Will You Repeat Your Programming As Temporary Caretakers on The Land, Building Your Temporary Dream Life, Or Will You Instead Create Something On Your Land For Eternity?
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Will You Repeat Your Programming As Temporary Caretakers on The Land, Building Your Temporary Dream Life, Or Will You Instead Create Something On Your Land For Eternity? |
Scroll down for notes from previous meetings. Most recent meetings are at the top of the page. These notes are a report of our process in the hope that others can benefit from our accomplishments and our experiences. Our meetings are run using the Holacracy Model. Some salient points of Holacracy are below. Consult holacracy.org White Pages for more information
Update August 6, 2009 A group of us viewed two mountain properties that are not quite what we want. One of them is a possibility but is not as comfortable to us as the Canon City Land.Notes from 27th Official Meeting. 7/16/09 After more than a week of problems with the website we've gotten back on line. This website is created with Frontpage and a couple of scripts associated with that program combined with an increase in site hits caused us to exceed our allowable bandwidth. We have corrected the problem as you can see (at least temporarily) thanks to Jim Kehl, our family member computer geeky kind of guy. After our last meeting nearly a month ago we shifted into a different kind of action in preparation for funding which we anticipate soon as our progress through the grant proposal and review process is progressing well. After looking at the Canon City land three weeks ago we decided it was property we would like for our settlement and made a contract offer to purchase it contingent on receiving grant funds to complete the sale. Much of the research of the area and county had already been done in December and January. Agenda:
Permaculture: There are fire deterrent plants that can protect an area. Scott Pittmen in New Mexicao has demonstrations we might like to go see. It was suggested that we plant rare plants that going extinct. It was suggested that we have a central location for deliveries of mulch and manure in the beginning to help residents get their garden soil built up quickly. We could use a small trailer to haul it to the various gardens. There is an underwater plant that will grow in clay which will seal a pond from leakage. Core group #: The question was asked how many people will be in our core decision making group when we first move on to the settlement. The Holacracy model of task circles was explained to show that the core group does not need to be limited. As many people as want to participate can be part of the decision making by joining a task circle that they would enjoy working in. Each circle is autonomous and makes its own decision for their tasks. There is two way representation to the circle above so that the decisions are made in harmony with the tasks of the larger circle. Membership Criteria: It was suggested that our membership criteria should probably change or at least be reviewed since we are no longer in the planning stage of our project. We decided to work on this over the week and bring it to the next meeting. Questions: -- Would it be possible to have a water tank on a truck to water gardens at the entrance to the property where there is currently no water access? We decided it would be very doable and a good idea to have beautiful gardens at the property entrance. -- What is the best thing for us to do while waiting for the funds to arrive? Discussion results were:
-- Would it be possible to spend a night camping on the Canyon City property? We made arrangements to call the realtor to schedule. -- Questions about the tools lists were discussed. -- Do we know anything about ungrafted fruit trees and does anyone know how to graft a tree? We decided we'd like to try some ungrafted fruit trees if we could find them and we need to learn more about grafting and its long term effects on the health of the tree species. -- What do we want to do about sovereignty issues as brought up in recent meetings? In recent weeks this subject has come up and has been discussed at length outside of official meetings. The attraction of sovereignty actions is that if we are successful at making our settlement is sovereign territory, it is not subject to county rules or zoning regulations. We could create our settlement unhindered by restrictive zoning plans. There is concern, however, that if we involve the settlement in sovereignty activities we might attract a lot of negative attention and perhaps even local retaliation. We decided that we would not jeopardize our settlement for this or any issue. It was suggested that we title, via patent, the land in the names of each resident family (they would own the land in the highest form of title in this country) but the Real estate would be owned by a community trust. The Real Estate is every appurtenance that is on the land, including, rocks, plants, trees, buildings. This is just the reverse of most land trusts. They hold the land in trust and the residents own the real estate. However, real estate can be bought and sold at will, but land cannot. Land is transferred IF it is patented (no charge). If it is not patented, land is simply warranted (warranty deed) that it is free of encumbrances that would prevent the resident from enjoying the real estate they purchased. A warranty deed does not actually transfer land to the resident's ownership. Only a patent does that. By patenting our land, the residents can truly own their land in their own name, free and clear. However, by holding all real estate in the community trust, no buying or selling of kin's domains can occur. The resident can be "granted" full use and dominion of the real estate for as long as they or their descendents wish to stay and participate with our Agreements. -- Will there be irrigation for the domains? We don't know yet how water will be dispersed. At the Canon City land we have adjudicated spring water that can be diverted to the domains for irrigation but we don't know how much water will be needed, nor if we are willing to run underground pipes to each domain. We would like to come up with a better system. One very promising idea is to create swales that hold water and create micro-cultures for growing trees and plants in dry or extreme climates. These are commonly used in permaculture plans. Sepp Holtzer, a permaculture leader in Austria, says, "There is no shortage of water anywhere on the planet, there is only shortage of storage." Swales are a method of "natural" storage of water that falls from the sky. Once trees grow around the swales they become natural collectors of water from the air dispersing it to the plants below them. We plan to create swales to help us with creating more moist micro-cultures. Next meeting was not scheduled as most of the work needed now is not planning work but individual action steps. We are viewing two new properties on Aug 1. Notes from 26th Official Meeting. 6/13/09 Meeting began about 3:00. Agenda
Yuri's Statement: Yuri announced his decision to leave our group and join three other people who split from our group after the last meeting's conflict (which was the result of at least three weeks of building tensions). He spoke of the difficulty of the decision but decided to help the new group form a settlement that would be more for people who want to live a life more in keeping with their personal preferences. Those preferences lie on the far extreme (Anastasia side) of the continuum between modern lifestyles and Anastasia's lifestyle. He shared the name of the new group and read their vision to us. He also requested funding assistance for the new group should they need it, but expressed their hope that a land grant would be secured in the next week or two. We agreed the new group would be welcome to take advantage of the grant funding opportunity. We clarified that they would be required to submit their plans for funding and complete the same steps that all other groups were required to do (and we had to do to secure the funding). Some discussion followed after Yuri asked if he could be a part of both groups. We talked about what that might look like and failed to come up with an image of that possibility that was satisfactory or fulfilling to our separate dreams. Yuri left and we continued our regular meeting. Ed.Note: This is the second split our group has experienced since our inception last October. Two to three splits per group is about average around the world (at least the English speaking world). In the interest of contributing to the health and wellbeing of other groups forming, and in supporting their peace with group splits (should they occur) I share the following thoughts and information. Both splits experienced by this group came as a result of building tensions that were based on desires and attempts to gain power over others in order to have them create one's own version of the dream. In both instances, the blame for one's lack of fulfillment was placed outside of self. In placing responsibility in others no common ground can be found and in fact common ground is not even wanted or sought. Perhaps this is the natural process at this time to allow leaders to identify themselves so they can go off and lead another settlement into existence. We do, in fact, have a great need for many settlements. Perhaps it's a way for us create a wide variety of kin's domain settlement lifestyles so there is a kin's domain settlement that is attractive to and supportive of people with many levels of readiness to transition to a new lifestyle. Regardless of what is happening when the splits occur, we have the choice of whether to experience the event as a failure of some kind, less than it could have been or should have been, or to experience the event as a perfect gift leading us ever closer to the fulfillment of our collective dream. Grant Questions: We spent quite a lot of time discussing possible answers for many of 70 grant questions that had been sent to us from a grant foundation board. We have a fairly short deadline in which to research and complete these answers. We were very pleased with the results. What's next: The newly appointed board for Colorado Kin's domain needs to meet. We discussed possible dates and topics. We decided a day we would schedule time to go to Canon City to see an alternate piece of property. It's closer to the Metro areas for the purposes of demonstration and being closer to family members and friends. Our next meeting will be replaced by a visit to the Canon City property and the next week will be dedicated to completing the 70 questions. Notes from 25th Official Meeting. 6/5/09 I apologize for the lateness of getting these notes on line. Immediately after this meeting we received ninety five very challenging questions (requiring a lot of research and additional planning) with two very short deadline dates. These questions were part of the grant review process for two grants we'd applied for and they were our top priority for nearly three weeks.Meeting started about 3:30pm. Agenda:
Pollution: Regarding the new information about the high level of heavy mercury found adjacent to the Mancos land, it was suggested that perhaps there are specific kinds of worms that would be able to clean up the mercury in the soil. No one actually new if this was possible. During discussion concern was expressed for babies being born and raised in an area with such high mercury levels. Question was asked about how high the levels are compared to a metro area like Denver. Mesa Verde Land (adjacent to the Mancos land has recorded the third highest heavy mercury levels in the country. Nitrogen is also high. We also know that all of the pinon nuts on the trees that we checked (a LOT) are empty and we saw no new little trees younger than about eight to ten years except in a remote part of East Canyon. Everyone is Okay with looking at other land. Reports: Legislation change effort is in progress. Some members met someone from an Energy company, CPC of Golden, CO that might be able to assist us in planning a renewable energy system for our settlement. Also the Orion project does renewable energy stuff. New people: It was suggested that we could advertise for people for our settlement through the magazine, Nexus (International). Perhaps we could also contact Leonid Sharashkin to ask where he advertises for his workshops. It was also suggested that we need to first identify the kind of people we are looking for and determine if they will be found by advertising in the "new-agey" kinds of media. There followed a rather heated discussion triggered by a quite harsh and emotional response to one member sharing a personal experience. I am unwilling to get into the details of this discussion in the interest of respecting the privacy of some members and a non-member of our group. However it was very effective at bringing out some conflicting energies that have been building and stirring up within our group for a few weeks. The meeting ended a bit early as resolving the conflicts was not supported. Next meeting is Saturday the 13th in Golden. Notes from 24th Official Meeting. 5/30/09 Meeting began about 3:00pm.Agenda:
Four of today's agenda items relate to a Holacracy webinar that was broadcast this morning and several members attended. Goals/Purpose: In the Holacracy webinar it was clarified that Holacracy differs from other organizational governing and structural systems in that most other systems are about the individuals. The practice of Holacracy is not about the individuals but about the organization's Purpose. The discussions, tasks, and the process are all focused on the purpose of the organization. Therefore some members requested that we clarify our Purpose and Goals. The following two suggestions were made.
Devon's question: Does everyone have to move in to the temporary village? For example, what if they live in Mancos and could be present all day but could go back to Mancos at night? What if they didn't particularly want to move an extra time if it were unnecessary? We began discussion on this briefly but in following the Holacracy format, decided that this does not need decided at this time. Although this is a very good question, we've tabled it until the decision is needed. Structure/Roles: Again, this topic is calling for clarity in response to the earlier webinar. We discussed the roles of the group (and group members) as we are currently functioning vs. the autonomous task circle functioning of Holacracy. We clarified that we are basically a "planning committee" at present. When funding arrives we will hire the qualified people that are needed to fill the roles represented on our organizational map. If we have members who are qualified and who want those positions, we will hire from within first. Otherwise we will advertise for qualified people to fill the roles we need. In the meantime, while we are a volunteer organization, in order to begin functioning within the autonomous task circle structure of Holacracy, we must have volunteers who are qualified and willing to take on the accountability and responsibility of the tasks. In Holacracy that means that there must be a double link of representation at each of the meetings. That, in turn, means that in order for a task circle to be formed and functional, there must be additional weekly meetings for those involved plus accountability for their tasks and roles. Up to now, our group members have not been ready to function at that level. It was presented to the group that if individuals are ready to take on that degree of involvement and accountability to the organization, we could begin that today. The question was asked, "What jobs do we need to do right now? (before funding)"
Reports: Land and Grant - The land contract is expiring before our possible funding dates and the seller has a back up offer. Although Sam wants to honor our agreements and intentions, he also does not want to lose the back up offer (understandably). Our first grant will decide on June 14 who is awarded the funds but funding will not happen until several days to several weeks after that. Even at that, the closing itself will probably not be possible until July. Much hangs in the balance right now. Grant process moving along according to schedule. The first award decision will be made by June 14 (theoretically). Legislation: The proposed bill has been revised to include benefits to the legislators who will be voting. The elevator speech is being written. The bill can be presented through state representatives or state senators and will have to be voted on by both houses anyway. CPC is a company that uses waste to create electricity. They use all waste, including plastics and there are NO emissions into the air from the process. This would allow us to reach zero waste while providing another electricity source. Yuri will contact the guy for more information. Russian Forum: A village named Moldolla (means Happy Place) describes a governing system that is similar to Holacracy. It is not formally organized as that but it is very similar and they are happy with it. Next Meeting - Devon's house in Dacono. 6:00 PM Friday, June 5, at 260 Cherry Ave. Dacono. Mapquest for directions. Notes from 23rd Official Meeting. 5/16/09 Meeting began about 3:00pm. It was a beautiful spring day in Castle Rock, a cozy little town at the base of a hill topped with a huge rock formation. The nearby "Rock" and the possibility of finding wild growing food beckoned to us far more strongly than a meeting. No one had much of an agenda to propose and we hiked the trail up to Castle Rock instead.There was lots of valuable conversation but no notes were taken and therefore no record exists to share. The walk was beautiful, the Rock was magnificent, the company was delightful, and the other hikers were very interesting. We even enjoyed some wild food growing along the way. The next meeting will be Saturday, May 30, in Golden at 3:00. The meeting ended about 6:30. Notes from 22nd Official Meeting (Core meeting). 5/9/09 Meeting began about 5:00pm.This was a very important meeting primarily about Family. We invited all our children to come and conduct their own separate meeting to discuss their thoughts, feelings and concerns about a kin's domain settlement and then to share their results with the adults. Their results are covered below. Agenda:
Intentions:
Note Taking: It was suggested that we find a non-fuming note taking device (as opposed to the markers we currently use). Paul will check out other possibilities. Three Village Idea: This concept is that our land would accommodate three separate villages as a possible way to accommodate different kinds of visions. For example:
Discussion covered several points. If someone changes over time and wants to change to another lifestyle, would they need to move or would they change their domain where it is? We discussed the concept of going backward (to previous lifestyles) vs. going forward (to a new lifestyle). Some members expressed their concerns that they might feel more aligned with the second village but would have dogs and cats with them that they currently own and are still responsible for and therefore couldn't live in the second village. It was suggested that we share words that would describe what we want to create in terms of social outcomes. Words suggested were: wholeness, freedom, diversity, individuality, attractive to kids of all ages. It was proposed that we need to figure out our governing system. A proposal was made that we continue with Holacracy and if that ever stops working for us we'll decide what to do next. Everyone agreed. In response to the question, "Is this three village model aligned with your vision," everyone stated that this model is not aligned with their vision. Children's Report: Five children ranging in age from13 to 19 attended the separate kid's meeting and shared the following report. What we think...
As they explained each of the above items, they were very clear that as kids, they are NOT ready or willing to be removed from the world and the experiences available there, however, when they begin having their own kids they like the idea of doing that on a domain. They were also a little concerned about finding mates that would understand the concepts and be willing to live in a kin's domain settlement. Family: Settlement must be family friendly and nature friendly and neighbor friendly and planet friendly. Proposal was made that we integrate workshops and programs for kids very soon and that they be kid driven. Everyone agreed. A parent offered the following list of things parents might need.
It was suggested that each family write a document describing their future settlement plans with details about their habits and desires. Those could be shared with others to help them choose where their domain will be. Everyone agreed. A guide would be produced helping families address the relevant details such as electricity uses, age, kids' ages, habits, smells, noises, animals, food preferences, fences. Next meeting is Saturday at 3:00 in Castle Rock. Notes from 21st Official Meeting (Core meeting). 5/1/09 Meeting began about 3:00pm.Agenda:
Reports: Explanation of the structure of Colorado Kin's Domains and Ark Conservation Ranch. Colorado Kin's Domains is the umbrella organization. It has several projects, one of which is Ark Conservation Ranch. Other projects are researches, securing grant funding, city domain demonstration, funding of additional test groups, create a kin's domain home school curriculum as well as a public school module (K-12), and other related projects. Wednesday's display and network trade show. Show went well. We connected with a couple people who are interested in learning more about joining us, and several people who are interested in working with us as soon as we begin hiring. We will first be hiring from within our group. Cedar Tanks. On the website it says they last 10-12 years but the contact person on the phone says that if kept wet they last 15-20 years. The price on the 8X7 size is $5900.00 plus shipping. Shipping for five of them would be $755.00. That's four water tanks and one hot tub. We need to find out about the legalities of storing well water in that county (how much and how long). Joyce will do this. Plant book has been sent. It is requested that no edits be done until a couple of experts have had a chance to look it over. By-laws discussion: We had all looked over the bylaws being used successfully by another settlement. We were each asked to describe our response to those by-laws. In general we all responded to them as if they were an alien object. We condensed them down to six essential rules for review and then proceeded with general discussion of the process. The rules were:
We followed this with a call for statements of what we wanted the outcome of our by-laws to be (so the outcomes would lead the creation of the by-laws). The outcomes suggested were
Some of our questions and comments were
It was proposed that the last paragraph of our resident agreement be changed to the following: By signing this agreement, you agree to consider and contemplate the following as you plan and create your domain, and take full responsibility that your plan, creation and ongoing actions support the following results.
People in your community have the following personal goals. Please consider these as well.
Everyone agreed that the above text would be included in the signed resident agreement. A discussion followed about the goal of achieving single planet sustainability in 3-5 years. Would that time period begin from the first domains or would each domain have their own 3-5 years adjustment period regardless of when the domain was started? Should we reserve an area where one planet sustainability has been achieved as our demonstration area or should we have various stages of demonstration all over the village? We opted for the latter. Jobs & construction This discussion was about paying residents for constructing community facilities and roads. Several questions were introduced.
Proposal: Other than while building the temporary village, salaries will be based on thirty hour weeks. Salaries will be paid to the members' LLC. Members will get some of their pay in cash and some in EU's. The LLC will supply the settlement store with some supplies that the members can purchase with their earned Eu's (energy units). ( IRS has ruled that EU's are not taxable. That will also allow the resident members to get the benefits of wholesale purchases of supplies.) Everyone agreed. Next meeting is Saturday at 5:00pm in Golden. Meeting ended around 8:25PM Notes from 20th Official Meeting (Core meeting). 4/24/09 Meeting began about 3:00pm.Agenda:
We have located a supplier of Microbes that will convert one ton of municipal waste to compost in five weeks. This was developed by Ehrenfried Pfieffer in the 1950's. In a test dump site, they removed the wood, paper, metal and glass. Everything that was left was completely returned to rich humus in five weeks. We have ordered the product and will be testing it with compost and plastics as soon as it arrives. Worms were discussed also. Worms convert arid soil with added organic matter to good soil in one year. Reports: Temporary Village Committee. Cedar tanks for water storage have been identified from a company named Snorkel in Oregon. It is being considered that we get a large generator to use until electric line is brought to the edge of the land (or maybe instead of since the line has to be run about a mile). The generator would be useable as backup and for major events like fairs and gatherings. Concern for noise was expressed. We were assured that the noise problem can be dealt with easily by putting it into a properly constructed housing. The committee presented their plan for building a full and complete woodworkshop at the very beginning of construction. There was a lot of discussion about the need for a full commercial workshop at this stage of our process and even questions about whether we will ever need that. Many questions were expressed about what tools are actually needed for building our temporary and permanent structures. Proposal - Figure out what we need for the first year & think about the following needs over the winter. Everyone agreed. We discussed the septic needs for the temporary village and realized that we need to start wetlands engineering ASAP. Regarding the types of stoves we'd use in temporary village, we decided to wait till closer to winter and focus on immediate needs now. Grant Report: All assignments have been completed and submitted. We expect more assignments from the remainder of the foundations we're involved with, over the next two weeks or so. We'll be hearing back from the early ones in the next week or two also. Wednesday Opportunity: At CEO Space we have an opportunity to put up a display table at an entrepreneurial trade show. We discussed what we'd need for the display.
Debt: We discussed how to handle residents coming in to the settlement with debt. Suggestions:
We discussed the time line for Temporary village to reach 1.5 planet sustainability and the Domain to equal 1 planet sustainability. We reviewed past notes and verified that we planned to reach 1.5 planet sustainability in the temporary village in 2-3 years and one planet sustainability in the domains in an additional 2-3 years. Therefore the environmentally sustainable biz plan would have to meet that time line. Proposal: Application has a question/step: If you have debt, make a plan. If they do have debt their plan for one planet sustainability in 3-5 years must include paying off the debt while maintaining sustainable lifestyle. Everyone agreed. Someone asked how long a family or individual would be allowed to stay in the temporary village. After discussion the following proposals were made. Proposal: 2 years max at the temporary village. Not agreed on. Proposal: one year maximum with application for extension and the extension needs a really good reason. Agreed on by everyone. Proposal: Minimum of three months in the temporary village, moving to the domain with an approved plan for domain building with a maximum of 1-1/2 planet lifestyle, and a transition plan to one planet sustainability in 3-5 years. Everyone Agreed. We will need to continue working on the bylaws for the next few meetings. We need to specify how to determine the approvability of a transition plan and a domain building plan (1-1/2 planet sustainability and one planet sustainability). Next meeting is Saturday at 3:00 in Golden. Meeting ended around 9:00pm. Notes from 19th Official Meeting (Core meeting). 4/18/09 Meeting began about 3:00pm.Agenda:
Reports Grant process: The office staff have been working on the grant questions since Wednesday. Deadline to send them to the Grant Team is Monday. We're down to the last five questions and expect to meet Monday's deadline easily. Yurts and temporary structures - Red Sky Yomes - no lattice over the windows. The wood is partially sustainably harvested. This design is secure without a platform. Colorado Yurts - Wood is sustainably harvested. Greenhouse domes located in Pagosa Springs. Made of wood and plastic with solar panels to operate the air circulation. Shelter Design Yurts - eco yurts. Sustainably harvested wood with Acrylic Canvas. They have higher roofs and even the smaller yurts can have lofts. Rammed earth platform can be used for these. They're located in Montana and are willing to built their yurts to special orders. Devon will call and see if they would be able to build them with cotton canvas. Master of Yurts in Maine sells building plans for $25-30. Icosahedrahuts. Paul is helping to build four of these in Boulder and they look just like the yomes. We could possible use several versions of temporary housing and provide information about what is best. The question was asked, "Do we want to be responsible for the poly on the land?" In other words do we want to take responsibility for how to deal with it after its useful life? Do we know how well it can be absorbed back into the earth? Are there other uses for old plastic? Would it be sent to a landfill (not taking responsibility)? There was discussion on this. A proposal was made that we build our own structures (yurt or other) and use all natural materials. In a vote all agreed. The issue of camper in the village was brought up. How long would they be allowed? Discussion ensued. A proposal was made that we are not ready to decide this and the decision is not required for the next steps. All agreed. Plant Book Devon is still working on it. Her goal is to get the finished book info to us within the next week, no later than April 27th. Agreement: The Agreement must be very simple and non changing so that everyone coming in to the settlement has agreed to the same agreement. We began with the part that was given in the billionaire story, i.e., "Beautify your domain and settlement with ponds, paths, flower, and other plants." With much discussion we agreed to the following.
Proposal: This may be our agreement. Everyone agreed. We will vote next meeting about accepting this agreement. Back Pay It was proposed that we discuss giving back pay to those who have contributed a lot of time to the completion of this project (after funding comes in). Discussion ensued. Suggestions and concerns:
A proposal was made: We do want to pay some back pay and now want to figure out the details of how that would work. Everyone agreed. We discussed: Who can be paid? Core group? Others have contributed significantly as well. Anyone who contributed? Budget person presented a caveat: Anything decided has to work with the budget and not endanger our ability to accomplish all our goals as represented by the budget and the time line (although we have already begun much of the work that is covered in the early portion of the budget). Does it have the energy of debt? We do not have funding at this time and how can we make promises until we have the money to actually begin full operations? A proposal was made: Back pay - a lump sum that can be covered safely in the budget (and has relevance to the budget) to be divided among members and contributors in a meeting as everyone agrees. Everyone agreed. Temporary Village Time Line What needs done?
Volunteers were requested for a committee to complete this project plan relevant to the existing time line. Volunteers are Paul, Yuri and Shari. They will first meet in Boulder on Saturday. Next meeting: Friday at 5:00 in Golden. This is a working meeting rather than open discussion. We have much to do over the next few weeks. Group discussion followed to contribute to the Foundation questions in response to our Grant Proposal. Meeting ended just before 8:00PM. Notes from 18th Official Meeting (Mini meeting). 4/10/09 Meeting began after open discussion.Agenda:
Meeting time: Two of our members have had their schedules shift and would like to have at least every other meeting on Saturday again. We agreed that next meeting would be Saturday the 18th at 3:00 in Golden. Reports: Legislative draft for 2010 session. We are using the term "Intelligent Development" in our legislative proposal. Group discussion about what would be good to include in the proposal.
Grant Report. Book grant proposal has been submitted. The next large grant is being prepared. The deadline for submitting that is Thursday. The deadline for the next large grant is the following Thursday. Greenhouses. We don't know of any truly "green" greenhouses (in the sense of not being a detriment to nature). We talked about various kinds of greenhouses and the possibility of using a greenhouse for a home in the temporary village, and ways that could be made to work. We talked about looking for a greenhouse blueprint that we could follow. It has an insulated north wall. Shari will check with CU about the possibility of architectural college students designing "green" houses for us. Notes from 17th Official Meeting (Core meeting). 3/28/09 Meeting began around 3:15.Agenda:
Reports: Woodshop - Equipment list is done. All equipment is available
from Colorado. No supplies list is done yet. Equipment list includes
a high quality sawmill. Phone Meetings: Because the work of our meetings is nearing completion until land is purchased, we talked about possibly moving to phone meetings. We decided we preferred the physical meetings. Dinner with Leonid Sharshkin: Someone has scheduled a dinner with Leonid and the two Colorado groups in Boulder after the workshop on Saturday. Any one of our group interested needs to let Lois or Jeff know. Responsibilities: We need something on the website describing responsibilities that will be required of residents who join us. There has been some feedback about "free land, building materials and a beginning income." That information needs balanced with the resident responsibilities. At the minimum, residents will be required to...
Infinite Sustainability: It was suggested that at the two ends of the sustainability spectrum are our Modern lifestyle (unsustainable) and Anastasia's lifestyle (infinitely sustainable). We also believe that there are other versions of infinitely sustainable lifestyle besides Anastasia's lifestyle. Our goal for the overall Settlement is to create a lifestyle that requires no more than a single planet's resources. In order to determine our interim goals that we can measure as we move along the continuum toward infinite sustainability, we will research the Footprint Analysis Points that are used to determine quantitative consumption of planetary resources. We'll use those measurable data points as our goals. We can easily begin with our temporary village at 1-1/2 planet's resources simply by duplicating the current lifestyle elements of Findhorn, Scotland. From that level we will build our infrastructure and first domain homes for the first year or two. Eventually we will have several domains demonstrating the full paradigm shift represented by Anastasia's lifestyle - not using any resources at all beyond what is available on the domain. We agreed that we prefer a pretty aggressive time line for achieving our demonstrations. We'll begin with 1-1/2 planets consumptive lifestyle by following the Findhorn model for 2-3 years. Our goal is that the lifestyle and structures on private domains represent a consumptive lifestyle of no more than a single planet's resources within 2-3 years. (This will be included in the Agreement.) Within an additional 2-3 years it is our goal to have some domains demonstrating a lifestyle that uses no resources at all beyond what is available or produced on the private domain. What do we want to create? After some discussion we decided that we want to create Balance and Harmony with Self. We do that by seeing only that "Everything works FOR us." In our next meeting we will create the Agreement that will be signed in exchange for a domain. We would like to build a non mechanical Ceramic oven. Ben will research how one is built. What's our job? Our primary job on our settlement and our domains is to Demonstrate a new paradigm lifestyle. Next week there will be no meeting because of the Sharashkin workshop. Because of schedules we'll try to schedule the following meeting on a Friday. Notes from 16th Official Meeting (Mini meeting). 3/21/09 Meeting began around 3:30ish.Agenda:
Report on Tents, Yurts: Recommended suppliers based on "greenness" of manufacturing:
Devon will also get more information about Yurt building plans for building them from scratch. She also reported on a Greenhouse dome with a pond inside to help prevent freezing of plants. Report on Logos: Several versions were shared. Each person is asked to scan and email them to Joyce so they can be sent to Amy for artwork. Feedback on First Book: Everyone brought back their copy of our first book with corrections noted. Live Food Testing: We discussed Paul's question about resolving the issue of Anastasia's caution against destroying nature to figure out how nature works. Life Food testing is not as available as we thought it was anyway and we discussed alternate ways of collecting data about the nutritional results from different forms of raising food plants (Anastasia's method, wild growing plants, hydroponics plants, row farming, etc). Meeting ended after about 1/2 hour and we began open discussion. Notes from 15th Official Meeting (Core meeting). 3/14/09 Meeting began at 3:20 and ended some time later (I didn't write down the ending time and don't remember it.)Agenda
Grant Foundation questions (How does it work?) Joyce explained the grant process then suggested that it is time for us to move into the next level of the holacracy model of organizational management. At that level we begin functioning in autonomous task circles where each of us takes on responsibility for a major project and develops it within the allotted budget. The task circles take their projects to completion and our Core meetings will then consist mostly of reports from the task circles. The following projects already have leadership and are in motion: Full length movie planned for second or third year. For our movie we need a camera mounted on a pole that takes timed shots each day as we begin building our temporary village. Demonstration Healing Garden design: Irina will take this project to completion. Short instructional Films: Karen is currently managing this project. Books (outlining, organizing and formatting) are currently being managed by Elaine, Joyce and Joanna. The following projects need leadership and are listed in order of priority.
Flyers: Yuri will order over 1000 flyers in two styles (one with tear off tabs & one without. Biz cards also need printed but we need to get our logo info to Amy to get the drawings done. We came up with ideas that will be sent to her this week. We agreed to announce the research aspect of our plan on line, and invite anyone who wants to be part of that project/research - not just people who want to live in the settlement. Reports: Books. Devon and Irina talked about their planting guide (fourth scheduled book). For book two, Irina will write something about the importance of bugs in gardens/nature. Yuri will write about visions and creating a group. Joyce will continue to work on book three which she and Yuri are co-writing Events: Ben will call Valerie in Hawaii and offer our support and assistance to help them. (airport transportation, meals, rooms, etc.) Yuri will take our new flyers to the Boulder workshop. Trash discussion: Our California members have suggested that we consider agreeing to keep everything on the settlement that take in. In other words, no trash is hauled off. We create ways to beautifully re-cycle everything brought in. It will very quickly make us VERY conscious consumers, pushing us to quickly create ways to correct our unsustainable consumer habits. Grants: Joyce reported on the five grants we are preparing to submit our proposals to over the next few weeks. To balance our $113 million dollar budget discussion, it was suggested that next week in our open discussion, we open with the topic, "Staying green doesn't take much money." Next meeting - mini meeting plus open discussion will be held in Castle Rock, Saturday, March 21 at 3:00. Notes from 14th Official (Mini) Meeting. 3/7/09 The meeting began at 3:10PM and ended by 3:35PM. We are exploring a schedule in which every other week we have a streamlined meeting that covers only minimal agenda so that we can have open dialogue with members and guests. Agenda:
Planting Guide. Can it include photos? If so we might want to extend the time limit so photos can be taken. We agreed that the book could be uploaded on schedule without photos and they could be added at any time. Flyers. We can put our flyers in libraries because there is a long waiting list for the books at libraries. Joyce will send digital flyer file to Yuri for this purpose. Film Report: Karen has taken on the project of writing and producing the first film which is a visual version of our needs statement. She has some very creative ideas she is pulling together. She has background experience, passion, and contacts for acting and film making. Meeting was less than 1/2 hour as planned. Notes from 13th Official Meeting. 2/27/09 The meeting began at 3:15PM. Agenda:
Updates: The first book is now on line and is beautiful (although not on the website yet). Elaine Silverman has done a beautiful job getting it done and uploaded and has already begun working with Joanna Castro to teach her the process. The book still needs ordered and reviewed for corrections which will happen sometime this week. It was suggested that we check out the possibility of also putting our books in e-book form for people who don't want to wait for a paperback to be delivered. Grant updates: we have several volunteers for different tasks lined up but need more. Budget is being put into a different format which will require a lot of additional work. Lump sum categories will need broken down into more specific entries. Our Overview of the grant request plan has been sent out to our group members and will be posted on line. Click here to view the Overview. Planting Guide: The planting guide is started. It's currently in chart form and focused on two growing zones that covers most of the country. Communication Guide: We discussed ways to include a communication method, process or guide in our library that would provide a different (better) way of communicating when there are tensions, than most of us learn is our modern world. Suggestions we could possibly include were
A proposal was made: Every other week's business meeting is streamlined with a very quick agenda, (with the meeting lasting no more than 1/2 hour if at all). We then have open discussion on anything and we can invite anybody. Guests can arrive at the beginning and get to know each other during our very quick meeting (if there is one at all). We could use this format to do small workshops with each other if someone wanted to prepare one. Everyone agreed. Next Meetings: Next week is our first experiment with this new discussion gathering. We meet Saturday, March 7 at 3:00 in Golden. It is a Pot Lucky gathering. Bring simple food. The Core meeting in two weeks (March 14 at 3:00) will be at Yuri's place at I-225 and I-25. Yuri will send directions. The following week (March 21) there will be a discussion meeting at Golden. Time Line Issues: By March 5 Joyce is to meet with the first two network test groups who plan to work with us. Only one group appears to be nearly ready to begin that process. We discussed ways to assist another group in preparing themselves to engage in our grant proposal program with us. We decided to come up with a new deadline for the 3rd group's entry and provide the groups with a list of requirements to participate with our demonstration and test program. The group needs to already have
Invitations to participate, along with this readiness list, will be sent to each of the groups by the end of the weekend. Meeting ended approximately 5:30. Notes from 12th Official Meeting. 2/21/09 This meeting began at 3:20PM. Agenda:
These notes were not posted as soon as is usually done because much of the information discussed was possibly covered under the non-disclosure agreement signed with the Grant Team. I withheld publishing these notes until that issue was clarified. Update on Grant Process: Much has been accomplished since the last meeting. We have engaged at a very fast pace in order to produce the documents and plans required by the Grant Team's process. Joyce reported on the goals/objectives outline, the budget, the time line spreadsheet, the book and film schedule and the Plan Overview. She reported on the official separation of our two legal entities, Colorado Kin's Domains and Ark Conservation Ranch. Colorado Kin's Domains (CKD) is the umbrella organization that is creating a library of information and guides to support any and all other groups forming kin's domain settlements. It is also the funding organization for Ark Conservation Ranch along with three other demonstration projects. CKD is creating a network of self-regenerating settlements that will each have the goal of funding a new settlement approximately every three to five years. Ark Conservation Ranch is the first demonstration settlement that will provide the data and research to support the establishment of the network phase of the Plan. Report on North American Advisory Board meeting: Just prior to this meeting The North American Advisory board met for the first time, with representatives from every known group forming a settlement in North America. It was a very momentous meeting. That group is formed to serve as an advisory/collaborative board for issues and goals that we all share, as well as a network of mutual support in holding each other's visions, and sharing whatever resources and information each is willing to share. Reception Committee connections: We discussed the two representatives who had volunteered for a reception committee that has been organized by Rocky Mountain Kin's Domains. The reception is to take place in association with the April Leonid Sharashkin workshop to allow attendees the opportunity to meet the two Colorado kin's domains groups if they wish to do so. Devon decided to join the committee as one of our representatives. Requests for Help: In the course of completing the early steps of the Grant team's assignments, a time line worksheet was produced. It made abundantly clear that it is time for more specific and focused help to meet the target dates for each project. We discussed help that had already been offered. Meeting Frequency: So much had happened since the last meeting that it seemed to several of us that it might be good to go back to weekly meetings just to stay on top of rapid changes. Everyone agreed and we set the next meeting for next Friday at 3:00. Small Things: It was suggested that we might find someone with a booth at the Metaphysical Celebration Fair in March who would let us put our flyers up at their booth. We decided to check on the possibility. It was pointed out that on the Russian Forum there was agreement that what we're doing is the best way to get the world out of crisis. It was asked, "Should we recruit Russians or not? The concerns were about Inland Security and how they might view a settlement that is heavily populated with Russians. We decided that our membership intake process was a pretty strong filter and anyone who completed that process probably belonged with our group. We decided that we were all very comfortable with recruiting from the local Russian community more directly. We discussed Constructed Wetlands as possibly a better option than septic systems. You can a lot of information on line by googling constructed wetlands. It was suggested that March 5,6,7 are excellent days (by the moon) for planting indoor seeds of plants that love warm season growing, like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, melons. When the moon in waxing, plant above ground fruiting plants. When the moon is waning, plant underground plants like carrots, potatoes, etc. No planting on the full moon or the new moon. We brainstormed book topics for the books we have scheduled to produce in the first year. Notes from 11th Official Meeting. 2/7/09 Today's meeting began around 6:00 and ended just before 8:30. Agenda had only one main item which later was split into several steps.
For those reading these notes who are not aware of the conversation referred to in the above agenda item, that background information follows. On Sunday morning a week ago, when we were all staying at the land, Sam returned to talk with us. He spoke with several of our group members and told each of them some version of, "I won't sell this land to your group." Yuri and I (Joyce) had driven to the south end of the canyon to see areas we hadn't been able to reach previously (due to snow). We turned around to go back and met Sam driving in our direction. He invited us to join him in his vehicle for a conversation. Sam spoke at great length about his concerns based on various conversations he'd had with some of our group members and from reading part of our plan outline. He spoke of his own dreams and needs and other people interested in the property. After a thorough presentation of the why's he told us that if we had the millions tomorrow plus the millions to create the infrastructure needed for subdivision, he would not sell us the land because we would destroy it. I spoke very briefly and soon after that Yuri spoke very briefly. Sam made a swift 180 degree turn and spoke at length about how we could buy the land and other contiguous land (for sale) that would be important to own as well. He expressed an unexplainable degree of trust in our ability to do what we said we would do. Perhaps two hours after the meeting with Sam began, we drove off very amazed and pleased. HOWEVER, throughout the rest of that day and night, Sam's words kept echoing in our minds. Around the fire that evening Yuri and I shared our thoughts that Sam was right. Based on our current plans for the settlement, we were indeed headed toward destroying the pristine magnificence of that land more than we wanted or were aware of previously. We realized that the land was more important to us than the settlement as we had planned it. We talked about possible ways we could create the results we wanted instead of the results we feared. In our meeting today we talked about those concerns and shared our idea of creating a temporary village on the north end of the main canyon where we would live until we had a clear and acceptable plan on how to create a domain that was in harmony with the land. There was a degree of tension from the beginning as we saw our individual visions being threatened. We interrupted the meeting to create our intentions for the meeting:
We decided first to get clear on what we each felt would "destroy" the land.
We agreed that the above list would be used so that we could plan our settlement and domains in such a way as to preserve the integrity of the land's magnificence. Next, we discussed the temporary village. We agreed that it would include some sort of central meeting area (perhaps a dome) with yurts, domes or RV's around. We see them spaced out and blending in with the trees and surroundings as much as possible. In the temporary village we could have on grid electricity and even water and septic system like any country home would likely have. After we build solar or other forms of power generating systems we could sell power back to the grid through the electrical line. From the temporary village we would begin practice for our domain lifestyle while we begin creating our settlement in accordance with the agriculture codes and the historical use (growing and harvesting the hay, planting orchards where they can be protected from animals in harmony with their migrations, and building greenhouse). From the temporary village we could choose our domain, create our individual domain plans and begin planting on our domain. When each family has a clear plan for how they would like to build a home and live on their domain in such a way that respects and harmonizes with the land's current magnificence, they will present it to the people living there. When they can demonstrate how their plan supports or improves the harmony and balance of the land, they will be able to proceed with construction of their home and living on their domain. We have changed our name from Ark Village or Settlement to Ark Conservation Ranch. It was asked, "What will we do with the two story building with the garage that currently exists on the land?" We discussed using it for workshops, or even a central work and storage area. East Canyon: It was suggested that East Canyon be blocked off for domains at this time and perhaps be kept for our children's domains. The question was asked, "Where does East Canyon start?" (The really amazing and pristine portion is about halfway up the canyon.) The lower portion is very much like the main Canyon with ponds and hayfields being built. We discussed stopping all domain activity at the beginning of the canyon as well as allowing the first part of the canyon to be used. We agreed that East Canyon should be for everybody and preserved. For the time being we decided to leave East Canyon undeveloped with a possible review later, especially along the south road of East Canyon. Harmonious Housing: We discussed possible housing styles that we could use. We want houses that look like part of the land and might even be mostly invisible. We'd like the houses to be hidden or camouflaged. As we discussed our images of domains, we see orchards, plants and trees but not houses even though they are there, because they are constructed to be a natural part of the landscape. We will each research types of housing that we think would be harmonious and bring ideas and pictures to the next meeting or email them. Next meeting: 2 weeks unless money comes in sooner. We will meet at Castle Rock at 2:00PM Notes from Meeting Saturday near Mancos. 1/31/09 We met in a cabin where the group stayed for a long weekend at land we are considering south of Mancos. Attending were Yuri Kazantsev, Oleg Kazantsev, Irina Kazantsev, Oleg Jr. Kazantsev, Devon Saloga, Tom Saloga, (Trane and Talon Saloga were sleeping), Paul Blake, Joanna Castro, Joyce Morris. View Picture here Agenda: 1. Discuss what Sam (land owner) said about dealing with the county
issues. We began with number 1. What Sam had said about dealing with the county issues. Yuri and Joyce met with a county official and a water commissioner on Friday. The county information was very disturbing. They see our project as a subdivision and therefore subject to subdivision requirements. The short version of this consequence is 1.2 million dollars in up front fees, not including school district fees; Over one million dollars in road improvements and utilities easements even though we won't need them; and the worst requirement of all is that we would be required to remove 2/3 or more of the forests on the entire 1500 acres for reduction of forest fire fuels. After speaking with Sam, he gave us a different picture. If we purchase the land as a ranch rather than a subdivision we won't have any of those issues. We would still be able to do what we want with up to 36 or so families (legally) and that would give us a demonstration group to support our request for the variances we'd need for the completion of the settlement. It would also give us time to work with the legislators at county and state levels in changing the laws to support our plan. Best of all, we would not be required to destroy massive amounts of the very old and thick forests (which we will not do at any rate). Sam suggested we purchase the ranches, preserve the historical uses and stay under the radar. Note added later: After reading the county codes I think this would work very well. It may slow our plan but it may also turn out that it works favorably for our plan. What everyone is feeling about the land, feeling about being here, and thinking about our previous plans. Comments about the land were... Land is great. We can create everything we wanted here. Dream come true. Steeper than I thought. It is time soon for more planning. Needs some erosion stopped. Feels like my land. Our home. Feels like raw with awesome views - intimidating - enchanting. Good variety of domain sites. Very spread out but that's a good thing. The second visit is even more proof of its perfection and rightness. Hidden treasures. (We were cautioned to not talk about the hidden treasures until we own the land.) Land is extremely diverse and supports a tremendous amount of diversity. This land will choose the people who live here. We discussed the East Canyon area and restricting it to no automobile traffic. It is amazingly lush and pristine. We talked about the possibility of opening the south road (lower part of East Canyon) for access to parking lots with foot bridges across the river. There was general agreement about the concept of having more modernized living at the north end of the main canyon progressing to less modernized living as you go south (roughly three miles) and the most rustic life style of all up East Canyon. Parking lots along the South Canyon road could allow people to drive fairly close to their domain. A problem with that might be that as people evolve their relationships with self and nature their lifestyle will also undoubtedly change. We agreed on no cars up the East Canyon but bikes would be okay. Electric cars were suggested for use on the settlement but then it was pointed out that electric cars emit a lot of EMF's and some people won't want that exposure. Drinking from the river. It was suggested that the river water needs tested because if it's alkaline it can kill plants. Someone pointed out that it's currently irrigating the fields which are growing very well. If the river runs through mining areas it could have toxic heavy metals. Testing would let us know if this is the case. Note added later: I've looked at the COGCC Maps on line and there appears to be no mining upstream. There is however a natural gas field at the very top of the stream. I can't tell from the map if the stream starts on the field or just outside the field. Liquid fence for the lots. Liquid fence is made from excrement of large predator animals and keeps herd animals out of an area marked with the liquid fence. It was suggested that Liquid fence might work fine for borders of the domains but maybe not if someone had chickens or dogs. Would we be able to build chicken wire coops and dog runs? We agreed that small private animal containment fencing may be okay only in the northern portion of the main canyon. Another question related to borders on one's kin's domain was: "If we are hunters can we get an owners' license to shoot (with a bow and arrow only) large game animals that come on to our land?" We agreed that it could not be allowed because arrows that missed the mark could pass into another's kin domain. Besides that, the land is surrounded on nearly all sides by hundreds of thousands of acres of BLM public wilderness areas where hunters can hunt freely in season. See notes below for more about this discussion. Agreement. Devon has been working on a draft of our Agreement that residents must sign in exchange for their domain. She brought up the following questions: How much time must a resident live on their domain in order to receive one? Can they be there one weekend a month? Warm months only? What about a family who still needs to keep a job in the Metro area but wants to spend time on a domain also? How much transition time will new residents have? After much discussion we decided that a Readiness Questionnaire combined with a requirement to attend a certain number of settlement meetings would be sufficient to address most of the above questions. The Readiness Questionnaire would help potential residents (and us) determine the point at which they are actually ready for our kin domain lifestyle and to help them (us) get ready. In the early months of the settlement we agreed that we'd need at least weekly meetings of the residents because there would be so much activity and so many points that need discussed. Further discussion about the Agreement points led to other decisions. We agreed there would be no electrical wires through the settlement. We wanted the Agreement to address noise and smells but did not agree on how to determine universally acceptable or unacceptable smells, noises or noise levels. It was suggested that we might have to accommodate a higher level of noises and smells during construction of buildings. We also want the Agreement to define currently acceptable forms of energy, housing, sewer treatment methods. It was suggested that we include on the Readiness Questionnaire, a question like, "What does your domain look like as you see it?" Tensions: As I write these notes I realize that they fail miserably in communicating the true experience of the above reported discussions and the tensions that arose around them. To be true to the purpose of publishing these notes I must make an effort to communicate that very difficult and daunting experience. When the question came up about fences for personal animals and hunting on one's own domain, Pandora's box opened up as resistance and pain flared. Some tried to close it back up but it had to be dealt with. The question of neighbors' behaviors has been coming up since October and we've never been able to address it successfully. We've pushed back the discussion several times but this time we'd reached a point in our progress that we could go no further responsibly with any plans or actions until we resolved the issue. The discussions flew from topic to topic including raising and killing animals for meat, pets, noise (recorded music or musical instrument practice, tools), smells (bio-diesel fuel in generators, barbeque pit smells next to vegetarians), drug use, and more. In one way or another I think we each presented a threat as undesirable neighbors to someone else. The turbulent tide finally turned when Joanna introduced new creative language something like, "We know how to resolve this and we do it." Soon after that a proposal was presented that we all agreed on. The agreement is: We make distinctions (Rules) about big issues that we all agree on. Other than that we agree to accept our individual responsibility to create our own happiness. "We know how and we do it!" I think we all felt daunted as well as excited by the degree of personal responsibility we'd accepted collectively. It was a pivotal point for us all in increasing our conscious awareness of personal responsibility to create our own experience rather than transferring that responsibility to neighbors. Financial Support. We discussed financial possibilities and it was requested that each of us take responsibility to create the ideal financial solution for purchase of the land as well as building and maintaining the settlement according to our vision. It was suggested that
Group Fears. Yuri suggested that we share and list our fears that are part of our everyday living right now (not just about living in a kin's domain settlement). This is important to explore because if we carry those fears with us into our settlement living, or even during the settlement creating process, we'll just recreate the same kinds of experiences we are having right now. Fears we shared were...
We agreed to have a fire ceremony the next morning before people began leaving and symbolically burn these fears. The next morning (Sunday) Paul led us in a ceremony where each of us tore a fear off the paper and wrapped it around a stick, putting our fear into the stick, then burning it in the fire. It was very wonderful ceremony of release and bonding. Notes from 10th Official Meeting. 1/24/09 Today's meeting began about 3:30pm and ended around 7:00. We had one guest who is in the process of completing the membership checklist. The group created the following agenda:
We started with the last one. Report on Central location for meetings. Devon worked on this to find a location that would minimize the driving for the far distant people. Joyce's house is actually the most central, short of downtown and no one wants to drive into downtown. She recommended that we continue rotating the meetings as we have been doing. Sandy offered to research a location she knows of right off I-25 that might be available. Best way to manage meeting announcements. There has been some confusion around the start time of meetings. Notification emails that have been sent out don't always arrive. We agreed that everyone would check the website before the day of the meeting as the correct times are always posted several days in advance (normally by the Wednesday before a Saturday meeting), or they can call Joyce to verify time. We schedule our next meeting date and time before the close of each meeting but sometimes that has to change and that is when the problems occur. I send the announcements out to the entire Colorado kin's domains list so that people who may want to join us for the first time will be notified of correct times and dates. Leonid Sharashkin's Workshops. The upcoming Boulder workshop (in April) was announced with some discussion on who would be attending and emails that had been received about the workshops. Further Clarification on Membership. Devon is our intake person and requested clarification on who (on our list) are members and if they aren't members, what are they and why are they on the list? We discussed the changes we'd made over the months in how membership was determined, which explains why some people show up as members who are not always present at our meetings. Devon proposed that anyone who is not a full active member meeting the requirements of membership that we defined last meeting, be named an "Associate." We agreed that an Associate is one who is interested in our group meetings but hasn't completed the intake process or isn't actively present at most meetings, so we now have two categories of people, who can be involved with our meetings, "Associate" and "Member." She will contact them and clean up the list. The Land Discussion. The three who visited the land were still feeling the powerful silence that followed the experience of being on the land and discussion was very difficult for them. Devon led the discussion of this and the next agenda item. The three who visited the land talked about the importance of having a planning meeting on the land very soon. We discussed scheduling that meeting. After hearing everyone's scheduling issues it turned out that next weekend is the time when the most people can visit the land. We worked out the details (assuming the weather will support the visit) and Joyce will contact the realtor to confirm and to arrange the details with Sam (land owner). Yuri and Joyce will arrive Friday early afternoon with camping supplies. Two other cars of people will arrive Friday night and Saturday. We plan to hold our planning meeting on the land next Saturday early evening and Sunday morning. Yuri and Joyce plan to meet with the county officials on Monday before leaving the area. Everyone who has walkie talkies are asked to bring them. Bring food and supplies for your self and your family. Be prepared for cold nights and possibly days (but hopefully warm). Extended forecast shows sunny skies. It was suggested that we intend to hold our first public celebration on the land, in August, where we will invite people from other settlements and groups (or individuals) to stay with us on our land for a few days and celebrate everyone's successes and each other. We agreed and we intend to do that. Transportation in and out of the village. Yuri and Oleg presented the results of their research about vehicles and vehicle adaptations that we might want to use in our village, including PHEV's (electrical vehicles) and other alternative ways to power vehicles. It was proposed that we have collective bicycles (2 and 3 wheel mountain bikes) that anyone can freely use to travel around the valleys. This system is already in use in Steamboat Springs and in Holland and seems to work very well. We also discussed other possible vehicles such as electrical mopeds that recharge their battery while being pedaled. Settlement and Individual income. In the past we've discussed creating some kind of collective or group business that could help people make the financial transition to Kin's domain living in our settlement. As I've (Joyce) been working on the written Plan, I keep bumping up against problems with that model. I presented a possible model that could allow the settlement entity to receive the income it needs (for taxes, property and equipment purchase and maintenance, etc.) while allowing each individual to create and maintain their own income generating activity. It could work as follows: The settlement entity could be funded by renting or leasing out to community members the unused portions and times of commonly shared land and facilities.
In this plan the residents would each be responsible for determining their own personal financial needs and creating a way to generate that amount of money for themselves. Residents could work alone or form co-ops or partnerships that would give them more free time and flexibility in creating and managing their businesses. Members agreed with the above idea and we'll see how it lays out as our written plans get more detailed. We also discussed ways we could form a fund that could be used to help residents get their businesses started. We liked that idea better than a collective or community business. Priority List of things that need done before going to the Land. The following items need done for the settlement plan:
The following tasks need done by each individual.
Additional comments and discussion:
Report on First Visit to Our Land. 1/17/09 Click here to read our report. Notes from 9th official meeting. 1/10/09 Meeting began at 3:00PM. We had two guests who had not finished reading the series and also had not done our "catch-up" process. Because we'd had such good results with the Holacracy practice in the past two meetings I allowed and encouraged our two guests to participate in our meeting. It slowed down progress and introduced a substantial amount of struggle into the decision making process.The guests' presence was valuable and they contributed some very excellent input. However, we've decided that it is best for us to stick with our intake system, requiring that active participants complete all books and the membership checklist. Our agenda items were...
1. Revisit name of settlement. Our first decision to name the settlement Arc instead of Ark was the result of some of the members at that time being uncomfortable with the possible association with religion, specifically Christian religions. Since those members who had the concerns are no longer with us we decided to revisit the name. After a brief discussion we unanimously and wholeheartedly decided to name our settlement Ark. We love the simple symbolism of an Ark carrying a lot of families, people, animals and plants into a new future, and felt that the spelling, Arc, diminished and confused that. 2. Joyce's request for assistance in getting the Plan ready for counties and Grant Proposals. Joyce gratefully noted that Joanna Castro in California had offered to assist from a distance and then passed out a portion of an outline to see if anyone felt like they wanted to take on parts of what is waiting to be done. We came up with a list of areas in which various people wanted to participate, either as leader or team participant. 3. Energy Exchange Banks and some method to begin accounting for that. This topic was definitely the most difficult to work through. There is a LOT of very strong opinion about the merits (or lack of) related to any form of compensation for the work involved in creating and maintaining a kin's domain settlement (seen as a labor of love or passion). This topic was originally introduced to our group a couple months back with the simple question, "Help vs. Job? Will the work of creating and maintaining the settlement be considered volunteer help or will it be done as paid work?" The concept turned out to be too big to pin down in one meeting. Following the Holacracy principle of making decisions at the last responsible moment, we discussed what (if any) part of this idea needed discussed and decided in this meeting. It was suggested that it might be good for everyone to begin keeping track of their time contributions and we could decide at a later date how to deal with those contributions. Sounds easy, but then we had to decide what to keep track of. For example, this weekend (for three days) three of us are traveling 7 hours away to look at several properties. Does that time get listed? What about gas? How does contribution of time get balanced with contributed resources? Do we recognize the energy exchange value for introducing us to a key person or resource that can fill a major need for us even though it takes little time? Where is the cutoff for energy exchange (compensation)? Do we ask our village creators to volunteer their time and expertise and then later begin paying for ongoing village maintenance? At what point do we determine the creative work is done and the maintenance work begins? What is worth value exchange and what is not? Time? Expertise? Experience? Skill? Resources? Creative ideas? It gets even cloudier because there is a major tax advantage in Energy Exchange Units (EU's). IRS has ruled that EU's are not taxable whereas money exchange is. Both the individuals and the village are subject to taxation if compensated in money, but not if compensated in EU's. Both individuals and the village will have to have a certain amount of income to cover things like property taxes, maintenance, expansion, and more. That income will be taxable if it exceeds deductible outlay unless it is EU based. We talked about deciding on categories of contribution to record for future determination, i.e., clerical, administration, dollars spent. It didn't make everyone happy and created as many problems as it solved. We talked about requirements for applying for Grant funds and the possibility of including compensation in the grant request. Decision: It was agreeable for now to include in the grant request, compensation for administration, travel, office expenses and clerical time. For now we are working exclusively from and for passion. AND we are each going to research more on the internet about Energy Exchange systems and find out more about the pros and cons and varieties of possibilities. 4. Duties of members We discussed reasons it would be good to have a defined statement of what we expect of our members. Some new members have come to us, wanting to be around others who have read the books and talk about their perspectives, but the purpose of our group is to create a settlement. We discussed the value of starting a book discussion club in the area. There is definitely a need for that and it would provide a place for people to discuss their ideas, and at the same time would support us in staying focused on our purpose. Our group's purpose is to complete the process of creating a kin's domain settlement in Colorado. That involves primarily
By including, on the website, a statement of the responsibilities of membership in our creation group, we allow people who are drawn to our group, to identify if they can find what they are looking for in our organization. We also give them the information they will need in order to decide if they are willing to commit to the expected role of membership. Decision: We agreed that a good start in defining what is expected from our members is...
5. (Self) Assignment of tasks Devon is our first contact person (intake for guests and new working members.) She will also look for a central location and arrange carpooling. Along with that she will create a contact list for our group. Yuri will research land and travel to review the possibilities until we find the right piece of land. Ty will contact owners of a couple local book stores that sell the Ringing Cedars Books and that also have meeting rooms, to see about starting a book discussion club in their meeting rooms. He also feels called to make as many people aware of the books as possible. Joyce will continue with the website, and assembling information and resources to expand our written Settlement Plan and the Foundation Plan. She will also create documents specifically in readiness for contacting Governor Ritter. Several areas were identified in which people would like to assist but not lead. Therefore we have some task circles forming awaiting the perfect task leader to join us. I am clear that will happen at the right time for our process. 6. Property visit to four corners area There are three or more properties between Durango and Cortez we want to look at for first review. They are currently under snow and we think it is important to see them in that state. One of these properties seems to hold a great deal of promise in providing very important opportunities for us (at least according to a local realtor). It's 7-ish hours away from Denver so we need two days of travel there and back, and one full day for property viewing. We decided to go Friday and return Sunday (Jan.16-18). Three of us are able to make the trip (and darn it all, we might just have to spend the two nights at a hot springs resort. Oh well, it's a dirty job but somebody's got to do it. :-)) It was suggested that we make some flyers about our group and post them in strategic locations in Durango, Mancos and perhaps Cortez while we're there. We'd like to attract interested people from that area. 7. Contacting Governor Ritter This is a very interesting topic. Thanks to the nudging from Tamara in the Toronto Canada group, I contacted Michael Reynold's office in New Mexico this past week. Michael, who is part of an Earth Ship demonstration village outside of Taos, introduced legislation in New Mexico a few years ago that was passed into state law in 2007. The legislation made the state more supportive of sustainable living demonstration villages. When I called Michael's office to request information sharing about the process, the person I spoke with informed me that Colorado's Governor Ritter had spoken with Michael and said that he liked what he had done and would like to have similar legislation introduced in Colorado as well as a sustainable living demonstration village. I asked the group if anyone felt they were the one to contact Governor Ritter. There was much discussion about how that should be done but no volunteers to contact the Governor. I volunteered and will begin first with preparing backup documents about our project in order to have them ready when they are requested for follow up information. Creating Family Bonds Our final discussion was about how to create a stronger bond between our members. Since our group's focus is primarily about the nitty gritty details of creating a kin's domain settlement, we don't give so much attention to creating strong relationship bonds between us, but we feel it would be beneficial to do so. We intend that to happen, and we're allowing it to manifest for us. Interesting Here's some interesting information that one of our guests shared. In the US the Average organic food comes from 3500 miles away from where it's purchased. The average inorganic food comes from 1500 miles away. Boulder Colorado, which is very focused on "local" sources only grows 3% of their food. It makes you think there is likely an important market everywhere in the US for locally grown organic food, especially food grown with Love! The meeting closed around 8:00PM. Notes from 8th official meeting. 12/27/08 The meeting began at 2:00pm. This was our second meeting using the Holacracy format and the results were similar to the last meeting. To read a statement about how that looks in our meetings and the early results, read the Q&A on the FAQ page.We covered a tremendous amount of material easily and comfortably. The agenda that we constructed at the beginning of the meeting was:
We began the discussion about looking for land. We talked about remaining open to locations where we would want to be in the future, not just right now. Through our automobile supply contacts we could get an inexpensive shuttle bus to transport people weekly. Next, we discussed the known settlements around the world. In Russia there are around 300 settlements existing or in formation and yet Yuri reports that only about five of them are functional and only one is really thriving. That one is just now reaching the magic number of 100 families (after eight years). In the rest of the world there are about 10 or 15 known settlements forming and none of them are functional or thriving yet as villages or settlements. Individuals have kin's domains here and there but we are unaware of any settlements that are currently supporting kin's domains outside of the few in Russia. Most communities in Russia have been abandoned by most original residents. Many people are buying land for future but aren't moving in yet. The settlements have never defined a unified vision of life on their settlement or a plan for their future. From a review of the Russian Forum and from personal emails to community members, the following concerns were reported:
We decided to incorporate measures that would minimize these problems, i.e.,
Housing: We plan to offer at least free building materials and some trees and plants. Each house will have an engineered composting toilet. Some guidelines for housing choices were that it be easily dismantled in the future. In the agreement that will be exchanged for a kin domain, it will be stipulated that if a resident adds to their home, it will stay with the land if they leave and will be gifted to the next resident by the leaving resident. We decided that the design of the houses in the village must be consistent with our sustainable demonstration plan that is being presented to both the county offices and the grant foundations. Each person can design their own home and off grid infrastructure system within sustainable parameters and county agreements. We will actively seek out website links to provide information on cob, straw bale, adobe, wood (log and cut log), berm, earth bags, yurt/tipis, stone (local), passive solar, tree houses, energy systems, etc. To help future residents be ready to live on their domains we will provide,
Our village will be developed in three stages
The business ideas that will be reviewed and possibly incorporated will begin with:
As our village enters the second stage of growth we can periodically offer free trees to the local communities, free planting in areas that need restoration, an annual or bi-annual fair to demonstrate sustainability and restoration techniques that would be useful anywhere. Our plan for water includes
Land will be divided into 2-1/2 to 5 acre lots with paths between each. Paths will be unpaved but will meet county requirements for emergency vehicle access. During the initial stage of residency, we will install a volunteer fire department with truck for carrying and pumping water. This vehicle and volunteers will be made available for other regional fires (building or timber). This and other parts of our plan are intended to give back value to the county in exchange for variances we will be requesting. To make the image of our village come alive for prospective residents we will incorporate film (including footage from Russian films), personal drawings on website for gardens and domain design, photos of land we've looked at. It was suggested that a thread be started on the Russian forum since many local Russian speaking people do not read the English forum. Our final discussion and decisions were related to our initial budget. Items to be included are:
Next Friday we will see if the realtor can arrange an all day visit at land north of Canyon City. Our next group meeting will be in two weeks at the Morris house in Golden, January 10 at 3:00pm. See Schedule page for address and directions. Meeting ended at 5:30. Notes from 7th official meeting. 12/19/08 A major Course Correction was presented and took place at the beginning of this meeting. To read the details of why that was needed and what it was, please click this link Meeting: In the days prior to this meeting each member was sent the introductory presentation paper of the Holocracy model in order to become familiar with the new organizational structure and decision making process. In this meeting that decision making process was implemented In response to questions about how that looks I have added a Q&A to our FAQ page. Before the course correction information was completely shared, four members left. After completing the course correction presentation, there was a brief discussion about it and the remaining members were asked if they agreed to the founding vision. They did and we proceeded with the scheduled meeting agenda - to flesh out the group vision. The founding vision will be maintained intact at all times by all task circles. It is the founding vision. Any expanded part of the vision can be revisited at any time. Each person who wanted to do so, presented ideas from their own dreams to be added to a list to be discussed and possibly incorporated into the operating vision. We also added individual answers to a questionnaire that had been sent out to the group. As we discussed each point on the list, we also constructed an organizational map of task circles that we will be able to fill in with skilled people as they are drawn to our group or as we get funds to hire them. We decided which points on the list were
Our discussion list:
Discussions
Decided to spend all day at property north of Canyon City since the Salida property does not meet our requirements. Click here to view current Organizational structure with proposed task circles Next meeting at Castle Rock at 2:00.
Notes from 6th official meeting. 12/13/08 Members present: Joyce, Ben, TheLea, Philip, Douglas, Lois, Abbey, Karen, Abby, Yuri, Oleg, Irina. This meeting began with introductions of guests (Jeff Graves, Carol Lloyd, Jeni Chambers, July Maynard, Sandy Jones and later, Devon Saloga). After group intentions Peteris Spels spoke to us. All the feedback we've gotten from the mebeam.com broadcast was that the audio faded in and out and made it impossible to hear much. For those of us present, the film Peteris shared was difficult to watch because the sub-titles were not on the screen long enough to read fully and you had to choose whether you would watch the film or read the subtitles. It would have been more informative for most of us if the voice over track was available in English. Nevertheless, we did get a general idea of the development of their community which I believe is called Klavinos. Something is called Alsida but I think that may their group business name. Some highlights of his presentation follow: Regarding the Global crisis, Peteris suggested that we cannot solve the existing world problems inside the existing system. The solution must provide for producing our own food, our own energy, and our own financing. The founders of villages around the globe are creating an image for the world to see and first impressions are important. He cautioned us to take seriously the responsibility to make sure that the first impression we create does not damage the image of the global movement. His suggestions were that we make sure our settlement is attractive to others, the people are nice, wise, successful, happy, comfortable and the the lifestyle is sustainable. At Klavinos they currently have 47 acres that can be expanded by purchasing surrounding acreage. It is 2 hours from the capital city and 30 minutes from two smaller towns. Creating a settlement requires hard work and a serious attitude. They chose to start with a farm, building the community later. They have been developing the land for four years, working on the roads and infrastructure that will support the eventual community. One to three people currently live there year round in the community house but they have no family with them. There are no kin domains on the land as yet. They have decided to build the community completely ON-grid and each weekend the members live and eat together in the community house and work together on the infrastructure. They return to the city during the week to run their collective business and I presume other private employment. Just as they are working together to complete the infrastructure they will work together to build each of the houses once they begin to prepare the kin domains for occupancy. They have an accounting system to record the work each one contributes. That contribution will be exchanged at a future time for money value or its equivalent. They plan to have no private ownership of kin domains, at least in the early stage of the village. Evaluation of an individual's work value is self determined with review and approval from an expert source. Their decision making process varies but the ultimate decisions are made by one person from the input of the group. That person is "sort of elected and sort of not." Experts lead and are responsible for each individual project. Their intake of membership follows this sequence:
Peteris showed a quote of Vladimir's where he wished for each settlement to consist of Unitedly minded people. Peteris spoke about discipline. He said someone should be responsible for tools and all commonly shared resources, making sure that they are cared for, returned, and maintained. He showed us a photo of a beehive built as Anastasia described and reported that it works well. No one is allowed to do anything for the bees because they will become dependent. The bees are there to serve humans, not vice versa. They have 10-15 people working full time everyday on organizing and creating their community. I assumed (but did not specifically confirm) that, that includes running the business that financially supports the development of the village. Their collective business includes a published a book (titled, Soul) and newspaper, Production of Arts, Seminars, TV Broadcasts and Videos, Music, "Amazing Seed" recipes and products, Biofuel products, Eco-clean windshield washing fluid. Their workshops teach from the concept, "We all have the knowledge we just have to know how to access it." Their business was started with $40.00 and went to $400,000/year. You can look at the website at www.alsida.lv He mentioned existing or beginning communities in Germany, Latvia, Estonia, Slavenia, Chekoslavakia, New Zealand, Austrialia, Canada and US. He suggested that we need to think about how we will deal with people who want to leave the community, as well as "wrong doing" within the community. We also are encouraged to decide the "Duties" of Members. He reported that as you refine your vision and plan your community may shrink. His community went from 1000 members at one point to a few solid members that they now have. Peteris cautioned us to be prepared for negative public information and opinion. They have some of that in their area and others in Russia also do. Peteris invited everyone to visit their group in Latvia. Many of our group's questions have been incorporated into the above information. Some additional ones follow: Q: What about creating kin domains alone? A: Alone, the kin domain doesn't meet Anastasia's dream. Anastasia said that it takes more than 100 families to be self-sufficient. It would be very lonely and not sustainable. Q: How have their members dealt with leaving family members to go live in the village. A: They haven't faced that yet. At present everyone is returning to the city every week. Meeting notes: Peteris' presentation was followed with two hours of meeting. Because committee work was beginning to form spontaneously, and because we would like to increase our productivity, we decided to begin with identifying what committees were needed and establish their initial membership. As has become routine in our group lately, no decision is easy or comfortable. This meeting provided no exception to that. However, we did finally settle on four initial committees...
Each committee will prepare a report on information they have collected and will submit it to the voting membership for discussion and improvement. Other notable suggestions that were made during the above discussion were: the housing committee needs to create more than one plan - a draft plan and a detailed plan. We need to begin developing county relationships and collecting the information about what they are looking for and the problems they would like to solve. Karen suggested that someone (perhaps a committee) could devise a survey to collect and organize information from each of us about the details of our visions. For example we could collect details about our attitudes toward cars, electricity sources, water systems, etc. Yuri suggested that our next meeting be devoted entirely to creating a collective vision and then a vision writing committee be formed after that to produce a vision from the information provided in the discussion. Abbey suggested that it might be good to have a committee that works on political change in local and non-local governments. Lois presented a report from the spontaneously formed membership and outreach committee because it seemed to relate to our committee discussion. They suggested a core group (council members) surrounded by four additional layers of membership.
They also presented the possibility of dues at some of the levels. The committee expanded the intake form. They suggested we become more active in social networking sites and magazine articles or advertising. Philip reported on his feedback from Longmont. They would be happy to annex a settlement and allow us to subdivide it into 2-1/2 acre plots for our settlement. However there is only 140 acres available to annex and our goal is 500 or more. There was no discussion about how they would accommodate off grid living and ponds, etc. However, the report caused a stir in the group from members who said they would never live in a kin domain settlement that was a subdivision of Longmont (It is part of the mega-metro of Denver and the band of pollution including severe light pollution up and down the front range). We ran out of time to continue this discussion as we had one more report to hear. Abbey reported on the documents and reading that she and Joyce suggested as comprising the Orientation packet. She read the observing guest guidelines and a one page story of the group that she had written. The Proposed Orientation Packet documents and process are posted on the links page and can be reviewed. Because of the lack of time for further discussion we are asked to review them on line and send in our comments about the packet and the process. We decided about our next meeting. It is Friday the 19th at 4:00pm-9:00pm. Several of the group asked for a specific cut off time for the Friday meeting. After discussion we decided to accept it and see how it works. It was suggested that in addition to regular meetings we have a monthly meeting all day long with a lunch break. No decision was made as time had run out. Our agenda for the next meeting is only to discuss and create a collective vision. The agenda for today did not get addressed because of time constraints and will be carried forward after the vision is established. Notes about the all day viewing of three properties along hiway 50. 12/6/08 The first property was about 10 miles north of Canon City on Garden Road. It consists of two adjacent farms (both for sale). Together they are nearly 800 acres, have all the controlling water rights in the valley and have about five or so livable houses. One of them has horse arenas, rodeo arena, animal medical facility, and several RV hookups with water and electricity. Driving to the farms we saw a vineyard which indicates a very good growing season. The terrain was rolling hills forested with pinon pine full of delicious pine nuts and cedar trees full of delicious cedar berries (cones). Along the year round running river were many varieties of deciduous trees. Irrigation is set up for flooding the hay fields. Hired hand houses are in the wooded grazing areas. Besides the farms, there is a 10,000 acre BLM lease that is adjacent to the properties, and a spectacular public park area similar to the Red Rock formations west of Denver. Elevation is about 5400 ft. at the valley floor and a little higher on the hills. It was beautiful and definitely suited to our purposes. The second property was 2500 acres but not suitable to our use. The water availability was not consistent, the vegetation was sparce and no part of the land has been developed except a small area around a single house. The third property was two miles east of Salida in a valley south of hiway 50. It was beautiful. I've never seen pinon trees so big and tall. Same with the cedars and the scrub oak. The trees and vegetation were lush and the elevation was only slightly higher than Denver in the valley floor. It was extremely pleasant. A year round river runs the length of the property with a variety of deciduous woods around it. Although the property was spectacularly beautiful with magnificent energies, it had some drawbacks.
None of the properties had any snow cover even though it was December. Along hiway 50 is called the "banana belt" of Colorado. Those of us who viewed these properties were very impressed with the valleys that connect to hiway 50. They are warm, have abundant water, long growing seasons and are easily accessible to the metro areas in Colorado. Notes from 5th Official Meeting 11/29/08 Our marathon meeting (7 hours) began about 3:45 after snacks and greeting the grant team. We set our meeting intentions then turned the meeting over to Phyllis and her team. Abbey Jennings introduced herself. She has just finished reading the series but knew from the very beginning that she wanted to be a part of our planning. She felt she had "come home" when reading the books because much of the information felt very familiar to her lifelong dreams. She is a fine artist living currently in Louisville (a very fine artist, indeed, based on journal sketches I saw) and would like to put together a logo for us. She is also a writer and would like to help out with our writing projects. Our agenda for this week
Phyllis Wells-Washington (Grant Writer): She and Ty Clements Spoke of the importance of the Alliance Letters (same thing as Allegiance Letters) that we each need to collect. We agreed to get her five alliance letters by next Friday. She must have at least five in order to send out the first inquiries. They need to be on the individual's letterhead and be from the heart. Ask your contributors to speak about supporting and believing in the project. It's not about selling but is rather about sharing. We decided to ask Vladimir for an allegiance letter. I will send a letter to Yuri asking him to contact Vladimir. He will translate it and add his own request before sending it on. Amy Nichols spoke about the needs statement (our draft is on this website on the "Our Plan" page.) She received our first draft. She spoke of the ten minute film we will need. We need to get photos or film of other settlements, interviews, film of land we are considering, film segments of our meetings. The film needs to show the spiritual piece (connection with nature and relationships), the mental piece (group process) and the physical piece (plants, buildings and land). It needs to show what has already been demonstrated around the world; how it has already demonstrated that it is a solution to problems. Put no energy into what you're against or why it happened. Present only your dream and say what is needed to start. Include shots of the members' drawings of domains and settlements. Ty asked that all Alliance Letters and related questions be sent directly to him. He would like us each to send him a list of people we will be contacting so that he can begin helping us get them completed. Phyllis explained several different kinds of grants:
We need to provide Phyllis with a letter of intent for the property we decide on this next weekend. We shared our individual drawings of the settlement. Philip's was based on Vastu Shastra (an ancient precursor to Feng Shui). It was based on 100 acres/32 domains which could be added to up to the amount of land or domains we wanted. They shared a printed packet of information about Vastu Shastra. Lois' was a circular design around a community center hub. The very center of the community center was a courtyard surrounded by a lab, storage, guest houses, gardens, greenhouse, parking, woods, offices, shops. The domains were in rows circling the community hub. Outlying areas were for horses, meadows, woods and industrial needs. Ben's was rectangular with shops and industrial area at the entrance to the settlement (with parking). It was blocked from the domains by trees. Joyce's was long running along a river (as many farms do). It had an industrial area at a far end, a perimeter road with occasional parking lots, community center along the river, community animal areas (like horses, chickens, goats), community hay meadows. It was 600 acres, with 33 common acres along both sides of the river for animals, hay and river walks. 600 hundred acres allowed for only 102 - 105 2.5 to 5 acre kin domains with 15' paths between each. Yuri's was in a mountain valley (6500' high). It had a river as a natural source of water for irrigation. It extended up the valley from the main road in a narrow rectangular shape. At the entrance was the industrial center (root chakra location). a road follows the river up the center as well as a perimeter road. Immediately after the industrial center was the business center (next chakra). Up the road a little further was the Main Center (heart chakra) It included school, nurseries, healing gardens, etc. From this center paths radiated out ward forming pie shaped areas. The paths went around occasional trees. Domains were placed along both sides of the paths. The center of the pie shaped wedges were open land (common). Further up the river was a communication center (moving up the chakras) and at the top of the land, higher in the mountains, was a spiritual center (crown chakra). It was a cabin where people could go to be alone and silent. It held about 36 domains, each with a cedar water tower to provide pressure for running water to each home. Land presentations: Yuri presented a piece of land he'd located near Salida that was suitable to his plan. Philip showed us two farms north of Denver. One was very small (150 acres) and the other is in Platteville. It's still a little small but has lots of water rights. Douglas said that the properties they found in southeast Colorado were not worth presenting. Joyce presented two properties. One consists of two farms just 10 miles north of Canon City. They are next to each other and both are for sale. Both have excellent senior water rights and a river running through the property. The other property is a ranch about 10 miles west of Canon City. It is 2000 acres, has two ponds, several tributaries, treed with pinon pine and cedar. It also has excellent senior water rights. Lois suggested we look at all four properties next weekend. We decided to go north on Friday to see Plattville. Saturday we'll meet at hiway 285 and C470 at 8:00 and carpool to Salida and Canon City to see the other three. We'll decide on one, submit a letter of intent and include it with our grant proposals. It may not be our final property but it will get us into the next stage of the grant process. Research Reports: Lois suggested that we needed a contact list for our growing group. She is continuing to distribute flyers and getting ready for next Meet & Greet. Genia offered to add tear off tabs to the flyers because they keep disappearing off the bulletin boards. Joyce reported on water rights in Colorado. It is a fairly lengthy report. If you are interested you can click the link. Agenda points: We did not discuss or define Purpose and vision to review and finalize the draft. It will be presented via the website "discussion" tab. A new and pressing issue came up during the meeting. A wonderful new member joined us this week and quickly taught us the importance of finding a good way to effectively get new people up to speed (preferably before they become part of our meetings). This has not been so much of a problem in the past but we have covered so much ground since the beginning that it is now a very big issue. Our new member made many suggestions that had already been discussed and decided on in previous meetings. We spent quite a bit of time explaining that to her and answering her questions about why's and wherefore's. She frequently felt confused by our decisions because she hadn't been involved in the research and discussion leading up to the decisions. She remained quite confused during most of the meeting and to resolve her confusion she asked many questions that diverted our focus and used a lot of time. It was difficult for her and time consuming for the group. We realized that we cannot continue this way as more and more active new members join our group. Suggestions:
We decided that for now we preferred no limits of size; group mentors; starting to assemble an "updating packet" to post on the website. What constitutes "guest" and "member" of our planning group? After discussion, we decided that every new participant will be a guest (must have read all published books). They will become a member after having completed the following steps
Who gets to come into the settlement freely and who doesn't? It had been suggested in past meetings that people might not be allowed to come into the kin domain area except when with a resident. The question was asked, "What about my family and friends? Can't they come visit me freely?" Discussion followed. Concerns were: People disturbing the quiet and privacy of the domains, being confused about what is a domain and what is common area, unconsciously damaging new plants/trees, "looky-lous," etc. It was suggested that, at the entry point, of the settlement we post a map of it with information about privacy of kin domains and any other pertinent info that guests need to know in order to enjoy their visit and we enjoy it also. That was unanimously accepted with the agreement that if it becomes an issue we will revisit it at a later time. Procedures for handling problems in lieu of Rules to prevent problems: This was the most animated and difficult discussion/decision we've had to date. It was extremely difficult to stay on focus because so many related issues came up. Suggestions:
Group's Final Agreement: If two or more people can't create a solution to a problem, each party chooses up to three people to help create a solution. If more than twelve are needed, the whole community is involved in creating a solution. Meeting Breaks: It was suggested that some members might like to have had more breaks during our very long meeting. With discussion, we decided that it was each members responsibility to ask for a break as needed. We will break if everyone agrees. We will wait a little longer if everyone doesn't agree. Anyone can of course walk around or leave the discussion area at any time they wish to. Use of Discussion feature of website: Yuri suggested that we begin discussing a topic on our discussion forum between meetings. He suggested we start with animals this week. Joyce said she would need to get the forum set up a little differently and would do that as soon as possible. (maybe Tuesday). Assignments we gave ourselves: Lois: make her list of people for Alliance letters (to give to Ty); create a contact list for our group; get flyers to Genia for adding tear off strips; work on packet to educate our new guests/members; contact Wonderland Hill about conflict resolution methods they use. Douglas: Continue the research of land Patents. Research more possibilities for structures on the settlement. Abbey: begin work on logo; find economic details and statistics for our film presentation; help with the writing of the orientation packet and educational packet for new settlement residents. TheLea: Get 2 Allegiance Letters; Call Ty about contacting Robert Redford; Call the California people with a definite "yes" for the 27th meeting; Continue with the Outreach stuff. Philip: Get Alliance Letters; Continue studying the Variance process in Colorado including water variances. Yuri: Get info from the Russian forum on how they've handled animals in their settlements; Send a letter to Vladimir asking for Allegiance Letter; Contact the ARK community in Russia and ask for an Allegiance Letter. Irina: Help Yuri. Joyce: Website updates; writing educational packets; write a report on Work exchange plans; Get Allegiance Letter list to Ty and collect two or more allegiance letters by Friday; write up a list of water, zoning and access questions for the realtors Friday and Saturday. Ben: Allegiance letter list to Ty Next meeting is at TheLea and Philip's house on 11/13/08 New items for next weeks agenda :
_______________________ Notes from interim meeting 11/21/08 Meeting began at 3:00pm and finished just after 5:30. Yuri read a story about staying focused. He spoke about Creating the image as follows. We are all wanting to create the image Anastasia started but Anastasia did not give us all the details. In Russia each settlement is different because each group creates their own Image. Only a few of these settlements are truly alive because not all of the groups have one single unified Image. We need to create one very detailed Image with enough energy and details that it begins to live. Then we will give birth to this image. The amount of time that takes will depend on the kind of team we are building...a group of people who are just talking about their separate dreams and their own problems, or a very organized team with ONE Image, one dream and a very clear picture of what they want. Creating the collective image is like breaking the trail. It is critical to the success of the team and we should not change the subject. When the subject is changed, it pulls the energy from creating or filling in our Image. That delays the birth of our dream. Yuri suggests that before we go to the land, we pay attention to a few things.
When we give birth to our unified Image, we can show this Image to others. This common Image will solve the problem of filtering prospective members. Our Image will attract only those who like our Image and want to be part of it. Those who don't like it will not want to join us. If we form a strong Image then fewer people will try to change it, and more people will be attracted to help. During the creating of our collective Image, it is possible that some of our members will realize that they see the Image differently. On the other hand, we have to remember that in building our Image we are also building our team. As our team becomes more diverse it will also become more complete as long as we are all looking in the same direction. Yuri gave the example of a heavily drinking man in a Russian settlement. Even though the others felt he was not like them, they recognized that he served the community with an important role. He was able to communicate with neighbors outside the settlement. He could sit and drink with them and solve any problems that came up. The main principle when forming the team is maximum trust. It doesn't matter if he drinks, smokes, eats meat or likes hunting. It matters what we feel about him; if I want to see him as my neighbor. Even more important is whether he clearly sees his place in our settlement. Yuri and Oleg presented a method of group response during discussions. Each member was given a Meeting Task Signal, a flat cork piece in the shape of a house. One side is yellow (beige) and the other is red. When a speaker is getting off topic any group member can put his cork piece on the floor in front of him with the yellow side up (warning). If the speaker does not bring his presentation back on topic the listener can turn the cork piece over to the red side. If three group members have laid down cork pieces with the red side up, the speaker must stop and allow another to begin speaking. The group unanimously accepted this method for our future meetings. Discussion: How future meetings will be conducted. Possible rotation of agenda monitors was discussed but not agreed on. A controlled form of discussion was presented where each person would speak in turn around the circle, around and around with no interruption until everyone was in agreement. We decided on a hybrid of that which included a round-the-circle presentation from everyone when a new topic is introduced. That will be followed by open discussion. The topic will be closed with another round-the-circle statement of position. If everyone is agreed the topic will close. If not, it will either be continued again with open discussion or it will be continued into the next meeting agenda. About completing our collective Image: We need stories of our kin domain settlement in order to begin "seeing" and communicating our collective Image. Next meeting we will each bring a drawing of our personal Image of our settlement and our personal kin domain. Each member is asked to fax or email their drawing to Joyce for inclusion on the website. Selling of domains: It was proposed that if someone wants to sell their domain, they can only be sold to the settlement or with the approval of the settlement and that they can not be sold for profit. Regarding our rule that new members must have read all the books: It was suggested that members could contribute even though they hadn't finished reading all the books. Arguments for the rule were that
It was suggested that prospective members who had not read all the books might be allowed to come to meetings to listen only but not participate. We decided that the monthly meet and greet meetings fulfilled that function better and kept our meetings clear of scattered energies. At the meet and greet meetings, interested people can ask questions and get updates about the planning meetings. It also motivates prospective members to read through the books at a faster pace. Yuri suggested that the website needed bigger letters announcing that New members MUST READ ALL THE BOOKS BEFORE JOINING US. Yuri and Oleg shared details and pictures of a possible property north of Steamboat Springs. Notes from 4th official meeting 11/15/08 Began gathering at 2:00pm
Attendees: (11) Joyce & Ben Morris, Lois and Douglas Chambers, Thelea and Philip Scott, Yuri Kasantsev, Oleg Kasantsev, Alex Gorodinski, Rick Tidrick, Karen Guthrie. Introductions: Karen Guthrie found us through an internet newsletter. She read the books 9 months ago and has been looking for a group of like minds. Rick Tidrick spoke to us about his experiences creating communities and developing land in Colorado. He introduced some very important points.
We changed our agenda schedule a bit because of the urgency of completing two of the agenda items and one unscheduled item. First, Joyce reported on a recent meeting she and Ben had with a Grant Writer. Several aspects of this project are very HOT right now in the grant world. There is a good chance we could get funded, at least partially if not fully, in time to purchase land in mid Spring, IF we get moving immediately on several critical steps. Joyce brought a first draft of a needs statement for review but requested that each person first share their image of their kin domain and our kin domain settlement (to incorporate into the needs statement.) Lois: shared her idea of her and Douglas' domain and the common areas at the center of the settlement with rings of domains surrounding the center. TheLea: introduced Vastu principles. She described living in a Yurt while the home was being built and the planting being done. Then later she and Philip would convert the Yurt to a place where children would get involved in dance and other creative projects. She envisions it as a "creatorium." She also imagines the common areas and business center in the center of the settlement, with no pavement or concrete pathways between the domains. Oleg: Also sees no concrete or asphalt in the settlement. He introduced the idea that the passageways between the domains could be public harvest areas. The public side of the living fences could be berry bushes that anyone could harvest. He envisioned common land for growing hay for horses at the edges of the settlement as well as housing any horses in that area. Oleg proposed an industrial area at a back corner of the settlement for workshops (woodworking, metal, garage), public storage, and the place for any heavy machinery needed by the community. He proposed that the business center (located at the center of the settlement) would include
Oleg proposed a domain for group living with several yurts or cottages (people who do not want an entire domain to themselves). He suggested that his living fence would only be about 4 feet high. His home would be open and heated with a stove in the middle. He sees a pond with an artificial stream running through the domain. Oleg suggested that the settlement could be located adjacent to BLM land where children could be taken on educational "camping" trips to learn to live naturally from nature in the wild. Alex: imagines an Ecology Nature Park, perhaps open to the public, Production of food, a school as well as a University. Along with those he sees Scientific labs where things like sustainable energy sources can be researched and developed. Alex also sees a shared home for elderly people, a healing preventorium and hospital, and a complex of consultant companies. He suggests a chain of similar settlements, all embodying the original values that made this country so unique and such a strong place for opportunity. He also proposed a Council of Elders and an Executive Board. Yuri: said that his goal was to create a space of love and be surrounded by other spaces of love, and be part of making the Earth healthy, for the healing of all. He proposed that we each bring drawings to our next meeting with copies for each of us. He imagines an experience that will "free the mind." Yuri proposed that the settlement should be at least 100 miles from the big city, and that we bring as little as possible from civilization common in cities. He would like to have running water (river) through all the domains. He wants NO cars inside the settlement and no pavement. He imagines it to be a place where he would live barefoot. He wants no electric lines or sewer lines. He proposes no businesses or artificial noise generating activity in private domains and all business activity be kept in the business center. He'd like the community to share a plant nursery and greenhouse. He imagines a Russian type spa and a teahouse. Joyce: suggested regular meetings to work out the bugs of living together on the settlement. She imagines a volunteer time for credits method of managing the necessary work of building and maintaining the common areas; parking for all vehicles at the edge of the settlement; adjacent to the common center areas will be a guest domain with a long house. It will provide sleeping and living quarters for ten - twenty guests visiting the domain for various reasons. Joyce read the three page proposed needs statement (for the grant request) including a mission statement and a short vision statement of a proposed settlement. The needs statement described why the settlements are needed, what they will accomplish and the responsibilities of the core organization of Colorado Kin Domains. It was accepted and the larger plan will be written this week. It will be expanded to incorporate the images shared above. (If these documents will be useful to anyone starting a kin domain, please request them from Joyce.) Joyce introduced the need for 20 Alliance letters that we need to collect from community, government and business leaders to go with the grant proposal. We should easily be able to achieve that goal very quickly with the connections our members have. We discussed everyone's "three rules" assignment. No one produced a full three rules except Douglas who adapted four rules from Genghis Khan. The possible rules introduced were:
After discussion, we agreed that we preferred to work on procedures for dealing with problems rather than creating rules. We also liked the idea of education and a self-filtering process that could prevent most problems from the very beginning. The self filtering will be part of a self-evaluation process that will be created for prospective residents and will be accomplished with a series of questions that must be answered before moving into the settlement. (If this completed document would be useful to anyone reading these notes, contact Joyce to request it.) Reports: Philip: Spoke with an ex-mayor of Lyons, CO and learned that we can apply for a variance to Colorado's 35 acre rule. To do so we will need to produce a plan for supplying water and sewage management. The neighbors of the property would have input into the review process. TheLea and Lois: Reported on Thursday's Meet and Greet. It was very successful and produced three people who are very excited to join this group as soon as they can finish the book series. Several new people have already declared their intention to attend the next one. The meet & greet is very valuable for generating interest in our group and for getting an idea of future growth of our group. Based on Thursday's information, we will be doubled in size very soon and will be able to accomplish part of our work in "committees." Joyce reported on Land Patents. They are superior titles to property in this country and have never been overturned in the history of this country. They prevent the possibility of losing your property from debt or taxes. They place property ownership firmly in your hands and the hands of your heirs through perpetuity (forever, unless taken from you by war with an outside country). For example, through this research Joyce discovered that she owned 640 acres of dry ranch land in southern Colorado, as the heir of her grandfather who patented that land in the early 1900's. That land was never sold and the patent has never been transferred. It is still owned by the heirs and can only be sold or transferred by them. You can find links to this information on the links page of this website. Assignments we have given ourselves for the next two weeks: Douglas: Physically Look at available land going East from
Denver. Research more on Land Patent law. Everyone: Contact your people for Allegiance letters (instructions in your inboxes); Draw up your kin domain details. New additions to next meeting agenda (November 29): Discussion of Animals on the kin domains and in the settlement. Meeting ended around 8:00PM Notes from 3rd official meeting 10/30/08 Meeting Agenda:
Attendees: (11) Joyce & Ben Morris, Lois and Douglas Chambers, Yuri Kazantsev, Oleg and Irina Kazantsev, Abby Rohrer, Philip and TheLea Scott, Alex Gorodinski. Introductions: Oleg and Irina have three children. Oleg describes himself as very practical and Irina and Yuri as very spiritually focused. Irina wants to get to a kin domain ASAP for the preservation and strengthening of her family. She feels much inner pressure to get her growing family into that experience very soon (preferably with a settlement). Abby has recently finished reading the books and is wanting to incorporate the eating of wild food and food grown specifically for her as soon as possible (in whatever way that can happen). She is feeling overwhelmed by singly taking responsibility for a full hectare of land. Alex is a teacher and has taught at all age levels of education from elementary to University. He is interested in the idea of identifying and publicizing the system we follow as we develop our kin domain settlement. He has much past experience in creating communities with varying degrees of success. He suggests that we should consider creating a "constitution" of the group with base rules. Everyone agreed to bring (to next meeting) three rules we would each consider important for our kin domain settlement. We will add this discussion to next agenda. We discussed meeting days: Our meetings are going so late into the evening (typically 11:00 or later) and that is creates a problem for early risers especially on weeknights. We agreed to meet on Saturdays (every other week) in the afternoon so we could accomplish more and not stress the individual schedules of our members. Next meeting is Saturday, November 15. Members may bring snacks (optional). Reports: Lois showed us two flyers that could be printed and distributed next week. One was announcing the first public meet and greet. The second was announcing our Colorado Kin Domain Group meetings. Slight suggestions were made and the flyers will be posted in bookstores very soon. Yury reported on several points that will be covered throughout these notes. First, he initiated a discussion of our group name. While the possibilities were being discussed we realized that we weren't clear if we were naming our group or naming the first Kin Domain Settlement. We went around the group to hear each person's idea of the purpose of our group. Douglas: Creating a Kin Domain Settlement.From this round of sharing we realized that we all agreed that the purpose of the group was to create a Kin Domain model and felt that a name should indeed be chosen for the first settlement created by the group. We also felt there was a significant role for the group other than just creating a kin domain and the group itself might merit a name different from the name of the first settlement. We voted on the following names for the first Colorado Kin Domain Settlement:
The majority voted for a version of Ark but two members felt that it created an unwarranted association with Christian or Judaic philosophy. After further discussion we agreed that the spelling, Arc, rather than Ark added important additional symbolism and also could include the energy and symbolism of Ark (the shape of an Ark is an Arc). We unanimously agreed that we liked the name of Arc for our first Kin Domain settlement. Yuri agreed to initiate conversation with the most successful Russian Settlement named Kovcheg (Ark) to request their agreement and perhaps their willingness to create a sister-Kin domain settlement relationship. Douglas suggested that the name, Arc, could also be an acronym for Affinity, Reality & Communication. We agreed that the group should continue to be called Colorado Kin Domains. Yuri introduced another topic gleaned from the Russian Forum: "How to build a team of friends." Most communities that survive have either a strong leader or a strong idea. He discussed the results of both of these and suggested that we consider having project leaders rather than a group leader. Project leaders would lead things they know well, like construction, road building, hay farming and harvesting, etc. Yury spoke of the need to think through our relationships with each other as neighbors. He made a very good point that we should consider making time NOW to collectively build something together, as well as time to be in nature together. He suggested that we each have activities we want to begin when we move to our Kin Domain settlement but that we should start those interests NOW with each other. For example, Yuri would like to open a tea house or gathering place for classes and Kin Domain information. Joyce would like to teach workshops on living in community as God-Self with God-Other. Irina would like to begin creating a healing garden for sick children and so on for the entire group. Each of us could begin leading group experiences around their own interests and expertise, NOW rather than after the Kin Domain settlement is established. We discussed how we would decide if a person is invited to stay in our group or what kind of filter we would use for bringing people into our settlement. Joyce stated why she could not be a part of "filtering" the group beyond the requirement that the settlement member has read all the books, agrees with the principles in them, and has the ability to participate. She mentioned awakening experiences from her past that have made her aware of every person as God gifting us with Love. It is each person's responsibility and ability to choose to recognize either God and Love, or Not-God and denial of Love. More discussion will had next meeting with the topic, "Freedom vs. Rules" and "Help vs. Work." Douglas reported that he had contacted people who have invented a domed living structure that is self heating and cooling. It can be reviewed at www.geo-gro.com One of the co-inventors of the building, Sarah, has already read through book three and is on book four of the Ringing Cedars Series. Douglas will also track a friend's experience in building a Yurt in the northwest and will report on the costs and results. Philip reported on land available in Southern New Mexico that has hot springs and several cabins on it. It is called Faywood Hot Springs and is near Silver City. It can be reviewed at www.faywood.com He also reported that Colorado is very restrictive in terms of allowing land divisions of less than 35 acres and that to do so via a subdivision would probably require a LOT of money to build the required infrastructure of electricity, sewage, water and community free space. We also discussed tax seized properties and BLM land which is occasionally sold. We discussed and decided to research the possibility of creating a business entity based on the land which could create a "village" style "business" operation. It was also suggested that we research proposing to the state or county the possibility of creating an experimental eco-village. Joyce reported on Foundations (private and public) vs charitable trusts (on shore and off shore). She recommended that the Foundation structure of a 501c(3) is probably best if the group needs to seek funds to accomplish their goals. If one or more of the members supply the funds, a trust (probably offshore) may very well be the best vehicle. Joyce also reported on land currently available in Colorado and costs of land in various areas (ranging from $322 per acre to $48,000 per acre). Available land was identified on a state map and passed around. No word has come back from the Shasta group who was contacted via email and phone message over two weeks ago. Oleg reported that they are swamped with calls and emails and don't have a person dedicated to the job of answering all of them. He suggested that we should think about how we will handle the same problem. Each person declared what assignment they wanted to take on for the next two weeks (see "This Week's Projects 10/30/08 for the listing) We agreed on the agenda for next week and decided to have TheLea invite Rick Tidrick to speak to us at the next meeting to share his experience with creating housing developments in Colorado. We finished the meeting around 11:30PM. Notes from 2nd official meeting 10-14-08 Meeting Agenda:
Attendees: (7) Philip and TheLea Scott, Joyce & Ben Morris, Yuri Kazantsev, Douglas and Lois Chambers We had a new member join our meeting, Yuri Kazantsev. Yuri is from Kasakstan and read the first book, Anastasia, in the very beginning when it was the only book available and not yet in stores (approx. year, 2005). He gave us reports of many things including the early people in Russia who started settlements and the problems they ran into. Most left the settlements and returned to the cities. Newer settlements are doing better. We spent quite a bit of time introducing ourselves to Yuri and asking him questions about his experiences related to the books. We decided that in the future when new guests join us, we will invite them to read our bios on this website in order to learn more about us and avoid the very time consuming (and repetitive) introduction process during our meeting. Reports: TheLea: Proposed a monthly gathering (meet & greet) of interested people who would like to get to know others who have read the series. She offered a building she owns near Denver University for the purpose. She reported that her real estate lawyer friend had started reading the first book. TheLea also reported that she had contacted some book stores and they are willing to post a flyer telling about our existence (somewhere in their store.) Philip: attended an energy fair or conference and reported that he felt we are a little early in our process to get too deeply into energy resources and options. We had a small discussion about on grid vs. off grid and realized we need to have that conversation a little later in our process. Ben: has set up a meeting with a grant writer for Friday. We each offered ideas that we could incorporate in order to attract grants. Details later in these notes. Joyce: reported that she had collected data for land costs in different regions around the state (in preparation for grant proposals and budget planning). She began researching regulations in the various counties and decided it would be better to identify land and then research only that county. She contacted the person listed as a Colorado distributor of Ringing Cedars Products and reported on that conversation. Yuri: reported on structure of kin domain group in California and recommended that we contact the group for information sharing. Discussions:
Some discussion of Colorado regulations and possible ways to work with the regulations. Mention of www.sustainablelivingsystems.com and how their energy efficient structures could be useful on kin domains. Some name suggestions were given (for our group name). We decided to accept name suggestions for several meetings until we have enough to warrant a bigger discussion and settle on a preference. Discussion of foundations vs. non profit and for profit structures. Concluded that we need more understanding of the structures. Research projects taken on by members (for reports next meeting):
Notes from 1st official meeting - 9/29/08 Meeting agenda:
We walked around Joyce's land tasting naturally growing edibles. Each person related their skills and talents: Lois Chambers: editing and proofreading, essential oils, alternative health care, medic, cats, music and theater, pools and spas (business), Political activities, Inventory Control, Research, Shopping and buying. Joyce Morris: website construction, plants and gardening (strong foundational knowledge), alternative home building, construction, Colorado zoning and water regulations, Business consultant, Business management, Systems design, Language expert and teacher, Group Process Facilitator, Spiritual teacher, home schooling, living in the new paradigm. Douglas Chambers: Medic, counselor @ State Prison, Ranching and farming, tractor maintenance, carpenter, house painting, alternative health, discernment of relative importance, medical device engineering. TheLea Brooks: Pilot, Ran a ground school, raised horses, taught dance, lecture and workshops, Alternative health care and healing, body care, self awareness teacher, business on a shoe string, catalizer and Networker, promotions, minister, organizer, creative (music, color, shape), Sacred Geometry and Sound, Nutrition, Boats, Youth Coach/mentor, Yoga, ceremony, building. Philip Brooks: Father of three, Architecture, Builder, Restoration Work/Remodels, Stabilizer & Grounding, Networking, manages a large construction crew. Ben Morris: Recreation Specialist at Federal Prison, Sports & Coaching (college level), Programming, networker, Developed At-risk Youth program being used nationally, Developed inmate business club (Rocky Mountain Club), Personal Trainer, Yoga Instructor (Viniyoga), minister, Spacial Organizer, enforcer (muscle and size). Each person shared their personal vision. Key points that were agreed on:
Each person determined the area on which they wished to focus and research:
Members/Expertise we need:
Use of the website, www.kindomains.info will be for before and after pictures of people, gardens, and kin domains. Next meeting agenda:
Meeting date and location determined: The Brooks' home in Longmont: 1236 - 3rd Ave. Click Here for Notes of First Unofficial Meeting when the group was formed.Click Here for Notes of First Unofficial Meeting when the group was formed.Click Here for Notes of First Unofficial Meeting when the group was formed. |
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