Headlines

• Newest Workshops
• Sunday Dinner and Party at Acorn
• Cambia Monday Program
• Cooks wanted
• Rideshare Form
• Covid testing policies and reminders
• Work Trade info

If you missed them, you can read Update #1 and Update #2 on our blog. 

Tickets are on sale now on Eventbrite. They are $150 for adults, $50 for youth ages 6-17, and free for kids 5 and under. We will close online ticket purchasing at noon eastern time on Thursday, August 31. After that you are welcome to purchase tickets at the 134 W. Old Mountain Road parking entrance to the conference between 1 PM and 9 PM on Friday and between 8 AM and 2 PM on Saturday. 

Curated Workshops – We got many more proposals for workshops than the 20 curated time slots we had.  Fortunately, most of the presenters who did not get selected have offered to present their content in the Open Space portion of the event.    A full list of workshops and events is now available on the 2023 Communities Conference Program website.

Sunday Night Dinner and Party at Acorn – Acorn Community is located 7 miles from the Conference Site and will be hosting dinner, a set of tours and a party after on Sunday eventing Sept 3.  Rides will be provided for people interested in attending.  This is part of the Communities Conference program and is offered at no cost.

Cambia Monday Program – Cambia Community is located just 1 mile from the Conference Site and is offering content for $40 on Monday, which is the Labor Day Holiday, Sept 4th.  Read this link for more complete descriptions

Cooks Wanted- We are still in search of a few honchos (lead chefs) for a few meals during the conference, if you’re interested in this role please email us at hawinafalcon@gmail.com. You’ll have volunteer helpers to assist with chopping, prepping, etc. If you’re interested in helping (but not being a meal lead) you can sign up for kitchen shifts at registration when you arrive.

Ride Share forms, drivers needed– To find or join a carpool, fill out this request form. We are especially in need of drivers who have seats available, so if you have an open seat in your vehicle please let us know by filling out the rideshare form or contact 

Covid testing policies/reminders– All attendees must show proof of a negative test covid test (at-home tests are fine), with a sample taken 24 hours or less before you arrive at the conference. We encourage attendees to test at home, as in 2022 several attendees had unexpected positive results. Tests will also be available at the gate for $5 each- cash is preferred but venmo, paypal, and credit/debit cards are also an option.

Work Exchange: If the standard ticket price is more than your budget can absorb, work exchange tickets are available for $50 via the eventbrite ticket portal. All participants are expected to contribute 2 hours of work during the conference, our discounted work exchange ticket option requires an additional 4 hours (6 total). If you are attending on a work exchange ticket, you can purchase youth tickets for $25 each (there is no work requirement of youth attendees, and no additional work requirements of adults who purchase this type of youth ticket). We are committed to making the communities conference affordable/accessible to as many people as possible. Please get in touch to discuss additional discounts, scholarships, or barter options.

If you’d like to be added to our update mailing list, email us at to.communities.conference@gmail.com with the subject line “subscribe”.

We are going to have the Communities Conference on Labor Day weekend, September 1-4, 2023.

The 2023 Communities Conference will have at least 2 threads/themes.  One thread explores starting new communities, and another examines diversity, equity, and inclusion. Ticket prices for 2023 are available here. Tickets, work exchange applications, and call for presenters, and more, will be available in spring 2023.

We are going to have the Communities Conference in 2022! After two years of having to cancel for the pandemic, we are coming back on labor day weekend (Sept 2 thru 5).

We will discuss several themes, including reconciliations (between members, between members and communities, and between communities that don’t have the relationships they would like) and diversifying membership.

It will be held at the expanded and improved Twin Oaks conference site. Both Acorn Community and Serenity Community will have significant roles in developing content, promoting the event, and granting scholarships and work exchanges.

the Communities Conference as a network: an interview

by Paige Carlson

I sat down to talk with Sky, who has been helping organize the Communities Conference in varying degrees for 18 years, he is currently serving as the executive director for the Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC), and is actively working on growing a flourishing lawn at the conference site at Twin Oaks Community, which is also where he lives. I was interested to know his thoughts and feelings about what goes on there. Following is my synthesis of what he had to say:

But first, i want to define intentional communities and the communities movement, in this writing, intentional communities is used to refer to “groups of people who live together or share common facilities and who regularly associate with each other on the basis of explicit common values,” (definition from the FIC values page) these often look like housing co-ops and communes. The communities movement is the social and economic movement towards co-operation in the stewardship of resources guided by explicit common values. These phrases are used to refer to communities that self identify as Communities as such and usually have some knowledge about the larger communities movement, though there are many other communities that do not formally identify as a part of the communities movement but have kindred structures, Wildseed community in New York is an example.

what is the Communities Conference? (or, the communities conference as a door)

First and foremost the Communities Conference is an opportunity for people living in, or interested in living in, communities to come together to meet, co-educate, and for the people who already know each other to gather in reunion. People camp, or stay at a neighboring facility, and all meals are provided. There are workshops which are relevant and useful to intentional communities. Last year the theme was inclusivity and diversity, and we had 8 workshops on the theme, most led or co-led by POC and folks from other marginalized groups. This year we’re carrying that theme forward, as well as bringing in content on cooperative business and sustainable building. 

In a segment in the program called Meet the Communities, the communities who are present share about themselves to the group, creating space for them to learn about one another. Sky says, “knowing each other and knowing what’s out there helps to strengthening our movement, especially when we rely so much on word of mouth and there is little to no frame of reference for what living in community is like for huge swaths of the population.” Sky also reflects that there are more and more people coming into communities and the conference these days by doing things like internet searching for “are there any more 60s communes?” and after discovering the conference attend without previous experience, or discover only one community on the internet and move directly to it. In this way the Communities Conference is a place in which people who know of only one community can come into knowing the larger networks.

who is best served by this event?

Sky says, “People from new and struggling communities can benefit from what they can learn from other ‘veteran’ communities, and have fun. If they’re new and struggling things are probably stressful at home for them, and there is opportunity to have fun with people who you know get the struggles you are having and are coming from a similar experience.” He gives me a knowing look here.

There is also a contingent of people who come year after year and have been coming for a long time, the conference is like a family reunion for them, and Sky, and he believes that from a movement building perspective that shouldn’t be underestimated.

Best served are also the people who just did an internet search or heard a whisper of community on the wind of communities. Sky says, “We do a good job of offering an introductory experience into the world of communities. Also, Twin Oaks is part of a sort of neighborhood of communities and part of the conference is a tour of the five neighborhood communities: Twin Oaks, Acorn, Living Energy Farm (LEF), Cambia, and Mimosa. You can come, maybe expecting to learn about just one community, and get a tour of four more all of different sized, with different focuses, and at different stages of development.”

what is the culture like at the conference?

There are structured group times, workshops and meals. Friday evening there is an opening circle, as wells as Saturday afternoon circle, and Sunday morning closing circle. Sky says. “These are spaces where we get people talking to each other and create space for them to get to know each other. We have more emphasis on that than other conferences do. We also discuss the norms of the conference, stuff like: taking photos, consent, peeing outside, quiet hours and smoking, which helps provide an experience of being in community intentionally. We make a lot announcements throughout the weekend and that’s an opportunity to create group cohesion. We have a work exchange as a payment option and we also have everyone who comes to the conference expect to work 2-3 hours as a way of sustaining the conference and building a sense of community amongst the participants.”

what about social justice? (or, the communities conference as a window)

Sky reflects and says “What does a future look like where all of these social and economic movements are successful? is a question that intentional communities attempt to answer,” or extrapolate on.

“The lived experience of being a part of communities is hard to quantify in terms of its ‘activism’ or ‘social change’ because they are often composed by and contain segments of broader social movements and the beginnings of expressing a holistic vision that we can work toward and hopefully live inside of.”

“Intentional communities ally with movements that are working for more explicit structural change within the current governing systems. This creates a strength via a two way street of resources and knowledge. For example the larger intentional communities organization, the FIC, is a member of the New Economy Coalition which is an organization fostering relationships between groups, organizations, and communities who are working to build more just, sustainable, and cooperative economies.”

“It is true that the communities movement is disproportionately white.” Sky says, “though, i think it’s less white than we think it is, because the communities movement is essentially a network of groups and white people have been at the center of it, who know each other in varying degrees. We tend to associate with people of the same race, leaders tend to be white tend and tend to have white friends, this directs who we know and who we know about especially. There are more people of color led intentional communities out there that are not within the “mainstream” of the communities movement.”

“In regards to the makeup of our communities, part of privilege is being about be able to avoid the conversation about it, and if nothing else I intend to keep bringing it up. The theme of last year was Inclusivity and Social Justice, and I hope that that becomes not just a theme but a regular part of the programming.”

Intentional communities put themselves in a position of stewarding resources. Sky wonders, “How can we get support to groups who are working on the ground by leveraging, funneling, and directing resources and knowledge?”

“Communities exist as models for collectivizing. As more and more people start to need to do it out of necessity models for doing it well will be more and more important.”

how does the communities conference effect twin oaks?

Sky says, “I think in all communities, especially rural communities, there’s a danger of becoming insular. It’s helpful for Twin Oaks to remember other people, other communities, and the broader communities movement. Sometimes people who live at Twin Oaks have never been to another community, so it’s a good chance to meet and see others.”

what’s your favorite part of the communities conference?

Sky smiles, “the dance party for sure! Also any time, when i look around and everyone looks really absorbed in each other and what they are doing. I’ve started doing this from time to time during the conference to see how we’re doing. If everyone seems positively, highly engaged, I feel like we’re doing something important. They almost always do.”

the beginnings of a communities conference national event

There are 3 committees conference around the country at similar times. The same weekend as Communities Conference, is the Southwest Inter-Community retreat at Llama foundation, and soon after is the West Coast Communities Conference. Sky shares, “It is a hope of mine for the communities conference to become a national event.”

in conclusion

From what i gathered talking with Sky it seems as though there are opportunities to learn more about communities currently in existence, meet people who may have similar interests and desired living paths, and camp in the woods in Virginia with people working towards more interpersonal and infrastructural organizational harmony and joy.  

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the formation of the Fellowship for Intentional Community. A lot has changed in 30 years.

For one, in 1987 the internet wasn’t commercially available. No websites, no email. As a child of the digital age it’s hard for me to fathom how people found communities before the internet, and how communities found each other. And yet, the network existed well before the FIC came
together.

Communities magazine started in 1972 as an amalgamation of several newsletters about communal living, which was a result of meetings at that year’s Twin Oaks Communities Conference. The first issue of Communities included the first Communities Directory. It also mentioned the North American Students of Cooperation, which focuses on student housing cooperatives, and was formed in 1968. But like the FIC, it is a successor to an organization that goes back to the 1940s. We are growing this movement in very rich soil that’s been cultivated for generations by people all over the country who somehow had the passion, dedication, and faith to build their communities and build a movement.

The social and political landscape has also changed dramatically. The counterculture and back-to-the- land movements of the ’60s and ’70s birthed many of the communities prominent in 1987, yet the schism with mainstream society they represented was only widening and intentional communities were becoming increasingly obscure and marginalized. It was an important time for the FIC to come together to help keep the momentum going.

Before long, in the early ’90s, cohousing and ecovillages would join the mix and help begin the
process of bringing intentional communities back to a more mainstream audience. Progressive
movements and organizations in general were recovering from the Reagan era, and with the
explosion of the internet, organizing for peace and justice only became easier. Things like the
Zapatista uprising in Mexico, MoveOn.org, and the WTO protests in Seattle in ’99 started
showing us what was possible.

The 2000s were about the world finally coming to recognize that there are global problems
facing humanity as a whole. And as we progress through the 2010s, it’s clear that more and more
people are looking for solutions. Intentional communities have always been models of integrated
solutions, merging social, economic, and ecological concerns. But while the stalwarts of previous
generations struggled to get this across to society, it seems younger people understand this
intuitively. A number of news outlets have contacted us about the surging interest amongst
millennials in intentional community; the interest major news outlets have been showing in
intentional communities clearly represents a growing recognition in society that there must be a
better way to do things.

There is so much wisdom embedded in the last 30 years of this movement and beyond. Sometimes wheels
do need to be reinvented, and sometimes people just need to learn from their own mistakes, but
sometimes knowledge can be shared and utilized and we can move beyond the challenges that
vexed previous generations.

In some ways, the world belongs to the youngest generation. They are the ones who will have to
deal with the mess we’ve made. The social, economic, and ecological problems intentional
communities have long sought to address are only compounding. Old ways of doing things might
simply no longer be relevant. But history does repeat, and the collected experience of decades of
community builders is invaluable. The commitment and perseverance that people brought to
their efforts to create the amazing intentional communities we see today cannot be
underestimated. Let’s carry forward the best of the past as we create a better future.

Service and activism go hand in hand with intentional community. In a sense, central to the intent of intentional communities is providing the service of modeling an alternative society. But it’s also common for intentional communities to engage in service and activism beyond themselves, and our history is full of examples.

An early Cooperative Community, New Harmony, founded in 1825 by Robert Owen, created the first store where items could be purchased based on labor credits. One of the first self-identified intentional communities, Celo Community, founded in 1937 by Arthur Morgan, received criticism for its opposition to World War II, and many of its early members were Quakers and conscientious objectors. In 1940, Arthur Morgan was also one of the founders of the original FIC, the Fellowship of Intentional Communities (now, we’re the Fellowship for Intentional Community, a subtle but important difference), a mutual aid association governed by representatives from member communities. Catholic Worker communities began appearing in 1933, practicing radical hospitality, advocating nonviolence, and opposing economic inequality and social injustice. Koinonia Farm, an interracial Christian community, was founded in 1942 on the principles of the equality of all persons, rejection of violence, ecological stewardship, and common ownership of possessions. Members of Koinonia would eventually start Habitat for Humanity in 1976. The Farm, founded in 1969, is often credited with rebirthing the midwifery movement in the US, and in 1974 formed Plenty, which is well known for its four-year presence in Guatemala helping rebuild after the earthquake of 1976.

Newer examples abound as well. The Camphill Communities and Innisfree Village have created communities for adults with developmental disabilities. Dignity Village in Portland, Oregon is a community with city support for the homeless population. The now defunct Rhizome Collective, in Austin, Texas housed a local Food Not Bombs chapter, a books to prisoners program, and a bikes across borders program. The Baltimore Free Farm cooked food for hundreds of demonstrators during recent protests in Baltimore following police shootings. Various communities, such as Occidental Arts and Ecology, Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, and EcoVillage at Ithaca, run education centers and programs. I was recently contacted by a woman interested in creating an intentional community for returning veterans, and I know of a retreat center looking to convert to a transitional community for people coming out of prison. There are individual members in just about every intentional community I’ve visited who are involved in all manner of peace and justice organizations.

“No [person] is an island,” and no community is an island either. It’s not possible for a community to be completely self-sufficient and sustainable in an unsustainable world, and there is no freedom or justice until there is freedom and justice for all. Inherent to the creation of intentional communities is a desire for another way of living. Creating and maintaining another way of living will always be an uphill battle until that way of living is accessible to everyone. As a predominantly white, middle-class movement, intentional communities have some soul- searching to do. It is not possible to remove yourself completely from the global economic system at this point. At their worst, intentional communities can be little more than examples of white flight, and by taking advantage of their privilege to avoid dealing with systemic injustice they are tacitly condoning those systems.

I’m writing this just days after the murders of Anton Sterling and Philando Castile by police. The aftermath, including the shooting of police officers in Dallas, has made the need to address racial injustice more apparent than ever. There is a resounding call for white people in particular to start showing up for racial justice (check out SURJ, which stands for Showing Up for Racial Justice, for some great ideas on what you can do and find local chapters at www.showingupforracialjustice.org). This doesn’t necessarily mean everyone should drop everything you’re doing, but it might mean some expansion of activities or a shift in focus, and it does mean that what you’re doing should be looked at to see how it can challenge systemic injustice, which disproportionately affects women, poor people, and people of color.

And as I write, I’m attending CommonBound, a conference organized by the New Economy Coalition (NEC), of which the FIC became a member last Fall. There are over 150 members of this coalition, including Yes! Magazine, the Highlander Center, Code Pink, the US and Canadian Federation of Worker Cooperatives, Earth Island Institute, Equal Exchange, and on and on. What they’re helping make clear is that all these issues, from housing and finance, to race and culture, to criminal justice and militarization, to climate change and energy, are interconnected.

At the opening plenary of CommonBound, the NEC’s program director, Anand Jahi, shared the story of his cousin, who was unarmed and shot by an off-duty police officer two years ago (you can find a full article by Anand on Yes! Magazine’s website). His cousin had been visiting the apartment complex he had lived at before he had been fired from his job for filing a racial discrimination complaint and then been evicted. The officer tried to arrest him for trespassing, eventually shooting him. Anand talked about the need to understand the economic devastation, which disproportionately affects people of color compared to whites, that is often the backdrop for these shootings. It’s dangerous to be black in America, he said, but it’s even more dangerous to be black and poor in America.

The privilege to create and live in communities where you have a relative level of economic security and physical safety should be a right to which everyone has access. The power to have an equal say in the conditions of your life, for the decisions that affect people to be made by the those people, should be a right. A key theme of the opening plenary was sovereignty and self-determination for people and communities. Intentional communities are often seen as laboratories, and I’ve often thought that self-determination, through collective ownership and participatory governance, is a key aspect of what intentional communities are trying to develop and model. There are many forces working against this: the criminal justice system and prison industrial complex; the military industrial complex; corporate rule and neo-colonialism; systemic racism, sexism, and classism in financing, housing, and business; lack of access to basic resources needed for self-sufficiency. The right to self-determination and the access to the resources necessary for self-sufficiency were quintessential aspects of the commons, a social structure that has largely disappeared in today’s world, but was once the basis for livelihood for masses of people. The earth is the commons and all people should have equal access to the resources and decision-making about our common home. For those of us with the privilege to enjoy this access, at least to a greater degree than others, we have a responsibility to help make those privileges available to all people equally in a way that is sustainable for the planet

The nature of intentional communities is that those of us who live in them are in service to each other. As self-managed, self-governing entities, we are collectively responsible for meeting the needs of the community as a whole as well as the individuals, because the individuals are part of the whole community. An attitude of service goes a long way to creating harmony in community, and the world. As social experiments, those who live in intentional communities are essentially activists, and must be active in their responsibility both for the success of the community and in the impact the community has on the world around it. Being an activist is essentially about responsibility and accountability, and taking those on also goes a long way to creating harmony in community, and the world.