Our vision and principles
Our vision is to create an intentional community with individuals, families, elders and anyone else who has a desire to live sustainably, cooperatively and self-sufficiently.
--We hope to develop a healthy, multi-generational community where we foster mutually helpful and nurturing relationships, share a few meals a week, enjoy both formal and informal activities and gatherings, celebrate with each other, and support each other's emotional and spiritual growth. We will have no shared religious or political credo other than a desire to live more cooperatively and sustainably. We value independence, personal freedom and privacy as well as interconnectedness, involvement in each other's lives and mutual support. We hope that by living sustainably and self-sufficiently we create a place where people can pursue their dreams and make positive personal growth.
--We will strive for ecological sustainability through the use of permaculture, organic food production, responsibly forestry, off-grid utilities (including solar power, a wastewater treatment wetland, composting toilets, rainwater catchment and gravity-fed pumps, graywater harvesting), green construction (including passive solar homes and natural building materials), composting, recycling, biodiesel, and other green technologies.
--We will be home to an organic mixed pasture-based farm owned by a sub-group of members which will sell vegetables, fruit, dairy, eggs, meat and other food to community eating co-ops as well as farmer's markets, restaurants, groceries, CSA and other venues. We encourage members to start cottage industries, personal businesses and other entrepreneurial activities to provide personal income, make good use of our land and set up services within the community. The possibilities are endless: artisan foods, crafts and other products, an inn, a cafe, a non-profit for research or education, a retreat center, gardening/farming (there can be several enterprises in this vein at the community), personal services (massage, counseling, healing, webdesign, consulting...), a childcare or enrichment program, construction and development, and so on.
--The structure will be based on either the cohousing model or the collective ownership model. With a cohousing model, a legal entity (such as a non-profit corporation) owns the common land and individuals own their homesites. In the collective model a legal entity (again, such as a non-profit corporation) owns all the land and members own a percentage of the corporation and must lease a homesite from said entity. Members will likely be very involved in building their homes. (And either way, we will incorporate elements of intentional community and an ecovillage.) Members may start businesses on their own land or lease additional space from the community.
-We will have community-wide meals in our Common House however often we choose; but members may wish to set up smaller eating co-ops that cook and eat together on a more regular basis. Some utilities and services will be covered by monthly dues, but others may be provided by co-ops similar to eating co-ops, thus keeping the monthly dues low and allowing people to choose where and how they get their needs met.
--All members of the community will be on the board of our legal entity which will be called the Council. The Council will make long-term and day-to-day decisions about the running of the community. Our by-laws, policy manual and other documents will outline our decisions about how things work in our community: creating and passing resolutions, paying back loans for our land, the membership process, visitors, sustainability guidelines, how members can recover equity if they leave, and a host of other issues.
--We are a community modeling cooperation and sustainability within a larger society, but we hope to nonetheless create our own self-sufficient village and strengthen the local economy.
Vision statement
A vision statement is a condensed version of the vision that zeroes in on the community's reason for being in a few sentences. Here's a rough draft of a vision statement: "We are creating an intentional ecovillage community where we will live cooperatively, sustainably and self-sufficiently. We are dedicated to modeling ecological responsibility and caring for each other and the earth."
Next: Mission and Goals