Issues in Community: Introduction

As I was writing the post I wrote from Twin Oaks this fall, I started thinking of issues that I saw there (and at Acorn) that I thought might deserve their own post.  The more I thought about it, the more issues I thought of, not only from TO and Acorn, but from my previous experiences with communities and co-ops as well as stuff that I read or observed in other situations.

Thus this series.  Some of the issues that I hope to look at here include Children in Community, Aging in Community, Community Size, Urban, Rural, and Suburban Communities, Diversity in Community, Tobacco, Drugs, and Alcohol in Community, Attracting Community Members, and looking at Leadership in Community.  And maybe a few other things will pop up along the way.

So this has the potential to be quite a long series.  I am still reading a bunch of things so I may alternate book reviews with posts in the series.  My hope is that some of this may prove useful for other people starting communities, looking for communities, or living in community. Or maybe even for people who are vicariously interested in community living and the problems therein. 

When I was at Twin Oaks they gave us little visitor booklets entitled  'Not Utopia Yet'.  No community is, but I think the attempts give us more ideas of what's possible--as well as what's difficult.  This series will be my attempt to look at some of where the difficulties lie.


Quote of the Day:  "Having clear principles doesn't solve all your problems or make things easy in any group, and this is even more true in the community setting.  However, compared to not having clear principles, having them does help, including when tough decisions come up." - Tree Bressen