Here's the official call for the meeting recorded yesterday at the Unity Pavilion.

"The Auroville Council and the RAS invite you to bring your updated FAMC mandate-related questions to a question and answer Q&A session with members of the FAMC on proposed changes to the FAMC mandate. The draft mandate was published by the AVC in the N&N [491] 23 March 2013, with a request for feedback, and is attached at the end of this week's issue of News&Notes for your consideration again in the lead-up to Wednesday's meeting."

Not many residents attended. Read more

Maybe it was coincidence but many Aurovilians came together on the Labour Day to discuss about the increasing gap between the working groups and the residents of Auroville. This gap is steadily increasing, and since few months one of the most important of Auroville's working groups (the Working Committee) is not able to function properly. Despite the heat the meeting was well attended and many residents expressed their concerns. Another meeting will follow to begin the 'healing process', and the sense of optimism was present. Read more

On Sunday afternoon at CRIPA in Kalabhumi the atmosphere was filled with joyful noises of excited children, parents and friends. The Youth Choir led by Nuria and accompanied on piano by Matthew has shared with the community some popular songs chosen from some well known movies for children. The young audience was captivated and spellbound by the sound-track Cirlce of Life from the movie Lion King performed by the twenty-one members of the choir. Read more

Minutes of General Meeting on Auroville Water Maintenance Service to clear out the dead point on the unit(or service???) closure, splitting assets...In the goodwill of all present resident, with the reminder of Residents Assembly Service before the beginning to keep it to the agenda which was (except little outburst of "washing the laundry") kept at most of the time, the meeting was steered in real process of work - collective yoga. Result is a suggestion that last existing team along with Marcus and Dirk find the proposal for the new AWMS. Read more

A community interaction with the Governing Board happened on Saturday 6th of April at 6.00 pm in SAWCHU. A good number of residents came to meet with Dr Karan Singh (chairman of the Auroville Fundation) and the members of the Governing Board. The discussion was open by a short introduction by the chairman Dr. Karan Singh. During the meeting the residents spoke about internal issues and policies to protect the development of Auroville. Later on on most of the participants attended to the community dinner at Solar Kitchen. Read more

Featured are minutes of yesterday's General Meeting at Unity Pavilion in International Zone which was very well attended. Proposed agenda was about Working Committee sharing agenda points fro the upcoming Governing Board, which they have received from the Secretary's office : 1. process for procedure for selection of WC. 2. suggestions on term&mandated for the WC. 3.process&procedure for constituting various working groups of the RA.4. suggestions on securing land for the Master Plan&manifesting the city. That agenda was impossible to keep. Read more

Susmita, the producer of the documentary 'Sometimes I can fly' about accessibility, organized a talk with the teenagers of Future School and Alex, the Italian fellow in a wheel chair of the movie. After watching the documentary, the students seemed very interested by the topic and asked many questions, not only about how to make accessibility in Auroville but also about Alex's travels in India. They're very impressed by his courage. They even took pictures with him as a star, exchanged phone number and suggested to organize a dinner with him ! Read more

Featuring recordings are of yesterday's one day workshop on the research on the 12 qualities and their practical implication in the relationship with those who come to Auroville - tourist, guests, volunteers, newcomers at Unity Pavilion in International Zone. Participants, of which all are on daily basis in contact with all those who come to Auroville by different reasons and purposes, sincerely dedicated their time to explore and go through 12 qualities without looking for problems or solutions but merely searching for a useful tool. Read more

Last Sunday was a sporty day for Aurovillians! The first Auroville Athletics Meet took place at Dehashakti Sports Complex, next to Dana. Around 50 people registered, mainly teenagers of the school and their sport teacher. From 8 in the morning, they practised 100 m race, 800 m race and long jump before a good breakfast. At 5 pm, a fun race was organized with the feet linked together. Despite of the lack of participants, Rajeev, one of the coordinator, was satisfied of the enthusiam of youngers. He hopes that more adults will join next time. Read more

Life Education Center (LEC), located in Kottakarai, it's a personal growth center for young Tamil women from the villages around. Created in 1991, it gives them the opportunity to learn English and many other skills like tailoring and be aware of their body and to feel worthy as a women. Last Saturday was the open day at LEC. Many girls were there, dressing their most beautiful sari, surrounded by their teachers. During this event, Zerina, Harini, Bhuvana Sundari, Krupa, Devi, Susmita and the mime Drupad explained their own experiences at LEC. Read more

Alex is an Italian fellow in a wheel chair. By following his daily routine, people will may understand better the problem of accessibility in Auroville. It's the aim of the documentary 'Sometimes, I can fly', produced by Susmita, an activist who is working on pulling down the architectonic barriers in Auroville.This documentary is part of 'We care film festival' of Delhi. You are all invited to watch the movie on the 3rd of April, 5 pm, Cinema Paradiso. Susmita and Alex will also interact with teenagers in Future School the 29th of March, 1 pm. Read more

Yesterday's General Meeting called by a group of Aurovillians concerned about the work of Working Committee, facilitated by RAS in Unity Pavilion has attracted many. Politics in its worst to some, struggle for power ,and who got control, or what it is perceived by some to opposite of what we might expect from working groups...what are spiritual core vision and values of Auroville. All those questions and some particular answers were given to the table, and a call of many for a transparency and sincere service to the community with interactions Read more

As we all know housing is a big problem at the moment in Auroville. But with this new housing project there is light at the end of the tunnel. This project will provide 20 flats for single, couples and families starting from Rs 13 lakhs. There is also provision for modular office spaces. In this phase they will incorporate a new and innovative building technology called Light Steel Frame (LSF) for the structure. This technology is known for faster construction and its cost-effectiveness. Read more

Extract of an interactive session within Steps Ahead, Sri Aurobindo Centre for Studies-India and the World (Bharat Nivas) held yesterday at Unity Pavilion in International Zone. Interesting session where the discussion revolved around the present state of the International Zone and the possible courses of action. Most participants  were active members either of pavilion groups of core group of International Zone. They expressed dissatisfaction with the speed of the development. Read more

After electrical fire two week back at the rooms of the Entry Service in Town Hall, the facilities are already restored, and beside only missing fans things work as usual. As members of the Entry Service Team explains it was due to the quick response of the several working teams as ACUR, Blue Light, BCC and Electrical Service, moral and enthusiastic support , and understanding of many that they have been able to return to their work in merely a week after the fire. Read more

Second part of informative session on if and how Auroville would become a World Heritage Site under UNESCO. Gathered residents yesterday clearly expressed many doubts, and over all was the tone that we still don't know enough to take a clear decision if YES or NO. Decision making process supposed to start this Friday, and end in two week. The fact is that Auroville needs to consolidate and protect the land of the master plan, where green belt is of huge importance. The question would be which price are we prepare to pay? Read more

Infrastructure cable, Crown Road, Master Plan and Development Priorities issues was the topics of the meeting with the town planners of l'Avenir d'Auroville. The meeting was called by residents of Centre Field and Aurodam inviting other Aurovilians to come forward and share their feelings and experiences. The two hours of meeting touched many aspects of the planning work and the ground realities. At the end of the discussion was agreed to proceed by visiting the physicals places in order to have a better understanding regarding the coming steps Read more

This morning within Sustainable Habitats Workshops under the umbrella of Auroville Green Practices, and organized by Auroville Consulting, Toine has started with brief introduction of Auroville. Small number of participants, mainly architects will deepen their knowledge on sustainability in the next few days, while the lectures and workshops will be going on on different locations, until Friday. This morning Suhasini was talking on principles of design and evaluation processes of architecture in Auroville and other cities. Read more

The purpose of yesterdays's General Meeting at Unity Pavilion in International Zone was basically to explain the criteria on which a site can be on the tentative list for applicants for the World Heritage Site at UNESCO. Luigi and Toine have done that, which was followed by the discussion. It is inevitable for development to happen in the area, and the increased flow of the tourist has started to burden Visitor Centre and city itself already. Yet the biggest concern residents has expressed yesterday was how much more that would increase if Read more

Luigi and B back again “dissolving polarities” over issues. This time without any facilitation from amazing women (Marlenka, Andi Paige, or Elvira), these two guys lay out the whole fourteen year history of Auroville’s exploration of in this direction. What about visitor impact, interference in Auroville’s management, financial implications, land protection and other questions? You can hear the possibilities. Read more

Maybe the discussion's number it's wrong, but the point it's that Auroville is piling up much more meetings and presentation than facts and actions. It seems that the further we go in the development harder it gets to take decisions and act consequently. This may sound slightly negative but was the feeling expressed of some of the participants at the meeting. The frustration reflects the little progress Auroville has achieved recently. Maybe it's time to act? Please download the pdf of the presentations 1 & 2. Happy birthday Mother. Read more

To whoever that has came to Town Hall early this morning was obvious that something isn't really right , no power, no sound of generator... people gathering at Le Morgan..."Entry Service Burnt Down" where the calls and surprises, and joke followed. Following is a short interview with Kripa, member of Entry Service, explaining the cause of the fire, which has occurred around 5am. Electrical sockets took fire, which melted the wiring, computers melted ... but team is positive; Kripa says "Like the Fenix we will would be re born out the ashes" Read more

At Auroville Bamboo Research Centre they've organized bamboo construction workshop for 1st years students of DY.Patil College of Architecture, Navi, Mumbai. 85 students have managed to construct a dome out of bamboo, were making instruments, toys, chair, geometrical dome and yurt, they did get to know many facts about incredible values/qualities of bamboo. Following is the interview with three of them- Mallika, Prateek and Vini. Each of them is full of enthusiasm over bamboo, and its uses...Nick talks on organizational part of the workshop. Read more

14th February, Valentine's day, a celebration of love for all, one billion rising - an international movement to mobilize one billion men and women against the violence experienced by one billion women in their lifetime. Auroville took part in this world event. The idea was simple: men and women dancing together for one hour. The event was organized like a typical "bal la poussiere" bringing music and people to a field. Lots of speeches and coaching (maybe too much) but, finally, a bit of freedom for dancing. Read more

ONE BILLION RISING - is an invitation to a dance, invitation of new way of being, of an unique contribution of women, of sustainable life ... to both women and men, says Irena while inviting all of us to join the billion of those who would be celebrating that day with a dance to raise the awareness on violence toward women. Statistics proves that one billion of women on our planet do not receive any love but abuse in different ways. V -Day movement started about 20 years ago by Eve Ensler as work on reconciliation between women and men

One more energetic morning session focused on dissolving polarities with Elvira and Luigi - this time without B, who is mending his back. Be well, B! With them in the studio are three coordinators of the freshly selected Town Development Council L'Avenir D'Auroville: Abha P (communication and consultation coordinator), Nicole (socio-economic planning coordinator) and Sauro (overall coordination). The conversation zoomed in on the challenge of mobility - a topic central to the overarching theme of how to best manifest the city the earth needs. Read more

Recently published video Crownways in which they have tried to catch up the idea of dreamcatcher from 2007 on crown road, when money was donated to build it. As David explains this video is there to see the richness of ideas if one goes to collaborative process; the video is there for archive purposes. The idea to start developing the area from Solar Kitchen towards Central Guest house was never set to be a finish product, it was mere an alternative in supposed collaborative processes when it comes to the town planning. Read more

Joint interactive workshop of L'Avenir d'Auroville and Resident Assembly Service at Unity Pavilion was called for the purpose for community to come together and discuss on which guidelines we should all agree to be undertaken when one is about to start to build. After Helene's presentation with some examples of exercises participants have divided in smaller groups to find the possible suggestions for future guidelines in building. Recording are minutes of HElen's presentation and some outcomes of the workshop. Read more

A very interesting presentation and a further discussion about the different challenges to achieve a smart housing culture. The pursuit of a balance between sustainability , budget, local materials, personal needs in local housing and other different variables that are included in the great challenge of innovation in the way we build and design our cities and buildings. Anumapa, with many years of experience on architecture and sustainability , offers a great presentation that opens an interest discussion. Join it! Read more

On Friday last week six members of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile gave a presentation followed by a Q&A session where Aurovillians was free to post questions to the Parliament members. The Tibetan Parliament is a one month trip in India to raise awareness about the plight of Tibetans with various government officials. Earlier in the day they had a meeting with the Pondicherry government officials. There has been a sharp increase of self immolation's over the past few months with the return of the Dali Lama still in question. Read more