Submission Guidelines

We are thrilled that you want to participate. We encourage diverse views and perspectives, and we expect participants to be respectful of one another. This project is intended to be an honest reflection of our community and its rich history, and we want it to be a safe and authentic place for expression. Be kind. Be gentle. Be authentic.

These principal guidelines apply to both Findhorn Journey stories and any other story about the many facets of our Community. For your Findhorn Journey story, we’d like you to consider the following three questions:

  • What was your initial impulse to come to the Community?
  • What were the highlights and challenges you experienced?
  • How has living in the Community impacted your life, your work in the world?

The guidelines are based on our Common Ground https://findhorn.cc/about/core-values/

Here are a few guidelines for your personal story:

The story

  • Keep the narrative to your personal experience rather than philosophy, concepts, or observations of others. ‘I statements’ are a great way to do that.
  • Maximum word count for your story is 2000 words, but ideally less. Bear in mind that shorter pieces are more likely to be read by more people.
  • We welcome storytelling in digital form (video or audio). Please note that we do not have the capacity to edit raw material. Please use the Story Submission form to give us a description of the piece which we can use to embed the media in. If your audio/video is already published on YouTube/vimeo we are happy to embed the link to your channel provided you can assure us that this channel will stay secure in the long term. We also have a COIF YouTube channel and are happy to upload your audio/video there. To send us a large media file please use something like Wetransfer. To make sure that nothing gets lost in transit please email us before you send it.
  • You can add links to your personal website/s, attach documents, photographs etc (the ‘no blame’ guideline applies).
  • Please credit other authors, photographers or creators.
  • Include captions for pictures.
  • If you quote books, please include the publisher in brackets after the title.
  • If you mention someone by name it is good practice to ask their permission. It is a great way to get back in touch with old friends and also to encourage them to write their own stories for our ‘collective autobiography’ :-). If that’s not feasible, just remember our golden rule: Be kind. Be creative. Be authentic.
  • If for some reason you have changed names, please include a statement such as: Names have been changed for privacy or Name was Smith, now Jones etc.
  • Please use British English – colour, neighbour, realise, not color, neighbor, realize.
  • We suggest you share your story with a friend before sending it to us as a reality check.
  • Only stories submitted through the form for curation by the Curators will be considered for inclusion
  • The editors on the Curating Team will edit the stories in line with Findhorn Foundation style. This will be a soft and sensitive edit meant to enhance your piece, and won’t change your own voice. The edited version will be sent back to you to be okayed, before publishing it.
  • Be conscious of the right term to use for the Community, depending on context:
    • Community – capital C when referring to the whole community, our specific community
    • The Park Ecovillage, or The Park (capital T on The)
    • Findhorn Foundation (not The with a capital letter)
    • Findhorn – that’s the village, not us
    • Findhorn Foundation Community
    • Findhorn Foundation Ecovillage

Ethics

  • No blaming, shaming, complaining, or accusations and projections. We are interested in your experience: please own it. We want the whole rose, bloom and thorns, of your experience but it needs to be your rose :-).
  • Please don’t bring other people, groups or organisations into disrepute.
  • No defamatory or potentially libelous writing.
  • If in doubt, ask yourself what you wish to achieve by telling this story. This community history is intended to be a celebration of the inspiration and life-changing transformations that have happened here – acknowledging that human life in community can be messy at times (which is often part of a good story as well…)
  • If still in doubt, be guided by Common Ground.

The legal stuff

  • Copyright for the piece rests with the author, although the Curating Team has the right to edit for length, sense, accuracy and language.
  • Ownership: The website with all its content will be owned by the New Findhorn Association. The public facing content of the website will be held and made available (as appropriate) in the Community Archives.
  • The Curating Team may ask for changes or revisions.
  • The Curating Team reserves the right to make the final decision on which pieces are published.
  • If you quote other people, please supply permission in writing from them to be quoted in this piece of work. (Ideally this would be formal permission, but it can be a copy of an email, a whatsapp message – anything that will prove they gave you permission in writing.)
  • If you quote published work, such as poems, words of songs etc by other authors, please supply written permission to quote by the publishers.
  • If you submit images please confirm that you have the copyright, or permission to use by the copyright owner.

Common Ground https://findhorn.cc/about/core-values/ | PDF Version of  the Common Ground Document