Ozarks Area Community Congress
A Beautiful BioRegional Gathering
In our Summer Update, we mentioned our plan to attend The Gathering of Tribes in Portugal for our first anniversary.
With unexpected vehicle repairs, medical expenses, and difficulty arranging child care, the travel expenses were out of reach.
Instead, we celebrated our first anniversary with a date night, and a kid-free weekend camping out at the Domesteading Site.
We were admittedly disappointed to miss out on the community engagement at TGOT. Instead, we fulfilled that longing by attending our local Ozarks Area Community Congress.
Ozarks Area Community Congress
This was my fourth year attending OACC, third year co-sponsoring, and second year bringing the whole family.
I never would have known about this beautiful event, had it not been for a chance encounter on the internet while looking for local Intentional Communities when we moved back to Missouri. While I did not find an existing land-based IC that fit us at the time, finding OACC has been a core inspiration for my thinking ever since. It was my first introduction to BioRegionalism.
The first thing I noticed about this gathering was the common thread that builds trust and peace. Everyone there is there because they CARE. They care about our BioRegion, and are active and passionate in their work to heal, steward, and stand up for the environment and the people that dwell in it.
The peace was so strong that my wife and I (relatively anxious and protective parents) could relax our energetic ties to our children in that space. Our children merged so easily into the (affectionately named) “feral” OACC pack of children. They formed new friendships, engaged with nature, and learned new skills.
That peace enabled my wife and I to thoroughly enjoy the gathering. We also made new friends, enjoyed nature, and learned so much.
Local Action
It was encouraging to witness the beautiful work other attendees and cosponsors have done over the past year and to see where they are heading. I am sure I will miss many, but here are the highlights that have stuck with me:
The Little Farm Association is blending the convenience of delivered groceries with the seasonality and locality of BioRegional producers.
Karst in the Ozarks is producing fantastic educational resources about the history of our BioRegion and the challenges we face. We got to watch a screening of their documentary, “Ozarks Karst Dramas”.
Stan Slaughter is all about composting, working with schools and municipalities to teach and scale composting practices.
The Center For AgroForestry at the University of Missouri is researching, educating, and funding the practice of integrating native trees and shrubs into agricultural landscapes.
ScumSucker LLC brought a cool tool that they created that helps clean up aquatic environments and repurpose the “waste.”
And so many more…
BioRegional Financing Facilities
Samantha Power, author of BioRegional Financing Facilities and co-founder of BioFi came to us from the West Coast to share her ideas.
I had seen part of an interview with her and several posts about her book. I had not yet carved out the time to fully understand the concepts she was presenting. But now, I am very excited about the possibilities.
BioRegional Financing Facilities are a bridge between our current systems and a Regenerative Network State. I won’t do the ideas justice here, so check out her work with the links above.
Intentional Community
While short-lived, OACC is a form of Intentional Community.
We share the camp space and the duties of setting up, cooking food, and cleaning up after ourselves.
We create the “Open Space” agenda as a group, immediately after Opening Circle.
We share our musical/poetic/comedic talents on Saturday Night
We hold a Plenary meeting at the end to wrap up and start planning for next year.
When it comes time to leave, I long to re-create the energy and community at this event in my day-to-day life. We are working towards that with our family.
In the long term, I am even more energized and inspired to build Healing Communities in our BioRegion.
The first is the Ozarks BioRegional EcoCenter.
Ozarks BioRegional EcoCenter
I dream of hosting OACC (and other orgs/workshops) here once it is built. The current venue works but doesn’t fully embody OACC’s ecological lifestyle preferences, or allow for more in-depth hands-on workshops and demonstrations.
I have started introducing this idea at OACC, and have found some interest. I will continue developing this idea and sharing it at OACC until it is ready to be real.
Find Your BioRegional Community
If you happen to live with us in the Ozarks, please come and join us next year! If you don’t, I highly encourage you to seek out local BioRegional gatherings. If you can’t find any, but can travel and want to experience a BioRegional gathering, we’d love to have you join us.
BioRegional Organization is a critical path out of our extraction-based systems and into regenerative systems!
And a number of us at the GoT in Portugal felt that a good way forward was to have more gatherings more locally, so hearing of what's happening in your corner is heartwarming. Here's a question... how can we share the knowledge and experience that comes out of these events in a way that enriches us all, allows us to build on each others experience, do things even more fruitfully? Is there any kind of framework, of scaffolding, that can help this kind of communication?
Love the little farm concept. Do you know of anything similar in the Columbia , MO area?