REPORT OF THE ANNUAL AUROVILLE INTERNATIONAL MEETING

held in Siena, Italy, from June 23rd through noon 27^th, 1998

Present : members of AVI France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, U.K., USA, and of AVI liaisons Italy and Switzerland ; a member of the Auroville Working Committee, other Aurovilians, Italian ‘Aurobindonians’, guests

Absent : members of AVI Canada, AVI Sweden, AVI liaisons Australia, Austria, Argentina, Israel

Chairpersons : Marianne (AVI Germany) and Forrest (AVI U.K.)

Notetakers : Larry (AVI USA) and Mauna (AV)

Number : There were 50 participants in Mirella throughout the week, while some ten people kept coming and going.

The meeting was held in the quiet auberge 'Mirella' in the hills surrounding the medieval city of Siena in Tuscany, Italy. For the first time a new formula of meeting was tried: the members of the AVI board met during the day before the actual meeting, i.e. on June 22nd (most board members arrived in the evening of 21^st), so as to prepare their communications to the assembly. They had a full day of intense discussions and it seems that this was found productive. Also several of the organisers had come during that time.

Since there is, as yet, no fully functioning AVI team in Italy, the meeting this year turned out to be a bit less organised than we have seen in previous years, but was a good and well appreciated gathering all the same. One gets the best idea of the various events and discussions held by reading through the cyber messages which were sent out daily to the AVI emailing-list, and were printed in the Auroville News.

Patty of the two-member AVI Italy liaison team had chosen a very beautifully situated place for this meeting, with a swimming pool and hot springs in the neighbourhood, all surrounded by nature. This, combined with lovely weather, provided the participants with ample opportunities to also be together and meet outside of the meeting rooms.

During one afternoon transport was provided for a visit to medieval Siena. Since there were an unusual number of Aurovilians present this time - namely, Andre H., AnnaMaria, Aurama, Gilles Pf., Ladina, Luigi, Mauna, Michael T., Nergez, Nicole, Prema, Satyen, Sauro, Shivaya, Valerie, and Nadaka for one day, giving us a superb guitar concert in the evening - these opportunities were fully used to mix and mingle.. (You may note that three of the above, i.e. Aurama, Ladina and Satyen have all been born in Auroville.)

For those interested, the daily sessions could begin with hatha yoga / pranayama sessions guided by Hasi of AVI France. After breakfast, the participants would come together in the main meeting room and read, in Italian as well as in English, one of the Last Poems by Sri Aurobindo which were made available in the Italian language by AnnaMaria. Sometimes Sunil’s or other quiet music was listened to.

Throughout the week, at several timings, videos were shown (new video on Matrimandir ; video based on the slide show on Sri Aurobindo’s Dreams ; Mirra, Mother of Pondicherry ; AV Impressions ’96 ; as well as videos with mixtures of various cultural performances). Also the Auroville CDRom was viewed and a dummy of next year’s Auroville calendar circulated.

M A I N   P O I N T S   O F   D I S C U S S I O N

UPDATES OF AVI CENTRES

AVI CANADA :

Unfortunately, the members of AVI Canada couldn’t make it to the meeting this year, but they sent their best wishes and informed us that they still are going strong. In addition to the bi-annual publication of their bulletin (newsletter), they are this year organising a programme to commemorate Sri Aurobindo’s anniversary on August 15^th for their members and guests, followed by the general annual assembly of the Centre. (=== after the meeting : Pierre Sabran, main communicator for the Centre, wrote to us that it was a good and animated meeting, with some 25 people attending. The latest AV videos were shown and the board members re-elected. ===) After Georges’ visit to Auroville in the beginning of this year, the members have discussed the possibility of hosting next year’s AVI meeting in Canada. However, due to limited resources they cannot follow up on this for the time being. A letter with greetings to the meeting from Georges, who is the Centre’s president, was read out in the meeting.

AVI FRANCE :

In February of this year, members of AVI France have approached UNESCO (based in Paris) if it were possible to hold an exhibition on the occasion of Auroville’s 30^th anniversary. It was immediately welcomed and it took place from 18 - 20 June. The exhibition was held in a large passage way and people encountered it while on their way to other places. The photo exhibition, made several years ago for the Club of Budapest by Dominique Darr, was used and each day various videos on Auroville were shown, as well as the slide presentation on Sri Aurobindo. Croquette gave a moving speech on Auroville, Federico Mayor (general director of UNESCO) gave a talk about his organisation, and discussed Auroville in the light of its, UNESCO’s, aims. About 15 people attended the talk.

In the AVI France team, each person has a particular task, being either in charge of newsletter, library, conferences, UNESCO related mail, find couriers for packages and so on. They have a main center in Paris, rue Cail, and an active group, ‘antenna’ in Mulhouse.

The Mulhouse group worked on the beautiful photo-cards for the Auroville land fund, has coordinated with AVI Germany and with Fabienne of the AVI Switzerland liaison group. In May they organised a concert of Indian music at a chapel in Mulhouse, which was attended by 120 people.

AVI France knows ‘active members’ (who take responsibility for a certain task) and ‘paying members’ who pay FF 40/- yearly. Last year they had 100 such members.

At present the Centre is wondering how to continue with their ‘local’ at rue Cail in Paris. They had opened the shop in the hope it would fulfill four functions :

• a permanent place for information, exhibitions
• an outlet for sale of AV products
• a place for weekly meetings
• a place to meet Aurovilians

In 1996, 6 people attended each lecture, in 1997, 7 people per lecture. The shop was visited by only 1 or 2 people daily during 1996 and 1997. Since it is staffed by volunteers only, it is becoming difficult to find people to keep it open. Monthly average sales $500 in 1996 and 1997. Also, it had been anticipated that Aurovilians would come there and give talks or other representations on Auroville, but this didn’t happen. In fact, they hardly came at all.

In case it is decided to definitely close the shop (decision is to be taken in October this year), the AVI France team will go back to the way they worked before : phone calls will be well attended, automatically transferred to someone who can handle it and rotated weekly.

AVI GERMANY :

Wolfgang reported on the situation around the courtcase, which is still not solved. Their first appearance in court went very well, the judge ruled in favour of AVI Germany. However, Bremen’s Financial Department appealed to go a level higher, and that’s where things were left at the time. Because of this predicament, the Centre’s fundraising is of course greatly reduced, but more and more members are joining.

A highlight is, each year again, the "Auroville Days" event which AVI Germany is organising and where some 60 to 80 people come together for a three day ‘applied Auroville experience’. This year they invited professional people to talk about how they incorporate the Integral Yoga into their lives, and these presentations turned out to be illustrative and very interesting.

While the ‘German pavilion’ sub-group of AVI Germany continues with their explorations in the foundations of the basic national identity of their country and culture, another, more academic research took place as well : recently the Centre finished a compilation of about 120 worldwide scientific works (including doctoral theses, diplomas, master theses etc.) focusing on Auroville and Integral Yoga.

Of these, 53 works are dealing with AV itself, while 64 works use aspects of the Integral Yoga as their topic. This academic mirror is interesting for several reasons. One of them is that it clearly shows that AV is almost exclusively recognised as an ecological and architectural community. Nearly none of these works are dealing with the spiritual, intercultural and socio-political (human unity) aspects of the experiment. (=== the detailed list and several of these works have presently been taken up in Auroville by SAWCHU, the Sri Aurobindo World Centre for human Unity in the make. === )

The Centre also observed in Germany an increasing trend of young men and women wishing to dedicate some years of their lives to some sort of civil service. In case in Auroville an appropriate framework could be found for these occasions, with consistent mentoring, work provision and so on, this could be an opportunity for Auroville as well as for Germany’s youth.

It was furthermore mentioned that 20 students from Aachen University’s Institute for Townplanning had spent a semester in Auroville, studying possibilities for an AV Townplan. They made a presentation in Auroville itself, and will do a follow-up in Aachen to present it to the Goethe Institute later on.

Auroville’s participation at the EXPO 2000 in Hannover, Germany, in the year 2000, seems to still be a question mark. The EXPO organisers face heavy financial challenges, which forces them to go for a more commercial presentation than they had originally planned. They give deadline after deadline for the decision if and how Auroville will participate, the latest one being September. Eckhard Karnasch has suggested to find possible sponsors in the fields of wind or solar energy which would lead naturally back to Auroville and could thus enable AV’s presentation. In that case, of course, these sponsors should be acknowledged during the same.

=== After the meeting in Siena, news reached us from Wolfgang that the German Consul in Chennai, and other high placed officials, have given favourable statements re AV to the authorities concerned, and that the next court day will probably take place in September or early October this year. There and then a decision will be made and it is strongly expected to be in favour of AVI Germany. Wolfgang is planning to do a kind of evaluation report of the whole process after that. ===

AVI NETHERLANDS :

With Ilse leaving for Auroville, a re-arrangement took place in the Dutch team and presently they have a new group with the following members : Mia Berden, JanPieter Derksen, Wim de Jong, Jannet Klingenberg, Harrie de Koning and Jan Lohman. Aurovilians Surya and Vasanthi, living in Amsterdam, answer information requests, show videos etc, and also receive Aurovilians in a special AV room in their home. At times the pair organises information sessions for people from Belgium as well.

Thanks to Jan Lohman, the Centre publishes an AVI magazine/newsletter four times yearly which gets printed with the help of Ineke v.d. Molen. The 20-page paper consists mainly of AVToday articles translated into the Dutch language and a small team collaborates in the translation and publishing work. The Centre also regularly holds ‘open days’ for their members, is present at book fairs and press presentations of Georges van Vrekhem’s books, and Mia Berden wrote articles in a magazine on Yoga under the title ‘Sri Aurobindo and the Mother : a new meaning of evolution’.

‘Namaste’ continues with sales of AV products and books.

Under study is the set-up of an AVI Netherlands home page on the web with as goal to provide the latest news and activities and useful addresses in the Netherlands as well as in Auroville. Another idea is to create a uniform home page which could be made available to all AVI Centres.

In 1995 a project was started in the Netherlands to ask friends of Auroville to donate monthly a small ($5/-) or larger amount for the AV Landfund. This project is still successfully running, made possible by the dedicated activities of Jopy Sol.

Overview of specific donations between summer ‘97 and summer ’98 : AV Landfund $ 34.000/- ; Matrimandir $ 2.200/- ; Solar Kitchen $ 1.500/- ; After School $ 800/- ; IsaAmbalam school $ 1000/-.

The team of AVI Netherlands had come to the meeting with three proposals :

• to issue AVI membership cards which will indicate one’s relationship to AV when visiting there
• to issue a special form to become member of AVI in one’s home country
• to have, each year, a special AV Ambassador travelling through various Centre-countries and give lectures

The options were appreciated and discussed, but none of them really taken up.

AVI SPAIN :

Kathy of AVI Spain could, through family circumstances, not be with us in Mirella and informs us that there have been no special events this year in Spain, that the substantial grants received in previous years from the Govt. of Navarra and the Municipality of Pamplona for the AV Health Centre and related projects did not happen this year, but that next year there may be a possibility again. Also La Caixa, a big bank in Spain, seems to be interested in funding AV projects. Besides their regular correspondence, translations and dissemination of information, the small team will follow this up. Kitxu and Yolanda, who keep holding the AVI fort from Navarra, will visit Auroville in December this year.

A new light on Spain’s AVI horizon is Alfonso, who came to Mirella to represent the Spanish team. He has been in contact with AV and the AVI team since 1992 and is willing to join the AVI team and help out with the work. Alfonso had a quite original and well appreciated approach to the meeting and certainly one of his descriptions of Auroville as being a "Jail of Heaven" will be remembered..

AVI SWEDEN :

A warm letter from the Sweden team informed the meeting that they, unfortunately, cannot make it to the meeting. They have visited Auroville for its 30^th anniversary in February this year and couldn’t make another journey during the same year. Moreover, a letter signed by Staffan, Eveline, Ulf and George tells us :

"During the year 1998, Stockholm is Europe’s Capital of Culture and because of that a museum in Stockholm has asked us to set up an exposition about Auroville during September, October, November and December of this year. They have decided to have an expo mainly out of pictures from Auroville - we are in contact with Dominique Darr in France - she will help us to get the pictures taken by her from different aspects of Auroville. We are very concerned that the spirit and the reason behind Auroville will show...

We have also contacted Dominic from Aurofuture - he has taken pictures of the Galaxy model so that the museum will be able to rebuild the galaxy in a maquette of appr. 1 meter x 1 meter.

The museum has asked us also to hold, about once every other week, information sessions at the museum during the time of the exposition, starting August, so we will also badly need the new slide show on Auroville, put together by Dominique, Doro and Marianne and others.

We are not many members in our small Centre - but for us this coming expo is an excellent occasion to do some action work forward... Since the last AVI meeting we had in France, we have had meetings in our small group in Eveline's country house, 2 hours south of Stockholm about once every other month. Our main effort goes to bring some money together from friends and others and go on supporting Village Action in Auroville."

Needless to say that a lot of encouragement and good energies were sent from the meeting to the Swedish team.

=== After the meeting quite some email contact has been going back and forth between Staffan of the Swedish Centre and members of AVI U.K., Germany and Auroville. Eventually the Swedish team went to the exhibition well equipped with photo material by Dominique and by John Mandeen, as well as the newly concocted slideshow and videos. ===

AVI U.K. :

As was already indicated in Kleebach last year, Martin has been enabled to re-arrange his work schedule so as to have more time available for the AVI work. The experiment would tentatively be for 18 months, hopefully until the opportunity would come to generate income through the Centre to make it self-supporting. The first outcome seems to be successful. Martin told us in this meeting that he started out with making a list of priorities - which could be seen as a possible blueprint for the functioning of other Centres - and fund raising was of course at the top of the list.

That meant : increase membership of the Centre. At around that time, he met Greta Jensen, a consultant who had many contacts in the EC (i.e. the European Commission which is the executive body of the European Union, EU) and who was already a known friend of Auroville. She joined the work as a consultant, and they have since applied for grants on several projects, anything that they could be almost sure of getting straight away, even if it perhaps wasn’t what AV most needed at the time. They proposed several education projects, and requested more information from AV. Three of them weren’t prepared yet, but there were 3 others that were ready : Bhavana/Village Action, Meenakshi/Ilaignarkal, and a youth training Centre for New Creation. So they took those three and tried to make them into a single project for a proposal (this might have been better done a different way, since they didn’t mesh well, but..). The proposal is for £ 200,000 over three years, which was the maximum they felt they had a good chance to get. In this scheme of funding, the largest amount of the sum to be raised had to be from a government, some source in the EU. They opted for 50% from EU and a possible 35% from UK national lottery, and 15% from private sources or trusts. It was refused by UK lottery, so they are now looking for the entire remaining 50%. They submitted preliminary and follow-up documents, and have received a favorable response.

Question : could, for instance, AVI USA participate in this, by co-funding ?

Answer : No, it is an EC scheme - unless AVI USA sends the money first to an AVI Centre in Europe who would then send it to U.K. - This would have to be followed up.

Apart from the Development budget line, the EU also has an Environmental, Tropical Forest, and Women budget line. Money sits there to be given to reputable organisations (AV is, AVI U.K. is) and several projects are in the pipeline for the same.

After a few years, U.K. may be able to influence the policy of giving in the EU. They may also get a ‘block grant’, after three good projects are being taken care by them to the satisfaction of the EC agency (and Auroville..).

For the Centres to work together, we should stay in touch and be prepared for emerging possibilities, and we should be careful to not submit the same projects.

We may once have an AVI Europe perhaps ?

In AV there needs to be a good communication between various projects..

Once again, the Centres firmly agreed to only go for projects green-lighted by the AV Project Coordination Group.

AVI UK takes very courageous steps. They have chosen to break a principle they had in the bank for years to explore and fruits are coming through for AV and AVI UK. They have also, like AVI Germany, made an official annual financial overview. Martin offers to organise a data base set-up that could be of use to all Centres.

All in all, Martin’s communications were eagerly listened to and contagious..

AVI USA :

Larry tells us that fundraising for the Auroville land has been the focus of this last year. June and Paula had raised appr. $ 3000 at last year’s AUM (All USA Meeting) meeting. Paula had been very inspired by the Kleebach AVI meeting in France and had set as goal $1000/- for the AUM meeting, but hoped for 3000, and that’s what was collected. A good start.

Next step was a mailing. They sent their mailing list out to a company who cleaned it up for them. The subsequent mailing brought in $ 3500/-, in total $12.800/- came in for the land this last year.

One follow-up ‘Evolve’ newsletter came out ; Julian Lines continued his work on the east coast, where he organised AV’s 30th Birthday celebration at the Lighthouse in New York City, as well as several events for people interested in the Pavilion of Tibetan Culture. This autumn, Bhavana is touring the US, starting with workshops with Aurelio at AUM and Denver. She is presenting her Village Action work and asking for support for village schools from the Rotary Club in the various towns she visits in the USA.

Since the AVI USA team is so very spread out, it has problems keeping their office work together. Constance in Santa Cruz has offered giving office space to AuroTaranti to work as secretary of AVI USA, maybe two days a week.

Megan, AVI USA’s president, is getting married (by coincidence during the Mirella week, and good wishes went out to her) and will move to Washington in autumn for a course on international relations. Rabhya has been a generous warehouse for all the Centre’s documents, but now moves to the Bay Area. It’s clear that some re-arranging has to be done.

== After the Siena meeting, Larry emailed the following on August 31^st :

A few months ago Megan Thomas announced that she would be moving to the east coast, where she will be attending graduate school at American University. Since her studies will place too much of a time load on her schedule, she has stepped down as president. Megan will remain on the board of directors.

AVI USA had a board meeting this past weekend and elected new officers. The new officers are :

President : Larry Tepper

Vice President : Ed Giordano

Treasurer : June Maher

Secretary : Constance Walker

AVI USA will have an office space located at Constance's business. AuroTaranti, a young Aurovilian living in the States, will be working part time as the office coordinator ; answering information requests, some of the accounting, working on a newsletter, and generally making us more organized than we have been in a long time. Her official title is Executive Director. ==

The new team has plans to drastically upgrade the functioning of the Centre. See the Centre mailing list attached for their new address.

LIAISON ARGENTINA :

Although a regular flow of material is sent to her from Auroville, there is no real two-way contact with our Argentina liaison, Aurovilian Anandi, since she lacks the means to do so. Anandi was in Auroville in the beginning of the year and during that time a letter by Marti was circulated in Auroville and sent out to the Centres concerning Anandi’s situation. Excerpts of it were read out in the meeting :

"Anandi is working out of Buenos Aires, shows videos on Auroville and speaks about the community to interested groups and individuals. Anandi is well-known in Argentina for her work on India and Sri Aurobindo and Mother's ideals of human unity and education. She has a number of important university contacts and participates in projects with educational institutions and the Argentinean Secretary of Culture and Education. She is also a liaison with the Indian Embassy for people wishing to visit Auroville.

Doing this type of work in a developing region such as South America is not easy. The physical distances are immense. Infrastructures are not so highly developed. Costs of living are extremely high and salary levels are relatively low in comparison. This makes operational work all the more difficult."

Various ways of helping were discussed and since Anandi does have an email address <anandi97@hotmail.com>, it was agreed that she might best benefit by a computer system. As during the AVI meeting in USA, 1995, it had been decided that AVI USA might ‘adopt’ and help out Anandi with this, it was now, once again, requested from this Centre to follow up on it. If need be, the AVI Common Pot could participate in the cost of the same. Also AVI Germany is offering, if ever their court case problems are over, to help out with this.

LIAISON AUSTRALIA :

Jan Allen writes us from Australia that she happily continues being the contact person there, that she is giving instructions and information to people requesting it and shows the AV videos in various places.

LIAISON AUSTRIA :

Sylvia, the AVI liaison person in Austria, has unfortunately met with a heavy traffic car accident (frontal car crash in winter fog, not her fault) and hence couldn’t make it to the meeting. She has gone through intensive operations and other treatments, and full recovery may take some time. However, she has taken the experience in quite a ‘yogic’ manner and, by tapping into her inner strengths, seems to be coming out of it, enriched, matured. The meeting decided to send her a card, painted by Hasi, containing all good energies and strength being directed to her.

During Sylvia’s time in hospital, Auroville related activities in Austria DID go on, be it via the AV Outreach team in Auroville itself. In one of the country’s magazines an article was printed, and the ORF (Austrian TV) made two documentaries on Auroville as well. Both on the occasion of our 30^th birthday.

== After the meeting : Sylvia informs us that a remarkably sudden acceleration of the recovery process got her in a much better condition, so much so that she started to work again, and even drive a car. She writes :

"Quite a number of people contact me about information on Auroville, and I like to share my knowledge with them. Just a few hours ago a man borrowed the film "The city the earth needs" from me.. People get my address from the Auroville home page. The flow of life supports my feelings for Auroville and my activities as liaison person, and if I can organize it I will visit you in winter.." ===

LIAISON BRAZIL :

It was a very happy and well applauded moment, when it was announced that Carlos and Nice Gohn are interested to provide Mother with a pied à terre in Brazil. Carlos, who is teaching in Anglo-German languages, had been in Auroville for a year from ’90 to ’91, and has more recently stayed there, with his wife and two lively kids, for another year from ‘91 to ’92. Carlos taught in Transition, while Nice, a medical doctor, took up practice in the AV Health Centre. Because of unforeseen circumstances they had to return to their country, with regret, and are well connected and sufficiently equipped to be a liaison for Auroville. They are in contact with various groups in Brazil that are involved in Sri Aurobindo’s and Mother’s teaching, as well as in Auroville’s development. Regular contact is maintained via email. Eventually the family hopes to return to Auroville, perhaps leaving a well established liaison group behind..

LIAISON ISRAEL :

Aurovilian Dorith writes us from Israel that she is very happy to give information on Auroville to whomever approaches her. People find her address either in AV brochures or on the Web and either phone or come to meet her. She has seen quite a few times that her conversations with the people concerned turned out to be important for them and it gives her satisfaction to be able to do this for Auroville. Besides her family and her work as art therapist with troubled youth, she cannot do more right now and exhibitions or information evenings would have to wait until a further team can be formed.

LIAISON ITALY :

Although there are various Ashram and Auroville related groups in Italy, they are not really united and the hope is that this meeting may prove to be a step towards that. Patrizia (Patty) and Marco (Ferrarini) have been bravely carrying Auroville through recent years, at times collaborating with the other groups. There are in Italy four different mailing lists with some 1000 names which - one day - may be combined. (Sauro and Shivaya offered to help with this, and also Martin is willing to make his database set-up available to them.)

The various groups of ‘Aurobindonians’ (as they call themselves) in Italy are mainly centered around cities throughout the 2000 kms length of the country and there is not one Centre as such. People come together once a year for the Camaldoli meeting, where some 80 to 100 participants spend a few days together mainly in the context of the work for Sri Aurobindo and Mother. During the next two years the April darshan date will coincide with a national holiday in Italy, so then the meetings can be extended to four days, and more space and time can be given for presentations on Auroville. (Perhaps the formula used by AVI Germany for their "AV Days" could be adopted here : there is a double programming with different options one can choose from.)

There are many Italian Aurovilians and Ashramites and visitors to both. The Ashram magazine in Italian language, ‘Domani’ carries an ‘Aditi’ newsletter inside with news on Auroville. A closer collaboration directly with Auroville for this was recommended.

The Aurovilian ‘Quiet’ settlement has become, through Maggi Lidchi, an important focal point for Italy and many private contributions are channeled there, as well as to the (future..) Italian Pavilion in the International Zone.

Patty, who clearly is the liaison’s soul, told us about how she works together with Marco who does all the correspondence, much of it via email. (Unfortunately, Marco was not present during the meeting.)There are two Italian websites via which things can be broadcast and followed. Patty and Marco, who both are young and studying, are selling cards for land purchase, calendars, Italian copies of videos etc, all privately in their circle of acquaintances. Sauro helps them from Auroville, and so does Mauna. The team doesn’t really, as yet, aspire to be a large, well organised Centre since in Italy things just don’t work that way. As an example how things DO work there, Patty reminded the meeting of a beautiful moment that occurred in the afternoon of one of the meeting days : a session had just finished and not many people were present in the meeting room. Suddenly the door opened and a strong and intense looking lady entered, a lovely bouquet of roses and other flowers in her hands. She looked around the space, as if searching for something. When her eyes fell on the centrally placed tableau where photos of Mother and Sri Aurobindo were placed, amidst flowers freshly picked from the surrounding fields, she sort of plunged towards it, knelt down, offered her pranams and roses, concentrated for a moment, and then stood up, looking around, relieved.. It turned out that she had been driving for hours just to do this, and had to leave again in order to be back in time. It was a very impressive, touching moment.. And this, said Patty, is how Italy works..

At present Italian law doesn’t recognise a tax exempt status for registered associations. Maybe one of these days the law gets changed - and then things can be seen again. Sauro who keeps, from Auroville, an eye on these things, will surely follow up.

LIAISON SWITZERLAND :

Fabienne, the main person behind the Liaison Suisse idea, tells us that maybe now is not yet the right time to start an official AVI Centre, some more preparations have to be done. The team she tried to put together dispersed for various reasons, f.i. one couple unfortunately had to leave Switzerland for their country of origin, Georgia (from where they stay in touch with Auroville). Jerome continues to take care of the email correspondence for the group.

The idea to get a Centre together, catering to the German, French, Italian speaking parts of the country, strongly remains. One mailing has been sent out and feedback came in. Here in Mirella, Fabienne got to know Bernardo and his wife Pia, and they might join. Bernardo will help to make contacts between Switzerland and Italy, and may organise a Swiss AVI homepage.

Also Shivaya from Auroville offered her help, which was gratefully accepted. Fabienne expressed appreciation for the contact with the AVI France Alsace antenna, as both Francine and Josianne visited the Swiss team and encouraged them with their enthusiasm and support..

DONATIONS RECEIVED :

An overview was given of the donations received through the Centres during the period of 1.04.97 to 31.3.98 - in Indian Rupees

U.S.A. 81.90.211

Holland 13.69.467

Germany 11.95.277

Spain 6.21.650

U.K. 5.99.382

France 2.49.529

Canada 14.173

Sweden 4.065

In total : 1.22.43.674 (1 crore 22 lakh)

Nota bene : 1 crore = 100 lakh = 10 million Rs

Great appreciation was expressed for the same. THANK YOU, FOLKS !

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT - by Luigi :

Luigi gave a short overview on recent achievements in AV’s development, taking us through the various zones, new constructions, Lines of Force, water management etc. Questions were raised regarding the system of development planning in Auroville, the relation between the need for houses and the planning of the same ; do we have statistics of the needs of people, now, in future ; in-depth information needed, available to all ; need for planning office where statistics can be seen, studies and projects perused, predictions, visions discussed. Luigi acknowledged the need and difficulty to make better coordination a reality and mentioned that in September a seminar will be held in AV in order to explore ways to better coordinate the development of Auroville.

However, Luigi also thought it was time to take a leap and introduced the idea of the Unity Pavilion, a structure of some 3000 m², architecturally based on Mother’s symbol, which could mark a real step towards further development of the International Zone. With the instigator of this idea, Mr. Antonio Ninno from Italy, and his architect Pino, the idea was conceived of a multi-purpose building which could house offices for future cultural pavilions to emerge in the International Zone, as well as large meeting spaces for Auroville and possible international conferences, offices for town planning, Auroville International and other such services. On the second floor guest facilities were envisaged. Pino and his partner Sheril were present during the meeting, photos were shown and questions were asked and answered.

UPDATING OF LAND PURCHASE - by Shivaya :

Shivaya gave a presentation on the land. She provided the participants with an overview of the present situation as regards to the land purchase for Auroville. Although remarkable progress has been made, she appealed to each and everyone to help get the lands together, since the task is enormous. After expressing Auroville’s appreciation to all who have helped, Shivaya gave each of the people present a piece of cardboard pertaining to an Auroville land puzzle, which then got put together with much fun and laughter and joy by all. The Centres also received a large AV land map in which the already purchased plots had been indicated, as well as other information material.

Short overview of 1997 - 1998 :

During this period the Auroville Land Service has been able to purchase 66.96 acres (27.32 hectares), of which 24.17 acres (9.86 hectares) in the City area and 42.79 (17.46 hectares) in the Green Belt. The total expenditure for these lands came to Rs. 95.55 lakhs or approx. US$ 245,000 which gives an average

cost per acre of Rs 1,42,700 or US$ 3,660 per acre, including approx. 15% registration charges.

The Land Service also made considerable progress with the purchase of 22.14 acres (9 hectares) Temple Trust land, which are mainly located in the City area. Final orders are in the pipeline that will allow the temple trustees

to sell the land to the Auroville Foundation, and we hope to be able to conclude this acquisition soon. This process was begun in 1992.

(Further info can be obtained from Guy, Shivaya or via Mauna.)

SOLAR CARS - by Eckhard Karnasch :

Eckhard Karnasch, one of Germany’s leading electrical engineers (presently commissioned to do the electrical engineering for the renewal of the Assembly Building - the old ‘Reichstag’ - in Berlin) and longtime friend and staunch supporter of Ashram and Auroville, enlightened us on his concrete plans for an electric car for Auroville.

His organisation is working on a 2-seater with 4 wheels (under construction) :

The prototype under construction in Germany should be ready at the end of this year. It will be promoted by the German Pavilion group in cooperation with the University of Wuppertal's group of Computational Design under Professor Michael Nadin. After the necessary tests, the know-how or even a modified prototype can be transferred to Auroville. For an Indian car producer with a vision of the future it will mean a tremendous chance and challenge to take up such an ecologically needed production. Eckhard’s offer and presentation was appreciated by the meeting and is to be followed up in Auroville by the Development and Alternative Energy Groups. It was, however, mentioned that in Auroville collective transport might be more appropriate.

AV WATER MANAGEMENT - by Harald Kraft :

Dipl. Ing. Harald Kraft, a leading water engineer, had come to the meeting to also here promote his vision for a water system especially designed for Auroville’s situation. (Harald had hoped to be able to discuss the project with Roger Anger, who was expected to be present at the meeting but at the last moment had to inform us that his health did not allow him to travel at the time.) Characteristic feature of Harald’s idea, which has been widely publicised through a series of meetings in Auroville, as well as articles in AVToday and AVNews, is a lake by Matrimandir, 15000 m² x 30 meter deep which would replenish Auroville’s major first aquifer.(There is a second, lower aquifer, which is mainly drawn upon by the area surrounding Auroville.) According to calculations, Auroville receives ten times the rainfall needed for a population of 50.000, but.. it all comes down during the two monsoons. Harald’s plan includes an elaborate system of water catchment and storage facilities from where clean water can be pumped up to the lake. From there it would, once again, infiltrate back into the main aquifer feeding Auroville.

The idea is being discussed in Auroville by Development and other groups ; an elaborate feasibility study would be a first thing to undertake.

Harald Kraft introduced professor Hans Loidl, renown landscape architect, who introduced to the meeting studies he and his students had made, throughout the years, of the Matrimandir Gardens. A beautiful brochure was given out on the same.

AV YOUTH 2000 - by Aurama, with help from Ladina, Satyen and Blake :

Aurama had come to the meeting (hereto enabled by a specified donation from a youth well-wisher from Germany ..) to present the ideas of her sister Angiras for an Auroville Youth gathering during the two weeks around the century exchange next year. Since Angiras and co-organiser Aurovici were facing examinations in U.K. and might fly to AV after that, Auroma had come to tell us of their plans regarding a sort of youth camp/village during that time, with international cooking sessions, a collective construction in the Youth Centre, an X-mas fair/play, Aurolympics, tree planting, the Bonfire of the Millennium, all kinds of cultural activities and so on. The idea would be that all ‘kids’ who presently live abroad but who were born in Auroville or lived there for considerable time, or had otherwise maintained a strong and lively connection with AV throughout their absence, would be invited to attend. Generally speaking, they would be asked to take care of their travel cost themselves, but all the rest would be provided to them.

During the discussion that followed it became clear that this event should be a meeting experience OF youth WITH youth BY youth, that it would not be some sort of youth research programme, and that adults should not assess ("and tear apart..") any activities done or statements given. Perhaps through video facilities and writing or painting workshops the youth could, in a natural way, express themselves. It was understood that if this thing is to be, and if people are invited to sponsor some more than hundred air tickets, a good and solid programme and organisation should be brought forward.

Question by an adult : the purpose of AV is the experiment of consciousness, of human unity, - will this youth gathering take up this challenge ?

Answer (quipped..)by the youth : the Auroville youth lives this consciously, all the time !

=== After the meeting : in Auroville several meetings with Angiras and the youth have taken place, ideas and commitments to help out were forthcoming. A small group of three youth (Aurosylle, Muniandi and Selvam), and three adults (Shivaya, Abbey and Mauna) has formed and will carry the thing through, while Angiras returns to U.K. for further studies. She will keep in touch from there, while Nilauro has offered to follow things up in USA. All are asked to possibly locate AV kids abroad and directly inform Angiras in England <angiras@cableinet.co.uk> or get in touch via Muniandi in Auroville <muni@auroville.org.in> or Mauna. A special AV 2000 section will be added to the Auroville website as well. ===

PRESENTATION AV DOCUMENTS - by Mauna, Nergez and Shivaya :

Material was presented on :

the Poitevanga au-pair and student exchange programme as well as an exchange possibility between youth from Findhorn and Auroville ; Auroville Archives that is growing into a very valuable institution, but needs more space and funds AND a steady inflow of all foreign articles and documentation on Auroville ; the Saraswati Freestore that can use all sorts of unused or disregarded equipment, appliances, clothes, gadgets in good condition but which have been replaced by newer and sophisticated versions.. Please think of it next time you come to Auroville.. ; an interesting project envisaging the creation of an Institute for Baubiology in AV, undertaken by Avian Mona Doctor-Pingel ; Parallel journeys, Aurovilian Anu’s first novel ; Architectures of Light, an artistic stage programme created by Pierre LeGrand and Anu ; the Auroville Adventure, publication of Auroville Today ; Indo-French Association, a newly erected, government-level body between the two countries ; Madhuca, a new community in the AV city area that especially invites the AVI Centres to participate in building their guesthouse ; developments in and needs of the AV Youth Centre (a spontaneous Mirella collection gathered some US $400/- for the same) ; developments and needs of Savitri Bhavan ; update on the New School recently initiated by Peter and Abbey Thurrell ; photos were shown and text made available of the alternative, nature oriented Atlantis way of building cities ; the idea of an art & design school in the Cultural Zone ; latest info was given on the French pavilion group ; a letter and request from Laboratory of Evolution was read out ; participation cards from Village Action Group were distributed ; and a project called ‘Oral History’ by some AV youth explained.

For several of the above projects some private donations were given ; information re all of these can be obtained from Mauna.

It was suggested that these sort of updates are posted on the Auroville homepage.

AUROVILLE DOMAIN NAME :

Update was given on the issue of the Auroville domain name in cyberspace regarding which a statement had been issued during the AVI meeting in France last year. The party in Canada, who had claimed the name for several years, has now withdrawn, and steps are undertaken to secure the domain name for Auroville. Larry of AVI USA is also following up on trademark registration for the name and symbol of Auroville, on behalf of Auroville, in USA. Other countries might do the same. Please, know that both the Auroville name and symbol are protected by the Auroville Foundation.

AVI BUDGET :

Expenditure of the AVI desk, May ’97 - May ’98, in Indian Rupees :

Closing balance RS -8.900/-

= Please note that RS 88.000/- have been supplied by Auroville for general running cost and monthly maintenance of international secretary =

(An overview of the contributions from the Centres was not available since the transfer from Holland to France had only just taken place. This can be obtained from Alain Grandcolas.)

Policy changes :

Noticing that not all Centres have been regular in paying their yearly contributions to the AVI Common Pot, sliding scale contributions were decided upon. The AVI Board emphasized the importance of a symbolic gesture of support and unity coming from our budding centers, as well as the legal gesture of the major Centres, since payment of the contribution sanctions the legal membership of a Centre.

Yearly contributions have been fixed at

• US $380/- for the major Centres (i.e. the equivalent to the previous 650 Dutch Guilders),
• US $90/- for the growing centers, and
• US $38/- for the ‘budding’ centers. (Centres may choose for themselves where they fit..)

Practically, the treasurer proposes that all Centres will send their contributions to : Alain Grandcolas, 20 bis rue La Boëtie, 75.008 - Paris in the form of a cheque with the amount written in FRF (French Francs) along with a wording of the amount in English (which is legal for all the concerned countries). This procedure is easier than a bank transfer and the banking charges are the same in France (whether cheque or transfer), i.e. US $30/-.

This means that the contributions are fixed at :

- 3.400 FRF for the major Centres,

- 1.700 FRF for the growing Centres.

As for the ‘budding’ Centres, it is proposed that these Centres will send the equivalent of US $38/- by sending some notes of their own currency enclosed in some envelopes sent to Alain Grandcolas (in order to avoid the 30 USD bank charges).

FURTHER DECISIONS :

The following decisions were taken throughout the meeting, and agreed by all :

• The translation into English of the re-wording of the AVI Statutes originally written in Dutch (since the Auroville International Association is registered in Holland) has been perused and agreed to.
• Letters were to be written to the newly appointed International Advisory Council(introduction and welcome) with CC to AV’s Working Committee. The treasurer would write to Ineke v.d. Molen to thank her for help with the transfer from Holland to France, as well as keeping an eye on the original AVI bank account, Chamber of Commerce registrations and such. (== After the meeting : an appointment has been made through Mr. BalaBaskar, secretary of the AV Foundation, for January 8^th of next year, where members of GB and IAC and the AVI Board are to sit together and meet. ==)
• A clear resolution was made to take up the position and needs of the Auroville youth as a priority topic for the Centres. Theme of next year’s AVI meeting, which will be held in U.K., will be ‘AV Youth’ and AV youth will be present.
• A small Auroville Introduction leaflet is to be printed as a visiting card of the Association ; as well as cards with the AVI Centres’ addresses to be handed out to visitors to Auroville - money was set aside for this.
• The AVI slides collection on AV should be finalised and copied for other Centres ; and should continue to grow, yearly 20 new slides on actual current development topics are expected from Auroville.
• It was suggested that from Auroville some sort of recognition gesture could be forthcoming for active members of the Centres, so that if/when they come for a visit, they don’t have to go through the hassles of a regular first time guest.. (=== after the meeting : several ideas have been forthcoming and these are presently being followed up with the Economy Group ===)
• Support for Anandi in Argentina should be forthcoming - AVI USA will first follow up ; money of the AVI Common Pot was tentatively set aside for this.
• Presently the Centres of France, Germany, Netherlands, U.K. and USA are using the AVI logo on their stationary, and some of them on their newsletter as well. It is encouraged that all Centres take up this logo.
• The need was, once again, expressed for a good, regularly updated press or mailing kit on Auroville. Also press releases would be appreciated.
• Once again, it was strongly reiterated and agreed that Centres will only support those AV Projects that are recommended by Auroville’s Project Coordination Group.

"Italy is the home of LIFE SPIRIT so it means that you all must feel full

of LIFE and SPIRIT for the cause of Yourself and Auroville and the World.."

(from an email message during the meeting of Staffan of AVI Sweden)

During the evaluation session at the last day of the meeting, the observations and emotions voiced by the participants often expressed a similar sentiment as the above statement from Staffan. Some people felt a subtlety and lightness in the meeting they had not felt before, and there was a general feeling of emotional warmth, a welcoming by Italy.

Further observations, just to mention a few : ++ one feels that there is no duality between Aurovilians and non-Aurovilians, we’re all one ++ this meeting could be a starting point of a closer collaboration between the more Ashram oriented groups in Italy and Auroville ++ we HAVE to find another formula of meeting, more from the heart ++ only when one personally opens up, one reaches the oneness - how to get to that place in such a meeting ? ++ I very much appreciated the lightness and frankness of the meeting, the transparency of the communications ++ let’s try to communicate each in his/her own language (this was done and the result was amazing..) ++ can we ask, during next year’s AVI meeting, the AV youth what it means to be free from national boundaries ? ++ meeting has to become more personal, less ambassadorial ++ the Banyan tree is a great symbol : there is Auroville, the main trunk, and the Centres are the aerial roots, eventually becoming strong ‘trees’ themselves ++ could we organise a survey in Auroville on what do AVians expect from the Centres ? ++ how come that AVians, when visiting abroad, are reluctant to do some ambassadorial work, give talks, slide shows, and meet with AVI teams ? ++ Perhaps one has to mature into ambassadorial roles ? ++

AVI Chairperson Mia Berden thanked everyone for this 14^th AVI meeting, and joyously observed that there had been quite a few young couples around, spreading their lightness and love throughout the meeting. She proceeded to thank about everyone present in the meeting, particularly Patty, Sauro and AnnaMaria for their organisation and participation (the latter also represented the Auroville Working Committee in the meeting), Eckhard and Harald for their vision, Forrest and Marianne for their chairing, and Mauna for her work as AVI’s international secretary and behind the screen presence throughout the year. Did Mia, in her opening word at the beginning of the week, wonder "How can we create a mutual relationship between all of ‘you’ in Auroville and ‘us’ back here in the ‘old world’ ?", the meeting in Italy had brought us definitely, once again, a good step forward.. Also Mia herself, of course, was thanked for her high quality, thoughtful and persistent participation in the meeting, as well as for her active functioning as AVI Chairperson.

It seems that during each AVI meeting we come a little closer to real

m-e-e-t-i-n-g and we extend our warm invitation to all to help us find a

directer way of opening up to each other. It was perhaps the emotional warmth of this beautiful country, combined with its somewhat chaotic creativity, that made us realise the need for this, which was stressed again and again.

From the Italian side we have understood that there is, in the minds/hearts

of the Italian devotees of Sri Aurobindo and Mother, a sense of happiness and relief that Auroville "finally opens up" to the outside. Reports of this week's communications will certainly go out to the many Aurobindonian groups and may work there as a catalyst. We most sincerely hope that that may be so..

Although it had somewhere been suggested that - since we are presently so closely interconnected via email and other media - we meet once every TWO years, this idea was most definitely rejected and when the participants swarmed out again to return to their families, jobs and centres, it was with the strong formation to meet next year in U.K., - from the heart !

Thank you, Italy.

With love, and see you next year, -mauna

Auroville, 8.09.98

= information regarding any of the above mentioned issues, projects or statements can be obtained from mauna =