Resources

PRINT RESOURCES:

The Communities Directory and Communities Magazine are both published
by the Fellowship for Intentional Community, and contain a wealth of
information that is useful for forming communities. The most recent
version of the Directory was released in 2007, and Communities
Magazine comes out quarterly. Content and ordering information is
available at http://store.ic.org or phone 800-995-8342.

"Creating a Life Together". Subtitled "Practical Tools to Grow
Ecovillages and Intentional Communities", this book was written in
2005 by Diana Christian, editor of Communities Magazine. You can find
out more at http://store.ic.org.

In addition to "Creating a Life Together", the http://store.ic.org
webpage contains an entire section on books on the theme of "Building
Community". Visit the FIC's Store main homepage above or specifically
http://store.ic.org/products/building-community-list.html or phone
number above.

For people specifically interested in a large-scale, rural, income-
sharing model, there are several books written about Twin Oaks,
including the first five years. "Is It Utopia Yet?" is the most
recent book (published 1994), and the earlier ones are "Living The
Dream" and "A Walden II Experiment". Ordering information can be
found at or by calling 540-894-5126.

INTERNET RESOURCES:

The Fellowship for Intentional Community is a networking, umbrella
group of hundreds of communities of all different styles. One of
their primary missions is to distribute information about community
building. Their main website is www.ic.org.

The Federation of Egalitarian Communities: this webpage features a
"Systems and Structures" section, which is a compilation of policies
from various income-sharing communities. They are freely available
for people to peruse and use as they see fit, either modifying them
to suit your group, or using them as a springboard for forming your
own. Systems and Structures can be accessed from the FEC homepage
www.thefec.org or directly at http://thefec.org/sns.

The Northwest Intentional Communities Association (NICA) is a
community networking group for the NorthWest US. Their homepage has a
large "Intentional Community Resources" section for creating
community. www.ic.org/nica/resource.htm

The Twin Oaks website has a lot of information about how Twin Oaks is
organized, including a policies page. These policies are specific to
Twin Oaks but could be modified or used as a starting framework for
new groups. www.twinoaks.org

REAL LIFE RESOURCES:

For forming groups, it is extremely useful to visit real life
communities, including ones that are very different from your vision.
Finding out how other groups organize themselves provides an enormous
amount of information as a starting point, and can be very helpful in
clarifying for yourselves how you do or don't want to do things. I
encourage you to visit as many communities as you can. (it's often
easier to do this in your geographic region, as it requires a lower
investment of time and travel money). The FIC's webpage
http://directory.ic.org includes a list of cmties, and you can
search geographically, so you'd be able to find ones in the area
you're interested in. (go to the "List of...." link and click
"geographic search").

Conferences:

Twin Oaks hosts an annual Communities Conference which
offers workshops on various aspects of living cooperatively (decison-
making, interpersonal skills, etc.). The conference is a wonderful
resource for meeting both other seekers who may want to join your
effort, as well as experienced communitarians who have insights and
skills to offer. For more information, please visit
http://www.communitiesconference.org or call 540-894-5126.

The FIC periodically hosts The Art of Commity weekend conferences.
You can find out more at .

You might also want to consider doing a Three-Week Visitor Program at
Twin Oaks (http://www.twinoaks.org "Visitor Program" link) to learn how we
structure ourselves. (bearing in mind that we are income-sharing,
which may be different from your set-up, and still useful). Our
Visitor Program is quite structured and offers orientations on
various aspects of how we structure and organize ourselves--communal
decision-making and self-governance, group health care, our legal
structure and policies, child-raising, and more. If you're in our
area sometime, you may want to come for a Saturday tour (see our
webpage for more details).

The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center in California offers a course:
Starting and Sustaining Intentional Communities Course:

Do you dream of establishing a land-based intentional community or
education center? This course is designed to help you actualize that
dream. Presentations and detailed hand-outs will cover topics such as
visioning; how to find land and finance a purchase; the various legal
forms available for holding land (limited liability company,
corporation, land trust, etc.); organizing as a for-profit or a
nonprofit; group decision-making process (meetings, agreements,
facilitation, agenda management, conflict resolution); financial
organization of your community; legal and insurance issues and costs;
dealing with zoning and regulations; and long-term planning. We will
also tour OAEC¹s community and educational center, including our
gardens, permaculture projects, natural buildings, and the
community¹s kitchen and food system.

Contact: Occidental Arts and Ecology Center
15290 Coleman Valley Rd.
Occidental, CA 95465
(707) 874-1557 x 201
oaec@oaec.org

Diana Christian (author mentioned in "print resources" section) also
offers workshops on starting new communities. The workshops take
place in existing communities around the country. For more
information:

Diana Christian
diana@ic.org
828-669-9702