The March Hare: Winter '00
Issue 23

Come see our past issues for lots of Dancing Rabbit information.

Planning for the future

It's been boom or bust population-wise around the ecovillage. Everyone did some traveling in December and the place emptied out for a couple of weeks. In January, we all reconvened for a "retreat" week, full of exciting discussions about our life here and our goals for the project.

Some highlights: we reconfirmed our goal of 50 members by 2004 and discussed concretely how to get there. This number seems to allow the project to gain the momentum we think it needs without trying to grow so fast that we outstrip our ability to handle the growth. We also agreed to really start the alternative currency system we've been discussing and we created a new way for people to live and work at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage without committing to full membership. In addition, we continued to sift through the complex issue of defining our long-term goals and the sustainability guidelines that flesh out our vision.

We spent hours planning our work projects for the year 2000, including the hardest planning of all: deciding what NOT to do. It's difficult to drop anything from our to do lists since we all have such strong visions of what we'd like Dancing Rabbit to become. Nevertheless, we want to live the culture we're trying to create, not just have it be a goal for the future, and that means taking time for art, music, recreation, relationships, and of course, sleep. It may mean we won't build that solar bathhouse this year, but it will improve our mental health immensely. Here's to a happy, successful 2000 for us and for you, too!