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Sometimes It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better

Ten days ago I was working with Monan's Rill, a 35-year-old Quaker-based community near Santa Rosa CA. Started in 1973 (just one year before my community, Sandhill Farm) they were unusual in that the founders were mostly in their 50s, inspired to build an intentional community in their "retirement" years. (I put that in quotes because I can hardly imagine a more demanding and consuming endeavor than creating a successful community from the ground up—yet that's what they did. The founders were fireballs, who did not go gentle into that good night.)

In any event, now the founders are all gone. Either passed away or relocated to assisted living, where the daily demands of getting around are less physically rigorous. For the members who comprise Monan's Rill today, there's a question about who the community is and where is it headed, which is part of the reason they invited me in.

I was asked to focus on two main things: 1) getting greater clarity about what non-monetary contributions are expected of members toward the development and well being of the community; and 2) how to work constructively with conflict when it emerges among members and complicates an issue. I was asked to both get traction on the thorny topic of Work/Participation and to provide a model for dealing with complex and volatile issues in general. For the 24 hours I'd be working with them (about 10 hours of plenary meetings), there was no danger of running out of things to talk about.

Sailing the Seven C's

I'm preparing a talk that I'll give this evening at Friends House, a Quaker retirement facility in Santa Rosa CA. As part of it I'll be talking about how to build community. In wrestling with how to organize my material (and be entertaining at the same time), I've hit upon the rubric of the Seven C's, which I'm test driving here:

1. Communication
The key here is developing the ability to listen accurately. Of course, it also helps to be able to be clear and concise in stating your own views, yet hearing well is crucial. Doing this well typically means developing a range of ways to communicate (styles and formats), so that you are using a language that is comfortable and easily understood by others. If making the connection is important, then be prepared to travel most of the way to others, instead of making them come to you.

Factors here include slang, time of day, how long you speak without pausing for the other person to respond, eye contact... even how close you are physically to the other person. There's a lot to this!

2. Curiosity
How interested are you (or more to the point, how interested do you appear to be) in what others are saying, especially if they have views that are different than your own. The more genuinely welcoming you can be, the better this is going to go. Please understand that I'm not saying you have to agree with someone to be curious about how they got there.

3. Courage

Twin Oaks & Television

I have a three-lettered acronym that comes in handy as a process consultant: OBE. (No, it doesn’t mean Order of the British Empire, though that’s a useful bit of crossword trivia.) In my argot, it means “overtaken by events.” I use it to describe situations that are difficult to resolve, yet which become moot when circumstances shift.

For example, learning how to type accurately was an important secretarial skill when people relied on the technology of mimeograph machines to create inexpensive copies (it was an absolute booger correcting mistakes on a stencil, necessitating costly delays). Today, in the era of high-speed photocopiers, no one uses stencils. With computer word processing and inexpensive printers, it’s no big deal to rework a document and crank out a fresh original if someone discovers a typo. Although it’s more important today that everyone learns to type—it’s hard to imagine functioning without email or access to the Web—the need to type accurately is largely OBE.

In general, people live in intentional communities with the purpose of altering their lifestyles to something more in line with their values than they can readily find among mainstream options. It’s what makes them “intentional.” While communities vary substantially in where they draw their lines, for the purpose of this article I want to focus on the history of television at Twin Oaks, which is a well-established income-sharing community in central Virginia that celebrated its 41st anniversary last June. Twin Oaks members have always been deliberate about how much they let outside culture seep into their environment, and yet the floodgates are never closed completely.

Growing green manure crops

Radical Culture Shock: The Desire for Community and the Need for Private Space

A. Allen Butcher, Denver, August 2008

For conversations on this material readers are invited to join an email list:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thefecwide/join
or
Send an email to: thefecwide-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

You Share What?!

What is the most shocking thing about communal society? Different people may answer that question in different ways. For some it may be income-sharing and the resulting freedom from dependence upon any one person or upon the nuclear family for one’s economic well-being, as is the norm in the dominant culture. For others it may be the social acceptance of having multiple or other non-traditional sexual partners, yet for most people, however, it could be something much more basic to human nature.

This paper is a follow-up to two others I’ve written recently, the first being about the change in the ideology that Kat Kinkade espoused as the reason-for-being of the member communities of the Federation of Egalitarian Communities, Twin Oaks, East Wind and Acorn, which she co-founded. (See: http://www.thefec.org for: “Kat Kinkade and the Communal Theories of Equality and of Sharing.”) Over the decades Kat realized that striving for equality was problematic, even though it was she who invented the most effective form of communal economic system, the vacation-credit system. Over time she realized that the tendency toward leveling everyone to the same amount of economic consumption was not conducive to social harmony. Kat wrote, “Secular communal economies must, to be successful, be full of holes. I think that if they are too tight, too ‘equal,’ they will fail, because people would not be able to stand the constraints. ... Most people value small liberties more than they value small equalities, and therefore society works better if the rules aren't too rigid. Equality is a means, not an end.” (Kinkade, "Is It Utopia Yet?" 1994, p. 47, 50)

Breaking daddy out of jail

“You’ve done this twice before, I have problems also with Dominion’s nuclear stuff, but why do you have to break the rules?” the magistrate from Orange County was angry, referring to my two prior US trespassing offenses at the Exelon Headquarters outside of Chicago and Vermont Yankee reactor complex.

“This is not the only thing I do to try to stop this reactor. I am a Dominion stock holder, I go to every shareholders meeting and talk with senior management about the problems with this proposal. I write letters to the editor, I lobby the county supervisors, I work with organizations which lobby in Washington…”

“Good, so why do you have to break the rules?” He interrupts exasperated.

“Because these things are not effective enough. It is like Martin Luther King fighting for civil rights.”

“I don’t want to talk about that.” He dismissed

“You asked me why, I’m telling you.”

Job Opening: PEACH FUZZ - Independant Facilitator for PEACH

PEACH is looking to fill the FUZZ position within its structure. We are soliciting applications and recommendations for the following job:

To apply or make a recommendation, please email us at jobs@theFEC.org .

PEACH FUZZ

( Facilitator with Urbanity, Zeal, and Zest )

Required time commitment: approx. 10-100 hrs/year

The following skills and characteristics are desired of the PEACH FUZZ:

o Good communication skills, both orally and in writing
o Experienced in conflict resolution, consensus, and group dynamics.
o Able to bridge effectively between different viewpoints
o Able to constructive and creatively work different viewpoints
o Good work habits
o Able to handle criticism .
o Has the time and motivation to do the job.
o Comfortable with email, conference calls, and other forms of electronic communication.

The FUZZ will have the following responsibilities & duties:

o Monitoring all communication to ensure appropriate consensus process is being followed, all concerns are being recognized and dealt with, and that the tone of the communication is respectful and productive.

o Intervening when conflict arises and assisting in resolving the conflict. While the FUZZ is expected to exercise discretion about when co intervenes, they have the authority to pro-actively investigate whenever co feels something may be amiss.

o Maintaining regular contact with all participating communities, particularly with the MELBAs, their Back-ups, and others concerned with health care issues.

o Encouraging MELBAs to regularly solicit input from their home community about PEACH operations, and reminding each participating entity to periodically evaluate their MELBA's performance.

o Ensuring proper process is followed by the MELBAs, the PIT, and the SEED when making decisions.

Kat Kinkade and the Communal Theories of Equality and of Sharing

Allen Butcher, July 2008 (EW ’75-’83, TO ’85-’89)

For conversations on this material readers are invited to join an email list:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thefecwide/join
or
Send an email to: thefecwide-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

***

This paper presents in Kat Kinkade’s own words her invention of the vacation-credit communal economic system, and her later abandonment of the ideals of equality and communalism due to her concerns about envy and the lack of personal incentive. This paper only addresses Kat’s comments on economic issues of labor and money, while her views on politics and decision-making require a separate paper.

Kat co-founded three communal societies, Twin Oaks (TO), East Wind (EW) and Acorn, and named its networking association the “Federation of Egalitarian Communities.” In Kat’s later disillusionment with communal society may be found inspiration for changing the emphasis in communal theory from equality to sharing, and for developing new experiments in communitarian design.

***

Kat in “Journal of a Walden Two Commune,” from “Walden House Newsletter,” Aug, 1966, p. 8

The holding of property in common at Walden House is not an article of dogma. We don’t do it because it was recommended by Jesus or Marx. We do it because it saves money and makes sense. Where it ceases to have these functions, we cease to practice it.

Kat in “Journal of a Walden Two Commune,” from “Walden House Newsletter,” Aug, 1966, p. 14

Equality in a community is a relationship so structured that no member envies another. Simple.

Power and Structure

Wednesday—the last day of meetings discussing the future of PEACH [see my July 4 and July 13 blogs for more about this]—we tackled a tough issue around communication guidelines. There have been problems with the program representatives not always adequately informing their home communities what’s going on or soliciting member input before making program decisions. To what extent should we be attempting to address those concerns by requiring more steps for the representatives and administrators to take before making decisions, and to what extent should the burden of responsibility fall on the communities who have either not been making great selections in their representatives, or not holding them accountable for fully informing the community of what’s going on?

I’m worried that the easier solution is to shackle the administrators (asking for more frequent reports; not allowing decisions to be made unless everyone has voiced an opinion [that is, not allowing silence to be interpreted as assent]; dividing the administrative tasks into more jobs, so no single person is as powerful; pushing for more structure and limiting individual discretion), which is an example of addressing a power disparity by hamstringing those perceived as more powerful, rather than focusing on strengthening the weak spots. I don’t think it's a good approach.

That said, it’s still a real dilemma how to reasonably strengthen the community representatives. Most of the work is clerical, with the occasional need for serious consideration about a tough issue—around which tens of thousands of dollars may hinge. It’s hard to assign your best people to this job because of the low amount of challenging work, and yet it can be highly expensive to not have a heavy hitter in there when a hair ball comes along.

Garlic Harvest

Garlic - hmmmm - like it? Seems most folx I know either love it or don’t. It’s such a natural & healthy food: and it has antibacterial & antiviral properties, an immune system enhancer, and at our place, indispensable in any kind of fried, stir fried, and any number of other dishes.

garlic curing

We’ve always grown our own garlic for our own use. About 20 years ago, we decided to grow garlic as a cash crop as well - something like 7-800 lb annually. We sold mostly to food coops. After awhile, it seemed that our return on our labor was very low ($1/hr ? - hard to tell since we do not do labor accounting). We downsized our garlic plantings so that we have enough for ourselves, to make prepared mustard (we sell mustard as one of our products), to sell at fairs we go to, and occasionally some to stores. We just can’t seem to not grow a bunch! It’s such a beautiful crop, relatively easy to grow, so tasteee!, and good for you!.

The photo is of this year’s garlic - harvested July 12 - the plants are tied in bundles of about 10 and then hung on the wall of one of our barns: they are “curing” or drying. The tops are still somewhat green and the energy/life force of the plant concentrates in the bulb as it dries. When dried, the garlic will store at room temperature for 6-9 months.

growing grains on a small farm

Twin Oaks Founder Kat Kinkade: Dead at 77

There was no fireworks for me this 4th of July. I have been mourning the loss of Kat Kinkade, my long-time friend and community founder, who died July 3 of complications related to the bone cancer she'd been battling for years. Thankfully, she died among family and friends, in her bed at Twin Oaks, the egalitarian community she helped found in 1967.

I last saw Kat in August, at the cottage her daughter Josie had bought for her seven years ago in nearby Mineral VA. In recent years it had been become a ritual for me to come by for a visit during the annual Twin Oaks Communities Conference, usually sneaking off for a couple hours Sunday morning. She'd receive visitors in her upholstered reclining chair, while I sat on the couch. During the course of the visit, one or more of her five cats might wander through the conversation and we'd touch on what we were reading, what we were thinking about, mutual acquaintances, community politics, and how are children were faring—roughly in that order.

Ninety minutes would pass in a blink. Instead of Tuesdays with Morie, these last handful of Augusts I had Sundays with Kat. It had become a precious ritual that has now, sadly, come to an end.

In addition to being my friend, Kat was a politician, an author, a musician, and a wit. In saying good-bye, I'd like to recount an example of how I knew her as each, offered chronologically.

Kat the Politician

twin oaks is purty

here are some pictures a photographer friend of brian's took recently, while visiting us. the 2nd one is my window, and some windchimes that my dad carved out of bamboo. the rest are on this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/brianadler67/TwinOaks

Dimensions of Community: Party of Two

This is the second installment of a series I began June 6 on the Dimensions of Community. Today I'm going to consider community from the perspective of couples. Not necessarily intimate couples; just two people building relationship and connection.

For this series, I will not be using "community" as shorthand for "intentional community." Instead, I'll be purposefully exploring and defining community in its fullest and broadest sense. So think expansively (I am). As part of my FIC elevator speech, I tell people that, "We're in the community business." This series is meant as a journey of discovery about all that that can mean.

In essence, community is about association. It's about connection and affiliation. While it implies consciousness and reciprocity, I will assume neither.

Today I'll look at what two can create. While any connection can have value for the parties involved, some couples manifest magic:

Premise #1: Two can create synergy. That is, the energy created by a connection between two people can be something more than the sum of what each member of the couple can create on their own. However, it is not automatic that this will happen.

Roanoke College

"How many people think climate change is a serious problem?" i ask the class of Roanoke College students. Perhaps 2/3rds of the students lazily raise their hands.

"So what are we going to do about climate change? If it is a serious problem how are we going to stop it?" i challenge and start taking down their answers on the board.

"Wind power", "Solar", "Conservation", "Nuclear power", "Saving energy", "Geothermal power", "Tidal energy", "Increased efficiency" - They shouted out with increasing enthusiasm.

"So this is great. Basically we are talking two general types of solutions. Clean power generation and saving energy or using it more efficiently. I do a bunch of work on energy - best guesses are these two approaches will net perhaps 20% reductions each. So we are talking carbon levels by 40%. Except the UN commission on climate change says we have to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050. So where it is going to come from? is humanity doomed ?"

An uncomfortable silence fills the room.

"Well there is a very powerful technique which could save us. It is a concept we learned in kindergarden. It's called ..." pause for dramatic effect. "Sharing".

Strange look in students eyes, "what is he talking about?"

And i launch into my rap about sharing system at Twin Oaks. How we share cars and thus consumer over 80% less fuel than our mainstream counter parts. Now some kids are waking up. The professor is clealry in love with us.

Small Fruit Season

dirty hippies / twin oaks 41st anniversary!

here's a group picture taken recently (i'm in the front, waving my hands retardedly for some reason). twin oaks just had its 41st anniversary, which we celebrated by making a billion delicious flavors of homemade ice cream, building a giant fort, making musics, body painting, dancing, feasting, and being jolly in general. here are some pictures of the festivities (including this hilarious guy that keeps coming here to visit his sister, but then pretends to be Borat the entire time, and even dresses up in suits with american flag ties)... i took some videos too, of people putting on musical performances, but i'll put them up later...

something else that happened on anniversary: while we were all in the main dining hall, enjoying a glorious anniversary feast, one of our work buildings (Oz) on the other side of the property, caught on fire and burned to the ground!! there was a big thunderstorm at the time, so we suspect lightning. that particular building was where we varnished wood for the hammocks we make, so i guess it was pretty flammable. luckily, we didn't have a lot of merchandise or supplies being stored in there so it wasn't a devastating loss.

Dimensions of Community: Party of One

For the next stretch of blog entries, I'll be presenting a series on the Dimensions of Community. It was inspired by an animated plenary conversation on Creating Cmty Where You Are during the last day of the FIC organizational mtgs—just concluded at Hummingbird Cmty in the rarified air of northern NM. (If I'm any good at channeling the ideas and excitement of that conversation, perhaps, at least this once, you won't have had to have been there.)

For this series, I will not be using "community" as shorthand for "intentional cmty." Instead, I'll be purposefully exploring and defining cmty in its fullest and broadest sense. So think expansively (I am). As part of my FIC elevator speech, I tell people that, "We're in the cmty business." This series is meant as a journey of discovery about all that that can mean.

In essence, cmty is about association. It's about connection and affiliation. While it implies consciousness and reciprocity, I will assume neither.

This first offering will focus on community and the individual: Party of One

For a connection to occur, two (or more) things need to be linked. One end of that is yourself, and today I'll confine my remarks to just that single terminus. What does it take to be available for cmty?

Happy 34th!

Yesterday, Sandhill celebrated it's 34th anniversary.

We had an all-day party, which included a gigantic potluck dinner, a Treasure Hunt for the young (or young at heart, and spry of foot), sweat lodge, barn dance, and may pole—all interlarded with lots of conversation and laughter. The rain almost held off until we were done. Some of the neighbors were caught by the late precipitation, and stayed the night, extending our party into this morning. It was a lovely time.

This year the revelers had a distinctively younger cast. In addition to Sandhill's under-40 additions of Apple, Thea & Jacob, Kevin & Ann, and freshly arrived intern Sarah, there have been four babies born at neighboring Dancing Rabbit and Red Earth Farms (two each) since our party last year. The wheel is turning.

The way I understand it, the Greeks considered 34 to be the perfect age—the point where youth and vigor were just balanced by age and experience. So what's not to like about the cmty being 34? Who can resist the lure of claiming to be the "perfect age"? Who knows, maybe we'll have the perfect growing season. (Though for that to occur, it'll need to warm up and dry off licketty split, and I'm not holding my breath.)

After years of a lower population (down to five adults) we're now on the rise again. While it would be a stretch to call life here perfect, morale is high, the sun is shining on our faces, and the wind is at our back. And that's worth celebrating at any age.