Dancing Rabbit Inc.'s Mission:
To create a society, the size of a small town or village, made up of individuals and communities of various sizes and social structures, which allows and encourages its members to live sustainably.
To encourage this sustainable society to grow to have the size and recognition necessary to have an influence on the global community by example, education, and research.
Much of our work at Dancing Rabbit so far has dealt with the first part of our mission, forming an ecovillage. Our work on the second part of our mission, the "example, education, and research" part, has so far been sporadic and uncoordinated. (Small wonder, too, as that first bit about creating a sustainable town and society is a huge project!) But our population is growing, our infrastructure is coming together, and more of us have comfortable houses that make physical life here easier. It's time to start putting a more coordinated effort into that second part of our mission, and a group of folks here intend to do just that by starting a sustainability research center at Dancing Rabbit.
Penn, hard at work
Over
the next few months, perhaps years, we will need to work out the
differences that are currently part of the wide range of hopes and
limits people have for this research center. Funding: Do we apply
for grants or rely entirely on private donations? Or do we come
up with some other scheme entirely for bringing money into the center?
Scope: Will education also be part of the mission of the research
center? Will it be in some way affiliated with a "free university"?
Will the Center hold workshops? Pay: Will funds be used to pay employees/researchers
or will funds only be used to cover material costs of experiments
with all labor being volunteered? Respectability: Will the Center
strive to be "respectable" in mainstream scientific circles or will
it be more forgiving in its view of what constitutes proper research?
Affiliation: Will the Center be part of Dancing Rabbit Inc. or will
it be a separate entity?
More questions will undoubtedly arise as we move forward with this project, but we will hopefully come out with something that is useful. We'll keep ya' posted!
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