The Botton Village Camphill Community (BVCC) Association
3 October 2015
The Camphill community in Botton Village has been celebrating its 60th Birthday this year. In this year we have also renewed our intention to continue and develop the work of Dr Karl König, who founded our village in 1955, and his vision of a community where people with and without learning disabilities share their lives, work together and celebrate cultural events. An Association was founded by a group of thirteen Camphill co-workers on 8 April. Its initial purpose was to create a ‘home’ for those of us in Botton who no longer felt at home with the charity's direction. In addition to reigniting a Botton Village inspired by Camphill ideals the Association also provides an organisational structure for the day to day affairs of community life. Since its founding, many more people have joined the Botton Association, both villagers, co-workers and some local ‘critical’ friends, and our membership now stands at fifty-one.
On 3 October we held our first General Meeting, which was both a social, celebratory event, as well as a purposeful business meeting. After introducing themselves to the assembly in a colour-coded fashion (see photos), the candidates for roles on the Council, the Responsibility Group and the Executive were approved, and Jonathan Reid and Hans Steenbergen were confirmed in their posts of Secretary and Treasurer, respectively.
The constitution of the Association enshrines our intention to continue and re-establish our community on fundamental Camphill principles that will embed it in the locality, the wider Camphill movement, and the landscape of social care in a way that is relevant and innovative. This includes a commitment to:
- Shared living
- Meaningful, productive work
- A Christian ethos
- Involvement with our locality socially, culturally and economically
- Caring for our natural environment
- Informing all of the above with on-going study and development of the ideas and initiatives of Rudolf Steiner and Karl König
The Association, and the community it represents, has three main organs: Council, Responsibility Group and Executive.
- The Council’s task is to provide critical oversight of the community and guidance as to the community’s healthy integration into a wider economic, cultural and regulatory context.
- The Responsibility Group’s task is to constantly assess whether the community is in tune with itself – a kind of respiratory monitor of internal good health. It is tasked with approving the mandates of all the community’s operational groups in line with the ethos and objects of the community.
- The Executive is responsible for the oversight and efficient co-ordination of operational matters – the day-to-day running of the community
There are the first, tentative signs that the Camphill Village Trust sees the Association as a reality that it engages with formally as part of the current mediation process, and we hope this can grow into to a productive and collaborative connection now and in future.
Watch this space!
Jonathan Reid
Secretary, BVCC
The Council
Marcus van Dam, Frank Atkinson, Lukas Brzobahaty, Lydia Gill-Waring, Elise Bos, Andrew Faulkes, Kathryn von Stein. Also James Fearnley (not present on this photograph)
The Responsibility Group
Mark Barber, Lydia Gill-Waring, Elise Bos, Hans Steenbergen, Lukas Brzobahaty, Birgit Lang, Fionn Reid, Naomi Miura, Micky Nef, Torquil Long, Kathryn von Stein, Christine Reid, Jonathan Reid, on behalf of its 22 members.
The Executive
Lydia Gill-Waring, Christine Reid, Kathryn von Stein, Klara Brzobahata, Heike Pfautsch. Missing Executive members on this photograph are Claire Griffiths, Adilia Adamczak, Erwin Wennekes, and Nicola Elson.