Memphis Democrat
March 10, 2005

This past Thursday morning we celebrated Valentine's day a little late and in our own fashion. For weeks people had been making and decorating "validation" cards for everyone in the community, and writing little notes in them. On Thursday morning we had a fabulous potluck breakfast in the common house, and we opened and read the cards. It was really nice to tuck into waffles, tempeh "bacon", fried potatoes, homemade yogurt, biscuits, and tofu scramble, while laughing and enjoying the company of so many dear friends.

We also made several steps forward toward improving our group decision making process. Facilitating our group meetings is a challenging and rewarding task that not everyone here feels comfortable doing. But many folks would like to learn to do it better. So Amy organized a series of trainings. First, Laird came over from Sandhill and gave us some pointers. Then I gave a two-hour workshop to an eager gang of a half dozen folks, and Tony will give the third part of the training this coming week. Some people report feeling a bit more secure and ready for those difficult topics.

Another step we took was to give our Oversight Team more power to make decisions on behalf of the group. We still operate by consensus but we're trying to modify it so that people can still give input without spending so much time in meetings. Wish us luck!

Some of you who have been to DR may have noticed that we haven't yet built any roads in our village. Tamar has initiated the process of researching ecological road building technologies on behalf of our community and others who would like to learn from our experience. Tonight we're having a meeting to talk about building roads at DR, whether we want to do so, and how we would like them to serve us.

I would like to wish all the gals out there a Happy International Women's Day! When I lived in Russia, March 8th was an important holiday, when the men would take care of all the household chores and make gifts to the women, showering them with flowers and chocolate and other goodies.

This Saturday we'll start giving our biweekly tours for the public. It's still a bit muddy but plenty warm to walk around with interested folks, talking about our buildings, gardens, and other experiments in sustainable living. Anyone who wishes to have a tour is welcome to come out on Saturday the 12th at 1 PM. Please do call 660-883-5511 in advance to let us know you're coming. We look forward to having you! If you miss this Saturday, there will be tours every second and fourth Saturday of the month until late fall. See you then.

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