MINUTES 6/10/10 Potluck

[Travis Linds]

I very thoroughly enjoyed the potluck tonight, I felt something I have not felt for a very long time, a sense of community. It has become clear to me that this group consists of people that can make change happen, and I am excited to be a member and to be able to help make the change happen while transitioning to a more sustainable lifestyle.

 

Here are the minutes from the 6/10/10 Potluck at my house. The meeting went from 6:45 to 8:00 pm.

 

Cindi Landreth Facilitated, with Travis taking minutes.

 

Agenda:

1)     Different types of community living

2)     Challenges – i.e. perceived incompatibilities

3)     Bruce added the discussion of Chris Wolf’s Co-op Homesteading.

4)     Heather added that there is a need for workshops and it would be good for Western to put on a conference

5)     Renata suggested identifying areas of community living as examples, learn from their successes and failures, determine their tools and living skills

6)     Rhys suggested identifying the Mission Statement (MS)

It was decided to start with the MS. Rhys proposed: “to facilitate the development of sustainable communities and contribute toe Transition Whatcom’s (TW) Energy Descent Action Plan (EDAP).

 

Other adjectives such as intentional, cooperative, collaborative, community, etc and be used in place of Sustainable if desired.

 

Sub Committee established to refine MS and add Vision Statement (VS) and Objectives (as suggested by Nicole) – Travis, Rhys, Renata and Heather

 

1)     Different types of community living

Intentionall Community is often an embrella of other types of living arrangements, such as (provided by the group): co-housing, eco-village, eco-hamlet, community land trust, democratic (work within or outside), special needs or integrate elderly and disabled.

 

Some communities are not even intentional, as Nicole pointed out on her farm, it was more un-intentional. She also added that the communities are best formed around bioregions, and Global Ecovillage’s next phase of communities are embracing the bioregion concept (http://gen.ecovillage.org/ - GREAT RESOURCE). Nicole also made the important connection between intentional communities and permaculture, they are intrinsically linked and a community needs permaculture as its backbone to keep it connected with the earth (I may have paraphrased a little J)

 

More examples are intentional neighborhoods, shared housing, housing coops. Cindi pointed out that Vancouver BC has some great examples of housing coops.

 

At this point Bill L Sterling Jr was leaving and brought up some very good points about the need for social capital in communities, so people can come into a community with whatever they have, build social capital (all jobs equal) and leave with more than they started with. Renata mentioned that Meta Currency (http://www.metacurrency.org/) is available to use for social capital “MetaCurrency is a suite of open protocols for building a resilient decentralized currency network”

 

Back to discussing types, Renata brought up her concept of community supported centers build around organic farms, like communities build up around golf courses today, the farm could be communally owned or privately and operate like a CSA. Dawn added that she has discussed community supported centered in her research. She also added that communities today are missing the “hub” of activity that pulls the community together for activities and interaction (tied to permaculture practices – my add)

 

The discussion of the different types of community living ended with Bruce summarizing that all communities fall along a continuum of interaction, with minimal interaction being similar to many neighborhoods (like mine) today, and to the extreme is basically living as family. We need to find the compromise along this continuum.

 

2)     Challenges

Mobility is a major issue for communities today, people move way more than our ancestors did. And usually we move due to work, we move where we can make money.

 

Age is also a major challenge. For example, Rhys pointed out, 15-25 is a tough period of exploration and mate seeking where young people need to go our and explore the world for themselves. Amish have a good model with Rumspringa - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish#Youth.2C_courting.2C_and_Rumspringa

 

Global ecovillages have mobility built into their model. A tight community (marriage) needs loose reigns – stated Cindi. And she recommended the book “The Company we keep” - http://www.amazon.com/Company-We-Keep-Reinventing-Community/dp/1931498733

 

Another major challenge is that partners don’t always have the same needs and desires. It is unlikley that both partners and family memebers will be able to have all of their needs met in the same community. Can be hard to find agreement.

 

The idea was spawned to provide of examples of previous community living, their challenges and why they failed / or not – will include as a discussion item.

 

A sub committee was then formed with the stated goal, as I recall (Rhys seems to recall differently) to provide postings (at this point a discussion) of avaialbe community living spaces, vacanciense and opportunities. Travis, Rhys and Meredith Ann Murray volunteered for this committee – to be clarified.

 

Cindi also mentioned that she has the founding documents for www.earthhaven.org

 

3)     Bruce added the discussion of Chris Wolf’s Co-op Homesteading.

Moved on to Bruce’s agenda item. The co-op homesteading would be smaller scale, several people/family buy a small homestead and farm it. It could be a transitional step to other living arrangements. Permaculture knowledge, understand and practices would be important. As would be interpersonal communication skills (i.e. NVC). For any community, it is critical to have the prerequisite skill sets. Cindi added that Alan Seid has offered to train on NVC and Reita Atkinson has offered to teach a course (17 yrs of continuous community living experience).

 

Kulshan Community Land trust - http://www.kclt.org/ can help, they are starting movement. Their farm incubator program could be applied to a homestead concept. Ask Laura from Sustainable Connections for more info. Renata has been invited to apply to be a board member of kclt – yeah Renata!!

 

Rhys also mentioned the Evergreen Land Trust - http://www.evergreenlandtrust.org/

 

Agenda items 4, 5 and 6 where already covered.

 

Another subcommittee was formed with Nicole (not a TW member yet, I have her e-mail) Renata and Rhys to work with city/county to change regulations to make community living less restrictive. Also suggested to post this at the Living Democracy group on TW as it is applicable to their goal.

 

Next meeting, June 24^th 5:50 – 7 pm at the Old Foundry (Bruce to make arrangements). Next potluck, in 4 weeks, to be at the Bellingham cohousing commons house (Rhys to arrange).

 

Renata offered to facilitate next meeting and will have an agenda posted under the discussion heading.

 

 

[Travis Linds]

thanks!

Katie Vestal said:

excellent job, Travis. Thank you.

[Rev. Meredith Ann Murray]

Great notes, Travis. Thanks so much. I appreciate you and your wife and daughters opening your home to all of us as well. It is so lovely in a beautiful, peaceful setting. Namaste' Meredith