Recap for April 13, 2008 meeting

Money and Community –   The Elephant on the Table!   


An important topic related to creating elder friendly intentional communities.
-  Will our communities include folks of different economic backgrounds?  
-  What about those who want to join and feel they won't be able to afford it?
-  How will we share our resources in community?

Morgana Morgaine, RN, MA lead 26 of us a in a discussion and experimental exercise about money from the standpoint of having enough rather than wanting more. This was to start the very uneasy topic that stops many people about moving forward into community.

We were welcomed by Jean Marie Luce. We all introduced ourselves when we went around the circle.

Morgana started her presentation by asking what the energy was for our community?
She suggested that we look at the roadblocks differently.

Some of the ideas that she presented came from the book,  The Trance of Scarcity by Victoria Castle. The book looked at our scarcity mentality about jobs time, resources, sleep , oil, attention, health care, or power to  name a few.  Feeling that scarcity make us hoard things.

Suggestion: Believe that we have enough!

1.    What is enough?

2.    What can we do with the amount to money to realize our community?

Exercise for the group:
    Morgana asked us to write down anonymously we would have if we liquidated our assets and contributed what we had to a community.

After a few minutes, we all turned in our slips of paper with our worth and it was tallied.
The 26 of us had $3,987.400to contribute to a community.





Results below:
Exercise: Large Group broke into 4 small groups of 6 and went to designated tables to discuss:
AS A GROUP, WE HAVE $4 MILLION DOLLARS, HOW DO WE PROCEED?  

After 15-20 minutes of discussion the large group gathered for Table Reports.  These are the Recorder’s notes from each table.

Table 1.  Kathy Beveridge, Recorder
Go to bank
Hire a developer and let him take the liability
Are we a self-sufficient community i.e., look at land ourselves?
Larger Common House allows possibility for individuals to have smaller house
Less expenses – wise energy use
Sustainable
$182 K – common house = $45k each = $137 for house
Subsidize units?
Modular
Industrial Common House Kitchen
Do we have children?
We do we bring to project in experience and ability saves us $
Clear understanding of Abilities and Responsibilities from Start
Some less able; some have other talents.
Grant funds – low interest loans
Age 55-95 easier not under 18 years old.

Table 2.  Joshua Canter, Recorder
Urban vs. rural?
Marianne – 5 acres, variety communities, pods, urban
Pat – urban setting, common house
Gene- urban, reserve/debt free, common house, pods come together, multi-units
Susan – open space, water, meditation area, good transportation, semi-urban, garden/farm
Bob – transportation (public)
Mary – rural, open to urban w. getaway, retreat site
Joshua – support it all

What to do?
- Research look Craigs list/Iwanna/online
- Architect
- Benevolent Developer
- Purchase vehicle to look at property
- Visit other communities
- Hire realtor we trust
- Go on retreat together, living & working & meeting together
- Hire some trainers
-Vomos a Costa Rica



Agreed Concepts
- Shared vehicle
- Retreat center
-Shared roles
- Be examples for others
- Constant turnover

Table 3.  Elizabeth Tait, Recorder

What kind of community are we?  What do we want?
-    Rural, Madison County – location
-    Mix of isolated units to common wall units
-    All energy efficient
-    Enough land for common house
-    Acres and farming
-    Intergenerational and animal friendly
-    22 units

Table 4: Mary Kneeland, Recorder

1.    Look for property for about 24 units.  Explore where to build.  We have $4 m. so let’s negotiate with contractors, architects, etc.  Let’s build green.
2.    Let’s keep options open, be flexible about what to build; we have sense of compromise.  Maybe individual, duplex, triplex.
3.    Walk to “work”, share cars, buy van, schedule shopping trips.
4.    Look at ‘ownership’; shall we be a credit union to each other?  We’ll complete legal forms for contractors, etc.
5.    Put together bylaws, policies, mission statement.
6.    Invest $ in some vehicle: grants, non-profit organization status, HUD