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Intentional Communities Newsletter: October 3, 2009
Promoting Community Living & Cooperative Lifestyles
Communities magazine, Directory, Video and more
Communities Magazine Upcoming Issues
#144 (Fall): Community in Hard Times
#145 (Winter): Health and Well-Being
Since 1972, Communities has been the primary resource for information, issues, and ideas about intentional communities in North America--from urban co-ops to cohousing groups to ecovillages to rural communes. Communities
increasingly focuses on creating and enhancing community in the workplace, in nonprofit or activist organizations, and in neighborhoods. Articles and columns cover practical how-to issues of cooperative living as well as personal stories about forming new communities, decision-making, conflict resolution, raising children in community, ecological living, and much more. We explore the joys and challenges of cooperation in its many dimensions.
Please subscribe today! If you're already a subscriber, tell your friends about us or better yet give a gift subsciption.
Fall Issue: Community
in Hard Times
Our fall issue (#144) focusses
on Community
in Hard Times and arrived in
subscriber mailboxes and on newsstands in September. Here's
some of what readers will find:
Hard
Times at Orinda by Kristina Janzen. Watching their collective fortunes decline, the members of Orinda adopt a new spirit of frugality, find that they are living more sustainably, and discover true wealth in relationships with friends and family.
Building Community in Hard Times by
Randa Johnson. A new cohousing community descends into bitter arguments over money issues, calls a moratorium on lentil soup, sees its green development plans slow to a crawl, and starts meeting its needs more locally. Here's a paragraph from this interesting article:
"Bitter arguments start over money issues. One member blocks all expenses in a fit of panic over money, then reluctantly stands aside as the group agrees to hire a consultant to help us talk about money issues—for $1000 for a one-day workshop. Many community members quietly donate key items to the community when we don’t have the money or we cannot agree to pay for them together. We hold a cash call to make some urgently needed repairs. One household temporarily borrows from another
to meet their obligation. We have many discussions about fairness. Some community members see fairness as strict equality of contribution. Others do not want to be tied to this minimal standard, as it means that we will struggle to meet bare minimum for years, and probably never have money for less essential improvements." Hard
Times, Good Life, Community by Joan
Valles. An elder in community finds that, especially in hard times, community offers focus, mutual support, practical help, and inspiration.
Emergency Community by
Jesika Feather. After serving thousands of
meals, a community of post-Katrina relief kitchen volunteers moves to the West
Coast and acquires a mortgage, a baby, full-time jobs, and the challenges of
the mundane.
Shared Living—When
Home Is a Community by
Carol Pimentel. An ex-resident of Casa Caballeros reflects on the wealth she found in the realms of personal growth, shared resources, spontaneous celebration, and financial freedom even in economic downturns.
Householding: Communal Living on a Small Scale
by Elizabeth Barrette. Especially in financially uncertain times, those seeking the advantages of intentional community living can often find them within a single shared house.
Birthing a New Order
in a Chaotic World
by Niánn
Emerson Chase. The
hardest challenges in community can arise from the work of recognizing and admitting
character flaws and practicing honesty, so as to make way for needed change in
ourselves and the world.
Throwing
in the Founder's Towel by Ma’ikwe
Schaub Ludwig.
After many years of dealing with the unique struggles inherent in starting a community, a community founder discovers her vision manifested elsewhere, and becomes a community joiner. Here's a bit of text from this article:
"I've just thrown in the towel.
"It's not like me, and I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it. But the truth is that I've spent the past seven years working on the rather intimidating goal of starting a residential intentional community, and I've finally admitted that I might not be up to the task. Conventional wisdom says that every new community needs a burning soul, and I've burned brightly, burned joyfully, and finally, burned out."
Establishing Community in Hard Times: A Swedish Case by
Robert Hall. Along with logistical hurdles and fluctuating commitments, the global financial crisis takes its toll on a developing ecovillage, but also offers opportunities as sustainability becomes a global imperative.
Somerville Ecovillage: Culture and Creating Spaces by
Vida Carlino. A group of Australians
invests in its vision for the long haul, confronting obstacles, encouraging
participation, and finding accord on cats, dogs, and The Somerville Way.
Somerville Ecovillage: Statutory
Approvals and Finance
by Karen Moore. Nine
years after its conception, Somerville Ecovillage has acquired land, financing,
and rezoning and subdivision approvals, but remains unbuilt (though not ungardened),
thanks to the world credit crisis.
The Transition Initiative Comes to Cohousing by
Sonja Eriksson. A cohousing group joins the Transition Town movement in response to peak oil and climate change, and discovers many collateral benefits.
Food Security in Community
by Blake Cothron. In increasingly difficult times, growing our own food in community can be the best form of food security. Lessons learned from other groups can help our own gardens and communities bloom.
Svanholm in Denmark
Goes Carbon-Neutral by Christina Adler
Jensen. Denmark’s largest
intentional community and ecovillage adopts innovative technologies to save
energy resources and become carbon-neutral.
The
issue also includes letters, a
publisher's note ,
a Cooperative Group Solutions panelist discussion about avoiding abundance's
pitfalls, and stories on creating home, cohousing for non-cohousers, financial
benefits of communal living, and a two-day garden party blitz in Los Angeles.
Please
ask for Communities at your favorite local cafe or natural foods store,
or subscribe today.
Winter issue: The theme for the
winter issue (#145) is Health
and Well-Being. If you're
interested in submitting articles, photos, or illustrations to future issues
of Communities, please follow
this link for details.
Contact Communities Editor.
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