I hope to find some help from this forum in planning an eco-commune. I appreciate very much the responses I received to my first post, about adult/child ratios in communes. Thanks! I am sorry these posts run a little long on the top post to give all of the details... My next question involves marketing a commune. I have a pretty good idea of what the commune is intended to be - a community of tolerant people who enjoy living in nature and sharing their lives with good friends. And lots of things that go with that. But it is very difficult to explain to others. Some brief background: * We already own a 200-acre plot of good farmland in a beautiful area. * We have financing for some initial infrastructure - a facilities building with laundry area/wood-fired boilers for heating/recycling area with incinerator/dry goods storage area; a well; extending electric utility to the site; and a septic system. There is a large log cabin on the site we can use for housing initially. * We have a business in a large city 300 miles away that can provide jobs and a center for our group during the time when things are getting put together. * We have good prospects for income-earning businesses that are eco-friendly on the property - dairy farm, honey production, and eventually summer camp facilities to house our children's English theater programs. We are currently paying about $60,000 USD a year in rent for facilities for our kid's programs that can be diverted to our own facilities, also giving us a market for food products. * The community model is egalitarian income-sharing. * We have the knowledge base in our core group already for all of the things we need to do - construction, farming, etc. so additional people with those skills will be a complement rather than trying to fill a hole. Marketing the commune though seems like it's going to be really challenging. We are located in Russia, and are positioning ourselves as an international IC. We want a mix of natives and foreigners - and we will provide necessary services for foreigners to stay here long term, like visa support. We didn't go through the 60's in the same way the West did. I have debates every now and then with friends about whether we have a counter-culture or not, and the general consensus is that we do not at all. We went through two devastating currency collapses, the last just a decade ago. All of us remember how bad things were after the Soviets fell. Now, the country is centered on a small handful of large cities (particularly St. Petersburg and Moscow), and nowhere else really matters. Everyone is trying to get to the cities because there is no future in the countryside. There are no jobs, no nothing. Media shows over and over how people come to the city; take a crappy job; and eventually drive big black mercedes as a successful outcome of capitalism. This process is very alienating to people, but they see no alternative to it. It is partly our mentality to suffer and hope for the best. We believe fate determines things much more than any other factor. I have to say I think our culture is more monolithic than American culture I was exposed to when I lived there. So a problem of marketing is that people are unfamiliar with any alternative, and very fearful that it is really some kind of trick. I have realized that I am going to have to make the move and set the community up by myself, with help from my very small core of people who are committed to the vision of communal living. Then people can come and see thru a visitors program, and that is how we will attract community members. But I would very much like to expand our core by another four or so people, to about 8-10 total. So I see the explanation being kind of a pyramid. On the bottom are all the advantages of this way of life that are more cerebral than emotional. I very much agree and have adopted the five reasons for communal living in this post: http://www.hipforums.com/newforums/showthread.php?t=116807&f=57 In the middle of the pyramid are a handful of reasons that are more emotional (we tend to be very emotional people, and to make our decisions on emotions in Russia). Things like fun, healthy living, beautiful sky, being at peace, etc. The top of the pyramid is where I am lost. It seems like there should be just a word to persuade someone to ininvestigate what we are doing. We hope for clothing-optional areas of the camp (like in private homes) and to make our own beer, so "topless women and free beer!" has some pull for me but probably alienates those potentially-topless women. And just "We have a lot of fun!" doesn't seem unique at all, lots of things are fun. So how - in the space of people's normally short attention spans - would you describe a commune to someone with no knowledge of / or even hostile feelings towards communes? I say hostile because of the phenomenon of communal living here. There was a shortage of housing during Soviet times, so many apartments had a whole family in each room, and you had no control over who your neighbors were. A lot of people say the worst part of Soviet times was the lack of privacy and "communal living areas" will surely drive anyone with interest away. Thanks again communitarians
How about {Extended Family of Like Minds} That is what an IC becomes. Then state your goal or statement of purpose in a nut shell. Any lengthy explanations can be offered later as can the bylaws and guide lines. These only need to be a complicated as you make it.
