(Transcipt from video)

Courtney Brooke:

Here we are. The inside scoop in the membership education committee. So we’ve been in here just reflecting on the deep journey of what it is to come into relationship with Earthhaven. All the different phases and stages and life cycle of that whole process. It’s been really beautiful to see all so much complexity and opportunity and all the different stages of it.

Lee: And here’s our avatar Abbey.

Courtney Brooke: She’s walking the path. So this is an answer to a call. People are wondering how to get into right relationship and so here we are aspiring to make a beautiful diagram about it to help us, the inside and the outside, understand it more fully. So stay tuned for that… Coming to an earth haven website near you.

We’ve got to set it up like a big spiral.

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If you see us smiling broadly these days, it’s because in January 2019 we finally finished our legal restructuring process, underway since we learned the severity of our financial/legal structure issues in 2010. Now every Earthaven member and our entire 329-acre mountain property are safer and more secure legally than when the first site lease was issued in 1999.

Since we couldn’t accept new Earthaven members until we fixed the problem, there has been a membership moratorium since 2012. Fortunately, many people waited until they could join us officially, and in the last six months seven wonderful young people became full members. More reason for our broad smiles.

Here’s what happened, and here’s how we resolved it.

Earthaven has been “building the road as we travel” – with our physical, social, and legal infrastructure. Our founders started out with a legal structure that was intended for us to own the land together, lease homesites from the community, and own our own homes. This approach was based on unregistered 99-year leases. In 2010, a critical mass of people became aware of potential issues with this approach, which could leave the community and members legally vulnerable. After our initial shock and dismay, and dawning understanding that we had a serious situation, we got down to work. We spent years of intense researching and learning, negotiating, and deciding. Little by little we agreed on what we needed to do, with the hard work and leadership of the late Kimchi Rylander, Geoffrey Stone, Martha Harris, Debbie Lienhart, and many others.

Over 2018 and early 2019 we created 12 different 10+ acre neighborhood parcels. Ten parcels are owned by associations of Earthaven members, either through a housing cooperative or an LLC (Limited Liability Company), one is owned by an individual member, and one is owned as a 501©3 nonprofit. These are:

1. Gateway Neighborhood and Farm LLC
2. Persimmon Grove Neighborhood Housing Co-op (formerly Forest Garden neighborhood)
3. Hut Hamlet Housing Co-op
4. Hickory Knob (owned by an individual)
5. Village Terraces Housing Co-op
6. Bellavia Gardens Housing Co-op
7. Medicine Wheel Collective, a 501©3 nonprofit
8. Hawk Holler Housing Co-op
9. Feathervev LLC (Lower Rosy Branch neighborhood)
10. Dancing Shiva LLC (formerly Loving Acres neighborhood)
11. Chestnut Housing Co-op (comprised of two adjacent neighborhoods, Upper Rosy Branch and Piney Knob)

Each neighborhood is a member of the Earthaven Homeowners Association (HOA), which owns the approximately 200 acres of common land. The HOA builds and maintains the roads and bridges on our shared common land.

Owning our property this way means that our residential areas are not subject to our county subdivision regulations and, as individuals and as a community, we have far less legal liability than we did before. Another feature of our new way of co-owning Earthaven property is that it may be more applicable and helpful to other intentional communities than the legal structure we used before. Also, using three different kinds of legal entities to own neighborhood parcels — housing co-ops, LLCs, and a 501©3 nonprofit — can help us learn how each legal entity works best for Earthaven and other intentional communities.

Most Earthaven neighborhood members are also members of the Earthaven Community Association (ECA), a newly created legal entity (a “nonexempt nonprofit”) that doesn’t own any property but manages some of our physical infrastructure and all other aspects of community life — our website, visitor program, tours, alternative currency, membership process, non-member residents, work exchangers, rituals, celebrations, social and cultural events, and so on.

“Most legal entities,” observes Debbie Lienhart, who managed our legal restructuring for the last several years, “have tax-related restrictions on how they get money, what they spend it on, and/or whether they need to make a profit. The cool thing about the new ECA legal structure is that we can earn and spend its money on anything we want within its very broad mission, as long as we pay taxes.” We still have an associated 501(c)3 non-profit — Culture’s Edge — for accepting tax-deductible contributions that can be used for Earthaven’s charitable and educational activities.

The young people who recently “jumped” into full Earthaven membership are Sara Carter, Liz Diaz, NikiAnne Feinberg, Zev Friedman, Carmen Lescher, Dimitri Magiasis, and Travis Robb. The Provisional Members we anticipate “jumping” soon are Sam Del Veccio, Rachel Fee, Julia Taylor, and Gabriel Vieira. Many of these new members have taken on leadership roles to manage our new legal entities — another reason for our smiles.

Diana Leafe Christian has been an Earthaven member since 2002 and is a member of Persimmon Grove Neighborhood. Author of Creating a Life Together, she leads workshops and webinars and speaks at conferences on community topics worldwide. Connect with Diana directly via her website.

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Since last we wrote, several neighborhood pods have formed legal entities and received deeds to their neighborhood parcels. Most pods are incorporated as housing coops, with one non-profit ”spiritual society.” By next newsletter, all Earthaven pods should have their deeded parcels, and clarity between Homeowners Association responsibilities, pod responsibilities, and the budding Earthaven Community Association (ECA) will emerge.

The ECA will focus on our community’s social infrastructure, inviting new levels of membership and contribution. We look forward to more ways for many of our readers to participate—keep your eye on our newsletters and the Earthaven website for updates.         

The post We’re Podding Up appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

Some Earthaven neighborhoods are balancing collective and personal ownership issues by forming housing cooperatives. While used in other parts of the country, housing co-ops are new in our region and could be a reasonable model for other ecovillages, especially in rural areas.

One of the last neighborhood “pods” to get involved in the land-ownership revision, folks at Bellavia Gardens finally took a look at the details and dimensions of this “restructuring” process, which Council has been working on for several years. Here’s what we learned.

Entrance to Bellavia Circle in the lush heart of summer.

After restructuring, our Homeowners Association (HOA), of which our neighborhood “pods” will all be members, will continue to own most of our land for us, meaning the forest all around, the Commons, and much of the agricultural areas. But instead of bearing the burdens of caring for residential parcels, the HOA will pass the baton of “ownership” and responsibility to residential pods incorporated in a couple of formats.

Two neighborhoods have decided to pursue becoming religious societies, finding those more aligned than housing co-ops with their values and needs. Bellavia Gardens will have just enough Full Earthaven Members (five) to comply with the requirements for cooperative associations in North Carolina. Other neighborhoods with fewer members are joining together to start their co-ops and may branch off in the future.

left: Medicine Wheel Collective will become a religious society.

Not everyone has been excited about these changes (putting our NVC education into intensive practice!). In addition to slowpokes like the Bellavians, other challenges to accomplishing restructuring included determining which agreements would have to be amended and which can remain the same. Our commitments and understandings regarding residing on, sharing and co-owning Earthaven land have had a searchlight review and updating in preparation for becoming a federation of neighborhoods.

Earthaven Association comprehensive site map before restructuring

Much intensive and dedicated work was accomplished by Council’s Strategic Transition Group (STG), which Kimchi Rylander organized and nurtured these last few years, and which has guided the process to its maturity. Hats off also to Patricia Allison, Bob Lienhart, Debbie Lienhart, Martha Harris, Sue and Geoff Stone, Alice Henry, Norm Self, Carmen Lescher, and with a great bow to Dimitrios Magiasis, who kept interpreting for the rest of us what was happening in conversations between legal counsel and the STG team!

All in all, what has been a laborious and sometimes bewildering process has created a new way of organizing ourselves that we think will be more appropriate and supportive of our similar but also distinct neighborhood personalities.

      Visitors Map showing some Earthaven neighborhoods.

Stay tuned for updated information here and on our website about ways to continue to connect with us, including visiting and tours, work exchange and other short-term residency options, educational and economic opportunities, and membership exploration. To twist the African Ubuntu saying just a little bit: “we are because YOU are!

Arjuna da Silva helped found Earthaven in 1994 and is a member of Bellavia Gardens Neighborhood. 

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In October Earthaven’s international community researcher and advocate Diana Leafe Christian gave workshops and consultations to several intentional communities in England, and co-led a workshop on Sociocracy at Findhorn Community in Scotland with her teacher and mentor, John Buck, the man who brought Sociocracy to the English-speaking world.

Sociocracy, which means “governance by peers,” is a governance and decision-making method. Earthaven uses Sociocracy’s “Selecting People for Roles” process to elect annual officers.

“Teaching at Findhorn was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done,”

Diana says. “It was an honor to co-lead a workshop with my own teacher and mentor. And do it at Findhorn — one of the oldest and most famous intentional communities in the world. I loved it!”

Findhorn was famous in the 1960s for growing unusually large vegetables on poor sandy soil with apparently channeled gardening advice, and soon became an international spiritual educational center, attracting thousands.

Diana and John led their two-day workshop at Newbold House, a Findhorn-affiliated conference center in the nearby town of Forres, and gave many small introductory workshops to groups of trustees, managers, council members, staff, and others affiliated with the Findhorn Foundation in the wider local community.

The Sociocracy workshop was so popular John and Diana will return to Findhorn to lead it again in May, 2014.

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“Blocking potentially gives tremendous power to one or a few individuals, and the only way for that to function successfully is with a check and balance,” advises consensus trainer Tree Bressen (Communities magazine, Summer 2012). “In my experience, every successful consensus system . . . restricts blocking power in order to guard against tyranny of the minority,” she adds (Fall 2012 issue).

Here’s how Earthaven’s new “check and balance” method works:

1. To choose officers in our annual meeting, we adapted a technique from Sociocracy: a series of “go rounds” to nominate and choose people for these roles. We used this method successfully in annual officer elections in our November 25^th and December 9^th Council meetings.
2. To approve incoming new members we retained our previous consensus method.
3. For all other proposals we added criteria for a valid block and a way to test blocks against that criteria (i.e., a block is declared invalid if 85% of Council members present say it’s invalid).

For any remaining blocks that have been declared valid, we use an adaptation of the N St. Consensus Method, in which blockers and several proposal advocates participate in up to three solution-oriented meetings to co-create a new proposal that addresses the same issues as the first proposal. If they cannot, the original proposal comes back to the next Council for a decision using consensus-minus-one (meaning it takes two blocks, not one, to stop the proposal).

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Steve Torma is guiding Earthaven through the awkward teen years as Earthaven’s FireKeeper. As FireKeeper, Steve seeks to honor and value the community history while accepting change and valuing transformation.

Steve has a strong appreciation for “the value of the group mind and synergy of the collective intelligence.” As FireKeeper, he is the leader of the FireKeeper Orbo, which is responsible for the overall well-being of the community, including peace, safety, spirit, and community process, and he is also the President of the homeowner’s association. He is supported in this role by his co-FireKeeper, Kimchi Rylander, and a committee of FireTenders.

See the full blog entry.

Steve offers classes and consulting through the REAL Center.

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“My whole life has been leading toward me doing this role.”

Steve Torma is guiding Earthaven through the awkward teen years as Earthaven’s Fire Keeper. As Fire Keeper, Steve seeks to honor and value the community history while accepting change and valuing transformation.

Steve sees Earthaven as one of the places on the planet that’s grappling with what humans need to do to evolve as a species. Steve believes that for Earthaven to thrive, we need to balance our attention between developing the physical and cultural aspects of the village. To keep this balance, he uses the four-quadrant view of the Integral Model:

• I quadrant – how I view reality, what I like and don’t like
• It quadrant– my body and things, such as food and housing
• We quadrant – relationships between two or more people
• Its quadrant – systems that we are part of, such as collective buildings, the ecosystem, and external governing bodies

During the first 15 years of the community, Earthaven placed most of its attention in the It and Its quadrants — developing the roads, water systems, community buildings, housing, and farms needed to house the village. With some of those completed, Steve sees “my role is being a catalyst in the I and we quadrants so we can evolve more successfully – be more creative and productive.”

Steve explains more about the Integral Model at Earthaven in a series of videos:

• Introduction to the Integral Model at Earthaven
• Example of the Integral Model at Earthaven
• How the quadrants relate to each other

Steve has a strong appreciation for “the value of the group mind and synergy of the collective intelligence.” As Fire Keeper, he is the leader of the Fire Orbo, which is responsible for the overall well being of the community, including peace, safety, spirit, and community process, and is also the President of the homeowner’s association. He is supported in this role by his co-Fire Keeper, Kimchi Rylander, and a committee of Fire Tenders.

Steve’s personal transformation mirrors Earthaven’s. When he came to Earthaven Steve was in poor health and made his living selling books at conferences. After rebuilding his health and co-creating the Village Terraces neighborhood, Steve turned his attention to developing a teaching and coaching practice. Steve teaches through the REAL Center where he offers courses on compassionate communication and the art of intimacy. He also offers personal coaching and mediation services, and is available for workshop and consulting for groups and businesses.

For fun, Steve likes to build and fix things, enjoys lifting heavy objects, and gets deep satisfaction out of seeing the richness of life at Village Terraces and Earthaven. “With each passing year we become more of a village. I enjoy watching the children being able to walk around and knowing that they are held in the safety of our village. I also like having our own cow and chickens.”

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Many consensus trainers tell us consensus-with-unanimity is good for communities. It creates a sense of trust and connection, a sense of harmony, they say, since everyone’s agreement is first required to pass a proposal.

Though I believed this for years, I no longer do. I now believe that using consensus-with-unanimity, especially with no recourse, actually harms most communities.

One of the reasons is that people often misunderstand and misuse the blocking privilege. This often results in the unintended consequences of discouragement, low morale, diminished meeting attendance and others such as:

• People able to endure more conflict may prevail, creating “decision by endurance.”
• Disproportionate power to whoever supports the status quo.
• Community stagnation (unable to change or evolve).
• Power struggles may drive out some of the group’s most responsible, effective members.

What Works Better Instead?

There are three collaborative, win-win methods. The N Street Consensus Method, Sociocracy and Holacracy do not allow the kinds of power-over dynamics that can occur with consensus-with-unanimity. Communities that use these methods don’t tend to have the unintended consequences that can occur when using consensus-with-unanimity. Rather, these methods tend to generate a sense of connection, trust, and well-being in the group.

This article was excerpted from a Part I article of the same name that appears in Communities Magazine, Summer 2012 issue. Click here to learn more about this issue, which focuses on the theme ‘Diversity,’ or to purchase the magazine.

Diana Leafe Christian, an Earthaven member, is author of the books Creating a Life Together and Finding Community, publisher of Ecovillages, a free online newsletter about ecovillages worldwide, and a columnist for Global Ecovillage Network. Click here for Diana’s website.

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“This is harder than I thought!” exclaimed Ohbeeb. She was in front of the room practicing facilitating a meeting. She was saying, “Excuse me; would you like to get on the stack?” to another participant who was having fun pretending to be mildly disruptive.

It was our annual weekend workshop, “Earthaven Governance & Consensus, and Introduction to Facilitation,” held in the Council Hall November 20-21.

I continued to coach Ohbeeb, who practiced this phrase several times, interrupting the person who was acting disruptive.

“You need to hear yourself saying this phrase, over and over,” I said,  “until you create new neural pathways.” Ohbeeb practiced stopping the disrupter several more times until she began doing it quite well.

We hold this workshop once a year for people on our membership track. This year’s participants included Troy, Norm, Ohbeeb, Carly, Liz, Susan, Evelyn, and Curt.

Saturday was about consensus, and included Earthaven’s governance process (our Orbos, committees, and managers), and consensus essentials — strong agendas, well-crafted proposals, skilled facilitation, trained participants, evaluations — among other topics.

Sunday was an overview of the facilitation process, and time for practice. This is where we got to see

people’s acting abilities, since when someone practiced everyone else played the role of meeting participants — often hilariously.

Jonathan, as guest instructor, described the process of facilitating complex topics.

People gathered in small groups to practice creating proposals. They described what they’d like to change or improve about Earthaven, and we noted which of these ideas fell under Earthaven’s governance and could be addressed by a proposal, and which would not be governance but addressed by a private project. People in small groups practiced creating and presenting proposals, and the whole group gave feedback.

In the “Name the Member” game, people called out the name of Earthaven members and I described what official roles each member has played in the community, the committees they’ve served on, and the projects they’ve initiated or managed, plus other myriad ways they’ve contributed to Earthaven. New folks always seem impressed by our governance, and the many ways our members have given and served Earthaven over the years.

Several participants told me the workshop because gave them a much better sense of Earthaven’s governance and how they can participate. “It shouldn’t be called a consensus training,” Art said after the 2009 training. “It should be called, ‘How to Become Empowered at Earthaven’.”

 Earthaven member Diana Leafe Christian is an internationally known ecovillage activist, author of Creating a Life Together and Finding Community (New Society Publishers), and publisher of Ecovillages newsletter. Click here for her website.

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