The Leaves of Twin Oaks Summer 2001 - Page 3
Can you believe it? The Federation of Egalitarian Communities is 25 years old this year! Many Americans think of intentional communities as a relic of the past, something that flourished for a brief period and faded leaving little or no trace. We are proud of the staying power of our network, and of many of the communities that have been involved in it over time.
Shared outreach efforts have been and continue to be the core of our work together. The basic principle is that anyone who contacts one of our communities for information receives information about all of them—and that helps everyone. But over the years, many other pieces and layers have been added. Who can imagine the FEC communities nowadays without labor exchange programs? And our groups rely on our PEACH fund for catastrophic health care coverage. Many relationships have been built that probably never would have happened had not a daring group of dreamers come together all those years ago.
This years Fall Assembly will be held at Twin Oaks with some pre-Assembly activities in the planning. We hope to make some space to gather past and present FEC delegates to do some visioning work and socialize. This will be a chance to reflect on where we’ve come from in past years, and where we want to go in the next 25! Ex-FEC delegates interested in attending something like this should write to Skyblue.
Our ongoing influx of new members intensified last spring. Counting interns, 20 people joined between the beginning of January and the beginning of July. We accepted 6 summer interns, most of whom were focused on sustainability. 16 of our 20 new folks were under 30, so our average age dropped some. Longer-term members greeted the flood of new faces with a mixture of enthusiasm for the new energy and trepidation regarding the ability of our culture to gracefully integrate so many people at once.
The flood dropped off to a trickle over the summer, and one by one, the interns departed. Intern Nathan made a lasting final impression, appearing at his goodbye party in skintight pink faux-snakeskin pants. Several people paid tribute to conference-organizing intern extraordinaire Mary-Margret by appearing at her going-away party in her attire of choice, negligees.
Woty abruptly split for Oregon; the hammock shop just isn’t the same without her regular contributions of cupcakes topped with two inches of blue frosting. Katie Sunshine took the last train for the coast. Kee moved out but is staying in the area, and Antonina moved to Ganas.
We also bid sad goodbyes to longer-term members. Melissa moved to Kindness House, an ashram in Asheville, NC. Cosima and Nairn and Tynan set up housekeeping in Massachusetts. Morgan, equipped with her new Masters in Horticulture, landed a great internship in Pennsylvania.
Ex-members, where did you go after your time at Twin Oaks & what have you done? The Leaves would like to start running an feature on the interesting lives ex-Twin Oakers lead. Wouldn’t you like to know what your old friends are up to? Please send us an up to 500 word piece on your post-Twin Oaks life and a photo (we will prioritize pieces with photo's) and you may see your face in the next issue.