Book Review by Elly

Creating a Life Together – Practical Tools To Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities  Diana Leafe Christian

This book is based on American experiences so not all of it is relevant to Australian communities.  I’m also abbreviating terribly, so I hope I don’t miss out too much.

 Introduction:

She describes the cohousing model as a small neighbourhood of 10-40 households managed by the residents, where they own their own homes and share ownership of community spaces.  Decisions are often made by consensus.    Sometimes meals are shared.

 Here she talks about why intentional communities succeed and fail. After visiting dozens of communities and interviewing dozens of people, she’s detected definite patterns in the behaviour of communities which succeed.  Within the cohousing model the figure is that 25 per cent succeed. This book is basically a distillation and overview of the pattern that the successful groups employ: this is what they did and the processes they put in place.  An important feature of successful groups is not just living together but the reasons for doing so, having a common purpose. 

Part One – Planting the Seeds of a healthy community (six chapters)

Chapter 1:  Structural Conflict: 

Here she first outlines a major problem area which she calls ‘structural conflict’, and six ways to reduce it.  Structural conflicts arise when explicit processes are not put in place, and create ‘time bombs’ which cause future group and personal conflicts.

1.         Identify a shared community vision and create vision documents (Chapter 4).  This should be discussed thoroughly and written down.  It can sometimes take months to unearth unconscious assumptions about what the group is for.

2.         Choose an appropriate decision-making process for the group.  (Chapter 6)  Power issues can create havoc, so the more power is shared the better.  Consensus is often used but sometimes is misunderstood, and you get pseudo-consensus, which is also very debilitating.  Ideally a group needs consensus training.

3.         Agreements need to be clear and in writing.  From the most important legalities and financial agreements to mundane decisions.

4.         Good group communication skills, including conflict resolution skills.

5.         New members policy – need to be chosen for emotional maturity.

6.         Learning new skills, both practical and emotional: head and heart skills.  It’s like trying to start a new business and a marriage simultaneously. 

Cost?  (Chp 9, 10, 11, 12, 14)

Altogether and per member?  This depends on desired area, land values, developed or undeveloped property, and other things.  Starting with undeveloped land will take more effort, time and money than developed buildings. 

 Time? 

Meeting weekly, you’ll still need separate committees to meet between these times, and so the process could take years.  Generally the larger the group, or smaller the assets, the longer it takes. 

As well as money, time, skills and people, she talks about ‘Community glue’, shared experiences between members: a quote is “The longest, most expensive personal-growth workshop you’ll ever take.” 

 What qualities do Group Members Need? (Chp 2)

Apart from the obvious, they also need patience, faith, good communication skills, tenacity, determination, and stamina, as well as a willingness to acknowledge others.

Organising the Group (Chp 3)

The first thing is not to go off and buy land.  The steps that are needed are not necessarily linear, but get done simultaneously.  (Photocopy pages 21, 22)

The main areas that need attention before you buy land are:

1.  Discuss our shared vision.

2.  Choose a decision-making method – find out about consensus.

3.  There’s a whole bunch of stuff we’re already doing, which I won’t talk about (eg. a decision log, et cetera)

4.  Create a preliminary financial model, to get a  rough idea of amount of money needed (Chp 9-16) by using assumptions about kinds of property, cost of search and legal setup, et cetera, and divide by number of members.  This gets constantly tweaked. 

5.  Arranging finances, she suggests that when a legal entity is to be created, or before land search, each member may need to contribute several thousand dollars for expenses; or perhaps start a membership fund, on a monthly contribution. 

Vision  Statements (Chapter 4)  (Photocopy page 39)

This is done before buying land.

She discusses elements of a vision statement.

The Vision is the Who, What, Where:

• Describes the shared future you want to create
• Reveals the group’s core values
• Expresses something each person can identify with
• Gives a reference point during disagreements

Mission:  This is the concrete expression of the shared vision

Values:  Expressed by how you behave now and intend to behave in the group.

Goals:  Milestones you commit to accomplish things.  They can be short term and measurable.

Strategy:  this is the How, When, and Where, and involves budgets, cash flow, timelines. 

Problems arising at this stage:  different group members can have slightly different visions, even though they’re expressed in the same words.   This needs thorough discussion. 

Vision documents (Chp 5)  are the written vision statement.  There are two steps in creating vision statements: Exploring the territory and writing it down. 

She outlines 7 different exercises to get at the kinds of shared vision that people have, and what people want.   These activities sound good, but quite time consuming.  They are:

• Individual values, Group Values (rich)
• Individual Values, group Values (Quick)
• Brainstorming
• Non-negotiables
• Where do we draw the line
• Public Private Scale

They all involve lots of sticky post-it notes on the walls, small group discussions, and red dots, et cetera (which some of you might be familiar with).  They are all designed to stimulate awareness of what you want.  There is a note taker who writes down  main points.  She suggests posters on walls to remind people of what they’re doing.   You’d have to devote a whole meeting to do this.    (Photocopy Page 54)

                        

Decision-Making  (Chapter 6)

A preferred method for making decisions is consensus decision-making, where all present must agree before action is taken.  Each person can speak and is listened to. People do not vote yes or not, but proposals are introduced, discussed and eventually decided on.  They can be improved or modified during discussion.  When deciding, people either: give consent; stand aside; or block. 

Agreement-seeking: This falls between majority rule and consensus.  There’s discussion of proposal, modification and then a vote.  The result needs much more than a simple majority, something like 55-95 per cent. 

Consensus needs:

• Willingness to learn the process.  There is a strong need for training and practice over a few days, or else misunderstanding occurs and creates problems (pseudo-consensus).
• Common purpose, which is used when people disagree.
• Willingness to share power.
• Willingness to let go of personal attachments for the group’s benefit.
• Trusting the process.  By sharing ideas, the group will arrive at a better solution.  Trusting each other to listen and share.
• Humility:  Sometimes considering that one’s personal beliefs about community may be wrong.
• Equal access to power.
• Physical participation.  No-one decides by proxy.  Agreement arises from discussion.
• Not all topics need the whole group.
• Good agendas and skilled facilitation.
• Enough time. 

Pseudo-consensus: This is a problem when people don’t understand and results in structural conflict. 

• Some people talk the rest down.
• Discussion by endurance.
• Everyone has to decide everything.
• People don’t understand the process of blocking.  A block only stands if it is consistent with the group’s stated purpose, otherwise it’s not valid.  

Part Two:  Sprouting a new Community – Techniques and Tools

Chapter 7: Good Documents Make Good Friends.

When making agreements, particularly financial, they need to be written down from the beginning, because people remember things differently.  A group member writes down what everyone thinks they’re agreeing to, and reads it back for confirmation. 

Agreements, also called Policies and Guidelines, in the forming stage they might be:

• Vision documents, policies about membership, decision-making processes, minutes.
• Later they could get more complicated:
• Articles of Incorporation, Community Structure overview, food policy, conflict resolution policy, financial policy which encompasses any agreement about money, visitor policy, land planning, et criteria. 

Chapter 8:  Establishing Your Legal Entity

Not really sure what’s applicable here.  But if you don’t have a legal entity before buying land, you’re unlikely to get bank support.  Also, few lawyers or accountants really understand anything about intentional communities, so you need to make a lot of decisions first before seeing a lawyer, and know which structures fit you best. 

The legal structures that you choose affect: 

• How the title to the land is held
• Property rights
• Financing options
• Tax consequences
• Members’ liability
• Ability to attract new members

Common Legal Entities:  (from chapters 15 and 16)

Some options that might be useful:

Corporations: 

1.      A non-profit corporation is, like a for-profit corporation, an entity distinct from the people who operate it, so any claims are filed against it rather than the people individually, who have ‘limited liability’.  However, a non-profit is one organised to benefit a certain group of people.  No income can be distributed to members, accept there can be employees who receive pay for work. 

2.      Exempt Non-Profit Corporation has a tax exempt status, but needs approval.  Or it can be Non-exempt. 

Limited Liability Companies: 

These have particular tax advantages and are flexible.

           

Community Associations

1.         Cooperatives (or housing coops).   They are corporations which own the property.  Residents own shares in the corporation and lease their individual dwellings from it.

It needs a board of directors, elected officers, an annual meeting, and makes decisions about the operations of the association.   In co-housing, the members can be the board.  The number of shares you own might depend on the size of your house.  Shares can pass from one owner to another, through sale or inheritance, but the right to live in a house must be approved by the board. 

(Photocopy pg  184)

2.         Limited Equity Housing Cooperative.  Used to create affordable housing for those who need it.  The price of shares does not go up with escalating housing prices.  Members make payments to the bank.  When they leave they are reimbursed their down payment plus cost of living increases.  Mortgage payments remain in the coop as equity.  It is not an investment opportunity, but there is no undue financial burden. 

Chapter 9:  Land buying

Two most challenging aspects of buying land are zoning regulations and securing finance.

Chapter 10Ask yourself these questions:

1.  Which region, and why?

2.  How much land are you looking for?

3.  Do you want raw or developed land?

4.  How much do you want to pay for land?  How much for development and construction?

5.  How much and what kind of financing do you have? 

The answers depend largely on the purpose of your community, how many members, zoning and population density regulations, et cetera, and may need to be revised over the course of the land search. 

For raw land, there is a lower initial cost, plus years of effort.  Developing the property costs money, for power, water, sewerage, et cetera.  It is time consuming for several people at least.  Does the development fund include labour costs?  Can you afford the time to wait before you live there? 

For developed land, you have somewhere to live/stay/eat/sleep while building.  You save money in the end since improvements would cost more today.  There is an initial great cost to members. 

Shopping for land and finances is probably a full time job for someone. 

Chapter 12:  Financing

Points to think about for financing:

1.  What is the groups’ borrowing power – figure this out prior to buying land. 

2.  Know each other’s credit rating.

3.  Get property valued

4.  No loans with early repayment penalties.

5.  Negotiate for no repayment or low repayments for the first few years.

6.  Seek fixed rate loans.

7.  Establish a contingency fund. 

Chapter 13:   Development process

One issue she talks about is avoiding the urban refugee syndrome, where people from the city are so traumatised by city life that they want huge open spaces around themselves.  This causes problems for maintenance of pathways and roads, costs of distribution of services – water, power – and communication.  So creating privacy in a close community can be done with strategic planning of living areas:  living areas placed away from public face of houses; windows don’t open onto the next door windows; careful soundproofing.  (Photocopy page 150)

Chapter 14: Internal finances.

1. One question raised in this chapter was about having a community owned business, and the possible tax status this would have.  Possibly leaning towards a non-profit or limited liability legal structure. 

2.  Joining fees:  This aspect of internal financing varies widely across groups.  But it’s useful to provide initial set-up costs.

(Photocopy pgs 160, 161, 162, 163)  Everyone of these examples has a different internal financial structure. 

3.  Another budget that needs to be made is a labour budget.  This creates and account of how many hours are spent doing  community jobs.   This fund depends on how much community work there is, and how fast it needs to be done.