Pacific Gardeners Like to Partay!

Wow! September has come and it's as if the folks at Pacific Gardens have woken from a long summertime slumber. There are so many events, work bees and what our irrepressible Roz calls "partays" that I can hardly keep track of them all.

We've already had one work bee last Saturday, where PGCCers tackled dust and dirt and weeds and windows with a vengeance, and were rewarded with a delicious lunch prepared by one of our newest residents, Carla.

Tomorrow night we're having an outdoor barbecue potluck - most likely the last of the season, alas - followed by an all-ages games night with Scrabble, Encore, and the big favourites, Catan and Magic the Gathering.

Saturday John and I will be at the Harvest Festival. Pacific Gardens will be joining other community groups promoting local food, permaculture, organic gardening, and sustainability.

There'll be great food and music, loads of displays, a petting zoo for the kids, a farmer's market, and hundreds of people attending the festival, which is held on Wesley Street in Nanaimo's Old City Quarter.

The biggest event of the month is our fourth anniversary party on Sept. 21st, with a concert by New Zealand folk singer Anna Van Riel, a special anniversary cake by our Myriam, and a visit by cohousing guru Chuck Durrett.

The following Monday night we're having a Mexican-themed potluck party to welcome our students.  Raul, one of our Mexican students, will play the piano and sing, and we'll definitely have salsa, if not tequila!

But we're not done yet.  On Sept. 25th, Chad and Susana will give a presentation on their tour this spring of cohousing communities on the west coast, and Bill and Sharon will do one on their visit to Prairie Sky, a Calgary cohousing community.

Finally, on Saturday, Sept. 28th, we'll have another work bee, this one starting with a hearty potluck breakfast to give us fuel for all those indoor and outdoor chores.

You never have to worry about having a social life when you're living at Pacific Gardens!

Kathryn

How to do a community meeting

Community meetings are a big part of life at Pacific Gardens.  For some of you - actually, I expect a lot of you -  this may not seem like such an attractive feature. I'll admit, there are times when I have gone to our meetings and wished I had stayed home and done something more productive like scrubbing the ring of grunge in the bathtub.

But that was when our community was just starting, and we were learning how to do meetings in a more cooperative, egalitarian way.  We tried all kinds of different techniques - taking away the tables, sitting in a circle, using colour-coded cards to indicate whether we were in favour or against a proposal, having the facilitator stand, to name a few.  Some we kept, some we didn't.

There were lengthy pre-meeting meetings for our facilitators (I can hear the groans already!) so they could prepare an agenda that would help make the community meeting run smoothly and finish on time, while allowing enough discussion from the participants to come to a good decision.

As someone who prefers action to process, I occasionally - well, actually, more than occasionally - found this excruciating.  All this effort to decide how we wanted to spiff up our entranceway, or deal with noise in the atrium - arggghh! And we still ran over time, and interrupted each other, and people got angry.

But at a recent community meeting, it all came together for me - even though we did run over time, did interrupt each other, and some of us got angry (including me).  The proposal on the non-existent table was whether or not we would continue having a permaculture course at Pacific Gardens.  It was about the third time it had been brought to the group, with no resolution, and the Garden Committee folks were getting frustrated with all the delays.

When the discussion began, it was all about money.  It was costing us too much in terms of our time and effort, and we weren't getting enough in return from the organizers of the course.  But as the meeting went on, and our extremely skilled facilitator, Kara, summarized what people were saying, it became clear that it wasn't about the money.

It was about our feelings, and interestingly, those on both sides of the issue had the same concern - that they weren't being respected. The chair of the Garden Committee didn't feel we understood why it was so vital to have the permaculture course here. As someone who was passionate about ensuring food security for our community in the future, he believed it was essential to gain the expertise and advice given to us during the permaculture course.

For those feeling reluctant to have the course here again, the issue was having our boundaries and needs respected. There were too many limits on when we could use the dining-hall and kitchen, the guest rooms, and when the children could play in the atrium, too many strangers on the property, and too much work.

In the end, we didn't come to a resolution - but we did come to a greater understanding of who we are, what we want and need, and how to talk about contentious issues in a way that is respectful and caring.

It was all worth it.

Kathryn

The joy of transition

Yesterday a friend, who is a firm believer in it, raised the topic of Peak Oil. You probably are aware of the concept of Peak Oil but, just in case you are not, some people foresee a precipitous decline in the supply of cheap energy and a catastrophic collapse of western-style civilization.

My friend's reference to Peak Oil reminded me of the period, a few years ago, in which I became aware of the possibility of energy descent. Back then, I felt confused.

Some scientists were publishing credible data that supported the hypothesis that we were heading for mayhem. On the Internet I even read about people who had prepared for Peak Oil by creating rural bunkers stocked with guns and ammunition.

Yet some technically savvy people were telling me that humankind would invent a solution and the perceived threat would evaporate.

For a while I spun my wheels, not knowing what to do. I sure as heck didn't want to resort to firearms. My attitude was that, if survival came down to that, I would yell, "Stop the world. I want to get off!"

But, in the meantime, there was something else going on in my life that had no obvious connection with Peak Oil. It was the fact that I felt so darned lonely in the suburbs of a large-ish city. It was my longing for community that attracted me to cohousing.

Although protection of the environment and preparation for Peak Oil were not my primary motivations for buying into Pacific Gardens Cohousing Community, the founders of our project ensured that it would incorporate the following features that leading environmental experts talk about again and again:

Space for growing food.

A location that allows residents to access local amenities on foot.

A multi-family residential building with a single exterior skin that minimizes energy loss.

I increasingly have come to value these elements of our project.

The friend who mentioned Peak Oil told me about a British website called Transition Culture. After our walk, I went to the Internet and looked for it. I found it interesting. The site was created by Rob Hopkins, a practitioner of permaculture. One of the things that he does is assist communities in designing action plans for energy descent. Apparently there are over forty Transition Towns in the United Kingdom.

In looking around the site, I felt that we at Pacific Gardens Cohousing Community already had implemented many of its recommendations.

My experience also is that making the transition is fun. At least that is what it has been like for me. It has not felt to me like deprivation.

If I could convey only one message to the residents of my previous suburb, which I found sterile, it is the level of joy I have experienced since I've joined a cohousing community and started living a more environmentally friendly lifestyle.

Now I'm off to Esther's West African dance class, with Voodoo Dave playing the drums. I'll be getting there on foot, of course. :-)