A new Town Development Council

“Profound disgust”, said one of the participants, responding to the “How do you feel?” question on day one. The others on his table nodded in agreement and added their version of dislike. No-one was looking forward to spending three days selecting the new Town Development Council (TDC) Interface Team.

Yet the three days are mandatory. They are part of the Participatory Selection Process approved by the Residents’ Assembly in January 2014. [see AVToday# 299-300, June-July 2014]. It specifies that any Aurovilian can nominate him/herself as well as any other Aurovilian as a candidate or participant in the selection process for members of major working groups. The names of the candidates who accept the nomination are published so that the community can give feedback. The feedback is checked by a Feedback Review Committee who decides whether a person can or cannot join the selection process. Candidates and participants then meet for three days to select the new members.

The nomination for the TDC opened in August. Approximately 140 Aurovilians were nominated. Over time, the list narrowed down to 58 persons who met on October 20th, 21st and 22nd.

At the request of the Auroville Council, the three-day process was facilitated by Aurovilians experienced in conducting trainings, workshops and Auroville introduction programmes. Rakhal, Leena and Sheba worked for almost a month to prepare the process, which they based on the spiritual ideals of Auroville.

“The Terms of Reference for the TDC state that the Auroville Charter and the Vision for Auroville as given by The Mother form the foundation for the development of Auroville,” says Rakhal. “For us, this meant that the spiritual and the material should not be separated and that we should focus on both during the three day process.”

The first day set the tone: participants gave their views on the strengths and weaknesses of Auroville; there were table discussions on specific case studies and the outcomes were shared with all participants; there was an explanation of how the new Interface Team and its Technical Team are to function [see AVToday # 335-336, June-July 2017]; a first group of individual candidates briefly presented themselves; and participants were asked to ponder questions such as the relationship of the first line of the Auroville Charter - Auroville belongs to nobody in particular but to humanity as a whole - to the planning process and how the second line of the Charter - But to live in Auroville one must be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness - was to be personally understood.

Day two

During the second day the understanding of the interrelationship of the material and spiritual was sought to be deepened. This time participants were invited to play the ‘game of powers’, where each was asked to pick a card mentioning one of the twelve Powers of The Mother (Sincerity, Humility, Gratitude, Perseverance, Aspiration, Receptivity, Progress, Courage, Goodness, Generosity, Equanimity, and Peace), reflect on its meaning and share the reflection with the other table participants. A second group of candidates then presented themselves; and the outgoing members of the ITDC (interim TDC) talked about their work, its complexities, difficulties and joys. A few more case studies in the form of ‘fish bowls’, where the candidates play-acted a development problem, and a review of the feedback received concluded the day.

The most touching part of the second day was the long resounding applause that was given to the outgoing members of the iTDC - “the first applause I received for my work in 10 years”, observed Sauro dryly. Together with Jacqueline and Cristo, he had served two terms in the TDC and seen its gradual demise when more and more people left office [see AVToday #297, April 2014]. They continued their work in a so-called ‘interim TDC’, together with a few newly appointed members, initially for 6 months, while they awaited the formation of a new TDC. These six months became 1½ years.

“In this job you have to pursue the 12 qualities of The Mother all the time,” said Divya, an outgoing member who was later re-selected. She highlighted four of them. “Perseverance: you have to come back every day. Courage: you need a lot of courage to come back every day. Goodness: don’t expect anything in return, no result, no reward. And generosity: you have to be generous in all domains, time, energy, goodwill, especially work.”

“I would add commitment, for without that you can’t do the job,” added Sauro. “For the job doesn’t stop when you go home in the evening.” And he warned about the difficult challenges and the stress that the work brings. “There is no other job in Auroville which puts you into touch with so many aspects of Auroville life.” Jacqueline stressed the necessity that all new members be aware of what The Mother said on Auroville. “The new team must be aware of the vision of Roger Anger” with whom The Mother had many talks about the planning of Auroville.

Cristo reminded the participants to be not city-centric but include the surrounding villages in planning the development of Auroville. He added some practical tips concerning ‘how to survive the work of the TDC’. “Never tell lies, ever. And be aware that some people will never collaborate. Leave them in their space, but make sure that not one or two persons can block development. Find ways to enforce discipline. And, most importantly, never forget what Mother has said about building the city: it is only a pretext, a support for the sadhana that each of us is supposed to do. It isn’t the amount of concrete that we pour into Auroville that matters but the amount of consciousness that we pour into the concrete.” “And never forget that you are at the service of Auroville, not at the service of the residents,” added Tom.

There was a little time for questions. “Listening to all these concerns, are there any joys in this type of work?” asked one of the participants. “There is the joy of seeing a development towards a more collective living,” replied Sauro. “In 2007, the city area was just a spread of scattered developments. Today, we have the beginning of urban consolidation in the residential zone sectors 1 and 2, with a library, a health and a farewell centre, and a nearby Solar Kitchen. There has also been a development of the administrative area.” But he admitted that 90-95% of the visible job of the TDC has been conflict resolution. “It’s rare that a project doesn’t result in some kind of conflict, and I expect that the new team will have to do a lot of communication. But they will also have to concentrate on ensuring that detailed development plans are being made so that everyone becomes aware of what is planned in a certain area which, ideally, should give less conflict.”

At the end of day two, the candidates were asked to look at the feedback that he or she had received and discuss it with another person. The feedback was also pasted on the wall to be accessible to all. In this process, the facilitators took care to help people deal with feedback regarding them and how to make the best of it. “Feedback is breakfast for champions,” they stated. “Listen without defensiveness, receive it as a gift, don’t plan a rebuttal, use it as an opportunity to reflect deeply,” mentioning at the same time that being able to receive feedback and use it positively is a necessary skill for team members.

The third day

The third day was dedicated to finding the new team. In various groups, the qualifications of the candidates were discussed, after which results were collated and shown on the board. There was unanimity on three people who were declared selected. More group work followed to select the remaining members and then groups joined to compare notes.

The selection showed remarkable maturity. Individual observations were quietly endorsed or countered with other observations: did a person have the necessary skills? was a person known for abusing a power position, and if so, to what extent was this of importance? did the person have sufficient social skills to function in a group? Some groups took long to come to a conclusion and kept the facilitators waiting till far into lunch time.

The groups’ findings were again collated. A team of eight members was finally selected and accepted by all present. It was also agreed that the eight selected members would suffice to function as a team, in response to the original request to form a team of between six and thirteen people.

There followed another touching moment, when the outgoing team, standing in a tight circle and surrounded by a wider circle of participants, thanked each other for ‘the good run’ together. Once again, there was warm and long applause. The process ended with more thanks: to the many quiet supporters and, in particular, to the three facilitators.

Too much spirituality?

Yet, they hadn’t been able to satisfy all participants. Some protested about how sections of the day were being handled, showing little respect for the efforts that were made. “There were many different types of energies in the room, and often it felt like the process would get impacted. As we had 65 people to look after, we had to push back firmly at times,” says Sheba.

Others objected to ‘overdoing’ the spiritual side, which was why one participant left on the first morning and another accused one of the facilitators of conducting a Sunday sermon on day three. “I was shocked,” said Rakhal. “His accusation showed me that he did not understand what we were trying to do – to bring a concentration on the spiritual as a help to come to harmonious decisions on practical matters, with people holding very different views. If we can come to a state of deep listening, not only to what is happening but also to the intention behind it, then there is an opening, and an agreement is more easily possible.”

“We were very alert to the responses that came in at different moments from the participants, and often we sat together to agree on a course correction,” adds Leena. “For this was the first time we were facilitating a process involving so many old-timers. It was a challenge. But we don’t believe that the ‘spiritual side’ was overdone: for we witnessed some rather powerful happenings, for example, after people had drawn their ‘power’ card and reflected on it.”

Taking everything into account, the selection of the new team turned out to be a success, said the facilitators. It is a view shared by many. “We’ve got the best possible team in the given circumstances,” was the common response when the conclusions were announced. And what about the process? Some tweaking seems to be useful – perhaps including shortening the three-day process.