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Duane Bemister's avatar

Intentional Communities - Introduction;

After Bobby Kennedy was killed in the summer of 1968 and the war in Vietnam escalated, many of the young reformers gave up on the dream of challenging the status quo and decided to start to move “back to the land”.

My high school buddies and I had all stayed in contact after graduation, joined the work force, got married and started having children of our own. In 1970, together, we planned and hiked the fifty mile long West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island. This camaraderie eventually led to us quitting our jobs, moving to Mabel Lake and the birth of the Common Good Co-op.

We found a small community called Kingfisher nestled beside the Shuswap River that felt like it must be Paradise. We experimented for two years, with an alternate life style that was at times challenging but also incredibly rewarding. I learned a lot about human nature, our capacity for sharing and caring, but also our primal desire for privacy, friendship and respect. These lessons would help guide me later in my life.

The following outline describes a structure that I believe could contribute to the success of some of the pioneering efforts to establish a new direction for society.

Rational:

This structure is designed to encourage participation and the exchange of ideas and at the same time solve the paralyzing problem of the consensus decision process.

The Community:

The Community Association consists of members, associate members, and guests. Members can sponsor a guest to join the community. Community members have responsibilities and benefits. The long term goal is to provide a healthy environment for an extended community based on cooperation and sharing, eventually providing food, shelter, transportation, health and dental care, recreation and education services for the members.

Startup Funding:

The community will be self funded and sustainable. The founders will provide the initial Community Fund to establish the facility. When the Lodge is ready for occupancy we will start to invite seniors to apply to become Founding Members. We will eventually form our own Credit Union. Founding members will be expected to liquidate their assets, resolve their family financial commitments and then contribute the balance to the Community Fund. This initial contribution will be redeemable on departure from the community.

Cooperative Governance:

Step 1: Guiding principals are formulated and Founders establish a base to support the development of a community association.

Step 2: Incorporate a co-op to manage assets and structure the community membership requirements.

Step 3: Establish a dispute resolution council. Founders will choose the original Chief. The Chief will then choose the original five Shepherds, two the first year, one the second year and the final two in the third year. Shepherds will serve for a term of 5 years. A Shepherds’ term may be extended one time only, for an additional two years, with unanimous agreement of the Council.

Council Member Representation:

The Chief has no set term. A retiring chief will be succeeded by the Shepherd who has been a member of the Council for the longest term or has unanimous support of the other four Shepherds. The Shepherd Council will always consist of five members. When a Shepherd retires the Community members will submit up to three candidates to apply for the vacancy. The Shepherd Council will then choose one of the applicants.

Dispute Resolution Procedure:

Members are encouraged to resolve conflicting issues according to the founding principles. The Shepherd Council can be asked to make a determination to resolve an issue. The Shepherd Directive can be appealed to the Chief. The Chief’s decision can only be overturned with unanimous agreement by the Shepherds.

Administration:

The Chief may from time to time designate Guides to oversee the planning and scheduling of the communities’ daily events.

General Business:

The community will establish various ad hoc committees to deal with issues pertaining to the well being of the community. The committees will be structured following the Cooperative Governance principals by first electing a Leader who will then choose five Advisors.

There will be two permanent committees established: Development, to determine future community projects and Finance, to allocate funding resource priorities.

Renumeration:

Every contributing community member will receive the same weekly stipend.

Link to https://wisdomquest.com for a description of our current project.

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Ray Wilson's avatar

Thank you for your essay.

Have you read Graham Hancock's powerful book Lords of Poverty?

Very insightful on the Global corruption that's been happening for a long, long time.

Thanks for Being YOU & Sharing your life in support of humanity's evolution towards GOOD with Love & Compassion.

Take Care,

Ray

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