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November 26, 2022  

Georgia Senate Runoff Election 2022

Schedule your Free Ride to the Polls

Voter Information

Volunteer

This information is provided by The Flip Project 

The English Free Ride QR code comes here

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Eleccion Segunda Vuelta al Senado 2022 de Georgia

Ordena tu Transporte Gratis a las Urnas

Informacion al Votante:

Alistarse como voluntario:

Esta informacion es proporcionada por The Flip Project 

The English Free Ride QR code comes here

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November 24, 2022  

Canvassing for Warnock

Canvassing with Warnock 

As a door to door canvasser, your better days are the ones when you get to tell someone at the door something that they might really be able to use.  I canvassed with Warnock last week, and it was definitely a better day.  I had two pieces of useful information.

The first is that I distributed a little calendar of the upcoming runoff special election.  It showed the dates for early voting and gave QR codes for the closest polling place.  I was happy to give out this card, and a handful of people, in the 42 houses I knocked on doors in East Atlanta, were happy to get the information.

But the thing which got the most response was when I told them that if they voted early, their names would drop out of the call-back rosters and that they would get few phone calls and emails!  This seemed to ramp up the enthusiasm for a shortened early voting period.  [As part of the wave of “election integrity” legislation passed by Republicans, the runoff campaign is half as long in its total length, it has fewer days of early voting, fewer drop boxes and has more restrictions on in-person and absentee voting.]

As an enthusiastic canvasser, you have to think about your audience.  If your prospective voter is over 60, it is more likely they want the physical address written down, of which there is a place for on this form.  But most of my younger voters were happy to be directed by the scan code. Thus, I could save the literature, which had the polling places and addresses on it, for the people I spoke with who wanted just that.

The first house I canvassed was one of the fanciest.

We encourage everyone who works for the Flip Project to spend time canvassing, because we want them to know what outreach methods they are outperforming.  Our work on promoting free ride-shares, especially in non-English languages where we have good translators and existing assets will get more people voting than the half dozen Georgia residents I talked with on that brisk morning.

November 19, 2022  

Why Georgia

In 2020, it was obvious. We had just finished campaigning in Maine to unseat nationally unpopular Susan Collins. Our team was exhausted, but we knew control of the Senate would rest on the results of the 2 Georgia runoffs. We decided to bring part of our Maine team (and a few new friends as well) to Georgia, where we won, twice. Our calculated gamble saved us from two more years of Moscow Mitch McConnell’s gridlock.  

In 2022, it is less obvious. As the smoke clears on the midterms, we know several things: 

1) The polls were wrong and there was no red wave.  

2) The Democrats maintained control of the US Senate. 

3) It still makes sense nationally to return for this year’s Georgia runoff to get that 51st seat.

“But if we have the Senate, and the Republicans hold the House,” you might ask, “Aren’t we just looking at two years of legislative gridlock? Why bother?” 

There are three main reasons. 

  1. First off, judicial appointments are determined by the Senate, and do not require a House vote. Unlike the 50 seat situation where the VP must constantly break ties, 51 is a real majority that is harder for the endlessly obstructionist Republicans to slow down.  As we know from a collection of recent judicial decisions from the reversal of Roe v Wade to letting Trump off the hook for his crimes, judges matter.  Experts tell us that the 51 seat majority will significantly increase the number of federal judges who get appointed. Currently, with both parties having equal numbers on every committee, every judicial vote has to go to the full Senate where VP Harris breaks ties. With 51 seats, majority control of all committees goes to the Democrats.
  1. With 51 votes, we don’t have Joe Manchin as de facto president. Currently, the even 50/50 split means big legislation (like Biden’s Build Back Better bill) can be held hostage by a single Senator. This happened with Biden’s infrastructure bill, Manchin killed it and delayed passage of the much smaller package by almost a year.

Manchin protects Oil Companies profits over his constituents 

  1. Truthfully, a bunch of these senators are quite old and one may well die during their term (and/or retire due to illness or scandal). This would spark a snap election in some states which will again determine control of the chamber, while in others the governor may appoint an interim replacement to fill the seat until the next regularly scheduled statewide general election. Some states require that the interim senator is the political party as the senator leaving office, but not all of them. The 51st seat is vital insurance that we won’t be in this bad situation yet again in a few months – or still worse. 

Soooo…. We’re coming back to Georgia in force. 

We’ll be drawing from a number of successful techniques learned in 2020. We aim to do things that are more effective than door to door canvassing, and reach people who might not open their door to a stranger/canvasser. How impactful? In 2020, along with our partner Block Power, our ATL VoteTree activation helped deliver 24K votes. With a 93K vote margin in the Warnock race, our collective effort represented 23% of the vote.

Like last time, our nimble boots-on-the-ground team will be guided by the Warnock campaign, nonprofit strategists, and will be well-positioned to capitalize on opportunities as they arise. We aim to deliver sticky art/music activations and blaze a path to the polls by empowering free rides to the polls in multiple languages. It’s the kind of bold, creative stuff that creates big buzz and big impact.

In the face of a cacophony of noise and profound voter fatigue, the days of knock-and-drop canvassing are over. We’re returning to Georgia to help take the Warnock campaign to the finish line.
And We. Will. Win.

We’re grateful for introductions, energy, and of course, your financial support– and for the next few days, an anonymous donor will match your contribution. Thank you!

If you want to volunteer your time please write quickly to paxus@twinoaks.org or better 541-505-0803

We’re currently looking for new people to help with:

Remote (air team support from your home)

  • Fundraising
  • Demographic and voter data analysis
  • Social media campaign

Ground Team in Atlanta

  • Street theater and public events
  • Door knock with the Warnock campaign
  • Distribute posters, flyers, signs, and business cards reminding people to vote, and how they can get a free ride to (and from) the polls, especially in non-English speaking parts of the city
November 8, 2022  

Like your life depends on it

Shal asked me to use this platform to encourage people to vote and i wish i had done it earier.

I choose this image because this election, more than any in my life is about privilege. If the Republicans win, it will mean everyone who is not a straight white male is going to lose rights. It means Trump will have won in bringing the country to a post truth age, where the bigger your lie and the larger your platform (i’m looking at you Fox News) the greater the deception you can perpetrate and the more crimes you can get away for unpublished.

So my ask is that you increase your game. If you have voted, please do some phone banking. If you are already phone banking, call your old friend who used to warn about creeping authoritarianism and ask them to do some as well. And of course, if you have not managed to get out and vote, please do at least that, otherwise you are likely to deeply regret it.

There are lots of close election, there are lots of places to work.

September 19, 2022  

QuinkFair Program

Running Program QuinkFair 2022

(not all confirmed*, times in flux)  

* All of these presenters have indicated that they want to do a workshop.  Some have specified these things, others are just known for these things and we are guessing.

Friday Sept 23, 2022

Schedule 

  • 10am – Gates officially open / Orientation
  • 12pm – Lunch
  • 1pm to 5pm – Afternoon Workshops
  • 5pm – Welcome and opening ceremony
  • 6pm – Dinner
  • 8pm – Talent Show – Jade as MC
  • After the Talent Show – Dancing with DJ Arrow Chrome
  • * * Temple of Oracles open into the wee hours of the morning

Afternoon Workshops 1pm – 5pm

Saturday Sept 24, 2022

Schedule

  • Morning- yoga with Sarah Haley 
  • 8am Breakfast
  • 10 am Meet the Communities 
  • 12pm- Lunch
  • Temple of Oracles open all afternoon
  • 6pm- Dinner
  • 8pm – Effigy Burn fire spinners and dancing with Rio as MC
  • After Burn – Conscious Cuddle Party hosted by  Wolf
  • ** Temple of Oracles open into the wee hours of the morning

Workshops start at 1pm

Sunday Sept 25, 2022

Schedule

  • Morning Yoga with Coach Jade
  • 8am – Breakfast
  • 9am to 12pm – Sunday Morning Workshops
  • 12pm- Lunch
  • 1pm QuinkFair closing celebration, ritual and farewell
  • 2pm – 5pm Open Space Workshops and other possible events
  • 6pm- Dinner
  • Temple Burn

Morning Workshops – 9am to 12pm

Afternoon – Open Space Technology by you (you can present your own workshop)

Monday Sept 26, 2022

  • Morning – Tours of local communities
  • 12pm – Lunch 
  • 2pm- General attendees depart, some volunteers stay to help clean up

If this is compelling to you there is still time to buy tickets, until Thursday morning. We also have

discount and scholarship tickets available, call 541-505-0803 for more information.

September 14, 2022  

QuinkFair DC Dumpster Dive 9/19/22

My stock advice to activists on what campaigns they should pursue is “join the one where the people working on the issue inspire you”. Next week i get to follow my own advice. There are lots of different approaches to dumpster diving. My favorite is risking getting quite filthy combined with making it a fun adventure. This is where Peaches shines.

Peaches is always happy to lead people new to dumpster diving into the art. They have reliable places they know in the DC metro area, but there are always shifts, old sites converting to compactors and new ventures opening up that are often more wasteful than their established counter parts. On our last dive Peaches took us to pop up convenience stores which throw out all manner of products, we scored 30 boxes of 10 vape pens, with a retail value about $3K.

Peaches = Good divers are light on their feet

If you are not comfortable jumping into a dumpster, there is still a way for you to help out. Specifically, when the dive is finished at 3 or 4 AM you can be part of the crew which processes the treasure we have hauled in. This includes sorting, cleaning, compost handling and in some cases cooking.

All of this is being staged out of Casa Peaches in NW Washington DC quite late Monday Sept 19th and very early in the morning on Tuesday Sept 20th. Here is the Facebook event, and if you are not on Facebook, but want to come (especially if you need a ride) contact paxus@twinoaks.org

Box, gloves, head lamp, poker stick – a well-equipped diver

If you are still trying to decide if you want to come to QuinkFair (Sept 23 thru 26), here is the draft program.

August 14, 2022  

Riddle Garden

“How is a raven like a writing desk?” It sounds familiar, it’s a riddle you have heard before, but you can’t remember the answer. It won’t help you when i tell you it was written by Lewis Carroll.

It is not a complicated dream, but i have not been able to manifest it. I want to build a riddle garden.

Many of the places i live are wooded. Forests are the right venue for this type of chaotic, temporary micro gallery. And the plan is to pepper trees with posted riddles and then you can lift up the riddle to reveal the answer (or possibly an explanation or history in place of an answer).

Clouds

When i lived at Cambia, one of the gentle challenges was for members to build sustainability exhibitions. And while i did not have a conventional sustainability exhibit, it made me think what i was actually excited about was creating a display of different riddles and types of riddles.

What makes this year different from all the times i have failed at this in the past? Well, this time there are conference and festival interns. Ogtar, Orion, Dash (formerly Bee) have all been helping make different events happening in Louisa this summer and fall possible. And they are excited about making the riddle garden happen.

We are looking at four classes of riddles: historic, logical, nonsense and literary. It is unclear if they will be separated by zone in the garden and we are still gathering materials. If you want to help, you can email me or drop your riddles into the comment section below.

But why is a raven like a writing desk? It turns out that when Carroll crafted this riddle, the plan was for it to be a riddle without an answer. But Carroll’s fans were quite dissatisfied with this non answer.

Lewis Carroll himself got bugged about this so much that he was moved to write the following in the preface to the 1896 edition of his book:

Enquiries have been so often addressed to me, as to whether any answer to the Hatter’s Riddle can be imagined, that I may as well put on record here what seems to me to be a fairly appropriate answer, viz: ‘Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front!’ This, however, is merely an afterthought; the Riddle, as originally invented, had no answer at all.

Here Carroll is intentional misspelling of “never” as “nevar” which is raven spelled backwards.

August 10, 2022  

Workshops at the Communities Conference

Approved Workshops for Twin Oaks Communities Conference September 2-5, 2022

These are the approved workshops for this year’s Communities Conference, with links to the community or organizational affiliation of the presenter under their name.

  1. Aging in Community – Raines Cohen
  2. Alleged Urban Squatting Workshop – Peaches
  3. An FEC Community in Costa Rica? – Keenan Dakota & Lyndya Geiger Ross
  4. Apocalyptic Wakanda & Zion  Building a New World – Aleta Toure
  5. Authentic Relating in Community – Mike Jadoo
  6. Biophilic EcoVillage Design & Building – Fred Oesch
  7. Can You Power Your Community Entirely With Renewable Energy? Alexis LEF
  8. Collaborative Community Design – Moonraven 
  9. Community Business: Making Money Together! – Xander Astra
  10. Community Legal Workshop – Jenny Hoffpauir 
  11. Community Singing: the Craft of Co-Enchantment – Craig & Cleo Green
  12. Funding ICs thru Airbnb Rentals & Retreats – David Vanderveer & Victoria Bryant
  13. I Didn’t Mean It That Way: Identity-Related Harm in Cmty – Crystal Farmer
  14. Panel: Starting POC Communities
  15. Panel: Stump the Chumps
  16. Politics, oppression, and creative forms of liberation – Gil & Ella Cambia
  17. Quilombos Culture for EcoVillages & Intentional Communities – Macaco
  18. The Revolution Will be Indigenized – Roberto Mendoza
  19. Transforming Founder’s Syndrome – Cecile Green
  20. Travelers in Community – Ozgard

Below is the summary workshop description and presenter biographies.  

Aging in Community

Whether or not your community is (or plans) to be intergenerational or senior-focused, you need to be preparing for members getting older — it’s a natural part of all our lives. By consciously approaching aging and building collective community consciousness about it, you can make it much more likely that you and your neighbors will be able to not just stay in their homes longer, but also help everyone, from birth on up, experience longer, healthier, richer lives.

While many traditional approaches to “Aging in Place” focus on the “deficits” and physical, social, financial, and mental issues, ICs are full of opportunities for “positive aging” where our unique lives as elders and age diversity can become a strength..

We’ll look at examples from many different kinds of communities that have successfully laid the groundwork, share what we’ve seen in (or anticipate in) our own communities, and together help each other create a plan and path to take home. Join us for lively discussion, role-playing, and simulations, plus sharing of established and home-grown resources to bring back to our communities and a network to support each other in continued connection.

Raines Cohen is a Community Organizer. Facilitator. Cohousing Coach. EcoVillage Ambassador. Aging-in-Community Author. Certified Senior Advisor. Certified Sage-ing Leader. Founding Member, Elders Action Net. Past board, FIC/Coho/US. Leader, East Bay Cohousing/Cohousing CA. Living in community in Berkeley, CA.

Alleged Urban Squatting Workshop (draft desc) 

Squatters have no rights in the US, but some tenants pay no rent – and tenants do have rights. This workshop explores no rent and low rent tenancy in metro areas like DC which have good tenant protection legislation.

How can you find such a place? Public records and other no rent pioneers can be some of your guides. How to respond to aggressive landlords to your legal advantage and how to maintain good relations with neighbors who are burdened with conventional rents.

Peach’s will share the short version of how they landed in a lovely home in DuPont Circle for the cost of parking and how they are sharing this bounty.

Peaches is the only sales rep for Southern Exposure Seed Exchanges Wholesale business and runs a bike repair service in DC.  They are also the driving force behind Casa Peaches which houses activist, abortion refugees and legally disadvantaged international.  They have lived in several intentional communities and communes.

An FEC Community in Costa Rica?

There is a 200 acre of land in Costa Rica that has two houses and a big concrete dome. A group of people are going to try to start an FEC-style community on that property starting October 1st 2022.

Keenan has lived at Twin Oaks for 35 years.

Lyndya Geiger Ross:  Lyndya lives in Costa Rica.  She is associated with La Finca de La Tierra Nueva. Lynda is also associated with the Foundation that has been developing this property for 20 years. She will happily answer questions about westerners choosing to live in Costa Rica. 

Finca de la Tierra Nueva – Costa Rica

Apocalyptic Wakanda (Panther) & Zion (Matrix) and Building a New World

We are not going back to normal.  African Americans are reviving the Black Cooperative Movement by replacing our assimilation amnesia with a Liberated Zone training ground.  Some call it Beloved Community, Some call it African Time banking Village. We call it LandCorps.   Hear from three cooperative members of Parable of the Sower Intentional Community as they build it (community) so they will come.

Aleta Toure  homeschooling mother, community organizer, filmmaker, Mindfulness practitioner, dancer, & visionary.Yehudit Chef, clothing designer, Peoples, jewelry franchise owner, youth organizer, & dancer.  Justice – Kayaker, environmental justice worker,  cooperative bicycle worker & gamer.

Authentic Relating in Community

Authentic Relating (AR) is the practice of freely expressing yourself with others in order to bring about a richer human experience.   This practice of free expression to bring about a more truthful human experience builds on the Quink community of self-reflection and positive shifts for one’s own life and community.  

Expressing in a more truthful way enables connections in the world based on who you really are. 

When practicing Authentic Relating we keep the 5 Practices of Authentic Relating in mind:

1.    Welcome Everything – We welcome everything that arises in our field of awareness, in ourselves, in others, and in the world

2.    Assume Nothing – We notice our assumptions of people and situations, and check them out with others

3.    Reveal Your Experience – We let ourselves be seen, known, heard, and touched as who we really are, and invite others into our worlds

4.    Own Your Experience – We take full responsibility for whatever we experience, and for having an impact on others

5.    Honor Self / Honor Other – We honor our own needs and wants while also honoring the needs and wants of others

Mike Jadoo have over participated in many Authentic Relating workshops.  He recently completed the Authentic Relating Training (ART) Level 3  and is ready to serve the community by providing AR games.   He has previously hosted  many NVC practice groups and book readings. 

Biophilic EcoVillage Design & Building

Earth’s climate and our man-made environment is at a tipping point. Intentional Community designers and builders must embrace a more urgent and far reaching purpose and responsibility, in ways that nourish and regenerate the health and beauty of our built environment and planet. This presentation will cover EcoVillage state-of-the-art practices and conceptual future systems and methods needed to create a regenerative built environment and organic buildings that embrace accountability with respect to climate change and quality of life. Inspiring current opportunities and evolving case studies will be explored.

Fred Øesch (“Esch”) is the principal of Øesch Environmental Design in Charlottesville, VA. An award winning Design / Build firm, Øesch has produced EcoVillage Master Planning, Architecture, and Interiors utilizing healthful, energy efficient, regenerative organic materials and methods.

Cville EcoVillage

Collaborative Community Design

Many people think about or try to start communities by putting out all the things that they want.  In this workshop, a small group of participants will design a potential community by each putting out a few things they want and seeing what collective design emerges.

Raven is a long time communard (Common Threads, Ganas, Cotyledon, Glomus Commune) now attempting to build an income-sharing community in New England.  Also 70 yo white cis man.

Community Business: Making Money Together!

Want to know how to start a community business!? 

Want to make your existing businesses more profitable?!

Too frequently we see communities fail over getting the bills paid or just never start for lack of funds!! Let’s talk about how you can hate capitalism and still make that money.

The history of intentional communities  is filled with fascinating examples of communal businesses! Let’s learn from other communities successes and failures!

Leverage the skills, knowledge, and support of the amazing people around you!

Learn about some the newest tools and cutting -edge concepts from Startup Culture!

Running a local small business and regional manufacturing can be a radical act!

Leave this workshop with a new business plan that will align with your community values, make the world a better place, and pay the bills!

Xander Astra is a Designer and Inventor from the San Francisco Warehome Communities.

He has launched 60+ Mass Products, Started 3 Community Businesses, Won National Business Competitions, Blah, Blah, Blah… He thinks we should steal some ideas from Silicon Valley to make Capitalism suck less!

Community Legal Workshop 

When should a new community seek tax exempt status?  Is an LLC enough legal protection for the members to pool money and start covering expenses together?  Do we have to be religious to be a monastery?  What are the advantages of a land trust?  We are doing public service work in our community, should we become a B corp?  These questions are examples of what you might be interested in exploring in this legal clinic.

This workshop is designed for people who are in the forming stages of an intentional community or wish to understand these legal and tax structures.  Jenny will start with a basic presentation and then take questions from the attendees, answering both specifics and sharing general principles which are more broadly applicable.

Jenny Hoffpauir is a lawyer and experienced communard who helps forming communities navigate the various legal, financing and other landscapes to create lasting structures which reflect community values. Jenny has particular expertise in the structures and agreements which enable income sharing communes.

Community Singing: the Craft of Co-Enchantment

Joining voices in song can nourish intimacy, enthusiasm and shared vision in community life. In this workshop we’ll explore the craft of growing co-empowering vocal communities in diverse contexts of work and play, celebration and grief. We’ll practice co-enchantment, sharing dynamic and easily learned songs accessible to all. If you can talk you can sing! 

Craig and Cleo have spent decades living and singing in community. Out of this experience they’ve grown “The Contemplayful Songbook: a Field Guide to Co-enchantment.” They are members of Charis, a small regenerative community near Charlottesville. 

Can You Power Your Community Entirely With Renewable Energy?

Energy Permaculture means energy embedded in a community context. Living Energy Farm has pioneered energy systems based on battery-less solar power, as well as durable battery systems, biogas, woodgas, and other durable, affordable renewable energy technologies, all in a context of self-sustaining community. No energy bills, no battery replacement costs, energy systems that last the rest of your life. Ask questions, find answers, and grow our community’s future.

Alexis Ziegler is the founder and chief technologist at Living Energy Farm in Louisa Virginia.  LEF is working both locally and internationally to bring appropriate, low cost, clean energy solutions to individuals and intentional communities.

Air-based Active Solar Space Heating

Funding Intentional Communities through Unique Airbnb Rentals and Retreats

We will explain the history of the White Lotus Eco Spa Retreat and how it has evolved into a community of people that work and live together. Community members contribute by helping manage, repair, and expand the retreat center and Airbnb units.  We also provide space for events and retreats as well as creating our own. The community began with just 5 people and one building on 3 acres and now have a full time community of 13 people, 17 Airbnb units, and 125 acres.  As we develop spaces on the land, we rent them out and use that income to add more spaces on the property that are both for the community and guests. Some of the amenities we have for our community members and guests are a sauna, cool dip pool, movie theater, meditation room, massage room, conference rooms, kitchens, ponds, gardens, frisbee golf, outdoor fire place, paddle boat, and nature trails. Our community organically grew out of friendships and part time guests that decided to make this their permanent home.  Community members all have unique talents and skills that are given opportunity to flourish and contribute to our lives as well add to our guests’ experiences while they are here.  

David VanDerveer, founder and architect of The White Lotus Eco Spa Retreat has worked professionally as an electronic technician, D.J, videographer,  chef,  yoga instructor, builder, and  heavy equipment operator, but he is best known as an international comedy juggler. 

Victoria Bryant is an educator, performing artist, and serves as the event manager at the White Lotus. She has been a resident there for almost two years and enjoys planning as well as hosting events that bring the community and guests together to celebrate and connect with one another.

White Lotus Eco Spa Retreat

I Didn’t Mean It That Way: Identity-Related Harm in Community

When marginalized people experience harm in a community, they often withdraw from community life or leave altogether. If you’re a community member who wants to know why, take this workshop. We’ll discuss the common types of harm that occur around identity (microaggressions) and tools for addressing the harm in the moment and after it has occurred. We’ll also cover ways to initiate accountability processes and healing around specific incidents.

Crystal Byrd Farmer is an organizer and speaker in the intentional communities movement. She serves as a board member with the Foundation for Intentional Communities and serves as Co-President for the BIPOC Intentional Community Council. 

Crystal Byrd Farmer

Panel: Stump the Chumps

This is a Q&A panel of experienced communitarians who take on the toughest audience generated inquiries about how to build and maintain intentional communities.  Panelists will be announced shortly. 

Politics, oppression, and creative forms of liberation:

a Live Action Role Play on the ins and outs of both national and international politics, and whether we can change the course of history. 

this is will be a simple game with very complex strategy of how to create international solidarity against oppression, while taking a deep dive into the nature of oppression, power, conflict, facism and pacifism. 

Gil Benmoshe has been living in intentional communities for over 20 years. with a strong focus on permaculture, natural building, and education. in his professional life he works in facilitating teams towards effective communication, leadership, and conflict resolution. these teams often include academic, professional, athletic, military, and government agencies. 

Gil has a specific interest in “imagineering” a post-national future and how people can self organize without the state or capitalism. 

Quilombos Culture for EcoVillages and Intentional Communities

Learning that happens deep inside each of us during group activities.

 Liberation Arts (LA) residencies offer

Joy and celebration that energizes everyone

  • Arts and fitness education for children
  • Tools for synergy between children, adults and elders
  • Dynamic schedule options for meetings, classes and events.

Macaco is an expressive arts facilitator helping people experience warrior arts culture. He is a Contremestre in the Afro-Brazilian art of Capoeira. He is one of the lead members of Grupo Liberdade de Capoeira and received his Capoeira artist name Macaco (monkey).

The Revolution Will be Indigenized

We all need to reclaim our Indigenous values, in order to build the foundation for a new equitable and sustainable society. We start by decolonizing our minds from Capitalist values, like individualism, competition and exploiting the Natural World and embracing community, cooperation and living in harmony with the Natural World.

Roberto Mendoza is a native (Muscogee tribe) and Mexican Indigenous (Purepecha). Born in Tulsa, OK. Lived in NYC, San Francisco and Maine. Part of the occupation of Alcatraz Island by Indians of All Tribes, AIM, the Bioregional Movement, the Greens and founded Cooperation Tulsa, an intersectional, ecological movement.

Transforming Founder’s Syndrome: An Exploration of the Territory and the Ways Through

Founding a community is an enormous challenge and requires a tremendous investment well beyond the financial resources. Once more people are involved, many communities struggle with the power dynamics of founder’s syndrome, a complex set of interactions which often result in community stagnation, high turnover, isolated and overworked founders and cliques. 

We’ll start by examining common issues that communities and founders face. We’ll look at a workable definition of “founder’s syndrome”, including some of it’s key symptoms. Then, we’ll dig into specific practices and tools for navigating out of founder’s syndrome. 

An intentional community enthusiast and founder, Cecile Green has a passion for helping humans share power more effectively. She synthesized her experience in intentional community with the research she’s done into power and organizational development into a set of communication tools called Collab.

Travelers in Community

Exploring the possible mutually abundant relationships between travelers and communities, including methods and wisdoms on community traveling.

✨Ozgard✨ (they/them) is some sort of fae critter of many names, who has been a community traveler for roughly a decade, having visited over 40 intentional communities of varying forms across the US.

If you are interested in attending the Labor Day Weekend Communities Conference at Twin Oaks in central Virginia you can find tickets on Eventbrite

July 29, 2022  

Transformus Post Office

Glow in the dark croquette

Transformus is a regional Burning Man influenced event which used to be on a glorious site near Asheville, NC and has moved to a different beautiful place near Masonville, WV. Rick from Happy Hill came for the first time to this location and observed things i never would have noticed. Specifically, that the huge fields were not actually a monoculture, but a complex mix of different types of plants as part of a sophisticated wildlife and field management program. There is a huge need nationally for this type of soil regeneration and specifically Rick pointed out that they had planted Asclepias which are critical for supporting monarch butterfly populations.

Hammocks research is always part of our work
Dash’s happy place

Transformus was the first time i really got to see Dash (our new conference intern) shine. Dash is a gifted cook out of Boston who is helping to organize the Communities Conference and they put out impressive meals on the Camp Contact stoves. No matter where people were in the sprawling Tranformus campus, pretty much everyone made it back to camp around mealtime, despite there being a lot of great food all free at the festival.

Our neighbors had a durable climbing dome
Jade beside fire breathing 3 headed beast
There were inspiring multi level hammocks.
Ali relaxing at Camp Contact

Jason Taylor is a hero of mine. A Louisa local who did not discover the communes til he was a teenager, he is now an integral part of holding them together. From building the replacement Llano kitchen (after the actual Twin Oak tree fell on it and crushed it), to repairing the Twin Oaks sawmill and kiln, to repairing and running the seed packing robot machine at Acorn – Jason is our favorite handy person who keeping the communes operating. Jason is the site manager for QuinkFair, last year in that role he manifested all manner of elements from designing and wiring the solar system to leading the effort to build and burn the effigy.

At Transformus he led the screen-printing workshop, using Acorn’s new screen-printing device. This was a test run for the Communities Conference where we plan to print dozens of participants’ clothes (as we successfully in some years ago).

Postal recipients did strange things to get their mail

In the above picture Jason is paying for his postage due, by stuffing a huge pineapple top in his mouth. Which requires me to explain a bit about the post office.

The post office is a Burning Man inspired activity, which we ran at Transformus back in 2013 when i was a dual member at Acorn. Burning Man influenced events discourage the use of money internally (as does QuinkFair). Instead of monetary transactions they encourage cultural and comic exchanges. So to get a inter-festival letter sent, you need to pay into the post office with perhaps a skit or a joke or a dance. Similarly, your incoming letter is “postage due” and the postal carrier may try to get you to perform out of character. Asked to “read something that moves you”, a postal customers name Snax who was working registration at Transformus read the section of the Velveteen Rabbit on being real and started crying during their rendition – momentarily all activity stopped at the busy registration to witness this dramatic rendition.

The power of a post office funologically, is it can bring a little culture bomb into a camp. Another postal recipient asked for one of our “Daring” cards and got. “Make out with someone you have never kissed before, consensually, for 30 seconds starting now.” The dare was heard by a lovely person named Freefall, who after a short discussion about risks and STIs, they kissed. Somehow the 30 seconds recommendation got blown threw.

Postal Challenge Cards – back sides

One of the modifications we tested on the regular post office format is we developed a number of postal challenge cards. These including Daring, Beautiful, Funny and Wild Cards. This allows the postal customer to think about what type of way they want subsidize the mail service by delivering a tiny cultural performance of these different types.

An unlikely pair – Sarah Hailey of Happy Hill and Spacious of Camp Contact

Spacious is the principal organizer of the Camp Contact theme camps within several regional burns and at the big burn in Nevada. To the untrained eye, his principal contribution is a tremendous amount of specialty hardware – kitchens, giant shade structures, domes, chill spaces, solar powered refrigerators, drinking and cleaning water systems, showers, bikes, trucks, hand tools and much more. If you are a decerning organizer, you know that the inter-personal stuff is more complex than even the most sophisticated of these inanimate objects: lovely attendees, who can’t afford camp fees or telling prospective participants who make people uncomfortable that they cannot be part of the camp or figuring out how to cover an internal camp task which someone promised to take responsibility for, and then they flaked on it or dealing with people who promise to pay their camp fees and then do not or getting exhausted campers to break down many structures before the rain hits at the end of the event or figuring out just how much the camp attendees are open to building without deciding not to build it or not to come back to the next camp ‘cos it was too much to build.

Camp Contact would not exist without Spacious, the hardware (as complex as it is) is the easy part, creating a harmonious, financially viable, well-equipped camp with a bunch of diverse participants who are not always reliable – that is the heavy lifting of an organizer.

Early attendee at star viewing benches.
QuinkFair and Communities Conference organizers (L to R) – Kelpie, Orion and Jade

Perhaps because i am so disorganized, one of the things i appreciate in other organizers is being nimble. Being regularly interrupted and still being effective, being able to change plans gracefully on short notice, rapidly adopting to the shifting variables are all signs of a nimble event organizer. Orion Posey is the son of one of my favorite activists Susan Posey and the generous traveling electrician Milo MacTavish. Orion was supposed to be performing in a play near Norfolk, a few days before Transformus, but the play got cancelled and Orion reached out to me about being a conference intern. He agreed to come to Transformus, without really knowing what it is, but knowing that their festival activities would be secondary to the networking and outreach work we wanted them to do. Orion delivered a bunch of mail, dispersed a number of fingerbooks, acted as an ambassador from our events to workshops on topics we are interested in. With Twin Oaks population the lowest it has been in years; we can use all the help we can get, and Orion is the addition of a nimble set of hands.

Camp Contact at Transformus 2022

If you are interested in our small regional burn in Virginia Sept 23 thru 26 – check out QuinkFair:

If you are interested in intentional communities, consider our Labor Day (Sept 2 thru 6) event, the Communities Conference:

July 11, 2022  

Call for Presenters -Twin Oaks Communities Conference

Should you offer a workshop at the Twin Oaks Communities Conference? [deadline Aug 1, 2022]

Twin Oaks Communities Conference (TOCC) is looking for some compelling workshop presenters on the topic of intentional community.  Perhaps you are asking yourself “Am I a talented workshop presenter?”  Here are some ways you can tell:

“Truth is in the room”: What we’re looking for are interactive workshops that draw from the participants and the collective truth from the room. We’re hoping for workshops that introduce participants to ideas that they perhaps have never considered before or advance beliefs which are challenging or engage everyone in the space, including the presenter. We’ve found that open-ended questions and role plays are methods that work well with our participants.

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The room has no walls, but the truth is still in there

Flexible  We’re looking for workshop facilitators that can sense the energy level of the participants. Does it look like a playful group? Perhaps games and simulations will be helpful.  Is this a serious (perhaps intense) group or topic? Maybe perhaps a Q&A or a hotseat format will benefit. Conversely,  perhaps the opposite prescription will work – the serious and intense folks could lighten up with games. The point is that you as the workshop presenter want to build a good connection with your participants and tailor your presentation to the group you have before you. You could do a go round (if there are less than 20 people) and ask everyone for a single sentence about why they are in the workshop. Their answers will help guide you to adjust your presentation for their level of expertise and their areas of excitement.

Flexible is key

Reflect on Impact: Is it possible that you are going to share an exercise that will engage your participants beliefs or behavior? Is it likely they will be amused and entertained?  We’re looking for workshops that will lead participants towards a greater understanding of themselves and how they present in community.  How can we have more healthy and transparent relationships with fellow communitarians? How can libraries of shared material goods be created so we are living more sustainably and cooperatively? Can we be in romantic relationships with more than one person, in the same place? What are the details we can learn and share to live together more cooperatively?  Perhaps not as fun as a beautifully illustrated atlas or teaching haddocks (or goldfish) to jump through hoops, but definitely a bigger takeaway.

Fish thru hoops

The conference itself can provide some chairs, and, with advance notice, some sound system, but we’re in quite a rustic environment. Your powerpoint presentation, for example, might need technology that will take a while for us to assemble. If you cannot provide what is needed for your workshop, please let us know well in advance. 

It’s important to us to maintain the low cost and low overhead for this conference, so we cannot afford to pay you to present, although we can provide approved presenters with a free or reduced cost ticket.

If you are convinced, here is the Call for Presenter form to complete,  and the deadline for submission is Aug 1st.  If you just want to buy a ticket and come to the event here is the link.  If you want to read about how to get the most out of this conference check out this article.  If you would like the irregular updates about this event you can either write to conference@twinoaks.org or RSVP on the event facebook page

Apologies in advance if you are really into teaching fish to jump thru hoops.

https://www.howspace.com/resources/how-to-facilitate-a-workshop#activate

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