 |  |  |  |
Agenda of the meeting
1) Official opening
2) Presentation of the facilitation team, minute takers and agenda
3) Introduction of present members, supporters and guests; identification of voting members
4) Report from the GEN-Europe Council
5) General secretariat report
6) Approval of the secratariat report
7) Reports from national networks
8) Presentation of the hosting community
9) Fundraising report
10) Approval of accounts for fiscal year 2000/2001
11) Approval of budget for fiscal year 2001/2002
12) Signing of the contract with the EU´s Commission of the Environment
13) Proposals from members:
skills exchange by Ina Meyer Stoll network 2003 meeting by Kasimir Reichmuth children-parent exchange by Birkilde Nicolai and Nicole Grosspierre facilitation team by Martin Kirchner relationship with Africa by Jean Michel Pochat
14) Discussion groups
15) Next assembly
16) Final evaluation of the assembly
1. Opening of the Assembly
The Third General Assembly of members opened outside of the meeting hall. The participants created a circle and hold hands in silence. Later the circle transformed into a geographical distribution that shows where all participants come from.
2. Presentation of the facilitation team, minute takers and agenda
Minutes takers: Kasimir Reichmuth and Amy Kabat.
The facilitation team led by Beatrice Briggs was composed of 5 persons (Seija Mannila, Eduard Gonzales, Martin Kirchner, Maria Elena Avena, Murielle Gehlen, Ewa Bialek).
The agenda of the meeting was unanimously approved.
3. Introduction of the present members, supporters and guests
Present are the following representatives: members:
7 national networks: Come Together Network, Germany (Dieter Federlein); Ekilat, Turkey (Mete Hacaloglu); RIVE - Rete Italiana Villaggi Ecologici, Italy (Alfredo Camozzi); RFEV - Reseau Française Eco Villages (Murielle Gehlen); LØS - Danish Network (Insa Frese / Line Arnved); RIE - Red Iberica de Ecoaldeas (Eduard Gonzales); Senegal Network (Marietou Dia).
9 ecovillages: Findhorn Foundation, Scotland (Jonathan Dowson); Comune di Bagnaia, Italy (Amy Kabat); Lebensgarten, Germany (Agnieszka Komoch); ZEGG, Germany (Achim Ecker / Ina Meyer Stoll / Birkilde Nicolai); Torri Superiore (Lucilla Borio / Cristina Evangelisti / Kasimir Reichmuth); Kibbutz Lotan, Israel (Michael Livni); Grishino Light Centre, Russia (Luda Berzan); Keuruu Ecovillage, Finland (Seija Mannila); Dambrowka Community (Nicole Grosspierre).
Present are 16 voting members.
Ecovillage supporters: WAS - Polish Network (Ewa Kozdraj, Andrzej Mlynarczyk); Sun Village, Turkey (Ali Goekmen, Bahattin Odabasi, Inci Goekmen), Eco Foca (Tunca Bokesoy); Montbel Ecovillage, France (Jean Michel Pochat); Hungarian Network (Robert Gerzany); of the emerging Portugues network (Felipe Espina); a representaive of the merging Austrian network (Martin Kirchner); Circulating School, Finland (Hekki Attila).
Present were also: Terra Mirim Foundation, Brazil (Maria Elena Avena); Fellowship of Intentional Communities - FIC (Geoph Kozeny); Wolimierz Community, Poland (Witold and Jemiolka Wictorczyk, Witold Golc); Association "Education for the Future", Poland (Ewa Bialek); community initiative "Permalot", Czech Republic (Max Jensen); ecovillage initiative in Slovakia (Mirec Kasiac); Huehuecoyotl, Mexico (Beatrice Briggs)
The introductory speech and official welcome were held by Lucilla Borio and Agnieszka Komoch (both Council members) Nicole Grospierre (Dambrowka community).
Translation to and from Polish: Marek (Wolimierz Community).
Two film crews are filming the Assembly:
1. Michal Tarkowski, a Polish Film director, producing a documentary of the GEN-Europe meeting; he lived in Dambrowka for some years, and decided to make documentary films because "life writes better screenplays".
2. Geoph Kozeny from FIC (Fellowship of Intentional Communities) is an independent film producer from the USA, making a documentary about living in communities with the hope to change mainstream mentality.
4. Report from the GEN-Europe Council
Agnieszka Komoch, President of the Council, Agnieszka Komoch presented a general report:
- The GEN-Europe Council held two meetings since the Lakabe General Assembly, July 2000, Spain: November 2000 in Torri Superiore; May 2001 in Damanhur
- Major topics of the meetings were: fundraising for office costs, projects in Middle East and Africa, educational initiatives, newsletter
- Development a Middle East service node started in care of Mete in Turkey
- Development of stable contacts with Guinea and Senegal also brought good fruit (West Africa); partner organisations: Colufifa, Ecoyoff
- GEN-Europe maintains of close contacts with the Danish Foundation "Gaia Trust"
- Active members of GEN-Europe: supporters: 17 initiatives + 12 organisations + 24 individuals ; members: 20 ecovillages + 8 networks.
Reports by Council members:
- Jean-Michel Pochat: elected in Spain in summer 2000, he is new in GEN-Europe, still searching for his function within the Council; has been active in developing contacts to Mauritania (Africa); held two meetings in France and works on contacts to other Franco-phone countries in Africa
- Mete Hacaloglu: Treasurer; was also elected in Spain in summer 2000; supports the daily work of Agnieszka and the Italian office; gave support on budgeting, offers volunteer work for GEN especially related to development of the Middle East area.
- Lucilla Borio: both a Secretary of the Council and head of the GEN-Europe office; during last year she participated in the following conferences:
October: international meeting of Alliance (international volunteer organisations) making contacts and integrating ecovillages in the activities of these organisation
December: "Twin Villages" exchange with African village in Northern Guinea with building of solar dryer & cultural exchange
January: Senegal network meeting
March: USA GEN-International Board meeting
June: held speech at the ICSA (International Community Study Association) conference in ZEGG, (available from office);
- Agnieszka Komoch: President, works on fundraising with the EU (4 month work), participated in a survey on strategies for sustainable development in Europe (EU initiative); her main task since January was organising the General Assembly in Wolimierz.
Lucilla: head of the GEN-Europe office, presents its general structure: The secretariat is open 9 - 13, 14 - 17, and also often during weekends and summer holidays; the office operates as any normal international NGO. She co-ordinates big programmes like Ecovillage Travels with Kasimir, and Twin Villages including fundraising. She regrets that sometimes the office lacks members’ feedback and asks for more contributions to better serve the ecovillages.
Updates on GEN-International: Lucilla and Mete are the representative of GEN-Europe in GEN-International. According to the decision taken at the Board meeting last March, GEN no longer has an international secretary. With this shift work is shared among the three regional offices (GEN-E, GEN-OA, GEN-Americas). In GEN-Europe Lucilla is the contact person for international work and responsible for co-ordination of communication within GEN- International. At the moment, she co-ordinates 35 different mailing lists in GEN and is responsible for the flow of communication and co-operation with other organisations.
In late May she went to Denmark to collect files from the former GEN-International office and took a trip to several ecovillages and LØS network office.
On the International level GEN has been endorsed with UN-ECOSOC membership status granted in July 2000. She underlines the importance of keeping a broad vision always in mind and the great leap forward in recognition of GEN through the EU funding granted in July 2001.
Presentation of office staff:
Cristina Evangelisti: she is the person behind the info@gen-europe.org e-mail address. She started working at the office in May 2000; she sends info to members and interested people, takes care of membership fees, sale of materials (books, videos, publications) and daily office management/administration; she also followed the logistics of the assembly in co-operation with Agnieszka.
Kasimir Reichmuth: started at the office in November 2000. He collects articles for the international newsletter from European members, sending them to Karen Svensson in Denmark (GEN-International); he also sends out articles to regional / national magazines in different European states to be translated and published in environmental magazines. Kasimir takes care of technical assistance especially with computers, and is responsible of "Ecovillage Travels“, a programme for the wider public to visit ecovillages and provide economic support to communities, including international work-camps in co-operation with Legambiente (largest Italian environmental organisation). He went on the trip to Denmark with Lucilla to visit Ecovillages and meet the Danish network LØS and representatives of Gaia Trust; in June ´01 attended "EVNUK“ meeting in England and in July ´01 the German network (Come Together) meeting.
6. Approval of the secratariat report
The report has been approved as written and submitted by Lucilla Borio.
16 members are in favour, no objections or abstentions.
7. Reports from the national networks
- Senegal (Marietou Dia from Dakar, first time at the GEN-Europe assembly): the ecovillage movement came to West Africa with the Third International Eco-cities and Ecovillages conference organised in Yoff (Dakar) in 1996, on the theme “How wisdom of traditional African villages can be integrated into ecological reconstruction". In January 2001 many community-based associations met for a 3-day works-shop: since then, monthly seminars were held and sponsored by the Ministry of Environment with support from APECSY in Yoff. With Danielle Saint-Louis, another Yoff representative, she did a few site visits to ecovillages who applied to become part of the network (experiencing quite a few difficulties in communication, since some villages have no electricity or telephone lines). Part of the project will require translation of educational materials into French. A tentative list of Senegalese criteria for membership came out of a shared vision session: these are based on natural resources, economics and community. The network would like to work with GEN-Europe to explore twin-village relationships with Senegal Network members. There have been strong contacts with Colufifa (in the south of Senegal); its President Demba Mansare has toured West Africa (Guinea, Burkina Faso, Togo and other countries) with the list of criteria in hand in order to identify future candidates for the network.
- France (Murielle Gehlen, coordinator of RFEV, Reseau Francaise des Ecovillages). The Network is a new organisation, started in1997; first members were only individuals, but now there are some "eco-hamlets“, the largest of which has 7 inhabitants. In general, most French people do not easily accept models, so the network tries to publicise what has already been done. There was a French/English paper published. Plans for the future: CFEE environmental education, try to involve more people in the organisation, develop more contacts with other Franco-phone countries.
- Israel (Michael Livni, Kibbutz Lotan). Israel is a small country but the northern half is denser in population than any other European country, while southern part is desert, with only 5% population. Ecological problems are dramatic. Jan Bang was the founder of the ecovillage movement among the kibbutzim. Today the Green Kibbutz movement has only 6 members; they use Judaic tradition to encourage adherence to ecological activities. The network’s main concern is educational: organise projects for youth groups, recycling waste etc. Green Kibbutz movement is today very weak, even though it has received official recognition with an award for wastewater and alternative energy. Problem: all projects require money. In Lotan mud building includes recycling of newspapers, old tyres, and recycling among green kibbutzim. They hope that educational programmes can have financing from national Ministry. Regarding peace efforts, individually there are different positions. A common project with Jordan exists in Lotan but for political reasons it is not possible to publicise it.
- Austria (Martin Kirchner): Achievements: after one year of promotion, people recognise the idea of ecovillages, a discussion paper has been made as well as website, electronic discussion forum established, survey on existing communities (mainly catholic communities and ecological settlements). Next steps: Create a network, website, newsletter, survey on eco-sites and permaculture projects
- Finland (Heikki Attila): There are approximately 45 communities / Ecovillages spread like chakras all over Finland. Achievements: alternative schools for learning skills (but not too many facts). 300 people are on email list, wind-sun dryer developed, want to be free of grid-electricity, creating a foundation for ecovillages, Eco-agro tourism is emerging and they have many spiritual groups. Needs: travelling, learning, being less shy; next steps: giving bikes and sewing machines to orphanage, ecovillage chain from white to black sea, not work but karma yoga.
- Come Together - Germany (Dieter Federlein): have both Winter and Summer meeting, existing since 8 years, intentional communities, different focus: spiritual, social, political "beratende Versammlung" (consulting meeting), political connection, member of "Holon network". GEN-Europe participated in the meeting represented by Kasimir this year, next meeting 2002 near Nisky, all are invited.
- ICM (International Community Meeting) Germany (Ina Mayer Stoll): This year's topic was "What is the community glue", interest for future is education, there has been a European youth gathering, wants to stress political aspect of communities and gather political people from communities, they are going to Bonn (Climate conference) and Genoa (G8 meeting).
- Hungary (Robert Gerzany): for next year planned formal recognition as an association, meetings twice a year, newsletter, need for an office, Gyurufu is still the largest ecovillage and there are two ecovillages and other settlements nearby.
- Portugal (Felipe Espinha): publish articles in "Forum Ambiente" magazine about GEN-Europe to raise awareness in the public, the e-mail list evolves, e-group established; Tamera is the big ecovillage of the network but they have German as an official language. Tamera helped with a lot of info material; website is planned, but gathering till now was not so easy, maybe preparing a conference. Plans for the future: making contacts with Ministry of Environment to seek sponsorship.
- Slovakia: one ecovillage, Zajezova in central of Slovakia, attracts many people who are interested in similar activities, wish to be a bridge for other communities, looking for know-how, they are young people located in a traditional village with 200 elderly people who still reside there.
- Turkey (Mete Hacaloglu): there are 72 members on Ekilat e-mail list, one annual meeting is held in September/October, different initiatives i.e. Foca is near Izmir, eco-sites, educational sites, supporters, Sun village is in central Anatolia, "Living Earth" project with 8 members in Mediterranean area
- Ireland (Jonathan Dawson): there are radically green ideas in the country in the moment, a young movement, a possible solution for building permission problems is called "farm village", a category of oÿ% ousing Ministry protocols.
- Brazil (Maria Helena Avena): has good flow of e-mail contacts, regional / international meetings, she writes and publishes articles; basic needs: money. Youth exchange includes summer camp and other activities, ENA meetings (in GEN-America they believe in dreams: A dream is possible when a dream and a dreamer become one)
- Czech Republic (Max Jensen): a few ecovillages and different initiatives; obstacles are to understand what is "eco" and what is "village". Normally there is no internet / e-mail working, Czech people are very connected to their home place. Possible solutions: to get more information and money, to host a GEN meeting, to apply eco-rates to facilitate exchange.
- Denmark (Insa Frese and Line Arnved): the Danish network LØS was founded in 1993, has a permanent office with two paid secretaries; money comes from funds and membership fees (25% of total expenditures); among the members we have 4 spiritual communities, 4 ecological, 15 socially oriented; achievements: 4 magazines per year, one general assembly per year, governmental guaranteed loan on house funding (60 - 80%), 30 years-material collected for a book, 2 books already published about ecovillages; working on: new law permitting experimental free zones (Denmark has strict laws preserving countryside), contacts with university, application for 15 million Euro ecovillage support in Denmark, establishing "living and learning centres", new books being worked on, CD-ROM being prepared, good contacts in progress.
- Poland (Nicole Grosspierre): has a beautiful landscape, full of old farms, all Poland could become an Ecovillage on the model of families around farmers, and one family creating alternative society around them. Established communities are Stowarzyszenie Ziarno, Grzybow, Eceat-Poland, Stryszow, Wolimierz-Klinika Lalek, Dabrowka; create a manifest to the Polish government from Ecovillage movement, action against opening more mines and quarries, Dabrowka (her ecovillage) works with children and work with themselves and develop in this way into ecovillage, becoming a model for society.
- Italy (Alfredo Camozzi): not GEN-Italia because it would be an embarrassing name, therefore RIVE (Rete Italiana degli Villaggi Ecologici), good co-operation with an alternative magazine (AAM Terra Nuova), wants to produce a directory of Italian communities. Since 1996 annual meetings are held once or twice a year, creating a legal body as association in the future; they are experiencing a conflict with Damanhur on membership in the network.
- Spain (Eduard Gonzales): RIE (Red Iberica de Ecoaldeas), Iberica because it's better to express a variety of different cultures. Iberica still without Portugal but uses the name with permission by the Portuguese ecovillages. They held three annual meetings till now, founded officially last year in Madrid, now meeting in August in Andalusia; GEA magazine publishes GEN-Europe pages, the network includes not only ecovillages but also intentional communities.
- USA - FIC (Fellowship of Intentional Communities) (Geoph Kozeny): started in 1948, mainly for intentional communities, seekers and the general public; it offers products and services like the "Communities Directory" with focus on North America but shows 100 communities in other countries world-wide. A skills bank started 10 years ago but died out by now; referrals to consultancy, extensive website on www.ic.org; revolving loan fund available for members, media cultivation. Mutual interests & support: skills database, translation, contacts to FEC (Fellowship of Egalitarian Communities).8. Presentation of the hosting community (Wiktor Wiktorczyk)
Wolimierz is a semi-abandoned village with an old train station in the process of being converted into a multifunctional community centr seahis project started in 1990, when students from the nearby theatre school in Wroclaw looked for a place where they could develop their art and stay together as a group. They found an abandoned train station and settled down in the area. The government granted them the use of the space for about 10 years, and they also got recognition as an environmental artistic association. The theatre group today consists of 15 people, and children have their own theatre group. The project involves about 80 people who support themselves with theatre and musical performances and donations from private donors and friends. Various meetings and all sorts of activities have been organised in the old train station. Large festival is organised each year with different themes. They are very happy to host the GEN-Europe assembly, hoping to develop this relationship in the future. This year, on occasion of the “Interplanetary Ecovillage Festival", the border between the Czech Republic and Poland will be opened for those walking or riding a bike. The participants of the assembly will visit another ecovillage project on the other side of the Polish-Czech border. GEN-Europe warmly thanks Wiktor for this miracle in making efforts to create such a lively, creative community.
9. Fundraising reports
by Agnieszka Komoch:
Two applications were submitted to the EU: youth exchange and general support for the association.
- the youth exchange among ecovillages was not approved but the Commission gave ideas on what could be improved in developing the youth programme.
- The application submitted in January (Environmental Directorate General) has been approved and GEN-Europe has been granted support of 72.000 Euro. The application can be consulted and Agnieszka is ready to answer questions. The activities supported by this grant are: office costs, network support, newsletter (9 languages), exhibition on ecovillages (in 4 languages), flyer GEN-Europe (9 languages and print), CD-ROM on ecovillages, website, the assembly of members, council and co-ordination meeting.
Comments from members on future budgets: travel expenses in the networks should be highly valued; reporting, we should support more environmental action. In the fundraising process some documents were produced i.e. the paper "Why ecovillages" (available from the office).
by Lucilla Borio:
fundraising with Foundations is also taking place; we have an internal mailing list (phoenix@lists.gaia.org). Manuela Vullo, a professional fund-raiser, works part time for GEN-Europe (one and half day per week), prepared a "Letter of Interest" (5 pages) and sent out 70 applications to European foundations and private donors, i.e. for travel money, meetings, Twin Village programme in Africa, computer equipment for Africa and Eastern Europe.
GEN-International also has an e-mail list (called “collaborative") to co-ordinate effort among the secretariats; GEN-Europe is a member of "Welcome Europe", an information service that sends us deadlines for all EU funding programs.
Discussion / comments from members:
a) Office material is always available for members, but in order to fund-raise one normally has to be an official association.
b) British Petrol should be crossed out of the list of potential donors as well as "armed banks" (weapon supporting banks).
c) A suggestion is made to create an "endowment fund" to assure stable funding in the future;
d) Fundraising is a two-edge sword because it is a lot of work and only "central" people can find the time to do it;
e) Being part of the GEN's "umbrella" makes fundraising a lot easier for our member ecovillages.
10. Approval of the accounts 2000/2001
All figures are expressed in Euros.
Total assets: 97.844,44
Total liabilities: 84.549,05 (staff 32.925,16, overheads 13.957,55, administration 2.017,71, activities 35.648,63)
Final Balance: + 13.295,39
The 2000/2001 accounts were presented and unanimously approved.
11.Approval of the budget 2001/2002
After the details of the EU grant have been explained and the new budget adjusted accordingly, the budget for 2001/2002 resulted as follows:
Total Assets: 172.180 (from other Foundations 90.000, from European Union 72.000, others 10180)
Total Liabilities: 172.180 (staff 49200, admin. 1800, activities 100970, travels and meetings 20120)
Final Balance: 0
The EU grant is earmarked to be used in mainly PR activities, like production of an exhibition, a CD-ROM, a video, etc. that will also allow us to have good quality presentation material for other grant applications.
Remarks from the members: infrastructure is not to be expanded through EU-funding in order not to collapse if the grant is not repeated next year.
The budget for the financial year 2001/2002 has been unanimously approved.
12. Signing of the EU contract
The President of GEN-Europe Agnieszka Komoch publicly signed the Grant Agreement with the Environmental Directorate General. Lucilla told how she received the envelope with the grant the day before leaving for the Assembly. Agnieszka and give a little introduction and preparation saying this is the first official recognition of the work done by the network, this year is the first time GEN-Europe is in Eastern Europe, an African representative is present at the meeting. The first grant holds a great meaning and challenge for the future.
Circling and humming preceded the signing, a collective toast followed it.
13.Proposals from members
a) Skills exchange by Ina Meyer Stoll
skills exchange: create a contact list for interest groups on the following topics:
- exchange of know-how
- legal status of eco villages
- political actions
- resource sharing
- inter-communal banking
- opportunities for youth education
- proposal for network meeting
GEN-Europe will use the Friendly Favors internet database (www.favors.org) to enable it.
b) Network 2003 meeting by Kasimir Reichmut
Proposal: GEN-Europe should initiate a multi-network meeting to bring together different networking organisations and to overcome the limits of each organisation. In the overflow of information on Ecovillage topics, the real meeting of human beings can be a big help in bringing faces and hearts to plain e-mail addresses. National networks could meet at the same time. Ina has suggested meeting at ZEGG, Germany. Other possible location could be Lebensgarten, Germany.
Decision: The assembly felt unable to make a decision on Kasimir´s specific proposal, as there is not sufficient clarity at present. Discussion followed on the merits of combining the networking meeting with GEN-Europe General Assembly. It is agreed by the present that GEN-Europe should, in principle, support networking with other networks, and that those who feel passionate about it should meet to try to find ways of carrying the proposal forward.
c) Children-parent workshop report by Nicole Grospierre
Proposal: Meetings of ecovillages should create a space for being together as parents and little children, and exchange that is learning by being. The proposal was received with sympathy.
d) Facilitation team proposal by Martin Kirchner:
Proposal: As a consequence of the facilitation and consensus course organised right before the assembly, a proposal emerges to offer ecovillages a GEN-Europe sponsored facilitation service. Findhorn has a consultancy service that can be a good resource. A mailing li', ill be set up to keep the course participants in contact, and can be expanded to participants from other facilitation courses held by Bea Briggs in Spain and Ireland.
e) Jean-Michel Pochat's proposal about relationship of GEN-Europe with Africa:
Jean Michel proposed to open a GEN-Europe Franco-phone office for contacts with French speaking African-countries, to publish a newsletter and other documentation in French. Discussion: there are about 40 French-speaking countries in the world; French is a good communication language, although other languages like Russian are also very important. Decision: French publication: yes, extra office: not for the moment.
14. Discussion groups
During the Assembly different groups met to discuss the following topics:
- Alternative children school
- "Schumacher college"- holistic learning
- "Welcome to the future" with Heikki Attila (on Tiberkul Community, Siberia),
- Ecovillage Training Programme in Findhorn
- Relationship between West Africa and GEN-Europe
- Discussion on Kibbutzim and ethical non-religious actions
- Community banking and enterprise support
- Activity with Grishino (Russia)
- Sports, arts and affinity groups
- Baking bread
- Shiatzu group
15. Next Assembly
Criteria for the location of the GEN-Europe assembly 2002: the assembly agrees that the next assembly ought to:
- have a good geographical spread in Europe (meetings so far were held in Italy, Spain, Poland);
- give publicity / impetus for EV activities in the region;
- go further East (not all members agree on this);
- choose areas where the networks need to be strengthened;
- happen in summer time: last week in July or better at the beginning of September to avoid conflict with summer camps;
- organise a work-camp beforehand to build a good structure for the meeting;
- offer online transport service to find partners to share travel costs;
- use "Eco rates" to have economically fair costs;
- avoid places that are too expensive;
-. be combined with educational courses.
Possible sites for 2002 assembly:
- Proposal from Murielle for South France. The main reason is the connection to African countries and expanding partnership between France an Africa. Franco-phone countries need GEN material in French for Africa; recommended action: to make a team including representatives of GEN-E, France, Africa; problems: groups in France are under suspicion of being a sect, this is getting to be a political issue.
- Proposal from Mete Hacaloglu and Tunca Bokesoy for Turkey in EkoFoca (on the Aegian Coast), which is closer from Central Europe than Madrid, 10 minutes from the sea, and combination with holiday is possible, it is actually a little community initiative. Turkey is the door to the Middle East, sub-regional node already in place.
- Proposal: Lepre Viola through Lucilla for Italy (Damanhur), in combination with an educational meeting. Lucilla presented the information she got from Lepre. The members felt there is too little information on it and need to know more before they can give an opinion.
Discussion/comments:
It is important to strengthen Turkey and its countryside farmers. There are also not so many communities in the surrounding countries and we can give a good support; on the political issue Turkey is an important bridge to the Middle East and ecovillages are part of peace work.
We also need to follow up on the developments in France where we already invested some energy.
Italy already had the assembly in 1998, and the GEN-Europe secretariat is there, so we should not hold it twice in the same country. There was no representative from Damanhur to explain their proposal.
It is generally noticed that the General Assembly is not the only way to help a national network.
The following decision have been taken:
- Decision 1: date for 2002 G.A.: 1st week of September: 16 in favour, no objections or abstentions
- Decision 2: The GEN-Europe Council will decide (either Turkey or France) about the place for next General Assembly": 13 in favour, 3 abstentions.
The assembly recommended that a meeting be held with the French and Turkish groups at the end of the general meeting to understand the needs and opportunities of both networks, which are extremely important for the future development of GEN-Europe.16. Final evaluation of the General Assembly:
- Went well: nice concerts, nice opening, solving problems by supporting, facilitation, sun, weather, time keeping, children’s' shop, achievements
- Could be improved: no concentration when the Mayor was here, not enough rituals, proposal to create committees, constant level of noise at night, need more time to meet, need more hugs, massages, more practical work-shops, everybody should stay here for festival, more attention to integration, translation, give more preferential space for hosts, have a clear start, receive more information beforehand.
- Thanking circle, singing and closing circle, group photos are the final moments of the gathering.
The facilitation team was thanked warm-heartedly. Each member of the group received a Eurotopia book and a GEN butterfly-brooch.
At the end of the assembly, the Wolimierz Community is offered honorary membership of GEN-Europe for one year as a sign of appreciation for their work and hospitality.
The third General Assembly of GEN-Europe was officially closed at 12.30 of July 19, 2001.
Minutes taken by Kasimir Reichmuth and Amy Kabat; edited by Lucilla Borio and Agnieszka Komoch.
Respectfully submitted.
Torri Superiore, September 6, 2001.