Description

Business Ventures in Community

To purchase a print copy of this issue, contact Communities’ new home at GEN-US.

• Publisher’s Note: Dancing with Stars by Laird Schaub
• Notes from the Editor: Business Ventures by Chris Roth
• Business. Busy-ness. Coincidence? by Christopher Kindig
  Improving our relationships to work, money, and entrepreneurship can dramatically enhance our sense of community and quality of life.
• Southern Exposure Seed Exchange Wrestles with Growth by Irena Hollowell
  For an income-sharing group in Virginia, economic success presents challenges and opportunities.
• Dancing Rabbit’s Exchange Local Money System: The Promise of Local Currencies and Interest-Free Financing by Nathan Brown
  Place-specific currencies can provide critical financing to the small businesses that keep local communities connected and thriving.
• Cooperation and Competition in the Ecovillage by Sam Makita
  Earning a living based on responsible competition involves both sharing what we have and asking for what we deserve.
• The Entrepreneurial Dilemma by Laird Schaub
  Integrating entrepreneurial energy into cooperative communities often proves both difficult and necessary.
• Vision, Money, and Sustainability: Bringing in Renters while Building the Dream by Jane Moran
  In the quest for sustainability, long-term goals can yield to short-term needs and opportunities, fertilizing new growth in unpredictable ways.
• The Dirty Business of Growing a Cohousing Community Farm by Sandy Thomson
  A farm is not a clod of dirt; it is more like mud that slips through your hands, gets on your boots, and is tracked all through the community.
• Sharing Spaces, Sharing Values: Entrepreneurship at Dragon’s Nest Cooperative Homestead by Mary Murphy
  “Founder’s joy” can wear off very quickly in the chaos of financial instability and unclear agreements.
• Jugglers in the Jungle: Innovation, Special Use Permits, Neighbor Issues, and the Ultimate Work/Life Balance Routine by Dena Smith
  On Hawaii’s Big Island, Bellyacres residents navigate through multiple obstacles to pursue sustainable livelihood.
• Asking for Money by Laird Schaub
  Value-centered fundraising is not about money so much as it is about relationships.
• Can You Export Your Mission Business to Another Country? by Tim Bock
  Jesus People USA uses its business experience to help friends in Romania fulfill their own mission.
• Is Windward Egalitarian? Well, Sort Of … by Lindsay Hagamen and Walt Patrick
  Rather than striving for equality of income, Windward focuses on creating diverse opportunities for building financial independence.
• Trade School Indy: Bartering a Night School for Everyone by Shawndra Miller
  In Indianapolis, education about everything from law and beekeeping to belly dancing and cuddling can be had without the exchange of a single cent.
• Designing like Villagers by Mark Lakeman
  Seeing their city as a living ecology, members of a design-activist group work to improve it, whether they are paid or not.
• Starting a Community: With or Without a Recipe? by Paul Brooks
• Consent Decision-Making and Community Vision, Mission, and Aim How Sociocracy Can Help Communities, Part III by Diana Leafe Christian
• Review–The Great Experiment: everyday life in senior cohousing in Denmark by Ariane Kelleris
• Review–Fred’s Last Song by Ariane Kelleris
• Review–Out to Change the World: The Evolution of The Farm Community by Diana Leafe Christian
• Creating Cooperative Culture: Digging into Community: A reflection from Tamarack’s 1000 Conversations Initiative by Derek Alton