1131 / 1424
1131
a)
To act as a coordinator among all the working groups and areas of Auroville
with the help of the Representatives Group.
b)
To monitor and process all matters and issues of policies, with the help of the
Representatives Group.
c)
To liaise with the Government and other authorities via its Working
Committee, and to select individuals or teams of individuals to assist them in
the various tasks generated by Auroville’s relationships, as and when the
need arises.
d)
To help formulate the priorities, choices and orientations of Auroville in terms
of development – whether physical, environmental, economical, educational
or social.
e)
To initiate, facilitate, stimulate, encourage and inspire the contributions of
individual Aurovilians or the formation, for short or long terms, of working
groups with clear mandates, in order to fulfil any tasks seen as meaningful
for Auroville.
f)
To commit to the cohesiveness of the whole community through its own
primary commitment to the Charter of Auroville.
It would ensue from the above that, where the work of the Development and
Planning Groups is concerned, the Auroville Council would, as and when required,
constitute ad-hoc boards of architects, builders, engineers and others to help
assess and confirm the priorities for a given period of time, and ascertain that the
conclusions reached are generally accepted and endorsed in the community.
This specific exercise could actually be conducted right away by the present
Executive Council, in collaboration with the Development and Planning Groups;
their conclusions could then be processed with the help of the Representatives
Group, and possibly a lot would be learnt in the process for future coordination and
definition.
To begin with, both the Development and the Planning Groups could prepare a
description of:
- Those guidelines and policies which they have found over the years to be sensible
and meaningful.
- Those guidelines that need to be reviewed.
- Those guidelines that have been lacking and need to be defined.
.Observation.
The present Executive Council and Working Committee do fulfil some of the
functions already.
Until a more comprehensive and cohesive way of functioning and relating is
identified, however unsatisfactory the present conditions may be it would be sheer
irresponsibility for the existing groups to discontinue or to merge into some new
body that would not be more but less comprehensive.
This is the end of the contribution!”
Note: It was always my understanding that the separation and division between the
official, legal and formal work of representing Auroville, and the internal, multi-
dimensional work of realising a cohesive and diverse unity of purpose and
orientation, was extremely detrimental; it was like a snare that kept snapping at us
and damaging the very integrity of the experience, and it seemed that whoever got