A MONTHLY EMAIL PUBLICATION of the FIC since 1999. August 19, 2006 1 Communities Directory Online And Next Print Edition 2 Featured Bookshelf Titles At Sale Prices 3 FIC Events Early Next Month 4 Communities Magazine Issues & Redesign 5 Help Build A More Cooperative World! _________________________________________________________________ 1 COMMUNITIES DIRECTORY ONLINE and next PRINT EDITION By Tony Sirna _________________________________________________________________ COMMUNITIES ADDING AND UPDATING LISTINGS. We are seeing a lot of responses to our efforts to get community listings updated in time for the next print edition of our Communities Directory. Almost 700 have updated their listings this year and over 200 in the last month alone. We've had 40 new listings this month alone! This brings our total listings to over **1600** communities from around the world with over 1200 from North America. We encourage every community to update their listing before September 15th, 2006 for changes to be included in the next print edition of our Communities Directory due out in spring of 2007. PAID DISPLAY ADS IN PRINT EDITION. We have also begun selling paid display ads for the print edition of our Directory. The book is a great place for communities looking for members to advertise or for those with products of interest to communities and community seekers. If you are interested in an ad contact our ad sales manager Alyssa Martin alyssa at ic dot org ONLINE ADS. We also continue to offer a discount on advertisements on our Online Communities Directory to FIC members. FIC members receive a special 40% discount on online directory ads. Some communities have seen a doubling in the amount of traffic to their listing thanks to their online paid ad. Its a great way to attract more interest to your community while supporting the FIC and the www.ic.org website. For more information see http://directory.ic.org/advertise.php _________________________________________________________________ 2 FEATURED BOOKSHELF TITLEs at SALE PRICEs Reviews by Catherine Nicosia, Community Bookshelf Manager _________________________________________________________________ Ecovillage Living: Restoring the Earth and Her People edited by Hildur Jackson and Karen Svensson 2002; 216 pages; 8" x 11.5"; paperback This book is not so much a blueprint to create an ecovillage but a very well documented guide to the many aspects that make up a fully featured ecological settlement. It examines the many ways that intentional communities can be built and shares the processes, knowledge and tools that have been developed to date. It allows us to learn from the experiences and mistakes of others and invites us to assimilate that knowledge into our own lives and projects. Hildur Jackson, one of the founders of the Global Ecovillage Network, who co-edited this publication, observes in the preface that none of the communities featured have claimed to have reached perfection; "All of these settlements are works in progress, exhibiting constant improvements and renewal in their physical, social and spiritual/ cultural set-up." Ecovillage Living is divided into three dimensions of community living, the Ecological, the Social and the Cultural/Spiritual. Each of these themes is further broken down into interviews and articles written by some of the leading thinkers and pioneers in these areas. Each of these interviews and essays develop the idea that ecovillages provide a chance to integrate the wisdom and knowledge of yesterday with the technology and thinking of today to create healthy and just communities that allow us to realize our full potential in balance with nature. This book is very impressive. The full-color photographs give an immediacy to the text and the graphics are well-integrated and help reinforce the points made. Readers will enjoy the chance to find out more about a wide spectrum of ecovillage projects around the world. Regular price $25.00 Special price $20.00 ---------- Communities Directory & Magazine Subscription Combo Save $10 off the cover price when you buy a one-year 4-issue subscription to Communities Magazine with a copy of the Communities Directory. This is a special combination deal: a one-year new or renewal subscription to Communities Magazine plus a copy of the Communities Directory for only $40 plus S/H. Normal price is $50 for the combination. This offer is good only for subscriptions delivered by periodical mail within the United States. http://store.ic.org/catalog/specials.php Shipping/handling 3.00 S/H for first item (combo counts as one item) 1.00 S/H for each additional item Shop online for lower shipping rates, more shipping options, and more sale items. http://store.ic.org/catalog/specials.php S/H prices are for Standard Mail postal delivery within US. Information, catalog, ordering http://store.ic.org/bookshelf Community Bookshelf RR 1 Box 156 Rutledge MO 63563 800-995-8342 bookshelf at ic dot org _________________________________________________________________ 3 FIC EVENTS EARLY NEXT MONTH FIC Semi-Annual Organizational Meeting Art of Community Northwest, Seattle area _________________________________________________________________ FELLOWSHIP FOR INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY FALL ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING Open to the public, as are all of our organization meetings. Hosted by Songaia community, Bothell WA Tuesday Sept 5 - Thursday Sept 7, 2006 We invite you to join us in Seattle right after Labor Day for a week of community immersion. Immediately following, we'll host the Art of Community Northwest weekend on the campus of Bastyr University Sept 8-10. Our semi-annual meetings are a great way to find out what FIC is cooking and who's stirring the various pots. You'll meet a band of fire-in-the-belly community networkers from around the country and also find out who's doing what in the Northwest. Among other things, the agenda will focus on five-year plans for wesbite, events, creating community where you are, regional networking, and fundraising. We'll also discuss the movement opportunities for an aging population and craft the 2007 budget. Sessions are open to all-comers and it's a unique chance to witness a 20-year-old consensus-based organization at work. For information about attending the meetings, contact Jenny Upton jenny at ic dot org 434-361-1417 We hope to see you there! ---------- Fellowship for Intentional Community presents ART OF COMMUNITY NORTHWEST: Co-Opportunities for Sustainability When: Friday Sept 8 - Sunday Sept 10, 2006 with bus tours to communities in the area during the day on 9/8. See links below about how to register! Where: Bastyr University in Kenmore (north of Seattle) -- for more info and directions, see www.bastyr.edu/about/map.asp Why: To promote and support communities that recognize and practice sustainability What: Interactive workshops/playshops, plenary speakers, music, art, fun live auction, informational tabling, networking opportunities * Meet People from Existing and Forming Communities: Cohousing, Ecovillages, Egalitarian, Cooperatives * Build Real Community Where You Are: at home, at work, at church, in other organizations * Tools You Can Use: Facilitation, Consensus, Ecological Assessments * Be More Sustainable: learn about Green Building, Local Agriculture, Bio-Diesel Presenters include: - Diana Leafe Christian, Editor, Communities magazine; Author, Creating a Life Together - Laird Schaub, FIC Executive Secretary; founder of Sandhill Farm - Mark Lakeman, Portland City Repair Coordinator - Lisa Fitzhugh, ArtsCorps Executive Director - Vicki Robin, cofounder Conversation Cafés; President, New Roadmap Foundation; and Author,Your Money or Your Life - David Korten, Author, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community and cofounder, Positive Futures Network Please Register for the full conference at http://www.BrownPaperTickets.com/event/4636 For more event schedule, see http://fic.ic.org/aofc/ScheduleGrid.htm For meals at Bastyr http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/5455 For advance reservations on the bus tours http://www.BrownPaperTickets.com/event/6409 Visit local intentional communities with an eye toward understanding what makes them livable and sustainable. Hope to see you at Art of Community Northwest! Check this site periodically for updated Art of Community info http://fic.ic.org/aofc/ ---------- For many more event listings http://events.ic.org/events/ _________________________________________________________________ 4 COMMUNITIES MAGAZINE ISSUES & REDESIGN Fall Issue (Elder Years) and Article Call for Winter Issue By Diana Leafe Christian _________________________________________________________________ FALL ISSUE INCLUDES LAUNCH OF MAGAZINE REDESIGN Issue #132 Will You Live Your Elder Years in Community? Editor Diana Leafe Christian and the staff of Communities magazine are excited about the all-new redesigned magazine, which debuts with the fall issue (just sent to printer, will mail in early September.) "Thanks to our new Art Director, Amy Seiden of Dancing Rabbit, and our new Photo Editor, Susan Patrice of Ganas, and our generous donors who have helped us in so many ways," Diana reports, "we will now have more attractively designed pages, higher quality photos, better image resolution on the page, and, as our readers have seen already, color covers and higher quality paper." She notes that in each issue there will be something for community seekers, community founders, people who live in communities (especially "process junkies"), and people who would like more community in their lives where they live now. The issue will include: * "Ecotopia in Japan?" by Ecotopia author Ernest Callenbach, who visits Yamagishi Toyosato * "The Dilettante's Journey, Part I, How do you pick a community to join if you're interested in . . . everything?" Frank Beaty. * "A Bittersweet Blessing--The Joys & Sorrows of Life as 'Community Elder'" Darin Fenger * "Elder-Only Cohousing: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?" Neshama Abraham * "An Elder's Perspective: Would I Ever Live in Community Again?" with High Wind founder Lisa Paulson * "Organize a Neighborhood Dinner Co-op!" * "The Rhizome Collective: Starting an Activist Urban Community" by Austin, Texas activists Scott Kellogg & Stacy Pettigrew * "How to Not Get Bogged Down in 'Endless Processing!'" with process and communication experts Bea Briggs, Laird Schaub, and Tree Bressen. Diana will be leading workshops on starting new communities this fall: Los Angeles Eco-Village (8/25-27) the FIC's Art of Community Gathering in Seattle (9/10) Amherst, Massachusetts (10/28-29). She's also a presenter ("Ecovillages as 'Lifeboat Communities'") at the Great Lakes Bioneers Conference in Detroit (10/22-22). ---------- CONTRIBUTE TO THE WINTER ISSUE Issue #133 Thriving in a Healthy Economy What’s a “steady state” economy and how would it benefit us? What does “global economic collapse” mean and what does it mean for communities, intentional and otherwise? What can intentional communities and organized neighborhoods do to prepare? Would you like to contribute to the Winter 2006 issue of Communities magazine? Communities is seeking articles on the following topics: 1. Creating community in your neighborhood 2. Seeking a community to join 3. Starting a new community 4. Process & communication issues in community 5. Theme articles. The theme is “Creating a Healthy Economy.” What is a “steady state” economy and how would it benefit us? What does “global economic collapse” mean and what does it mean for communities, intentional and otherwise? What can intentional communities and organized neighborhoods do to prepare? If you or your community has insights or information, or even better, a story about your discussions about this and what you may be doing or not doing, we’d like to share it with our readers. If you’d like to contribute an article, let the editor know by August 23. Diana Leafe Christian communities at ic dot org The deadline for finished articles is September 1st, 2006. Word length for articles is from 900 to 2500 words. ---------- Get a sample issue, renew or subscribe here http://store.ic.org//communities/sample.php http://store.ic.org/cmag Sample issues $4 plus $3 S/H by US standard mail. Shop online for lower shipping rates and more shipping options. Subscriptions one year 4 issues $20 US :: $24 Canada :: $26 Other Order by phone fax or mail FIC * 138 Twin Oaks Rd * Louisa VA 23093 800-462-8240 fax 540-894-4112 _________________________________________________________________ 5 HELP BUILD A MORE COOPERATIVE WORLD! _________________________________________________________________ E. B. White once said, "I arise in the morning torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savor the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." Like many of us faced with the same dilemma each morning, you can choose to improve the world in a way that also helps you (and many others) to savor it at the same time. Join the FIC! If you've already joined, donate! It's easy, it's fast, it gets you discounts and other benefits... but best of all, it's a way to both enjoy being part of a vast network of community-minded folks, and also enable the growth of that very network. So, don't fret over whether to improve the world or enjoy it--do both. Savor community living while bringing it to more people. Please join us. For more info on member benefits and to join online using our secure server go to http://store.ic.org/membership To request a membership form by mail, or to email, or to talk with a human, contact us at RR 1 Box 156 Rutledge MO 63563 800-995-8342 fic at ic dot org To learn more about the mission of the organization visit http://fic.ic.org/index.html Many thanks from all of us in the Fellowship.