It was an important reunion that was held at our host members at Il Rosmarino Farm from September 27 to 29. There are many needs that this gathering was able to address, giving confirmation not only to the 40 or so members who attended, but to the whole association. Need to recognize and understand each other, returning to being a more united and cohesive group. Need to get to know better the territories and the people who host us during these itinerant fall meetings. Need to continue planning, renewing roles while keeping relationships solid.

The Board Community meeting

Already since Thursday evening the smaller group of members who are part of the Board Community has been meeting in Marcon (Venice) to carry on the themes launched during the first meeting in Marzabotto in June: from the future role of facilitation within our assemblies to the evaluation of new and old collaborations in which to engage (Treeonfy project, Mondeggi Bene Comune). The group that dealt with the Crescono con noi ’25-’28 call for proposals has concluded its work and the call for proposals is already online; a new working group has been formed to analyze the staff salary situation with a view to a more in-depth discussion at the next Board Community meeting in early January.

Historic Veneto members

This is the first time WWOOF has organized a national meeting in this part of the Veneto region, and it was then an opportunity to get to know more closely the activities of two of our longtime members, who have been making this man-made territory alive with relationships and content we hold dear for so long. Piergiorgio and Cristina, the hosts, summarized their decades-long commitment to these lands, from the enthusiasms and projects that began thirty years ago to the difficulties of the last period, which will necessitate major changes and will require the collaboration of other people to help carry the enterprise forward. Nicoletta, our Veneto coordinator, then lives a few miles away, and took her first steps as a WWOOFer here: steps that later led her far afield, to the creation of an incredible domestic seed house and the conception of a collective urban garden that demonstrates how just and healthy agriculture can be created everywhere.

Mending the web of relationships

The focus of these days, however, was on the coordination and, before that, the coordinators. Under the watchful eyes of an experienced facilitator such as Delfino, the time had come to take care of the internal relations of a group that has been lending its time and energy to the association for almost two decades: a group in which friendships and a sense of community have been created, but in which in recent years ill feelings and misunderstandings have also arisen. Some frays had to be patched up and burdens lightened that prevented serene progress: it is not always easy to bring out the unspoken and tensions in such large contexts, but the glances and the final embrace that brought this group together should be experienced with the optimism of new beginnings.

Who is a coordinator?

Who is a coordinator? What does he or she do? How does one become a coordinator? These are the questions that together we have tried to answer, initiating a process of renewal of this central figure in association dynamics. In part the answers will be the same as they have been for the past two decades, in part they will change, as indeed WWOOF Italy has changed. In addition to continuing to give entrance visits to aspiring hosts (a theme that kept us busy all Friday afternoon), it will be essential to have coordinators in the territories who know how to animate it, propose content, act as a glue between members, and create networks between WWOOF and the rest of the agricultural and nonagricultural world. But it is a process of renewal that has just begun, in which consensus and openness to new solutions will be crucial.

Appointment in March

Anyone who has been to a WWOOF meeting already imagines what the outline of all the work done at the Rosemary was: the lunches and dinners organized by Federica (with the help of Martin and the other WWOOFers), the dances in the evening (this time it was the Kola Camoma who accompanied us), the exchange of products brought by each person. We left with the dates of the next meeting already in hand: from February 28 to March 2, 2025 at Villa Prelato in Fano. This will be an opportunity to continue working on the themes that have emerged and to check the progress of the new initiatives. In the meantime, let us cherish having left Sunday at the Rosemary with a more open smile than the one we arrived with.