Dear 

Tonight's full moon is said to be the biggest and brightest moon of 2023 - wherever this newsletter will reach you, I hope you have a clear sky tonight to admire the beauty and mystery of this beautiful celestial body.

I am happy to share with you again the latest news from GEN Europe - and not to forget: the photo gallery and the after-movie from the Gathering! :)

Our photo gallery and after-film of memories from this year's Gathering are now live - browse through the gallery here to relive the experience, or enjoy the flavour of our time together even if you weren't able to make it with this beautiful after-film. (link to movie when ready!)

Our beloved European Ecovillage Gathering travels to a new host community every year. We are now opening applications for communities interested in hosting the Gathering in 2025.

Please find more details and submit your application before October 20th 2023 if you are interested in hosting the Gathering!

Together with ECOLISE and other community-related networks like ECON, ICLEI, ELARD, the research institute ISCTE and the University of Vecta, we're in the last stages of preparing a proposal for the Citizens' engagement and participation call of the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) programme of the European Union. We envision to create local debates in 5 European macro-regions that will put at the centre the contributions that communities can bring to support social and environmental regeneration in rural and urban settings. There will be the possibility to get advocacy training for many of our members and to scale-up our abilities to reach out to policy-makers. If you are interested in knowing more, please fill the questionnaire below or drop a line to dario@gen-europe.org.

A week ago, the French ecovillage network came together at the Oasis Festival to connect, explore and deepen ecovillage living on a national level.

The "ecovillage lab" Valle de Sensaciones is offering to trusted community groups a rental space from October-February for retreats or community processes and practices in the south of Spain. The space is purposefully designed to accommodate community living for a group of 5 to 10 individuals, with the capacity to facilitate group activities for up to 20 people or more. You can find full details of the space and the offering here, and can contact Achim directly for more information.

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 asap if you would like to join!

Ross Jackson is stepping down from the board of Gaia Education this autumn after many years of support, and with our friends from Gaia we will be joining in the celebration of his contribution to our movement. Many of you have met and worked with Ross over the years, and you're warmly invited to share memories (in written or video format) or photos of Ross and Hildur to be incorporated into a gift for him. Please upload your photos and videos here or email Fran (fran@gen-europe.org) by 16th September with your contributions!

You're also invited to the online celebration of his contribution to the ecovillage movement on October 21st from 7-8pm BST - do save the date if you'd like to attend and we'll send Zoom details closer to the time!

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!

If you have volunteering or educational opportunities coming up, or simply an achievement or update you wish to share with our wider community, please send Fran the details and an accompanying image by September 6th, to fran@gen-europe.org

Through the European Day of Sustainable Communities (EDSC) ECOLISE aims to celebrate thousands of transformative community-led initiatives across Europe. 

This year, they would like to raise awareness by bringing the campaign to the digital landscape and are preparing a video collage to be shared on September 23rd. To join the campaign, take a picture of a community celebration around a table and upload it on their website before September 17th. We also encourage you to share the photo/s on your social media accounts, tagging @communitiesforfuture and using the hashtag #JoinTheBigTable, letting the world know what achievements you are celebrating this year. 

Click below to watch the pre-campaign video, read the toolkit on how to participate and upload your pictures. ECOLISE is very excited to receive as many photos as possible to celebrate the 7th edition of the EDSC together!

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