Intentional Communities Newsletter: October 2, 2010

Promoting Community Living & Cooperative Lifestyles
Communities magazine, Directory, Video and more

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.

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Early in 2010 we rolled out a new Communities Magazine website where you can read a selection of articles from our quarterly magazine online. We post a handful of articles from each issue so you can get a taste of what Communities offers. Check the website periodically--we add new articles on a regular basis--two more complete articles from this issue were just published today (see below).

Available by subscription or sample order, and available on select newsstands, our fall issue (#148) focuses on Power and Empowerment. Here is some of what readers will find:

BEING "OVERTHROWN"--A CELEBRATION: Coming to Shared Power by Jim Schenk. The founder of Enright Ridge Urban Ecovillage describes what it's like to be criticized, marginalized, stripped of leadership responsibilities, and given the opportunity to explore a new role.

MONEY, POWER, AND PROCESS: How We Pulled the Plug on Consensus by Kees Kolff . The creators and owners of Port Townsend EcoVillage wrestle with power imbalances as they temporarily suspend consensus process in order to move their cooperative group project forward.

POWER, DYSFUNCTION, COMMUNITY BREAKDOWN, AND VISION AT ECOINSTITUTE: A Document from the Struggle by Troy Bell. A group in the throes of Founder's Syndrome reconsiders its relationship with its charismatic leader as he nears the end of his troubled tenure.

BALANCING POWERS: Leadership and Followship in Community by Elizabeth Barrette. In a healthy community, leadership and followship are equally important roles, each with vital skill sets that can assure effective teamwork.

MORE PERSPECTIVES ON LEADERSHIP AND FOLLOWSHIP : A Response to Elizabeth Barrette by Ma'ikwe Schaub Ludwig. The author identifies additional leadership skills, cautions against blind followship, and reflects on the many types of power in cooperative groups.

POWER AND POWERLESSNESS IN COMMUNITY by Markus Euler . A community member transcends a feeling of powerlessness when he inadvertently comes up with a brilliant idea about how to organize cooking groups, and others join him in implementing it.

Read the above complete article, published online today.

DANCING WITH DISCOMFORT: Thoughts on Empowerment from a Reluctantly Powerful Person by Kristina Jansen. Welcomed back into her childhood community as an adult, the author comes to terms not only with her intrinsic reluctance to be in charge of anything, but also with her own inherent power.

POWER AND DISEMPOWERMENT ON THE ECOBUS by Chris Roth. Some saw this radical environmental education program as a "cult," others as an intensely focused experience of challenge and growth. Had participants lost their individuality, or gained a new sense of self?

Read the above complete article, published online today.

THE AWESOME POWER OF THE NON-CONSENTING VOICE by Arjuna da Silva. Balancing the urge to express ourselves with respect for the history and time investments of a group can help consensus be fun and effective, rather than dreadful and debilitating.

THE POWER OF PROCESS: How WindSong Created its Community Contribution System by Andrea Welling. A cohousing community employs a Consensus Process for Complex Topics to tackle a perennially difficult area and create an effective Community Contribution System.

GROUP PROCESS--The Straw Poll that Broke the Camel's Back by Laird Schaub.

COMMUNITY CHALLENGES--Bursting the Bubble: The Challenges of Progressive Community Living in the Rural South by Doug Alderson.

COMMUNITY JOURNEYS--Ad Astra per Aspera: Through Adversity to the Stars--A Community Member's Passage to India and Back by Chelsea Cooley.

CREATING COMMUNITY WHERE YOU ARE--Moon Valley: A Community on the Horizon? by Bob Glotzbach.

FORMING COMMUNITY--Affording a New Community: a Story of Persistence by Merry Hall.

The issue also includes letters, a Publisher’s Note on Three Essential Agreements of Effective Groups, and a Cooperative Group Solutions discussion titled "Call in the Experts?".

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