A group of 20 LUCKY FOLKS showed up for the March Last Saturday event with the dynamic activist and organizer, Evangeline Weiss of Beyond Conflict.  Evangeline has decades of experience building volunteer teams in the thousands to make positive change in the world.  And she does it by following a few key steps which she shared with us in such an enthusiastic and interactive way that the time flew by!  She even made a cool and colorful booklet for us that walks us through each stage.  

Let’s face it: Hart’s Mill is at a stage where we need to attract more members who are aligned with our vision and mission.  It’s not unusual for a few key people to do much of the work in organizations in the beginning, but at a certain point the system needs more energy.  Evangeline outlined how starting with as few as five core leaders we can attract fifty, even five hundred more.  Sounds impossible?  Let’s see how this works!

But FIRST, a huge appreciation for the people who made this event happen: to Maria, who invited her friend Evangeline to come to Hart’s Mill (a great ASK—see below).  To amazing Evangeline for carving out some time and saying “yes” to this event.  To Nell and George who came early to clean, set up, and greet arrivals (see below under ROLES).  And to all of us who have been working so hard…for so long…  We’ve got so much going for us but need some tweaks (like engaging people in something other than a meeting!).  Intrigued? Read on. 

It all starts with…WHY do we want to build bigger teams?  What’s our purpose?  What inspires us and keeps us going at the end of a long day?  And in particular, why do we want to bring in more people  RIGHT NOW?  We called out some of the reasons why we will persevere, no matter what, until we actualize our vision. 

So, we’re having an event.  RADICAL WELCOME comes next.  How prepared are we to craft a really great experience?  Are people greeted with a smile?  Is there a warm and lively atmosphere?  Do people know where to go and what to do, right away?  Are there snacks and other comforts?  What can we do to help people to be glad they came, from the get-go?  Do our guests feel appreciated?  Be sure to treat everyone like royalty!

And how about ROLES?  Events are multi-faceted and people want to feel useful and valued.  (Just ask Nell and George, who felt really good about their event contributions.)  Are we clear about the tasks that need to get done, and how to do them?  Do people have the tools/information they need to succeed?  (BONUS FUN FACT: Do you know the #1 thing people fight about in organizations?  Answer: Lack of clarity in roles and goals.)  People like to be engaged; to do something that contributes to success.  (Note to Hart’s Mill: find ways to get people involved other than inviting them to observe meetings…at least in the early stages….)

Okay, we’re in the thick of the event.  Notice what happens.  The TALENT SCOUTING portion of the process begins with a debrief.   Who really rocked at their job, worked hard, took initiative, and followed through?  Who has appetite for the community?  What skills did people demonstrate?  Name the folks we noticed and would really like to have more involved.  Reach out to them, ONE ON ONE.  Make a phone call.  Meet for “coffee.”   Find out more about them and how to speak to their passion for what we are doing.  And then ASK, ASK, ASK for what we need.  A STRONG ASK presents a problem, gives a solution, and shows someone how they can help.  

Evangeline suggested that in these conversations we spend half the time getting really curious about our new friend and finding out what calls to them about our community.  But then we need a consistent way to describe Hart’s Mill—a SCRIPT, as it were, so that we all have a common way to describe our community.  In the last quarter, we ask our friend for something we need, that they can provide.  After they say “yes” (of course!), we CONFIRM the request and follow through until it’s done.

There’s a bit more to it, but these are the basics.  This process can be a GAME CHANGER for Hart’s Mill only if we work at it.  We need a common way to describe Hart’s Mill (the SCRIPT).  We’re so prepared for our meetings–how about being just as prepared for events?  Welcome people, assign roles, and follow-up with the stars, one-on-one.  Yes, it’s going to take time and effort, and it’ll be worth it to expand our core group and engage the people who are ready and waiting for what we have to offer.

One more huge THANK YOU to Evangeline!!!

READY?  Let’s GROW and GO!  

Hart’s mill family home prototype

The purpose at the heart of Hart’s Mill is to help heal the brokenness in our social, economic, ecological, and cultural systems.  We are doing this at a time when the need is great but the pathways are not clear or easy.   Money and ownership matters are among the most complex and convoluted for members to face.  Yet we persist and remain determined to realize our regenerative vision and guiding principles.

In this spirit, 18 members gathered for the February Last Saturday event, hosted by the Financial & Legal Circle.  Together, we absorbed and confronted the realities, myths, and opportunities surrounding home ownership in today’s out-of-whack economy.   We also came to some clarity about how to move forward on some key issues.   

Paul began the session with a review of the limited equity housing cooperative (LEHC) model, which was consented to by the General Circle on January 28, 2016.  (Click here to view Paul’s complete presentation.)  In brief:

• A cooperative is an enterprise formed by a group of people to meet their own self-defined goals. It is owned and run by members to serve its members (not its remote stockholders). 
• Members buy a share in the cooperative at a price set by the members. Members also pay a portion of the monthly carrying costs to cover the blanket mortgage, insurance, maintenance fund, etc. 
• An LEHC owns and operates housing exclusively for the benefit of its members, who voluntarily—and with a sense of purpose—agree to limit the resale value of their equity holdings (e.g. share value) to promote long-term affordability (rather than short-term, market-driven gain).

Next on the docket, Katy set about busting the myth of traditional home ownership as a great financial investment.  This model is a deeply embedded in our culture; it’s an essential promise of the American Dream.  But does it really pan out when you look more closely?  Consider the financial meltdown of 2008 when millions of people lost their homes as a result of unscrupulous lending practices.   Even setting tumultuous economic downturns aside, a good financial investment is usually defined as one that provides stable and consistent growth that exceeds the rate of inflation where assets retain value, have low maintenance costs, and are easy to buy and sell. 

While this can be the case in hot housing markets such as San Francisco (and Durham, at the moment), the data tell a different story overall.  You may be surprised that the personal finance blog, Observations, reports that the average annual home appreciation adjusted for inflation from 1900-2012 in the U.S. is only 0.1%  Moreover, treating housing as an investment has led to a widespread and unsustainable shortage of affordable housing, and ensuring long-term affordability is one of Hart’s Mill’s core values.  

So how much is a share in Hart’s Mill going to cost?  (Remember, we’re talking about a share in EVERYTHING—112 acres of land, a farm, outbuildings, low energy costs, shared resources, community support, etc.)   Paul looked at this from a lot of different angles and results have been strikingly similar: we need something like 60 shares of $40,000 each to raise enough of a down payment to secure financing to build the village.  While this is as yet preliminary and uncertain, it’s a place to start.

Here’s where we asked for help from the group.  Remember, a share is an equity investment in the entire community.  And the larger the share payments are, the lower the monthly carrying costs will be per member.  Even so, the share price will be a chunk of change.  Can we live with this?  And if so, how should we set the basis of a share?  Per adult?  Per square footage?  Per living unit?  Something else? 

We broke into small groups to wrap our heads around these questions.   People understood how this preliminary, per-share cost was calculated and generally considered it to be fair and reasonable—even a “bargain” in one member’s words.  But is this going to be affordable, particularly considering the diverse spectrum of members that we want to attract? 

As for how to set the basis for a coop share, Making it “per adult” seemed as if it had the most support overall.  Several ideas for promoting affordability were put forth, such as adding a surcharge for those who can afford it, offering a share discount or giving partners a break. How about assessing a lower basic share cost for everyone and working out how to raise the rest in some other way?  Or, could people buy more than one share to lower carrying costs?  Can we set up an internal, low-interest fund to help members purchase a share?  As you can see, it was a lively and creative discussion. 

The next question concerned the “limited equity” part of the equation.  Are members willing to put a cap on the amount of return on their investment rather than allowing the housing market to dictate price?   It was Hope’s turn to speak about why she supports a LEHC.  First of all, she stated that how we structure ourselves matters because this will dictate how our community behaves over time.  Our current economic systems are set up to maximize profit, benefit individual interests, and avoid responsibility if others are harmed.  Hart’s Mill, on the other hand, seeks to be financially self-sustaining over the long term by genuinely serving our relationships with each other and the land. 

Citing the book, Owning Our Future, by Marjorie Kelly, Hope summarized two conflicting architectures of ownership:

• Extractive Ownership has a financial purpose: Maximize profit and minimize risk for short-term gain to benefit individual interests.  Owners are absentee, disconnected from the life of the enterprise, and trading focuses solely on price and profits controlled by capital markets on autopilot.
• Generative Ownership has a living purpose: Create the conditions for life over the long term with ownership rooted in human hands and controlled by those who are dedicated to a social/ecological mission.  Profits are permitted but not maximized, thus balancing fairness and responsibility. 

Hart’s Mill’s values place us securely in the Generative Ownership category, and the LEHC is a generative financial model.  Hope concluded by expressing the vision that Hart’s Mill could break this ground in North Carolina and inspire other communities near and far to do the same.

We again broke into small groups to consider two more questions:

• How committed are you to the limited-equity approach?
• How do you feel about rentals?

Limited equity received unanimous acclamation in the group.  As one person put it, “we’re not in this for the money.”  As for rentals, people felt that this should be an option, especially for visitors checking us out, for new members who wish to get to know the community before making a commitment (and vice versa) and for others who want more mobility and flexibility.  We could generate income as a guest house.  Might it even be possible to set up a rent-to-own arrangement?

How to structure rentals was a more complex question.  Would we allow absentee ownership?  What if the co-op managed all the rentals (no landlords)?  We’d need a cap on percentage of rentals vs. owner-occupied units for financing purposes.  And what voice would tenants have in governance and decision making?    

Bob the builder

This 3-hour gathering was anything but dry!  Everyone was engaged in the topics and time flew by.  As usual, some felt that there wasn’t enough time to fully absorb the complex issues and offer useful feedback.  But overall, members reported being grateful for all the great information, the clarity of presentations, and the creativity of participants. 

The Financial & Legal Circle greatly appreciated the attention, input, and ideas received on these crucial questions.  Much acclaim was given to Paul for organizing this session, to the presenters, and to other Circle members for their support.  Want more?  The Financial & Legal Circle wants YOU!   Please contact Paul at Voss[at]hawkweed.net if you’d like to get involved.  

“Community is not a place, but a way of life.”  –Herbert Lovett

On June 30, the Membership and Marketing Circle hosted a Last Saturday event to provide an overview of the work of the circle.   We discussed issues in membership, explored our work addressing racism and racial equity, and offered a forum for small-group processing.  We also worked on building collaborative skill and strengthening community bonds.

We began with the question: “What are we doing as a community, and why aren’t we done yet?”  Part of the answer is that we are immersed in a project of Culture Change, and the work of creating Collaborative Culture is never complete.  As we plan and develop an Ecovillage, we seek to deepen our own capacities for cooperation, sustainable living, and social justice.  To support those goals, we have a membership process with multiple levels that provides members and the community opportunities to check how we are doing and how good of a fit we might be together in the journey ahead.

Over the past year, we as a community have learned more about who we are and what we are looking for: we are committed to creating an Ecovillage, and we are looking for people who are willing to work collaboratively, live sustainably, and learn together along the way.  Membership and Marketing has focused on recruiting and supporting members, clarifying policies and levels of membership, and also building skills for collaborative work in the community.  We’ve incorporated “regenerative sustainability” into our mission, which signals a deeper commitment to living sustainability in ways that heal, restore, and enrich the land and the larger ecosystems and social systems in which we live.

During the gathering, we asked those present about their experience in the membership process, whether anything has been holding them back, and what they needed to move forward in membership at Hart’s Mill.  Some folks are moving slowly in membership, while others are just starting out, and some have been advancing at a steady pace.  Creating an Ecovillage requires a lot of work, and some of us occasionally feel daunted at the immensity of the task.  Others are very interested in the community, but have a partner who is not as keen.  Some members spoke of the challenges of balancing work, family, and participation in the community development process.  Others wanted to know more specific details about what the community would look like and how much it would cost to live there before they felt comfortable committing to the membership process.

We also asked for input and suggestions that might aid Hart’s Mill in attracting members more effectively.  Attendees brainstormed a lot of good ideas: community participation in events like the Eno River Festival, finding more places to post flyers, expanding our online and social media presence, looking west of the Triangle towards Burlington and Greensboro for recruiting members, soliciting news and journal articles about the community, nurturing relationships with those who have already shown interest, and crafting our marketing message to clarify who we want to attract and who would be a good fit for our community.  We had a few visitors from other local communities who spoke about how much it has helped their communities to have expert consultants guide them and shape their vision and approach to development.

In the second half of the afternoon, we talked about the community’s commitment to Diversity and Racial Equity.  Why does this matter at Hart’s Mill, and what are we doing?  Amy spoke from the heart about the urgency of addressing racism in our society, our community, and ourselves, and she talked about how this work is needed to address injustices and also heal ourselves and our relationships in the wider world.  While we are still a mostly white community, we are working on understanding racism and striving for racial equity.  Several members have taken the weekend trainings on Anti-Racism work through the Racial Equity Institute, and Hart’s Mill has also co-hosted an educational session with Standing Up for Racial Justice.  Some Hart’s Mill members participated in the Hate Free Schools Coalition, which worked over a year to persuade the Orange County School Board to ban displays of the Confederate Flag in public schools.  In addition to diversifying our membership, our goals include supporting racial equity work in the broader community around us.

Next, we paired up and discussed what the issues of race, racism, and racial equity bring up for us, and also how people are feeling about Hart’s Mill’s approach to racism and racial equity so far.  Members shared their thoughts about both the importance and the challenges of working on racial equity and deepening our awareness of racism in our community, our society, and our everyday lives.

We also asked participants how we as a community can keep fostering racial diversity and racial equity.  Members offered ideas for expanding diversity and equity within Hart’s Mill and also in the broader community.  As a mostly white group, it may be difficult for people of color to join, and yet Hart’s Mill can still work for racial equity and social justice by increasing our own understanding of racism and by cultivating relationships with people and organizations who are working on these issues.  We strongly recommend racial equity trainings for all who are interested in Hart’s Mill.

To prepare for the discussion on racism and racial equity, we recommended a list of short readings.  Please take the time to check these articles out (links provided to pdf files on our website):

• I’m not a Racist but Racism is in Me, by Joe Cole, Communities Magazine #178
• Barriers to Diversity in Community, by Crystal Farmer, Communities Magazine #178  
• Starbucks and the Issue of White Space, by J Cobb, the New Yorker
• Geri’s and Anthony’s blog posts concerning racial equity and Hart’s Mill:  Viewing Racial Equity with New Eyes; What is Hart’s Mill Trying to Become?

We closed the afternoon by distributing commitment cards to invite people to name how they would like to contribute going forward.  Folks volunteered for website maintenance, social media support, distributing materials and flyers, and participating in Membership and Marketing Circle meetings (first Thursday of every month).  After the gathering, a couple of people decided to move up to the next level of membership!

One of our jobs in Membership and Marketing Circle is to nurture community bonds, and we are glad this Last Saturday gathering brought people together to get to know one another and explore the joys and challenges of membership at Hart’s Mill Ecovillage

Please contact us and let us know how you would like to contribute to the growth and development of our membership at Hart’s Mill.   The Membership & Marketing Circle would love to have you come visit!  We meet the first Thursday of every month–check out the monthly calendar for information and to RSVP.  

With colder weather settling in and gardening on the land over for the season, it’s time to pause and look back on this year for which we give many thanks.  What a truly spectacular year it has been for Hart’s Mill!  Much movement forward and several hurdles behind us.  It seems like the perfect time to be in touch with our more distant friends and members, to review the status of the Hart’s Mill Ecovillage project as 2013 quiets down, and to share some plans for 2014.  So… warm greetings to each of you!

HART’S MILL MILESTONES

After years of dreaming and planning, Hart’s Mill has reached the critical stage of actually purchasing a beautiful tract of land and hiring planning and engineering consultants to guide us through the site development process.  Exciting times!

How did we get here?  Here are the headlines.

Members:  An active core group of visionaries came together in early 2013.  Through many potlucks, work days, celebrations, circle meetings, socializing, plain hard work, we’re building commitment to each other and this work.   We’ve also been graced by many visitors who have worked alongside us.
Land purchase: We signed an option contract on November 27, 2013, to purchase 111.5 acres of fields, forest, and wetland from land-owner and Ecovillage member, Alana Ennis.

Roadway access: We’re soon to complete a purchase contract with an adjacent landowner to give us public roadway access to the land.  Now that this parcel has been secured, we can move forward with building the community.
Engaging with the land:   We held 10 workdays in 2013. We established our first community garden and have kept it happy and productive.  More critical for the long term, these festive events served to build what Diana Leafe Christian aptly calls “community glue”.  We produced a lot, and are hungry for more.

 
Cedar Pavilion: Thanks to Anthony  for his clever design and wood-working skills we erected our first building on the land.  This lovely open-air structure near our fire circle now serves as the perfect meal-sharing and occasional meeting and planning space.  The Pavilion roof functions to collect rainwater for our rain barrels and thirsty garden, and it thankfully provides shelter from the occasional summer shower.  Cedar Pavilion also provides an effective space for folks who wish to spend a star-lit night on the land.  We all tested our carpentry skills during the construction of this splendid addition to the community.

Governance:  Hart’s Mill has adopted Sociocracy to maximize effectiveness, equivalence, and transparency.  It is serving us well to guide the many decisions reached this past year.

Legal structure: Hart’s Mill, LLC, has been established to steer the development process.  We finalized our Operating Agreement on November 5th and are moving forward with financing the next phase.

Site concept planning: before the end of the year, we will participate in developing a site concept plan.  The goal is to have in place an initial plan in early 2014 to bring to Orange County to initiate the formal discussions regarding land use and permitting processes.
The next year promises to be dynamic and formative for Hart’s Mill Ecovillage.  Though our membership has doubled over the past year, at this stage in our young life, we need to grow.  We continue to benefit from additional numbers and – it must be said emphatically – also from deeper appreciation for the dreams, enthusiasm and skills each one of us brings to the effort.  Since we are no longer just an aspirational community, several details for joining, affiliating and working with the Hart’s Mill Ecovillage Community are being clarified.   Over the next few weeks we will hold events to encourage some of our Exploratory Members to move into the Associate Member category.  Nurturing our members is viewed as critically important, and we have not given sufficient attention to this task, as other time-sensitive chores have intervened.  Our first event for this new outreach is a large gathering planned for December 7th.

Acknowledgements: This past year’s activities and accomplishments have been pushed forward by the energy and talents of a dedicated core group: Katy, Amy, Lorna, Hope, Johanna, James, Paul, and Anthony.  We stand on the shoulders of earlier founders such as Christian and Linda.  And of course, none of this would be possible without our visionary land owner, Alana.

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We have much to be grateful for, so many blessings in our lives. And today – the day before Thanksgiving – Hart’s Mill is happy to announce that we have officially signed the Land Options Contract!!! One giant step forward. Thanks to Katy and Hope for all their hard work on this. Thanks to all of us for our shared vision and for our willingness to make this commitment so that the land will be preserved forever. And especially a great big THANK YOU to Alana for making her land available to our Hart’s Mill Ecovillage endeavor.

With the signing of this contract, Thanksgiving has taken on special meaning in the history of Hart’s Mill, that’s for sure.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Johanna