Cascadian Dreams: Village Building Convergence 13: My Journey

Cascadian Dreams

Village Building Convergence 13: My Journey

This year the VBC was at the Alberta Abbey.  This was the entrance.

As a member of the board of City Repair, I took the week off of work to participate in the Village Building Convergence.  My work was done mostly around the venue as the week wore on.  Before the VBC started, I was going to the weekly meetings of the core group and working to smooth over problems.  There were a few including paint that was more expensive than expected and a few interpersonal kerfluffles.  We were able to navigate these issues successfully though, and a lot of that has to do with the great desire of everyone wanting the event to be successful and transformational.  

Setting up the stage with Solnectar. 

The first night I was able to be at the venue was Saturday, May 25th.  I was responsible for collecting the money and making sure that Rae, our super venue volunteer had help.  Marc Tobin and Mikaela Schey were also on the VBC core team and played some beautiful music as Solnectar that night. 

Crow and a volunteer at the volunteer table. 

When you first walk in the door, you're greeted by volunteers at the Village Building Convergence Venue.  That Saturday, Crow, a former co-worker of mine and a pretty kickass dude in general was there.  I spent a lot of time catching up with him in between carrying out my duties.  Volunteers are definitely the backbone of the Village Building Convergence, and I was amazed about the hard work that people were willing to put in. 

Every night there were speakers. 

The way that a typical night at the VBC breaks down is as follows. 

1st- Volunteers start coming in as early as noon to set up for dinner. 

2nd- The venue is opened at about 5pm and people start showing up and buying tickets. 

3rd- People eat dinner prepared at the venue, and mill and talk to their friends until...

4th- A speaker or a few speakers get up on stage to tell the crowd about natural building, or political awareness, or any number of interesting topics, which is topped off by....

5th- Music. 

I was very impressed with a lot of the speakers, I got to hear from a mediator that goes out to communal living situations and irons out the kinks, from a panel of politicians and citizen activists, and from a prodigious natural builder that was very interested in barrel ovens.  Barrel ovens are cool. 

During the weekend, I was able to take my boy to his first Village Building Convergence site. 

Kelvin at the center of the Sunnyside Piazza

It was nice to go to Sunnyside Piazza, the site that first introduced me to City Repair and the Village Building Convergence.  It looks beautiful this year, and I hope that intersection never goes over a year unpainted. 

This is the middle of a street. 

Most of my VBC was spent in the venue, but it was nice to know that all this good work was being done around the city. I urge anyone that is interested in natural building, place-making, building community, or generally getting hip to alternative ways to think and live get involved next year for VBC 14. 

The last day of VBC. 

It's truly an inspiring series of events and you see very few unhappy faces during it.  I would like to give a special shout-out to Rae.  She really held the venue together.