Welcome to the Journey
of Becoming an NGL Community

The journey of becoming an NGL community starts with the Baseline VM.

Click through the buttons to learn more about the different areas of the Baseline VM. 

(Coming Soon)

What is the baseline VM?

If you don’t know what a VM is learn about Vision Mobilization here.

The baseline VM is answering the question of “What is an NGL community?”

Through the baseline VM we hope to:

• offer clarity about alignment. 

• support movement towards a vision of a web of NGL communities through giving guidance and support to those who are on the path of becoming an NGL community. 

• In the future we imagine there will be an endorsement process that will rely on the baseline VM for assessment. For now, it is a tool for self-assessment.

The baseline VM is a minimal structure.

The NGL Community baseline VM is the minimum that we are asking communities to implement and commit to if they want to eventually call themselves an NGL community. It articulates the essence of what an NGL community is. We request communities to use the baseline VM to self-assess both alignment with and capacity to apply the NGL framework and the minimal practises and structures. 

The baseline VM gives freedom to experiment within a given container.

The baseline VM is a container in which the different expressions of NGL culture live and evolve. We imagine each NGL community to be unique. The baseline VM doesn’t make every NGL community the same, it is more a set of orientations, commitments, practices, and agreements within which there is a lot of freedom to come up with, express, and get creative. We imagine that communities will be doing further experimenting on their own, continuing to develop systems. We intend to harvest and share what communities create within the global Mycelium web.

The baseline VM accompanies you on your journey to become an NGL community.

That journey is about learning and integrating and growing capacities over time. Not every individual needs to have or grow all the capacities needed for the community, it’s about collective capacity. Use the baseline VM as a collection of indicators of where your community is on the journey. It will give you pointers on to how to grow capacity in the different areas and learn about what is needed for more alignment with the principles of nonviolence and liberation that are at the core of it.  

The baseline VM is a practical guide.

The goal is for communities to integrate the NGL framework into daily life and rhythms through applying the systems, principles and practises and living the orientations shared in the baseline VM. There are assessments and indicators for both - application and integrated orientation.

How to engage with the baseline VM

We imagine that you are going to use the baseline VM as a communal process. 

You may notice repetition of elements of the NGL framework as you are engaging with the baseline VM. If you have VM experience, you might have chosen to put an element in a different place within the VM. We have chosen to locate items based on where we think it would be most digestible for communities using this document. The following process reflects where we currently are. And we plan to ongoingly update the baseline VM, so we recommend checking back here periodically in your process. 

1. Read and self assess where your community is at in relation to each item.

2. Choose which element of the baseline VM to focus on integrating into your community systems and way of life.

3. Learn more about that area. Create systems and experiments to anchor it further in your community. This may take months or years. 

4. Re-self assess in that area ongoingly. 

5. Do this process with another area of the baseline VM when it is within capacity for your community. You may be in different stages of integrating multiple areas at once. 

Pathways of learning and integrating that are currently available

• Engaging in NGL online

• Being part of a Mycelium in-person or remote support pod of an existing NGL community

• Attending Gatherings

• Being part of courses or labs offered from within NGL

• Specific learning opportunities in the areas you are interested in within the baseline VM

In the future we imagine a communal assessment in addition to a self-assessment with feedback flowing between communities and rituals to support transitions.