Brief History of AVIUSA

Written by Constance, AVIUSA's Treasurer in August 2004

There is no single narrative that can tell the story of AVI-USA. Throughout the last 33 years, June Maher, of course, has been the heart and soul of this enterprise – and to her goes our gratitude and admiration. Per-haps one day June will write the history of AVI-USA (and what a story she has to tell!), but for now we will have to be satisfied with a brief sketch.

In one sense, AVI-USA had its roots in several events of the sixties. In the mid-sixties, Dietra (Claire Worden), who was living in Santa Cruz where she pub-lished the “Black Mountain Press,” became friends with Rod and Constance. Rod and Constance, who were reading Sri Aurobindo and knew Haridas Chaudhuri, moved to Auroville in 1968. A year later Dietra brought her family to Pondicherry. In 1971, during a return visit to Santa Cruz, Dietra organized and inspired the group that became the Auroville Association.

After Dietra returned to Pondicherry, it was left to June to cultivate and grow the Association. Initially the Auroville Association was primarily a study group that met in June’s home. Dietra had taken photos of every-one involved and sent them to Mother. In November of 1971, June took the next step and traveled to Pondy to have The Mother’s darshan. By 1972 she sensed that the group may have a greater role to play and asked Mother for guidance. The message that came in reply was: “No recruiting, but money may be obtained.” In order to operate as a channel for donations, it was de-cided to file an application for non-profit status. In early l973 she made her second visit to Pondy and Auroville.

By 1973, the Auroville Association had assembled a board of directors and had drawn up its by-laws. That year it was officially registered as a non-profit organiza-tion. The original board members were June and Al Maher, Ida Cori, Ruth Villalobos, Kurt Paine and Dmitri Von Morenschildt. Dmitri, as will be remembered, was in later years to be instrumental in launching the Rus-sian Pavilion in the International Zone. This cross-nationality (or supra-nationality) has continued to char-acterize the AVI-USA board, which today has two non-U.S. citizens as members. Current board member, Paula Murphy, also served on the board of the Auroville Association during this early period.

When the conflict with the Sri Aurobindo Society erupted in November 1975 with the declaration of Auro-ville’s independence, the Auroville Association was one of the first groups outside of Auroville to demonstrate its solidarity with the community. In 1983 the Association became a member of the newly created Auroville Inter-national, which was registered in Holland. The Association took an active role in lobbying for and ensuring the community of Auroville’s active participation in the formation of the new organization, and in the revision of the by-laws to reflect AVI’s accountability to Auroville. That year, the name “Auroville Association” was changed to “Auroville International – USA”.

For the first fourteen years, the Auroville Associa-tion operated out of a spare room in June’s home – moving occasionally to Constance’s house in the early eighties when June was in Auroville. All expenses were met out-of-pocket. No percentage for overhead was taken out of donations. During those years, June approached the Ford Foundation, USAID and many other foundations and organizations seeking assistance for Auroville. AVI also established relations with the Indian Consulates and pursued links with the UN and UNESCO. As anyone who has done this work knows, the network of interest in Auroville is immense. It is more than a full-time job to maintain the voluminous correspondence, respond to information requests, re-ceive and transfer donations, apply for and administer grants, facilitate and develop projects and programs, explore and cultivate new resources – and respond to the needs and wishes of Aurovilians. June accom-plished all this single-handedly for many years.

In the early eighties, it was decided that the board of directors should become active participants in the organization. Some functions began to be distributed among the members in order to share the burden of work. In 1984 a grant from FWE allowed AVI-USA to hire Navaja as the first paid staff. This experiment made it clear that the scope of the work demanded an organized office. In 1985 Jack Alexander became president. He and Mary offered to establish an office in Sacramento. In order to cover the increased cost of overhead, a 10% deduction began to be taken from donations. Jack and Mary still did a lion’s share of the work – but this was supplemented with paid part-time staff. Fortunately, the salary of the staff-members was partially met by an internship program.

Two important events occurred during Jack’s ten-ure. In 1992, Jack organized a large – and first ever – gathering of Aurovilians at Mt. Madonna near Santa Cruz. Prior to this, there had never been such a meeting in the U.S. exclusively for and about Auroville. It is still talked about and still inspires us today. In l995, AVI-USA hosted the meeting of the international AVI centers in Merriam Hill Center, New Hampshire. This also proved to be a significant event for Auroville work in the U.S.

At the beginning of l996, the office moved briefly to Rabiya’s house in Santa Rosa, then, with Megan Tho-mas as president, to a houseboat in Sausalito. At this time, board member Julian Lines opened the Auroville Information Office on the East Coast as a branch of AVI-USA. In September 1998, Larry Tepper became president and the AVI office moved to its present loca-tion in a donated space in Constance and Iris’s busi-ness in Santa Cruz. A generous donation from Girish Mantry made it possible to hire Aurotaranti as part-time staff. In October 1999, current president Bill Leon was elected. At the end of ’99, Aurotaranti left to attend school and Nilauro, AVI’s Executive Director, took over the job on a full-time basis. Perhaps, the most important events of this “modern” period have been 1) the first phase construction of the U.S. Pavilion in the International Zone of Auroville, inaugurated on 2/28/01 (this is particularly noteworthy because it is the only project in Auroville that has been especially sponsored and administered by AVI-USA); and 2) the second hosting, in July 2002, of the meeting of the international AVI centers – this time near Santa Cruz, California.

The Executive Director’s position was initially en-abled by donations from the AVI board members. This financial support has not been available since March 2003. However, AVI-USA – with indispensable help from its friends - has been able to meet this expense through September of this year.

When Aurotaranti came to work with AVI-USA at then end of 1998, it was during the Great Economic Bubble. Donations to Auroville began to rise. Since the salary of the staff was being met by a separate dona-tion (and the flow-through of funds was increasing) AVI-USA lowered the percentage of its administrative de-duction from 10% to 8.33% (symbolically 1/12th). At this level, the cost of operations has been covered – with the notable exception of salary and related ex-penses for staff. Although it is not possible to measure or characterize AVI’s work in monetary terms, it is inter-esting to note that in the past six years (’98-’04), AVI-USA has received $2,176,181 in donations for Auro-ville. In the six years prior to that (’92-’98), AVI took in $911,896. (June recalls a time, in ’73-’74, when the Auroville Association’s bank balance was seven dollars.)

Looking back over the 33 years of Auroville Interna-tional–USA, one can truthfully say that its history is writ-ten in the lives of those who have been fortunate enough to participate in its activities, sharing this gift, this opportunity for service. It is written in the lives of all those individuals throughout the U.S. who – through this means – reached out to Auroville, to touch it, to offer some new resource for its growth, to be in touch with a wider community. And it is written in the lives of all Aurovilians who have been nurtured, strengthened, supported and acknowledged by this beautiful power and emissary of Auroville.