Selfsufficientish.com

The Intention

To create a small co-housing group of likeminded people who wish to live with an ethical, spiritual and ecological purpose communally in Scotland.

Aims

• To raise circa £300,000 (debt free) to purchase a large house and land somewhere rural in Scotland.
• The property must have enough space so that each community member* would enjoy sufficient privacy while being able to interact communally in most domestic tasks and enjoy community life.
• Cooking, maintenance and gardening would be a communal activity
• The land would be sufficient to allow the community to be as self-sufficient in food as possible.
• The community would aim to be self-sufficient in energy.

Guiding principles

• The level of financial contribution will not be the sole determinant of membership or rights.
• All members will be equal.
• There will be no hierarchy.
• All beings are welcome.
• The community will have a spiritual and ecological ethos.
• Membership will be open to all who subscribe to this ethos.
• There will be no dominant religious ethos.
• All decisions affecting the community will be taken by consensus and attunement.
• Members could work within or outside the community.

*A member could be an individual, couple or a family.

Any takers?

Not for me, Freewilly. It all looks lovely, but as you've been on this forum a grand total of seven minutes, I can't see you getting many takers - although you'll probably get a whole host of questions. Like ...

Why Scotland? And do you have anywhere specific in mind for "somewhere rural in Scotland"?
How many "members" are you looking for?
What does "debt-free" mean?
Have you done anything like this before?

I'm sure there'll be a few more.

Mike

Sounds lovely ... give me 300,00 and you can all move onto my stoney acres in NZ.

OMG ... I just thought of the perfect name for our block lol

Hi freewilly and welcome

I think MKG comments are right. Why don't you put a post in the "introducing yourself" section and tell us a bit more about you.

Get to know us a bit too - you might not want us

Sky wrote:Sounds lovely ... give me 300,00 and you can all move onto my stoney acres in NZ.

OMG ... I just thought of the perfect name for our block lol

Sky, I don't have £300,000. Will £30 do? If so, I'll be there tomorrow.

Hi freewilly007
How are you going to be sure everyone will get on with each other? Imagine packing up your entire life to go live in this place that really does sound wonderful, only to find out you don't like anyone. Personally, if I was doing what you're hoping to do, I'd want to get it set up with people I know well enough to know I want to leave near, then invite people to stay over for a few weeks to see if they fit in and can hack the lifestyle before they commit.

living communally is not all it is cracked up to be, while I really did love it at times, other times I found it a total pain.

and living with people that have not lived communally before is even harder, some people just cant get the concept that it is not 'their' house but "our house"

then there is the workload, someone will always think that are doing more or that someone is doing less.

I have been brought into "failing" communities to facilitate a consensus on the way forward, it is difficult and long to say the least. (but great when it works)


sorry, but I do not want to put you off but

• The level of financial contribution will not be the sole determinant of membership or rights.

but try telling that to the person that put in 50% of the money when everyone else put in 5%

• All members will be equal.

unless there egos are the same size and they can all shout at the same volume then "equal" is hard to get. some people do not do meetings well.

• There will be no hierarchy.

fine no hierarchy, but who will be responsible for the bills? how about group / block voting? do new members have exactly the same rights as the older members? what when members go on holiday / festivals and they come back and disagree with decisions that where made ? (or even had a decision reversed while they was away)

• All beings are welcome.

excellent!!, but does the lurcher get a vote ? she works by keeping the rabbit population down and guards the yard at night (damn, that can be more work then some humans !!)

• The community will have a spiritual and ecological ethos.
• Membership will be open to all who subscribe to this ethos.
• There will be no dominant religious ethos.

ok, cant say anything about them ones, they are a good starting blocks.

• All decisions affecting the community will be taken by consensus and attunement.

be aware how long consensus can take, and what if the community is split on a matter ? what process are you planning to have to deal with that?

• Members could work within or outside the community.

members that go out to work often do not get a chance to join in the consensus processes, therefore the people working at the base have more of a say in matters, this happened to me once, I was working long hours for months, I got back home to a meeting where someone said that I had not been working for the community and was hardly ever there, the discussion stoped when I asked where the money for the gas, electric and woodpile for the last 3 months had come from.

and does the veggie have to chip in for the hens feed and the pigs food ? of do they get a discount ?

be aware that you are asking people to share their "nest egg" with people they do not know on the off chance that they can get a bigger nest to live in. it is alot to risk. tricky but not impossible.

good luck.

freewilly007 wrote: • All beings are welcome.

Hmmm. Sounds fine in theory. What happens, though, when someone shows up who isn't welcome? Like the guy who takes advantage of the communally cooked meals without doing his share of the work, or the folks who want to hold all-night raves when you have to be up at 5:00 am to milk the cows.

It is a great dream, but I think the way to go about it is to find the people first, and then design the community around the members' wishes. Once you get to that stage, two of the founding principles of the group's constitution need to be how prospective new members are approved (or not) for membership, and how members who are not working out are removed.

oh!
I think I would rather live with jonh headstrong and keith... they seem to be realists!

Freewilly you will attrack parasites and you will have to get rid of them - or they will take you down.
People have their own agendas and some are not honest about them - how can you unite them?

I hope you didn't pay for the definitions...the aim is too weak to work. For people all to work and suffer and find joy together - they have to have a strong faith in something (not just debt free 300,000 pounds!)

share the kitchen?! no way!!!

i think communal living can exist without actually living in the same 'home' so much better.

Arrrrrggggghhhh communal living, been there done that when I first moved to London with all sorts of people in all sorts of houses and flats. No way Jose!

Well, I think it is admirable that freewilly has a dream.... even if we do all think it is flawed...lol

I like the idea of communal living but I know that in real life it would never suit me.
Perhaps a group of people living close (adjoining cottages or flats?) with their own acre each to use as they wish and then have a central bartering area.... like a shop... and also a communal social area... like a village hall....

oops, I think I have just described a village (as they used to be sadly now too many are treated like housing estates for commuters)

If you do go ahead I wish you luck but these guys really know what they are talking about, I would take all their constructive criticism on board.

Here's a very good example of how to go about developing an ecovillage. http://www.lammas.org.uk/index.htm They've recently been granted planning permission for 9 eco-smallholdings, a campsite and a community hub building and have just commenced groundworks for the low-impact houses.

One month in, communal living is suiting me well. In my case, my wife and I have recently moved into a house set up by the Church Mission Society in Oxford. Two of the watchwords of the community, which I think help a lot, are grace and gratitude. Other people do things that niggle but deliberate exercise of grace (forgiving... and recognising your own frequent need of forgiveness) goes a long way to keeping things calm. Beyond that, making an effort to thank people for the things they do (and receiving that in turn from others) also sweetens the atmosphere.

Wulf

Well, freewilly's attendance here still stands at seven minutes. I'm beginning to wonder if this is one of Andy's famous wind-ups???

Mike

MKG wrote:Well, freewilly's attendance here still stands at seven minutes. I'm beginning to wonder if this is one of Andy's famous wind-ups???

Mike

*runs off to check the spelling*