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[Copyright
the Fellowship for Intentional Community 1996]
Fellowship in the Nineties:
A Continental Network Open to
All
by the FIC Editorial Board
Fellowship for Intentional Community board members explain the
Fellowship's ambitious projects for helping people get accurate
information about today's intentional communities, promoting contact
between communities, and relating products of the movement to the wider
culture.
Formed as a regional network in 1948, the Fellowship for Intentional
Community (FIC) shifted to a continent-wide focus in 1986. We began
holding semiannual board meetings the following year, and set about
identifying the intentional community movement's needs and selecting
projects to meet those needs. In a sense, this reaching out was a test
to see if communities were ready to act in concert, working together to
explore the diversity and promote the strengths of cooperative living.
Now, several years into the experiment, we know with certainty that the
sustaining interest and energy are there.
The Fellowship's work is based on four common values:
- cooperation,
- nonviolence,
- inclusivity, and
- unrestricted freedom to leave a group at any time.
To promote these values, the Fellowship has pursued four main goals:
- to act as a clearinghouse for up-to-date information about
intentional communities, including referrals to match groups seeking new
members with people in search of a group;
- to build trust among communities by encouraging communication,
friendships, visits, and cooperative activities;
- to facilitate exchange of skills, technical information, and
practical experience among communities -- both those that are well
established and those newly forming; and
- to broaden the wider culture's awareness of cooperative alternatives
and the practical value of the structures and "tools" developed by
intentional communities.
How Do We Accomplish These Goals?
Publications
The Fellowship's first major project was creating the 1990 Directory of
Intentional Communities. This comprehensive sourcebook took more than
two years to compile, and has become the standard reference about
intentional community living today. The Directory has been highly
successful -- selling out three printings, over 18,000 copies in all.
Encouraged by the popularity of the Directory, the Fellowship decided to
revive a companion publication, Communities magazine. Founded in 1973,
the magazine had been declining since the mid '80s, and a substantial
debt had accumulated. In 1992, the Fellowship completed negotiations to
become the magazine publisher. We have now paid off the debt and
assembled a dedicated staff that has expanded the scope, tightened up
the editing, and returned Communities to the magazine racks on a
quarterly basis.
Fellowship Board Meetings
The Fellowship is administered by a board of directors, comprised of
members who are highly active in the organization. The board gathers
twice yearly for three-day meetings, hosted each time by a different
community or support organization. In an attempt to make meetings
accessible to participants from all corners of the continent, the
location is rotated from region to region across North America. Meeting
agenda topics range from the nitty-gritty of project details, to the
exploration of long-term visions; from detailed budget analysis, to the
delicate feelings surrounding personal changes. Board meetings are open
to all, and are operated by consensus in a way that encourages input
from all participants. The meetings provide a great opportunity for
newcomers to get involved in a variety of Fellowship activities.
Each gathering is a time to meet new people and renew established
friendships -- expanding the personal connections that are the ultimate
wealth of our organization. Fellowship members receive copies of the
quarterly Newsletter, and notice of all meetings . In addition, board
meeting invitations are sent to everyone on our mailing list who lives
within a day's drive of the meeting site.
1993 Celebration of Community
In pursuit of our goals, and to gauge the burgeoning energy in the
communities movement, the Fellowship organized the Celebration of
Community held in August 1993. Over 800 people from 15 different
countries came together at The Evergreen State College in Olympia,
Washington. We listened to a variety of inspiring speakers, participated
in workshops, connected in small groups, learned to juggle, networked
for future projects, sang, laughed, and hugged. While no dates have been
set for the next event of this type, the Fellowship expects to build on
this success by hosting future gatherings.
Regional Gatherings
The Fellowship helps publicize regional gatherings hosted by local
communities and support organizations. These regional events are
excellent opportunities for face-to-face contact with seekers from the
area and with members of nearby communities. Regular regional gatherings
are currently hosted in Virginia by Twin Oaks, in Indiana by Padanaram,
and in the Seattle area by the Northwest Intentional Communities
Association.
Academic Conferences
The Fellowship cosponsors the annual conferences of the Communal Studies
Association (CSA) and the triennial conferences of the International
Communal Studies Association (ICSA). These meetings bring together a
diverse mix of people, including scholars, curators of historic communal
sites, and members and former members of contemporary communities.
Presentations range from academic papers on historic communities, to
discussions of contemporary community relations with the wider
society.
Canbridge
Consensus And Network Building for Resolving Impasses and Developing
Group Effectiveness -- CANBRIDGE is a process collective, organized on
the premise that community experience offers unique insights into group
dynamics. This offshoot of the Fellowship provides assistance to
established and forming communities in skill areas such as group
process, conflict resolution, consensus building, organizational
development, decision making, and meeting design. Communities,
cooperatives, businesses, and other groups may contact the Fellowship
for referrals to experienced communitarians willing to offer
consultations, facilitate challenging meetings, and conduct training.
Revolving Loan Fund
The Fellowship assumed management of a long-established community loan
fund when the Community Educational Services Council (CESCI) dissolved
in the summer of 1994. Since 1952 this fund has loaned out over $200,000
-- in amounts up to $5,000 -- to help intentional community businesses
with start-ups or expansions. The Fellowship is attracting additional
assets, and plans to expand community business-loan activities across
the continent. Looking ahead, this loan fund could provide a base in the
future for launching a community credit union or bank that could finance
larger ventures.
Speakers Bureau
The Speakers Bureau can provide experienced presenters on intentional
community topics for college classes, civic groups, churches, and other
organizations. A list describing the areas of each speaker's expertise
is available from Fellowship headquarters. Topics of general interest
include the following: overview of the communities movement, workplace
cooperation, sustainable living, Christian communities, cooperative
parenting, land trusts, barter systems, communal education, Eastern
religious communities, intentional community history, and archeology.
Future Projects
The Fellowship is considering several other initiatives -- projects awaiting the time, energy, or dollars to move ahead. These include
- pamphlets on cooperative living -- such as how to start a community,
legal options for incorporating, or choosing an appropriate
decision-making process;
- curricula for undergraduate and graduate programs in the study of
historic and contemporary communities;
- mutual savings funds for major medical expenses such as that
operated by the Federation of Egalitarian Communities;
- outreach programs to mainstream businesses -- offering to share our
considerable experience in cooperation, group process, and alternative
ways of managing human resources; and
- support materials for communities struggling with local government
over such issues as zoning, building codes, health department
regulations, and tax status.
How Do We Work Together?
Consensus is the decision-making process used at Fellowship board
meetings, although members come from living groups using many different
styles of governance -- only some of which include a form of consensus.
Without judging how other groups make decisions, the Fellowship has
chosen consensus for our work because of its potential for inclusivity
and bridging different perspectives. Consensus supports the full
expression of divergent views, encourages the input of all participants,
and creates openings for a wide range of communitarians to get involved
in communities movement work.
The Fellowship has a pattern of assessing where there's a need, then
jumping into the work whether or not we possess the required skills.
This has resulted in a lot of on-the-job training -- over the last
decade Fellowship members have become publishers, editors, accountants,
distribution and marketing experts, computer wizards, bulk-mail
coordinators, consensus trainers, conference planners, database
managers, public speakers, writers, and diplomats.
As we work together, mutual understanding deepens, trust builds, and
Fellowship meetings and projects become rich sharing experiences -- much
more than just occasions for doing business. As a decentralized
organization, different tasks are managed from different sites around
the country, and it's not uncommon for a project team to be scattered
across the continent. In this electronic age, location is not the
limiting factor it once was, as a quick review of Fellowship work
assignments illustrates.
The Directory is managed in Missouri while articles are edited in
Virginia -- with substantial help from folks as widespread as
California, Oregon, Texas, and Tennessee. The Directory Listings are
updated by a networker who travels around the country continuously while
coordinating with the database manager who resides in Michigan. For
Communities magazine, the managing editor lives in Colorado, the Reach
editor lives in Massachusetts, and the guest editor may live anywhere.
The membership Newsletter is edited in Kentucky, printed in Illinois,
and mailed out of Missouri. Fellowship headquarters is near Seattle, and
the organization is incorporated in Indiana.
Who Joins the Fellowship?
In a word -- anyone. That is, anyone interested in supporting the
intentional communities movement and the vision of the Fellowship. A
member community may be an ecovillage, a cohousing group, a residential
cooperative, a hippie farm, or a monastery. Individual members may live
in a cooperative situation, or may be completely unaffiliated.
Alternative businesses and networking organizations can join as
nonresidential affiliates (see membership card on the last page for
details). [[in progress]]
Send your written inquiries to
Fellowship headquarters
Rt 1 Box 155
Rutledge, MO 63563
or call us at 660-883-5545 (fax-7828). If you call long
distance and reach our answering machine, your call will be returned
"collect" -- unless you leave your mailing address.
A Dream Come True For many of us, the Fellowship is the
realization of a long-sought vision: a continental association dedicated
to the nurturing and promotion of intentional community living, and to
helping people find the right home in community for themselves and their
families. This dream can grow only as fast as more people feel the call
to share their energy with other communitarians; if you're inspired to
participate in the flowering of the intentional communities movement,
please get in touch. We'd love to hear from you.
The editorial board of the Fellowship for Intentional Community
publicizes news of interest to communitarians and others engaged in
cooperative lifestyles. The editorial board seeks to increase awareness
of intentional communities and related projects through Fellowship
publications: the FIC Newsletter, Communities magazine, Communities
Directory, and various occasional mailings. Board members and
intentional community members are listed in this article.
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