A MONTHLY EMAIL PUBLICATION of the FIC since 1999, serving over 4000 subscribers. February 25, 2006 1 Communities Magazine Survey 2 Featured Bookshelf Title At Sale Price 3 FIC Events 2006 4 Communities Magazine Issues - Next Issue Theme "Peak Oil" 5 Published By Communities Magazine Editor Diana Christian 6 Help Build A More Cooperative World! _________________________________________________________________ 1 COMMUNITIES MAGAZINE SURVEY _________________________________________________________________ Communities magazine is conducting a survey of its readers and others interested in community. We are hoping to gain information that will help us improve the magazine. Please take a few minutes of your time to let us know what you think. Here's a shorthand web address for the survey http://tinyurl.com/nfd49 or you can get to the survey from the highlighted box near the top of the Fellowship for Intentional Community's home page http://www.ic.org/ _________________________________________________________________ 2 FEATURED BOOKSHELF TITLE at SALE PRICE Reviews by Catherine Nicosia, Community Bookshelf Manager _________________________________________________________________ THE END OF OIL: On the Edge of A Perilous New World by Paul Roberts 2005 * 416 pages * paperback During the past couple of months I have looked at several of the current crop of titles about the subject of peak oiI. I have been searching primarily for a title that would offer a tie-in to the theme of the upcoming issue of Communities Magazine, "Sustainability and Peak Oil". I also wanted to provide our customers with a book that would enable them to explore this topic more fully. Most of the books I examined were less than satisfactory. They lacked depth in their research and seemed more interested in the sensational aspects of the subject. When Paul Roberts' book came across my desk, I was inclined to think it was just more of the same. However, as I started to leaf through this book I found I couldn't put it down. The End of Oil is well written and allows readers to confront unsettling truths without stridency. Roberts explores in depth the consequences of the global addiction to oil, both economic and ecological. Some of his most persuasive passages describe an almost inevitable future shaped by global warming, especially as the rapidly industrializing countries of the East begin to replicate the pollution history of the West. He examines current energy policy and its failures, but also is clear-eyed about the contribution of the individual consumer to the problem. Though there is much to be pessimistic about, there is also a lot of positive information in this book. The author offers a very balanced assessment of such alternative energy technologies as wind and hydrogen and the role they may play in the transition to a new system. For those wanting to educate themselves about the core issues surrounding this subject, The End Oil is the book to read. Regular price $14.00 Special price $11.00 http://store.ic.org/catalog/specials.php Shipping/handling 3.00 S/H for first 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. This eNews special offer is valid through [[offerdate]]. 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 http://store.ic.org/catalog/specials.php _________________________________________________________________ 3 FIC EVENTS 2006 _________________________________________________________________ FIC SPRING ORGANIZATION MEETING Open to the Public. Hosted by Madison Community Cooperative, Madison, WI Friday April 7 - Sunday April 9, 2006 Madison Community Cooperative started out focusing on student housing and has expanded into affordable housing not limited to students. We're looking forward to sitting down with them and finding out how we can collaborate in promoting vibrant communities built on cooperative principles. You're invited to join us for any or all of our three days together. Highlights of the tentative agenda include approval of the blueprints for a weekend Art of Community conference in Seattle next September, plus discussion of 5-year plans for the key areas of Events, Website, Development, and Creating Community Where You Are. Come and see for yourself what the FIC is all about! For more information contact jenny ( at ) ic ( dot ) org ---------- ART OF COMMUNITY. A tentative plan has been drafted to hold an Art of Community gathering in Seattle this fall after the FIC Org Mtg. The target dates are Sept 8-10, the weekend after Labor Day, somewhere in the Seattle area. Check this site periodically for updated Art of Community info http://fic.ic.org/artofcmty.html ---------- CO-SPONSORED EVENTS. The FIC co-sponsors various intentional community events from time to time. Planned or under consideration for 2006 are the following: August 2006. Twin Oaks Communities Conference. Twin Oaks Community. http://www.twinoaks.org/conference October 2006. Possible participation in Bioneers event. Northern California. _________________________________________________________________ 4 COMMUNITIES MAGAZINE ISSUES Current and coming issues By Diana Leafe Christian, Editor _________________________________________________________________ JUST AHEAD IN THE SPRING ISSUE Sustainability And Peak Oil - Issue #130 Here's some of the exciting material coming in the spring issue, which will be printed and mailed in March: * Community Survival During The Coming Energy Decline What is Peak Oil and why should we care? Are ecovillages, sustainable communities and organized eco-neighborhoods any better prepared than people living in mainstream culture? Jan Steinman and Diana Leafe Christian. * Resources for Learning More about Peak Oil * An Energy Primer: How we Consume our Ancient Sunlight Jan Steinman illuminates for the layperson the nature of physical energy and its power to perform work over a period of time, and what this means from barrels of oil to gasoline to electric lights. * Some Energy Forms and Units * Peak Oil and Community Food Security Organized neighborhoods and small towns are ensuring their future food supply, says Ethan Genauer, from farmers' markets and CSA farms to food-justice activists and "relocalization" efforts. * How Vulnerable Are We to Food Scarcity? The Relationship Between Oil and Food * Essential Questions About Food Security * City Repair and the Opportunity of Peak Oil Peak Oil is an opportunity for neighborhoods and small towns to recreate community connection, say Lydia Doleman and Mark Lakeman, who show how Portland's City Repair Project does this now with intersection repair projects, its annual Village Building Convergence, and Dignity Village, a residential village for formerly homeless people. * Peak Oil as "Opportunity"? Peak Oil is not an "opportunity" and ecovillages are not necessarily well-prepared for its effects, says Global Ecovillage Network president Jonathan Dawson, who cautions us not to dismiss its potential for serious disruption of ecovillage life. * Helping Friends and Neighbors Prepare We want to share the likely consequences of Peak Oil with others, but where do we start? Megan Quinn offers suggestions from the Peak Oil Leadership Training workshops. * Preparing For A Post-Carbon World: Why I'm Joining O.U.R. Ecovillage Guy Prouty and fellow community members intend to create a "community lifeboat" so that when times get tough they can depend on each other. * Living the (Almost) Petrol-Free Life How one man gave up most aspects of oil-dependency two decades ago, his day-to-day life in community now. Is this workable? Could others do it? Patricia Greene. ---------- COMING UP IN THE SUMMER ISSUE Good Works: Communities in Service to Others Summer 2006 #131 Has your community gone out of its way to be of service in some way; for example, benefiting the environment, or helping people in need? Or have members of your community individually supported a service effort or created their own service project? Some communities (or individual community members) have supported relief efforts for tsunami victims or Katrina victims, set up soup kitchens for the homeless, or offered help to Central American political refugees. If you or your community has a story like this to tell, we'd like to share it with our readers. communities ( at ) ic ( dot ) org 828-669-9702 ---------- 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 PUBLISHED BY COMMUNITIES MAGAZINE EDITOR DIANA CHRISTIAN Book translation, magazine article, new book coming. _________________________________________________________________ TO BE PUBLISHED IN FRENCH TRANSLATION. Communities magazine editor Diana Leafe Christian's book, Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities, will be published in French by Quebec's Ecosociete Publisher in 2007. MAGAZINE ARTICLES: AARP & VISION MAGAZINE. Diana was quoted in an article about communities in the March 2006 issue of AARP magazine, and Communities magazine and her book were cited. Good news, since AARP has a circulation of several million readers. Diana will also be featured in an interview in the March issue of Vision magazine, an alternative-lifestyle magazine circulated in California & Arizona. NEW BOOK NEXT YEAR. Diana's second book, a field guide to visiting, evaluating, and joining ecovillages and sustainable communities, will be published by New Society Publishers in Fall, 2007. Creating a Life Together was published in English by New Society Publishers in 2003 and is offered for sale by the FIC Community Bookshelf. 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 _________________________________________________________________ 6 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