Dear ,

The excitement is building as we draw ever closer to our cherished Gathering and General Assembly, filled with hugs, laughter, deep conversations, and the spirit of GEN.

This will be the final newsletter before the Gathering, as the next full moon will shine down while gathering for the General Assembly. Instead of our usual Moon Cycle News, we’ll send a reminder with all the details a week before the General Assembly and the full Moon Cycle News will be back in September. 

Additionally, it’s time for me, Carolin, to share my personal transition from this role into new ventures. In my goodbye message below, you'll find more about this transition and my heartfelt gratitude for each of you. Being woven into such an incredible network has made this decision all the more challenging, as I also deeply cherished the vitality and privilege of the shared journey.

With love and in community,
Carolin and Julio on behalf of the GEN Europe team

At the same time, we are welcoming our wonderful new membership manager, Franziska, to the team!

As in previous years, we are excited to again be offering the “Meet the Ecovillages” market - this year, right on the first day of the gathering!

This way you can sell your products at the GEN Europe Gathering, though please note that GEN Europe will take 15% of your income, and you must comply with Swedish tax laws. If part of an ecovillage, network or/and project, you can showcase your offerings within designated zones of the Market and on site you will be supported by the Dream Team of volunteers with the set-up. If you would like to be a stallholder at this year’s market, please find more details, including the registration form, here:

The Green Phoenix Family, warmly invites you to register for Green Phoenix 2024!

Green Phoenix is a vibrant community of ecovillages, dedicated to spiritual exchange, trust, healing, and inspiration. Their annual meeting, promoting a regenerative and sustainable future, will take place at Schweibenalp, Switzerland, from Sunday, October 27th at 6pm (CEST) to Thursday, October 31st.

This year's theme is “Balance” within ourselves, our communities, and the world, focusing on archetypal, life phases, and eco-political balances. The year, there will also be a “Next Green Phoenix” program for younger participants (ages 30-35), supported financially for their stay. For full details and registration, please visit the website!

Thanks to the dedication of our IT Angel and the dynamic engagement of our national networks, our Ecovillage Map now proudly displays over 754 projects! This impressive expansion includes members from LOES, Cooperative Oasis, RIE, GEN Germany, and RIVE!

We've implemented a new automation to make it possible to add members and ensure the map is always up to date. This will help us maintain the most comprehensive and current information about European ecovillages we've ever had.

We encourage other networks to join the effort to make our map even stronger and more interconnected. Please write to us at membership@gen-europe.org, and we will provide you with all the instructions on how you can easily add your members.

In the second stage of this initiative, we plan to help integrate this automation into the WordPress websites of our networks. This will allow our members to display the same rich information on their own platforms, further enhancing visibility and accuracy.

But that's not all! This autumn, we will be adding short interviews with GEN EU members to the map. These interviews will offer a more personalized touch and provide key information about each ecovillage, making the map an even more valuable resource. Stay tuned for more updates!

Ecoprise project is underway since February 1st and is currently in the research phase. Over the past couple of months, partners in Italy, Portugal, Serbia, Lithuania, Cyprus, and Greece have been conducting interviews and focus groups with various ecovillages, ecoprojects and social entrepreneurship, HEIs and VEIs to learn from their experiences, practices, tools, and wisdom with the aim of understanding what regeneration-driven social enterprise should look like as well as what challenges are common, and what gaps need filling in.

This recently initiated project aims to strengthen the collaboration between GEN with ECOLISE, ICLEI, ELARD, ECON, and ICSTE; improve the accountability and responsiveness of decision-makers and policy-makers to input from communities, and empower communities to organise. This project will also target European citizens themselves with the goal of empowering individuals and their communities to become aware and actively engaged in implementing sustainability and climate actions.

Sunseed Desert technologies has vacancies for coordinators open in the following departments:

-appropriate tech 🔧

-administration 💻

-communication ☎️

-education 📚

-eco maintenance 🌺

GEN has been approached by Soliderrance, a regenerative travel firm working with ecovillages in Colombia and Senegal, to develop a new experiential regenerative travel service. Set to launch in 2025, this service will allow six participants to stay in an ecovillage and engage in a week-long regenerative activity. These activities, focused on regenerative educational courses, will be offered four to six times annually.

They are currently seeking ecovillages to join the 2025 pilot project. Interested ecovillages should be prepared to host guests and offer a specific activity multiple times throughout the year. Soliderrance is particularly interested in ecovillages in the following countries:

• France
• South Europe (Greece, Croatia, Italy, Spain)
• North Europe (Sweden, Norway, Holland, Denmark, Finland)

If your ecovillage might be interested, please fill out the accompanying questionnaire.

Your contributions keep our community thriving and we are so grateful for your support.
However, some members have yet to pay their membership fees for 2024. 🚨

You can pay through our web page via PayPal or Stripe or via bank transfer to our bank account: IBAN: DE 11100100100007681105, BIC: PBNKDEFFIMPORTANT: Make sure to state the reason for transaction: Membership fee 2024.

If you need an invoice before you pay, please send us an email stating the sum you intend to pay, and we will send it to you.

Please note the slight increase in membership fees for 2024, see here.

We are immensely grateful for your support!

Feel free to read and pass along this email to your community!

We're excited to hear from you. Share your contributions with us using the form below.