Communities Conference & Convergence of ICs 2025 Update 5

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Need to catch up? You can find all of the 2025 Updates on our blog here

Online ticket sales for the TOCC & CIC end at noon on Aug 28, you can still buy tickets on site

Online ticket sales for both the conference and the convergence end at 12 noon eastern on Thursday August 28. You are welcome to purchase tickets at the conference between 1 PM and 8 PM on Friday, between 8 AM and 2 PM on Saturday, or on Monday Sept 1 between 10am and 1pm if you’re only attending the convergence. For additional details about on site ticket sales, please contact conference@twinoaks.org. Cash and check are preferred at the site, but we can accommodate debit & credit cards too.

Rideshare forms and mass transit pickup requests

If you are coming from more than an hour away and have an extra seat in your vehicle, or if you are looking for a ride, please fill out our Ride Share form.  We can help you coordinate getting to the conference site from Charlottesville and Richmond, as well, if you are arriving by public transport, train, bus, or airplane.

Full list of Communities Conference workshops is available now

We’re excited to announce our slate of accepted presenters for 2025! Please keep in mind this is our best estimate at this point and things can change- presenters get sick, a family member needs help, a positive covid test, etc. The workshop list and presenter bios are available on our workshops page here, the event schedule overview is available here, and the full program will be available on our Program page later this week.

Introducing ‘Sankofa: BIPOC Dream Seed Sanctuary’

As part of the Twin Oaks Intentional Communities Conference, Dragon Rose HeArt and Miles Rose of the Twin Oaks Racial Equity Team present ‘Sankofa: BIPOC Dream Seed Sanctuary’ – a rugged altar of a gathering space, and an animate prayer for the world we long for. This sanctuary tends the dreams of those who have carried the weight of oppression and colonization, yet continue to birth visions of belonging, liberation, and beauty. Here we seed pathways of dignity, collective well-being, a movement from survival into thrival, and a return to indigeneity. Each tribe standing tall and proud in its own colors while still sounding into the rainbow whole.

The sanctuary will host workshops and rituals led by BIPOC visionaries, holding a field of refuge for all our dreams. Visitors are invited to write their longings for the world and their communities into the collective dream jar. These will be read aloud, offered to a ritual fire, and gifted to the earth as sacred ash: fertilizer for our shared dream futures.

The name of our Sanctuary is derived from the Sankofa bird, an Akan symbol from Ghana which represents a continual remembrance of the roots, or ‘return for what you have forgotten. 

Get ready to bid on 2025’s auction items, and/or bring items to donate to be sold

As one of the Twin Oaks Community Conference events, we will be holding a fast-paced, high-energy benefit auction for the Foundation for Intentional Community and Twin Oaks Communities Conference. You can help in two ways: 1) Bring items to donate to the auction, and 2) come ready to take part in bidding (credit cards, cash, and digital forms such as Venmo and PayPal are all welcome). We have some great items on offer this year, including a stay at the beautiful Milkweed Mercantile, items from the FIC bookstore, and a gift basket from our friends at Critterbutts. Have questions or need to arrange shipping or pickup of a donated item? Reach out to Kim@ic.org.

We need cooks, especially for the Convergence

We are still in search of a few honchos (lead chefs) for a few meals. You’ll have support from our food lead, an awesome menu to work from (vegetarian & vegan chefs are especially welcome), and prep cook helpers to assist with chopping, stirring, peeling, etc. If you’re interested in helping (but not being a meal lead) you can sign up for kitchen shifts at registration when you arrive. Drop us an email at conference@twinoaks.org

Cambia’s Traditional Monday Program is back in 2025!

Info about the 2025 Traditional Monday Program at Cambia is available now! Tickets are $50 if you are not attending the Communities Conference and $40 if you are. Tickets include lunch. Food will be vegan and include local produce from our network of community farms. A brief description of the Monday program is below, for full details check out the Monday Program on our website.

morning event: oppression, liberation, and the fine line between good and evil:

This game was such a success during the last communities conference that it became impossible to stop. This is a Live Action Role Play on the ins and outs of both national and international politics, and whether we can change the course of history.  at its core, its a simple game with very complex strategy of how to create international solidarity against oppression, while taking a deep dive into the nature of oppression, power, conflict, facism and pacifism. 

noon: amazing vegan lunch cooked on a fox stove

afternoon: community drama role-play game. this was also such a hit that we need a workshop of its own. we are going to role-play a community meeting and discuss several controversial agenda items while maintaining specific roles. we are then going to look at how we manage secret agendas and how to discover our inner secret agenda and what we can do about them  

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