Fellowship for Intentional Community

Presents

Cooperative Culture:
Synergy at the Edges

An exciting weekend of networking, learning, & fun!
Friday, May 30 to Sunday, June 1, 2008
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

Conference Schedule

Note: We will post a detailed schedule with workshop session by May 1st. For now, here's the overall schedule, and some workshop highlights.)

Friday May 30
4:00    Registration and Booths Open
6:30    Opening Ceremony: Margo Adair
7:00    Welcome/Conference Overview/Appreciations: Ma’ikwe Schaub Ludwig
7:15    Welcome from the FIC: Laird Schaub
7:45    Opening Talk: Mark Dubois
8:45    Q&A
9:00    End

Saturday May 31
8:00    Registration and Booths Open
9:00    Morning Opening/Logistics: Ma’ikwe Schaub Ludwig
9:15    Morning Talk: Mary Lou Singleton, “Start Here, Start Now”
10:00   Break
10:15   Workshop Session 1
11:45   Lunch break
1:15    Workshop Session 2 (3 hour workshops)
4:15    Break
4:30    Workshop Session 3 
6:00    Break
6:30    Dinner
7:30    Auction: Harvey Baker, Laird Schaub and Ma’ikwe Schaub Ludwig
8:45    Community Drumming Circle
10:30   End

Sunday June 1
9:00    Morning Opening/Logistics: Ma’ikwe Schaub Ludwig
9:15    Morning Webinar: Albert Bates
10:15   Break
10:30   Workshop session 4
12:00   Meet the Communities: Tony Sirna, MC
1:15    Lunch Break
2:45    Closing talk: Myra Murphy-Jacob
3:30    Thanks/Encouragement for Further Involvement: Ma’ikwe Schaub Ludwig & Laird Schaub
4:00    Closing Ceremony: Margo Adair
4:30    End

• Aging in Community Successfully, Fred and Nancy Lanphear
• How To Promote the Helloutta’ Your Community Group For Cheap…or Even For FREE! Jim Ellinger
• Utilizing Cooperative Economics to Rebuild a Local/Regional Food-Shed, Robin Seydel
• Green Roofs, David Wright
• Media, Community and the Fate of the Earth, Denis Doyon
• The real estate development process: Nuts and bolts of building a new community, Brendan Miller
• Guerilla Community Building, Harvey Baker
• Kids Program: Kimi Foree

• Consensus, Laird Schaub
• Embracing Difference, Margo Adair
• Integrative Land Planning for Community, Zaida Amaral
• Starting a Residential Intentional Community, Ma’ikwe Schaub Ludwig
• Creating Zones of Nonviolence, Parke Burgess
• New Economics, Rich Ruster
• Awakening the Dreamer, Vicki Peck and Mark Dubois
• Pathways to Sustainability, Amanda Bramble

• Exploring the Edges of Co-Creation, Katharine and Makasha Roske
• Energy Circles: Groups that Meditate Together Stay Together, Margo Adair
• Conflict: Fight, Flight or Opportunity, Laird Schaub
• Legal and Financial Structures for Communities, Tony Sirna
• Biodeisel Basics, Eric Chrisp and James Burgess
• The Marda Permaclture Farm: the Power of Story and Global Community in a War Zone,Tami Brunk
• Integrating Education into Communty Life, Allen Green
• Kids Program: Isa Roske

• Decision-making as Spiritual Practice, Katherine and Makasha Roske
• Ecovillages Panel, Ma’ikwe Schaub Ludwig, Tony Sirna, Denis Doyon
• Intro to Permaculture, Mary Lou Singleton
• Cohousing, Raines Cohen and Betsy Morris
• Power Dynamics, Laird Schaub
• Sustainable Ballard, David Wright and Syd Frederickson
• Radical Discipleship Communities and the Catholic Worker Movement, Trinity House
• Kids Program: Avery Janascek

Session 1: Saturday 10:15-11:45 a.m.

Community is in trouble in our culture. The isolation of the urban areas, the suburbs, and even the rural areas is well known, but has been so pervasive for so long that it has become “normal.” Yet there is very little recognition of one of the major underlying causes: our culture is as destructive of community as it is of our environment. We need a community movement as much as we need an environmental movement, to create a sustainable human culture as well as a sustainable environment. Don’t wait to share land, build community now!

This session will introduce the real estate development process and provide you with what you need to know if you are considering building a new community. Topics covered will include: build from scratch or reuse/adapt existing structures; do it yourself vs. use professionals: architects, contractors, engineers, project managers, etc.; design, approvals and pre-construction work; financing, budgets and the schedule; marketing, sales and process: does the group or the project come first?; the construction phase; and moving in.

In use for more than one hundred years, green roofs have not made a major appearance in the US until the last fifteen or so years. But suddenly interest is exploding in the design and planning fields, and this signals a major paradigm shift in how we see urban landscape, our relationships to water and the environment. Design is how we manifest our belief systems in physical form, and the green roof industry is one of the fastest growing construction industries in the US. It is the beginning of a whole systems approach to integrative community planning and design.

Cooperatives with their model of community ownership are perfectly positioned to help re-create vibrant local economies. Enjoy a brief background on the history and structure of the cooperative business model and hear about New Mexico's 30-year-old, community-owned, La Montanita Co-op. With its 14,000 owners and four storefront locations around the state this Co-op is working with hundreds of area farmers to re-create a local/regional food system as part of its Food-Shed Project and Co-op Distribution Initiative.

In the past, people lived in local communities, with local economies and local media. Industrialization and the development of national economies led to the invention of advertising, whose mission is, in part, selling the ideology of consumerism. In rich countries, the ideology of consumerism drives high levels of consumption, resource use, waste and pollution; in poor countries, media messages are the shock troops of the global economy, undermining traditional cultures, values and communities. Many people know intuitively that media is part of the problem; this session explores creative, empowering and transformative responses.

This is an interactive workshop that looks at how communities can intentionally embrace and celebrate the second half of life. It focuses on acknowledging and creatively preparing and caring for the aging process that happens to us all. It will include: 1) Celebrating the transitions of aging and providing significant roles of engagement; 2) Exploring ways and the extent to which communities can provide care for aging members; and 3) Preparing for and participation in final transitions. Some specific topics include realities and fears of getting older, co-care and outside care, and staying healthy through community.

Sure, YOU know your community group is doing great work. But how do you get the word out? Jim will share years of experience in promoting co-ops and community groups using fun, clever, and cheap tactics to make your group front page news...in a positive light! From Press releases to publicity stunts, dealing with the corporate media and local press, community events, Swag!, trade outs and cross promotions, conflicts and crisis; how to present and respond to them, DIY: radio/TV, publications, websites, flyers, etc. Jim’s philosophy is: “If you can’t afford an ad on the back page, get a free story on the front page!”

Session 2: Saturday 1:15-4:15 pm

Making decisions by consensus is an unnatural act. At least it is for people raised in a hierarchic and competitive culture--which is just about everybody. We'll go over the cooperative roots of consensus and explain why it requires unlearning old adversarial responses in order to succeed. We'll go over the essential ingredients of consensus, explain blocking and standing aside, and make the case for why it's the most efficient form of decision making, once you've learned how to do it well. Really.

Nature maintains resilience through diversity. The forces of assimilation sap the vitality that could provide strength and fiber to our relationships. In the workshop we will explore ways to embrace diversity for strengthening community internally and connecting better with those who live nearby. We will help people build their skills to inspire a generosity of spirit, embrace difference, transform power dynamics, turn conflict into a creative force and unleash visioning capacities. This workshop is full of interactive exercises that people can take back to their communities and use.

From vision to land, membership to decision-making, attitudes to motivations, there’s a lot to consider when starting a community! We’ll cover both the practicalities and the heart that it takes to be one of the successful 10% of new residential community starts that makes it to their first anniversary, and beyond. With personal perspectives from having been there and a wide knowledge of other founder’s experiences, this workshop is designed to point you in the right direction and help ease the hard—and ultimately deeply rewarding—work of starting a community.

We will interactively explore violence and nonviolence in broad terms. Where does violence come from? Is it inevitable? What is nonviolence? How is it possible to live nonviolently? We also look at the difficulties in creating zones of nonviolence in a predominantly violent world: in residential communities, worker co-ops, and other associational groups. This session considers the ways in which violence intrudes internally within the group, despite our best intentions; and the more overt difficulties of dealing with the violence of the larger culture. We’ll generate specific ideas about how to handle these challenges.

Where on Earth are we going? And what can we do about it? These questions lie at the heart of the Symposium, which explores the link between three of humanity’s most critical concerns: environmental sustainability, social justice and spiritual fulfillment. Using video clips and short films, leading edge information and dynamic group interactions, the Symposium allows participants to gain new insight into the nature of our time and the opportunity we have to shape and impact the direction of our world. Join us if you are ready to be disturbed, inspired and moved to action, if you are want a thriving community of like-hearted, deeply committed cohorts to awaken from and change the dream of our modern industrial culture!

Sustainable living is about harvesting renewable resources of your environment to meet your needs. This interactive workshop contains an overview of sustainable systems and practices focusing on two of the most important elements for sustainable living in the Southwest: Sun and Water. Learn the basics of passive solar design for heating and cooling living environments and food growing systems, as well as creating solar cooking devices. Explore greywater, rainwater collection systems and creating environments that support your goals and reflect your values. This fun and practical workshop will include group exercises and individual coaching in order for each participant to craft a personalized vision of sustainability.

This workshop covers the understanding and application of traditional and complimentary approaches to community land planning, including: integrating design with natural elements, earth energies and sustainable features; aligning the vision with your land plan; Designing unseen structures for social, ecological, economic and world view; Closing the loop of a sustainable cycle: shelter, food and water; Feng shui, sacred geometry, geobiology and biomimicry as design principles; Key principles for intuitive environmental design. Bring a map and pictures of your land (if you wish) for questions and basic guidance.

We can do everything else right (live in community, use green technologies, practice our spiritual paths in harmony, etc.) but if we don’t redesign the economic and monetary foundation of our relationships, we will continue to feel an undertow pulling us back into the dominant, unsustainable economic game. The economic paradigm shift has proven to be the most challenging for the communities’/ecovillage movement and for humanity as a whole. Using lively discussion and small groups as appropriate, we will explore together the key design principles of the emerging new economic and monetary system and how to apply them in our households, our communities, as well as our regional and global society.

Session 3: Saturday 4:30-6:00

The power of the emerging global community is revealed through the story of the Marda Permaculture Farm in the West Bank of Palestine. Murad Alkhufash is a permaculturist whose family has farmed the Salfit District of the Palestinian occupied territories for ten generations. Two years ago, he returned to Palestine from the U.S. to build a learning center to foster self sufficiency and hope for the future within his community. A global network of permaculturists and ecovillage founders including Albert Bates have created a support network for these efforts, making what might seem to have been an impossible dream a reality.

Understanding the variety of legal options available for merging your dreams with the IRS tax codes. For-profits, Limited Liability Corporations (LLC), 501c3 non-profits, 501d, Home Owners' Associations, and more. Find out how the different options work and what will work best for your group.

There are strategies rooted in timeless wisdom traditions that can enrich education and activate people’s ethical imaginations, by linking learning with local life. This workshop shows how pioneering partnerships between public agencies, non-profit (NGO) groups, grassroots activists, youth groups, private firms, social entrepreneurs, elders, service clubs, and folks from all walks of life can be involved in meaningful, productive, joyful participation that enriches public life.

Co-Creation is quite the buzz word these days, but what does it mean to actually apply co-creative principles and practices in community? In this dynamic interactive workshop Katharine and Makasha will engage participants in processes that are essential to building a co-creative culture: attunements, check-ins, building the resonant field, dealing with conflict and establishing an agreement field. Katharine and Makasha, as co-founders and stewards of Hummingbird Community, have been modeling co-creative practices in community and business for the past three decades.

Does conflict mean your group is sick, or just paying attention? Starting with the premise that conflict is healthy and normal, we'll explore options for unlocking its potential using the whole person--rational, emotional, and intuitive. Rather than talking about "I" statements or being nice, we'll focus on what happens and what can be done when things get hot, concluding with a four-step plan for constructive engagement. Special attention will be given to the advantages of working in a group and in the dynamic moment, facilitated by those not in the stew.

This is a powerful yet easily accessible approach that fosters group cohesion, vision, and alignment with aspirations. Participants will learn a simple form of meditating together that is not rooted in a particular spiritual tradition. Energy Circles are great for finding positive vision in challenging situations, deep listening to the moment, inviting intuitive insight and channeling healing.

This workshop covers how, why and if you should make biodiesel, myths and facts about biodiesel, and the future and past of biodiesel.

Session 4: Sunday 10:30-noon

What it is, how it can save the world, and why you should consider taking a Permaculture design course.

While meetings are meant to be equally accessible to all members, the reality is they are not. This workshop will examine why power is unbalanced, and what a group can (should?) do to level the playing field. Not everyone is equally comfortable speaking in front of the whole house; not everyone finds rational discourse their strongest suit; not everyone can sit still for a three-hour meeting. Let's stop pretending and do something about it!

Curious about ecovillages? This is a short intro to what ecovillages are all about, followed by a live conversation guided by the participants questions and interests. Panelists can offer perspective on starting an ecovillage, living the daily life of sustainability experimentation, cross-cultural community, and bits of our personal stories for how we learned about, got hooked on and committed to ecovillage living.

Sustainable Ballard grew out of questioning of the reasons for the Iraq War and discoveries of Peak Oil, Climate Change, and an awareness of our communities’ unease with official responses to environmental, political and social justice concerns. In five years, Sustainable Ballard has transformed the way Ballard (a neighborhood in Seattle) neighbors communicate with each other. As a driving force for culture change in the region, Sustainable Ballard has become a model for community dialog with innovative programs like SCALLOPS: Sustainable Communities All Over Puget Sound and “The 100 Mile Diet”. This is their story.

“Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing there is a field. I will meet you there.” Rumi Moving beyond Robert’s Rules of Order, we apprentice the self-organizing field and attune to “ what wants to happen”. In this dynamic experiential workshop, Katharine and Makasha will engage participants in “attuned alignment”, the decision making process that is being modeled at Hummingbird Community. The focus in making decisions is to align with our essential nature, tune into our collective wisdom and allow guidance to be revealed. Thus decision-making becomes a spiritual practice.

The Catholic Worker movement is a 75-year-old decentralized movement of folks who share their homes and lives with homeless folks in "houses of hospitality". Based in the social teachings of the Gospel, Catholic Workers seek to build "a new society in the shell of the old" through experiments with community, solidarity, social justice, voluntary poverty, nonviolence, sustainability, and anarchism. The presenters live together in community at Trinity House Catholic Worker in Albuquerque. They will show a short film about their house, share stories from the CW movement, and facilitate discussion on radical discipleship and community.

Cohousing is the fastest growing branch of the intentional communities movement, largely because of its philosophical accessibility to a wide audience and the tried and true formula for development that originated in Denmark. Come learn what cohousing is and how cohousers experience life in this part of the movement.

Movement is a fundamental medium for exploring ourselves and the world. Cultivating a feeling state of awareness is especially accessible for children. Dance games involving stillness and motion, touch and trust, and breath and sound provide both healthy fun and experiential insight. Relaxation storytelling will conclude the session.

Sunday, 12:15-1:15 Meet the Communities, Tony Sirna, MC

This is your big chance for your handful of minutes of fame! For those living in a residential Intentional Community, wanting to start one, or part of a group that supports them, get ready to woo the crowd with your quick spiel about the great work you are doing. We do this before lunch so that you can find each other and schmooze over a nice meal.