• Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities by Diana Leafe Christian is an informative and inspiring guide on how to build sustainable, intentional communities.
• Whether you’re looking to join a community or start your own, this book provides all the essential information you need to get started: overview of different community models, practical advice on setting up a non-profit organization, ways to finance and develop an intentional community, and best-practices to effective communication in times of conflict.
• As a UX designer, you could benefit from this book as it emphasizes the importance of having clear-cut structures and roles in any project; understanding the psychological aspects of group dynamics such as trust building and learning to resolve conflicts; and creating effective communication channels and policies among members.
• If you’d like to deepen your knowledge on building intentional communities, you might also be interested in reading The Reinvestment of the Commons: Decentralizing the Economy by Marjorie Kelly and Commissioning Identity: Making of Intentional Communities by Ayo Awokoya and Hinrich Schule.
✏️ Highlights
Creating a Life Together will help community founders avoid fatal mistakes.
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.
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
I knew I would start a community when I graduated in 1971, and wrote up an eight-page paper with our first mission statement.
Very few communities would survive long without the depth of structure you’ll find here.
Creating a Life Together shows what to pay attention to in forming new communities and ecovillages, and offers exercises to develop community intelligence. Do these exercises even if you don’t agree with them; consider them training wheels.
There is hardly anything more appealing, yet apparently more elusive, for humankind at the end of the 20th century than the prospect of living in harmony with nature and with each other.  — Robert and Diane Gilman, Ecovillages and Sustainable Communities
Do not be afraid to build castles in the sky. That is where they belong. But once the dreams are in place, Your job is to build the foundation under them.  — Henry David Thoreau
“What’s the purpose of your community?” I had finally asked. “What’s your vision for it?” No one could really answer.
That Saturday we all drove out to the land to check it out. And promptly fell apart. Confronted by the reality of buying land, no one wanted to commit. Frankly, there was nothing to commit to. No common purpose or vision, no organizational structure, no budget, no agreements. In fact we hadn’t made decisions in the group
That Saturday we all drove out to the land to check it out. And promptly fell apart.
Confronted by the reality of buying land, no one wanted to commit. Frankly, there was nothing to commit to. No common purpose or vision, no organizational structure, no budget, no agreements. In fact we hadn’t made decisions in the group at all, but had simply talked about how wonderful life in community would be.
Most aspiring ecovillages and community groups — probably 90 percent — never get off the ground; their envisioned communities never get built. They can’t find the right land, don’t have enough money, or get mired in conflict. Often they simply don’t understand how much time, money, and organizational skill they’ll need to pull off a project of this scope.
Creating a Life Together is an overview of that process, gleaned from some of the most innovative and successful community founders in North America. This is what they did, and what you can do, to create your community dream.
Community is not just about living together, but about the reasons for doing so.
What most communities have in common is idealism: they’re founded on a vision of living a better way, whether community members literally live together in shared group houses, or live near each other as neighbors. A community’s ideals usually arise from something its members see as lacking or missing in the wider culture.
Ecovillages are intentional communities that aspire to create a more humane and sustainable way of life.
One widely quoted definition (by Robert and Diane Gilman) defines ecovillages as “human-scale, full-featured settlements in which human activities are harmlessly integrated into the natural world in a way that is supportive of healthy human development, and which can be successfully continued into the indefinite future.”
It hopes to provide housing, work opportunities, and social and spiritual opportunities on-site, creating as self-sufficient a community as possible.
an ecovillage builds ecologically sustainable housing, grows much of its own organic food, recycles its waste products harmlessly, and, as much as possible, generates its own off-grid power.
More and more people are yearning for more “community” in their lives; you may be one of them. These are people who feel increasingly isolated and alienated, and want something more satisfying.
Cohousing communities are small neighborhoods of usually 10 to 40 households which are managed by the residents themselves, and which have usually been developed and designed by them as well (although increasingly cohousers partner with outside developers).
Cohousers own their own relatively small housing units and share ownership of the whole property and their large community building (with kitchen, dining room/meeting space, and usually a children’s play area, laundry facilities, and guest rooms).
conduct their community business through consensus-based meetings, and enjoy optional shared meals together three or four nights a week.
“Cohousers believe that it’s more readily possible to live lighter on the planet if they cooperate with their neighbors, and their lives are easier, more economical, more interesting, and more fun,”
Why Now? I believe we’re experiencing a culture-wide, yet deeply personal, phenomenon — as if some kind of “switch” has simultaneously flipped in the psyches of thousands of people
we’re living in an increasingly fragmented, shallow, venal, costly, and downright dangerous society, and reeling from the presence of guns in the school yard and rogues in high office, we’re longing for a way of life that’s warmer, kinder, more wholesome, more affordable, more cooperative, and more connected.
we’re so unnaturally disconnected. Post-World War II trends toward nuclear families, single-family dwellings, urban and suburban sprawl, and job-related mobility have disconnected us from the web of human connections that nourished people in our grand-parents’ day, as well as numbing us with simulations of human interaction on TV sitcoms rather than living in a culture small-scale and stable enough that we’d have such interactions ourselves.
The people interested in intentional communities aren’t extremists. They’re the people next door.
They want to settle down, sink roots, and live in the good company of friends.
hyper-aware of our precarious environmental situation, and disgusted with the consumerist mall ethic, they say “No thanks.”
We’re also recognizing that living in community is literally good for us. Scientific research shows that our health improves when we live in a web of connection with others.
Being connected to other people probably makes you physically healthier than if you lived alone.”
It’s also healthier for the planet. At a time when — every day — we’re losing 200,000 acres of rainforest “lungs,” we’re spewing a million tons of toxic waste into the atmosphere, and 45,000 people die of starvation every day, living simply, cooperating, and sharing resources with others may be the only way of life that makes any sense.
“Small, independent, self-sufficient communities have the greatest ability to survive the normal cycles of boom-and-bust which our economy and culture go through
What better place than intentional communities to downsize possessions, share ownership of land and tools, grow healthy food, share meals, make decisions collaboratively, and together create the kind of culture that nourishes our children as they grow up, and ourselves as we grow older?
It’s becoming increasingly obvious to many of us that intentional community living is one key to surviving, even thriving, in these disintegrating times.
It’s becoming increasingly obvious to many of us that intentional community living is one key to surviving, even thriving, in these disintegrating times. But, like members of the EarthDance Farm, few of us know where to start.
getting started as a group, creating vision documents, decision-making and governance, agreements and policies, buying and financing land, communication and process, and selecting people to join you.
you can only benefit from knowing what others have done in similar circumstances.
doesn’t examine issues specific to ashrams, meditation centers, or other spiritual or therapeutic communities in which decisions are made by one leader or a small group. Why you need a legal entity
today’s community founders must be considerably more organized, purposeful, and better capitalized than their counterparts of earlier years.
you’ll see many figures and percentages — “business and finance” information — and you’ll no find advice on the spiritual principles involved in forming a community.
Is this book just some representation of “the system” you may be trying to leave behind? Why is there no mention of the spiritual aspects?
As an old adage from India says,“It takes a thorn to remove a thorn.”
I also suggest that everyone in your group read this book, not just those who are getting started and assuming leadership roles.
The more of you who are informed — and hopefully disabused of common misconceptions about starting new ecovillages and communities — the more empowered and effective you’ll be as a group.
1988, six would-be community founders piled into a small pickup truck and headed for Oregon. Their vision at the time was to create a Community Land Trust with houses in the Bay Area and rural land within commuting distance. They’d just learned of an 87-acre property with a stream and 25 buildings in rural Oregon that had fallen to the IRS in the 1970s for $1.7 million in unpaid taxes.
Pushing through the wet walls of grass, the visitors examined the first few buildings. Most, empty and neglected for almost seven years, had broken windows, rotting roofs, and sagging steps. The group creaked open doors to find cold, dirty,
Pushing through the wet walls of grass, the visitors examined the first few buildings. Most, empty and neglected for almost seven years, had broken windows, rotting roofs, and sagging steps. The group creaked open doors to find cold, dirty, foul-smelling rooms full of debris and mold.
the previous year. Not only this, they said, but the property would probably now cost at least half a million dollars; its zoning had reverted from multiple occupancy to the county-wide regulation of “no more than five unrelated adults,” and the place was probably still saddled with enormous IRS debt. Cold, soaked, and miserable, the group left. Obviously, the place was a bust.
But not for two members on that fateful day. Dianne Brause, a former conference center teacher, saw beautiful land with gentle meadows and some great trees left standing, excellent gardening potential, and all the right buildings — an ideal community and retreat/conference center.
Kenneth Mahaffey, a businessman who bought, renovated, and rented out old houses, saw an excellent piece of real estate, an exciting land-purchase challenge, and the ideal site for a community.
Both were movers and shakers who made things happen.
Kenneth had expertise in real estate and finance.
Today it is Lost Valley Educational Center, a thriving community of 22 adults and seven children, with clean, renovated buildings, restored vegetable gardens, a reforestation project with sapling Douglas firs and hardwoods, and a vibrant conference center business. Lost Valley — How One Group Did It Kenneth and Dianne’s first challenge was finding out who controlled the property and to whom they should submit a bid.
Kenneth and Diane incorporated Lost Valley Center, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization.
The previous owners had been allowed “multiple occupancy,” but the county planning department decided that the property’s grandfather clause was invalid because of the length of time between the previous use and current use of the property. So the property reverted to the county’s normal zoning rules, meaning no more than five unrelated adults could live on the land, despite the fact it was 87 acres with 25 buildings. While they eventually did manage to get the multiple-occupancy zoning reinstated, buying the property without knowing this was quite a gamble.
By August, they’d set up the woodshop and the Lost Valley Center’s business offices, and repaired the dorm buildings, one of the fourplex residences, the dining hall, and five classrooms.
They remodeled a small building as a staff kitchen and youth hostel and began hosting overnight guests. Lost Valley was on its way.
I wanted to know what worked, what didn’t work, and how not to reinvent the wheel. I learned that no matter how
I wanted to know what worked, what didn’t work, and how not to reinvent the wheel.
I learned that no matter how inspired and visionary the founders, only about one out of ten new communities actually get built.
mostly because of conflict. And usually, conflict accompanied by heartbreak.
And sometimes, conflict, heartbreak — and lawsuits.
Lost Valley’s story illustrates the major steps of forming a new community or ecovillage — establishing a core group with a particular vision and purpose, choosing a legal structure, finding and financing property, and moving in and renovating (or developing land). It also involves creating an internal community economy and refinancing any initial loans if necessary. (Since ecovillages are a form of intentional community, I’ll use the term “community” to mean ecovillages as well as other forms of community).
Most of the seven founders of Sowing Circle/Occidental Arts and Ecology Center in northern California were an already established group of friends and housemates who in 1995 formed a partnership (later replaced by a Limited Liability Company) to purchase property, and a 501(c)3 non-profit to manage their planned conference center business.
after spending $20,000 on tests, permits and fees, they didn’t get it. So, they bought a house in town and started up their software testing and typing/editing businesses there. In 2002, after the businesses had started to take off, they began looking for rural land again.
But what about the other 90 percent of forming communities — the ones that fail?
In the early 1990s, a founder I’ll call Sharon bought land for a spiritual community I’ll call Gracelight. At first it looked promising. Sharon had received unprecedented and unusually rapid zoning approval for a clustered-housing site plan.
She met regularly with a group of friends and supporters who wanted to be part of the community. But over the next 18 months, first the original group and then a second group fell apart, disappointed and bitter. Sharon struggled with money issues, land-development issues, interpersonal issues. After two years she said she was no longer attempting community, and in fact loathed the idea of community and didn’t even want to hear the “C”-word.
What had this founder not known? • How much money it would take to complete the land development process before she could legally transfer title to each incoming community member.
• That she’d need adequate legal documents and financial data to secure private financing. Sharon believed that telling potential financial contributors her spiritual vision for Gracelight was sufficient. It didn’t occur to her to provide a business plan, budget, or financial disclosure sheet, or to demonstrate to potential investors how and when they might get their money back.
How much each lot would eventually cost, and that she shouldn’t have fostered hope in those who could never afford to buy in. Sharon knew that some people in the group wouldn’t be able to buy in, but counted on her sense that “it will all work out somehow.”
That she needed to tell people that she fully intended to be reimbursed for her land-purchase and development costs and make a profit to compensate her time and entrepreneurial risk.
risk,” even though she was taking one. When group members in the first and second forming community groups finally brought up financial issues and asked pointed questions, she was offended. And group members were offended too, when they learned Sharon was going to make a profit.
When group members in the first and second forming community groups finally brought up financial issues and asked pointed questions, she was offended. And group members were offended too, when they learned Sharon was going to make a profit.
Most new-community failures seemed to result from what I call “structural” conflict — problems that arise when founders don’t explicitly put certain processes in place or make certain important decisions at the outset,
Identify your community vision and create vision documents
2. Choose a fair, participatory decision-making process appropriate for your group. And if you choose consensus, get trained in it.
Make clear agreements — in writing. (This includes choosing an appropriate legal entity for owning land together).
3. Make clear agreements — in writing. (This includes choosing an appropriate
3. Make clear agreements — in writing. (This includes choosing an appropriate legal entity for owning land together).
if later you all remember things differently you can always look it up. The alternative — “we’re right but you folks are wrong (and maybe you’re even trying to cheat us)” — can break up a community faster than you can say, “You’ll be hearing from our lawyer.”
4. Learn good communication and group process skills. Make clear communication and resolving conflicts a priority. Being able to talk with one other about sensitive subjects and still feel connected is my definition of good communication skills.
I consider it a set-up for structural conflict down the road if you don’t address communication and group process skills and conflict resolution methods early on. Addressing these issues at the start will allow you to have procedures in place later on when things get tense — like practicing fire drill procedures now, when there’s no fire.
5. In choosing cofounders and new members, select for emotional maturity. An often-overwhelming source of conflict is allowing someone to enter your forming community group, or later, to enter your community, who is not aligned to your vision and values.
A well-designed process for selecting and integrating new people into your group, and screening out those who don’t resonate with your values, vision, or behavioral norms, can save repeated rounds of stress and conflict in the weeks and years ahead. (See Chapter 18.)
Learn the head skills and heart skills you need to know. Forming a new community is like simultaneously trying to start a new business and begin a marriage — and is every bit as serious as doing either.
Like Sharon, these well-meaning folks didn’t know what they didn’t know. So the sixth major way to reduce structural conflict is to take the time to learn what you’ll need to know.
Community founders must cultivate both heart skills and head skills..
It means learning how to structure healthy and affordable internal community finances. It means learning about site planning and land development. It means doing all this with a sense of connection and shared adventure. Plunging into the land-search process or trying to raise money without first understanding these interrelated areas is a sure invitation to trouble.
Community founders tend to be specialists, but in fact they must be generalists. I’ve seen founders with spiritual ideals and compelling visions flounder and sink because they have no idea how to conduct a land search or negotiate a bank loan.
I’ve seen founders with plenty of technical or business savvy — folks able to build a nifty composting toilet or craft a solid strategic plan — who didn’t know the first thing about how to speak honestly and from the heart to another human being.
And I’ve seen sensitive spiritual folks as well as type-A “get-the-job-done” folks crash and burn the first time they encountered any real conflict.
You can always hire training for your group or expertise in whatever you need, whether it be a consensus trainer, communication skills trainer, meeting facilitator, lawyer, accountant, project manager/ developer, land-use planner, permaculture designer, and so on.
In the 1960s, ’70s, or early ’80s, people usually just bought land and got started. Some of these communities are still with us today, and proud of it. Nonetheless, for communities forming today, I recommend addressing all six of these issues early on, for all the reasons already noted.
Will you be rural, semi-rural, suburban, or urban? What are land values in your desired area? Will you renovate or develop your property? How many members will you have? Will you have community businesses? How will you structure your internal community finances to meet monthly land payments and other expenses?
For example, in 1996 seven founders of Abundant Dawn community bought a beautiful 90-acre owner-financed parcel on a river with a farmhouse, cabin, and barn in rural southwestern Virginia for $130,000. They paid $13,000 down, contributing slightly more than $1,800 each.
Even if you meet weekly, you’ll still need people to work on various committees that work and/or meet between scheduled meetings — gathering information, calling officials, crunching the numbers, drafting proposals, and so on — for at least a year, or even two years or longer.
The founders of Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri first explored their ideas and organized their initial group in 1993, began their land search in 1995, and bought land in 1996. They worked steadily to develop it and raise their population for the next six years, and they continue to do so.
group in 1990, searched for land for four years, reorganized their group and bought land in 1994, and refinanced and began developing in 1995. They have spent the past seven years developing it and increasing their membership, and they also continue to do
Generally, the larger your group and/or the smaller your assets, the longer it’ll take. And the fewer your numbers and the greater your assets, the faster it will happen.
other potential cofounders who may use more logical or systematic “left-brained” thinking.
SPIRITUAL COMMUNITIES: TROUBLE IN PARADISE Newly forming spiritual communities seem to experience more structural conflict than most groups;
spiritual community founders sometimes tend towards a soft-focus, whole-picture orientation — what’s popularly called “right-brained” thinking.
clear, explicit communication about finances and decision-making, and didn’t realize such clarity was necessary.
These founders often dismiss the primarily “left-brained” potential cofounders who could help them, considering them merely “bean counters,” when the latter simply want to understand the financial, legal, and decision-making arrangements before they leap in wholeheartedly.
It doesn’t just take information and skills, money, time, and people to form a community, but also a sense of connection, sometimes called “community glue” — born of group experiences like preparing and eating meals together, work parties, weekend trips, and long, intimate conversations.
We figured out a work system, each serving on clusters — Administration, Process and Communication, Grounds, and Common Facilities. We figured out a meal system, with dinners five nights a week. We figured out how to work with consensus. We learned to keep good track of our finances, and we continued to work towards emotional literacy.
Creating a Life Together will help community founders avoid fatal mistakes.
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.
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
I knew I would start a community when I graduated in 1971, and wrote up an eight-page paper with our first mission statement.
Very few communities would survive long without the depth of structure you’ll find here.
Creating a Life Together shows what to pay attention to in forming new communities and ecovillages, and offers exercises to develop community intelligence. Do these exercises even if you don’t agree with them; consider them training wheels.
There is hardly anything more appealing, yet apparently more elusive, for humankind at the end of the 20th century than the prospect of living in harmony with nature and with each other.  — Robert and Diane Gilman, Ecovillages and Sustainable Communities
Do not be afraid to build castles in the sky. That is where they belong. But once the dreams are in place, Your job is to build the foundation under them.  — Henry David Thoreau
“What’s the purpose of your community?” I had finally asked. “What’s your vision for it?” No one could really answer.
That Saturday we all drove out to the land to check it out. And promptly fell apart. Confronted by the reality of buying land, no one wanted to commit. Frankly, there was nothing to commit to. No common purpose or vision, no organizational structure, no budget, no agreements. In fact we hadn’t made decisions in the group
That Saturday we all drove out to the land to check it out. And promptly fell apart.
Confronted by the reality of buying land, no one wanted to commit. Frankly, there was nothing to commit to. No common purpose or vision, no organizational structure, no budget, no agreements. In fact we hadn’t made decisions in the group at all, but had simply talked about how wonderful life in community would be.
Most aspiring ecovillages and community groups — probably 90 percent — never get off the ground; their envisioned communities never get built. They can’t find the right land, don’t have enough money, or get mired in conflict. Often they simply don’t understand how much time, money, and organizational skill they’ll need to pull off a project of this scope.
Creating a Life Together is an overview of that process, gleaned from some of the most innovative and successful community founders in North America. This is what they did, and what you can do, to create your community dream.
Community is not just about living together, but about the reasons for doing so.
What most communities have in common is idealism: they’re founded on a vision of living a better way, whether community members literally live together in shared group houses, or live near each other as neighbors. A community’s ideals usually arise from something its members see as lacking or missing in the wider culture.
Ecovillages are intentional communities that aspire to create a more humane and sustainable way of life.
One widely quoted definition (by Robert and Diane Gilman) defines ecovillages as “human-scale, full-featured settlements in which human activities are harmlessly integrated into the natural world in a way that is supportive of healthy human development, and which can be successfully continued into the indefinite future.”
It hopes to provide housing, work opportunities, and social and spiritual opportunities on-site, creating as self-sufficient a community as possible.
an ecovillage builds ecologically sustainable housing, grows much of its own organic food, recycles its waste products harmlessly, and, as much as possible, generates its own off-grid power.
More and more people are yearning for more “community” in their lives; you may be one of them. These are people who feel increasingly isolated and alienated, and want something more satisfying.
Cohousing communities are small neighborhoods of usually 10 to 40 households which are managed by the residents themselves, and which have usually been developed and designed by them as well (although increasingly cohousers partner with outside developers).
Cohousers own their own relatively small housing units and share ownership of the whole property and their large community building (with kitchen, dining room/meeting space, and usually a children’s play area, laundry facilities, and guest rooms).
conduct their community business through consensus-based meetings, and enjoy optional shared meals together three or four nights a week.
“Cohousers believe that it’s more readily possible to live lighter on the planet if they cooperate with their neighbors, and their lives are easier, more economical, more interesting, and more fun,”
Why Now? I believe we’re experiencing a culture-wide, yet deeply personal, phenomenon — as if some kind of “switch” has simultaneously flipped in the psyches of thousands of people
we’re living in an increasingly fragmented, shallow, venal, costly, and downright dangerous society, and reeling from the presence of guns in the school yard and rogues in high office, we’re longing for a way of life that’s warmer, kinder, more wholesome, more affordable, more cooperative, and more connected.
we’re so unnaturally disconnected. Post-World War II trends toward nuclear families, single-family dwellings, urban and suburban sprawl, and job-related mobility have disconnected us from the web of human connections that nourished people in our grand-parents’ day, as well as numbing us with simulations of human interaction on TV sitcoms rather than living in a culture small-scale and stable enough that we’d have such interactions ourselves.
The people interested in intentional communities aren’t extremists. They’re the people next door.
They want to settle down, sink roots, and live in the good company of friends.
hyper-aware of our precarious environmental situation, and disgusted with the consumerist mall ethic, they say “No thanks.”
We’re also recognizing that living in community is literally good for us. Scientific research shows that our health improves when we live in a web of connection with others.
Being connected to other people probably makes you physically healthier than if you lived alone.”
It’s also healthier for the planet. At a time when — every day — we’re losing 200,000 acres of rainforest “lungs,” we’re spewing a million tons of toxic waste into the atmosphere, and 45,000 people die of starvation every day, living simply, cooperating, and sharing resources with others may be the only way of life that makes any sense.
“Small, independent, self-sufficient communities have the greatest ability to survive the normal cycles of boom-and-bust which our economy and culture go through
What better place than intentional communities to downsize possessions, share ownership of land and tools, grow healthy food, share meals, make decisions collaboratively, and together create the kind of culture that nourishes our children as they grow up, and ourselves as we grow older?
It’s becoming increasingly obvious to many of us that intentional community living is one key to surviving, even thriving, in these disintegrating times.
It’s becoming increasingly obvious to many of us that intentional community living is one key to surviving, even thriving, in these disintegrating times. But, like members of the EarthDance Farm, few of us know where to start.
getting started as a group, creating vision documents, decision-making and governance, agreements and policies, buying and financing land, communication and process, and selecting people to join you.
you can only benefit from knowing what others have done in similar circumstances.
doesn’t examine issues specific to ashrams, meditation centers, or other spiritual or therapeutic communities in which decisions are made by one leader or a small group. Why you need a legal entity
today’s community founders must be considerably more organized, purposeful, and better capitalized than their counterparts of earlier years.
you’ll see many figures and percentages — “business and finance” information — and you’ll no find advice on the spiritual principles involved in forming a community.
Is this book just some representation of “the system” you may be trying to leave behind? Why is there no mention of the spiritual aspects?
As an old adage from India says,“It takes a thorn to remove a thorn.”
I also suggest that everyone in your group read this book, not just those who are getting started and assuming leadership roles.
The more of you who are informed — and hopefully disabused of common misconceptions about starting new ecovillages and communities — the more empowered and effective you’ll be as a group.
1988, six would-be community founders piled into a small pickup truck and headed for Oregon. Their vision at the time was to create a Community Land Trust with houses in the Bay Area and rural land within commuting distance. They’d just learned of an 87-acre property with a stream and 25 buildings in rural Oregon that had fallen to the IRS in the 1970s for $1.7 million in unpaid taxes.
Pushing through the wet walls of grass, the visitors examined the first few buildings. Most, empty and neglected for almost seven years, had broken windows, rotting roofs, and sagging steps. The group creaked open doors to find cold, dirty,
Pushing through the wet walls of grass, the visitors examined the first few buildings. Most, empty and neglected for almost seven years, had broken windows, rotting roofs, and sagging steps. The group creaked open doors to find cold, dirty, foul-smelling rooms full of debris and mold.
the previous year. Not only this, they said, but the property would probably now cost at least half a million dollars; its zoning had reverted from multiple occupancy to the county-wide regulation of “no more than five unrelated adults,” and the place was probably still saddled with enormous IRS debt. Cold, soaked, and miserable, the group left. Obviously, the place was a bust.
But not for two members on that fateful day. Dianne Brause, a former conference center teacher, saw beautiful land with gentle meadows and some great trees left standing, excellent gardening potential, and all the right buildings — an ideal community and retreat/conference center.
Kenneth Mahaffey, a businessman who bought, renovated, and rented out old houses, saw an excellent piece of real estate, an exciting land-purchase challenge, and the ideal site for a community.
Both were movers and shakers who made things happen.
Kenneth had expertise in real estate and finance.
Today it is Lost Valley Educational Center, a thriving community of 22 adults and seven children, with clean, renovated buildings, restored vegetable gardens, a reforestation project with sapling Douglas firs and hardwoods, and a vibrant conference center business. Lost Valley — How One Group Did It Kenneth and Dianne’s first challenge was finding out who controlled the property and to whom they should submit a bid.
Kenneth and Diane incorporated Lost Valley Center, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization.
The previous owners had been allowed “multiple occupancy,” but the county planning department decided that the property’s grandfather clause was invalid because of the length of time between the previous use and current use of the property. So the property reverted to the county’s normal zoning rules, meaning no more than five unrelated adults could live on the land, despite the fact it was 87 acres with 25 buildings. While they eventually did manage to get the multiple-occupancy zoning reinstated, buying the property without knowing this was quite a gamble.
By August, they’d set up the woodshop and the Lost Valley Center’s business offices, and repaired the dorm buildings, one of the fourplex residences, the dining hall, and five classrooms.
They remodeled a small building as a staff kitchen and youth hostel and began hosting overnight guests. Lost Valley was on its way.
I wanted to know what worked, what didn’t work, and how not to reinvent the wheel. I learned that no matter how
I wanted to know what worked, what didn’t work, and how not to reinvent the wheel.
I learned that no matter how inspired and visionary the founders, only about one out of ten new communities actually get built.
mostly because of conflict. And usually, conflict accompanied by heartbreak.
And sometimes, conflict, heartbreak — and lawsuits.
Lost Valley’s story illustrates the major steps of forming a new community or ecovillage — establishing a core group with a particular vision and purpose, choosing a legal structure, finding and financing property, and moving in and renovating (or developing land). It also involves creating an internal community economy and refinancing any initial loans if necessary. (Since ecovillages are a form of intentional community, I’ll use the term “community” to mean ecovillages as well as other forms of community).
Most of the seven founders of Sowing Circle/Occidental Arts and Ecology Center in northern California were an already established group of friends and housemates who in 1995 formed a partnership (later replaced by a Limited Liability Company) to purchase property, and a 501(c)3 non-profit to manage their planned conference center business.
after spending $20,000 on tests, permits and fees, they didn’t get it. So, they bought a house in town and started up their software testing and typing/editing businesses there. In 2002, after the businesses had started to take off, they began looking for rural land again.
But what about the other 90 percent of forming communities — the ones that fail?
In the early 1990s, a founder I’ll call Sharon bought land for a spiritual community I’ll call Gracelight. At first it looked promising. Sharon had received unprecedented and unusually rapid zoning approval for a clustered-housing site plan.
She met regularly with a group of friends and supporters who wanted to be part of the community. But over the next 18 months, first the original group and then a second group fell apart, disappointed and bitter. Sharon struggled with money issues, land-development issues, interpersonal issues. After two years she said she was no longer attempting community, and in fact loathed the idea of community and didn’t even want to hear the “C”-word.
What had this founder not known? • How much money it would take to complete the land development process before she could legally transfer title to each incoming community member.
• That she’d need adequate legal documents and financial data to secure private financing. Sharon believed that telling potential financial contributors her spiritual vision for Gracelight was sufficient. It didn’t occur to her to provide a business plan, budget, or financial disclosure sheet, or to demonstrate to potential investors how and when they might get their money back.
How much each lot would eventually cost, and that she shouldn’t have fostered hope in those who could never afford to buy in. Sharon knew that some people in the group wouldn’t be able to buy in, but counted on her sense that “it will all work out somehow.”
That she needed to tell people that she fully intended to be reimbursed for her land-purchase and development costs and make a profit to compensate her time and entrepreneurial risk.
risk,” even though she was taking one. When group members in the first and second forming community groups finally brought up financial issues and asked pointed questions, she was offended. And group members were offended too, when they learned Sharon was going to make a profit.
When group members in the first and second forming community groups finally brought up financial issues and asked pointed questions, she was offended. And group members were offended too, when they learned Sharon was going to make a profit.
Most new-community failures seemed to result from what I call “structural” conflict — problems that arise when founders don’t explicitly put certain processes in place or make certain important decisions at the outset,
Identify your community vision and create vision documents
2. Choose a fair, participatory decision-making process appropriate for your group. And if you choose consensus, get trained in it.
Make clear agreements — in writing. (This includes choosing an appropriate legal entity for owning land together).
3. Make clear agreements — in writing. (This includes choosing an appropriate
3. Make clear agreements — in writing. (This includes choosing an appropriate legal entity for owning land together).
if later you all remember things differently you can always look it up. The alternative — “we’re right but you folks are wrong (and maybe you’re even trying to cheat us)” — can break up a community faster than you can say, “You’ll be hearing from our lawyer.”
4. Learn good communication and group process skills. Make clear communication and resolving conflicts a priority. Being able to talk with one other about sensitive subjects and still feel connected is my definition of good communication skills.
I consider it a set-up for structural conflict down the road if you don’t address communication and group process skills and conflict resolution methods early on. Addressing these issues at the start will allow you to have procedures in place later on when things get tense — like practicing fire drill procedures now, when there’s no fire.
5. In choosing cofounders and new members, select for emotional maturity. An often-overwhelming source of conflict is allowing someone to enter your forming community group, or later, to enter your community, who is not aligned to your vision and values.
A well-designed process for selecting and integrating new people into your group, and screening out those who don’t resonate with your values, vision, or behavioral norms, can save repeated rounds of stress and conflict in the weeks and years ahead. (See Chapter 18.)
Learn the head skills and heart skills you need to know. Forming a new community is like simultaneously trying to start a new business and begin a marriage — and is every bit as serious as doing either.
Like Sharon, these well-meaning folks didn’t know what they didn’t know. So the sixth major way to reduce structural conflict is to take the time to learn what you’ll need to know.
Community founders must cultivate both heart skills and head skills..
It means learning how to structure healthy and affordable internal community finances. It means learning about site planning and land development. It means doing all this with a sense of connection and shared adventure. Plunging into the land-search process or trying to raise money without first understanding these interrelated areas is a sure invitation to trouble.
Community founders tend to be specialists, but in fact they must be generalists. I’ve seen founders with spiritual ideals and compelling visions flounder and sink because they have no idea how to conduct a land search or negotiate a bank loan.
I’ve seen founders with plenty of technical or business savvy — folks able to build a nifty composting toilet or craft a solid strategic plan — who didn’t know the first thing about how to speak honestly and from the heart to another human being.
And I’ve seen sensitive spiritual folks as well as type-A “get-the-job-done” folks crash and burn the first time they encountered any real conflict.
You can always hire training for your group or expertise in whatever you need, whether it be a consensus trainer, communication skills trainer, meeting facilitator, lawyer, accountant, project manager/ developer, land-use planner, permaculture designer, and so on.
In the 1960s, ’70s, or early ’80s, people usually just bought land and got started. Some of these communities are still with us today, and proud of it. Nonetheless, for communities forming today, I recommend addressing all six of these issues early on, for all the reasons already noted.
Will you be rural, semi-rural, suburban, or urban? What are land values in your desired area? Will you renovate or develop your property? How many members will you have? Will you have community businesses? How will you structure your internal community finances to meet monthly land payments and other expenses?
For example, in 1996 seven founders of Abundant Dawn community bought a beautiful 90-acre owner-financed parcel on a river with a farmhouse, cabin, and barn in rural southwestern Virginia for $130,000. They paid $13,000 down, contributing slightly more than $1,800 each.
Even if you meet weekly, you’ll still need people to work on various committees that work and/or meet between scheduled meetings — gathering information, calling officials, crunching the numbers, drafting proposals, and so on — for at least a year, or even two years or longer.
The founders of Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri first explored their ideas and organized their initial group in 1993, began their land search in 1995, and bought land in 1996. They worked steadily to develop it and raise their population for the next six years, and they continue to do so.
group in 1990, searched for land for four years, reorganized their group and bought land in 1994, and refinanced and began developing in 1995. They have spent the past seven years developing it and increasing their membership, and they also continue to do
Generally, the larger your group and/or the smaller your assets, the longer it’ll take. And the fewer your numbers and the greater your assets, the faster it will happen.
other potential cofounders who may use more logical or systematic “left-brained” thinking.
SPIRITUAL COMMUNITIES: TROUBLE IN PARADISE Newly forming spiritual communities seem to experience more structural conflict than most groups;
spiritual community founders sometimes tend towards a soft-focus, whole-picture orientation — what’s popularly called “right-brained” thinking.
clear, explicit communication about finances and decision-making, and didn’t realize such clarity was necessary.
These founders often dismiss the primarily “left-brained” potential cofounders who could help them, considering them merely “bean counters,” when the latter simply want to understand the financial, legal, and decision-making arrangements before they leap in wholeheartedly.
It doesn’t just take information and skills, money, time, and people to form a community, but also a sense of connection, sometimes called “community glue” — born of group experiences like preparing and eating meals together, work parties, weekend trips, and long, intimate conversations.
We figured out a work system, each serving on clusters — Administration, Process and Communication, Grounds, and Common Facilities. We figured out a meal system, with dinners five nights a week. We figured out how to work with consensus. We learned to keep good track of our finances, and we continued to work towards emotional literacy.
