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Community Buy-Out Background & One Man's Vision for the Future Findhorn

V2 This is about a 5 minute read - 2000 words.

 

FOUNDATION DOWNSIZING

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The Findhorn Foundation (FF) has been looking to sell a significant amount of its land and assets as it significantly shrinks its size to be financially sustainable in the future as a relaunched Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO).

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COMMUNITY BUYING

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I believe it would be much better for the community, if those assets and land, could be bought by us, rather than outside parties, (or individuals with no interest in community benefit buildings, or no interest in cross-subsidising desperately needed things like affordable eco-housing for young people).

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REVIVING THE COMMUNITY

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If the community can own its own land, develop its own Common Vision and plan (emerging out of the ground of the founding “DNA” and values) and elect our own leaders (using spiritually informed practices along the way) - then my belief is we can revive the thriving spiritual and ecological community we once were.

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MANIFESTING OUR COMMON VISION

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With a Common Vision, and the power to manifest the Common Vision plan, because we own enough of the land to generate the money we need from it (community centre anyone? youth hostel anyone? children's safe playground anyone?) - we can take real action towards a better future, together!

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COMMON VISION versus FRAGMENTATION

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On the other hand, without effective power and control over most of the Park that is "left"; without a Common Vision and a unified, focused plan;  we will stay in the fragmentation, powerlessness and somewhat tangled inefficiency we currently have, as I see it.

 

(I am genuinely sorry that this depiction offends some people, but I don't know how to point out what is needed without pointing out some of what has held us back. It is certainly true that a huge amount of great things have been done in the past by the various organisations, and long may that continue. I am for not against their great work, I just don't think they should be trying to run the Park).

Rather than being resilient, as is sometimes claimed, I believe this tangled complexity, and lack of self-ownership and control, is what holds us back.

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Metaphorically speaking the tangled overgrowth chokes the beautiful flowers, edible berries, plants, and co-created garden that could emerge, so to speak!

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THE KEY - EMPOWERED, ENGAGED, ENCOURAGED, LISTENED TO COMMUNITY MEMBERS HELPING SHAPE THE VISION

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The key, in my view, is community ownership, leadership and engagement - empowering the community and listening to them, plugging in all our passionate talents and energy (and all our divine alignments!) into recreating a vibrant hub.

 

This is new here.

 

It's quite different from just a few overstretched (very good, very committed, hardworking, excellently intentioned, Highest Good focused, excellently experienced) people running things without a fundamental orientation and commitment to deep listening (and obedience/surrender to) the (God-informed) members of the community.

 

Leaders should serve members, at least in my vision, (so long as members are doing their spiritual work and coming from a place of highest good of the whole).

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SPIRITUAL (& PSYCHOLOGICAL) PRACTICE

 

I take for granted that spiritual practice, personal transformational learning and ethics/integrity should be at the heart of this, and if they aren't well, the new leaders, need to do something about that too.

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OPTIMISM ABOUT COMMUNITY STEPPING UP

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Maybe I am naively optimistic, and the community just can't be bothered (or rather are too busy with young kids or elder health issues or financial survival in these tough times  - i.e., it's just not practical for people to engage), but I think if community was listened to and led in the right way, with servant-leadership that really called on the people and asked us what we wanted, people would feel empowered and engaged, and would step up in whatever way was right for them.

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300 MEMBERS VERSUS 30

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And I think a 300 horsepower (member power) engine is better than just a 30 horsepower (org trustee) engine, especially when the tidal currents here are so strong, dragging us into conflict and mire. We need all of us plugged in (it's a wind-powered electric engine, don't worry, I'm not mixing metaphors ;) ).

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SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR THE NEXT 60 YEARS

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For the community to thrive long into the future we need new generations to come through, and a leadership succession plan.

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To recruit and retain future leaders, and attract younger people in general, we/they need to feel engaged, listened to, empowered, with room for creative service, otherwise we/they leave, as any good recruiter or team leader can tell you.

With community ownership, and leadership that focuses on genuinely engaging the whole community, working through polarities, getting to a Common Vision and supporting members’ mini-visions along the way, we can bring new generations through, as part of that.

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Having post-retirement age leaders, this said with greatest of respect and honouring, but also with common sense, isn't long term sustainable for our future. There needs to be competent succession.

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Elders are the deeply valued and appropriate wisdom keepers and mentorship advisor circle, for the new leaders of the future, and in spiritual terms the older and wiser the better I would think.

 

But now, for the good of the community, there needs to be a graceful passing on of the baton, on the more down to earth, high energy and time requirement, business and community engagement end, of running our community.

 

New, vital energy is needed to thrive into the future.

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With new leadership we can continue to manifest our demonstration site and centre for practical spiritual practice (love) in action for the next 60 years.

 

We can continue to contribute meaningfully to a better world and the good of the whole rather than diluting and fading away.

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SMART DEVELOPMENT

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From a development point of view - by doing moderate, smart, nature-informed and eco-innovative, development - where all the profits are recycled into community (nature preservation areas; children and family buildings and playgrounds; affordable eco-housing; a community farm/gardens; youth housing), rather than all the profits being lost into private hands (the current situation) - then some to many* of these community benefit things could be achieved.

 

(*Some to many depends on how smart we are about that development).

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A PARK-WIDE PLAN

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Only a holistic Park-wide plan gives us the chance to do cross-subsidising development, that's why the assets need to go to just one entity rather than several. It needs to be the maximum amount of assets rather than just the liabilities the Foundation wants to get rid of.

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THE NEW BENCOM

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With the excellent foresight of John Talbott and Durten Lau and then the ongoing efforts of Michael Shaw and Maria Cooper, a Community Benefit Society has been set up to buy or receive these assets (FF could give them to a fellow charity).

This "Bencom" is set up to be a democratically run membership based society. It has raced to over 300 members since the August 7th NFA "Beatles Songs" meeting, with a great deal of volunteer help (thank you), but especially Eveline Rodenburg.

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This means the members can now hold an election to put in place the right leaders.

 

This is slated for November 6th in the U.Hall.

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A FREE AND FAIR ELECTION

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This election needs to be free and fair.

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(I blog about that here as I'm quite concerned it isn't going to be, which in my mind defeats the purpose of a Bencom. I, for one, would withdraw my support if it is just going to be another community members ignoring, small Board led, organisation).

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ROLES

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Roles need to be chosen to elect people against. I blog about that here.

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This is so we can look at what their track records and skillsets need to be associated to those roles and choose people against those criteria. 

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TEAMS or INDIVIDUALS

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Having well-qualified people chosen is necessary but not sufficient.

 

They need to get on well with each other, which is why I recommend teams stand and electors vote for teams. I blog about this here.

 

Teams need to stand with a shared vision, a shared leadership style and shared commitment (or not) to community listening, with the right skilled/valued people for the right specific roles. 

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Of course some of this can be built after the election with a good recruiting approach.

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There is a poll about that here.

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VALUES

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In my view, candidates must also have the right alignment to what we stand for here (genuine spiritual practice and commitments, connection to the founders and the founding DNA, and S&PD/Common Ground type commitments to conflict resolution, in person, etc.)

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VISION

 

There are different visions of what the Bencom. Knowing what those are is really important when it comes to electing leaders and leadership teams. I blog about that here. This is really critical in terms of leader choice.

 

A BIGGER VISION

 

My vision is the wider version of the vision - that the Bencom provides the community the chance to own, lead and govern itself, with an actual say over real assets, and the future.

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LEADERSHIP STYLE

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I strongly believe the orientation of the new leaders for Bencom should be to listen deeply to the community and draw forth the community's vision. I call this servant-leadership. I blog about that here.

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CROSS-ORGANISATIONAL COLLABORATION

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This should be in close co-ordination with NFA and THA (as the two current large membership bodies of, respectively, the community as a whole and the Park. This is why I advocate for an NFA LC to be on the Board of the new Bencom at all times, and probably THA too.

 

I blog about this and have a poll up about this here.

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THE SMALLER VISION - JUST A LAND BUYER

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Other people have a narrower vision for Bencom - they see it as simply a land buyer or a land buyer and a developer, a kind of Duneland Mark 2, albeit with 300 members rather than 70 shareholders.

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However, in my view, if you just have a tiny Board pushing ahead doing its own thing, not deeply listening to its 300 members (or 70 shareholders), who then all end up very disengaged and upset, then we would just be repeating the mistakes of the past.

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WHAT KIND OF LEADERS

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It's really for me about the style of leadership and their orientation and vision.

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Are they the kind of leaders who make a massive effort to listen, to engage the community, to get us inspired, to support us in our self-organising, to help us get over our differences, build bridges on what we share, help get our Common Vision agreed and then executed?

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Are we servant-leaders, working closely with community, seeing the value of community and each person's talent, their part in the orchestra, to help serve, to help make this community and this world better.

 

Are the new leaders focused on drawing it forth, plugging in everyone's passions, and working through conflict and polarities in a creative way to get to a higher synthesis?

 

That's a new way, that's not how leaders of the Boards of the organisations have operated in the past.

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TIME FOR CHANGE

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I believe it is time for a change.

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I would love to help bring that change, whether it is by backing the right leadership team, or leading or co-leading the right team.

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I have provisionally raised £2 Million to pay for what's for sale on the Park, Cullerne and Cluny should they become available. That socially responsible, concessionary (lower than market interest rate) funding really is only interested in a community-led vision approach, with a very competent, aligned team, owning as much as possible so it can be financially sustainable, because otherwise it is just way too risky.

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WHAT DO INVESTORS, LENDERS, GOVERNMENT GRANT-MAKERS AND THE FF TRUSTEES EXPECT?

 

Having worked in this social impact finance/ ethical money world for years (we recruited leaders for it), I can tell you that that kind of money really will only get invested into a strong leadership team who work well together, who share a vision, and know how to operate financially sustainably. Those kinds of investors seek positive impact not squandering of resources!

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That will likely be true of any serious investor, lender, and the Scottish Government, too.

 

They won't just throw £1Million at a community without a very strong and credible organisation in place.

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I expect that is also true for the FF Trustees, they aren't going to just give or sell their assets to a team with the wrong leaders in place. They used proper recruiting criteria to hire their recent CEO for example - they want people with relevant track records, in the right age brackets, etc. Well I expect that is true of who they intend to sell community assets to and they are much more likely to be open to selling them, with the right partners across the table, because FF Trustees moist definitely also want what is good for the community and the whole.

 

A CRUCIAL ELECTION

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So, this Bencom election coming up is pretty crucial for the community.

 

We have to decide which vision we wants for Bencom and for our future - another landowner and developer run by a small Board with not much engagement or interest in what the community wants? Duneland 2?

 

Or leaders who focus on deep community listening, Common Vision creation and the polarity resolution needed to get there, engaging and empowering as many as possible, and hopefully helping heal the culture here?

 

Does the community even want to own and lead itself? Are we ready? 300 members of Bencom starts to say - maybe!

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ON THE GROUND SERVANT-LEADERSHIP

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If we do, I believe we need a servant-leader style of team, focused on drawing forth that Common Vision, with the on the ground time and energy to do that deep engagement.

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It's just a very different way of doing things.

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And, even more simply, from a very practical point of view - it needs leaders who the FF Trustees will want to sell to and who can get big money behind them!!!

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THE CHOICE

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To me, it's a choice about new versus old leadership styles, new versus old ideas, and new versus old generations.

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THE GOOD OF THE WHOLE

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What is best for the community and for the greater good?

 

What should the future be?

 

SUPPORTER? 

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If you like these ideas please be scarily bold, and sign up as a Supporter or a Public Supporter

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MAKE SURE YOU VOTE!

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f you don't like them, please make sure to vote in the election for the leaders and vision you prefer. 

 

Or if it is a "selection" rather than an election (grrrr) then show up and make your views known!

 

YOUR COMMUNITY, YOUR VISION, YOUR FUTURE

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Thanks for letting me share my views if you got this far. I look forward to yours, all 300+ of them, collectively, being the decisive ones, for our future here!

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