Art of Community - Dani's experience

I truly had an amazing time at the Art of Community gathering a couple of weekends ago (Sept 21-23) in Occidental, CA. Even though the draw was originally the classes that we could all learn from, I found so much of the experience to be about the amazing people I met there. What a powerful thing to be surrounded by people who had collected in a space together for a similar purpose.

The adventure wound’t have had nearly as much of an impact, if it weren’t for the amazing DreemTeam that made the treck. We were Seven Dreemers deep - enthusiastic, dedicated, and eager to take in this experience fully. I have to give so many thanks to these Dreemers - I love you all. Kavih, Giovanna, Theresa, Shiree, Jonathan, and Melinda - wow, thank you so very much with all my heart. Well done lovelies! [caption id="attachment_2877" align="alignleft" width="300"] On the way to the Art of Community event![/caption] So, we left Santa Cruz on Thursday night, with the intention to make it to Jenner, CA and stay on Dharma Creek - a magical piece of land owned by our inspirational friend Jill. We arrived in our two vehicles at midnight and quickly decided that the newly erected green house was the perfect place to camp for the night! Slumber-party style we all threw down our sleeping bags in a line and slept for a few hours before our big day on Friday. No tents needed that chilly night! Friday We had plans to get an early start on Friday morning. After lots of pre-communication with Susan Frank, the event coordinator, we happily took on the role of setting up the Community Casbah to encourage specific discussions on the topic. We brought a pop-up canopy, some rugs, chairs, tapestries...to make the space more comfortable for discussion. Arriving at 8am, we had plenty of time to meet Susan and set up shop at Westminster Woods, before our two Community Tours started. And of course connect with Janet and Gary - our riders and new wonderful Dreemer Friends. (I can’t emphasize enough the beauty of the people attending this event! All so inspiring in their own way) The first community we visited was Green Valley, just down the road. They were a cute 6 year running community with 400+ acres and a growing garden and membership. With quite the variety of housing options for their 50ish members, they ranged from old victorian homes, to restored timber yard barns, and hand crafted homes from reclaimed materials. Their growing CSA provides boxes for around 23 clients each month. Impressive! All the residents were super friendly, with big smiles and a sense of peace from their enriching lifestyle. Secondly we visited Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, only another 15 minutes drive away. With about 40 years of history, this EcoVillage was highly developed and proficient. They sport an incredible garden that feeds their 13-25 members (including orginal owners, woofers, employees, and interns). OAEC offers a long list of educational programs and classes to take advantage of. With the creation of a stage, they have not only a place for theater and artistic expression, but an outdoor lecture hall nestled into their overwhelmingly bountiful garden. A truly inspiring community to shoot model after! The rest of Friday held registration, meet-n-greets, dinner, and a mind-blowing opening gathering. We got to hear from Richard Flyer with Connecting The Good about his efforts in Reno, NV to grow community, the local food system, and create a replicable infrastructure to implement the program within your own community. Following him was Mark Lakeman’s incredible presentation of his work, City Repair, throughout Portland - transforming the streets into public meeting places, and individual homes into ecologically friendly communities. Wow! Top it all off with songs around a bon fire lead byCopperwoman...and you have yourself a brilliant start to such an event! Saturday Following a warming 7am Mandala Yoga session led by Debra Dove, Saturday started our official classes. Each of the three time slots had around 7-10 class options for us to attend. Our DreemTeam sat down and attempted to spread out according to interests and to make sure we covered a lot of topics to later share. Our intention to take notes and share them with everyone, on our EcoVillage Research Project info site! The classes that I took that day were (Click on the link to see my notes, some may still be in progress of transcription and scanning!):

• Overview of Intentional Communities (Led by Mandy Creighton, adventure of “Within Reach” a 2 year bike adventure across the US to explore 100 different communities!).
• Connecting the Good (Led by Richard Flyer)
• What's Rank and Privilege Got to Do with it? (Led by Carol Swan and India Harville)

In between classes was filled with yummy food and endless opportunities to make connections with so many people. Some attendees have been active and living in communities for 40 years, others have only just heard of the idea of an intentional community. But for sure, we all had a common interest that allowed for a fertile space to learn and network. Meals, yoga, and even bathroom breaks provided enriching discussions of relevant topics - everyone there was an enthusiast! Susan and the organizers of the event did an incredible job of keeping us entertained, in touch with our spirits and mission, and of course with each other. This evening held a Mystic Dance Party in the woods with some electronic as well as live music. I never caught the name of those live performers, but they were moving (thank you!). Sunday I missed the Yoga class this morning...maybe because of the previous night's Dance party! But there’s always an opportunity to fill a time slot with discussions - both spontaneous and pre-coordinated. Classes for me today were:

• The Essence of Dynamic Facilitation (Led by Laird Shwab, facilitator extraodinaire from Sandhill Farm)
• The Nuts & Bolts of Community: Committees as WD40 (Led by Linda Sartor, Joan Linney, Ken Staltzberg more of the Monan's Rill Community)
• Developing Green Teams within your Community (Led by David Ferrara)

Classes took us right up to the closing circle, making an official end to our 3 day adventure. All the attendees gathered in the field to hold hands, laugh, sing, and express one last time. Around 200 strangers had come together and two days later had formed a truly loving community with each other. Overall, this was an absolutely incredible experience. I feel as though my self and the DreemTeam learned more than they ever thought they would at this event. We definitely intend to return next year...and how couldn’t we with all the amazing feedback and encouragement we got back! (Video coming soon!) Oh, and check back for other Dreemer's experiences and notes! ~Dani

*Many photos compliments of Copperwoman!*