Plan for Community

 

We are an egalitarian-minded, resource-sharing, residential community of individually owned, rented or scholarship homesteads supported by a communal center which includes shared agriculture, resources and businesses.

Owners

Homesteads are purchased with a lease agreement between the community and the individuals. Each homestead has freedom of personal choice only restricted by community covenants. Community covenants are developed following a healthy process: community discussion, review, disclosure, not ex post facto

Renters

Homesteads are rented with a lease agreement between the community and the individuals. Community covenants apply equally to owners and renters.

Scholarship

We offer access to homestead owner/rentership on a sliding scale or partial to full scholarship to those who may not have the financial resources up front. Eventually, with the self-supporting model of our businesses, an individual with no financial resources may work up to becoming a homestead owner or renter. According to our valuing model which includes time, talent, treasure and tuning, we believe a person can invest in and be valuable to community without money.

Communal Center

Our communal center can support both the community and the individual member. Here is where we share our resources, agriculture, communal businesses and domestic duties. There is a communal kitchen where we share cooking duties and meals, communal shower house and communal clothing closet with self-care facilities, meeting and socializing spaces and business operation centers. Our shared agriculture and communal resources such as vehicles and tools are available for use here as well as self-care amenities for things like therapy, exercise, sauna, massage, meditation etc.

Community Businesses

We plan to provide multiple environmentally conscious businesses that can support the community as well as the individual members. Each member may choose to participate as fully in the communal businesses to be wholly financially supported by them or may work the community’s industrial quota minimum so that they may have the time to pursue their own individual businesses or income generating work separate from community. Each member can choose to maintain his or her own business autonomous from community affairs. Businesses support community, and community supports businesses. Communal business profits are allocated on a priority basis. The first priority is community departments. Remaining funds are distributed to members as a monthly stipend.

Division of Labor

Community will agree upon a labor quota minimum that applies to all community members. There will be a separate minimum for work supporting our businesses – our “Industrial Quota” as well as a minimum quota for all other areas of work – our “Labor Quota.” Each community member is expected to contribute at least the weekly quotas. Any Labor hours worked over quota may be “banked” for vacation time and labor hours may be used for sick time. Areas of labor outside of Industry will include all other areas of our communal needs, whether they be domestic such as cooking and cleaning, agricultural such as gardening or livestock management, building, forestry, childcare, maintenance, administration and much more. Managers of each area of labor will be elected by community. The manager will organize, maintain and act as the “point person” for their particular area of labor.

Each individual must work at least the minimum community labor quota per week and labor hours must be recorded on a weekly labor sheet that will be entered into each member’s personal labor accounting records. This way, vacation hours may be kept track of and if someone is regularly falling behind on labor quotas, it may be brought to community attention.  Beyond quotas, which may fluctuate according to community needs, each person’s time is at their own discretion.

Personal Assets

We are not currently an income-sharing community, but may be working towards that when we are more established and have more supportive infrastructure. Until then, personal assets may be kept separately from communal resources. In an effort to remain as egalitarian as possible, personal assets that are not communally accessible should be kept and used outside of communal spaces, either for use off of community property or in one’s own personal homestead.

 

Membership Process

Members

Basic social contract when joining community:

 

Full Membership

Provisional Membership

Membership Status

Visitors

Non-resident members / supporters / associates / affiliates / friends of community

Governance

Decision Making, Governance, Legislation and Policy and Communal “Norms”

As an egalitarian-minded community in its forming stages, we are currently making decisions through democratic majority rule while we explore and work towards sociocracy. We have no leader, but we democratically elect managers of labor areas. We follow a set of legislation and policies that have been voted upon by community members. All legislation and policies are subject to editing by re-vote. Additionally, out of courtesy, we also honor certain unwritten “norms,” such as cell phone usage or clothing optional areas.

 

We should become a member of FEC, Federation of Egalitarian Communities

 

Basic Needs

Food, Shelter, Clothing, Education and Medical Care

Meetings

Begin each meeting with personal check-in