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Growing a Successful Ecovillage or Intentional Community with Diana Leafe ChristianSaturday, July 11, 2009 at 9:00 AM - Sunday, July 12, 2009 at 5:30 PM (PT)Berkeley, CA |
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Event Details
The workshop features lively exercises, humorous musical skits, slide show presentations, and vivid anecdotes about real problems and their successful solutions. What works well, pitfalls to avoid, how not to reinvent the wheel. Antidotes for common kinds of “structural conflict” and interpersonal conflict. The “Board Game” demonstrating the relationship between mission, membership process, and decision-making method. Building trust and connection, increasing social capital, dealing with the challenging group member. Case histories of community development demonstrating aspects of property purchase, financing, zoning, and legal entities for owning shared property. Community economics: internal community finances, creating a village-scale economy.
The workshop benefits forming community groups (with no property, as well as those with property), as well as existing communities.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
(1) 9:00 – 10:40 am - Preventing “Structural Conflict”
“Visible” & “Invisible” Structures. Steps to Creating Community. Preventing Structural Conflict. Trust/Conflict Cycle. “That's Not Community!” Handouts.
(2) 10:55 – 12:30 pm - Mission and Purpose, Decision-Making
Vision, Mission & Purpose, Goals, Strategic Plan. Sample Mission Statements. Exercise: Creating Mission & Purpose Documents. “Where Do We Draw the Line?” “Public-Private Scale.” Multiple Communities in the Room? Consensus Requirements. Decision-Making for Mission & Purpose. Consensus Overview: Proposals, Agenda, Facilitation, Participants, Evaluation. Community Governance. Committees. Minute Books & Decision Logs. Handouts
(3) 1:30 – 3:00 pm - Consensus
Shopping a Proposal. Three Decision Options. The Sunset Clause. Gradients of Agreement. Blocking. Criteria for a Principled Block. Slide Show: Decision-Making in Communities. Solution-Oriented Meetings. Threatening to Block. Premature Proposal Death. Pseudoconsensus.
(4) 3:00- 4:30 pm - “Board Game,” Communication Agreements, Accountability
“Board Game.” Exercise: Communication Agreements. Helping People Stay Accountable to the group. Exercise: Telephone Buddy System. Graduated Series of Consequences.
(5) 4:45 – 5:30 pm - The Effective Community Founder
Social Capital. Dealing Effectively with the Challenging Group Member. “Community Glue.”
Sunday, July 12, 2009
(6) 9:00 – 10:40 am - Case Studies, I
(1) OAEC: Property Search/Turn-Key Property, Bidding on Property, Renovation Contracts, Down Payment/Development Fund/Mortgage Fund, Owner-Financing, Private Loans/2nd Mortgages, LLCs – Pros & Cons, 501(c)3 Nonprofits - Pros & Cons, Leases, Using LLCs & 501(c)3s Together, Member Fees, Refinancing.
(2) Dancing Rabbit: Property Search/Raw (Prairie) Land, Bank Loans/Private Loans, 501(c)3 and 501(c)2 Nonprofits, Land Trusts: Pros & Cons, Leases, Covenants.
(7) 10:55 – 12:30 pm - Case Studies, II
(3) Earthaven Ecovillage: Property Search/Raw (Forested Mountain) Land, Finding Land/Breaking Up, Pioneers & Settlers, Raising Funds with Pledges & Founders’ Perks, Homeowners Associations: Pros & Cons, Refinancing/Earthshares Fund. Shared Property Ownership: Do You Really Own Your House? Raw, Developed, Turn-Key Property. Exercise: Your Site Criteria. Owner-Financing, Banks, Personal Loans, Member-Financed Loans, Revolving Loan Funds. Different Ways to Co-Own Property. Steps of the Land-Search Process. Zoning.
(8) 1:30 – 3:00 pm - Financing Your Property
“Community Glue” Exercise: Mildly Taboo Topic. Pioneers & Settlers. Financial contribution and decision-making in the group. Exercise: Your Group’s Potential Assets. Helping less affluent members afford it. When one member owns it. The Triple-Net Lease.
(9) 3:15 – 4:15 pm - Legal Entities for Shared Property Ownership
Why We Need a Legal Entity. Checklist for Choosing a Legal Entity. Limited Liability. Double-Taxation. Which Entities Not to Use. Trusts, Community Land Trusts: Pros & Cons. Exercise: Legal Entities & You.
(10) 4:45 – 5:30 pm - Community Economics
Community Income & Expenses. Slide Show: Community Economics. Operating and Capital Budgets. Rural Communities: Creating a Village-Scale Economy. Community-Owned Businesses/Onsite Individual Member-Owned Businesses: Pros & Cons.
What People Say about the Workshop:
“Worth six months of individual research on how to form a new community.”
—David Boddy, San Mateo, California
“Completely surpassed my expectations . . . Diana is a wonderful teacher — knowledgeable, engaging, and thoughtful. . . . I highly recommend this workshop!”
—Brooke Lehman, Bluestockings Bookstore, New York
”I was blown away. I most enjoyed the participatory exercises and Diana’s enthusiasm and sense of humor.”
—Ben Schwartz, Wassiac, New York
“Your workshop was fantastic — I got a great deal out of it. . . Thank you for being so friendly, passionate, and humorous.”
—William Faith, Los Angeles
“Diana is amazing, and everything she covered was of paramount importance to me, especially getting a clearer picture of decision-making methods and consensus, how to deal with ‘structural conflict,’ and the ‘trust and connection’ exercise with the people in the middle of the circle.”
—Raquel Iturbe, Ashland, Oregon
“Truly astounding! Clear, concise, direct, informed, and fun. Your workshop powerfully distilled both what I have and have not learned from 20 years of exploring community.”
—Don St. Clair, Eugene, Oregon
When & Where
East Bay Cohousing Clubhouse
2105 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
First Floor
Berkeley,
CA 94704
Saturday, July 11, 2009 at 9:00 AM - Sunday, July 12, 2009 at 5:30 PM (PT)
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Hosted By
East Bay Cohousing
Join others seeking community living opportunities in the urban East Bay and San Francisco, member-led ecovillages, for raising kids or for retirement. Connect to cohousing neighborhoods where you can have privacy and know your neighbors, permanently-affordable housing cooperatives, and even group houses for shared living.
East Bay Cohousing (EBCOHO) is an umbrella group supporting people doing individual site-search and project-development efforts, and meetings for a NEW "Instant Cohousing" move-in-now apartment building with SELLER FINANCING near Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, and a "shovel-ready" approved project in downtown Oakland, both at attractively affordable prices. 5 of the last 6 resales in Berkeley Cohousing and Doyle Street Cohousing in Emeryville have been to EBCOHO members.
We have more events than our MeetUp-driven home page can show effectively, so please click on our Calendar to see more and join for free to get involved. There's no charge for basic membership, but paid members get exclusive invites, discounts on meetings, socials, and workshops, cohousing books, and Cohousing Coaching.
There's more cohousing in Oakland than any other U.S. city, and long-established built communities in Berkeley, Emeryville, and Pleasant Hill - learn about openings and new communities that you can be a part of here; find other community seekers and join forces
We have active groups with potential sites in North Oakland, forming groups in Fremont and the Oakland Hills, and rental/resale openings in existing communities in the area, regular tours, plus occasional field trips to the extended Bay Area, Green Festival/SolFest booths, regional gatherings and more. We're the micro-region with the most existing cohousing and the most new communities happening. Join us this month for hot events with exciting speakers and discussions. Find others who share your vision for supportive neighbors. Do it for yourself, for your family, for your parents, do it for the Earth. Make 2009 the year to find YOUR community connection.