Dear 

Wow, I am still filled with connection, love and inspiration after the general assembly and Gathering!

It was a real joy to finally meet at the Nature Community for the biggest Gathering ever!

In this Moon Cycle News you will find some first stories and reflections from our time together as well as several invitations to keep the momentum until we meet again in Ängsbacka next year in August!

Also I am delighted to share that this August is a special month with two full supermoons - so you will again receive some Moon News from me at the end of the month! 

Looking back and celebrating the biggest Gathering ever!

From 12-17 July we were finally able to celebrate the 2023 European Ecovillage Gathering in Nature Community, Bavaria. The sun (mostly) shone down on a sold-out event with record turnout: we welcomed over 800 participants from 41 countries, including over 100 children, which through the magic of co-creation transformed into a beautiful temporary community over the course of four days.

PS: Soon we will post the the full photo gallery and Gathering movie to share and preserve this beautiful time

This year, we were lucky to have 3 days instead of only just 2 days as in previous years to come together to go deep as a network and to inform the direction of GEN Europe.
It was a great honour for me to meet the majority of you in person. To deepen and/or get an impression of the general assembly, please find my reflections and report!

On day 2 of the general assembly, we had an in-depth discussion about the current Membership Policies and what is needed to attract new members and keep current members. Please find here the initial harvest of the discussion and I am now inviting everyone who is interested to join me in September (date & time tbc) for a more in-depth conversation about the current Membership Policies to inform the shaping of proposed updates.

Please get in touch with me/Carolin at membership@gen-europe.org if you would like to join!

Many of you may remember our successful online Meet the Ecovillages series during the pandemic, in which we offered virtual tours and Q&As with some of our member ecovillages. Well, we've decided to bring them back! If you would like to showcase your ecovillage to the public as part of a new online series, please write to fran@gen-europe.org.

These online events are based on an income-sharing model between the ecovillage, GEN EU and a facilitator. Participating communities must be able to commit to availability of some community members for an online event during the autumn, and willingness to put time and energy into creating a dynamic and creative presentation of the community (such as a video tour, interviews with members).
Good internet connection is also required!

The Avnø Oasis ecovillage, is an aspiring member of GEN Europe and will be offering a wonderful 3-month Health, Happiness and Green Living course combining the transformative power of the EDE and PDC (Permaculture Design Course) programs.  

Dates:

Sept 3 - Nov 24, 2023
Jan 4 - March 27, 2024

Green Phoenix is a community of ecovillages, a vessel for spiritual exchange, trust, healing, compassion and intimacy, a hub for deep inspiration on a spiritual and heart level, a place for learning together and rising our consciousness, supporting the GEN network and other transformational change makers, embracing many walks of life. 

As a “think-and-feel” tank Green Phoenix aims to bring awareness about a regenerative and sustainable future for humanity and our planet. 

Healing is the theme of this year’s conference: within ourselves, in our communities and in the world. 

It will take place for the first time in Damanhur, Italy from Tuesday, October 10th at 6pm (CEST), to Sunday, October 15th.

Application deadline: 1st of Sept, 2023
Apply here

Digital infrastructure has the potential to support a community's communications, logistics, decision making, crowdsourcing... but little is known in academia of how intentional communities are utilizing it. As part of her PhD, the former FIC IT Director Osa Isacson is reaching out to know more about feelings on and experiences of using technology in your community - in order to learn about what’s needed, what works, and what doesn’t. Let her know your experiences.

The EU project EC2 is currently conducting a survey to find out what motivates members of energy communities (e.g. energy cooperatives, ecovillages, neighborhood initiatives) to get actively involved.

The current survey directly targets members of energy communities. The results serve to promote initiatives like yours and thus the Energiewende as a whole. So you can help us and the Energiewende a lot if you take about 15 minutes of your time for the study. Among all participants we will raffle 6 vouchers worth 50 € for the sustainable webshop "Avocadostore".

If you want to participate, please fill out the survey.

Sunseed has openings for several positions!

Last but not least, a few greetings from the GEN EU core team (here all of them on their trip to the local Bavarian bakery after the general assembly).
Please note that Dicte, our wonderful Gathering organizer, is not on this picture as she was busy on site!
Thank you for reading this newsletter, sharing it in your community and your ongoing support! 

If there is anything you would like to have included in the upcoming Moon Cycle News please get in touch with me at carolin@gen-europe.org

In Community,
Carolin