A MONTHLY free EMAIL PUBLICATION of the FIC since 1999. Serving over 4000 subscribers. Jul 20, 2003 1 Bookshelf special offers for the month 2 Twin Oaks/FIC Communities Conference register now! 3 Next FIC Organizational Meeting In Yellow Springs 4 Communities magazine issues now and future 5 communitymade.com news 6 We want you! Please support the Fellowship by joining. ________________________________________________________________ 1 FEATURED BOOKSHELF TITLE at SALE PRICE and NEW BOOK BY DIANA CHRISTIAN still at special price until Jul 31 This offer made *only* through eNews. by Alline Anderson, Community Bookshelf manager ________________________________________________________________ HOW TO BUILD COMMUNITY poster Painting by Karen Kerney, words by Syracuse Cultural Workers 12" wide x 36" long Regular price $14.00 each Sale price $12.00 ($2.00 off) While posters are usually the realm of love-struck or angst- ridden teenagers, the FIC isn't ready to give up on the genre altogether. This month's special is one of our favorite posters. It is from our friends at Syracuse Cultural workers and entitled 'How to Build Community.' The bright and beautifully-illustrated design lists dozens of ways to build community. Some of my favorites are: greet people, help carry something heavy, start a tradition, bake extra and share, use your library, look up when you are walking, help a lost dog and buy from local merchants. A perfect addition to home, school or other community center, and a lovely reminder that many of the important things are really quite easy (and often fun!) to do. Posters are union-printed on REAL recycled paper containing postconsumer content. Shipped in a mailing tube. Order this title online, by phone or mailorder http://store.ic.org/products/email-spec-offer-jul2003a.html Shipping/handling as follows 3.00 S/H for first item 1.00 S/H for each additional item Prices shown are for Standard Mail postal delivery within US. Offer for this title valid through [[offerdate]] ------- Also still available at the June email special price, until Jul 31: CREATING A LIFE TOGETHER: Practical Tools To Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities by Diana Leafe Christian 2003, 272 pages Communities magazine editor Diana Leafe Christian reports that cohousers responded well to her new book at the third biennial North American Cohousing Conference held June 20-22 in Boulder, Colorado. There was definitely a buzz about it the conference, Diana reports. The FIC's book table sold out all their copies by Friday afternoon, and the host's book table (Cohousing Association of the US) sold out by Sunday morning. After that various conference participants asked Diana if they could buy copies from her directly. A participant from Pleasant Hill Cohousing in California told a group of workshop attendees: "I highly recommend Diana's book. I stayed up until two a.m. reading it!" She also recommended Creating a Life Together to the development partner for her community, saying the book provides the vital context and background that cohousing core groups need in order to understand why they and their development partners must do what they do. I think you should give a copy to all the cohousing core groups you work with in the future, she told the project manager. A participant from Takoma Village Cohousing in Washington DC told Diana "It's on my top five list of cohousing must-reads!" "The subtitle is all wrong" said a member of Wild Sage Cohousing in Boulder. You should have titled it "Ecovillages, Intentional Communities, and Cohousing"! Cohousing magazine will publish an excerpt from the book in the September issue. Creating a Life Together Regular price $23.00 sale $18.40 (20% off) Order this title online, by phone or mailorder http://store.ic.org/products/email-spec-offer-jun2003a.html Shipping/handling as follows 3.00 S/H for first item 1.00 S/H for each additional item Prices shown are for Standard Mail postal delivery within US. Offer valid on this title only through July 31, 2003. ------- Information, catalog, ordering and prices for delivery outside US http://store.ic.org/community-bookshelf.html Community Bookshelf RR 1 Box 156 Rutledge MO 63563 800-995-8342 bookshelf ( at ) ic ( dot ) org ________________________________________________________________ 2 LABOR DAY TWIN OAKS/FIC COMMUNITIES CONFERENCE ________________________________________________________________ THE 12th ANNUAL TWIN OAKS/FIC COMMUNITIES CONFERENCE...! August 29 - September 1 2003 near Louisa, Virginia Our annual Communties Conference is coming up. Don't miss it! We invite you to join us. See old friends and meet new ones, and immerse yourself in an environment with others who value cooperative living. The Utopian Art Project running throughout the weekend needs your contribution, and we have dynamic workshops covering a rich diversity of ideas and skills. We'd also like you to know about the new program pieces Through the Generations of Community and the Storytelling event, where we ask experienced communards to share their inspiring and amusing best. We're also bringing back last years successful new program piece, Utopian Architects, so plan to stay until Monday afternoon! Through the Generations: We're building a new society, and for it to last for generations to come it must encompass the whole life cycle, from birth to death. A feature of this year's conference will be a series of three panel discussions: Elders in Community, Youth in Community, and a Cross-Generational Dialog. Elders in Community The communities movement has been around a while and many communities benefit from having a diverse age range of members. Elders offer enormous gifts to a community through their accumulated skills and wisdom. What can we learn from the mistakes Western society is currently making around it's treatment of Elders and have our communities be places were people of all ages make valuable contributions? Youth in Community To say it bluntly, the return rate of community children is not good, with some notable exceptions. Are we failing to provide for the social and cultural needs of the next generation? This will be an opportunity for a panel of young people living, raised and/or interested in community to share and discuss about what worked, what didn't, and how it could be better. Cross-Generational Dialogue We'll hear the important messages from each panel. We'll explore what messages Elders and Youth have for each other, and how elders and youth can be allies and support for each other. Stories from Community: We recognize the importance of storytelling as developing a sense of our cultural history, a feeling of togetherness, finding common ground/bonds/experiences -- helping us know that we're not alone. Stories are a way to convey/share lessons, to celebrate people, events, and look at how far we've come and what we're doing -- a source of inspiration and strength. We'll have past and contemporary stories and anything from starting communities to overcoming traumatic events to individual stories about transformative experiences in community to funny interactions with mainstream people or institutions. Utopian Architects: Last year about 40 dedicated attendees stayed for the full four days to try out this experiment in group visioning, networking and action planning. Our imaginations journeyed to the year 2102, when the Communities Movement has been wildly successful, and experienced that world. We saw ourselves in that world, who we are and what we do. We brought it back to the present, identifying the important areas of society to be working in towards this vision. We ended the session by self-tasking the next steps in making the vision a reality. We're fine tuning this piece and bringing it back to top off our four days of Community experience and exploration. As always, it is your input, participation and assistance that makes the Conference work. Come help us make the magic! In love and community, Valerie, Sky and Anissa The Conference is co-sponsored by the Fellowship for Intentional Community, the Federation of Egalitarian Communities and Twin Oaks Community. For more information or to register visit our website or email us. Twin Oaks Communities Conference 138 Twin Oaks Rd Louisa VA 23093 540-894-5126 conference ( at ) twinoaks.org http://www.twinoaks.org/conference ________________________________________________________________ 3 FALL FIC ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING Sept 15-18 * Yellow Springs OH ________________________________________________________________ Following a soon-to-be-announced joint event with Community Service Inc (CSI), FIC folks will turn their attention to the fall organizational meeting, to be held at The Vale. We invite you to join us and get a glimpse behind the curtain, revealing what FIC is doing these days and giving you a chance to roll up your sleeves and lend a hand. We expect to devote about half the time revisiting the organizational vision and mission, followed by strategic planning for the next five years. We will also be drafting the 2004 budget, looking ahead to event prospects in the next twelve months, and assessing the initial results of the campaign to fund an endowment for the future Communities Directory. Please join us! For more information contact Jenny Upton by email or phone or visit our website (event will be posted there soon). Further information will appear in next month's eNews as well. jenny ( at ) ic ( dot ) org * 434-361-1417 after 5pm eastern time http://fic.ic.org/artofcmty.html ________________________________________________________________ 4 COMMUNITIES MAGAZINE ISSUES out now and due later this year ________________________________________________________________ The Summer 2003 #118 issue of Communities magazine "Community is for Lovers" has just gone into the mail to subscribers and should be appearing on selected newstands. Sample articles: *Make It or Break It Community life intensifies what's already present in love relationships, says this author. Strong relationships grow richer and stronger in community; weak ones fall apart faster. *Breaking Up (While Staying in Community) You don't have to leave the community when you break up. With enough kindness and impartiality from your community, you can both heal and stay right where you are. *Living Outside the Box What happens when one of you wants to leave the community? Or wants an intimate relationship with another member? With enough intimate trust and communication, you can work it out to everyone's benefit, says this author. *Relationships in the Crucible Not for the faint-of-heart! The relationship process of this community put people's hearts and souls on the line, publicly -- and apparently worked well indeed. *Lovers, Friends, and Parents Multiple intimate relationships, deep commitment to children and shared parenting, and dedication to honesty and vulnerability -- how one community struggles and thrives. *I Can't Live Without Women Men and women need each other's company -- for friendship, connection, and a sense of completion -- even if they're monks, asserts our author. The Fall 2003 issue of Communities magazine, due in September, will focus on Right Livelihood in Community. Communities is now seeking articles for the Winter 2003 Special Community Seekers' Guide. If you'd like to contribute communities ( at ) ic ( dot ) org Get a sample issue, renew or subscribe here http://store.ic.org/products/communities-magazine.html http://store.ic.org/products/communities-magazine-sampl.html Sample issues by surface mail $6 US - $7 Canada - $8 Other 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 COMMUNITYMADE.COM NEWS ________________________________________________________________ The one complaint we've had about communitymade.com is that it was too hard to find the products. And yet we didn't want to bring the products forward at the expense of shoving the information about communities backward. Finally we had an inspiration that we think makes the products and community information both accessible, as well as making information about the businesses within communities more available. Check it out at http://www.communitymade.com/index.html We also did our first monthly or occasional enewsletter in the last month. Sign up at http://www.communitymade.com/ENews.tpl New vendors and products coming next month. ________________________________________________________________ 6 WE WANT YOU! TO JOIN THE FIC ________________________________________________________________ Seeking more sense of community in your life? Want to help others discover the benefits of cooperative living? FIC membership benefits include invitations, discounts, credit union access, and a newsletter -- but we think the biggest benefit is the knowledge that you're helping bring into reality the vision of a cooperative world. Read more about membership and sign up online using our secure server http://store.ic.org/products/fic-membership.html More info. Request a membership form to be sent by mail. RR 1 Box 156 Rutledge MO 63563 800-995-8342 fic ( at ) ic ( dot ) org Learn more about the mission of the Fellowship organization http://fic.ic.org/index.html