Dancing Rabbit membership has been through a tough and interesting few months of late, facing a number of significant hurdles in finding common ground on issues arising from various factors of DR's size, rate of growth, economy, and organization. Life at Dancing Rabbit seems to exist in a separate realm of time. I can never quite understand where all the time goes, but we have done a mighty good job of fermentation here, kneading the community structure for its second rise, as it were—the leap we stand at the cusp of, from small community to larger community. We have coalesced a sufficient variety and complexity of modes of interaction, devised enough committees and tasks, both for our current membership and as many more again to reasonably handle while still building our houses, tending our gardens, cooking our meals, and recreating.
Amidst all this built up discussion, begun at our retreats around the new year and continued from various angles since then, committee work almost ceased for several months, despite finding some topic at almost every meeting that warranted the formation of still another new committee. There wasn't any organized cessation, it was just a matter of absenteeism, with lots of members off traveling for some part of the winter, combined with a universal lack of will or inertia among those who remained to make it happen anyway.
Meanwhile, much of the collective community conscious has been occupied with questions surrounding the use and ownership of our new Commons (even the name of the building has yet to solidify, but this is my choice). Some of the major details remain, like what kind of hot water heater to use; we want something that can serve domestic hot water to a large group of people and also circulate hot water through the radiant flooring. It must do so while running on something not proscribed from use by the biofuels covenant, which we've recently expanded coverage of—the best candidates being biodiesel and wood, though we hope someday to start producing our own biogas. Similarly, we're trying to figure out how much of the kitchen we can afford to furnish, and from where that money should come.
How the building will be paid for and who will own it is still being decided, and these money issues more than any other have been the most difficult for us to come to agreement on. The majority of the cost of the new structure was borne by the generosity of a donation made by a member's family some years ago. Until last year, the interest on that donation had significantly helped fund the nonprofit Dancing Rabbit Inc.'s educational, outreach and organizational activities. Now, with those funds invested in the new Commons building, DR Inc.'s budget is much tighter. Some members feel that the building's cost should be repaid entirely to DR Inc. by the members who use it, so that it may recoup its outlay and continue in the work that income supports. Others struggle with the concept that the building was paid for by a donation, and one doesn't generally repay a donation; besides, they say—just living here the way we do and demonstrating the sharing of resources in a common building, enacts the organization's mission.
At issue is how much of the building was designed to fulfill the non-profit's needs for providing basic services for hosting visitors, and how much on the other hand was designed into the building to serve the needs of the members. What we have ended up with in some ways is perhaps the best possible compromise to serve the two, but not exactly the building either would have built alone. Further complicating the matter is that members plan to rely on the new building's various systems (bathing facilities, phone and DSL/computer coops, a kitchen, etc.) to varying degrees; those who've already invested in building these sorts of facilities for themselves don't feel they should have to pay for duplicate systems in Commons. But how much can we afford to charge ourselves in this tight farm economy? There were already those who are considering leaving DR because they cannot make enough to get by.
Commons is a beautiful building to be sure, and has already begun serving us well as a meeting space; but essentially we have been slow to move ourselves into it in a more substantial way because we have not achieved consensus on the basic issue of who will pay for it and what it will cost. After much discussion, the members have sent the issue to the five-person DR Inc. Board for assistance.
The job market here is pretty tough, with many of us either trying to get our houses built so we have shelter, and so having minimal time for profitable employment, or struggling to find enough employment, either at DR or external to DR, to sustain our basic needs for building, growing, and just plain living. It feels like the pool of the village economy is too tight, too small a current for too few people. In that context one other significant issue has arisen, namely trying to address the number of dues hours required by the nonprofit of its members each year. These dues are generally paid in labor, but last year we experimented with requiring ourselves to pay US dollars if we did not meet our quota. Currently the quota stands at 50 hours/year, or a little under an hour a week. If you value that time at $7 an hour, which is the DR standard hourly rate and what we agreed to pay if we failed to meet the annual quota, then those 50 hours are worth $350, which can be as much as some folk make in a month (and more than, for some). That feels like a major stretch to some, and some might like to see the number of dues hours cut to 25, particularly in light of the monetary dues each member already pays.
Some of those members feel that simply living here, taking care of their own needs under the challenges and restrictions we place on ourselves through adherence to our ecological covenants and other agreements, is enough of a contribution to the mission of the village. Others fall somewhere in the middle, or even do far more than their quota of dues hours. Some of these feel that we need to grow more quickly, and that cutting the number of dues hours now, when we have created so much work for ourselves in organizing the village, will leave us stalled, and that we will fail to accomplish the many tasks we've set out for ourselves to govern the growth to an ecovillage of hundreds of people.
Almost all of us, though, either through the level of complexity we face in all trying to accomplish everything together, or through the sheer weight of withdrawals on our stores of time, money and energy, seem to be feeling stretched thin, and have seemed to pull back a little, putting our own needs first instead of those of the group. Our challenge now is to reopen ourselves to each other and to achieving the goals of the organization we've joined, giving as much as we can to its mission. This may require us to accept different levels of commitment from different members, each giving in co's own appropriate measure, and valuing equally the commitment each gives, even if it is not equal in time spent. Perhaps it is entirely reasonable that different members will have different abilities to contribute to the common goal at different stages in their lives.
One thing is for sure--the sooner we can establish businesses, services, and self-supporting mechanisms that can financially sustain a growing village, the sooner we'll be able to attract more members to share the load of work more widely and leave us all with more time for the details and embellishments, the small touches and good times that will give this village its soul and spread its efforts to positively influence the wider society. As spring bursts forth all around us, I have hope, a germinational sort of energy telling me that if I live the way I want the world to be, and persevere with spirit and strength, both Dancing Rabbit and the wider world will grow and thrive.
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