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are two ways to approach joining Blue Heron Farm Intentional Community: First, the requirements are that a person attend at least four community functions: workdays, business meetings, potlucks. After that if they wish to pursue membership further they need to attend a day-long retreat. These happen at least twice a year but may be planned more often if there is a need. After having gone to a retreat prospective members may apply for membership after a minimum of three months of involvement with the community. Prospective members apply for residential membership by discussing their desire at a business meeting. At a later meeting their request is approved or not using our consensus process. If approved the new member can choose and hold a housesite by making a downpayment and signing an agreement to pay a monthly membership fee. This fee covers land and infrastructure financing costs: roads, septic, water, electricity, community building, pond renovation. Presently the monthly membership fee is $264 per household. We expect this fee to remain quite stable until we retire the land and infrastructure finance debt, at the latest in 2014. The second way to approach this question is to think about what is needed before a prospective member is ready to make a commitment of money, time, and energy to this project. Certainly it is important that prospective members share most of the vision of the community as outlined in the vision statement. In addition it is important that prospective members feel like they are able to participate to the degree they want to in the consensus process. This means having the skills and sense of personal power to be able to speak directly to issues, especially if one is not in agreement with others. If someone does not feel able to do that then s/he is probably not ready for membership...more time building trust and a feeling of safety may be necessary. In addition it is important to feel a sense of kinship and enjoyment of oneself with the existing membership. If this is not present, again there may be more time needed to develop that. For couples it is important to realize that building community can be a demanding task and if the couple relationship is needing time and solidifying, it may be important to address the couple's needs for time to simply be a couple before trying to build community with others, especially with a new community such as this one. |
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