Earthaven is unlike almost every other North American ecovillage I know of, because it’s a village within a village. Our 329-acre property is surrounded by adjacent and nearby neighbors and friends who participate in and contribute to our developing ecovillage life and culture.

I first realized this when I first visited Findhorn, a large, well-known, 60-year-old intentional community and ecovillage in northern Scotland. The early Findhorn community, founded in 1962 in rented trailers on a 15-acre mobile home park, is the original village. Over the years the wider ecovillage developed out beyond its borders as former community members moved nearby and new people moved to the area specifically to contribute to and participate in the new spiritually oriented, ecologically aware culture Findhorn was developing. (Short video of Findhorn Community. )

The original community, the Findhorn Foundation, a nonprofit educational organization (now about 50 members), soon bought the mobile home park, The Park. Approximately 450 Findhorn-affiliated friends and neighbors live in various degrees of proximity to the Foundation, renting mobile homes or bungalows in The Park or living in several adjacent housing developments, including the Field of Dreams project and East Whins Cohousing. Others live in the small fishing village at one end of the peninsula, or in Kinloss, a larger village on the other mainland end of the peninsula, and in the small Scottish city of Forres, three miles away. Another Findhorn Foundation property, Cluny Hill, hosts educational events in a former hotel two miles past Forres. Many of these Findhorn villagers run businesses with a product or service, or a nonprofit with a mission, that resonates closely with the Foundation’s values. These include a wind generator co-op, a dairy co-op, a car co-op, a health food store, a credit union, a Waldorf school, and an Earth-restoration project helping to reforest the Scottish highlands.

While Findhorn had 60 years to develop this way, Earthaven started becoming a village within a village in the last 15 years or so. Members of our ecovillage family include, like Findhorn, former community members who moved next door or nearby, people interested in membership who didn’t end up joining us but still wanted to participate and live nearby, and longtime Scots-Irish neighbors who visit often and share their Southern Appalachian homestead lore. Other village members are visitors, especially people who attended Earthaven’s School of Integrated Living (SOIL) educational programs, like Earthaven Experience Week, so drawn to our values and culture they rent homes onsite or nearby. Many have become dues-paying members of our Earthaven Community Association along with most Earthaven members.

I believe Earthaven is one of the few communities in North America like this. Some former members of Sirius Community in Massachusetts live nearby and attend weekly dinners. But Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri, which is similar to Earthaven in many ways, has no friends living nearby because their neighbors, mostly retired Mennonite dairy and soybean farmers, don’t offer rentals.

Wonderful neighbors in our village family include Leon Birstein and Geni Stephenson, who’ve been integral parts of our lives since our earliest days. Geni brings fresh produce and other homestead products from their organic farm to our weekly Coffee and Trade farmers market, operates a pottery studio some of our members use too, manages five small rental units adjacent to our property for new people considering Earthaven membership, and opens the Zendo on their property for morning and evening meditations. Leon, who built the Zendo and their homestead, runs the farm with another neighbor, Jonathan Greenberg, innovates useful ways to run a homestead (which many of us copy), and serves as an electrical, plumbing, and general homesteading expert for many of us.

Tricia and John Baehr and their children have contributed in numerous ways, John providing physical labor in various community workdays, and Tricia, a superb cook, hosting various village celebrations, catering various celebration events for members, and offering educational cooking and baking classes for kids. Tricia co-produced, hosted, and catered our Forest Garden Party one summer evening, where we wore forest-themed costumes and danced with the fireflies. She also wrote, directed, and produced a wonderful children’s play with Earthaven and neighbor children. Bob Broadhead participates in workdays, manages an onsite trout pond with one of our members, and hosts the coffee bar at the Coffee and Trade, and Seraina Broadhead is a Board Member of Culture’s Edge, Earthaven’s 501(c)3 nonprofit; hosts a study group on eldering for our older folks; and in a widely attended ceremony was inducted as a village  “Elder in Training,” to enthusiastic applause and cheers.

Friends and neighbors serve on Earthaven’s committees, serve in community roles or part-time jobs, or offer classes. Allie Bales serves on our Care Team, Alinahh Ever and Chelsea Spitzer are on our Racial Equity Task Group (and Chelsea was a teacher for our youngest children at The Village School). Chris Ehart is barbeque master at our Tuesday night cookouts, Jason Dionne helps on our Council Hall wood furnace crew, Danu Macon served as our Labor Project Coordinator. Arturo Chaves teaches Cumbia, Merengue and other Mexican dances, Kayla Birstein teaches kickboxing, and Michelle Dione taught Middle Eastern dancing in our Council Hall. Jonathan Greenberg and Sarah Nolan-Poupart cover shifts at our onsite farm, and Karen Budd is the SOIL registrar. Other friends provide garden and farm products, delicious snacks, and homemade crafts at our weekly Coffee and Trade farmer’s market or our annual Bizarre Bazaar — Peggy Austin Malone, Otter Kaase, Chrisa Hickey, Alinahh, and Rainbow Teplitsky.

Longtime area residents Alvin Lytle, Thrisa Murphy, and Lois and Reid Murphy, whose Scots-Irish-descended families have lived in our southern Appalachian mountains for generations, have each brought benefits and local wisdom to our village life, and Alvin, a local organic farmer, offers organic farm products at every Coffee and Trade.

Other neighbors who regularly contribute to or have done so in the recent past, and who regularly attend our social events, include Chris Heath, Brent Hickey, Ed Hickey, Linda Bark, Pripo Teplitsky, June Lytle, Rio Fiore, Sarah Anne Amunson, Ben Kassahun, Luke Cannon, Juniper and John O’Dell, Thomas Doochin and his partner Paeonia, Jane Ware and Don Miller, and Faith Butterfield.

We can never forget Randy and Sally Frazer, who lived here long before Earthaven was founded, not only kindly invested in our Earth Shares Fund in our early days to help us get started, and generously gave us a donation too.

We are so lucky. Thank you all so much!

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Diana Leafe Christian, international author, workshop leader, and advocate for ecovillages, community living, and the Sociocracy governance method, receives the Fellowship for Intentional Community’s (FIC) 2018 Geoph Kozeny Communitarian Award at the West Coast Communities Conference in San Diego in September of this year.

The Kozeny Award honors communitarians for a lifetime of work in the communities movement: as networkers, in media relations, as community builders, and/or providing leadership in the communities movement. Diana’s contributions were recognized in all areas, “…sometimes by taking a leading role,” writes the FIC, “and sometimes by providing invaluable assistance to others working in those areas.” (Communities, Fall 2017)

above: Diana teaching at Findhorn.

Diana and her Mom, Rosetta Neff (who passed away last May at 100), joined Earthaven in 2002. Diana has played major roles in our Promotions and Membership Committees and introduced us to decision-making practices used in other communities, including Sociocracy and the N St. Consensus Method (a variation of which we now use).

Diana became the editor of Communities in 1993, networking, editing and writing about community living for 14 years. Her book, Creating a Life Together, is a seminal reference for people interested in starting communities. Her second book Finding Community, is now a core resource for people looking for a community to join.

Diana travels internationally, teaching workshops on starting successful new ecovillages and on Sociocracy, and consulting with communities long established and those just starting out. We’re blessed to have her here the rest of the year!

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Many of her closest friends and neighbors from Earthaven visited her at the hospice. Her daughter, Diana Leafe Christian, also an Earthaven member, and her son John Christian, from California, lived with Rosetta at the hospice during her several weeks’ stay.

A “Celebration of Rosetta’s Life” memorial was held at Andy and Julie’s house, next door to where Rosetta lived. Diana showed slides of Rosetta’s long life and her years working for United Airlines; living in Honolulu; her many travels to Europe, Asia, and Africa after she retired; and the introduction during her lifetime of talking movies, television, computers, and cell phones.

People shared fond stories of Rosetta as a friend and neighbor, recalling how extraordinarily healthy and functional she remained even until her late 90s. Many recalled how mentally sharp she was, her sense of humor, and her kindness.

Allie led us in singing “Pachamama, I’m Coming Home,” and then we sang “Rosetta, you are beautiful, Rosetta, you are strong….”

We ended by dancing to one of Rosetta’s favorite songs from the Big Band era— Glenn Miller’s In the Mood. Everyone agrees, “We’ll miss you, Rosetta.”

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Daniel Greenberg, who in 2015 was elected President of the Global Ecovillage Network, wrote his thesis for a Ph.D. in child psychology on the emotional well-being of children in intentional communities. He surveyed 235 or so intentional communities in the U.S. and personally visited about 30 of them to interview community members in person.

He learned that if a community was stable and didn’t have high member turnover, the children seemed to thrive in measurably higher ways than non-community children of the same ages. Children raised or living in intentional communities seemed more confident and competent than similar non-community children; they learned skills most people usually learn only as adults. They were also more verbally and socially skilled (and even verbally precocious) at earlier ages.

Daniel believed this was because the children had adult friends in the community who weren’t their parents, relatives, teachers or school principals or any other adult authorities, just friends or neighbors who spent time with them and showed them how to do things (like garden, cook, repair things, care for animals, etc.). He also found that, unlike in the “outside world,” different ages played together and seemed to like and enjoy each other.

If, however, a community had a high turnover, with many families moving away, the children did not do as well; they felt like brothers, sisters and cousins to each other, and found it emotionally wrenching to keep losing friends who felt like family. I’ve seen similar things in my own informal research into communities around the world, and by personal observation living at Earthaven.

At Earthaven, we see children roaming the property with friends of various ages, in a kind of “kids herd” paradise where every adult knows them, cares about them, and can look out for them. Paradise, indeed!

Diana Leafe Christian, author of the books Creating a Life Together and Finding Community, speaks at conferences, offers consultations, and leads workshops internationally on the tools and processes that help forming communities succeed, and on governance and decision-making in communities.

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Earthaven member Rosetta Neff celebrated her 99th birthday here January 3, 2015. She may be the world’s oldest ecovillager! When Rosetta began visiting Earthaven with her daughter, Diana, in October, 2000, both were living an hour away In Polk County. They had been impressed with their visits and, finally, Rosetta suggested they join Earthaven.

Rosetta and Diana had a small house built in the Forest Garden Neighborhood, moving to Earthaven when Rosetta was 88. Like other ecovillagers worldwide, Rosetta uses wood heat, a composting toilet (hers is indoors), spring and roof-catchment water heated on-demand with propane, and off-grid solar power, which she keeps an eye on by regularly reading their trimetric meter.

In her early years at Earthaven, when she could hear better, Rosetta attended Council Meetings and stayed tuned in to the process of building the community. One of her concerns was our lack of children. “If we don’t start making it easier for young families to join,” she warned, “in a few years we’ll be just another old folks’ home!” (It did get easier—now many children live at Earthaven, along with their families, which of course delights Rosetta. One of her favorites is four-year-old Forest Bosley, Julie McMahon and Andy Bosley’s son. He often climbs into her lap to look at books from her shelf. His favorite — The Humanure Handbook).

Although Rosetta stopped driving several years ago, she still cooks, does dishes, helps with laundry, and enjoys visiting with many Earthaven friends and neighbors. She especially appreciates buying farm products from neighbors at Tuesday morning Coffee & Trade, which is her favorite social event at Earthaven.

Diana Leafe Christian teaches Sociocracy and other elements of the Ecovillage Design Course worldwide.

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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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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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You mix this powder with water in varying proportions to provide stain-remover, laundry booster, surface cleaner, and so on. It is excellent for cleaning and removing organic stains (such as coffee, tea, wine, fruit juices, foods, sauces, grass and blood) from fabrics, plastics, fiberglass, porcelain, ceramics, wood, carpets, asphalt, concrete, etc. Don’t use it on wool or silk, however.

Greg Geis, laundry designer, researched to be sure that Enviro-Oxy would be safe for Earthaven’s water.  After use, it breaks down to oxygen and baking soda. Sodium Percarbonate (Enviro-Oxy) is the underlying ingredient of Oxi-Clean products.

I was very pleasantly surprised to find out how effective it is for a variety of uses. Like Greg, I am a convert and use it regularly. It comes in one-cup bags, which last a long time because a little bit goes a long way.

When you get some for the first time, you can also pick up a printed sheet of all the ways to mix it and use it. There are also helpful instructions on the web. The enviro-oxy bags and the instruction sheets are in the product cabinet pictured here.

Below is a wider shot of Shangri-Laundry and the products cabinet. The products are self-serve: select what you want, put the money in a small envelope with your name, and drop it in the cash box on top of the cabinet. If you need change, go next door to the home of laundry manager Diana Leafe Christian.

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My neighborhood (Village Terraces) has a shared washer, but I like to use Shangri-Laundry when the weather is too rainy for outdoor drying. And, I often sleep too late to get my wash hung on the line in time to dry. 🙂

Diana Leafe Christian organized the laundry coop and the system was designed by Greg Geis. It is easy to use. When you walk into the nice, cool basement, this motion-sensor light comes on, so you can see to put your laundry in the washer before inserting money that starts your timed access to electricity: lights, washer, dryer, and DSL broadband Internet.

The laundry supplies environmentally friendly laundry soap and booster for you to use at no extra charge, as well as about eco-cleaners you can buy at Shangri-Laundry.

While the washer is running, you can hang out on the sofa and go online or read magazines that are provided. You can lock yourself in for privacy (and there are toilet facilities). There are plans to install a bathtub later, so you will be able to relax in a hot bath while the machines spin!

Here is Greg moving his laundry from the washer up to the dryer. Both the washer and dryer are energy-efficient and have multiple settings from heavy-duty to delicate. The front-loading washer is gentle on your clothes. It senses the size of the load and adjusts the amount of water accordingly. The dryer can be set for a timed cycle or to sense when your clothes are dry. The length of washer and dryer cycles can vary based on the load size and the options you select.

When you are down to your last 15 minutes (a dollar’s worth of time), a constant beeping will start and this blue light will blink. You can press the blue button to stop the beeping if you don’t need any more time. Insert another dollar as needed to keep the electricity going until you are done.

There are many helpful signs to guide you through the steps. The Shangri-Laundry is available for Earthaven residents, visitors, and neighbors. We hope it will help make our lives more sustainable by letting folks avoid a trip into town to do laundry. We are interested in feedback to make the laundry meet your needs–please “like” us and stay in touch on our Facebook Page.

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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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