Heartbeat 99

type: weekly Heartbeat meeting Date: August 17, 2026 participants: Miriam, Xavier, Florian, Leen, Dean, Jana, Yves, Matthieu, Frank (summer coworker, joined later)

Check-in (5’)

• Xavier: Joined the repotting session and the Garden meeting with someone from Brussels Environment (re: the outdoor garden) went well — thanks to Bruno for organizing, and to Yana for organizing the repotting activity. Ongoing contributions: iterating on the shared tool for managing the Hub’s collective email inbox; preparing the 2025 financial reports; in contact with a possible new accountant. Organized the Flower Carpet outing (thanked by Dean).
• Florian: relaxed weekend, saw friends; helped draft the follow-up email regarding the hack/Kevin situation; had a brief check-in with Miriam on further support.
• Leen: visited her 93-year-old grandmother with family; visited the church in Halle to see the Black Madonna (personal interest in the “black feminine” in Christianity); helped with repotting; started drafting the letter to Kevin; followed up on the Agora fund; created a forum/thread for an upcoming Commons Hub topic; did some research into fundraising.
• Dean: first Heartbeat since returning from the US in June — glad to be back. Enjoyed the Flower Carpet with a friend, hosted friends for lunch and a Feng Shui consultation at home, and had a challenging but ultimately positive co-parenting weekend with his kids and ex-wife. Hasn’t contributed much to the Hub recently but did some cleaning today; plans to reserve 30–60 minutes each visit going forward for cleaning tasks (in exchange for tokens), and will help out more once the busy season/events pick up.
• Jana: did her regular steward tasks; prepared the repotting session (used the cargo bike to pick up soil at Brico and demineralized water for the carnivorous plants). Frustrated at lack of response to Facebook Marketplace inquiries about a free aquarium, and to Inflights drone-flight coordination requests. Repotting session on Saturday went well — happy with the results. Traveling to Germany to see her mother; sister’s birthday is next weekend.
• Struggling with an internal conflict around planning; went to a Brazilian open-air party in Anderlecht over the weekend; did some coding for the Hub. Has been handling trash duties (Wednesdays/Sundays) and recycling collection (Fridays).
• Frank (summer coworker, introduced himself): temporary member for the summer, in between professional chapters — finished as a researcher, starting at the European Commission in October; in the meantime doing some private tutoring and writing. Discovered the Hub via an AGI Collective AI conference at the end of June.
• Miriam : Attended Saturday’s garden-planning meeting with Bruno and has been thinking about next steps there; also started looking for a new place to live (scary). Has been talking to a lot of people at the Hub, started compiling a members list to chase up outstanding payments and re-engage members, anticipating a very busy September event-wise; also following up on bookings.
• Matthieu (joined later): nice weekend — pool party and dinner for his stepmother’s birthday. Has been talking to a lot of people at the Hub, started compiling a members list to chase up outstanding payments and re-engage members, anticipating a very busy September event-wise; also following up on bookings.
• Yves: relaxing weekend at home, not much Hub activity to report.

Contributions to acknowledge (not present)

• Nadine (not a member, but helped out and stayed to finish tasks) — to be given tokens on her behalf; one attendee offered to handle this.
• Matthieu and Sydney engaged with the Kevin letter draft remotely while on holiday.

Upcoming events this week

• Wednesday morning: Dutch-language public-speaking/pitch training with a media trainer (a friend of one of the members, background training news presenters) — open to asking for English-language tips too if interest is low for the Dutch session.
• Thursday: Sociocracy training with Catherine — navigating tensions using sociocratic principles. Posted on Luma; cost/token model to be confirmed.