The FEC: Part 1

Each of us here at Formation House are presenting seminars to the rest of the group on the topics of our choice. So far, Amber has presented on the Liturgical Year, Scott has presented on Conflict in Community, Dave has presented on his and Karen’s recent visit to Reba Place, and I have presented on the Federation of Egalitarian Communities.

My goal was to get a feel for the whole North American Intentional Community landscape, but that topic was way too broad. In my research I found the FEC, an interesting (but manageably-sized) federation of secular intentional communities. A condensed version of my presentation is below.

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Part I: An Overview of the FEC

Intro:

The FEC is a network of communal groups across North America. The communities range from small agricultural homesteads to village-like communities to urban group houses.

The FEC provides access to a catastrophic health care fund, called PEACH, a Labor Exchange program, called LEX, and support for recruitment and outreach.

Principles/Values

• Holds resources in common.
• Assumes responsibility for the needs of its members.
• Practices non-violence.
• Uses a form of decision making in which members have an equal opportunity to participate.
• Actively works to establish the equality of all people.
• Acts to conserve natural resources for present and future.
• Creates processes for group communication.

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Part II:

Next Post: Full Member Communities

The FEC: Part 2

Acorn Community Farm

• Population: 24 adults
• Founded: 1993
• 72 acres in rural Virginia
• “A community of work and play, and distributing rare heirloom seed varieties.”

“We are interested in meeting people experienced in community-building, communication and facilitation, and interested in building a dynamic, supportive social culture.”

Twin Oaks

• Population: 90 adults, 13 children
• Founded: 1967
• 400 acres in rural Virginia
• A long-term, stable community based on rich culture and diverse economy.

Twin Oaks is the oldest and largest of the Federation communities. It was originally founded by a group inspired by B. F. Skinner’s fictional book Walden Two.

East Wind Community

• Population: 65 adults, 11 children
• Founded: 1973
• 1,045 acers in rural Missouri
• Doing things ourselves, individual freedom, stewarding our beautiful land.

What does East Wind Community do with 1,045 acres? They have a garden, a 1/8 acre herb garden, a 1.5 acre orchard, a 140 acre ranch, and 850 acres of oak and hickory forest.

Sandhill Farm

• Population: 7 adults, 1 child, 1 toddler
• Founded: 1974
• 135 acres in rural Missouri
• “Organic homestead & child-friendly family of friends with current openings for new members.”

Sandhill produces a big sorghum crop every year. “Not only is sorghum syrup our biggest agricultural income source, it’s also one of our main social events of the year.”

Skyhouse/Dancing Rabbit

• Population: 3 adults
• Founded: 1997
• 280 acres in rural Missouri
• “An income-sharing group within a larger ecovillage, dedicated to sustainability.”

The principal mission of Skyhouse is to support and nurture its membership… Another important Skyhouse goal is to support the development of Dancing Rabbit in whatever way possible.

Emma Goldman Finishing School

• Population: 10 adults
• Founded: 1996
• Urban Seattle
• “A social justice commune in the heart of Seattle.”

“Our community is based on the principles of societal change, egalitarianism, non-violence, ecology, simplicity, and community living.”

Intentional Community Book List (UPDATED)

We started this list one year ago, so it is time for an update. People have been sending in their recommendations for “must read” books about community. Your contribution is still needed!

• permaculture
• simple living
• social issues
• business and legal
• classics
• monastic
• new monasticism
• spiritual practices
• philosophy/ethics
• community how-to

A Sabbath Resolve

Living in community is a good way to learn about oneself. The Formation House curriculum, the Strengths and Values Small Group we participated in, and the general rock tumbler/fish bowl nature of intentional community have all afforded me many opportunities for self-reflection.

This year I have identified something that I am excited to focus on in the future. This thing will inform the rhythms I will seek to create for myself.

Sabbath is just a pause. It is a time to reflect, gather, celebrate, and prepare for the meaningful work ahead. It does not have to be a whole day, and it does not even have to be called “sabbath.”

While the concept of sabbath is counterculture, I know from practicing Sabbath with Amber (we started out celebrating it quarterly and now we celebrate it once a month) that Sabbath observation is a life-giving practice for me and is relatively easy to implement.

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Moreover, I think Sabbath would make a good charism for a community.

Whether you call it a charism, focus, mission, core value, purpose, emphasis, or just “thing we do,” every community needs one sooner or later. Like a tent pole, a charism helps to give definition and form to community without being too ridged. It informs the rhythms a community will seek to establish and lays the groundwork for long-term cohesion.

Often, a community’s charisms emerge from the talents, values, and desires of its members. In fact, individuals often have charisms just as communities do.

Here at Formation House, we have been holding meetings to discuss what the members want to focus on next year. Someone voiced the desire to simply have more opportunities to spend time together.

Ironically, while community life is about more than doing the grocery shopping and figuring out an equitable way to do housework, it has been precisely those things that have taken up the bulk of our community time and energy—at the expense of hanging out and/or doing any number of other things together.

In this context, it is clear that a community must be thoughtful about what it wants its charism to be.

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Having Sabbath as a charism makes a lot of sense for a community. Celebration is a perfect focal point for people to gather around. It is also a minimalistic charism in that it leaves lots of room for other charisms to grow.

Sabbath could be any day of the week (it does not have to be Sunday) and it could be as frequently or as occasionally as desired. It could be a neighborhood badminton tournament in the backyard. It could be dinner and a movie. It could be a planned day with no chores/obligations. It could be baking a cake just to celebrate life.

Again, to me Sabbath is a time to reflect, gather, celebrate, and prepare for the meaningful work ahead. Reflecting, gathering, celebrating and preparing does not happen on its own. That is why I am excited to practice Sabbath in my personal life and to promote it to anyone who will listen.

Vacation Time

Sorry for being so lax in our updates lately. Things are getting busy as our time in Pittsburgh wraps up. We will write more on that very soon. We are fresh off of vacation and ready to finish up our AmeriCorps terms and get things together for our journey across five states back to Missouri.

Where did we go on vacation, you ask? We decided we wanted to see as much of this area as possible before we moved, so we decided to visit Niagara Falls which is only a four hour drive from Pittsburgh. On our way back we stayed in Erie, PA along Lake Erie and then finished up our vacation camping with AmeriCorps.

Niagara Falls was beautiful. About a year ago we visited a waterfall in Thailand when we visited our friend Kayla. This reminded us of that, but Niagara was about twenty times bigger. We got to see them lit up at night with their pretty colors too. We stayed in Niagara, Ontario Canada at a great Bed and Breakfast where we had breakfast with a couple from Australia, a couple from Ohio and a couple from Ireland. I could have just listened to them talk all day with their distinct accents. We were staying within walking distance to the falls, so I got to take a walk to see them in the morning. We also rode the Maid of the Mist, like good tourists. We are so glad we ended up doing this boat ride. It really showed us the power of the Falls as we were at the base of the Horseshoe Falls in what felt like a tropical storm of wind and water that made it difficult to keep our free ponchos on. Our time in Niagara was beautiful and we are so glad we were able to go.

The next day we stayed at a different bed and breakfast in Erie, PA that is now our favorite B&B thus far. Erie was quite different than Niagara in a number of ways. Niagara was very developed and felt pretty touristy with lights, casinos, people from all over the world, and all of the Hard Rock Cafe’s and Planet Hollywoods a tourist could want. Erie only had local restaurants that were way more our style than the upscale pricey places in Niagara. There was also few hotels and tourist traps. All in all, Erie was more up our alley. We spent the day at Presque Isle State Park hanging out on the beach one day. I have never visited a beach at a lake where I actually felt like I was at a beach. I have also never visited a beach that had no people on it. We got both of these things in one place at the beach in Erie. It was so relaxing and peaceful to have almost the whole beach to ourselves!

Our trip concluded with a night of camping one last time with our fellow AmeriCorps members. Thanks to Jay’s clever ingenuity with tarp placement, we were one of the only tents that stayed dry on the inside when it rained the whole night through.

Enjoy the pictures below of our adventures together! We will write more reflective entries about our nature experiences soon after we sleep off the vacation.

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Concise Update

Hi all. Just a quick update. We had a community meeting yesterday to talk about what next year (August) will look like. Amber and I will shove off to Liberty, MO. But Scott, Kari, Ryan, Jenn, Dave and Karen will all be in Pittsburgh again next year.

This year has been about learning the nuts and bolts and best practices for intentional community. You might say that learning nuts and bolts has been our focus.

The consensus is that next year can have a new focus. We want to take what we have learned this year and apply it in a new way to next year. So the question at hand is: What should our new focus be? Hospitality? Prayer? Gardening?

While the six are thinking about what their life together in Pittsburgh will look like next year, Amber and I are looking forward to life in Liberty and pondering same questions.

More to come!

Coffee, Culture, and Community!!

Hi Everybody! This week, please check out Bethany Parry’s blog, Coffee, Culture and Community! Amber and I are guest posting there while Bethany in Ecuador. Bethany and Travis came to visit us in March.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

To answer that question – I would say very well! That’s right, we are growing a beautiful garden! This feeds me in so many ways and I am thrilled to share this love of gardening with all of you and all of our housemates.

When we moved into the new house, one of the first things we did was build a raised bed in the front yard, right in front of the house. We found these awesome bricks at this place called Construction Junction. This place takes unused, surplus and recycled construction materials (think doors, bricks, boards, windows, paint, etc – this place is huge!) and resells it. So, we found these cool bricks that look really nice with the house and built a bed with them.

After the bed was built, we made our own dirt to fill it with. To make the dirt, we mixed equal parts of organic peat moss, organic locally sourced vermiculite, and organic mushroom compost. The soil is so pretty – and rich in nutrients! We are doing square foot gardening, which is a cool method that packs the maximum amount of plants in the minimum amount of space. A few weeks ago, we planted the following crops from seed: green cabbage, red cabbage, red beets, rainbow chard, romaine lettuce, baby romaine, spinach, carrots, basil, cilantro and nasturtium. (We love leafy greens!) Inside I am going to start some chamomile plants and then plant them outside once they get a little bigger. (That’s right, we are growing chamomile!) We are also growing a variety of peppers and tomatoes from seedlings and we will have a strawberry patch! The bricks that are along the edges of the garden are filled with herbs and chamomile. Genius use of the hollow bricks if you ask me!

I consider gardening to be a type of spiritual discipline for myself. It’s always a small miracle when you see little sprouts come up from this tiny little seed. Then when you eat the food that comes out of that tiny seed – wow! How can such goodness come out of something so small? And then to think that our faith only has to be that size for us to move mountains!?

There is something sacred about plunging your hands into fresh dirt and planting things that you will eventually eat. I will keep you posted on the growth of our garden over the next few months. We can’t wait to eat the food from it!

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Recent Pics from Dinner

The pictures below are from our two most recent meals. They feature fresh fruits and vegetables. You may notice a picture of a burger among all the veggies. Would you believe it was a black bean burger? It was delicious! I love good food!!

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Consensus Decisions

We are getting ready to cover consensus based-decision making in our curriculum at Formation House.

I have noticed something about the topics we have been studying this year: most of them are completely counter-intuitive.

Consensus based decision-making is a good example of this. The prescribed way of forming consensus is through actively seeking dissent.

Weird, huh?

Matt Pritchard says of community decision-making: “While [consensus decision making] is great in principle, most people have little experience or training in consensus decision making, and it shows: bad behavior reigns supreme and meetings drone on forever as small decisions are discussed ad nauseam.”(Pritchard, 2010)

Consensus based decision-making can be contrasted with majority rule. The two methods of decision-making have similarities. However, in majority rule, the 51 percent (or the three quarters, or whatever the majority is defined as) simply makes the decision while everyone else is out of luck. It’s not necessarily that those in the minority are wrong, it’s just that they’re out of luck. By contract, consensus decision-making seeks not only the agreement of most participants but also the resolution of minority objections. Like majority rule, consensus decision-making has a whole body of ideas, procedures and vocabulary surrounding how it works.

This model differs from what we are used to. For example, most meetings we attend are governed by the Robert’s (hallowed) Rules of Order. Matt’s comment on this is insightful;

“Most governance in organizations is focused on protecting the organization from the people that are of it. Unfortunately, this means that unhealthy organizations are able to hobble along almost indefinitely. Voting enables us to operate without trust.” (Pritchard, 2010)

This is a fair critique. However, I do understand why an organization might want to protect itself from the people who are in it. When I was little, my church went through a split due to a big conflict at the center of which was a pastor. When the dust finally settled, the church promptly revised its bylaws to prevent that kind of thing from ever happening again. It was something analogous to a prenup agreement.

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Voting is easy. Voting is tidy. Those two statements are clues that voting is not the way to govern an intentional community. Things in community are messy. Intentional communities are characterized by high degrees of teamwork among members and by common visions, but not by groupthink or lockstep. Intentional communities are communities of individuals.

I particularly like the idea of being sensitive to dissent, because, frankly, I’m frequently the one who finds himself dissenting, but I’m not always the first one to speak up. And I imagine most of us have had experiences where our opinions were steam-rolled even when we did voice them, whether because the proposition/objection was not shared by others, or it was unconventional and thus rejected out of hand, or simply because people were in too big a hurry to listen.

I am looking forward to learning about this method of decision-making, and talking it over with the community in detail.

Interested in how the rubber meets the road when it comes to this model of decision making? Peruse the Wiki article. It’s our primary text. (Yeah, yeah. No book this time. We’re a community on a budget.)