little easier to navigate. We invite you to check it out for a refresher on all the great resources we have and which ones might be most relevant to you.

Another addition to the CMM Institute site is a collection of projects implemented by the Public Dialogue Consortium (PDC).

Check out PDC Projects Here

The PDC was co-founded in 1995 by communication scholars Shawn Spano, Stephen Littlejohn, Barnett Pearce and Kim Pearce to help improve the quality of communication in public settings. The projects have spanned a 30-year period with a very successful signature 6-year action research project in the City of Cupertino, California.

A distinguishing feature of the PDC, and the reason for including their body of work on our website, is the use of CMM in all facets of public dialogue and community engagement projects. We are excited to be honoring the rich history of practice of the PDC and hope to keep up the good work by venturing into the realm of public dialogue in our own practice. Please reach out if you are interested in partnering with us!

We have some really wonderful podcasts from this past month and two webinars you can attend this next month!

We look forward with connecting with you this May,

Abbie VanMeter & The Board of Stewards

‘Communication Creates’ Webinar Series

April Webinar

Our April Webinar- Better Communication, Better Relationships, Better Social Worlds: Transformative Practices for Your Therapy Toolbox- was rescheduled to Thursday, May 7 at 12:00 pm Eastern US Time (UTC-5). Which means that you can still register to join us next week!

May Webinar

Do you find yourself wondering how to create the conditions for meaningful and generative communication to occur when you gather? And how that might differ between groups of family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, or clients? Whether or not this is a question you are already asking, it is certainly something valuable to be mindful of. The reality is that the expectations we set and the assumptions we bring to our interactions make a significant difference in the quality of communicating and relating. So, what does this mean for us and our interactions?

We invite you to join us in unpacking this important topic on Thursday, May 21 at 11:00 am Eastern US Time (UTC-4) for our May webinar- ‘Designing for Generative Communication: Preparing Participants for Relationality and Reciprocity.’ Hosts, Abbie VanMeter and Sheila McNamee, will guide participants through a process and content that embodies the insights and wisdom offered by the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) theory as a relational constructionist approach to communication co-creation.

During this 90-minute gathering, participants will experience transformative practices, including setting expectations, building self-reflexivity, prioritizing relationality, and acknowledging assumptions. Each of these practices contribute to establishing all participants as active participants with the power to influence what is created in the unfolding conversation.

We encourage all who are interested in creating spaces for communication that creates better social worlds to attend. The practices and knowledge from this webinar are useful across various contexts- from decision-making with co-workers in professional settings to routine quality time with family and friends to advocating and organizing within communities. If you find yourself convening others for any reason, then this gathering is for you!

We hope to see you there!

This webinar is the eighth installment in our ‘Communication Creates’ Series, where we explore theoretical and practical applications of Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM), with a particular emphasis on using a ‘communication perspective’ to make sense of what we are making together in our communication and how we can act more mindfully in our relating to co-create better social worlds together.

Registration: https://events.humanitix.com/designing-for-generative-communication-event

Date: Thursday, May 21, 2026

Time: 11:00 am Eastern US Time (UTC-4)

Location: Zoom (link provided upon registration)

Cost: $20 (Professional)/ $10 (Student)*

*We want everyone who is interested to be able to participate in this event. If the cost presents a barrier to attending for you, please do not hesitate to contact abbievanmeter@gmail.com.

Stories Lived. Stories Told. Podcast

Friends of CMM

Taos Institute

Join our friends at the Taos Institute as they welcome Theresa Southam for Dialogue with the Author: Transforming Trauma through Social Change - A Guide for Educators on Monday, May 11 from 1 to 2 pm EDT.

Come discover how Theresa, her colleagues, and her research participants are connecting storytelling to research on inclusion, trust, and internationalization. You will meet some of the main characters from the book who are part of the #LandBack, environmental, peace, multicultural, and intergenerational communities’ movements.

March 2026 at CMMi

CMMi — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 13:04:00 GMT

Dear CMM Community,

We are wishing you a warm and inspiring Spring ahead! A time of renewal and rebirth- if we can remember ourselves as part of nature and tune in to her cycles. I am awaiting the blossoming of a Flowering Dogwood outside my window, which surprised me with its color and abundance last year, and provides something to look forward to this year.

What are you looking forward to? What is blossoming in your life during this season?

Maybe you have been looking forward to this newsletter! Please enjoy this month’s offerings and take some time to meander through our podcasts, writings, and events.

What is going on at CMMi in this moment? Read on to find out!

With hope for what is to come,

Abbie VanMeter & The Board of Stewards

‘Communication Creates’ Webinar Series

Please join us on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, at 12:00 pm Eastern US Time (UTC-5) as we convene a space of collective learning to explore together practical tools for improving the quality of relationships across various difficult contexts. Participants will be guided through this 90-minute gathering by licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Kongit Farrell, who is generously offering her insight- gained through years of practice- for promoting greater “peace, harmony, and joy” in all relationships- her stated goal for all her clients.

We hope to see you there! Details below.

Date: Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Time: 12:00 pm Eastern US Time (UTC-5)

Location: Zoom (link provided upon registration)

Cost: $20 (Professional)/ $10 (Student)/ $0 (CMMi Associate)*

*We want everyone who is interested to be able to participate in this event. If the cost presents a barrier to attending for you, please do not hesitate to contact abbievanmeter@gmail.com.

Stories Lived. Stories Told. Podcast

The latest episode of SLST is a special episode- the recording of a panel Abbie participated in, titled, ‘Hope, Agency, and Community: Practices for Togetherness’ at the Taos Institute’s Co-Creating Social Worlds Symposium. Panel facilitator, Somer Saleh, guides Abbie and her fellow panelists, Chris Hoff and Mario Ismael Espinoza, through a conversation about coalitions, wisdom keepers, interpersonal power, shared precarity, curiosity, story-seeking, imagination, and more.

In other podcast news, Abbie is taking on a new project in collaboration with the Central States Communication Association (CSCA) as they prepare for their annual gathering. You can listen to four behind-the-scenes conversations here. Plus, check back in at the end of April for a follow-up podcast episode featuring the participants of the CSCA Convention.

From the Stewards

Don Waisanen

CMMi Steward, Don Waisanen, and co-author, Amy B. Becker, have recently published “Conflict Profiteers are Wrong: Revealing Common Ground, the Conditions for Dialogue, and the Opportunities Ahead for Bridging Differences Between Citizens” in the most recent issue of Democratic Theory: An Interdisciplinary Journal.

Abstract: Working with a national U.S. sample and data collected from our work with the nonprofit bridging organization Living Room Conversations, we counter the assertions of conflict profiteers. People in the U.S. are far less polarized than imagined, there is a great deal of trust in the election system, and a subsequent “reveal” strategy of this common ground thus becomes as, if not more, important than the need to “bridge” imagined chasms between citizens. With this strategy in place, those interested in or involved with bridging can further set the conditions for democratic dialogue by designing interventions that involve more and different kinds of people in their work, focusing on long-term impacts, and stretching definitions of participation from dialogue to civic action.

Read Don's Article Here

Robyn Penman

CMMi Steward, Robyn Penman, continues to share thought-provoking writing for her Substack- What if…? ideas for a better social world. Check out her latest article “Responding to Wrongdoing’ here:

What if...? ideas for a better social world

Responding to wrongdoing

The last three posts have focussed specifically on the adjudication process in adversarial courts of law. Looking at the dynamic of this process it is clear that there is an extraordinary gap between the enactment of law and the pursuit of justice in such courts. And sadly this extraordinary gap can continue post adjudication…

3 months ago · 4 likes · 2 comments · Robyn Penman

Educational Resources

Check out our latest infographic on the power of ‘yes, and’ in communication.

Friends of CMM

Taos Institute

Join our friends at the Taos Institute as they welcome recent CMMi Webinar host, Theresa Southam, for Dialogue with the Author: Transforming Trauma through Social Change - A Guide for Educators on Monday, May 11 from 1 to 2 pm EDT.

In this webinar, Theresa will be joined by research participants from her recently published book Transforming Trauma through Social Change: A Guide For Educators. Her research demonstrates how the characters in our books, participants in our research, and our own social worlds can change when they use relational practices. Come discover how Theresa, her colleagues, and her research participants are connecting storytelling to research on inclusion, trust, and internationalization. You will meet some of the main characters from the book who are part of the #LandBack, environmental, peace, multicultural, and intergenerational communities’ movements.

February 2026 at CMMi

CMMi — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 13:01:00 GMT

Your chance to check out recent and upcoming goings-ons at the CMM Institute.

Dear CoMMunity,

Our end of February note is hitting your inbox a little late because I have been busy at the Taos Institute’s Co-Creating Social Worlds Symposium this past week. (A pretty good reason for a delay, I think!) As I reflect on my experiences, I am not quite ready to put to words what exactly this time has meant to me. What I can name is this- as someone who works primarily online, it is such a refreshing change to get to be in-person with my community. It brings a renewed energy, curiosity, and closeness to my work. The faces I have known on Zoom for years are now full people standing in front of me. Of course, I am grateful for the technology that allows me to know so many via Zoom AND I cherish the time together especially.

In many parts of the world, we are soon to be entering spring- emerging from a cold, wintery grayness (at least if you are somewhere like me…), and looking forward to a joyful, colorful rebirth for the nature surrounding us, and for ourselves as well. As we collectively resurface from what has hopefully been a restorative hibernation, I invite you to reflect with us on what is energizing you in this next season. In our fast paced world, our attention is pulled in a hundred different directions at any given moment. So, how do we stay grounded? How do we stay present to where we are? To what is right in front of us? How can each of us show up to our own little social worlds in a way that creates change in our larger social worlds? Some recent conversations in my life have made me particularly grateful to be reminded that there are so many of us with these question on our hearts this season- so many of us doing everything we can to make better social worlds together! Keep fighting the good fight, friends!

As this is the second installment in our new monthly newsletter, we wanted to take a moment to remind you of your options for how to stay connected with us, so that you can ensure anything you receive from us is adding value (not creating unnecessary inbox clutter!).

First, you can remain subscribed to our Substack here by doing nothing. Being a free subscriber means that you will receive three things to your inbox: this newsletter (once a month), upcoming webinar announcements (twice a month), and new podcast episodes (every other week).

If this is more than you would like to receive, your other option is to simply follow our Substack, meaning you will still have access to all our posts, but can interact on your own time, and visit the site when you choose. (We recommend bookmarking cmminstitute.substack.com if you choose this option, so that you can find and return to the page easily when you are ready).

You can also become an Associate of the CMM Institute through Substack by upgrading to be a paid subscriber. This gives you the option to attend our monthly webinars for free, along with access to all existing and future event recordings. You will also have the opportunity to submit CMM-related work to be featured here in our newsletter and on our LinkedIn page. (To do this, simply click ‘Upgrade to paid’ in the upper right hand corner when you are on our Substack homepage).

We are so excited to continue to be in conversation with you and begin offering more and more opportunities to connection and collective learning! Please always feel free to comment on this or other posts to share your reflections, questions, or ideas.

With love,

Abbie VanMeter & The Board of Stewards

‘Communication Creates’ Webinar Series

Designing Community Engagement and Public Dialogue Using CMM

Next up in our webinar series is this incredible timely conversation around community engagement featuring friend of the Institute, Shawn Spano, sharing wisdom from his decades of experience using CMM to facilitate impactful public dialogue projects.

Join the CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution as we welcome Public Dialogue Consortium President and Senior Consultant, Shawn Spano, for a webinar titled, Designing Community Engagement and Public Dialogue Using Coordinated Management of Meaning, on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, at 11:30 am Eastern US Time (UTC-5). In this 90-minute webinar, Shawn will share insights and provide practical tools that have emerged from his years of experience consulting with community and government agencies and facilitating public dialogue using the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) as the applied theoretical framework.
In the context of this important and urgent work of facilitating public dialogue, CMM prompts us to look at communities as complex webs of interconnected conversations involving residents, elected officials, and administrative staff. Bringing these diverse community members together to address issues of common concern (i.e. community engagement) requires careful attention and practical skills in developing processes that enable community members to express their views while simultaneously being open to hear the views of others (i.e. public dialogue).
Consider the following questions:
What do community engagement practitioners need to know and do to facilitate public dialogue?
How does this form of communication help community members develop a deeper understanding of the issues that divide them?
What are the practical tools that can enable community members to bridge their differences?
How does the current climate of polarized politics and adversarial confrontation impede public dialogue?
How can it open possibilities to build relationships and strengthen communities?
We hope to see you there!
For free access to all 2026 monthly webinars and event recordings, you can become an Associate of the CMM Institute for $100/ year by becoming a ‘paid subscriber’ here on Substack.
CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution
Our mission is to contribute to the making of better social worlds by reflecting on current patterns of communication and building better ones.
By CMMi
Shawn Spano is a Communication Consultant and founding member of the Public Dialogue Consortium, a non-profit group devoted to improving the quality of communication in public organizations and local communities. He has over 25 years of experience working with local city government and non-profit organizations, including multi-year projects with 10 different municipalities. Shawn is a specialist in designing and facilitating strategic-planning sessions, stakeholder meetings, team-building events, training workshops, public forums, and off-site meetings with elected officials, Board members, executive staff, middle managers, commissions and boards, and local residents.
In addition to his consulting practice, Shawn is an Emeritus Faculty member at San José State University, having retired in 2022 from the Communication Studies Department. He taught courses and conducted research in organizational communication, small group communication, and public dialogue. He has also conducted 12 organizational improvement projects with faculty and staff in different SJSU colleges and departments. Shawn was selected “SJSU Outstanding Professor” in 2000, and has published numerous articles and chapters, including the book, Public Dialogue and Participatory Democracy: The Cupertino Community Project (Hampton Press, 2001).
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Registration Link: https://events.humanitix.com/designing-community-engagement-event
Date: Wednesday, March 25, 2026
Time: 11:30 am Eastern US Time (UTC-5)
Location: Zoom (link provided upon registration)
Cost: $20 (Professional)/ $10 (Student)*
*We want everyone who is interested to be able to participate in this event. If the cost presents a barrier to attending for you, please do not hesitate to contact abbievanmeter@gmail.com.

Stories Lived. Stories Told. Podcast

Season 5 of the SLST podcast is officially underway! You can get caught up on the first three episode of 2026 here. We are continuing an ongoing exploration of the relationship between systems thinking and a communication perspective with these two insightful conversation with Jenn Chan, Gerald Midgley, and Christian Baron. Join the conversation and leave a comment to share your reflections from the episode!

Upcoming Taos Institute Event

We invite you to join our friends at the Taos Institute for their next ‘Pulsating Practices’ event Developing Collective Leadership: A Social Constructionist Approach with François Héon on March 17, 2026. Learn more and register using the button below.

RSVP

January 2026 at CMMi

CMMi — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:30:22 GMT

Your chance to check out recent and upcoming goings-ons at the CMM Institute.

Dear CoMMunity,

Welcome to 2026 and our new newsletter! We have officially transitioned from Mailchimp to Substack for all our regular communication. If you are receiving this email, it is because you are ‘subscribed’ to our Substack page- either because you have found us and have chosen to subscribe or because your contact info was transferred over from our Mailchimp server. That being said, we want to make sure you are interacting with CMMi in the way that works best for you, so let us break down your options going forward…

First, you can remain subscribed to our Substack here by doing nothing. Being a subscriber means that you will receive three things to your inbox: this newsletter (once a month), upcoming webinar announcements (once a month), and new podcast episodes (every other week).

If this is more than you would like to receive, your other options is to just ‘follow’ our Substack, meaning you will still have access to all our posts, but can interact on your own time, and visit the site when you choose. (We recommend bookmarking ‘cmminstitute.substack.com’ if you choose this option, so that you can find and return to the page easily when you are ready)

You can also become an Associate of the CMM Institute through Substack by upgrading to be a ‘paid subscriber.’ This gives you access to attend our monthly webinars for free, along with access to all existing and future event recordings. You will also have the opportunity to submit CMM-related work to be featured here in our newsletter and on our LinkedIn page. (To do this, simply click ‘Upgrade to paid’ in the upper right hand corner when you are on our Substack homepage).

We are so looking forward to this coming year, as the work we are doing feels increasingly important and urgent. Going forward, this newsletter will keep you up to date on all we are doing and how you can remain involved. Please always feel free to comment on this or other posts to share your reflections, questions, or ideas.

With gratitude,

Abbie VanMeter & The Board of Stewards

‘Communication Creates’ Webinar Series

Storytelling in Research: CMM as a Participative Methodology for Researchers and Participants

Join the CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution as we welcome Fielding Graduate University Institute for Social Innovation (ISI) Fellow, Theresa Southam, for a webinar titled, Storytelling in Research: CMM as a Participative Methodology for Researchers and Participants, on Wednesday, February 25, 2026, at 12:00 pm Eastern US Time (UTC-5). In this 90-minute webinar, Theresa will be joined by her research participants to discuss the application of Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) as a research approach in her study, Older women as crone: A radical imaginary for the common good.
In addition to breaking down the application of CMM as a research methodology employed by Theresa in both the survey and interview stages of her research, we will hear stories from the research participants about their experiences of a CMM-informed interview approach, as well as dive into the content of Theresa’s research, including her findings about how “feminine traits associated with crone consciousness can help solve many challenges that North American societies face today.”
With a particular emphasis on intergenerational, interpersonal, and intuitive wisdom, this webinar will provide a space for participants to explore questions of knowing, learning, and storying in research and beyond.
We hope to see you there!
For free access to all 2026 monthly webinars and event recordings, you can become an Associate of the CMM Institute for $100/ year by becoming a ‘paid subscriber’ here on Substack.
CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution
Our mission is to contribute to the making of better social worlds by reflecting on current patterns of communication and building better ones.
By CMMi
Theresa Southam completed her PhD in Human and Organizational Development in 2020. She is the Department Head of the Teaching and Learning Centre (TLC) at Selkirk College and continues her research as a Fielding ISI Fellow. Her first book was Driving Social Innovation: How Unexpected Leadership is Transforming Society, released in October 2022 by Fielding University Press (FUP). In 2024, she published Transforming Trauma through Social Change: A Guide for Educators. Post publishing, Theresa was interviewed for the podcast Facilitating on Purpose and curates the Substack @socialchangeeducation. You can find her scholarship on teaching and learning in the Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Advances in Simulation, and Clinical Simulation in Nursing. Copies of her articles can be found on her ResearchGate and Academia.edu pages.
With a long career in environmental communication, she considers her life’s work as conserving thousands of hectares of wetlands. She also worked for the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, coordinating a network of community educators reaching over 10,000 children.
She regularly contributes blog posts and book reviews, and is a peer reviewer for many journals. Her portfolio piece, Academics as Allies and Accomplices: Practices for Decolonized Solidarity, and her chapter on naturalizing intergenerational relationships attest to her deep commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion. Her (open access) dissertation, 27,000 Sunrises: Everyday Contributions of Grateful and Giving Age 70+ Adults, can be found on the ProQuest database.
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Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2026
Time: 12:00 pm Eastern US Time (UTC-5)
Location: Zoom (link provided upon registration)
Cost: $20 (Professional)/ $10 (Student)*
*We want everyone who is interested to be able to participate this event. If the cost presents a barrier to attending for you, please do not hesitate to contact abbievanmeter@gmail.com.

Stories Lived. Stories Told. Podcast

SLST has been on hiatus between Season 4 and Season 5 this January. New episodes will begin this coming Wednesday, February 4 at 12 am EST. In the meantime, we encourage you to revisit these earlier episodes all about the theme of Migration:

Upcoming Taos Institute Event

We invite you to join our friends at the Taos Institute for their next ‘Pulsating Practices’ event on February 11, 2026. Learn more and register using the button below.

CosmoParenting

Even though we are done releasing new CosmoParenting episodes, the collection is now complete! You can revisit all 52 episodes by checking out our CosmoParenting Substack below. We encourage you to share this with a parenting in your life!

December 2025 at CMMi

CMMi — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 16:13:44 GMT

CMMi December 2025

Your chance to check out recent and upcoming goings-ons at the CMM Institute.

As we wrap up 2025 and step into a new year, we thank you for all the ways you have supported our work and continue to collaborate with us to create better social worlds. We are so proud of all this community has accomplished in 2025 and look forward to all that is still to be done in 2026.

Thank you and Happy New Year!

CosmoParenting

December marks the end of our CosmoParenting Podcast! We are so grateful for those of us who joined us live on this 52-week journey throughout the year. We have been honored to involve so many conversation partners who so generously shared their own experiences with the hopes that others who are parenting might learn from their stories. This podcast has been a truly collaborative effort, reminding us again how valuable sharing and listening together is.

We are also happy to report that all episodes will continue to remain available on Substack or wherever you get your podcasts, so you can return to your favorite episodes, catch up on the ones you missed, or introduce someone new to the podcast!

‘Communication Creates’ Webinar Series

Negotiation is Everything// Everything is Negotiation

Join the CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution as we welcome Beth Fisher-Yoshida for a webinar titled, Everything is Negotiation// Negotiation is Everything: Building Self-Awareness, Creating Relationships, and Storying Conflict, on Wednesday, January 21, 2026, at 11:30 am Eastern US Time (UTC-5). In this 90-minute interactive webinar, Beth will share insights that have emerged from her years of experience researching, teaching, and consulting around negotiation, communication, and conflict resolution.
Everything is Negotiation. All communication is a form of negotiation- requiring us to coordinate across different perspectives, experiences, and stories to create shared meaning together. How do we equip ourselves to navigate the negotiation of everyday communication effectively?
Negotiation is Everything. The skills required to achieve a successful negotiation are applicable beyond the confines of formal negotiations. How do we apply negotiation approaches to improve all areas of our lives?
Participants will be invited to explore tools like the Daisy Model to better understand and act into negotiations in both their personal and professional lives. With an emphasis on re-storying negotiations as creating relationships, Beth will share tools, skills, and language that enable participants to develop a greater sense of self-awareness in their communicating.
We hope to see you there!
This webinar is the fourth installment in our ‘Communication Creates’ Series, where we explore theoretical and practical applications of Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM), with a particular emphasis on using a ‘communication perspective’ to make sense of what we are making together in our communication and how we can act more mindfully in our relating to co-create better social worlds together.
For free access to all 2026 monthly webinars and event recordings, you can become an Associate of the CMM Institute for $100/ year here: https://cmminstitute.org/join-us/
CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution
Our mission is to contribute to the making of better social worlds by reflecting on current patterns of communication and building better ones.
By CMMi
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Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2026
Time: 11:30 am Eastern US Time (UTC-5)
Location: Zoom (link provided upon registration)
Cost: $20 (Professional)/ $10 (Student)*
*We want everyone who is interested to be able to participate this event. If the cost presents a barrier to attending for you, please do not hesitate to contact abbievanmeter@gmail.com.

Event Recordings

CMMi Associates get access to our past webinar recordings, which now includes our most recent event, ‘What if We Didn’t Have to Agree?’ with Ilene Wasserman and Arthur Jensen. Our Video Library will be growing with monthly webinars added in 2026. For now, you can enjoy the existing recordings linked below. You can become an Associate in two ways:

Becoming an annual or monthly paid subscriber to our Substack,

Subscribe now

Follow the button below to subscribe on the CMMi site.
Become an Associate

Stories Lived. Stories Told. Podcast

Two new episodes have come out in the past month, both live podcasts from RSDX-Online.

Upcoming Taos Institute Event

We invite you to join our friends at the Taos Institute for their next ‘Pulsating Practices’ event on February 11, 2026. Learn more and register using the button below.

November 2025 at CMMi

CMMi — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 17:35:23 GMT

CMMi November 2025

Your chance to check out recent and upcoming goings-ons at the CMM Institute.

CMM @ Co-Creating Social Worlds Symposium

Our friends at the Taos Institute are co-hosting this event- ‘Co-Creating Social Worlds Symposium’- with Mercy University in February 2026 in New York City. This first in-person Taos Institute event since the pandemic is a vibrant gathering for changemakers, scholars-practitioners, therapists, healers, artists, educators, or the curious—anyone seeking to make change through dialogue, collaboration, and relational practices in times of division. Join us to reimagine our personal, public, and political lives!

CMMi Executive Director, Abbie VanMeter, along with CMMi Steward, Ilene Wasserman, will be in attendance and contributing with a Food for Thought Paper on Intergenerational Relationships and Collective Learning.

You can register to attend and join us in New York City on February 27th and 28th. Get the early bird pricing by registering before December 31st, 2025.

‘Communication Creates’ Webinar Series

What if We Didn’t Have to Agree?

You’ve got one more chance to join a CMMi Webinar in 2025 with this timely session hosted by Ilene Wasserman and Arthur Jensen. Learn more and register below.

Join the CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution as we welcome CMMi Stewards, Ilene Wasserman and Arthur Jensen, for a virtual event titled,What if We Didn’t Have to Agree? Preserving Relationships While Communicating Across Differences on Wednesday, December 10, 2025, at 11 am Eastern US Time (UTC-5).
In the middle of a holiday season, many dread the seemingly inescapable arguments, hurt feelings, and tension that can arise. With this in mind, Ilene and Arthur will share creative, relational approaches to navigating conversations with loved ones about potentially polarizing and divisive topics. Together, with webinar participants, we will explore possibilities for finding coordination even without coherence.
In communication, each moment is a chance to practice curiosity and compassion- two foundational elements for the continued co-creation of better social worlds. Now, more than ever, each of us must understand our own ability and responsibility to act mindfully into our relationships.
In preparation for the webinar, we invite you to reflect on recent conversations with friends and family members where disagreement occurred. Please consider the following: (1) Where did the conversation start? (2) What did the conversation feel like? and (3) Where did the conversation end?
This webinar is the third installment in our ‘Communication Creates’ Series, where we explore theoretical and practical applications of Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM), with a particular emphasis on using a ‘communication perspective’ to make sense of what we are making together in our communication and how we can act more mindfully in our relating to co-create better social worlds together. We hope to see you there!
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Date: Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Time: 11:00 am Eastern US Time (UTC-5)
Location: Zoom (link provided upon registration)
Cost: $20 (Professional)/ $10 (Student)*
*We want everyone who is interested to be able to participate this event. If the cost presents a barrier to attending for you, please do not hesitate to contact abbievanmeter@gmail.com.

Event Recordings

You can now watch recordings of all 4 ‘Relational Connectedness’ Sessions from RSDX-Online. Access is free!

Watch Recordings

Plus, annual subscribers to our Substack get access to our past webinar recordings, including ‘Creating Magic Moments’ and ‘Communication is Bioactive.’ Our Video Library will be growing with monthly webinars added in 2026.

Stories Lived. Stories Told. Podcast

Two new episodes have come out in the past month, both live podcasts from RSDX-Online.

CosmoParenting

Finally, you can keep up with our other podcast over on the CosmoParenting Substack. This past month’s theme was ‘Perspectives’ and in December we move to the final theme of ‘Change.’

October 2025 at CMMi

CMMi — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 13:15:58 GMT

CMMi October 2025 Recap

Your chance to check out recent and upcoming goings-ons at the CMM Institute.

CMM @ RSD14

In October, the CMM Institute hosted a full day of workshops for the RSDX Online Conference. A huge thank you to Sergej van Middendorp, Flavio Mesquita da Silva, Sheila McNamee, Celiane Camargo-Borges, Parveen Kaur, Mil Niepold, and Abbie VanMeter for hosting such generative and insightful sessions!

You can now listen to the first (of three!) podcasts that emerged from this year’s Relating Systems Thinking and Design Conference in Toronto, Canada. Our resident podcaster, , attended RSD14 in-person to capture the stories of the conference participants throughout the week. This podcast is a collection of conversations that happened on-site at OCAD University between October 16 and 18 with 13 RSD14 participants. (Look out for the next two RSD14 Podcasts in the coming weeks on the Stories Lived. Stories Told. podcast feed).

‘Communication Creates’ Webinar Series

Creating Magic Moments

Thank you to all who attended ‘Creating Magic Moments’: Embodying CMM as a Practical Theory and a Theory for Practice with John Burnham and Barbara McKay on Tuesday, Oct. 14. All who registered have been sent the recording of the event, along with a brief survey. If you registered, but did not receive the recording via email, please contact us here for assistance.

Stories Lived. Stories Told. Podcast

Three new episodes have come out in the past month!

CosmoParenting

Finally, you can keep up with our newest podcast over on the CosmoParenting Substack. This month’s theme has been “Order & Chaos.”

September 2025 at CMMi

CMMi — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 19:05:08 GMT

CMMi September 2025 Recap

Your chance to check out recent and upcoming goings-ons at the CMM Institute.

New Video!

This month, we have released our new intro to CMM video! Find it below, use it in your classrooms, and share it with others who are curious about CMM!

Join the Conversation!

CMM @ RSD14

We are so excited to be partnering with the Systemic Design Association to offer a CMM takeover of the Relating Systems Thinking and Design (RSD) Online Conference on Saturday, October 11. Check out our sessions and register below:

‘Communication Creates’ Webinar Series

Creating Magic Moments

There are still a limited number of spots left for upcoming webinar- ‘Creating Magic Moments: Embodying Coordinated Management of Meaning as Practical Theory and a Theory for Practice’ hosted by Barbara McKay and John Burnham!

Stories Lived. Stories Told. Podcast

Two new episodes have come out in the past month!

CosmoParenting

Finally, you can keep up with our newest podcast over on the CosmoParenting Substack. This month’s theme has been “Communities.” Host, , was joined by single mom Jenni to explore the intentional ways she has leaned on her community to help raise her son in week two; gifted educator Stephanie Higgs in week three to share parenting strategies called ‘Glowing & Growing;’ doing an unexpected solo episode in week four to talk about the what we have been learning from this community and what we can be learning from our own communities; plus a bonus ‘Relate’ episode with Anokh Goodman on the previous three themes of Power, Structures, and Communities. Listen below!

August 2025 at CMMi

CMMi — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 15:41:35 GMT

CMMi August 2025 Recap

Your chance to check out recent and upcoming goings-ons at the CMM Institute.

CMM @ RSD14

Relational Construction for System Designers: Designing Better Social Worlds

Sheila McNamee & Celiane Camargo-Borges

This 90-minute workshop introduces the Constructionist-Design Framework, an approach that blends social constructionist philosophy with design thinking principles. Instead of focusing on discovery, this framework emphasises creativity, innovation, and future-forming action. The methods Sheila and Celiane introduce are understood as facilitating generative resources sensitised to the very specific context of any given project. Within this logic, there is no ultimate “best” method or “right” way to design a project; rather, each approach will produce specific (and different) information. At its core lies the power of questions, because the questions we ask shape the worlds we create. Different questions open different pathways, generating new perspectives and new forms of knowledge. This is an invitation to experiment with generative methods and to translate this framework into your own context.

Reshaping Democracy: Dialogic Systems Change with CMM and The World Café

Sergej van Middendorp and Flavio Mesquita da Silva

In this session, hosted by Flavio Mesquita da Silva and Sergej van Middendorp, we explore a difficult question of our time: how do we reshape our democratic systems to be able to deal with the polycrisis and metacrisis? We take the lens of dialogic systems change and specifically look at the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) and The World Café to explore perspectives and ways to address the challenges we face. After a brief introduction of the concepts and the sharing of some experiences with these by the hosts, we will invite the participants’ perspectives into our shared virtual space and explore the patterns that connect our emerging collaborative support network. We will try to reflexively balance the co-design of our session as a democratic dialogic design experience, while at the same time trying to bring forth new insights that help us go on together after our conversation ends.

Inclusive by Design: Invitations, Individuals, and Impact

Abbie VanMeter and Mil Niepold

This 90-minute workshop will explore the urgent need for individuals to cultivate a greater sense of their own ability (and responsibility) to positively and profoundly impact the systems of which they are a part. Focusing on creating the conditions that empower every person to participate in the transformation of systems that are often designed to disempower, Mil and Abbie will offer concrete tools for incorporating inclusive practices into your design, facilitation, and communication. Utilising a ‘Communication Perspective’-which looks at communication, rather than through it—Mil and Abbie offer and invite reflections on stories of Mil’s experiences working at the intersection of Supply Chains, Climate Resilience, and Human Rights. By examining Mil’s stories on both the micro- and macro-levels, we will distil universally applicable wisdom for addressing the many interconnected issues of the polycrisis. We invite you to join this conversation as we learn to align interpersonal intents with systems impacts by considering the co-constructed nature of our social worlds.

Learn More

‘Communication Creates’ Webinar Series

Communication is Bioactive

Thank you to everyone who attended our event ‘Communication is Bioactive: A Conversation with Dr. John Parrish-Sprowl’ on August 6! It was a wonderful hour and half of conversation exploring the stories and possibilities of better understanding the relationship between our communication and our biologies. You can still fill out our form here to tell us what you thought of the event!

And for those who missed it, we will be making the recording of the event available for a small fee in the coming months. You can message us here if you are interested in gaining access.

Creating Magic Moments

You can now register for our next event- ‘Creating Magic Moments: Embodying Coordinated Management of Meaning as Practical Theory and a Theory for Practice’ hosted by Barbara McKay and John Burnham. Check out the invite and register below!

Join the CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution as we welcome John Burnham and Barbara McKay- both renowned systemic psychotherapists, beloved supervisors, and innovative consultants- for an interactive learning experience titled, ‘Creating Magic Moments’: Embodying Coordinated Management of Meaning as a Practical Theory and a Theory for Practice’ as the next installment in our ‘Communication Creates’ Series. In this 90-minute webinar, John and Barbara will actively demonstrate how practitioners can use Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) as a conversational scaffold with therapeutic potential. Social workers, therapists, and systemic practitioners can extend their repertoire of skills to magnify and elevate ‘shy’ episodes in relationships into ‘bolder’ self stories with generative relational potential.
Drawing from their combined experiences, John and Barbara will offer and invite reflections and analysis of their own lived stories of implementing CMMish tools and frameworks. Embodying CMM in both content and process, this will be a playful, emergent, and co-created webinar, highlighting both the theoretical foundations and the practical applications of CMM in context.
This event is open to all, including long-time practitioners of CMM as well as newcomers, and anyone in between! Barbara believes that “if we pay attention to the metacommunication, we are better equipped” to do, what John calls, “changing the moment in the moment.” We hope you will join us as we learn to “think theory and talk ordinary” together!
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Date: Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Time: 1:00 - 2:30 pm EDT/ 6:00 - 7:30 pm BST
Location: Zoom (link provided upon registration)
Cost: $20 (Professional)/ $10 (Student)*
* If this cost presents a barrier to attending for you, please contact abbievanmeter@gmail.com.

Publications

If you are feeling particularly excited by our August event with Dr. John Parrish-Sprowl- Communication is Bioactive- check out these publication collections for further information on the application of CMM in health contexts:

Stories Lived. Stories Told. Podcast

Two new episodes have come out in the past month!

CosmoParenting

Finally, you can keep up with our newest podcast over on the CosmoParenting Substack. This month’s theme has been “Structures.” Host, , was joined by Aline Mugisho to explore the need to often “re-structure’ in parenting in week two; gifted educator Stephanie Higgs in week three to share parenting strategies called ‘Add// Subtract// Multiply// Divide;’ and in week four to talk about the invisible structures we build with our words. Listen below!

July 2025 at CMMi

CMMi — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 15:37:05 GMT

CMMi July 2025 Recap

Here is your chance to check out everything new on the CMMi Substack!

Events

Dialogue with the Author

Our good friends at the Taos Institute are hosting CMMi Press author for a ‘Dialogue with the Author’ on her most recent book- Justice in the Making: Relating, Participating, Communicating. We hope to see you there this Monday, August 4 at 6:00 pm EDT! You can register for free for this event here.

Communication is Bioactive

There is still time to register for our ‘Communication is Bioactive’ event with Dr. John Parrish-Sprowl, which will be taking place between 12:00 and 2:30 pm EDT on Wednesday, August 6! Tickets are $20 for professionals and $10 for students. Scholarship options are available if this cost presents a barrier to attending. Please reach out to abbievanmeter@gmail.com with any questions. We want to see you there! You can register for the event here.

Recommendations

Hungry for more CMM-informed writing? Two of our CMM Institute Stewards, and van Middendorp, are now on Substack! Follow along as they use CMM to explore topics like Justice and Democracy. Check out their first posts and subscribe to their Substacks below!

Sergej’s Substack

Democracy for the Future

Walter Wittkamp — is a committed change leader and facilitator, actively working to defend and deepen democracy…

a year ago · 4 likes · Sergej

What if...?

We have a crying need for new stories

[The] “what if“ question is not asked out of mere idle curiosity. It is asked because I, and many others, consider there to be a crying need for a more human and humane response to the many challenges currently experienced in our social world: a response driven by a profound sense of our responsibility to others as the primary ethic. (Penman, Justice in…

a year ago · 4 likes · 4 comments · Robyn Penman

Publications

This month, with the writing from Sergej and Robyn at the front of our minds, we are highlighting some relevant collections of CMM-related publications, including Social Issues and Cosmopolitan Communication, both of which can be further explored on our Cosmopolis 2045 site.

Stories Lived. Stories Told. Podcast

Two new episodes have come out in the past month!

CosmoParenting

Finally, you can keep up with our newest podcast over on the CosmoParenting Substack. This month’s theme has been “Power.” Host, , was joined by Sikowis Nobiss to explore a kind of power that is created in community in week two; gifted educator Stephanie Higgs in week three to share parenting strategies called the ‘WOOP Method’ from Gabrielle Oettingen; and in week four to talk about flexing status as a way to enact personal power. Listen below!

June 2025 at CMMi

CMMi — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 20:55:42 GMT

CMMi June 2025 Recap

Here is your chance to check out everything new on the CMMi Substack!

Events!

We are so excited to invite you to this webinar with friend of the CMM Institute, Dr. John Parrish-Sprowl. This event titled, ‘Communication is Bioactive’ is the first in a new event series from the CMM Institute- ‘Communication Creates.’ We would love to see you there!

Publications

We’ve got a new way to search CMM-related publications right here on our Substack! Search the collections to find citations and relevant articles. Below are a few highlights:

Explore Collections

Stories Lived. Stories Told. Podcast

Two new episodes have come out in the past month!

CosmoParenting

Finally, you can keep up with our newest podcast over on the CosmoParenting Substack. This month’s theme has been “Conflict.” Host, , was joined by and her two children to explore how their family learned to approach conflict in week two; gifted educator Stephanie Higgs in week three to share parenting strategies called “Three Step Apology” and “Body Scans;” and in week four to talk about normalizing conflict by building healthy conflict management skills outside of conflict. And a BONUS! The month ended with a conversation with Family Communication Scholar Jordan Allen about the intersection of relationships, moral forces, and conflict in parenting. Listen below!

🚨 New Event Alert! 🚨 Communication is Bioactive: A Conversation with Dr. John Parrish-Sprowl

CMMi — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 15:07:36 GMT

Join the CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution as we welcome internationally recognized health communication scholar and practitioner Dr. John Parrish-Sprowl for an exploratory conversation titled, Communication Is Bioactive, as the first installment in our ‘Communication Creates’ Series. In this 90-minute webinar, Dr. Parrish-Sprowl unpacks the science behind how communication biologically shapes our minds, bodies, and relationships.

In the spirit of Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM), this webinar will challenge the conventional view of communication as merely the transmission of information, acknowledging that in the same way we know communication to create our social worlds, it similarly shapes our biologic functions. Drawing from Epigenetics, Quantum Science, and a CMM-informed framework, Dr. Parrish-Sprowl will explore communication as a bioactive process with far-reaching implications for our physical, mental, and emotional health and well-being.

Whether you are a healthcare professional, educator, leader, or simply interested in the creative power of communication in your own life, this conversation will illuminate communication, not just as a way of naming our biology, but also shaping it.

Dr. Parrish-Sprowl will be taking questions. So, come curious!

___

Date: Wednesday, August 6, 2025

Time: 12:30 pm to 2:00 pm Eastern US Time

Location: Zoom (link provided upon registration)

Cost: $20*

* If this cost presents a barrier to attending for you, please contact us.

May 2025 at CMMi

CMMi — Fri, 30 May 2025 16:02:50 GMT

CMMi May 2025 Recap

Here is your chance to check out everything new on the CMMi Substack!

Infographics

New infographic dropped this month! As you may know, we like to keep it ‘CMMish’ here, meaning that we are open to everyone’s experiences and interpretations of CMM- not just what was originally articulated by Barnett Pearce and Vernon Cronen when they created the theory. CMM is always evolving by the very nature of us living into it. MILC (Meaningful, Intelligent, Loving, Connection) comes to us from a former CMMi Fellow, Alex Jagiello, who asked herself ‘what do I want to make in my interactions?’ This was her answer!

You can hear more from Alex in her SLST podcast episode from 2022.

Plus, we hope you will contribute to the conversation. What in your life or way of being is ‘CMMish’? We want to hear about it and learn from each other!

Books

Anybody interested in a CMM Book Club? Our Executive Director, , is reading Making Social Worlds. Whether this is your first read through or an innumerable re-read, join Abbie in the comments of the post below to discuss ideas together as you read at your own pace.

Stories Lived. Stories Told. Podcast

Two new episodes have come out in the past month!

CosmoParenting

Finally, you can keep up with our newest podcast over on the CosmoParenting Substack. This month’s theme has been “Moral Forces.” Host, , was joined by Marlo Ramirez to explore how she is storying her relationship with her daughter and what she hopes to teach her about individuality and asking questions in week two; gifted educator Stephanie Higgs in week three to share a parenting strategy called “Heart Maps,” which allows people of all ages to identify (in an age-appropriate way) what “fills their heart;” and Nana Bonsu in week four to talk ways to invite your children to reflect on their own moral forces as parents offer a way of modeling by sharing their own reflections, too.

Plus, if you are still curious about what CosmoParenting is, check out this quick introductory video:

April 2025 at CMMi

CMMi — Fri, 02 May 2025 17:34:14 GMT

CMMi April 2025 Recap

Here is your chance to check out everything new on the CMMi Substack!

Presentations

We’ve added a new section to the Substack- Presentations. Here, we will showcase recorded presentations that are CMM-related here. To start, you can now watch and Sergej van Middendorp’s 2024 Dabrowski Congress Presentation along with John Parrish-Sprowl’s 2013 Ted Talk “Communication Complex.”

Books

We are thrilled to share the latest book from the CMMi Press- Robyn Penman’s Justice in the Making: Relating, Participating, Communicating. You can read the synopsis below and purchase the book using the link we’ve included in the post.

Stories Lived. Stories Told. Podcast

Three new episodes have come out in the past month, so there is lots to catch up on!

CosmoParenting

Finally, you can keep up with our newest podcast over on the CosmoParenting Substack. This month’s theme has been “Relationships.” Host, , was joined by CMMi President and Co-Founder, Kim Pearce, and her son Dan Walters to explore a story that exemplifies the choices each has made in constructing their parent-child relationship in week two; gifted educator Stephanie Higgs in week three to share a parenting strategy called “Relationship Rewind,” which prompts adults and kids alike to name their favorite parts of relationships; and Nana Bonsu in week four to talk “relationships as rehearsals,” and inviting your children to participate in co-creating your relationships as a way to practice for all their future relationships.

Plus, if you are still curious about what CosmoParenting is, check out this quick introductory video:

New Book Alert: Justice in the Making: Relating, Participating, Communicating by Robyn Penman

CMMi — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 16:31:16 GMT

Robyn Penman’s latest book from the CMMi Press is out now!

You can now purchase the book and learn more here:

Participate in CosmoParents!

CMMi — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 17:16:16 GMT

We are currently working to develop the next turn in our CosmoActivities series- CosmoParents! And we want to hear from you! You can help us to co-create CosmoParents by completing this survey: https://forms.gle/aqJDBrodN15s9vmL6

Thank you for sharing your experience!

CosmoActivities Website is LIVE!

CMMi — Thu, 28 Mar 2024 21:32:45 GMT

We are so excited to share that we have a brand new home for all our CosmoActivities! You can now easily access all the CosmoKidz Cards Translations, both CosmoTweenz Activities, the CosmoTeenz Mental Health Comic Book, the current CosmoParents Survey, as well as corresponding User Guides, Informational Videos, SOAR Resources, Testimonials, and more!

All our CosmoActivities are available for FREE at www.cosmoactivities.com!