Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities

Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional CommunitiesWow. This has to be THE "mother of all books" on intentional communities. It certainly lives up to the title and subtitle on its cover. I think practical tools is a likely understatement as the book goes into much detail on many of the serious nuts and bolts of forming intentional community. I was and am beyond impressed with the information I found in Creating a Life Together; Diana Leafe Christian has done an exemplary job of bringing together a large amount of information and summarizing it into an intellectually digestive form. I am surprised at the breadth and depth of detail she has been able to bring into one volume and still maintain a level of readability that is unexpected for a book that seems like it should read more like an encyclopedia or some multi-step manual. My point; it reads very well. In fact, I read most of the book during a 3-hour flight...finding it almost as exciting as a mystery or action-adventure title on the NY Times Bestseller list. Really!As I have already said, the book is everything it claims to be and more. The book draws on the collective experience of the author, Diana Leafe Christian, who has served as the editor of Communities magazine since 1993 and has many years of experience observing and living as a member of intentional communities. Additionally, the book also shares insight and example from a number of community models--their best and worst practices--so the reader is provided with "real world" experience to examine.Creating a Life Together is divided into three primary sections. Part one deals with start-up issues; this section of the book is worth its cost alone. Part two is what I might refer to as the "engine room" of the intentional community and includes discussion about agreements, policy, legal advice and entity, property concerns, zoning issues, neighbors, and financing. It covers most of the mechanics involved with forming an intentional community. While this aspect of community might seem burdensome and/or boring, it absolutely cannot be overlooked and I believe Diana has done a great job of presenting this information fairly and highlighting its importance as well. Part three shares about the nature and development of the community itself...the people factor as it were, describing how people thrive, are nourished, and deal with conflict within the close confines of this type of neighborhood. There are many great examples of how it is done right and how it is done wrong in this section along with a number of very good resources. The book is rounded out with a great compilation of resource material found in the appendices featuring examples of community vision documents, sample community agreements, and information that I found extremely helpful for setting up a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. There is also a great list of books, websites, and other organizations at the end of the book that can serve for next steps or deeper study into specific areas relative to the intentional community model.I am so very glad to have found this book. Certain aspects of it caused pangs of depression as I considered some of the aspects of community forming that aren't so exciting for me, but I am glad to have the reality check and awareness of these aspects brought to my attention, so I have both eyes open as I proceed with learning about (and hopefully becoming part of) an intentional community. If you are considering this type of lifestyle, this book is a "must have" for you. Don't miss it!

Note: Even for those who aren't interested in living in "intentional communities," there's great guidance in this book that is relevant to forming a nonpfrofit housing community.Christian candidly explains the many ways that a group of people choosing to live as interdependent residents, whether of just one house or several houses on commonly held land, both complicates and facilitates adjusting to the inevitable quirky expectations, needs and requirements of different, even if simpatico, individuals. Although Creating a Life Together is intended for those who want to start something more like a modern-day commune, some of which qualify as ecovillages, the points and principles in this book are relevant to sharing one residence or living in separate dwellings but making a commitment to share co-owned land with multiple homes. Either way, you're sharing your day-to-day lives as an extended family bonded by choice, not by blood.Only 10% succeedChristian's guidance and opinions are based on many years of living in intentional communities and serving as editor of Communities magazine. She starts with describing what the 10% of communities that succeed have and in common and what tends to make the other 90% fail, over before they truly get started.Then she explains how and where to start and what steps to take in what order - and that is not jumping right into looking for the ideal land or property, despite how tempting that is when you're full of dreams and enthusiasm. Before you even get to that stage - or at least before you make an offer on any kind of property - you'll need to learn a lot about zoning, financing, housing and land trusts perhaps, and certainly what kind of legal entity will work best for what your group has in mind and exactly what each of you have in mind, from contributions of money, time and labor to what's acceptable and what's not in day-to-day living. You'll need to decide going in what happens when someone wants out, so you can protect everyone, both legally and emotionally.First 6 crucial stepsShe calls these six elements "crucial" to address in the formative stages:Identify your community vision and create vision documents.Choose a fair, participatory decision-making process appropriate for your group. If you choose consensus, get trained in it.Make clear agreements - in writing. This includes choosing an appropriate legal entity for owning land [or a dwelling] together.Learn good communication and group process skills. Make clear communication and resolving conflicts a priority.In choosing cofounders and new members, select for emotional maturity.Learn the head skills and heart skills you need to know.Not a dream for dilettantesChristian also offers fair warning that if you have a burning desire to start a new intentional community, you'll need that kind of passion and more: "It takes enormous amounts of time to pull off a project of this magnitude. Even if you meet weekly, you'll still need people to work on various committees that work and/or meet between scheduled meetings - gathering information, calling officials, crunching the numbers, drafting proposals, and so on - for at least a year, or even two years or longer, " she says. "The larger your group and/or the smaller your assets, the longer it'll take."

As of this writing, "Creating a Life Together" has received 18 reviews, all 5 stars, and all well deserved. This book is very thorough in its breadth of topics, and goes into good detail. Add to that an easy to read writing style, humor, and poignant real-life examples, and you have a guide that will set you up for the reality of what it takes to create a viable community. There's a LOT involved. This book will help you discover whether pursuing your vision is the right thing for you to do. By the end you will feel either intimidated or excited. And that's exactly the clear type of signal that you want before even taking the first steps in such an endeavor.Update, February 2016: It's been almost two years since I first read this book, and since then I've purchased land, created a web site and networking site, visited another project like mine that I found in the book, had a few special events, have gotten the first stages of our site plan county approved, negotiated with neighbors, began improvements on the land and existing structure, and have broken ground on our first residential cabin. I have all serious potential members of my project read this book, and we go over the most important topics together. Curious? Check out Ingenium Expressive Arts Village at www.expressiveartsvillage.com We're still in the beginning stages, but with resources like Diana's book and careful, meticulous planning, I do believe IT CAN BE DONE! :)

Sehr informativ und hilfreich . Man lernt viel aus dem Buch.

intelligent and thourough

One of the great problems of Environmentalists,Alternative types and sustainability gurus are that they are often the greatest individualists and independent thinkers. This can make them unsuitable for establishing working communities which have to cope with simple everyday concerns.Almost by definition anyone who is able to look at their society and understand the insanity of the world is not a group thinker. Starting a community with hyper individualists who are natural contrarians is a lot like herding rabbits. Impossible in an open space but somewhat possible if there are some boundaries to channel their hyper activity.This is what the book is about. It discusses some of the ground rules and strategies successful communities use. It also discusses why intentional communities fail (90%!!! of them) and why others succeed.It fills in enough detail that gives you a sense of the extreme frustration of the breakups. Not exactly "war of the roses" but you get a hint of the anguish.Often it is the discussion of specific rules that really shows the wisdom of the groups that survived. Something as simple as how to deal with pets. For a community to survive there needs to be a strong framework in place to deal with pets.i.e How many pets an overall community is the relevant figure rather than the individual needs.I.e how do people get sleep if the dogs are barking or how do you have a nature reserve if there is a pack of cats and dogs in the community.Similarly work load, finances, external pressures etc have all to be worked around. Who owns what, what happens if the community breaks up or people want to leave are all discussed. The delightful dictatorship of the founders, the difficulty of conflicting personalities and diverging dreams all add spice to the book.For a very practical book, I found myself laughing quite a bit. Almost dare I say it, the book almost has the puerile appeal of a reality TV programme

This book is really helpful for the people who are planning to build a community or ecovillage. A lot of suggestions and advices come from actual experience of community members. Necessary contents to establish a community is presented in organized manner.The author, Diana also lives in an ecovillage as well as a former editor of Communities magazine. Her insight and observation may come through her experience.

Nice overview on what it takes to build a Co-housing Community.