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Introductory Letter This letter was posted to fmf-announcements in January 1997. Dear FMF Member: The first FMF colony is going to be launched in the spring of 1998. Do you want to take part in the FIRST colony? There will be thousands of colonies in the future-on land, at sea, and in space-but there will never be another FIRST one. This colony is tentatively named Space Environments Ecovillage, SEE for short. This name expresses two basic goals of the FMF, healing the Earth and colonizing space. A growing group of fellow First Millennial Foundationers has been working on plans and gathering a core group of settlers and investors. We want you to help finish the plans and to join the settlers and investors. The colony will be owned by the people living there and they will make all the final decisions. In April the potential settlers will begin discussing locations in detail. The main idea is to create a land-based community that will serve as a test site for developing social and physical technologies that we can use later in an ocean colony. The focus in this community will be on research that will complement the research now being planned for Aquarius Rising (on OTECs, sea-crete, and mariculture). The land-based community will experiment with social structure and finance as well as development of expertise in areas that do not need ocean water such as closing ecological cycles, hydroponics, and the operation of businesses in a community environment. We expect the community residents to develop this professional expertise through starting and operating businesses. However, we expect most residents to hold jobs outside the community initially. This means that the planned land-based community can operate either as a precursor to Aquarius Rising or in conjunction with it. We have kept Tami and Marshall Savage informed of the ideas and plans. They are excited about the plan. We estimate that the colony will cost about $20,000 per single adult moving in. Our next step is to find two groups of people who wish to join in and help refine the plans and bring them to actuality. As an FMF member are you interested in joining on this project? The first group of people we are looking for are people who would be interested in moving into the initial community, the first FMF settlers. To be a settler you need a strong commitment to the FMF goals of healing the Earth and colonizing space, as you will be picking up your roots and moving to a colony. You will also need to put up at least a quarter of the per-person cost, or $5,000. This is not needed now, but in the spring of 1998 so you have a year's notice to save the necessary funds. You should also have a realistic expectation of supporting yourself at the community so that you will be able to repay a loan you will receive for building the rest of your "piece" of the new community. We expect that initially most settlers will hold a job outside the community and we will be seeking a site within an hour's commute from a city of about half-a-million population in order to facilitate this. Settlers can expect to own their own homes debt free when their loan is repaid within about five years. Settlers will also acquire a number of skills useful for larger communities, specifically for Aquarius. We are looking for potential settlers now. There is no final commitment at this point. You do not need the money now, just the belief that you will have it by the spring of 1998. The second group are people who would be willing to invest in a mortgage or security-backed loan to a particular settler at the prime rate plus two percent (prime is currently 8.25 percent). Each settler will need loans currently estimated to total around $15,000 as they are putting up $5,000 for themselves. This amount can come from one investor or from several. The minimum we are looking for from one investor is $5,000, the same as a settler is putting up. If, given a year's notice, you could make such a loan, then you are a potential investor.(Please join the discussion to determine whether you would, which is a separate issue from whether you could). We expect there to be a five-to-seven year repayment schedule. Again, as with settlers, we are looking for potential investors now. There is no final commitment at this point. As with the potential settlers, you do not need the money now, just the belief that you will have it by the spring of 1998. Of course you could be part of both groups-both a potential investor and a potential settler. We have already developed some rough plans with a number of alternatives and expect that all who join us as settlers and investors will join in refining as well as implementing these plans. Please browse http://www.millennial.org/see/ for up-to-date documents on plans for the colony. And join fmf-lbc by sending an email to majordomo@millennial.org containing the line "subscribe fmf-lbc" (without the quotes) for the ongoing planning of this first colony. When you join fmf-lbc, please announce your interest as a potential settler, investor, or both.
The current potential settlers and investors for SEE: Some Changes Since the Letter We now expect initial settlers to be moving in during the year beginning in spring 1998, as opposed to everyone moving in at once. It is simply not necessary to coordinate schedules to such an extent. Prime rate has risen to 8.50%. We are currently making offers for land near Austin, Texas. Austin is perhaps the world's largest college town. Even the state capital is secondary to the immense University of Texas at Austin. This has led to the area being a center of new high-tech industries and to an active ecological movement in the area. The area is generally rolling hills with the Colorado River running through it. The average daily temperature during July is 83.4 F; the average daily temperature in January is 48.8 F. The Organic Growth House described in Appendix 2 has opened the possibility of operating with $10,000 initial capital, but would require more than $20,000 in the long run. The capital requirements are more precisely expressed as $8,000 per adult, plus whatever the household decides to pay for housing. The $8,000 is for community property, as discussed in Appendix 3. It is paid only for adult members not for children. The Website will have an online copy of this book.
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