Interview du président de Pangea
Please :
- make me the more complete answer you can.
- don’t modify the questions, just type after : “Pangea : ”
S.B.: What is Pangea?
Pangea : Pangea is a Non Profit Organization working towards the aims and goals of the Venus Project. We promote the social plan proposed by VP, while at the same time we try to create the infrastructure to make it possible.
S.B.: What is your relation/exhange with the international without speaking about TZM but for first, your relation between Pangea and TVP?
Pangea : Pangea was founded in Greece after discussions with Jacque Fresco last summer. It was decided that we create an NPO that will have the same goals with VP in Greece and will be in close collaboration with VP.
S.B.: Always about TVP, how do u exhange? (email, phone, other,... ?)
Pangea : Via e-mail, skype, telephone.
S.B. : Maybe you know there is an International Team who’s name is “The Venus Project Design”.
Do you know that ? Have you got relationship with them ?
Pangea : Yes we have a close relationship with TVPdesign and Andrew Buxton. I have great respect for their work and patience.
S.B. : What are relation between Futuragora and Pangea ? Do you share project ? Have you got meeting ? How do you communicate ?
Pangea : We share the same goals with TVP. At the moment communication has not been much because of our current projects. There have been talks on common projects but haven’t found the time to follow through on that so far.
S.B. : Do you think others futures NPO will take different name ? Or do you think there would be a NPO who’s name will be like futuragora or Pangea in France or in others countries ? How do you see that ? Why having different name ? (I know it’s forbidden to having the name “The Venus Project”, don’t worry)
Pangea : The name is up to you, the important thing is sharing the same goals with TVP and understanding it so you can present it efficiently to society.
S.B. : How do you exhange with members in Greece ? Do you real or virtual meetings ? What are yours exhange tools ?
Pangea : We have regular contacts in our headquarters in Athens. Team coordinators are responsible for their teams and responsible to report back to the board of directors of Pangea about any activity made by their teams.
S.B. : Can you tell me how Pangea was born ?
Pangea : Pangea was born out of the need to start creating the means necessary to make TVP a reality. We came to the conclusion that this will not happen via a “virtual” movement on the web. After discussions with Jacque and Roxanne we came to the conclusion that our decision to create Pangea was the right thing to do. http://www.thepangea.org/brochure.html
S.B. : Can you make me an historic of Pangea’s development ?
Pangea : First we needed to deal with all the bureaucracy in Greece in order to open an NPO. Then we found a place to house our headquarters (this is needed by the state laws) then we started slowly connecting with other organizations that we can collaborate. After that we contacted journalists and people that had helped us in the past to promote Pangea and its goals. The most important thing is to secure the viability of our organization, this means funding. The founding members have been providing the economic support to keep Pangea afloat by putting nearly 6.000 Euros up to date. We have other plans in order to get funding for our operational costs as well as funding for events, research etc.
S.B. : What did ever do in project in Pangea’s NPO (virtual and real)?
Pangea : We arranged for Jacque Fresco to be in Greece on the TVP world tour, had 3 events so far presenting Pangea and TVP. http://www.thepangea.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57%3Aeventjanuary22-23&catid=1%3Alatest&Itemid=27&lang=en
S.B. : What are doing now in project (virtual and real)?
Pangea : Our next project is the publication in Greek of the book “the best that money can’t buy”. At the same time we will participate in the largest environmental exhibition of Greece on May 26-29 “Ecolife Athens” with our own 50sqm exhibition stand presenting VP and Pangea, talking with scientists and other organizations.
At the same time we are arranging free lectures in our offices.
S.B. : Did you think/prepare for others project in the futur ?
Pangea : Yes, we have other projects for the future, it’s all a matter of human resources, timing, and funding, unfortunately we live in the real world and money is required to actually do things that will help us achieve our goals.
S.B. :Have you got local for NPO (like appartment,...) ? If yes, how many and how do you organize them ?
Pangea : We have our offices in Athens. For practical reasons we go there every Monday and Wednesday afternoon or if any of the team coordinators needs to meet with their team. We hope that by September we will be able to have our offices open all week days.
S.B. : How did you compose your NPO (president, secratary, members, donators,...) ?
Pangea : The board of directors is consisted by 7 people, each responsible for a team in Pangea.
President, Vice president, Secretary, treasurer, and 3 counsellors (communications, education, legal)
S.B. : How do you do with money ? Do you pay membership ? Are they several tarifications ? If yes, what is (are) it (them) ? How did you define that ?
Pangea : Well in Greece you need to pay a capital fee in order to open an NPO. Ours was set to 1000 euro so divided by 10 founding members was 100 euros each. We set a yearly member fee at 100 euros which is about 7euros monthly for each member (two cups of coffee). In Pangea, only tactical members pay the yearly fee. We also have temporarily membership for people that want to come and learn more about TVP before they join as tactical members and they don’t pay the annual fee, they join Pangea temporarily in order to educate them selves. Member fees will be less when more members join.
S.B. : People in Pangea are they volunteers ? Or are they some people who are employ ?
Pangea : Volunteers only.
S.B. : What did you gave us like advice for making a NPO in France ?
Pangea : First advice is to have a solid team of people that actually understand what the VP is really proposing and not what they think it is proposing. Many times people choose to take what they want from VP, what fits their own understanding and that means they don’t fully understand it or haven’t spend much time to understand it. Second advice is to have some people financially supporting you because you will not be able to create something viable by membership fees. Third advice is to use the scientific method in all decisions.
One good way to go is this:
The following parameters are examined each time regarding any action of our organization:
a. Compatibility and accordance to VP aims, goals and values
b. Legality
c. Resources available (financial etc )
d. Human resources
e. efficiency of outcome (best possible outcome - Short term/long Term)
f. Risk assessment
(This is what we do at Pangea).
S.B. : Have you got partners ? How many ?
Pangea : If you mean other organizations, we formally haven’t got any other partners but we are in contact with many organizations that we have common ground. This is a constant process, building bridges among various other organizations locally and around the world is an important factor for achieving our goals.
S.B. : What are the plans for your communication ?
Pangea : Well we are setting up a media server that will be able to host more than a 100 people on video chat. The most important thing is physical communication with the people locally. As for the communication with other organizations there are varius ways to do it on a regular basis.
S.B. : An other question because a lot of people ask me for that, why don’t we create a political party ? (I know what say Jacque but I’d like you give me your point of vue)
Pangea : Well my opinion is that creating a political party at this point would be meaningless because people have lost their trust in political parties and at the same time we have not shown, as organizations, anything to society. Keep in mind that people are starting to wake up to the notion that there can be no real democracy in a monetary system and there never was.
We need to first start giving solutions to people’s problems as organizations before we consider anything like that and of course always in collaboration with VP.
To give you an example, Pangea has been looking up the case of *Jerome_Daly (mentioned in Addendum) to be able to implement it in Greek courts of law, if this happens it will provide people that loose their houses a great service.
I would not exclude anything in the future because we need to efficiently use the system to pursue our goals. If and when our organizations globally become strong enough, a move towards political parties proposing the same thing in many countries could be something to really consider and put on the table when that time comes. Always in motion is the future.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_National_Bank_of_Montgomery_vs_Jerome_Daly
S.B. : You told me about the NPO’s declaration in international level, can you ask more ?
Pangea : If you mean the part about the statute, then it is important to be able to work globally and not only locally, a lawyer will know what to write in your statute to give you the ability to work on a global level.
S.B. : I hope it wasn’t too long for you. A last thing, can I use this text for displaying in the future french NPO website for describe Pangea ?
Pangea : Yes you can use it my friend. I hope your efforts on the creation of an NPO in France working towards the aims and goals of TVP are a big success.
We’ll be in contact and will help you in anyway we can.
All the best from Athens.
Nick Fassolas
President of The Pangea NPO.
Thanks all for your participation.
VP Hugs
Sébastien Bages
+33(0)623665129
For eyes only, don’t copy, modify or diffuse this file without author autorization. This exhange concern only VPActivism & Pangea NPO