 Birkenstock-shod Shadow |  Detail Drawing of an Arcosanti Apse |
The RDCK, Regional District of Central Kootenay, has admirably decided upon a Zero Waste policy. There's a Resource Reclamation Management Committee; there's also a Citizen Advisory Committee to that group. It will be interesting to see what comes of it.: Zero Waste policy is a significant high standard, challenging to achieve.
Thinking about it, I am reminded of a recent discussion at ArCosanti, which has been in transition mode since Paolo's death in 2013. Arcosanti's administrative structure has been absent, in its own mind, of means or method for development of a strategy for inclusion of a democratic process to tend to Arcosanti's everyday administration. One option might be a membership-driven organizational structure with an elected board occupying limited terms of office rather than the Mom and Pop organizational model, which has had limited success with development but has assured Arcosanti's retention of its original purpose, testing some elements of the hand-crafted passive solar architectural design idea of Paolo Soleri.
Re-purposing an administrative model by appointing a Steering Committee is an interesting approach for a peacefully tolerant group's institutionally entrenched organization to adopt. The goal, I suppose, is to develop an administrative structure that can abet the intent of achieving a still-indeterminate goal.
How will that reflect awareness of the constituency of Arcosanti? How will it demonstrate sensitivity to shifts in consciousness? How will it remain considerately responsive within its own sphere? How will it take responsibility for that process? Those are some big questions. Especially I wonder how all that will shed light on the nature of social groups, including Arcosanti's?
Tea Party conservatives, Black Panthers, Raging Grannies, First Nations, churches, educational non-profits: no group achieves Fan Shen without careful planning. Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) said "Things will have to change for things to stay the same" but while change is inevitable, it is not necessarily predictable.
In any case, whining is not a conducive concomitant of committed engagement in the positive reformulation of any significant proposition. Wouldn't it be silly to be surprised, in the course of a revisionary process, to discover that some of what were thought to be its least important elements are actually the ones which grind exceeding small, provoking change?
That is probably why it strikes me as somehow miraculous to observe the Steering Committee chosen by the Cosanti Foundation's Board, as it progresses in parallel tandem with my own research investigation. What I see thus far continues to confirm my valuation that Arcosanti is an idea whose time has come.
Whatever plan the ArCosanti steering committee's licensed planners, architects, contractors, and construction experts come up with is likely to be novel and interesting. But what I'm curious to see is how it stretches out to include anyone and everyone who has ever valued his/her own experience with what Arcosanti has become thus far.
I'm looking now at putting another 10,000 miles under my feet in August, taking a more northerly route this time than I did in May and June. Incidentally, each leg of that tripedal journey, the first by car, bus, airplane; the second by train, truck, car; the third by car, plane, bus; cost just under $400 for transit, food and lodging, a total of $1,200. Less than 10 cents a mile? Does that seem odd, that it doesn't matter by what means or method you travel, that it all costs the same? Don't economies of scale matter in the transportation sector?
I expect to travel by bus between BC and QC, stopping over along the way to interview architects with Arcosanti in their history. If you're one reading this, please use the Contact page to get in touch with me, let me know how to arrange a meeting with you. Thank you!
Thinking about it, I am reminded of a recent discussion at ArCosanti, which has been in transition mode since Paolo's death in 2013. Arcosanti's administrative structure has been absent, in its own mind, of means or method for development of a strategy for inclusion of a democratic process to tend to Arcosanti's everyday administration. One option might be a membership-driven organizational structure with an elected board occupying limited terms of office rather than the Mom and Pop organizational model, which has had limited success with development but has assured Arcosanti's retention of its original purpose, testing some elements of the hand-crafted passive solar architectural design idea of Paolo Soleri.
Re-purposing an administrative model by appointing a Steering Committee is an interesting approach for a peacefully tolerant group's institutionally entrenched organization to adopt. The goal, I suppose, is to develop an administrative structure that can abet the intent of achieving a still-indeterminate goal.
How will that reflect awareness of the constituency of Arcosanti? How will it demonstrate sensitivity to shifts in consciousness? How will it remain considerately responsive within its own sphere? How will it take responsibility for that process? Those are some big questions. Especially I wonder how all that will shed light on the nature of social groups, including Arcosanti's?
Tea Party conservatives, Black Panthers, Raging Grannies, First Nations, churches, educational non-profits: no group achieves Fan Shen without careful planning. Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) said "Things will have to change for things to stay the same" but while change is inevitable, it is not necessarily predictable.
In any case, whining is not a conducive concomitant of committed engagement in the positive reformulation of any significant proposition. Wouldn't it be silly to be surprised, in the course of a revisionary process, to discover that some of what were thought to be its least important elements are actually the ones which grind exceeding small, provoking change?
That is probably why it strikes me as somehow miraculous to observe the Steering Committee chosen by the Cosanti Foundation's Board, as it progresses in parallel tandem with my own research investigation. What I see thus far continues to confirm my valuation that Arcosanti is an idea whose time has come.
Whatever plan the ArCosanti steering committee's licensed planners, architects, contractors, and construction experts come up with is likely to be novel and interesting. But what I'm curious to see is how it stretches out to include anyone and everyone who has ever valued his/her own experience with what Arcosanti has become thus far.
I'm looking now at putting another 10,000 miles under my feet in August, taking a more northerly route this time than I did in May and June. Incidentally, each leg of that tripedal journey, the first by car, bus, airplane; the second by train, truck, car; the third by car, plane, bus; cost just under $400 for transit, food and lodging, a total of $1,200. Less than 10 cents a mile? Does that seem odd, that it doesn't matter by what means or method you travel, that it all costs the same? Don't economies of scale matter in the transportation sector?
I expect to travel by bus between BC and QC, stopping over along the way to interview architects with Arcosanti in their history. If you're one reading this, please use the Contact page to get in touch with me, let me know how to arrange a meeting with you. Thank you!
