Community Grapevine

Members of Lost Valley Educational Center in Dexter, Oregon, who offer courses in permaculture and other sustainable living skills, have experienced a positive transformation in terms of community well-being, according to Larry Kaplowitz. Three years ago over half the members left, many new members arrived, and conflict paralyzed the community. People avoided each other, and stopped having meetings.

"At times tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife," Larry recalls. But recently the whole community took the three-day Naka-Ima   course (Japanese for "here now"), conducted by Deborah Riverbend   of Nelson, British Columbia. Larry describes Naka-Ima   as providing an awareness "that being free, clear, and connected is a choice that people can make at any time, regardless of circumstances."

"Basically, we have all fallen in love with each other," he says. Hugs, once rare, now break out spontaneously and often. Members are working cooperatively again. "During our last conference members couldn't stay out of the kitchen. Everyone kept coming in to help with the cooking or dishes just because it was so much fun to be together."

"We trust each other a lot more now," he says, "and we're willing to take risks and make mistakes, which has made our decision-making process a lot quicker and a whole lot more fun."

Of course the community still has its challenges. "But they don't weigh us down or pull us apart anymore. We use conflicts as opportunities to get closer."

Members of Du-Ma community in Eugene, Oregon, also took the Naka-Ima   course, and according to member Allen Hancock, Du-Ma has been undergoing a similar transformation. Taking the course inspired the seven-member household to think more positively and take greater risks, Allen says, for example, borrowing money to repaint and reroof their house and install skylights.

Lost Valley now sponsors Naka-Ima  courses for other communities. For information, contact Larry at 81868 Lost Valley Lane, Dexter, OR 97431; 541-937-3351; lvec@aol.com.

Communication and decision-making skills were also enhanced at Cardiff Place CoHousing in Victoria, British Columbia, according to member Brad Jarvis, after the whole community took Caroline Estes' two-day workshop on consensus and facilitation. Cardiff Place (17 families living in a converted mansion and a new building on a half-acre lot in town) has been using consensus since their first meeting in 1992, but has added some new elements brought by Caroline, a veteran consensus facilitator and teacher, and member of 25-year old Alpha Farm near Deadwood, Oregon.

Edenvale, a small Emissary community which operates a newly created conference and retreat center near Aldergrove, BC, was the site of the May '97 organizational meeting of the Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC) (see "Fellowship News," p. 56). The new retreat business is doing well, according to manager Laura Fisher, growing from 90 customer days in 1996 to over 200 customer days this year.

"We attribute the positive response to the comfortable home-like atmosphere here," says Laura, "which comes from 22 years of living in community and focusing on the vision of assisting others in their spiritual growth." The small community (seven adults and two children on 118 acres) is also home to Horses and More, a therapeutic riding program for mentally and physically challenged adults. It's also doing quite well.

For information on Edenvale's facilities, contact Laura at 4330 Bradner Road, Matsqui, BC V4X 158, Canada; 250-856-3298.

Many attendees of the Edenvale FIC meeting enjoyed informal tours and visits with members of Community Alternative Society's 11-household apartment building in Vancouver and 10-acre farm near Aldergrove, BC, thanks to host and CAS. cofounder Jan Bulman. The FIC group also visited Windsong CoHousing in Langley, BC, the first cohousing community in North America designed with a glass roof covering its central pedestrian "street."

Community networking is also on the rise farther south. Commonnest is a newly formed coalition of 35 collective households in urban San Francisco. The organization distinguishes between "collective households," which create community by participatory decision making, shared resources, common meals, etc. and "group houses," in which residents share rent and some responsibilities, but aren't necessarily interested in creating community per se.

According to Elizabeth Sullivan, Commonnest socializes in monthly Soup Nights (she's a member of its "Stirring Committee") with different activities, such as speakers or slide shows. They also plan projects, such as an upcoming bicycle tour of collective households in San Francisco. Future projects may include helping educate local banks about lending opportunities for collective houses, helping member households get funding to buy their own houses, or offering inexpensive trainings and networking gatherings. For information, contact Elizabeth at 415-974-4384.

Commonnest member Hank Ober mayer, of the four-person Mulch House in San Francisco, is now Project Manager of Northern California Mutual Housing Association. This recently reorganized nonprofit will now serve intentional communities in the region, focusing particularly on affordable, resident-controlled housing such as housing co-ops and collective households, rather than on market-rate communities.

NCMHA has contracts from HUD and a grant from the National Cooperative Bank to help developers and residents create new housing co-ops and collective households in the area (by building from scratch or rehabilitating existing buildings), and to help renters become resident-owners of their own buildings.

The organization will help groups organize their legal structures and learn how and where to get development funds; advocate with local officials on behalf of co-op and group housing; and offer inexpensive trainings in property management, visioning, consensus or other forms of participatory decision making, and how to negotiate with financial institutions, housing developers, and local officials. Because many low-income housing co-ops focus more on "housing" than "community," NCMHA will help co-op members learn better communication and decision-making skills and how to create more community spirit.

One current project is to provide any assistance needed to a spinoff of Santa Rosa Creek Commons in Santa Rosa, California, a 27-unit Quaker-originated co-op that hopes to develop other, similar communities in the area, but with an emphasis on low-income and very-low-income residents.

"Another project, which is both exciting and intimidating," says Hank, "is to bring together members of urban collective houses with low-income housing cooperatives. What can they learn from each other? How can they help and inspire each other? Since they have many of the same needs, and we offer the same services to both groups, it makes sense to foster a mutual support network among them."

For more information, contact Hank Obermayer at NCMHA, 2619 Broadway, Suite 305, Oakland, CA 94612; 510-628-3620; ncmha@igc.apc.org.

Members of Circle Op Springs, a 124-acre rural community outside of Moab, Utah, completed the first phase of their new community building this spring. Construction began with a timberframing workshop by Robert Laporte   in March and a strawbale workshop with David Eisenberg   in April. The building combines timberframing, strawbale and clay-straw walls, and an earthen floor. Community members are working closely with county building officials on these sustainable alternatives, according to member Nicholas Brown. When complete, the new building will have a kitchen, dining room/meeting room, small living room, office, children's room, storage rooms, showers, composting toilets and a greywater system--making life easier for Circle Op's 10 members, some of whom live in town and some on the land in temporary structures.

Twenty-seven year old Zendik Farm is moving - again! Located a half-mile south of Austin, Texas, for the last six years (they first lived in southern California), this longtime community of artists and activists are seeking to relocate to North Carolina or Virginia. One reason is to help the community leader and founder, Wolf Zendik, who is now 77 and hasn't been well lately, feel more comfortable in a different climate.

The community is also feeling pulled to do less farming and to respond more to the needs of young people - the community's primary constituency - through additional outreach and workshops. Zendik has traditionally supported itself by offering apprenticeship programs to youth, especially youth at risk, to whom they teach skills from auto maintenance to music and graphic arts. The community also sells its music tapes and arts magazine. "This move is a natural evolution for us," says member Shey Pinsof.

Meanwhile, Zendik's 310-acre certified-organic land is for sale - and they want to sell to another intentional community. They've successfully grown wheat, other grains, and hay on their land, which sits in a bend in the Lower Colorado River by a grove of native Texas pecan trees. The land has two good wells, a six-acre vegetable garden, hay and goat barns, woodshops and other outbuildings for crafts, and enough houses (including a dome and a treehouse) to accommodate up to 70 people.

For more information, contact Shey Pinsof, Zendik Farm, Star Rt. 16C-3, Bastrop, TX, 78602; 512-303-4620 or 512-303-1637; zendik@eden.com.

The four households of Woodbine Community in north central Florida are excited about finding their new land and the addition of a fifth household, according to member Ellie Sommer. In June, after months of negotiations with the seller and neighbors (whose permission they needed for access right-of-way), they purchased 125 acres of rural land just outside Gainesville.

Woodbine's purpose is simple: members wish to enjoy each other's company and share and preserve the land - which is teeming with wildlife and includes virgin Florida cypress swamps, sandhills, and stands of old-growth oak and pine. Local zoning and building code regulations require them to subdivide their land into nine five-acre parcels ("The county just doesn't get it about community!" says Ellie); however, the community can preserve the remaining 80 acres as common land.

With openings for four more households, Woodbine can be reached c/o Susan Marynowski, Rt. 3 Box 24H, Hawthorne, FL 32640 (sumar@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu), or Ellie Sommer, 5200 NW 43rd St., Gainesville, FL 32606 (eksommer@afn.org).

The 60-year-old Celo Community in Burnsville, North Carolina is considering a plan to assist member families at a time of death, and "avoid the ostentation and extravagance which tend to characterize American funerals," according to Celo's Corresponding Secretary Ernest Morgan. The plan would help with alternatives such as community burial or cremation, Living Wills, Health Care Powers of Attorney, and so on.

Ernest Morgan, who recently celebrated his 92nd birthday, is author of Dealing Creatively With Death: A Manual of Death Education and Simple Burial. It has sold 300,000 copies, and is still going strong.

Earthaven, a 325-acre forming "neo-tribal village" outside of Asheville, North Carolina, took C.T. Butler's  two-day workshop on Formal Consensus in June. The following day C.T. facilitated their meeting according to the principles they'd just learned.

"He continually brought our focus back to the stage of discussion where we were at, as well as to the actual content of the discussion," reports Adeha Fuestel. "Many of us noticed feeling a lot lighter than usual after a meeting." She expects a proposal to adopt the Formal Consensus method for a six-month trial period.

Selected photos of Communities   magazine cartoonist Jonathan Roth, formerly of Twin Oaks in Virginia, were featured in a show in August at a New York city gallery of fine photography. Congratulations, Jonathan!

Maat Dompim is seeking new land, as their ideal parcel in Virginia was taken off the market. Cofounders Blanche Jackson   and Amoja Three Rivers  are seeking 60 to 70 acres of wooded or partially wooded mountain land with some county road frontage, anywhere in the United States, under $700 an acre. Their ideal location would be in a rural area free of toxic waste dumps and environmentally unhealthy industries, where people aren't hostile to alternative lifestyles and people of color, and within two hours of a city with substantial multiracial and progressive women's populations.

If you know of a location or land parcel to suggest, contact Blanche and Amoja at Maat Dompim, Womyn of Color Land Project, Auto Rd., Auto, WV 24917; 540-992-0248.

Rural Birdsfoot Farm, located on 78 acres near Canton, New York, threw a giant party in August to celebrate its 25th anniversary as a community. People came from down the road and from out of state; guests included dozens of former residents and interns, according to member Rob Carr. Rob is now in his second year of physical therapy school. Member Steve Molnar, a teacher, just launched Birdsfoot Learning Center, offering tutoring, special programs for local home schoolers, and a mobile classroom in an old school bus. Dulli Tengeler  is in the first year of her new business selling cotton row covers to organic growers. The 17-year old market garden business, owned by several Birdsfoot members, sells organic produce to local retail and wholesale markets. The business has grown and is doing well, grossing $28,000 last year, according to gardener Doug Jones. Birdsfoot Farm is open to prospective members. CR25, Box 138, Canton, NY 13617.

Some good news for Isaac Dawson, member of the Messianic Community in Winnipeg, who can now see his son Michael, 14, for several days at a time, thanks to the kind intervention of a policeman. Our Fall '95 "cults" issue described how anti-cult activists had harassed the group of 20 Christian Messianic Communities, because, members believed, of their millenarian beliefs and communal lifestyle.

Isaac's son Michael had repeatedly been seized by Canadian authorities from the group's Community at Myrtle Tree Farm in Nova Scotia since 1986 to protect him from alleged child abuse - and repeatedly returned with all charges dropped. In 1994 authorities seized Michael again and placed him in the custody of his mother, who did not live in the community. Isaac was again acquitted of all charges; however, the Canadian provincial government requested and got a retrial (legal in Canada) and upheld Michael's mother's demand that Isaac not see his son. When a policeman saw that the boy in fact did want to see his father, he arranged for police-approved visits between the two. The retrial is scheduled for November 1997.

The third floor of a non-profit condominium on the site of a former distillery in Toronto has been reserved for the Womyn's Intentional Community Association as an all-women cohousing community. Up to 19 women will purchase individual apartments and share common space. The common space and a larger community center on the site will be available for women's gatherings. The project is founded on feminist philosophy and support for Earth-based spirituality. Ownership is open to all women; male partners are welcome as co-owners. For more information, 416-630-0660.

Good news for the households of Village Cohousing in Madison, Wisconsin. After searching three years for a central urban site, they found the ideal spot - five turn-of-the-century houses on two-thirds of an acre within a mile of downtown. To retrofit the property to accommodate an eventual 15-18 households, they plan to turn four of the houses into duplexes, tear down the garages, and in the common backyards build townhomes and a common house with underground parking and two more units on the second floor.

Paradoxically, remodeling and rehabilitating old houses is "very costly" compared to tearing all the homes down and building from scratch, according to Art Lloyd. He says the group is willing to spend the money to retain the houses' handsome interiors and because retrofitting is more environmentally sound than new construction. Partly because of this Village Cohousing has received an unusually positive response from property owners in the neighborhood, as well as from planning officials and city staff.

To try to make the project more affordable, the two members who originally bought the land may donate it to a land trust so that others pay only for individual units and a ground lease. Community spirit is alive and well in Madison!

Acorn Community member Tree Bressen  attended last November's annual meeting of the Society for Utopian Studies. This international academic association has been bringing together college professors and others to study utopian visions in all their forms for over 20 years. Tree discovered a down-to-earth group exploring theoretical possibilities of worlds different from our own - through sources ranging from utopian and dystopian novels, to historic communes and sci-fi books and movies - literally, from Orwell's 1984   to Star Trek: The Next Generation.

"I found that while attendees were in touch with visions of a better world," she reports, "many despaired of ever achieving them. These folks knew enough to be upset by the realities of mainstream society, but apparently didn't know much about people now creating genuine alternatives. When I told them about communitarians who are doing things more ecologically, more humanely, or more sustainably, faces lit up all around! And I became even more convinced that those of us choosing a community lifestyle can learn from scholars who devote significant energy to thinking about new ways of life."

These scholars can take heart by learning about communities from us! The next Society for Utopian Studies conference will be held October 13-16, 1997 in Memphis, Tennessee. Contact Prof. Wagner, Dept. of English, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152; 901-678-4329; jawagner@cc.memphis.edu.

The North American Cohousing Conference will take place September 18-21 in Seattle. Marci, Puget Ridge CoHousing, 206-763-2623.

"Communal Frontiers," the annual conference of the Communal Studies Association, is slated for October 9-12 this year in Tacoma, Washington. CSA, PO Box 122, Amana, IA 52203; 319-622-6446; csa@netins.net; www.well.com/user/cmty/csa/.

"The Art of Community," a low-cost regional networking gathering featuring workshops about community living, and a Community Fair (communities seeking members, people seeking communities) is scheduled for November 21-23, 1997 at Sunrise Ranch in Loveland, Colorado. It's sponsored by the Fellowship for Intentional Community, which will also hold its organizational meeting (public welcome) at Sunrise Ranch on November 18-21. Contact the FIC at 816-883-5545 or fic@ic.org for more information about either event.