Written by Taru Owston
If you live in Finland and take part in any kind of leisure activity or activism, you have most likely learnt the two letters r and y. Associations are important platforms for likeminded people to get together to follow their ideals. And, more brutally, for any organisation to have access to public money it has to be an r.y. or rekisteröity yhdistys. And once your association has been registered, you need to have an annual meeting. In the case of the Finnish Permaculture Association, this means two meetings every year.
Can these meetings be meaningful? This was one of the questions in our minds, when we decided to organise the spring meeting just after the busiest spring season so that we could enjoy the early summer. During the enrolment the participants stated their expectations: to see permaculture in farm scale, to share about animal husbandry, and most of all, to spend time with likeminded people.
We gathered in Niipala, near Lahti.
Getting through the compulsory administrative stuff does not take too long in the spring meeting. Afterwards, we explored themes like the functioning of our association, co-operation with others, sharing and sustainability transformation. We did this first by giving everyone an opportunity to share their thoughts on any of these. After a break we moved into a lighter format with the exercise Rocking The Boat. Everyone was invited to take a stand on a given claim. This was followed by debating that made it clear how differently we interpret words.
During dinner time, the participants had an opportunity to sit at a table with serious discussions about the ways forward or at another table where the conversation covered at least goat keeping and nuts. Later, conversations, debates and laughter continued in sauna and in various hidden corners.
Sunday was sunny and made it possible for our hosts Mikko and Tanja to take us round the farm and explain its varied history as well their dreams of making the farm a community effort. It is not easy!
To answer the question in the title: Annual meetings can be meaningful, if the people are given the opportunity to really meet. A very concrete outcome of this meeting was what emerged as the way forward with these gatherings: it is important for us to meet in different parts of the country, see what others are doing and make it possible to spend time sharing thoughts and experiences. This is not the forum for guest speakers.
Places of interest, food for the body and for thought. Would you be interested in hosting such a meeting? Let us know at info@permakulttuuri.fi