What?
A national gathering of commons-oriented projects to facilitate cross-pollination and cultivate a powerful sense of, "Wow, we are many!"
Why? 🎯
We organise this gathering 🕸️ because we believe that gathering brings us closer together and creates a feeling of a movement of the commons
🏗️ because we believe that mutual support, solidarity and sharing experiences/knowledge will make us resilient. #communityisimmunity
🍄 because we dream of a mycelial network of commons, citizen initiatives, collectives, and projects—spreading spores that germinate into new, spontaneous projects everywhere.
👀 because we like talking about commons, learning about them and meeting people, especially now that we have a shared living room in Brussels.
Who are we inviting? 👯♂️
This is an invitation to and a celebration of active citizens doing good work out there.
Community-driven projects
Civic actions
Local collectives
Self-organized initiatives
Participatory projects
Cooperative ventures
Neighborhood-driven actions
Community hub and collaborative spaces
public goods
grassroots project
projects and initiatives supporting commons
and of course … commons
… from Flanders, Wallonia, Brussels
🤟🏻Language
We really hope language is not barrier to attend. This is about expanding our horizon, building connections and commoning. We deal with language the Brussels way :-):
Everyone speaks the language they are most comfortable with.
We provide whisper translation, hands and feet, and AI tools to make this an inclusive experience for everyone.
Program
The general atmosphere will be that of an informal meetup (read: cosy, coffee, cake) yet we don’t hide from discussing the topics we need to talk about. 👉🏼 There will be plenty of time to meet and have coffee/tea. This is about weaving connections. 👉🏼And we will also dive into some serious work/conversations together and bring to the surface what is alive in all of us when it comes to managing commons and collectives.
9:30: arrival and coffee
10:00 - 12:00:
Interactive plenary, opening and icebreakers
Interactive workshop on commons: beyond language - what are we talking about exactly? What connects us in this room?
Organising the participatory cocreated sessions in afternoon. Inspired by Open Space Technology we cocreate the afternoon together with all participants. You can propose workshop in the moment and we fill the program with what we have to offer. (this process is facilitated)
12:00 - 13:30: lunch, no need to bring, we’ll take of this
13:30 - 16:00: Open space with parallel workshops and valuable conversations
Possible workshop topics:
Legal structure and back office
Internal money systems and coordination of volunteers
Relationship with local authorities
Building a national network
Conflict resolution
finance, funding, businessmodels …
16:00: closing of the day coffee, cake and chats, permission for bringing a cake is granted 🍰
Registration
You can register here: https://lu.ma/29uerhrh Entrance is donation based, the suggested price covers the catering for the day.
Finance
The donation by participants covers the catering.
We are curious if ‘the organising partners’ would be able to contribute, following the ‘give what you can motto’ to a common pot to
compensate the Commons Hub for the use of the space
organise a second day in November (e.g. 22/11) where we invite a keynote speaker on commons.