Community Village Coordinating Council Retreat
May 22, 2021 Brooks’ house, the “Purple Pearl”
Present: David, Brooks, Sara, Nathan, Tim, Diane
Ill: Karla, Kim
Agenda
- 10:00 hang out
- 10:30 Intro games
- 11:00 June meeting onsite/walkabout issue
- 11:30 Booth Coord connections
- Noon – stretch break
- 12:15 Mission Statement
- 1:15 Fair shifts
- 1:30 Diversity plan going forward
- 2:30 – snack break
- 3:00 General Housekeeping (see below)
- 4:20 – safety break
- 4:30 gear up for 2022 Pandemic, location
- 5:00 FairEz plans going forward
- 5:30 Catch up – Village Meeting Agenda
- 6:00 – Dinner
- 7:00 greeting/skit/song or play games
Village Gathering Onsite
A brief discussion led us to decide to invite the Village onsite at noon, Sunday June 13. No formal agenda, though we will reach out to Spirit (Sara) to see if they’d like to perform the Opening Circle ceremony for video recording to present at our Virtual Stage.
Booth Coord Connection
This kinda strayed into reporting a list of known plans booths have for the 2021 Fair…
- P&J has discussed offering some of the same activist videos from 2020, maybe a new one or two, and hosting a Booth Hangout, but nothing has been confirmed.
- Wild Edibles has filled out the form for a 11am-1pm Booth Hangout that may include previous videos, a booth introduction, maybe something about mushrooms. Perhaps also an informational workshop.
- Rainbow Village organization Transponder and Respect Ed are planning videos and have discussed a Booth Hangout, none confirmed yet.
- Spirit Booth has not responded to emails of phone calls. Sara will reach out again inviting them to put a ceremony together for the July 13 gathering onsite.
- Arts has provided no video background images, though we hope they could create a slide show of participant ‘s art works…maybe? Sara will reach out.
- Doors will be providing a video from Autism Rocks, Chrissy will again be a host, maybe Jair is planning something… Tim will reach out to Jair.
- Youth Power is hoping to do a video about being in the woods, and the Lego Boy Woodsie Gibbs is gathering new Legos for another video!
- Health and Healing has filled out the online form for 2 live, interactive workshops
- Intentional Communities, Moon Lodge, 4A, Info Booth (Maybe members there should host the Village Green Hangout…?), and Life Long Learning have not presented anything yet.
We decided to invite booth coords, among others, to a September 16 Council/Planning meeting at Growers, and that we will specifically invite them to the onsite gathering, and mention we are soliciting PayPal donation links to use during the July 10 stream and all year long of their Booth webpage.
Mission Statement
This was tabled until such time as Kim is able to lead the discussion
Fair Shifts
We discussed staffing the Village Green hangout space July 10. Both Diane and David do not have the tech or bandwidth to do this, though it may happen that Brooks could do it 10-11am, Nathan might be able to do it though he doesn’t want to, and Tim said maybe whatever…so instead we decided to ask Info Booth (Tim) if they are interested.
Diversity
This was a fruitful and deep discussion with much agreement and positive ideas. Diane described the outreach with VIP day passes that she has been doing for OCF, for Latino, Indigenous, and others. A good program, but to really feel integrated, camping passes are needed. As part of the OCF Diversity Committee, Brooks has a list of underrepresented groups he can reach out to. Diane has Native American contacts. Nathan hopes to bring Native Americans to talk about wild foods next year. Considering our village values related to nature and sustainability, we talked about how just about every booth next year could host workshops under their subject umbrella highlighting different cultures and ancestral processes based on lifestyle sustainability… Eastern spirituality, learning about intentional community (tribal) structures, natural healing secrets, diverse cultural art forms, an “Honoring our Roots” Native American focus…
For this virtual Fair we could reach out to Emz (Tim and Brooks) to perhaps host a segment?
We also discussed the Tipi as a cultural appropriation subject, as it was specifically mentioned by a local Chief. It would be a very visible change for us, and signal that we are taking diversity and respect seriously. So we will begin with an outreach to all to create a new, temporary structure to replace the Tipi in 2022. It will be a subject of the October Village Meeting.
As we believe camping passes are the only way to really integrate and get comfortable with each other, we discussed ways to get the Village more passes. We settled on creating a new committee to develop a sort of Manifesto: making space for diverse groups should not mean losing those we already have. We need more than the 5-7 passes offered in 2019, we need at least 1 for each booth. We need education for ourselves to be truly accepting, and education for newbies so our old habits don’t inadvertently cause offense. We need true outreach and encouraging all booths to reach out for new content that matches their mission. Brooks stepped up to lead this effort.
As a Council, we decided to add a brief discussion at each 2022 meeting about diversity, about how our village mission calls for “free communication of ideas, social change, trust, equality, social service…” For our Fair to continue for the next 50 years, we need to stay relevant through change.
We commented, too, that we’ll need to do the orientation thing next year, who will do that with Russell disappeared? The decided on an Orientation Group, with a different person to do it each month, focusing on the different subjects.
General Housekeeping
We sure miss Kim… And Karla, too!
We decided to do a Council/Planning meeting at Growers in September, inviting Booth Coords and prospective Council members to solidify the October agenda and talk about getting us all back together again.
We talked about Council jobs and the need to provide training and access to the web, email groups, our financial account and processes, etc. Tim will Zoom with Brooks, Nathan, and Sara to train a bit on the website, and will give access to Nathan to the email groups admin. Nathan, Brooks and Sara (?) all offered to take Village meeting minutes on a rotating basis. Karla will be reminded to get together with Kim and Sara regarding financial stuff.
We then talked some about the infrastructure elements that were stored in the Chicken Barn when the roof collapsed and that only Big John (if even he) knows where that stuff is now. (David says they are in one of the storage containers…but which one?) This led to a discussion about recruiting new Council members, one of which we hoped would want and be qualified to do the construction liaison job, as well as someone to lead the Orientation Group. Some names were mentioned and will be invited to the September Council/Planning meeting: Kelsey, Jade, Adrian, Jason.
Prep for 2022
It seemed that we had already touched on most of the items leading us to 2022. But we did decide to
- ask Sue Theolass (Tim) to pencil in the September 16 and October 14 meetings on the Grower’s Market larger room calendar.
- Prepare a survey of Villagers to see if we should develop and implement a means to allow both in-person and remote attendance for future Village meetings (Who is doing this?)
- Reach out to the Methodist Church for 2022 meetings (Karla?)
Community Village Meeting June 10 Zoom meeting Agenda
Hello – in breakout rooms (15 everyone – Host)
Set Intention (5 Minutes, Facilitator)
Agenda Review (3 Minutes, Facilitator)
Fair Announcements (5 Minutes)
Announce in-person + Zoom meeting survey
Onsite meeting announcement
Site Report – David (5 Minutes)
Diversity Report – Brooks (15 minutes)
Tipi replacement – Brooks (15 minutes)
One Fun Thing – (5 Minutes, Facilitator)
Mission committee – Kim (10 minutes)
Village Cloud FairEz committee report w/website update (Tim et al, 15 Minutes)
Booth Reports (10 minutes)
Unfair Announcements (5 minutes, All)
Strokes and pokes (5 minutes, All)
Added by David:
Booth Coord Connection
10. Come-Unity House
MGs and Klamath Bird Observatory: Probably just post websites.
6. 12:15 Mission Statement (See at end)
Fair Shifts
I have bandwidth to do Zoom OK. Problem is, what do I do? I’m not teckky to do enable-disable functions. What is job description for Shift?
Diversity
Are Cis-Gendered Males allowed?
Tipi as a cultural appropriation:
Methinks it is out of respect for a working technology / architecture.
New, temporary structure: Are yurts also cultural appropriation?
Do we settle on a square, cubic tent of branch frame and tarp?
General Housekeeping
“recruiting new Council members, one of which we hoped would want and be qualified to do the construction liaison job”
Rick? Someone from Construction Crew such as was David Tipton?
Mission Statement / Goals Add
Methinks to add:
Preserving Our Civilization
Maintaining and Achieving Health.
Security
Preserving Our Civilization:
Neglect of the soil has “helped topple empires and wipe out entire civilizations” and care of the soil “has enabled other societies to flourish for centuries”.
Dr. Lowdermilk, Soil Conservation Service.
“Conquest of the Land Through 7,000 years”
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb1043789.pdf
Maintaining and Achieving Health.
Horticulture Therapy. Positive Results.
Three New Studies. Prisons, Children, Breast Cancer.
Soil To Human Inoculation: Two Studies
Plastic As Martian. Why We Have “Plastic In Placentas”.
Follows:
Does Nature Contact in Prison Improve Well-Being? Mapping Land Cover to Identify the Effect of Greenspace on Self-Harm and Violence in Prisons in England and Wales
Annals of the American Association of Geographers
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/24694452.2020.1850232?journalCode=raag21
Children who grow up near green spaces may have a lower risk of developing ADHD
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-03/au-tro030121.php
Breast Cancer Risk Lower For Women Living Near Urban Green Spaces
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30076044/
“…. reduced risk of breast cancer among women living in closer to urban green spaces. By contrast, women living closer to agricultural areas, had a [higher risk],” …. “…. suggests …. association between green space and a risk of breast cancer is dependent on the land use.”
Soil To Human Inoculation: Two Studies.
“protection against asthma by engaging and shaping the innate immune response.”
Innate Immunity and Asthma Risk in Amish and Hutterite Farm Children New England Journal of Medicine
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1508749
“certain farm exposures are protective against childhood asthma.”
Ecological associations between asthma prevalence and potential exposure to farming. European Respiratory Society
http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/24/6/938
Plastic As Martian.
Plastic Pollution Explained By H.G. Wells “War Of The Worlds”
Why We Have “Plastic In Placentas”.
The Martians are stopped by our diseases.
Now the clean up.
A craft is blocking a main street.
Problem is, can’t cut it. Literally CAN-NOT-CUT-IT!!!
Saws, grinders, gas torch, plasma torch, Weapons Grade Laser, CYCLOTRON!, BioReMediation …. …. …. Zilch.
Urban Renewal will include demolition of buildings to reroute the street.
Since Chernobyl is currently heating up, Urban Renewal may include isolation / encapsulating.
So: Why We Have “Plastic In Placentas”.
Security
“We are only truly secure when we look out our kitchen windows and we see our own food growing and our friends working nearby.”
Bill Mollison
“There is, then, a politics of food that, like any politics, involves our freedom. We still (sometimes) remember that we cannot be free if our minds and voices are controlled by someone else.
But we have neglected to understand that we cannot be free if our food and its sources are controlled by someone else. The condition of the passive consumer of food is not a democratic condition. One reason to eat responsibly is to live free.” –Wendell Berry
HAPPY HUMUS! …. INDEED!
Community Village 