May FEC Expansion Group Discussion

Hello Folks!

I am writing here to document and discuss the momentum in central Virginia that is forming around a the idea of beginning a new FEC community.

Below is a rough time line of events so far:

For a long time the FEC has discussed the idea of starting another community made up of people already within our extended network. A year ago we started an Expansion Fund earmarked for investment into a new FEC community. We also have been working on gathering useful information and packaging this information in a way that could serve as a guide for the creation of a new FEC community.

In early November of 2008, Twin Oaks reached its population cap. Since then Twin Oaks has acquired a waiting list of 14 people and rising. Often Twin Oaks experiences a spring exodus, but to date the number of people who have left Twin Oaks has fallen well behind the number of people who wish to join. It is beginning to seem to that the waiting list might be a part of our community for a long time.

This spring, East Wind Community and Acorn Community both reached their maximum capacity for members.

In April, the FEC assembly took place at Twin Oaks Community. At this assembly, Teaching Drum formally applied and was accepted for CID status and we met with the 529 Collective. The 529 collective expressed their desire to begin a community project on the west coast. We were impressed with their determination to begin an egalitarian community. EGFS delegate emphasized at this assembly how important it is to Emmas to have a community on the West Coast.

At the May Conference Call, we circulated a paper among the FEC delegates that would soon be posted to our communities. This paper was putting out a call for discussion on starting a new FEC community in response to many of our communities being full.

Independently, Thomas Acorn invited several people from within the central Virginia communities movement to come to a discussion about starting a new community. The meeting is scheduled for Friday, May 15th.

Some chatter within an ad-hoc email list had happened, and there seems to by a variety of ideas and directions that will be proposed and discussed.

That gets us current to today.

Dissapointing

The size of the group grew too big and divergent for the host to feel comfortable with their format, so the meeting was canceled. I am disappointed.

However, I will spend the same time this evening working on some tools to help pull together a large group of people and harness the enthusiasm and energy for the various projects people are interested in.

Here are a list of the various projects people within our network have expressed interest in:

An FEC community on land already owned by FEC communities

An FEC community focused on the care of the elderly

An FEC urban community in Detroit, MI

An FEC community on the west coast, perhaps near Seattle

An FEC community in Central America or the Caribbean

Seems like the FEC will be

Seems like the FEC will be doing big things in the next couple of years. It's exciting to see and hear new ideas being thrown around!