From EcoReality

Finances, Fences and Water

It's been an interesting month at EcoReality.

The four of us had a series of meetings about time and money. According to Ma'ikwe Ludwig, of the Fellowship for Intentional Community, these are the top two sources of conflict in community. Our situation is unique, in that we have two people living here full-time who make this their life and livelihood, and two who have city commitments that keep them from fully participating on a day-to-day basis.

In preparation, James had polled a number of other communities about our situation, and most of them replied with variations of "Are you nuts?" Well, it wasn't quite that emphatic, but all the other groups James contacted said such a situation would be difficult. They did have a lot of good advice to offer, and perhaps James can write that all up as a newsletter article some day.

In the end, we agreed on two basic changes that we're confident will better align capacity, responsibility, and authority:

1. We reduced our mandatory time and money commitments, replacing them with a more flexible "pay as you go" system. Previously, we had been paying $50 per member per month, and requiring 20 hours of labour per member per month, and then splitting co-op income and expenses on an ad-hoc basis, as situations arose. Now, the full-time residents will be managing co-op income and expenses, and part-time residents will pay fixed fees for time spent on the site, with the mandatory assessments reduced to $25 and 12 hours per member-month.
2. We agreed that the full-time residents will have greater autonomy in the day-to-day operation of the site, as fitting of stewardship. Site stewards will still be accountable to the full membership for their actions, but will have greater freedom in day-to-day questions like "where to plant the peas."

During this process, we consulted with our previously agreed values and other guidance documents, and were able to work through what could have been a difficult process, and still be friends afterward!

WWOOFer Sara Defoor departed on the 14th after a three week stay, continuing her tour of SW BC organic farms. She put in a lot of "hard fun" during her time here, and we're grateful for her help and wish her the best of luck on the rest of her summer, which will involve an extended bicycle tour.

We had an interesting interview with Sheri Nielson of the BC Environmental Farm Plan Program. We went through a long check list of environmental practices, and were gratified to find out that we're doing most things right. But we did discover that we may be able to qualify for grants to improve our fencing and water management, so we're in the process of trying to turn that experience into a little financial help for our Permaculture design for the site.

Now that we know we'll have help, we've committed to purchasing two 10,000 gallon water tanks and capturing rainwater from the metal-roofed shop. Unfortunately, they won't arrive until July, but we'll be ready for any summer rain we may get, and we'll certainly be able to fill them next winter.

In other news, we've been trying to make our chickens happier. We were offered free chickens, and threw up a quick makeshift structure, built with little more than garden stakes, wire fencing, and tarps. I set about designing and building a coop, but I knew I wanted it mobile (in the manner of a "chicken tractor"), and was wasting way too much time figuring out how to attach wheels and where to get them. Then we saw and old camping tent-trailer at the recycling depot. It's fabric had long ago left, but what remained was mobile and a good base for a coop. Unfortunately, the recycling depot wouldn't let go of it.

So I asked Harry Burton, a local orchardist, to send out a request for such a thing on his email list. I got five offers of old trailers! It turns out that everyone has an old trailer on the back of their property that they want to get rid of! So we picked up one, and are in the process of making nesting boxes and walls for it.

But the most enjoyable part of the month was our open house. We had some 30 people drop by, including almost all our immediate neighbors. We heard fascinating local history from 30+ year Sharp Road residents Mary and Isabelle, and made some new friends. I hope we can do this again next year!

--Jan, Communication steward