Greetings folks herewith is the April update :: We aim to be bringing news of other new and emerging projects and activities in next ones.
Sustainable Living Intentional Communities (SLIC established in 2004) is a dedicated focus group of the Sustainable Living Foundation Inc. – volunteers –seeking to change the way we live in society, to connect people into community and live with the values of stewardship and a minimal eco footprint. The SLF SLIC website is under construction.
CONTENTS
□ E-Cohousing Heidelberg model update
□ Vicurban Cohousing projects
□ Community and Ecology Conference
□ Festival report
□ SLIC at the Festival & Augustine Centre meeting follow-up
□ SLIC strategy planning workshop Commonground
□ Circulate and publicise survey form – send out to friends and networks
□ Philosophy – Objects
□ Bulletin postings
We do not inherit the world from our parents, we borrow it from our children" - Mahatma Gandhi
E-Co-Housing HEIDELBERG MODEL UPDATE (Iain Walker)
A huge amount of interest over the past year has been generated as word has got out and further from the Festival and the seminars
The CERC program, a key Victorian Housing Association, with over 100 Co-ops throughout Victoria, have signed to purchase and consolidate 3 large blocks and have agreed to pursue the implementation of this innovative E-Co-Housing project – 16 strata titled households proposed and a Community House and other community – shared amenities/facilities.
Concept plans have been drawn and Council contacted and now the Architect and project build team are costing and firming up these draft plans and undertaking detailed feasibility for the project: negotiating with council and quantity surveyor planning permits, financing etc. etc
In the meantime Earth Cooperative, who are part of the CERC program, with support from the volunteer project support/reference group (including various experts) are working on plans for the many associated activities and issues:-
1. Exploring researching - Developing draft objects, rules, policies, procedures re the operation of the Co-housing Owners’ Corporate (drawing on wide range of experience from our own co-op ane the other intentional communities in Australia and o/s).
2. Marketing plans for the project: designing expression of interest registration procedures for purchasers;
3. Developing documentation, brochures etc.
4. Preparing a training and community-building program for residents etc.
5. Developing website
6. Earth Cooperative: all the myriad of tasks associated with the large increase in size of the Cooperative, preparing for new member selection and training. (We have been a very successful small Co-op for 22+ years and this is a huge and some would say far-reaching step for us). Changing out modus operandi and admin systems etc etc.
7. We have taken this decisions with trust and, we hope with vision and courage, to promote this model which we hope provides leadership and a beacon example of living together (still with our own private spaces) in a more harmonious-less isolated, more affordably and in a more environmentally caring/stewardship way
8. The plan is for some of these units to be allocated to Earth Cooperative (as part of the CERC program) and the rest sold to the private market on individual strata title normal sales and financing method.
Questions asked to date – examples
□ How could we be involved?
□ What standard will the ECO design and build be?
□ How green will it be?
□ Are the two other blocks already purchased?
□ Did your Housing association buy them?
□ Do you need commitment at this end of the project or to be involved?
□ Do we need to be ready to purchase one of the units at the end?
□ Is there someone we can be directed to?
□ Are there documents already prepared?
□ Are there any mature trees on the site?
□ When will the group be ready to have people look at the site?
□ Are there plans to expand the CERC membership?
□ What is the timeline and procedures>
□ Do you have contracts yet?
We are working on the above and plan, in the next update and on the developing website, to address these and other FAQ’s.
VICURBAN UPDATE (Andrew Partos)
There is growing enthusiasm in VicUrban to get CoHousing up and running on a VicUrban project soon!
VicUrban continue to investigate potential sites for co-housing across their development sites. A number of good sites have been identified over the last couple of months and VicUrban is looking forward to working with Cohousing groups in the near future. There are a number of strategies that VicUrban is investigating to assist cohousing groups establish new communities on VicUrban Sites. We hope to have these strategies resolved in the next few weeks – stay tuned!
SLIC and VicUrban’s register of people interested in Cohousing is continuing to grow. As of 1 April, approximately 130 people have registered their interest. With some ‘targeted’ marketing in the near future, we expect these numbers to increase dramatically.
SLF FESTIVAL REPORT (Luke Taylor)
Another year has passed and congratulations to everyone for helping to deliver a fantastic Sustainable Living Festival. Overall, we felt the event ran very successfully and we were pleased with the general layout and content of the Festival. The feedback has been very positive. There was a great atmosphere over the weekend, the weather was fabulous and the crowd numbers were higher.
For 2008, it is estimated that there were around 129,000 visits.
318 volunteers were recorded over the weekend (246 last year). That included 437 individual volunteer shifts.
Sustainable Living Intentional Communities
AT THE FESTIVAL & MEETING AT AUGUSTINE CENTRE (Giselle Wilkinson)
The Focus Group team ran a well-attended forum on the Sunday morning. For those who didn’t make it Phil Bourne (Common Ground) introduced the subject and general discussion followed led by Peter Cock (Moora Moora), Andrew Partos (Co-Housing), Tony Kidd (Merri Co-housing) and Giselle Wilkinson (Earth CERC).
The discussion was interactive and covered some historical perspectives, current activities and developments in Victoria and Australia, intentional community trends, possibilities and directions, networking possibilities and some information on European and North America developments.
The SLIC marquee was well peopled by the team including also Andrew Walker-Morison and was one of the most vibrant stalls on site. Many individual discussions took place covering the many variations and models of intentional living in community and looking at some of the emerging opportunities. A good number of surveys were filled out adding many ore names to the rapidly growing database of people interested in intentional communities and in general and co-housing in particular. The forum subsequently held at the Augustine Centre was well promoted as evidenced by the full house of enthusiastic people interested in Co-housing options for living in Melbourne.
COMMUNITY AND ECOLOGY CONFERENCE, 26th – 28th March, Melbourne
People and places in a changing world: How community development engages the need for change to meet ecological sustainability.
At a time when there is a growing concern about changing environmental conditions and the effect on communities, a conference of this nature is timely. Community Development can provide alternate pathways through new theoretical paradigms and creative responses about how we view our place on this fragile planet. By critiquing the government and mainstream inaction/denial we can lead the way towards solutions for preventing global warming.
Sustainable Living Intentional Communities (SLIC) presented a community workshop covering:
□ Overview of Intentional Communities movement and SLIC
□ Research in Denmark etc
□ Current Initiatives
□ E-Co-Housing: The Heidelberg Model
□ With an extra impromptu session held over lunch allowing plenty of relaxed time for questions and discussion
Strategic Planning Workshop
Sustainable Living Intentional Communities (SLIC) Strategic Planning Workshop for the ongoing work of SLIC took place at Commonground –Seymour on 10th & 11th April. Anyone interested in strategy planning for the intentional community movement and in particular, setting goals, projects and priorities including next year’s festival for the coming twelve months please make contact.
SLIC: Contacts at this stage
Phone contact --- lain Walker - 0422 951 096
Email: iain@earth.org.au
PHILOSOPHY Aims, goals Values ---- SLIC started with
Our objectives! ... One of many ways of viewing it ..… Well Iain Walker’s anyway ...
To support implementation of Intentional models of living, eco-villages, co-housing, co-operatives, communes, etc, that provide alternatives to the alienation, energy consumption, and destructiveness of communities and the broader environment that the McMansion and individual /divided house, urban sprawl models of housing provides.
Sustainable Living Intentional Communities (SLIC)
Vision
A society that has ecologically sustainable intentional community as an available housing and lifestyle option.
(Intentional Community includes rural and urban housing co- operatives, communes, ecovillages, cohousing and similar initiatives)
Aims
SLIC aims to achieve its vision by:-
Promoting intentional community to the broader society.
Supporting those people engaged in or developing intentional community.
Advocating to government, developers and other relevant organizations to create structural change that facilitates intentional community.
BULLETIN AND POSTINGS ::Most folk will be getting this via their registration of interest/survey for more news, from the SLF festival or subsequent seminars etc. This will be posted also onto other Cohousing - Intentional bulletins which some of you may belong to.