A MONTHLY EMAIL PUBLICATION of the FIC since 1999. March 28, 2004 1 FIC Events Coming up Soon, and Later This Year 2 Featured Bookshelf Title At Sale Price 3 Visions Of Utopia Video: Update On The DVD 4 Communities Magazine Issues & Call For Articles 5 We Want You! To Join The FIC _________________________________________________________________ 1 FIC EVENTS in APRIL, JUNE and in the FALL Fellowship (FIC) Organizational Meeting in April Communities Conferences in June and September _________________________________________________________________ Fellowship (FIC) Organizational Meeting April 30 to May 2, 2004 Hosted by Highline Crossing Cohousing Littleton, CO Highlights of this meeting include our 5-year strategic planning, looking at possibilities for collaborating with like-valued organizations, selecting new board members, review plans for an FIC event this coming fall in Florida, and initiating a new ritual of stringing a FIC bead necklace, symbolic of important events in the Fellowship's 17-year history. Come enjoy the stories and oral history of our organization. Cost will be for food and a cook which will be $20 per day. There is no fee for lodging in people's homes, camping, or on the floor in the common house with other attendees. The FIC's Evening Soiree will be 7-9 pm Saturday May 1 at our host community Highline Crossing. While everyone is welcome, we are making a special pitch to built (or nearly built) cohousing groups in the state, to talk about what's going on that you're excited about, and share with others where you'd like help. It will be a time for socializing and identifying resources -- both regional and national-- which can help us all get more community in our lives. We invite you to come and also to help us get the word out. Please post info at home and tell your community friends. Among other things, there will be a conversation about the possibility of doing a two-year training in dynamic meeting facilitation, especially geared toward Colorado cohousing groups. FIC and Highline will provide refreshments for this after dinner got together; we'll all be responsible for bringing good energy. Look forward to seeing you there. If you are interested in attending please register with me before April 16th. Jenny Upton 434-361-1417 Eastern time zone jennyup ( at ) cstone.net http://fic.ic.org/artofcmty.html ------------ THE FARM COMMUNITIES CONFERENCE & ACTIVIST SUMMIT Memorial Day Weekend May 28 - 30, 2004 Summertown, TN The Farm Communities Conference and Activist Summit Co-sponsored by The Fellowship of Intentional Communities and PeaceRoots Alliance. Organized and produced by Village Media Events. Things are shaping up for the next communities conference at The Farm in Summertown, Tennessee. Our theme this year is "Tools for Change" again with a focus on workshops that focus on community, sustainability and activism. We are developing a strong list of workshop presenters and offer here a look at a few of the people that will be on hand. Community Laird Schaub lives and breathes community. Laird is a heavy hitter for the FIC and a skilled mediator that travels the country facilitating and teaching the consensus process. Diana Christian is the editor of Communities Magazine and author of a new book, "Creating a Life Together," a step by step guide for building a community. Sustainability. Albert Bates is world renowned as a teacher of village design, permaculture, and is the founder of The Ecovillage Training Center on The Farm. Former Farm member Michael Sligh is now one of the primary people setting the standards for organic food production in this country. Michael O'Gorman works with small family farmers and farm cooperatives in Baja California, Mexico cultivating over 4000 acres of organic produce. Activism. In addition, Michael O'Gorman is president of PeaceRoots Alliance, a national network of peace activists with a central office based on The Farm. PeaceRoots actions include a "Wake Up America - Vote" billboard and poster campaign, and spreading the message of peace and nonviolence into public schools. Alan Graf of PeaceRoots and The Farm is an activist lawyer currently working in Portland, Oregon. His most recent cases focus on police violence against peaceful demonstrators and challenge a city ordinance targeting the homeless. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Visit our website where we will continue to list workshops and presenters and our schedule for the weekend. Meal Tickets. We would like to announce here a significant change from last year's conference: The cost for the conference is now $75, or $10 less than it was last year. However this year food is not included in the registration fee. Instead we will have meal tickets that can be purchased separately. The cost for 6 meals (Friday Supper through Sunday Lunch) is $25 when purchased in advance online, $35 at the door and meals can also be purchased individually. This has allowed us to keep our registration price down and enable people who are on a tight budget to save money by providing their own food. Free Video. Want to get a better feel for what our conference is like? Send for our FREE video, "The Farm Communities Conference and Activist Summit 2003, 7 minutes of highlights and testimonials, with a driving sound track by Strut, the Farm 2nd generation band, performing at last year's event. Please Contact us with any questions you may have. We look forward to seeing you! Douglas Stevenson Village Media Events/PeaceRoots Alliance/The Farm http://www.thefarmcommunity.com/conference Douglas ( at ) villagemedia.com Thomas ( at ) villagemedia.com ------------ COMMUNITIES CONFERENCE at TWIN OAKS An FIC Co-Sponsored Event * Labor Day Weekend September 3-5 Twin Oaks Community near Louisa Virginia We are excited to reunite our super duper organizing team to bring you the annual Communities Conference at Twin Oaks. With over 25 different communities represented annually, it is a prime opportunity to network amongst other community minded folks. It is an ideal event for people who are looking for community as well for those already living in community to share and learn from each others experiences. It is a co-created conference, with shining eyed people contributing their helping hands, ideas, perspectives and energy. There will be the famous Saturday night dance, campfires, singing, open space, workshops by experienced and dynamic presenters, the infamous mudpit, hammocks, good food and more. An unforgettable weekend for many! Join us at Twin Oaks' conference site in the woods! We'll be delving into the nuts and bolts of community with a variety of workshops: group decision-making, sustainability, intentional relationships, alternative building, creating healthy culture, group living skills, and more. Children are welcome. The Conference is co-sponsored by the Fellowship for Intentional Community, the Federation of Egalitarian Communities and Twin Oaks Community. Communities Conference at Twin Oaks 138 Twin Oaks Rd Louisa VA 23093 540-894-5126 conference ( at ) twinoaks.org http://www.twinoaks.org/conference _________________________________________________________________ 2 FEATURED BOOKSHELF TITLE at SALE PRICE by Alline Anderson, Community Bookshelf manager _________________________________________________________________ Superbia! 31 Ways to Create Sustainable Neighborhoods by Dan Chiras & Dave Wann 2003 | 230 pages | regular $20.00 sale price $16.00 (20% off) The dream of creating sustainable cities is a noble and inspiring one, but the harsh reality is that most people currently in the the suburbs. Transforming these areas -- as well as urban neighborhoods -- to serve people better and to reduce human impact on the environment would not only yield tremendous sustainability benefits, but is a process that can start right away. Superbia! is a book of fun and practical ideas for creating more socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable neighborhoods. The authors first trace the history of the suburbs, showing how they fail to meet many peoples' needs. They then describe how existing urban and suburban neighborhoods can be transformed using the authors' 31 steps that range from easiest to boldest, and include: -the creation of a neighborhood newsletter to foster a sense of neighborhood identity and cooperation -regular community dinners, discussion groups, and babysitting co-ops -the removal of backyard fences to create park -like spaces for community play areas and gardens retrofitting homes for energy efficiency, and installing community energy systems. Dozens of examples from all over North America and beyond provide real-life proof that citizens like you can create Superbia! -- especially with the most comprehensive resource listing imaginable that puts all the tools needed at your fingertips. Sale price $16.00 (20% off) http://store.ic.org/products/email-spec-offer-mar2004a.html Order online, by phone or mail order Shipping/handling as follows 3.00 S/H for first item 1.00 S/H for each additional item All prices shown here are for Standard Mail postal delivery within US. Enews special offers are valid through [[offerdate]]. Information, catalog, ordering and prices for delivery outside US http://store.ic.org/community-bookshelf.html Community Bookshelf RR 1 Box 156 Rutledge MO 63563 800-995-8342 bookshelf ( at ) ic ( dot ) org _________________________________________________________________ 3 VISIONS OF UTOPIA VIDEO: Update on the DVD Volume One now in DVD format Volume Two VHS Tape & DVD Status _________________________________________________________________ The master DVD for Visions of Utopia VHS/Volume One has been completed and is off at the replicator's for reproduction (they press them from a glass master instead of copying them electronically from a computer file -- much faster that way to produce copies in bulk, and the resulting disks are more reliable as well). And what an odyssey it has been setting this all up! Without going into the details, I ran into headache after headache in doing the conversion and making the new master -- in what should have been a fairly simple and straightforward. DVDs have five main advantages over the VHS format: 1) They're more compact and thus considerably smaller 2) The resolution is slightly better 3) There's no difference between US and other formats 4) They have chapter points -- so it's easy to begin with any segment or jump back and forth between chapters. 5) You'll never need to rewind the tape! SPECIAL DEALS These deals are available only from me -- NOT through the FIC offices or web. If you're already the proud owner of Volume #1 in VHS format, you can now buy a second copy of that volume in DVD format for only $10 postpaid. I expect to have these in hand and ready to ship by April 10th. Offer good through 12/31/04. And if you ordered both tapes (i.e. both volumes, including everyone who ordered the video prior to Sept 2001) you can switch your Tape #2 over to DVD format if you'd prefer. To take advantage of either or both offers, email geoph ( at ) ic ( dot ) org ANTICIPATED VOLUME TWO RELEASE DATE: I've been sidetracked on the production of Volume #2 -- the 2004 elections have got my attention and considerable energy -- so I'm not expecting to release it until next year (simultaneously in both VHS and DVD formats). I apologize for the additional delay, but it seems to me it's a high priority to take actions to make the world safe for intentional communities! -Geoph Kozeny Producer/Director To get a VHS copy of Volume One now for yourself or to share with your friends: Volume One | 94 minutes color | VHS (American) or PAL (European) $30 plus $3 S/H standard mail in US Check our website, next month's eNews or email us to check availability of Volume One in DVD format. More info and order online http://store.ic.org/products/visions-of-utopia-video.html http://fic.ic.org/video Geoph