by Paul Voss
Last Saturday, 28 Hart’s Mill members and friends gathered bravely at Hart’s Nest to talk about the role and meaning of money in the context of our evolving intentional community.
Under the guidance of members of the Hart’s Mill Financial/Legal Circle, presentations and discussions focused on (1) the inner workings of the financial and legal life of both the Hart’s Mill Ecovillage and the Hart’s Mill, LLC (Limited Liability Company), (2) a detailed summary of where our money comes from and how it’s responsibly spent, (3) how these topics relate to our anticipated home ownership model – a limited-equity housing cooperative
model, and (4) avenues for Hart’s Mill members to deepen their involvement with the community, including how they can become part-owners of the project by investing in the Hart’s Mill, LLC. To see the presentation slides, click here.
A closing “commitment round” resulted in generous pledges of more than one-third of our $150K predevelopment fund-raising goal. What a wonderful afternoon!
Included in the discussions were many personal expressions of how the vision and practice of Hart’s Mill calls to our hearts and expresses our values. In the face of deepening national crises (including diminishing affordable housing, widening income and wealth disparities, shamefully stubborn social, racial, and environmental injustices, urban/rural inequities, 
and disgracefully broken governmental institutions), Hart’s Mill is resolved, through our farm and community practices, to be an agent in moving forward an agenda of deep and meaningful cultural change.
How we organize our financial and legal affairs is but one piece of a larger agenda of voluntary joyful community life as we do our small bit to meaningfully address issues from the personal to the planetary.
