The American Field Year
Fifty States, One Field
Each state becomes a room where people gather around four questions: what breath, opportunity, truth, or second chance has been entrusted to you; what mountain currently stands before you; which human edge requires tenderness, repair, or greater discernment; and who belongs on your rope team.
The ninety minute format
Shared Mountain Sessions
1. Opening, ten minutes
The local co-host welcomes the room, introduces the purpose, explains participation boundaries, and names the venue safety lead.
2. Reading and story, fifteen minutes
Readings from the birth story, the Caleb chapter, and the section on human dependence.
3. The Breath Inventory, fifteen minutes
Participants write about an experience, gift, survival, opportunity, or relationship that has preserved something meaningful in them.
4. The Mountain Map, twenty minutes
Participants identify the mountain, the terrain, the resources already present, and the next faithful movement.
5. The Rope Team Exercise, fifteen minutes
Each person names the people, expertise, correction, companionship, and practical help required for the climb.
6. Community conversation, fifteen minutes
The local co-host moderates questions and invites one local person to share a five minute story of breath, mountain, and community.
7. Book signing, twenty to thirty minutes
A visible, staffed area with an organized line and a clear closing time.
Who travels
One Author on the Road, a Verified Team in Every City
No one travels with the author. The strength of the model therefore rests entirely on a verified local Host Circle in each state, established well before the date is confirmed.
Institutional host
Local co-host or moderator
Venue safety lead
Hospitality and accessibility lead
Registration and book lead
Local ambassadors
Non negotiable
Safety Structure
- Advance registration with a defined attendance limit
- A staffed venue during the full event period
- A named safety lead and backup
- One designated public entrance with all emergency exits remaining functional
- A private preparation room or staff office
- A visible signing area with at least two event workers
- Card based book sales with minimal cash handling
- Separate consent for photographs, video, quotations, or future publication
- Lodging information kept outside public event communications
- Transportation coordinated through the venue or a vetted driver
- Arrival and departure during a controlled window
- Personal conversations conducted in visible, staffed areas
- Medical questions handled as general education rather than individual clinical care
- Individual spiritual consultations scheduled through an established process
- A written emergency communication and evacuation procedure
The recurring thread
Breath by the Water
Before the formal program, a small registered group gathers for a fifteen to twenty minute guided reflection beside the water, centered on breath, movement, surrender, calling, and the many streams flowing from one source. For safety this occurs during daylight, in a public maintained setting, with the local host present, along an accessible path, with an indoor weather backup, within a short distance of the principal venue, and without disclosing lodging or private travel details. Because night driving is limited, the ideal schedule places the waterfront reflection in late afternoon, the principal program in the early evening, and transportation under local coordination.
The Host Atlas
Curated Alignment, Not a Directory of Everything
For each planned state destination: three churches, two public libraries, one university, bookstore, professional organization, or health institution, and one additional water aligned venue when the first six lack meaningful water access. That produces roughly three hundred to four hundred serious prospects nationwide, with larger states divided into two or more destination regions.
The Hundred Point Host Score
A score of eighty or higher identifies a potential anchor host. Direct waterfront access receives fifteen points, a water view twelve, a short walk ten, and a brief drive five.
Route logic
How a City Is Chosen
- Establish the broad geographic month
- Invite qualified venues within the relevant states
- Score responses
- Conduct a video call with the leading host
- Verify the venue, staff, safety plan, sales rules, and audience
- Select the city
- Confirm travel and independent lodging
- Open registration approximately four to six weeks before the gathering
- Conduct the event
- Record a private Field Note immediately afterward
Each Field Note Records
- the state and city
- the body of water nearest the gathering
- the host institution
- the local person who shared the stage
- the central question raised by the room
- one insight that challenged the author
- one moment when help was needed
- one moment of human connection
- one mistake, surprise, or adjustment
- one sentence describing the mountain of that state
- one prayer or reflection
- one lesson to carry forward
With specific written permission, selected participant stories may appear in a later section or companion volume. A participant consent form allows separate choices for attendance only, photography, video, an attributed quotation, an anonymous quotation, inclusion in a future book, and follow up communication.