The Whole Village King monthly newsletter is distributed to inform our friends, near and far, on how our project is progressing. For background information and previous issues, please visit our website at: http://www.wholevillage.org

Party, Party, Party!!

Denis and Georgina have invited WVK members to two parties at King Summit. The first will be Saturday, December 18, 8:00 pm., in celebration of Christmas. The second will be held December 31, last party of the millennium, same time. Guests are invited to stay over until January 1. Bring your own bedding. A piece of floor will be provided. Gifts of food are certainly welcome. Please RSVP 905-833-3440.

House Tour

John Paul Warren has arranged a tour of three ecologically sensitive houses for Saturday, December 4, leaving at 8am. If you are interested in joining, contact him at , or 416-234-9846 ASAP.

Membership

Membership now stands at 24 families and we expect ultimately to have at least 30 families. We are holding an orientation meeting for potential new members and other interested friends, on Wednesday, November 24, 1999 at 7:30 pm, at 38 Steeplechase Ave., Aurora. If you are interested in attending, or wish to find out the date of the next orientation session, please contact Miriam Guzman at (905) 713-0155, email . While aimed primarily at friends, prospective members and new members, these orientation events are useful for any member who wants to know more about the history and organization of the Whole Village. Members can also conduct their own orientation sessions for potential members.

Falconfield News

Another mulching party was held to spread ten more round bales of straw in the garden area behind the barn at Falconwood. More than 50 saplings, provided by David Pickett, were dug from a farm in Durham and transplanted to form a buffer zone between the WVK garden plot and the tenants' yard. Julyan Mulock has asked WVK to prepare a plan for restoring the barn. This will be started as soon as access to the barn is arranged.

Plans for gardening at Falconfield are proceeding. Now is the time to start looking through seed catalogues and dreaming of fresh, young plants poking up from the moist earth in early Spring!

Topographical surveying of potential building sites on Falconwood has begun. The area from Bathurst back to the buildings on Falconwood has been completed. Data from this survey will be combined with the Geographical Information System (GIS) data received from the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority. John Paul Warren has built a scale model of Falconfield that is a great help when discussing the many features of this complex property.

Weekend Retreat

The intensive, weekend retreat for all members (including children), will be at the Ecology Retreat Centre on November 27-28. Besides being enormously important in building community, we plan to discuss project planning, pattern language and design, permaculture, and biodynamic farming over the weekend. We will revisit our Vision, have fun, eat really well and also identify any outstanding concerns about the present status of the Whole Village King initiative. Potential members who have been to an orientation session (see above) are welcome.

Mandate Groups

Much of the organizing and development work of Whole Village King resides with our mandate groups. Some recent progress:

Outreach Mandate Group

The first meeting between WVK members and their possible neighbours around Falconfield was held November 18 at King Summit. WVK was well represented and very well prepared. Roslyn and Jamie co-facilitated and led everyone through the many aspects of the Whole Village. For their part, the neighbours asked excellent questions about how WVK is organized, who makes decisions in the group, where will we build, can we afford to do this, what will stop us from expanding the village in the future, and other serious inquiries. This was a good first attempt at meeting the public and provided lots of useful feed back.

The results of the lengthy questionnaire that members filled out in September have been compiled, printed and distributed to members. Much thanks to Phil Digby for taking on this tedious but extremely vital task. The information provides a snapshot of who we are, what we want and what we all have to contribute to this undertaking.

Political and Planning Mandate Group

A frank and informative meeting took place November 18 at the Planning Office in the Administration Building of York Region. Michael Deangelis and Debra Walker of the Regional Planning Office along with Dan Stone from King Township examined our plans for Falconfield. While expressing interest in the proposal and admiration for our purpose, they pointed out that our vision has no counterpart in the Official Plan, and that we should be prepared for a costly process of proving the soundness of our ideas.

The next stage will be to meet with King Concerned Citizens, the Mayor and all the councilors of King Township individually. After that WVK will make a formal presentation to King Council, and request that they support our ACT application.

Now that initial contact has been made with the neighbours, WVK can more actively pursue networking with other organizations, groups and individuals who may be supportive of our aims and objectives. If you know of such a person or organization, please spread the word. Why not tell everyone you know about this wonderful adventure we call Whole Village King?

Pattern Language Mandate Group

Pattern Language meetings are held every other Thursday evening at King Summit. Exploration of the types of housing and other facilities is progressing well. Our current practice of using Pattern Language as a basis for discussion will soon end and we will move into the use of Permaculture Principles as a guideline for plan

Sweat Equity

After many meetings, extremely detailed and frequent emails, passionate discourse and a final wonderful banquet honouring all participants, a Sweat Equity Proposal was presented to the Round for discussion. There will be a lot of discussion around Sweat Equity, an important component of WVK's quest for the practical implementation of our mutual interest in issues of equity and social justice.

For more information

Please contact us at:

Whole Village King Ltd.
225 King Summit
King ON L7B 1A3

Phone: (905) 833-0064 Fax: (905) 833-2813

E-mail: joinus@wholevillage.org

Website: http://www.wholevillage.org