Bucket's blog

The communities conference is just a week away!

The new fire pit is all finished and beautiful, the living roof we built over the shower is looking beautiful, and we just finished major upgrades in our kitchen! Everything is falling into place and we are expecting nearly double the turnout this year.

Below are a list of workshops and presenters given this year. We have a few more details to finish before we finalize our workshop schedule, so things may change.

Cooperation Is The Ecological Solution

by Alexis Zeigler

Cooperative living is the most effective solution for peak oil and
global warming. We will look at how alternative energy and
conservation strategies can be cooperatively applied to live lightly
and well, and how cooperatives can lead the environmental movement
toward real solutions. We will look at cooperative energy
conservation in a global context, as well as some of the nuts-and-
bolts of different conservation and alternative energy technologies
as they can applied in small groups.

Alexis Zeigler is a self-educated activist, green builder, and
orchardist living in central Virginia. He has organized numerous
campaigns around environmental and social justice issues, built super-
insulated buildings and alternative energy systems, and has lived in
intentional community all of his adult life. More information,
including articles, interviews, and downloadable books, can be found
at his website, conev.org or by contacting alexis@conev.org

How Do We Choose The Communities We Join?

by Irena Hollowell

If you're looking for a community to join, it's helpful to know just
what you're looking for, and it can be helpful to understand why we
each look - and have looked - for different things. This discussion
will be not only a chance to state our preferences for large or small,
spiritual or secular, etc. - it will also be a chance to explore ways
of making this decision, to talk about what challenges and joys we
have found and hope to find on this path, and to come away with a
better understanding of advantages offered by various styles of
communitarian living.

Irena Hollowell daydreamed about starting a community before
she even knew the communities movement existed. Since graduating from
college, she has been living in community - especially the Fellowship
Community of New York - and traveling the world. Her travels have
taken her, among other places, to Auroville, the world's largest
intentional community, and to an Ecovillage Design course in Thailand.
She now lives at Acorn Community, 7 miles from Twin Oaks, and enjoys
working with herbs, walking in the woods, and writing mythic poetry,
among other activities.

Income Sharing: Mutual Aid

by the FEC

In this workshop, presented by the Federation of Egalitarian Communities,
we'll talk about the ways that income sharing and our strong culture of
sharing and mutual aid serve us in times of boom and bust. We hope to
attract a mix of FEC members, members of non-FEC communities, and
economically independent folks to share thoughts and perspectives on
sharing wealth and risk.

This workshop will be presented by members of at least two communities that are a part of the Federation of Egalitarian Communities. Each person will share their own experiences, and the group will include a variety of perspectives on the practice of income-sharing in community.

Community-Builders Clinic

by Sky Blue

Community-building is not something most of us were trained to do. It's our desire for belonging and togetherness, and a desire to live in alignment with our values that drives us stumbling forward. We've all had success and failures building community. This will be an opportunity to share about what we've learned and help each other gain insight into the elusive yet compelling practice of building community.

Sky Blue has lived and worked in co-operative and communal settings for the last 12 years. He currently works as an activist and community-builder in Charlottesville, VA.

Eco- Residence Tour

by Valerie and McCune

Sustainable living on a communal scale. Tour one of our Twin Oaks residences, the largest and most eco-featured. (named Kaweah) The presentation will cover various aspects of living in an ecofeatured house. Included in the tour: solar electricity, solar hot water, zoned high-performance central wood heat, sun-tubes, window quilt insulation and a composting toilet.

Valerie and McCune Renwick-Porter both live in Kaweah. McCune has been a
member of Twin Oaks for 38 years and is a main designer/builder of alternative energy installations in the community. Valerie has lived at Twin Oaks for 18 years and works community outreach, the forestry program and teaching yoga.

Conscious Connections

by Debby Sugarman

In this workshop, Debby will lead a series of experiential exercises to allow people to get to know each other quickly and deeply. The intention is for participants to have fun and get to know each other better at this conference, AND to learn exercises that are easy to lead and can be taken back to your home communities to promote deeper connections and easy social integration of new members. Handouts will be provided with instructions for leading exercises.

Debby Sugarman has been assisting the Heart of Now personal growth course since 2001 (www.heartofnow.org) and is a facilitator for the course. She currently leads Heart of Now workshops in the DC area and is part of the Network for a New Culture which puts on a 10 day Summer Camp promoting intimacy and community-building (http://www.cfnc.us). Debby has experience with Non-Violent Communication and Co-Counseling, and is a trained Zegg-style Forum facilitator (http://www.zegg-forum.org/index_en.phtml), a trained mediator and meeting facilitator.

Conflict: Fight, Flight, or Opportunity?

by Laird Schaub

Does conflict mean your group is sick, or just paying attention?
Starting with the premise that conflict is healthy and normal, we'll
explore options for unlocking its potential using the whole
person--rational, emotional, and intuitive. Rather than talking about "I"
statements or being nice, we'll focus on what happens and what can be done
when things get hot, concluding with a four-step plan for constructive
engagement. Special attention will be given to the advantages of working
in a group and in the dynamic moment, facilitated by those not in the
stew.

Should You Start a Community or Join One?

by Laird Schaub

For some people hungry for community life, this can be a fundamental fork
in the road. While starting your own group may look like the clearest
pathway to getting what you want, we'll explore the brambles you'll find
along the way, and lay out the pros and cons of joining versus starting.
There's more here than you might think!

Power Dynamics and Leadership in Cooperative Groups

by Laird Schaub

While meetings are meant to be equally accessible to all members, the
reality is they are not. This workshop will examine why power is
unbalanced, and what a group can (should?) do to level the playing field.
Not everyone is equally comfortable speaking in front of the whole group;
not everyone finds rational discourse their strongest suit; not everyone
can sit still for a three-hour meeting. We'll distinguish between "power
over" and "power with" and discuss what groups can (must?) do to adopt
healthy models of cooperative leadership.

Laird Schaub has been living in the fire of intentional community
since 1974, and active in intercommunity networking since 1979. He has
been involved with the Fellowship for Intentional Community since 1986 and
been doing consulting work on group process since 1987. Excited about what
community living has taught him and others about how to live
cooperatively, today he is a principal in the CANBRIDGE process
collective, making the learnings available to interested groups
everywhere. He can be reached at Rt 1, Box 155, Rutledge MO 63563 ph 660-883-5545 email: laird@ic.org

News of the Oaks Issue #108

by Valerie

Since the last edition of the Leaves, we've gone from the frigid cold of Winter to the sweltering heat of mid-Summer. We're taking advantage of the sun these days with our latest solar energy project. We've just completed the installation of a 10 KiloWatt array of 48 photo-voltaic solar panels in the central field of the community. The electricity generated will be used to power three of our buildings and one of our well pumps, with any excess electricity being fed back into the main power grid (via our local electic co-op), and we will be compensated for that power.

installing one of the 48 panels for our new solar energy array.

Earlier in the year, we found out that there's nothing like being snowed in for days and weeks on end to bring out people's creativity. In January, Twin Oaks took advantage of the avalanche of snow we received (and the 30-hour power outage) and members' inventiveness was bustin' out all over! Our very own 'outsider-artist-in-residence', aka our member Purl, used the time to construct a chair out of hickory saplings and hemp rope for his daughter Anya, aged 15 months. And when our pond froze, Noah decided a game of ice-hockey was in order, but we only had 2 sticks. Undaunted, he used some scrap wooden stretcher bars from our hammocks business to construct 6 very realistic hockey sticks, 5 of which lasted until the end of the game! And on a more cultured artistic note, Kayde organized a Variety Show in which members could showcase their talents, including poetry, singing, piano, dancing and a puppet show featuring Marshall Rosenberg of NVC (Non-Violent Communication) notoriety as the main character.

Anya sits in her new chair.

Another big January event was the arrival of our newest Oaker, a healthy baby boy born to Elsa and Scott. Elsa delivered him into the world at home, with the help of a midwife, her assistant, a doula, Scott and big brother Luuk. We welcome Ridgeley Ember Jennings Linden to our lives!

Ridgeley Ember Jennings Linden

In February, as an alternative to Valentine's Day, Twin Oaks celebrates Validation Day, a day in which everybody, not just people in intimate relationships, receives a handmade, individually designed card, inside of which other members have written validating messages. On Validation Day, we hand the cards out after dinner, and then break out into a dance party. This year, we also had a 'Songs of Love' performance, which was graced with the presence of the KITCH Army, sharing their version of KISS's new song 'Stand'.

Memory, Calliope, Claire and Keith transformed in to the KITSCH ARMY

Some people might say Twin Oaks has hit the big time, when we were featured in an Earth Day special on CNN news in April. In two of our fifteen minutes of fame, the piece focused on Twin Oaks as an example of how to live a sustainable lifestyle in contemporary America. We were pleased that information about our alternative culture was able to reach the masses.

There's also good news for our two largest community businesses. We've launched a new and improved website for Twin Oaks Hammocks. We sell hammocks both to wholesalers and to retail customers, and the new site makes it easier for our retail customers to make a purchase. Please go to www.twinoakshammocks.com if you'd like to take a look. And with our newest tofu account, we've increased our workweek to 5 tofu production days. This enables us to make the additional 5000 (yes, five thousand) pounds each week for the new account.

And several members have been busy working on creating new community.
We've been having meetings of a group of former and current members
who are working towards creating the Living Energy Farm. Now in the
process of finding land, the project will ultimately encompass an
intentional community with an environmental education center, which
will focus on sustainable ways of living, free of fossil-fuel. It has
been informally dubbed neo-amish (ie. Amish-style, minus the
patriarchy).

For more information:
http://www.livingenergyfarm.org

A Day in the Life of a Communard

by Mushroom

6 a.m. My alarm wakes me up and I roll out of bed, ready to start my day. The sun hasn't quite come up yet, but there's some soft light coming through my east-facing window. I don't have to get up this early--we each set our own schedule--but I like being up before the hustle and bustle of the day really begins. Plus, since nine of us live in my building, I probably won't have any competition for the shower.

6:15 a.m. I make myself breakfast (toast with homemade bread and an egg from one of our chickens) in the kitchen in the Courtyard, where I live. Lunch and dinner are served buffet-style at Zhankoye (ZK), our main dining facility and community center, but we also have a handful of smaller kitchens for breakfast, snacking, and preparing meals for small groups of people. As I eat, I read a novel I pulled from our public collection of several thousand books--no library card needed.

6:55 a.m. Since I like being up early, I signed up for a 7 o'clock tofu-making shift last week when all of our labor was being scheduled. I head to the Tofu Hut, a mere two-minute walk through the woods from my room--not a bad commute. It's chilly out, but the Hut is warm and steamy. I put on boots, gloves, a hairnet, and an apron, and start pressing curds into big slabs of tofu.

10 a.m. My shift is over, and I head back to the Courtyard. I check my email on one of the public computers in the office. In addition to actually making tofu, I also do a lot of customer service for our soyfoods business. Someone has contacted us to find out where they can buy Twin Oaks' tofu in their area; I respond, and also check out the orders that have come in locally from stores and restaurants in Charlottesville and Richmond.

10:45 a.m. I see my friend Sabrina outside with one-year-old Anya in a carrier on her back. She's doing a "primary," labor-creditable child care. We make tea and go for a walk together, Anya making cute faces at me the whole time.

12:05 p.m. It's lunch time, so we walk up to ZK. Lunch is mostly leftovers, supplemented with a fresh salad and baked potatoes. We grow greens throughout the winter in our huge greenhouse, and we harvested enough potatoes in the summer and fall to last us through the winter.

12:50 p.m. I walk back to my room to put on work boots for my forestry shift, then ride a public bike up to Modern Times (MT), where Carrol, River, Purl and I will meet for the shift. MT is our main shop building, with space and tools to fix our cars, bikes, tractors, and vacuums.

1 p.m. We head out into the woods, where we'll selectively cut trees and haul them in to be processed into firewood. All the wood we harvest is done so sustainably, and all of our buildings are heated with wood all winter long. It's too hot to do forestry work in the summer, so during the off-season, I'll switch some of my work scene indoors to do data entry and accounting work to monitor our communal money budgets.

5:15 p.m. I hang out in my room a bit before dinner, finishing up a letter to my family and listening to music. I find it's important to carve out alone time for myself--it's very easy to get sucked into the social scene 24/7 here. There's always something going on, someone to talk to.

6:00 p.m. Dinner is served! Tonight it's my favorite--veggie burgers. (And, OK, hamburgers too. But I'm a vegetarian.) There are plenty of side dishes, like steamed spinach and sweet potato fries. A large percentage of the meal, both veggies and meat, is homegrown. I sit in the Lounge with about ten people and chat with McCune about his latest plumbing adventure. Sometimes at dinner there's one main conversation but tonight several smaller discussions have sprung up. Besides copper-vs-plastic waterlines, people are talking about the new fruit orchard we're planting, the latest news from our sister community 8 miles up the road, and trying to work out if people's schedules will allow our belly-dance troupe to meet on the same night as the queer-theory discussion group.

7:30 p.m. Mala has invited me to her residence (named Beechside) to hang out--there's a really cozy kitchen/living room there that's highly conducive to fun social gatherings. A bunch of people come over, and we sit draped on the couches and on the floor. Debbie and Trout play fiddle and guitar, Casey is knitting a pair of socks and Ezra makes a large amount of popcorn. Zadek, age 4, and Samir, age ten months, provide a lot of the entertainment. It's a festive atmosphere, though there's no particular occasion; we just like to enjoy each other's company.

10:00 p.m. I head home to my room. I record the work I did today on my labor sheet and write in my journal a bit to unwind before bed. I'm very tired, but happy. It's been a good day.

Jessica Marie Quintet

by Summer

Debbie (above), Elsa, Jessie and Summer, 4/5 of the Quintet

I'm standing downtown in Charlottesville with my 6-month old daughter strapped to my front, singing with four other women. We run through our repertoire as a small but steady crowd of people gathers to listen. We are appreciative of the donations they leave, and afterwards we go to soothe our voices at the gelatto place down the street.
I am part of the The Jessica Marie Quintet, nee Oakapella or FEC-Sharp, which started in 2008 with eight original members singing a broader range of a cappella music, and has gradually narrowed to a focus on barbershop. When the idea first arose, I squealed with irrepressible dorkiness my delight at the thought of being in one of these groups again--in high school I was head of our 8-member a capella group. Characterized by close harmonies and four distinct voices that often sing the same lyrics (as opposed to doo-wop, which usually features a lead singer and several backup vocals), barbershop feels more egalitarian, more cooperative.

After a few months we were down to 5 people, and renamed the group the Jessie Marie Quintet, in honor of the two members who share that name (Jess, our bass; and Jessie, our tenor). Free online sheet music eventually gave way to specific arrangements ordered off the internet; one practice grew to two 2-hour rehearsals a week; and we began to perform as much as we could, including at homespun coffeehouses, busking in Charlottesville, at the Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello, Christmas/Solstice caroling, at a nursing home, at Acorn's Land Day, and for Twin Oakers in full-on JMQ concerts. Twice we've taken an educational trip to town to rehearse with the Skyline Chorus, Charlottesville's Sweet Adeline 30-member women's barbershop chorus. Their director has come out to Twin Oaks with two members of the chorus to help us through a rehearsal. We finished the practice with new warm-up exercises, help with posture, breathing, mouth shape, diphthongs, and lots of other information that has helped us advance our singing together. Last summer we used Twin Oaks' recording equipment and squeezed ourselves into the young adult library on hot evenings to put out our first CD.

Recording together was another learning experience: how far away do we each have to stand from the mic? Which room captures the best sound? We feel proud of the result and hope to make another album once we've added enough new songs to our repertoire. Right now the group is working on our theater debut singing and dancing for the community's performance of Greasel. After that, a belated two-year anniversary concert is in order. And after that, who knows? [The Jessica Marie Quintet is comprised of Jessica Marie (Jess) on bass, Summer on lead/baritone, Debbie on lead/tenor, Elsa on lead/tenor, and Jessica Marie (Jessie) on lead/tenor. Our CD, *In the Good Old Summertime and Other Modern Hits* is available for $8 (sliding scale).]

From Seed to Seeds

By Cloud Supernova

Edmund processing seeds.

Twin Oaks Theatre: 'Greasel'

by Kelsey

To most of American society, 'community theatre' means a group of theatre people, who happen to live in general proximity of each other, bound together by the act of putting on a professional-looking show. Here, it seems we take the word order of 'community theatre' more literally. It's more community, with a 'Hey! Since we're all here, let's do a ridiculous Twin Oaks-based spoof on Grease this winter!'

Talent? That, we have in buckets here. It started with the unbelievably hilarious team of writers (or re-writers, rather) creating songs and a script for the fantastic band and actors that then assembled. From within our ranks also came choreographers, set designers, props and costumes managers, publicity, lights, and no fewer than three directors. Not to mention those that pick up the slack within the community for this motley and brilliant team to have time to put a show up.

We knew we wanted to spoof the plot of the original show, placing it in a Twin Oaks setting, with lots of references to our alternative culture. Just the name alone-- 'Greasel' -immediately presented itself as a tip of the hat to the alternative energy practice of using vegetable oil for fuel, so-called 'greasel' instead of 'diesel'.

The 'cool kids' in this show were we communards. Members Michael and Summer starred as a hippie, dread-locked Danny paired with Sandra V, the mainstream commodities trader plopped into the middle of our commune for a visit. Musical highlights included 'Oberlin Dropout' as Crunchy (aka Frenchy) ponders returning to grad school, and 'You're The Ones That I Want' as an homage to polyamory. And what would Grease be without 'Hopelessly Devoted to Tofu' (performed, of course, by some of our most committed tofu workers)?

Really, though, there is more to what makes theatre here so interesting: while we do happen to have a lot of talent residing on these 450 acres, talent is also not exactly the point. In community, art is everywhere, and everyone can have a role-not just the 'artsy' people in society to whom we delegate the task of moving our culture forward. Anyone that wants a way to contribute here can probably find one, and while we don't aspire to Broadway with our work, we do aspire to enrich all of our lives through a collective creative process. So, we do. We shape our time together as we wish, and it is certainly never boring. Besides, what makes life worth living if not some Twin Oakers singing about how unexpected romance can blossom over pickling the beets?

Politics at Twin Oaks

by Valerie

Here at Twin Oaks, we generally consider ourselves beyond conventional conversation restraints; this becomes immediately obvious by listening to a mealtime discussion of the lurid details of gruesome symptoms related to the latest sickness going around.

When it comes to talking about politics, it becomes a little more complicated. There are certain topics that we can all discuss with ease and generally agree upon. However, somehow there are others that are more like opening a can of worms while walking through a field of landmines...

Acceptable: global warming and polar icecap melt

More delicate: what temperature to set the communal hot-water heater, and the ecological implications of using ice-cubes

Acceptable: Obama versus Hillary

A bit trickier: Organic versus Local

Acceptable: increasing water shortages and the evils of the bottled-water industry

Tread carefully: the fact that a certain communard-who-shall-remain-nameless replaced the low-flow shower head with one that delivers the approximate force and volume-per-minute of Niagara Falls, without any process.

Acceptable: the discriminatory aspects of impending US immigration policy

Walking on eggshells : our membership process about whether to accept that controversial visitor from the last visitor period.

Acceptable: gay marriage

Call in the Process Team: your lover announces their desire to form a polyamorous triad with that statuesque blonde who arrived as a new member last week.....

Twin Oaks Conferences!



You are invited to come to Twin Oaks and participate in our two summer events:

Join us for a weekend of sharing and celebration at the 2010 Communities Conference, August 13-15th.

With workshops and events focused on:

Dear friends, communitarians, and explorers,

We are in the midst of getting the word out about the Conference.
With barely over a month to go, we're posting to relevant websites,
e-mailing friends, and sending a press release. Now is a great time
to tell or remind any of your friends, too, if they might want to
come.

Valerie is putting together the list of workshops and events that will
take place, so if you want to offer an event, it's a great time to get
in touch with her. Meanwhile, we're also continuing to get the site

<!--CONTENT BEGIN--> Natural Building Workshop Update By Bucket Von Harmony

We at Twin Oaks are really excited about our upcoming natural building workshop! This will be a wonderful opportunity for us to share our values of ecological sustainability and cooperation with the broader community. The site preparation work is on schedule and the early registrations are coming in quickly. We are on track and ready to present a learning experience to our guests this fall.

The conference organizers from Twin Oaks recently met with Mollie Curry & Steve Kemble from Mud Straw Love, who will be our professional instructors. We ironed-out some of the details regarding the workshop and helped them put together a batch of cob for their current construction project in Maryland. We learned a lot and had a great time stomping on mud and sifting through clay.

Along with a classroom-style learning environment, we will also be offering hands-on experience with straw bale and earth plaster construction. The site for our building project will be at Acorn Community - Twin Oaks' sister community just a few miles down the road. Acorn Community has a number of projects it is taking on, including a new office for its heirloom seeds business, a tree house village and renovations on its existing structures. Full tours of Acorn Community and Twin Oaks Community will be offered as part of our workshop.

The pre-workshop construction is right on schedule. Foundation for the rubble trench is dug, we have the footings for the posts set, french drain laid out, and have filled the trench with gravel. We will be putting the posts and beams in by the end of the week, followed shortly by the roof trusses and the roofing. Once the roof is up the site will be ready for us all to get hands-on experience with putting up straw bale walls and covering them with earthen plasters.

Registration is filling up fast, with only a few more spaces available. We just had a group of 5 sisters from Nigeria register for the workshop, how exciting will it be to get to know these folks during the workshop? Be sure to register soon if you wish to reserve your space.

The workshop is being held from October 23rd to the 25th. The cost is $325 for the full 3-day workshop. Food & lodging provided. Register before October 1st and pay only $310.

Workshop features include:

Sleeping accommodations


We hope you come learn natural building techniques with us! You can learn more and pre-register at this web address http://theFEC.org/workshop.

See you in October!

No Boys Allowed

Twin Oak 26th Womyn's Gathering

By Calliope Kurtz

Slumber party, summer camp. These are magical memories, full of mystique. As children, we enter into community directed and determinate. The nuclear family, the neighborhood, the school. These associations are contrived, and they receive a challenge. Soon after, community expands and accepts more adventitious elements. Chance encounters and ephemeral friendships. Overnight summer camp is a special example. New faces dimly illuminated by flashlights and campfires. Anything is possible when new faces meet. This is an intimate approximation of Halloween, the most social, and random, of holidays ~ with one important twist. Now there are no masks, no role playing. Only the magic of fortuitous community, the desire to exchange delights, remains.

There is one other aspect of community defining its design. Intentionality. In this instance, imagine the forest fort's entrance exclaiming 'No Boys Allowed'. Perhaps that is overstated. Most likely, nobody actively notices the absence of males (or more accurately, male identification); what is divined is increased female presence. That changes everything. It's not necessarily better, but it is noticeably different. And, as the continued success of Twin Oaks' annual Womyn's Gathering demonstrates, it is, on special occasions, necessary. Not for all women, certainly, but certainly for women who remember the startling rapport shared between girls, former strangers, established within seconds, during that summer camp instant when "best friends" might include half the world.

Despite worries about higher gas prices in particular and recession woes in general, Twin Oaks 26th annual Womyn's Gathering, did better than break even, which, considering its function as an ideological outreach, exceeded its modest goal. According to Byrd the Starfish, this year's Gathering organizer (and a Twin Oaks member), the three-day event was "really well attended," bringing in 70 registrants, in addition to 30 or more community members, and "made more money than last year." This certainly ensures there will be a 27th annual Womyn's Gathering. Byrd also noted a substantive influx of newcomers to this year's gathering, with a majority of local and regional women. "We did get someone from Hawaii who registered" Byrd said, as well as receiving attendees from Ohio and Indiana.

Performances, workshops and diversions included DIY psychotherapy, polyamory discussion, bike repair, mud pit (think Woodstock without the brown acid), fire poi, an enchanted forest for children featuring costumed adventurers, acupuncture, body painting, BDSM (introductory and advanced), and a headlining performance by professional bellydancer Shadhavar (who conducted a bellydance workshop the following day). Other items of interest included a barter tent, open mic, open drag show, spiral dance, community singers and songwriters (enhanced entertainingly by sign language interpreters), yoga, organic home-made meals (courtesy Twin Oaks' ace chef Ira), sweat lodge and, of no minor consequence, coffee prepared at 6:30am by none other than the event organizer.

"Not only did I make the coffee" Byrd recalled of her 17-hour stint on Saturday, "I was drafted to DJ the dance party at 9pm the same day." There's no reason not to allow Byrd her moment of well-deserved self-promotion; she certainly didn't take on some thousand responsibilities for the money; Nor was there much glory. No one at the Womyn's Gathering played the role of "staff." I remember on Friday night, the opening evening, a discussion of practicalities to consider - and how quickly one young woman was to assume the duties of maintaining a first aid presence through the night. Child care for the next day was dispatched with the same instantaneous commitment to creating community. That characteristic, choosing to rough it, camping out, perhaps for the first time ever, and to rough it with people who have only just met, is the core meaning of the experience.

Self-reliance through community ~ a community of women, not women-born-women necessarily, but women who have chosen to be women ~ is what the Twin Oaks Womyn's Gathering offered. A little adversity ~ some bugs, some rain, some pebbles in the sandals ~ is the essential ingredient to this particular form of self-discovery and discovery of improvisational community. It's a hike and a camp-out without the expert. The "service" is simply the milieu: inventing and exchanging various expertises from fellow sisters. The fireflies flashing and the crickets chirping are bonuses. (For those who showed up slightly less than unprepared, Twin Oaks raided its own surpluses to provide bedding and blankets for agreeable camping and, after Saturday's rain shower, offered an impromptu laundry run for gathering attendees.)

Was there any quality that made this particular year any different from previous Womyn's Gatherings, I asked Byrd. "Well, we''ve had vendors in the past but I wanted to promote a less capitalistic culture this time," she said. "It was cool to see direct exchanges, like bartering massages for art and energy healing for artisan goods." Another new characteristic was an increase in Queer presence. "I specifically used the language 'non-male identified' to insure that transpeople and people without a definite gender presentation would feel included." Not that there were any token inclinations toward any radical orthodoxy. There was a round of football tossing, after all, and, on at least one occasion, a screening of the Hillary Swank movie "Iron Jawed Angels" brought the flicker of TV lighting into the woods. Why not?

Twin Oaks, it merits reporting, is a rural enchanted village, run, almost magically, on twin precepts of socialism and libertarianism. Some might use fancier terms, like hybridized variations of anarchist this-or-that. What-have-you with the vernacular is most likely OK. Twin Oaks keeps labels at bay by necessity. People come and go; there's always motion. There's the hippie background, being founded during the "summer of love," and Twin Oaks' initial business, hand-made hammocks, certainly lends the place a relaxed vibe. There are also lots of young people at Twin Oaks enjoying the conscientious absence of any seniority pyramid schemes and, since young people are hot to change the world, a fiercely postmodern, post-punk, post-LGBT culture enjoys an optimistically contrarian expression, too. To put it in pop music terms: The Womyn's Gathering, a specialized yet less tangible form of community, attracts the Holly Near people, pairs them with the Yoko Ono people, then shakes 'em up with the Ani DiFranco and Pink people.

Crazy dancing, no boys allowed.

Celebrating Community!

Twin Oaks' Communities Conference

By Roberto & Marta

What a treat! This year FEC's Communities Conference held at Twin Oaks was quite a gem of an experience. It was our first time attending and we didn't know quite what to expect. Indeed, we weren't sure it was going to happen. Somehow, miraculously, in the two weeks prior to the event the registration numbers rocketed upward from 15 to 100+ people. We had heard that attendance had been larger in past years, but this number of people seemed perfect. There was enough variety of community experience represented, yet the size was intimate enough that we felt connected to everyone by the end of the weekend. As new members at Twin Oaks, we had the privilege of working with Bucket to set the stage for the event. That meant lots of exciting work from preparing the site, to designing the programs, to tying down tarps, to beautifying the pavilion and more..... By the time opening circle came around Bucket, who had just taken up the task of coordinating the event, and all of his assistants had managed to prepare quite a welcoming and rich experience for both veteran communitarians and people just beginning to explore community living.

The event consisted of two fully-packed days of workshops put on by experienced presenters considering topics as personal as deciding whether to join a community or start your own and as global as the impact community living has on current urgent ecological concerns.Two of our friends whet our appetites for what was to come by presenting a slideshow of their Europe Communities tour. How fun to know that people across the ocean were doing such radical and diverse experiments in living and working together. Attendees also presented over a dozen workshops themselves using the Open Space technology: Introduction to Permaculture, Being White in a Racist Society, Food not Bombs, Mid-morning Yoga, Becoming a Better Listener.... to name a few.

Beyond those settings, almost every waking moment people were up and about kibbutzing, dancing, drumming, and eating with other participants who were coming from all over the country and from over 20 intentional communities. While busy attending workshops, parents could send their children to the Children's Space, where a kid-friendly environment was set up, complete with art materials, obstacle courses, and games for kids to enjoy under the supervision of a team of volunteers. One workshop-free afternoon was devoted to "Free Time", in which participants embarked on their adventure of choice: walking to the river, going for a swim, playing/wrestling in the mud pit, napping in a hammock, or lounging at the conference site with other attendees.

One highlight for us was being invited to facilitate the Open Space forum. It was an opportunity to support fellow communitarians' willingness to share a rich array of passions and expertise. Including ourselves! We had the chance to share a piece of our own excitement and joy by leading a workshop on heart centered connecting games. Another highlight for us was sitting in on Laird Schaub's Conflict Resolution workshop. Roberto had originally heard Laird present at NFNC's Summer Camp West several years ago. Laird's dynamic, focused, and practical style continues to inspire hope in the power of effective mediation and has fueled Marta's desire to pursue more training as a facilitator.

After the conference was over, we interviewed Bucket. It was then that we learned what an impact this event has had on his life. He told us, "it was because of the communities conference that I decided to become an activist in promoting intentional communities". For him, this year's opportunity to coordinate the event was a labor of love. His time, energy, and enthusiasm for the conference were what made this year's event possible, and in turn, a way to share with others the gift that the conference has been for him. From listening to people during and after the conference, it certainly seemed that many people were inspired to continue their personal quests for utopia, be it in their already existing communities or in the formation of future ones. For us, the communities conference was not only an exciting tribute to what collaborative work in community can manifest. After talking with people during and after the conference, we came away feeling confident that the impact this conference has can be felt like ripples of hope and cooperation throughout the communities movement.

After having read all of the feedback forms that participants filled out, a couple of things stood out. While people's favorite workshops were varied, many people agreed that one of the things they like most about the event was meeting like-minded people. And, when asked what things they would like to see changed, many responded that they would like the conference to be longer, as well as having the bathroom and shower facilities improved.

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Twin Oaks Community - 138 Twin Oaks Rd - Louisa, VA 23093 www.TwinOaks.org

Thank you everyone who had a part to play in such a wonderful conference!

Please email any pictures or stories to bucket@twinoaks.org and i will post them to this and other websites about community.

I would like to thank the following people:
Louisa and Allen for all their very hard work leading up to and during the conference. Marilyn for her creativity in the prepping of the site. Julia for her energy, enthusiasm and hard work. Shal for his careful vigilance. Hawina for her support and knowledge. Moss, Mattea and others who helped paint and liven up the site. Kansas for his plumbing help. Alexis for his strength and knowledge. All the volunteer help we had during the conference. Valerie for finding and scheduling the wonderful workshops. Caroline for managing registration. All the folks that raked and dug and swept and hammered. Louis and McCune for electrical work. Thanks to the wonderful presenters. Thanks to Marta and Roberto for working wth the paperwork and fliers and programs and the open space management... and all the rest for you that helps out so very much!



Thank you so much, you turned this into a mighty success!

Photos of the event to come!

-bucket

We are almost ready for the conference! We have the tarps up, the water on, the electricity working, the cars signed out, the labor scheduled, the mud pit muddy, the bug zapper zapping, the tables placed, and people have already started to trickle in to help with setup!

Yesterday, a crew set up the mud pit and got it ready for conference attendees. I think we have as much fun setting up this conference as the attendees have during it.

We have had a lot of ride requests from New York, and are having a hard time getting these folks rides here. We want everyone who wishes to come to be able to attend. if you are able to give someone a ride from New York, please contact us at conference@twinoaks.org

Thanks everyone!
-bucket

Below is he list of workshops for 2009, enjoy!
-bucket

Cooperation is the Ecological Solution

Cooperative living is the most effective solution for peak oil and global
warming. We will look at how alternative energy and conservation
strategies can be cooperatively applied to live lightly and well, and how
cooperatives can lead the environmental movement toward real solutions. We
will look at cooperative energy conservation in a global context, as well
as some of the nuts-and-bolts of different conservation and alternative

The Communities Conference is almost here!

We have been putting a lot of time and attention to putting together the site and program. We've scrubbed down the kitchen, cleaned out the pavilion, put up the tarps, hooked up the water, painted the tables, and much more.

We are especially excited about this ears communities conference. So many of the FEC communities are full and we would love to help another community form so that more can live the sustainable and just lifestyle we enjoy here.

We know there many of you out there with financial difficulties. If you want to come to our event, we want you to be here! If you find it difficult to meet our registration costs, contact us at conference@twinoaks.org so we can work out a work-trade or scholarship.

Thank you, and see you in 9 days!
-bucket

It was quite an adventure, this year.

Thursday evening brought us an intense thunderstorm with extremely high winds. Several trees were knocked over in our community, and the power went out, all just 24 hours before the conference began!

In the end it all worked out.

Expect a plethora of pictures and stories soon, as we break down camp and upload images from our cameras.

If you have stories or photos, please post them!

Video: PERMACULTURE & PEAK OIL: Beyond 'Sustainability' by David Holmgren