Hello brother and sister dancers!

Helping to plan and facilitate the Vision Council was a wonderful experience for me. Many thanks to Alisa for having the Vision vision, and to Alisa and Jashana for their skilled and joyful facilitation. I learned much from them. During the Council I was counting the people reacting to various questions. I summarize my notes and thoughts bellow. See Jashana or Alisa for exact wording of the questions.

There were about 60 people at the beginning of the meeting, and 70 by the end. Below is information for the Concentric Circles exercise, and for the discussion groups. I will list my summary thoughts first, and the specific data at the end. (Joe was taking similar notes, so it would be good to comapare these with his). Please note that people's reactions to the questions are not the same as firm commitments!

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Tom's Conclusions:

1. DNE intentional community:

   About half the people wanted to live in a DNE-styled community, if it satisfied ALL of their requirements. However, it seemed like a disproportionate number of people in this group (over half) were new DNEers (who may not have thought as deeply or with as much info as experienced DNEers). There was little difference in those picturing themselves there in 10 vs. 3 years, but very few (5 to 7) who pictured themselves there in 1 year.

2. Contributions, time and money:

   Almost everyone was willing to do a two week work camp, starting next year. A later question indicated that a third of the people would be willing to put in a months work. - About a third of the people seemed willing to contribute a significant financial amount (5% of their income) with no guaranteed benefits. Most of these were equally willing to make sustained (yearly) contributions.

3. Renting, Lakes, nudity:

   The rental scenario (see Jashana's notes for details) was not acceptable, with half the people unsure of it, and a third very against it (not sure which aspects were undesirable). Surprisingly, nudity was not a serious requirement, but having a lake front was essential to the vast majority.

4. Partnerships and other options:

   There was not much consensus on other issues, probably because of the complexity of the issues and the simplicity or vagueness of the questions. 40% said they wanted a camp next year no matter what.

5. Self-selected discussion groups:

   See elsewhere for the notes these groups generated. I thought it would be worth commenting on the numbers of people drawn to these groups.

   • nobody thought it was important enough to discuss "not buying yet." In the entire meeting, there did not seem to be a contingent saying "Not so fast, be patient, we can wait an extra year or two for the right opportunity to arise"

   • the largest group was on restructuring! This (and the fact that two out of 3 who "knew what to do next" mentioned it) indicates that while most people are in favor of moving ahead with some big changes in DNE, there is also a serious lack of confidence that our current structures will be sufficient.

   • Though half of the people earlier said they wanted to live in an "ideal" DNE community, only 10% thought it was important enough to sit in the "residential camp" group. It could be that after getting more information, thinking, feeling, people were more realistic.

   • Though 40% of the people said they wanted dance camp no matter what next year, only one person thought it was important enough to be in this group. This again may be because after thinking and feeling more, the reality of trying to run a dance camp in addition to a work camp started to sink in.

   • I thought it was interesting that the groupings reflected in the "concentric circles" exercise was quite different that those seen in the discussion group exercise. The concentric circles exercise was more one of reacting to general feelings or impressions--i.e. more from the heart. Choosing a discussion group was about where you were willing to engage intellectually. I think we may be in a period where our hearts and heads are not quite aligned on these important issues, though the Vision Council was very helpful in exercising and giving voice to both heart and mind.

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"Concentric Circles" exercise:

1. consider your "phantasy camp"
   • how many people would live there? --> 40%
   • remember, this is your phantasy camp, has whatever you want! --> 60%
   • how many can see themselves living there in 10 years (no change) 60%
   • in 3 years? --> 25 people, 40%
   • in 1 year? --> 5 to 7 people

   1a. Contributing

   • who would come to a work camp (2-4 weeks?) - 90-95%
   • who would come NEXT YEAR? --> same
   • who would donate 5% income for first year? 20-25 people
   • who would donate this for 3 years? --> 15-20 people
   • for 10 years? (about 4 moved out), about 15 left

2. RENT SCENARIO:
   Given the rent scenario, concentric circles looked like:
   • OK 15, so-so 30, bad 20.

   • what about no nudity? --> not much movement
   • what about no lake either? --> big movement
   • who thinks lake is necessary? --> 95%

3. Partnership scenario:
   80 to 90% were OK with it, though did not seem thrilled. About 10 people were against it.

4. Undeveloped land scenario, with rent elsewhere.
   • a little less desirable than the partnership scenario
   • who would be willing to work for a month on it? 20-25 people
   • but it would be a big risk trying to run camp and build at the same time. Are you sure? --> 15% move out more

5. Who wants a two week camp next year no matter what?
   20-25 people (40%) on in side, with same number way on outside.

6. Who knows exactly what to do next?

   - 3 people came into middle (CT, Mieke, and ??) asked them to speak: two people mentioned restructuring, one mentioned need to identify and honor two separate groups, those who want to live at DNE and those who don't; one spoke of need to trust the committees that we empower.

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Number of people in the self-selected discussion groups:
(see elsewhere for notes taken in these groups)

1. Don't buy yet --> zero (!)
2. Investment --> 5
3. Restructuring --> 19 (!)
4. Work camp --> 12
5. residential camp --> 7 (!)
6. buying --> 12
7. timesharing --> 6
8. camp no matter what --> 1 (!)
9. unrepresented --> 6

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Tom Murray
tmurray@cs.umass.edu LGRC A301-A
www.cs.umass.edu/~ckc/ Computer Science Dept.
Tel: 413-545-0156, 529-2120 University of Massachusetts
Fax: 413-545-1249 Amherst, MA 01003

Last modified: November 29, 1996

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