Home-Seeker
When looking for housing, the logical place to begin is to figure out how much you can spend on housing and where you want to live. After those two basic decisions are made, you can think about your requirements for the physical space.
How Much Can You Afford?
Where Do You Want to Be?
The Physical Space
Sources: Sharing Housing: A Guidebook for Finding and Keeping Good Housemates
Contributors: Annamarie Pluhar
Recommended Books: Sharing Housing: A Guidebook for Finding and Keeping Good Housemates
The 64 Success Principles
- Take 100% Responsibility for Your Life
- Be Clear Why You're Here
- Decide What You Want
- Believe It's Possible
- Believe in Yourself
- Become an Inverse Paranoid
- Unleash the Power of Goal-Setting
- Chunk It Down
- Success Leaves Clues
- Release the Brakes
- See What You Want, Get What You What You See
- Act as If
- Take Action
- Just Lean Into It
- Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway
- Be Willing to Pay the Price
- Ask! Ask! Ask!
- Reject Rejection
- Use Feedback to Your Advantage
- Commit to Constant and Never-Ending Improvement
- Keep Score for Success
- Practice Persistence
- Practice the Rule of 3
- Exceed Expectations
- Drop Out of the "Ain't It Awful" Club... and Surround Yourself with Successful People
- Acknowledge Your Positive Past
- Keep Your Eye on the Prize
- Clean Up Your Messes and Your Incompletes
- Complete the Past to Embrace the Future
- Face What Isn't Working
- Embrace Change
- Transform Your Inner Critic Into an Inner Coach
- Transcend Limiting Beliefs
- Develop Four New Success Habits a Year
- 99% Is a Bitch; 100% is a Breeze
- Learn More to Earn More
- Stay Motivated with the Masters
- Fuel Your Success with Passion and Enthusiasm
- Stay Focused on Your Core Genius
- Redefine Time
- Build a Powerful Support Team and Delegate to Them
- Just Say No!
- Say No to the Good So That You Can Say Yes to the Great
- Find a Wing to Climb Under
- Hire a Personal Coach
- Mastermind Your Way to Success
- Inquire Within
- Be Here Now
- Have a Heart Talk
- Tell the Truth Faster
- Speak with Impeccability
- When in Doubt, Check It Out
- Practice Uncommon Appreciation
- Keep Your Agreements
- Be a Class Act
- Develop a Positive Money Consciousness
- You Get What You Focus On
- Pay Yourself First
- Master the Spending Game
- To Spend More, First Make More
- Give More to Get More
- Find a Way to Serve
- Start Now!... Just Do Ii!
- Empower Yourself by Empowering Others
Inspired by:The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be
Contributors: Jack Canfield
Recommended Reading:The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be
The Transition House Walsenburg/Universal Alliance of Communities, Inc
I originally came to this way of thinking through Peter Joseph's film Zeitgeist Addendum. Through the film I learned about The Venus Project like many others have. Since neither organization provided a clear idea of what the transitional process to a Resource
Based Economy would look like I sought out answers elsewhere. Through Google searches I discovered the Transition Network and the concept of Transition Towns. Accidentally in trying to find their material again I discovered The Transition. In the beginning I will admit I did piss and moan about "having to do" Your Action Plan because I wanted to meet people right away. I certainly fought the almost overwhelming desire to fuss about the seemingly unending network of links and sub links in The Transition site and the elusive Phase II review. However, now that I have digested the material I truly am better armed when I encounter a question.
Once I reached Phase II I was able to connect and meet key players in the movement and from there I realized I needed to start my own BUD. We are living the dream as we transition from a monetary based economy to a resource based economy through the Hybrid RBE System. We have chosen Walsenburg, Colorado as our point of entry into the new paradigm we are fashioning here. We truly are creating our own reality as we work together in community to create a life we can all enjoy. During that time I came to learn of the Ubuntu Movement's One Small Town proposal and decided to host a Zeitgeist Addendum movie screening in my own town with that focus in mind as a viable solution. Many people that attended that screening were receptive to the message I was offering and through that event I was able to get more involved with the local city government. I was given a job to deal with the removal of asbestos from properties in my community, which gave me the opportunity to get to know local city officials on a more personal level. Through those relationships and the notoriety I gained from drawing so many community members together through the screening I was offered another community role this time with our local community garden.
We are now a 501 C3 nonprofit known as The Universal Alliance of Communities, Inc. and have just acquired the deed for what will eventually house up to 15 community members. We now house 6 community members and numerous guests and supporters. We have dubbed this endeavor The Transition House Walsenburg. We are funding this using the hybrid money system and the UBUNTU One Small Town 1/3-1/3-1/3 system and are creating three agreements as we speak to initiate handy man services, IT Services through our in-house affiliation with the Lost Boys Network. And finally, we are in contractual negotiations to manage a large warehouse in downtown Walsenburg to centralize food distribution to the area fresh markets. We have begun modification to a 5,000-sq. ft. area to provide hydroponic / aquaponic food delivery right to the fresh market distribution level above. We are in with local agencies that support and participate. We are extremely active in local volunteer services and are easily recognized in the community as Transition House Community members. We are living in community within a community and it is awesome. Since we have garnered so much support for what we are doing we believe it is feasible to groom multiple community members to run for local office and hopefully move our town in the direction of an RBE. We have many other projects in mind as well and continue to work towards achieving those dreams one day at a time. We look forward to others following in our footsteps and finding success like this in their own communities as well.
I support The Transition as it is the most structurally sound road map I have been presented with and the resources are seemingly endless. Special thanks to the team for putting this resource together for us.
What is Acorn Community Farm?
Acorn is an intentional community in Mineral, Virginia of around 30 folks which was founded in 1993. They are an egalitarian, 
income-sharing, secular, anarchist, feminist, consensus-based commune. The members that live there are committed to non-coercive, voluntary associations within their community and the larger community in which they find themselves as well as living sustainably, supporting queer & alternative lifestyles, and creating a vibrant, eclectic culture.
Their community lives on a working farm which means there is always plenty to do. Everyone is expected to contribute 42 hours of labor a week. There are many types of work available, mostly for their farm and business. They grow herbs and food for their kitchen & seeds for their business, care for lots of livestock (chickens, cows, goats, & pigs!), cook two community meals daily, educate their children, maintain their land & buildings, and do office jobs like accounting, seed packing and order picking/shipping. Their community also does outreach work in their local community and in the communities movement, like growing food for the local food bank, and helping other communities and organizations like the FIC, the Federation of Egalitarian Communities, Organic Seed Alliance, & the Grassroots Seed Network. Members may also work outside jobs to fulfill their labor quota. All of this work is valued equally.
Because creditable labor is so diverse, they have more free time than the average working person. The community supports the education, personal growth, & personal projects of our members. They have no:
- Bosses
- Owners
- Investors
- Managers
- Supervisors
They set their own schedules and trust members to work quota. Communally they get things done by having a culture which stresses personal responsibility and good communication. They care about Acorn so they work hard to ensure it stays around.
Their community's thriving seed business, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, is part of a growing network of farmers, gardeners and seed savers dedicated to organic and heritage agriculture. They sell heirloom, open-pollinated, non-GMO and organic seeds and do seed saving education and outreach. They earn their income by providing a means of production to gardeners and farmers.
They have 2 group meetings per week. One is a consensus-based decision making meeting while the other is a general discussion forum where they explore ideas & work through issues. Their community intentionally keep policies to a minimum. They strongly encourage personal responsibility rather than supervision, as well as taking issues on a case-by-case basis, keeping in mind that needs of individuals vary. Any decision they make can be brought back to a meeting at any point – their lifestyle thrives on open communication & respect for fellow communards.
Once every 2 years, members are required to take part in an interpersonal communication process called a “clearness”, where a single member talks individually to every other member about how they have been feeling, their relationship with the community, and what they envision their future to be. Membership visitors & long-term interns/guests are also required to have a clearness.
Remember, this stuff is hard! They share the daily challenges of living and working together, remembering to have fun while running a growing business, making decisions together, and sharing income. They are interested in meeting people experienced in community-building, communication and facilitation, who are interested in building a healthy, dynamic, supportive social culture.
If you are interested in visiting them, interning in their seed business and garden, or considering applying for membership, please visit their website, and click on “How to Visit Acorn Community Farm.”
|
Type: Commune (organized around sharing almost everything) |
Adults: 28 |
|
Location: Rural |
Children: 4 |
|
Began: 1993 |
Food Grown: Up to 25% |
|
Decision-Making: Consensus (everyone agrees) |
Renewable Energy Produced: 0%, or close to 0% |
|
Income Sharing: All or close to all |
Diet: Omnivorous (plants and animals), Paleo (no grains, dairy, processed foods, or legumes), Local (food sourced within 150 miles), Organic (no pesticides or synthetic fertilizers), Mostly Vegetarian, Mostly Vegan, Opportunivore (dumpster diving, nature harvesting, etc.) |
|
Work Hours/Wk: 42 |
Accepting Members: Yes |
|
Accepting Visitors: Yes |
|
Visit their Website:
Visit their Business Website:
Reaching Out To Serve You Better
The Transition (www.thetransition.org) is an organization that was formed in part to better serve the intentional community and 
co-op business community, to help make their impact on cultural shift have even more of an impact. We are interested in learning more about the budgets and platforms you work with in order to spread awareness about your intentional communities and community owned or related businesses, so that we might serve you and your needs better. So, that we can better serve you please answer the following questions and send your responses to Contact Us:
-
Do you have an advertising and or marketing budget? (If so how much per month/year?)
-
Through what mediums do you promote? -Dedicated Website, SEO, Search Engine Ads, Television Ads, Radio Ads, Magazine Ads, Website Banner Ads, Classified Ads (Print/Online), Newsletters (Print/E-mail), Directory Listings(Print/Online), Social Network Pages (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest etc), Social Network Ad Space, Blog(s), Trade Shows, Conferences (Tabling/Sponsorship), Brochures/Flyers, Earned Media-
-
With whom do you promote? Please specify the specific names of those you buy advertising space or marketing services from regarding your answers to #2.
-
Do you currently participate in holidays promotions or co-op media buys?
-
Do you partner with any other nearby or similar intentional communities or organizations for advertising or marketing purposes?
-
Do you currently cross promote via web presence on related websites that target the same niche demographic?
-
What is the ROI (return on investment) you are seeing with the budget and platforms you are currently using?
-
Would you promote more aspects of your group or organization if it was bundled or tied in with the fees you are already paying for advertising and marketing( i.e. speaking engagements, blogs, books written by community members or about community, numerous community owned businesses instead of just one etc.)?
-
Is your current advertising and or marketing strategy meeting the needs or expectations of the group or organization you serve?
-
Are you attracting quality and qualified leads from your current advertising and marketing methods?
-
Do you have a dedicated staff that works exclusively on your advertising or marketing needs?
-
What would be ideal for your group or organization in regards to the work you do regarding advertising and marketing and the results you get?
-
How do you feel those that provide advertising and marketing to you currently could improve?
We appreciate your time and feedback and look forward to serving the needs you you bring up in this questionnaire.
Get half or more off on Books, Magazines, and Movies!
The Fellowship for Intentional Community is immensely grateful for our supporters, members, donors, and bookstore 
customers. Your support keeps us going, both emotionally and financially. We strive to return the support with content and resources useful to you in community and cooperation. Thank you!
In appreciation, we are offering over half-off for 35 books and DVD's, and on nearly all Communities magazine back issues! You'll find a variety of titles that focus on the topics we care about most: sustainability, climate change, group dynamics, communication, stories of building community and so much more!
See the entire sale lineup at the Holiday Half-Off Sale page and peruse the back-issues here.