Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities
272
Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities
272Paperback
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Overview
An intentional community is a group of people who have chosen to live or work together in pursuit of a common ideal or vision. An ecovillage is a village-scale intentional community that intends to create, ecological, social, economic, and spiritual sustainability over several generations.
The 90s saw a revitalized surge of interest in intentional communities and ecovillages in North America: the number of intentional communities listed in the Communities Directory increased 60 percent between 1990 and 1995. But only 10 percent of the actual number of forming-community groups actually succeeded. Ninety percent failed, often in conflict and heartbreak. After visiting and interviewing founders of dozens of successful and failed communities, along with her own forming-community experiences, the author concluded that "the successful 10 percent" had all done the same five or six things right, and "the unsuccessful 90 percent" had made the same handful of mistakes. Recognizing that a wealth of wisdom were contained in these experiences, she set out to distill and capture them in one place.
Creating a Life Together is the only resource available that provides step-by-step, practical "how-to" information on how to launch and sustain a successful ecovillage or intentional community. Through anecdotes, stories, and cautionary tales about real communities, and by profiling seven successful communities in depth, the book examines "the successful 10 percent" and why 90 percent fail; the role of community founders; getting a group off to a good start; vision and vision documents; decision-making and governance; agreements; legal options; finding, financing, and developing land; structuring a community economy; selecting new members; and communication, process, and dealing well with conflict. Sample vision documents, community agreements, and visioning exercises are included, along with abundant resources for learning more.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780865714717 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | New Society Publishers |
| Publication date: | 06/01/2003 |
| Pages: | 272 |
| Sales rank: | 516,450 |
| Product dimensions: | 7.25(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments Foreword – By Patch AdamsINTRODUCTION: CREATING A LIFE TOGETHER The Successful Ten Percent What Are Intentional Communities and Ecovillages? Cohousing Communities Why Now? What You'll Learn Here Is this Information Really Necessary? Is this Advice "Corporate"? How to Use this Book
PART ONE: PLANTING THE SEEDS OF HEALTHY COMMUNITY
CHAPTER 1: THE SUCCESSFUL TEN PERCENT – AND WHY NINETY PERCENT FAIL Lost Valley – How One Group Did It What Works,What Doesn't Work? The Successful Ten Percent Why Ninety Percent Fail "Structural Conflict" – And Six Ways to Reduce It What Will it Cost? How Long Does it Take? How Many People do You Need?
CHAPTER 2: YOUR ROLE AS FOUNDER What Kind of Person Founds a Community? What Else You'll Need "If Only I Had Known!"
CHAPTER 3: GETTING OFF TO A GOOD START Don't Run Out and Buy Land – Yet When You Already Own the Property Organizing Your Group Getting Real about Finances Collecting Funds Raising Money from Suppporters Attracting and Integrating New Members Creating "Community Glue" Pioneers, Settlers, and the Flow of Members
CHAPTER 4: COMMUNITY VISION – WHAT IT IS,WHY YOU NEED IT Sound a Clear Note Elements of a Community's Vision Your Vision Documents and Vision Statements Do it First
CHAPTER 5: CREATING VISION DOCUMENTS More Than One Vision? A Sacred Time "That's Not Community!" – Hidden Expectations and Structural Conflict Exploring the Territory Sharing from the Heart Writing it Down
CHAPTER 6: POWER, DECISION-MAKING, AND GOVERNANCE Power – The Ability to Influence Focused Power,Widespread Power How Consensus Works What You Need to Make Consensus Work "Pseudoconsensus" and Structural Conflict Agreement Seeking – When You Don't Want to use Full Consensus Multi-winner Voting Community Governance – Spreading Power Widely More than One Form of Decision Making? What Decision-making Method Should You Use?
PART TWO: SPROUTING NEW COMMUNITY: TECHNIQUES & TOOLS
CHAPTER 7: AGREEMENTS & POLICIES: "GOOD DOCUMENTS MAKE GOOD FRIENDS" Remembering Things Differently Giving Yourselves Every Chance of Success Your Community's Agreements and Policies Abundant Dawn's Agreements
CHAPTER 8:MAKING IT REAL: ESTABLISHING YOUR LEGAL ENTITY Why You Need a Legal Entity – Before Buying Your Property Using a Lawyer Finding the Right Lawyer
CHAPTER 9: THE GREAT LAND-BUYING ADVENTURE Legal Barriers to Sustainable Development Shopping for Counties – Zoning Regulations, Building Codes, Sustainable Homesteads, and Jobs The Proactive Land Search Friendly Loans from Friends and Family Onerous Owner-financing (Better than None at All) Do-it-Yourself Refinancing with a "Shoe Box Bank" When One Person Buys the Property Acquiring Fully Developed "Turn Key" Property – Confidence, Persistence, and Negotiation If at First You Don't Succeed
CHAPTER 10: FINDING THE RIGHT PROPERTY Choosing Your Site Criteria How Much Land Do You Want? Raw Land – Lower Initial Cost, Years of Effort Developed Land – Electricity, Toilets, and Showers Fully Developed Turn-key Property – Move Right In (With a Big Financial Bite) Buying Property Like the Professionals Do Conducting the Search – On Your Own or with a Real Estate Agent Investigating Likely Properties Taking Property Off the Market While You do Further Research
CHAPTER 11: NEIGHBORS AND ZONING How Zoning Issues can Impact Community Plans Zoning Issues and Your Property Gambling with Former Use Permits Seeking a Zoning Exception Negotiating for What You Want Zoning Exceptions, Neighbors, and Public Hearings
CHAPTER 12: FINANCING YOUR PROPERTY (LOANS YOU CAN LIVE WITH) About "Renting Money" – What You Should Know Private Financing When One Member Buys the Property Protecting Your Sole Owner with a Triple Net Lease Owner Financing Bank Financing Drawing on the Cohousing Model What about Grants and Donations? Refinancing Your Property
CHAPTER 13: DEVELOPING SUSTAINABLE HUMAN SETTLEMENTS Earthaven's Development Process Listening to your Land Creating your Site Plan Yourselves Avoiding "Urban Refugee" Syndrome Creating Privacy in the Midst of Community Designing for Conviviality
CHAPTER 14: INTERNAL COMMUNITY FINANCES (CAN WE AFFORD TO LIVE THERE?) Rural Communities —How Will your Members Make a Living? The Risks of Community Businesses Keeping Member Assessments Affordable Joining Fees Housing Arrangements Site Lease Fees and the Debt Load Labor Requirements Building Equity Can People Afford to Join You?
CHAPTER 15: LEGAL ENTITIES FOR OWNING PROPERTY Checklist for Choosing a Legal Entity How You'll Hold Title and Arrange Members' Use Rights Organizational Flexibility How You'll be Taxed Overview: Corporations and Non-profit Corporations Limited Liability Corporations (LLCs) Homeowners Associations – Tax Advantages (and Disadvantages) Condominium Associations Housing Co-ops – Separate Ownership and Use Rights Non-exempt Non-profit Corporations
CHAPTER 16: IF YOU'RE USING A TAX-EXEMPT NON-PROFIT Advantages of a 501(c)3 – Donations, Tax Breaks, Limited Liability Disadvantages of a 501(c)3 – Onerous Requirements, Irrecoverable Assets Land-owning Entities and 501(c)3 Corporations – The Best of Both Worlds How One Group Retained Control of its Board Title-holding Corporations – Collecting Income from "Passive" Sources Private Land Trusts – Protecting the Land Community Land Trusts – An Irrevocable Decision For "Common Treasury" Communities – 501(d) Non-profit Corporations
PART THREE: THRIVING IN COMMUNITY — ENRICHING THE SOIL
CHAPTER 17: COMMUNICATION, PROCESS, AND DEALING WITH CONFLICT: THE HEART OF HEALTHY COMMUNITY The "Rock Polisher" Effect Nourishing Sustainable Relationships The Roots of Conflict: Emotionally-charged Needs High Woundedness,High Willingness Seven Kinds of Community Conflict We Wish We'd Left Behind Twenty-four Common Sources of Community Conflict The Fine Art of Offering Feedback Receiving Feedback – Listening for Kernels of Truth Threshing Meetings Creating Specific Conflict Resolution Agreements Helping Each Other Stay Accountable to the Group A Graduated Series of Consequences
CHAPTER 18: SELECTING PEOPLE TO JOIN YOU Select for Emotional Maturity —the "Narrow Door" But is it Community? Passive Victims, Outraged Victims Membership Screening and the Law Dealing Well with Saying "No" How Can You Tell? Questions, References, "Long Engagements"
APPENDIX 1: SAMPLE COMMUNITY VISION DOCUMENTS APPENDIX 2: SAMPLE COMMUNITY AGREEMENTS APPENDIX 3: SETTING UP AND MAINTAINING A 501(C)3 NON-PROFIT
RESOURCES INDEX
What People are Saying About This
"Before aspiring community builders hold their first meeting, confront their first realtor, or drive their first nail, they must buy this essential book: it will improve their chances for success immensely, and will certainly save them money, time, and heartbreak. In her friendly but firm (and occasionally funny) way, Diana Christian proffers an astonishing wealth of practical information and sensible, field-tested advice."
—ERNEST CALLENBACH, AUTHOR, ECOTOPIA AND ECOTOPIA EMERGING
"Wow! The newest, most comprehensive bible for builders of intentional communities. Covers every aspect with vital information and dozens of examples of how successful communities faced the challenges and created their shared lives out of their visions. The cautionary tales of sadder experiences and how communities fail, will help in avoiding the pitfalls. Not since I wrote the Foreword to Ingrid Komar's Living the Dream (1983), which documented the Twin Oaks community, have I seen a more useful and inspiring book on this topic."
—HAZEL HENDERSON, AUTHOR CREATING ALTERNATIVE FUTURES AND POLITICS OF THE SOLAR AGE .
"A really valuable resource for anyone thinking about intentional community. I wish I had it years ago."
—STARHAWK, AUTHOR OF WEBS OF POWER , THE SPIRAL DANCE , AND THE FIFTH SACRED THING , AND LONG-TIME COMMUNITY MEMBER.
"Every potential ecovillager should read it. This book will be an essential guide and manual for the many Permaculture graduates who live in communities or design for them."
—BILL MOLLISON, COFOUNDER OF THE PERMACULTURE MOVEMENT, AND AUTHOR, PERMACULTURE: A DESIGNER'S MANUAL
"Creating a new culture of living peacefully with each other and the planet is our number one need—and this is the right book at the right time. Creating a Life Together will help community founders avoid fatal mistakes. I can't wait to tell people about it."
—HILDUR JACKSON, COFOUNDER, GLOBAL ECOVILLAGE NETWORK (GEN); CO-EDITOR, ECOVILLAGE LIVING: RESTORING THE EARTH AND HER PEOPLE
" Creating a Life Together is a comprehensive, engaging, practical, well-organized, and thoroughly digestible labor of love. Hopefully scores of wannabe community founders and seekers will discover it before they launch their quest for community, and avoid the senseless and sometimes painful lessons that come from trying to reinvent the wheel. This book is a gift to humanity—helping to move forward the elusive quest for community, fueling a quantum leap towards a fulfilling, just, and sustainable future."
—GEOPH KOZENY, PRODUCER/EDITOR OF VIDEO DOCUMENTARY,"VISIONS OF UTOPIA: EXPERIMENTS IN SUSTAINABLE CULTURE"
"While anyone can build a village, a subdivision, or a housing development, the challenge is filling it with people who can get along, who can reach agreements, and who can achieve far more together than they ever could alone. If your aspiring ecovillage or intentional community gets even this far — and this awesome book will show you how — then maybe you have a realistic chance of living sustainably and, by example, of changing the world.My appreciation grows daily for this thorough, practical, and engaging guide."
—ALBERT BATES, DIRECTOR, ECOVILLAGE TRAINING CENTER, AND INTERNATIONAL SECRETARY, ECOVILLAGE NETWORK OF THE AMERICAS.
"Developing a successful community requires a special blend of vision and practicality woven together with wisdom. Consider this book a marvelous mirror. If the abundant, experience-based, practicality in this book delights you then you probably have the wisdom to realize your vision."
—ROBERT GILMAN, FOUNDING EDITOR OF IN CONTEXT, A QUARTERLY OF HUMANE SUSTAINABLE CULTURE, AND AUTHOR OF ECOVILLAGES AND SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES
"So many well intended communities fail because they don't even know the questions to ask, let alone where to find answers. This book offers a wealth of detailed information that will help guide communities to finding what is right for their specific situation, and greatly increase their odds of their success."
—KATHRYN MCCAMANT, COHOUSING RESIDENT, ARCHITECT, AND PROJECT MANAGER, AND AUTHOR OF COHOUSING
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