Suderbyn: A Concise Summary

We have had our eco-village ideas for years. In Autumn 2006 a group of us began to meet on Gotland to discuss the another way of living. The result of a series of informal meeting during Autumn/Winter 2006/2007 was that we founded Gotland Eco-village Network in Spring 2007. The network became a registered non-profit association and within it we created a working group called Alpha Group tasked with realising our dream by finding land for a village. Suderbyn is the result of Alpha Group's work.

Suderbyn Cooperative Society was founded 8 May 2008 as a direct response to an offer to buy the property we now own in Västerhejde parish. The cooperative society has since then worked to register the cooperative (completed 28 May), Due Diligence (Complete 29 May) Purchase contract (30 May),  special government permission to buy farmland as legal enitity (12 June) Opening of Banking Plusgiro (13 June) two bank loans approved (26 June), finalisation of Property Sale (1 July) and 5 person moved in (1 Sep). We think that we have had lots of luck with the purchase, permission (second in recent history on Gotland) and with the first and unplanned income to the cooperative, from the Ministry of Agriculture and specifically from the minister's political cabinet.

The membership drive has just begun

In the beginning of June we began our externally-oriented information activities to attract new members. We do this orally and digitally.
We have agreed with IAL (www.ial.se), the Swedish branch of Service Civil International to have an international workcamp on the property 21 September to 4 October 2008. We are discussing a possible permaculture course in late Autumn/early Winter 2008. We hope we can have a practical straw bale building course in Spring 2009. It is estimated that we have place for 30 inhabitants on the property, 8 of which in the old Farm House and the rest in the planned eco-village.

Photo of cherry orchard on the property´s south edge
  

How can you be a part of the project?

1. Become a member of Suderbyn

As you can read in our Bye-Laws, you can become a member when you are approve by the board and have bought a membership share for 100 000 SEK. The Bye-Laws make it possible to agree with the board to a payment plan over a period no longer than 5 years.Everyone can thus afford to become a member. To vote at the member meetingsone has to have completed payment of the share and paid the low annual membership fee of 200 SEK for 2009. Still sounds interesting? Contact us!

2. Apply to live in Suderbyn

It is still unclear what possibilities we can offer to people who just wish to rent and test out life at Suderbyn. In the long run we wish to see that there is an alternative for those who want to live at Suderbyn for a shorter period but do not or cannot become a member(students, temporary employees, Bohemians/Nomads). Activities that are in line with Suderbyn's aims are welcome to contact us about renting office/studio/shop space.

3. Participate in a working weekend, course or workcamp project in Suderbyn

We hope there will be plenty of opportunities to work, visit and meet each other for shorter periods.

4. Sponsor a life in Suderbyn

We want it to be possible to personally sponsor a plant in the forest garden. We will buy and plant your personal sponsor plant, provide it with a name tag with information including your name as sponsor, map its location and facilitate your possible future sponsor visit. Letter writing to inform you of your plant's progress is however not possible. 1000 SEK for a nut tree, 500 SEK for a fruit tree and 300 SEK for a berry bush. With autogiro function, you could sponsor a whole forest orchard! Talk about carbon offsetting, and doing it in Europe!

Contact details

The cooperative has Swedish PlusGiro 47 31 38-6 and Bankgiro 299-6817.

Our e-mail address: suderbyn (at) ekobogotland. se and our postal address until 31 August is Västerhejde Toftavägen 211 SE-621 99 Visby SWEDEN.