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Guidelines

Land

  1. In order to meet our vision the land’s functional systems must be restored and the community integrated into the land through entrepreneurial organic farming and sustainable activities to meet their own and other’s needs.
  1. A land use plan will be used to ensure the appropriate use of the land to meet point 1 above.
  2. The Trustees are responsible for being custodians of the land and ensuring that activities on the land are in line with the Vision.

Social

  1. We (we refers to the Pioneering Community and the Trust) are to facilitate the emergence of a community at Jakkalskloof that is locally self-reliant and integrated with its neighbours and local communities.
  2. All members of the community will be entitled to share in the produce and surplus of the farm.
  1. We will strive to continuously reduce our consumption and levels of waste, while increasing our reliance on products from the farm and generating surpluses [good and services] to trade with or sell to local people. This will increase our degree of self-reliance and interaction with local people and communities.
  2. All full members of the community are obliged to have the farm as their principle place of residence.
  1. The activities on the community are to be managed in an entrepreneurial manner so that they generate surpluses for themselves as well as the farm and local communities. This surplus need not only be financial, but can be in the form of other resources and knowledge.
  2. A person’s rights to remain a member of the community will depend on their meeting and adhering to the community’s own guidelines.
  3. There is to be a disciplinary procedure before dismissal can take place and this should be a matter of last resort after all parties have tried to resolve any conflicts or non-performance, Any person dismissed may appeal to the XFT in writing for a hearing.
  4. Members who do not wish to use the communal accommodation will be entitled to build a house for their own use after being accepted as a full member.
  5. The location and size of their site is to be agreed with the Trust and must be in accordance with the land use management plan. It is anticipated that all private use buildings are to be fairly close to one another and a new community centre so that infrastructural resource use and impacts can be minimized.

Administration

  1. It is not the intention of the Trust to set rigid guidelines and performance standards but rather to work with the Community to generate some broad guidelines and performance standards within which the members can draw up and monitor their own criteria.
  2. The Trust, through its agreement with the Community will aim to ensure that member’s rights and assets are protected.
  3. It is assumed that there will be one voting member per family, but that each resident and visitor over a certain age (which still has to be determined) will pay a monthly levy to cover farm maintenance and equipment depreciation. The current estimate of this levy is R 1500 per month. This will be revised once the farm’s own business plan has been refined.
  4. In addition members and visitors will have to share the costs of any external supplies that are purchased for their communal use [e.g. food, other consumables, fuels, equipment rentals etc]. Once the community is generating a surplus then the monthly levy can be reduced proportionately.
  5. The Trustees recognize that potential members will seek assurance that their investments are protected and tradable in proportion to the risks that they are taking and the benefits that they are gaining. They will also wish to know that they have security of tenure while they remain a member of the community. Such mechanisms are to be incorporated into the lease agreement between XFT and the JFC as well as resolutions taken by the two organizations.
  6. Potential members Having completed the Jakkalskloof Ecovillage questionnaire and thereafter being briefed by the Founder on the Trust’s vision, and if this is accepted, then potential members are to follow a variable process to seek membership, which may be as follows:
    1. Spend one or two nights at the farm. Then if they and the community wish,
    2. They will need to spend at least two weeks working at the farm, as though they were a community member. If they still wish to become a member, then;
    3. They are to complete the questionnaires and be interviewed by a representative of the Trust and any members and if then they agree that the potential member has the capacity [skills, attitude and character] to be a member, the member is to spend at least 1 additional month at the farm as a potential member. If they and the community still wish the applicant to become a member;
    4. They would again be interviewed by the Trust and current members who would then share their views of the potential member’s competencies and agree with the member on the focus of their next stay at the farm. This stay would be for a minimum period of 6 months working on the farm and developing their business plan for running or participating in an income generating project.
    5. Thereafter there would be the final interview with the Trustees and Members and if they are deemed capable of being members, their exact conditions for joining will be finalized. Eligibility for membership will be after a minimum period of staying on the farm for a total of one year.
    6. There may be variations on how members will pay for their investment and on the income generating project that they will run.

 

Economic May need revision re financial exit guidelines

  1. Joining Members’ investment in their sustainable lifestyle at the farm will currently be
    R 100 000. This investment is to be used for the development of the farm and community. It will not be used to repay the money that the Trust has invested in the initial purchase and development of the farm. The exception will be for specific loans advanced by the Trust to the Community for the purchase of movable assets on the farm.
  2. The Trust will expect each potential member to present a business plan showing how they will generate an adequate income for their own long terms needs while also contributing to the benefit of the community. It is anticipated that all entrepreneurial activities based on the farm will give 10% of their sales to the community [this % may vary depending on the nature of the activity based on its value to the members, local communities and use of farm and community resources]. Those activities based away from the farm and not using its resources may not need to make a donation to the community.
  3. Members will need to work on the farm with no remuneration, for a minimum average of 10 days per month for the benefit of the community and in line with the tasks that need to be undertaken to develop and maintain the farm and community.
  4. A member leaving the community will be able to recoup their original investment from the joining fee of the next member. Note that any increase in the value of the investment is not for the sole benefit of the member but is to be shared with the community as a whole.
  5. All buildings on the farm should use the materials available from the farm or within 50km radius of the farm and community members and others may help to build it. On leaving, the member may rent his or her house to another member or sell it. The right of first refusal on the sale of the house is to be given to the community, then its individual members, then the Trust and lastly to future members. The house may not be sold to non-members. No member may own more than one house.
  6. Visitors and prospective members are to pay R 100 per night, unless they are staying for a month or more as prospective members, in which case they will pay the same levy as current members.

Monitoring

  1. It is important to try and quantify the vision so that progress can be measured and tracked. Having relevant metrics will help us to remain focused on the vision and not to be led by other outcomes that do not support the vision.
  2. The above vision and objectives may be monitored by some of the following metrics.

a)    The farm is to be managed according to a written land use plan based on permaculture principles. This plan is to have a rolling 3 year budget.

b)    The community is to obtain 100% of its water from local resources.

c)    All liquid and solid “wastes” are to be regarded as a resource and used on the farm or recycled if there is a demand for it.

d)    All domestic energy use is to be from sustainable local resources [biomass, & solar power] by 2015.

e)    At least 50% of the community’s food requirements are to be generated on site or via trade with other local producers by 2013 and 80% by 2015. The aim is to strive for 100% of our food needs to be generated from the farm.

f)     Energy [fuel] for farm implements and transport should be generated by local resources 2020.

Other metrics are still to be developed with the help of the Trustees and community members – but we may need to have fewer metrics or group them under broad headings.

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