Our co-founders group has been working with Diane Leafe Christian’s Creating a Life Together as a primary source of information about and exercises for the development of intentional community.  In Chapter 5, “Creating Vision Documents,” several of the seven group exercises have helped us ‘explore the territory,’ including Exercise #4, Non-Negotiables, and Exercise #5, Where Do We Draw The Line. By far the most involved exercise was #1, Individual Values, Group Values (pg. 47-49).  In this 2-day process, participants individually “write five different two-or three-page recollections of experiences in which you felt especially fulfilled in a community-like setting or a shared group activity.” Once these overviews were generated, one-at-a-time we read our recollections to the group, who took notes (if they liked) and reflected back to the speaker what these stories told them about “that person’s values, beliefs, and aspirations.”  The speaker then writes down these insights.  “After everyone has had a turn, each person selects five or six of the values, beliefs, or aspirations that are most personally significant, and writes the essence of each in a phrase or short sentence (not in a single word) on large yellow sticky notes.” Below are the values each of us settled upon:

Member Participants

Malina

1. Structure that allows for more ease, efficiency and fun! (and reduces conflict / promotes equal workloads/responsibilities)
2. Communication that promotes active listening, reflection, and appreciation for one another
3. Extended family and friends who love and support each other / diverse strengths and skills
4. Quality time with quality people (having adventures/new experiences in nature)
5. Prioritizing a life of health, happiness and peace (growing/preparing healthy food, doing spiritual and personal self development, developing healthy relationships)

Diga

1. Getting to the Root – I value an atmosphere of open/rigorous examination of self, other and the world
2. Conscience as our Guide – I value an honest assessment of social, ecological and climate justice realities as a call to action
3. The Crucible of Creative Chemistry – I value an open ended, experimental thinking outside the box approach to developing novel collaborative solutions
4. The Way of the Mother – I value mothering attributes: nurturing, abundance, honesty, love and pleasure as innate and essential in human beings
5. The Child Inside – I value youthful attributes: play, curiosity, authenticity, spontaneity and a passion to learn as innate and essential in human beings
6. Stepping to the Edge Together – I value deliberate and systematic, individual and group exploration of non ordinary states of consciousness.

Jasmine

1. Mutual Esteem – acceptance, kindness, inclusiveness, value, respect, equality, wants to feel this way and treat others this way (how she wants to be treated – self and others)
2. Secure Container – (this is the feeling she wants in community) – having “enough” – sense of security (food, ) and abundance in your community that leads to a more relaxed and free flowing feeling, lends to more creativity, plentiful, secure container that other things can flow out of
3. Being on the same page (how we work together in team) sharing same values, levels of commitment, collaborate, good balance of give and take
4. Relationship with the Earth – give back more than you take: subsistence living, reverence for nature, permaculture, appropriate technology, restoring land, building soil, repairing
5. Diversity of people, skills, personalities (simple as that:)
6. Good Bones – good structure, underlying foundation, order, efficiency, documents/agreements, good land design

CONTRIBUTING PARTICIPANT

Norris

1. World in recovery, with more abundant & diverse life, and deeper and richer soil year after year. (Applies to my zone of direct influence, but primary goal is the entire world.) “World in recovery: increasing biodiversity & soil health year after year“
2. Thousands of human cultures, living in healthy relationships with each other and with their particular landbases. (Perennial polycultures, appropriate tech.) “1000s of cultures living in healthy relationships with all“
3. Living from the land, and making efficient use of resources. (Minimizing needs, reusing, repairing, not buying much.) “Group self sufficiency and radical simplicity “
4. Getting things done, efficiently and with high quality outputs. (Permaculture design, GTD system) “Getting things done, efficiently & well“
5. Peace and calm, both in the physical environment and in relationships around me. “Peace & calm: environs & relationships” (might not make his top 6 priorities in the future but desperate of it now because of Pahoa – just after this a pack of motorcycles passed by)
6. Serving and being useful: contributing, supporting, and teaching. “Serving & being useful: contributing, supporting, & teaching.“
7. honorable mention: Being accepted for what I think and what I do.

VALUES CLUSTERS

As a group, we then grouped the collection of values statements into what seemed to be natural clusters:

(1) BONES/FORMAL DESIGN/PEOPLE — Structure; Good Bones; Getting Things done Efficiently & Well; Diversity of Skills, People, and Personalities; and Being on the Same Page.

(2) VIBE (MINDSET) — The Child Inside; Secure Container; the Crucible of Creative Chemistry; Prioritizing a Life of Health, Happiness and Peace; and Peace & Calm.

(3) RELATING TO ONE ANOTHER IN COMMUNITY — Getting to the Root; Stepping to the Edge Together; Communication that Promotes Active Listening, Reflection, and Appreciation; Mutual Esteem; Extended Family & Friends; and the Way of the Mother; and Spending Quality Time with Quality People

(4) RELATING TO THE REST OF THE WORLD — Serving & Being Useful: Contributing, Supporting, & Teaching; Group Self Sufficiency and Radical Simplicity; Conscience as Our Guide; and Give Back More Than You Take; World in Recovery: Increasing Biodiversity & Soil Health Year after Year; and 1000s of Cultures Living in Healthy Relationships with All VOTING

Following assembly of values, we had two rounds of voting.  In the first round, each person received five  stickers to place on the individual phrases that are most important to him/her.  Here are the tallies:

Secure Container — 4; Good bones — 3; Being on the Same Page — 3; Communication that Promotes Active Listening, Reflection, and Appreciation — 2; Prioritizing a Life of Health, Happiness and Peace — 1; Mutual Esteem — 1; Give Back More Than You Take — 1; World in Recovery — 1; Extended Family & Friends — 1; Group Self Sufficiency and Radical Simplicity — 1; The Crucible of Creative Chemistry — 1; and Conscience as Our Guide — 1. In the second round, we each had two dark purple tags to place on the values clusters we feel are most important.  These votes split out evenly: BONES/FORMAL DESIGN — 2; VIBE/MINDSET — 2; RELATING TO ONE ANOTHER IN COMMUNITY — 2; AND RELATING TO THE REST OF THE WORLD — 2.

CONCLUSION

Having read this page, you now have a better idea of the values of this group’s original core.  As you read the other pages on this website, you’ll see that some of the language from this values exercise found its way into our guiding principles and the content of our flyer. It was at this point that we put our envisioning process on hold, realizing that we’d prefer to have more co-founding stakeholders before proceeding to Chapter 4, “Community Vision — What It Is, Why You Need It,” in Creating a Life Together.  It is in this Chapter that definitions of vision; vision statement; mission/purpose; values; interests; goals/objectives; aspirations; and strategy are laid out. Once we reach a critical mass of roughly 6-10 founders, we’ll re-play Exercise #1 and then move on to the exciting project of developing our final value statement and mission!