This is a CTP of initiative: Ecovillage Findhorn (UK)
The growth of the community over the years brought a change in structure since the eighties. So far the Foundation had been the only organisation. The Foundation is a charitable trust to do spiritual adult education. The members receive free accommodation, food, and pocket money. It is rather difficult to make a living on this when having a family and impossible for those who started to run their independent businesses.
“In the early years people all have come because of the foundation. It dramatically changed when more and more people moved to houses in the neighbouring villages, who were not working for the Foundation. So far, the foundation was the dominant and only structure. It became obvious, that it has become too narrow as a frame. We needed an organizational structure, a framework for the whole community” (Interview Dürten Lau).
A lot of good companies have been grown out of the FF. Already since the eighties the companies became independent from the Foundation. The local area was flourishing because of the tourism to Findhorn Foundation and affiliated people had moved in the area. The number of staff members of the FF, which are about 200, did not change very much in the last 20 years. The wider community however has grown to more than one thousand. Already in the late nineties, there had been several hundred people moved to the area who are linked to the Foundation. They use the communal infrastructure or run a pension or other business that profits from the Findhorn label.
This situation has caused a need for founding a new organisation to hold the wider community and its infrastructure.
A concrete reason appeared when in 1995 the ‚field of dreams’ real estate project was started. An independent company that had grown out of the Foundation bought a neighbouring piece of land for selling plots to private owners.
“They started with the two rules that owners have to sign the Findhorn common ground and that they have to put 2% on sale in a fund for affordable housing for the Findhorn Foundation. Over the years however, the company board and owner changed and the rules have disappeared” (Interview Robin Alfred).
In 1999 the ‘New Findhorn Association’ (NFA) was founded with the support of external supervision by a long-term affiliated American consultant, Robert Gilman.
“In 1999 the first two listener conveners were elected. We needed to have a special work done in this role. A normal board, chair or other role did not fit. ‘Lister convener’ was coined as a new term. The goal is in the name of ‘listener convener’: to see and listen what is there in the field and how it can be addressed. Two people are listener conveners, a male and a female person, who are not in a primary relationship with each other. They are elected biannually” (Interview Dürten Lau).
Till today, the NFA plays an important role to hold the wider community. Nevertheless, they does not feel acknowledged by the Foundation.
Findhorn has been growing organically from the beginning on. Also this turning point was caused by an organic growth and a diversification of the community. Not only people who wanted to work and dedicate their life for spiritual education in the FF came, but people who settled with their families, and started their own businesses. The question arose how these people can be integrated into the community infrastructure in an organisational but also a social and spiritual level.
In 1996 the pressure on the FF increased, because people came and used the infrastructure of the Foundation, e.g. the community centre.
“In the beginning, the Foundation did it all and it was great. Since the eighties ‘Trees for life’, ‘Holistic Healing Centre Network’, the solar panel company AIS, the Phoenix store, the ‘Findhorn Press’ and others have left the Foundation over the years. For them the Foundation was the catalyst, and after some years they needed to have their own identity. And still, they carry the inspiration of the Findhorn Foundation with them. It is a bit like growing up. The container doesn’t necessarily stretch so far, otherwise the people need to stay small. People have to go out to expand their vision, it is a part of evolution. It is part of an ever growing complexity” (Interview Dürten Lau).
Furthermore, the companies still profit from the label of the Findhorn Foundation. The Foundation as social innovation provided the field for companies to flourish and use their popularity, but in term of finances hardly anything is given back to the Foundation.
“It was a mistake of FF to sell off companies like the ‘Findhorn Press’ or ‘Trees For Life’. Also the many B&B around FF does not pay anything back to FF. We have been naive how we sold things off. We, the Findhorn consultancy, are an independent business too and we agreed to give 10% back to FF, now it is 5%. We are the only company that is paying money back to FF” (Interview Robin Alfred).
1995 Launch of the ‘Global Ecovillage Network’ (GEN) after an international networking conference of communities in Findhorn
1995 The Foundation has not bought ‘the field of dreams’, than an affiliated company sells plots for private houses on this property.
1997 Findhorn becomes an NGO associated with the UN, first ecovillage training
1999 The ‘New Findhorn Association’ (NFA) was founded or rather the framework of NFA emerged
2001 EKOPIA was established (a co-operative located in Findhorn raising funds to support local community enterprises)
2012 Duneland house building starts; Dürten Lau becomes NFA listener
2015, October: international ‘New Story Summit’ in Findhorn
There is a contesting relation between the Foundation (FF) as the oldest, ‘first’ organisation is holding the education centre on the one side and the ‘New Findhorn Association’ (NFA) hosting the wider community on the other side.
“The foundation claimed to be everything. Ecovillage, spiritual centre, learning centre, community. It never mentions the NFA and its role. But it takes what the NFA is doing. It is annoying. An issue is that the Foundation does not accept the NFA as an equal partner - that is what I say. Now I am political: I am also Foundation. But the Foundation people do not listen to me as a NFA representative. There is a whole story around the Foundation which actually needs to step down and acknowledge the NFA.” (Interview Dürten Lau).
A different conflict line is that the Foundation has to cope with businesses doing profit with their label without paying anything back while the foundation is from time to time in financial difficulties and had to sell land which means loosing influence to hold ecological values in their direct neighbourhood. Especially the real estate companies profit from raising land prices around Findhorn.
“With selling off land to private owners for housing, my concern is that the regulations for ecological and social values get weakened. There was a rule to put 2% on sale in fund for affordable housing – it is not done any more. The board of directors of the estate agency has changed; at the moment they are more commercially oriented” (Interview Robin Alfred).
Furthermore from a different perspective, the Foundation had been the representative organization of the spiritual centre and the community and now it should be given over to NFA, which is seen as broader umbrella. NFA is seen as the organization which should hold the land property.
“The FF owns 50% of the property, the assets, of the Park. I would say the land should be owned by the whole community, the NFA. It was given to the ‘centre’, the FF was the guardian. Now it is rather the NFA. It takes a while till it is recognized.” (Interview Dürten Lau)
In Findhorn members refer to many different levels of ‘consultancy’. The spiritual guidance of Eileen Caddy is still alive and often consulted to understand subtle developments. From this perspective the community received hints, which was not easy to understand and the community wonders how to interpret.
The foundation of the NFA was an emerging process and therefore not a surprise. It is rather disappointing for those who are engaged in the NFA that it does not flourish as they imagined. Also the competition with the FF was not foreseen and took a while to understand.
In 2015, Findhorn hosted an international conference, the ‘New Story Summit’, asking for the next evolutionary step for humanity. In this context it was also asked about the next evolutionary step for better connecting the FF as the spiritual representative of the project and the NFA as the social and communal representative. The long-term supervisor Robert Gilman came again to supervise between the FF and the NFA.
“The last Process we are in right now was triggered through and started after the ‘New Story Summit’. We begin to address the next level of evolution for this centre. We invited Robert Gilman again, he help us to implement the NFA in 1999 and now helping us implement the next step of the change process. We have set up a ‘community change working group’ for 8 months. What would be the next evolutionary step for this centre? It is very much about the relationship between FF and NFA. We intend to move out of the polarity and invite more players. We want to take the decisions together that affect all of us” (Interview Dürten Lau).
The outcome is to create a larger network structure to integrate the different organisations on an equal level.
“We are thinking about a coordination circle of the different organisations, to invite them all at the same level – not just the Foundation. We are relying on many concepts like sociocracy, spiral dynamics, teal organisations.” (Interview Dürten Lau).
On an economic business level, there has been an umbrella organisation created. “In 2001 EKOPIA was established. It enables us to invest in our own community. Ekopia is a co-operative located in Findhorn raising funds to support local community enterprises. We were originally registered as an industrial and provident Society. An investment in Ekopia is a positive and practical way of helping to give organizations in our Community the opportunity to grow and thrive” (Interview Robin Alfred).
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