These are the notes from the meetings we had at Findhorn (October 2005) as they were sent out to those involved.
Notes from afternoon meeting, What do we envision a GEN youth council doing?
Create an information exchange system (not limited solely to Internet) a place to post and find workshops, internships etc.
Outreach
Support and inspire each other
Work with schools both how to survive and flourish within them but also once out working with younger kids
Organize and facilitate exchanges (perhaps have a evovillage map and guide?)
Source for information on starting and ecovillage and any number of other projects
Have Fun
Have representation on the board of GEN
Fund Raise
Figure out how to live in harmony with nature in a low tech to budget way
Thus far these are just suggestions and more are welcome and desired,also practical ideas about how to create structures to implement theseideas would be awesome,
Some of the questions that were asked were...
What kind of a world do you want to live in? (My dream is of a world where...)
What are we up to and what will we need to make it happen? (Particularly from the adult community)
What do we bring to the table? Much more was said and I could not possibly capture it all, I hope this is useful. Your Friend
Justin Dear NextGEN,
I am sorry it has taken me so long to type up the notes from the last meetings. Some of the meetings we had were spent planning for our presentation on Friday. I will just send the passage we presented but none of the brainstorming etc.
"We are the GEN youth council. We are a network of young people who have come together to support each other in reaching out to the youth of the world, and to let our voice be heard. We have come together to support each other in initiating projects, finding ourselves and building the ecovillages of the future. We are a place to share creative ideas and inspirations. We will realize the power that we have within us. With the support and wisdom of the elders we will indeed change the world!"
For any of you who were unable to be there the presentation when very well. It brought us onto the radar and many of the elders in the community were deeply moved. So now we can work with that energy and support.
So the notes: From the open space,
We talked about trying to bring in an intergenational aspect. "How can older elders empower younger elders."
other than this and naming ourselves "NextGEN" most of the open space was spent planning for the presentation.
In our Friday evening and Saturday morning meetings we talked about next steps.
It was suggested that we try to start by working in our present communities. Possibly with local education and finding ways to direct energy within already existing communities. That we stay calm and respectful of the time it will take to achieve our goals and throughout the process.
We will need a rooted base of operations and right now that is going to be Findhorn. The ultimate goal would be to have more locally located centers from which to network.
We talked about working groups covering issues of Sustainability/Sustainable living Ecovillages Outreach Community
We agreed that it would be a good idea for everyone in the group to take a look at the GEN web site and fermiliarize ourselves a little more with the organization. www.ecovillage.org
In addition to GEN the question was raised about what other existing organizations we could become involved with.
We made a list of next steps and started several working groups
Next Steps Educate ourselves about what the GEN is Set up a Forum News letter by working group Encorperate into work of Findhorn semester students Getting to know each other Design web page
Working Groups (Next to the working group is the name of the person currently responsible for that group so if you have ideas or want to help out with a particular group thats who you should contact)
Web Design - (Jonna Carter) --this includes creating the directory Funding - (Melissa Godbeer) also treasure at the moment Creating Organizational Structure - (Elliott ?) Creating Goals and Aims (Justin Wright) Creative Outreach - (Melissa and Conchi) Planning Next Meeting - (Justin Wright) Intergenerational Connections - (Will Keepin)
We will try to meet for those still around in findhorn Wednesday night and may have a clearer sense after that meeting of exactly what these groups will be going. Your Friend Justin