Business Ventures, #163 Contents

Placeholder image for Foundation for Intentional Community website.
Christopher Roth
  • May 31, 2014
Young woman with curly hair feeding a goat in a forested community farm setting.

Issue #163 • Summer 2014

Business Ventures: Theme Articles

Business. Busy-ness. Coincidence? By Christopher Kindig

Improving our relationships to work, money, and entrepreneurship can dramatically enhance our sense of community and quality of life.

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange Wrestles with Growth By Irena Hollowell

For an income-sharing group in Virginia, economic success presents challenges and opportunities.

Dancing Rabbit’s Exchange Local Money System: The Promise of Local Currencies and Interest-Free Financing By Nathan Brown

Place-specific currencies can provide critical financing to the small businesses that keep local communities connected and thriving.

Cooperation and Competition in the Ecovillage By Sam Makita

Earning a living based on responsible competition involves both sharing what we have and asking for what we deserve.

The Entrepreneurial Dilemma By Laird Schaub

Integrating entrepreneurial energy into cooperative communities often proves both difficult and necessary.

Vision, Money, and Sustainability: Bringing in Renters while Building the Dream By Jane Moran

In the quest for sustainability, long-term goals can yield to short-term needs and opportunities, fertilizing new growth in unpredictable ways.

The Dirty Business of Growing a Cohousing Community Farm By Sandy Thomson

A farm is not a clod of dirt; it is more like mud that slips through your hands, gets on your boots, and is tracked all through the community.

Interns: The Spice of Life

Community Vision and Values

Interpersonal Agreements

Core Identity

Sharing Spaces, Sharing Values: Entrepreneurship at Dragon’s Nest Cooperative Homestead By Mary Murphy

“Founder’s joy” can wear off very quickly in the chaos of financial instability and unclear agreements.

Jugglers in the Jungle: Innovation, Special Use Permits, Neighbor Issues, and the Ultimate Work/Life Balance Routine By Dena Smith

On Hawaii’s Big Island, Bellyacres residents navigate through multiple obstacles to pursue sustainable livelihood.

Asking for Money By Laird Schaub

Value-centered fundraising is not about money so much as it is about relationships.

Can You Export Your Mission Business to Another Country? By Tim Bock

Jesus People USA uses its business experience to help friends in Romania fulfill their own mission.

Is Windward Egalitarian? Well, Sort Of … By Lindsay Hagamen and Walt Patrick

Rather than striving for equality of income, Windward focuses on creating diverse opportunities for building financial independence.

Trade School Indy: Bartering a Night School for Everyone By Shawndra Miller

In Indianapolis, education about everything from law and beekeeping to belly dancing and cuddling can be had without the exchange of a single cent.

Designing Like Villagers By Mark Lakeman

Seeing their city as a living ecology, members of a design-activist group work to improve it, whether they are paid or not.

Voices

Publisher’s Note: Dancing with Stars By Laird Schaub

Notes from the Editor: Business Ventures By Chris Roth

Starting a Community: With or Without a Recipe? By Paul Brooks

Consent Decision-Making and Community Vision, Mission, and Aim: How Sociocracy Can Help Communities, Part III By Diana Leafe Christian

Review: The Great Experiment: everyday life in senior cohousing in Denmark By Ariane Kelleris

Review: Fred’s Last Song By Laird Schaub

Review: Out to Change the World: The Evolution of The Farm Community By Diana Leafe Christian

Creating Cooperative Culture: Digging into Community: A reflection from Tamarack’s 1000 Conversations Initiative By Derek Alton

Comments

Featured Blogs

Keep the conversation going with these pieces

Codicts Team
Thu Sep 2016
  • Sustainability
From Sept. 17-25, 2016, the London Design Festival will feature an art installation inspired by Ernest Callenbach’s 1975 book Ecotopia. In the book, a journalist visits a newly-formed country in the Pacific Northwest that’s built on sustainable permaculture principles. The installation will explore …
Codicts Team
Fri Jul 2014
  • New to community
  • Economics & Law
“Founder’s joy” can wear off very quickly in the chaos of financial instability and unclear agreements.
Christopher Roth
Wed Sep 2011
  • New to community
  • Economics & Law
Finding meaningful, socially and ecologically responsible work cannot be done in a vacuum. Right livelihood depends on networks of relationship.
Codicts Team
Tue Mar 2018
  • New to community
  • Economics & Law
A cohousing project’s budget can help address class and classism—but the community also needs to articulate and explore its culture’s underlying or hidden rules.
Codicts Team
Wed May 2016
  • New to community
  • Economics & Law
Community Bookstore Feature Best of Communities ― The Cream of Our Crop Cooperative Economics and Creating Community Where You Are by Kim Kanney, Community Bookstore Manager Best of Communities Volume XIII Cooperative Economics and Creating Community Where You Are A special selection of …
Codicts Team
Wed Mar 2018
  • Living in community
  • Economics & Law
Distinctions and boundaries between community members and their homeless guests can be problematic sometimes, but they are also what allow the sharing and caring to continue.
Codicts Team
Tue Aug 2017
  • Living in community
  • Economics & Law
Putting love into practice can be done even when you have nothing materially.
Codicts Team
Thu Apr 2008
  • New to community
Some of the followers of presidential candidate Ron Paul are planning to start a libertarian community in West Texas according to the Lone Star Times. This month has seen the first meeting of the shareholders in a fledgling community development planned in rural Texas, to be comprised exclusively of…
Codicts Team
Mon May 2015
  • Economics & Law
5 ​R​easons ​W​hy ​I​ntentional ​C​ommunities are ​More Relevant Than Ever In the 70’s and 80’s there was a flurry of intentional communities that then seemed to lose their relevance, and less followed. Interest and developments have once again mushroomed for obvious reasons. Here is a brief countd…
Codicts Team
Mon Aug 2016
  • Living in community
  • Governance
The philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti once said, “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” It’s a quote often repeated by alternative healers and counter-cultural thinkers. In the 1980s, four families from Boston – who suffered from depression, schizophrenia, and…

Insights & Stories from the Communities Movement

Subscribe to our newsletter for fresh stories and community updates delivered to your inbox.

Join the Communiversity Community

Get unlimited access to courses, exclusive member events, and a supportive network of community builders

Unlimited Learning

Access all courses, books, and premium content

Community Network

Member-only workshops and community builders

Exclusive Events

Member-only workshops and gatherings

Update to a Public Profile

  • Log in
  • Go to your profile page
  • Toggle on the "Add my profile to the directory"
  • Save your profile

Information

Communities

A residential project: people live here as their primary home.

Organizations

An institution, business, network, or project that isn’t a residence (e.g. a learning center, farm, or network with no one living there full-time).

Plus Community Membership

  • Find people with Profile Match
  • Access to your community listing statistics
  • Create Discussion Groups
  • Access to our affiliate program
  • Member badge on your community profile
I am an official member of this community
Disclaimer
I affirm that my information is accurate and I am authorized to manage this listing
Foundation for Intentional Community FIC Member badge logo.

Free Plan

Free Membership
Free

Intentional Advertising

  • Subtotal

    {{ currencyFormat( pricing_summary.total_amount ) }}

Icon representing community connections and collaboration for intentional communities.

Plus Membership

We’re introducing new Plus features — including community reviews, Profile Match, and unlimited Needs & Offers posts — while keeping most of FIC free for everyone. Membership costs less than two coffees a month. 

  • Find communities with Profile Match
  • View detailed reviews about communities
  • Create free listings in Needs & Offers
  • Plus Member resources in CommUniversity
  • View communities detailed reviews
  • Plus Member badge on your profile