Issue #170 ● Spring 2016
Finding or Starting a Community: Theme Articles
A Useful Tool for Founders and Seekers: Spectrums By Ma’ikwe Ludwig
Whether starting a community or looking for one to join, identifying your priorities, your approaches to life, and your ranges of tolerance can be essential to successful community living.
● Spectrums for Intentional Communities
● Spectrums for Individuals within Groups
Community Search Resources By McCune Porter
The FIC offers diverse ways of finding a community.
New Directory, New Manager By Roshana Ariel
The 7th print edition of Communities Directory rolls off the press this spring, thanks in part to FIC’s newest staff member.
Finding Home By Eridani Baker
A community/solo journey through London, Greece, Oregon, India, Cyprus, and New Zealand reveals as many lessons within as without.
Rediscovering Community: A family’s journey back to appreciating Home By Devon Bonady
An active search for a new community allows one family to explore core questions.
Finding a Healthy, Happy Cohousing Community that Fits Your Values By Cynthia Dettman
A cohouser offers resources and tips on how to find your community.
Queer, Person of Color, or Low-Income; Is Cohousing Possible for Me? By Cynthia Dettman
Some creative solutions are starting to counteract cohousing’s demographic homogeneity, but significant obstacles remain.
Leaving Eden: One man’s quest for community in a divided land By David Leach
The tension between idealism and compromise plays itself out in the complex communal landscape of Israel.
You Are Here: Finding the Feminine Energy that Cultivates Community By Beth Ann Morrison
Public art, the Transition Movement, chai talks, and a meetup group all form part of a journey toward community.
Words of Experience: Starting a Community By Kim Scheidt
A founder shares a well-learned lesson: “It is a LOT of work to start an intentional community. A LOT.”
Off-Grid, and In Community: ’Tis Easier to Find than to Found By Dan Schultz
The co-director of Maitreya Mountain Village suggests others not follow his example.
Building Community and Learning from Failure By Jenny Pickerill and Ruth Hayward
Eco-communities in Britain yield valuable lessons about how to improve chances for success.
Reflections on Setting Up an Intentional Commmunity By Arjuna da Silva
An Earthaven founder offers perspectives after 21 years of watching the ecovillage unfold.
Common Fire’s Top Ten Hard-Earned Tips for Community Success By Jeff Golden
The sometimes triumphant, sometimes traumatic experiences of the three Common Fire communities yield wisdom relevant to anyone working to create a community.
Community Essentials By Arty Kopecky
Five crucial ingredients make community work; the lack of any one of them can cause it to falter.
The Rocky Road to Rocky Corner Cohousing By Marie Pulito
In the face of challenges, key decisions and actions help Connecticut’s first cohousing community to come together.
Leaps of Faith By Rebecca Reid
Two families leave a thriving cohousing community to follow their shared dreams as a tight-knit intergenerational group.
Living in a Multigeneration Household: Haven or Hell? By Maril Crabtree
Is it crazy to purchase and move into a new house with your grown children and their children? Actually, no. Living communally with family has some big advantages.
Kindling New Community: Village Hearth Cohousing By Pat McAulay
Two “burning souls” work to bring their dream—a caring community of LGBTs, friends, and allies aging in place as good neighbors—into reality.
The Dog that Brought Us a Community By Jim Daly
After a health crisis precipitates major life changes, a couple finds a new path, becoming founding members of a cohousing community.
Roger Ulrich: A Founder Reflects By Deborah Altus
The octogenarian founder of Lake Village Homestead shares insights from a lifelong community journey.
In Land We Trust for the Lake Claire Community Land Trust By Stephen Wing
A greenspace in the heart of Atlanta embodies the visions of the neighbors who created it.
Reflecting on a Quarter Century of O.U.R. History By Brandy Gallagher
As an activist group matures, the circles of collaboration expand.
Voices
Letters
Publisher’s Note The New Communities Directory: A Star Chart for Seekers and Founders By Sky Blue
Whether you’re starting a community or looking to join one, the new Communities Directory is an essential resource.
Notes from the Editor The Quest for Community By Chris Roth
Selecting People for Roles (Sociocracy Elections): How Sociocracy Can Help Communities, Part VII By Diana Leafe Christian
Creating Cooperative Culture Exit Dynamics in Community By Laird Schaub
