(No offense to Neanderthals, who were probably actually better and more knowledgeable permaculturists than we are)
I want to have this charette at our
land (we are a community that runs a nonprofit for teaching West African spirit practice and redirecting disempowering energies, who own 20 acres in Upstate NY). I want to fund inviting a whole bunch (5) of
permaculture designers (including someone who is not white!!! that would be super-important! as well as the fact that this person is the best person for the job, in my opinion, because she understands community, and it would be worth the cost of a few expensive plane tickets to get her here) so that we have a variety of viewpoints. I estimate that it would cost $10,270 total. We'd need to raise another $5000 for legal survey cost and we have other immediate expenses, we need to raise that anyway, but I'm trying to keep this as my own independent
project that will serve the community.
Afteward, we could have one of the designers do the specific design and implement the build based off the ideas that the whole group has come up with.
The reasons for this are several:
* to include the best permacutlure match for our needs, since she assumes our values (community, community, community, and spirit) as primary in the way you build a building as well as what you build it for; also for cultural, spiritual reasons.
* to include a variety of perpsectives is in the spirit of "it takes a village to raise a child." It makes no sense for us to have a competition process and pick just one; it makes all the sense in the world to hire all of them!
* It would be in the spirit of
permaculture: many elements serving the function (of design), and creating community among designers, an opportunity for them to exchange perspectives and knowledge.
* the last point is also stacking functions
* it just feels like the right thing to do
* it also feels like thinking abundantly rather than looking for the cheap way of doing things
* it will be a stronger design for having everyone's blind spots covered by another's sight
* It is more people-care to hire more
permaculture designers.
If we don't do this, we could at least get the project funded if we got $5600 for the nearest permaculturist to give a rough overview and tell us what needs to be done, plus a "Water Study" (needed for EPA regulation compliance and Dept. of Making You Sad)
I think this could practically fund itself. I saw Paul Wheaton's campaign fund itself--and go over twice the needed budget! and maybe we're not as cool or hip or popular as Paul Wheaton, but our spiritual teacher is pretty famous, and the passion of those who resonate with what the tribe he is from teaches is great.
Also of note is that our mission--to redirect disempowering energies--means being welcoming to the
city folk but not of them. In other words, to have a public face, to let Caesar fund Caesar in a sense. We need to say "Yes, and" rather than "No, but" to the running a non-profit thing and the meeting regulations and public expectations thing. We had a woman from New Orleans come to a grief ritual last year (a grief ritual is one of our simplest and most powerful rituals) and we were able to hold the space for her, in ritual, to release the grief of the astounding brutality of what she'd witnessed there and been powerless to prevent. This is our work. Until there is a grief ritual self-orgnanizing in New Orleans so that people can go there, we are to be here for those who need it. The ancestors want this, I am quite sure.
Here are my questions:
* do you have any advice about how to go about this campaign? (I see no reason not to try it)
* how important is it to give something in return--other than the satisfaction of having intervened at a good leverage point, and making it more likely that a spiritual teaching center will be built sustainably rather than hiring conventional contractors, etc.?
* what would we give as a thank you--
* video tour of the land?
* video of the charette?
* chance to stay on the land for a night?
* what resources would you recommend for learning how to run a crowdsourcing campaign? what advice or limiting ideas would you ignore?
***_I posted this under
intentional community because we are all about community. Not that we're always great at it, or always nice to each other. We're not. We're horrible to each other sometimes. But we make up and move on. We've got heart, and the thing that's gotten stuff done, the one thing that we've done right consistently and has consistently motivated any action on our part is the sense of belonging this work gives us. When we do things as a community we do them; when we try to do them any other way, no matter how smart, efficient, commonsense, practical, or even sane, it just fizzles. So I am really looking for feedback from people who are community-first in their worldview. *** If mods really want to move it somewhere else, then OK, but I think this is the best fit for where it goes. We aren't a live-in community yet, but having a
permaculture design for our land (that can have it sustain us and wildlife in balance) is a big part of our vision. To be a living African village means people live in the village, rather than only visiting it once in a while. I've had a dream where I lived on the land and we were eating the food we'd grown and I felt so much healthier than I had in years.
Thanks so much, friends!!!
