Intro Letter for Star Residents

Hello!

I've lived out here for three years now and some recent events have suddenly made it realistic for me to start thinking about purchasing this property from my friend. This opens up the possibility for me to start thinking about living here long term.

I have recently realized that, although I've been putting a lot of energy into my Earthship and the remote work the sustains me here, I've been failing in community engagement and organization. I would like to start funneling attention back into this local community in a very deliberate and careful manner. I have also recently formed connections with friends living outside our community that I would like to invite here. They offer fresh perspectives, new resources, and vibrant energy to assist us in building this community together.

One entity is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) called Cabin, who are a tightknit group working at the intersection of cryptoeconomics and physical building projects. CabinDAO may be able to help with designing and building projects as friends and collaborators. Our earthship community might consider joining their network to create a reciprocal relationship of co-support. CabinDAO wants to bring people to the land to co-live, co-work, and connect us with other communities in their network. Although everyone in our community comes from different experiences, I believe we share some core principles with CabinDAO such as autonomy and self-sovereignty on every level of how we live. Together we might organize hands-on building sessions and think-feel together about the future of our neighborhood.

Other friends and colleagues will be visiting me soon to explore the properties for sale and see if joining our neighborhood might be a good fit for them. Their purchase has the potential to establish a cultural site to attract a wider group of thoughtful, culturally sensitive, proactive builders to open up the land for communal gatherings. This might entail some revitalized activity in our common spaces, likely beginning with some serious strategy on building and stewarding our road sooner than later.

For my own part, I have dreamed of establishing an artist residency program since I first arrived. My property is adjacent to two structure that are currently unoccupied, so I'm very interested in attracting interesting and action-oriented people into those spaces to work with me in realizing this idea. I want to see our neighborhood developed in a careful, positive way that raises the standard of living for all and provides more opportunities for wider engagement. This requires some degree of curation and lots of communication to ensure our values are aligned.

A first step might be for us to make those values explicit. This is mostly what I would like to discuss with you. I propose that we come together for a community townhall on November 12 to share our thoughts on these matters, along with other topics that you might bring to the table. In the coming months I would like to collect your ideas, questions, and concerns into a wiki-style archive for everyone to access. I will work with others to design a roadmap with clear actionable steps in early 2023 so we can get started on the right foot once the weather warms up in spring. In the meantime, I encourage you to join our Telegram group and make your presence known.

I know that there's a lot to discuss there and a long history to this community. I encourage you to discuss your ideas with others. If you have any interest in helping with organization, design, or anything else, please reach out to me directly so that we can work together.

Cheers to a bright future!

-TW