Thanks to everyone who joined us on our 4th Anniversary of SF EcoTuesday. We had another great turn out of 50+ people. Nikki Pava, founder of EcoTuesday, described that the power of getting people together to talk about and rally around important issues in sustainability inspired her to create our group. It looks like she was spot on with her intuition as each month we continue to grow with new members and have expanded to multiple cities nationwide!

February's featured speaker was Dharma Merchant Services, long time EcoTuesday friends and former Co-Ambassadors. We all huddled around to listen to father and daughter founders Jeff Marcous and Alexia Marcous as they gave us insight into their unique work philosophy. As a credit card transaction company they operate as a certified green business, donate profits to merchant's charity of choice, and partner with likeminded organizations like New Resource Bank. Jeff recited a quote by Kahil Gibran, "Work is love made visible" and explained it's not only 'what' you do in business that defines who you are, but rather it's 'how' you do it. By operating by a set of principles based on the book Sacred Commerce, they attract clients and partners that reflect similar beliefs and operate on a level of mutual respect. Alexia described one example of how they've applied this to their day to day operations through an exercise with co-workers called a daily "clearing". This allows the opportunity first thing in the morning to get what is going on out of the way, acknowledging rather than reacting to each other. This acknowledgment shifts focus from what might be wrong and onto what is right. The result is working with people who feel good about themselves and with each other. This then feeds into the rest of the day with customer service and other areas of business. Jeff and Alexia generously gave out free copies of the book and stayed to answer questions and talk with our attendees. Nikki pointed out that she highly recommends their newsletter which she looks forward to, and feels inspired and ready to take on her day. A good portion of their merchant newsletter content can be found on their blog, Dharma Talks. You can also connect with Dharma Merchant Services on Facebook and Twitter.

We were also fortunate to be sponsored by Ode Magazine this month. Founder Jurriaan Kamp was present to share a few words about Ode's dedication to "intelligent optimists" and provided everyone the latest issue of the magazine. We hope to have Jurrian back for a full speaker session as everyone was inspired by his words. You can also connect with Ode Magazine on Facebook and Twitter.

This month EcoTuesday was a sponsor for the first San Francisco Green Film Festival, March 3 - 6, 2011. We raffled a pair of tickets to the opening Gala. Be sure to check out the schedule and get a chance to attend some films.

Our beverage sponsors for this month were The20 Wines and Fiore Spirits who poured a great selection of tasty, eco-minded drinks. Cheers!

And finally big thanks to EcoTuesday member volunteers: Jaiya Alamia (telephotopoet.com) for taking photos and to Maureen Cross for being our friendly check-in greeter.