GEN Oceania Asia Recent Activities
EcoCentre
The building is nearly finished! It is quite beautiful and we are thrilled with it. By the time you read this the photovoltaic panels will be feeding power into the grid, and the infrastructure of the building will be complete. Next we have the task of equipping it properly — and we don’t want to skimp on this, so the complete fit out may take a little while to achieve. We will be having a formal opening ceremony, and will be inviting the generous people who donated to the building to the event.
Solar panels on the EcoCentre roof will feed into the mains power grid. The panels were partly funded by the Queensland Government under their Photovoltaic Rebate Scheme.
Education
We have formulated two new programmes, (now that we have such excellent facilities!). Both are responding to what appears to be overwhelming need, judging from the amount of queries we get.
Internships
This 4 week residential programme will provide the full theoretical curriculum of the Permaculture Design Certificate Course plus an equal amount of time spent on hands-on, practical projects, all in our base, the 13 year old Crystal Waters Permaculture Village. The setting means that participants will experience in an established community the various techniques that they learn about in class, and they will be able to mix within the community, and thus access many skills of residents which are not usually available to short term visitors.
Ecovillage Design Course
This course is presented in 2 modules – a 5 day section focusing mostly on theory (but with some hands on work as well!), followed by a separate 4 day practicum where participants are guided through the design process, using the skills they have developed in the previous 5 days, to design a sustainable settlement in the adjacent undeveloped property. (See EVENTS section for more details.)
Since the next GEN Board meeting will be held here in Crystal Waters just before or just after the course, a number of GEN Board members have elected to participate. It will be an excellent opportunity for participants to meet and share ideas with people who live in established ecovillages outside Australia.
Newsletter
You will have noticed that, as advised in the last newsletter, this edition is reduced to 8 pages. The reason for this is simple: it costs us $3 postage per newsletter sent overseas for the 12 page edition, and half that for the 8 page version. Since a large proportion of the newsletter recipients live outside Australia, the postage alone has been costing us a small fortune, far more than is covered by subscriptions. We have been reluctant to reduce the size, but the reduction in our funding and increases in costs have forced our hand.
ECOSOC/ESCAP
As GEN is now a member of the UN’s ECOSOC committee, Max Lindegger met with UN officials in Bangkok, on his way back from the US Board meeting. (Bangkok is the nearest office to us.) The regional body is entitled Economic & Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). We will apply for ‘observer’ status in the hope that we will be able to contribute (eventually) to some of the discussions which are of mutual interest. Max plans to attend the next ESCAP meeting, in April.
GEN Board Meeting
Max travelled to Sirius community in the USA for a GEN Board meeting. GEN is facing more changes, as the funding from the Gaia Trust in Denmark decreases and demand for GEN’s services grows. We need to find a way to generate income to continue to promote the ecovillage vision and provide information to those who need it.
The GEN will experience a period of transition. One change is that ‘head office’ responsibilities will now be shared between the existing regions. GENOA’s area will be ’programmes’ which includes education and the Living & Learning Centres. This will come into effect after July 1 2001.
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