Listening Tree Cooperative

Mission: We intend to regenerate community as we consciously choose to create a more sustainable way of life. We will experiment with self-organizing social systems at this time of energy descent, particularly in egalitarian ways.

From www.ic.org/directory/listening-tree-cooperative/:

We are a small group that has just started a green cooperative homestead in Chepachet, RI. Two of us purchased a farm in June 2015, and are currently leasing it to the cooperative. When we find enough members and the co-op decides to purchase it, the owners will sell the property to the coop.

In order to balance the need for and efficiencies of community with the need for solitude and privacy, we are creating small, cabin-like shelters (including retrofitting existing outbuildings) for sleeping and other alone-time activities. We share one kitchen, and cooperatively prepare and serve dinner in the shared house to all residents on site each evening. The house also contains shared office/farm-work space, bathrooms, other sleeping rooms and a convertible guest room/yoga studio/meeting room. At this point, we envision a community of 10-15 residents will live on the farm eventually. The current septic allowance for this property is 10 people.

Key features include:

Regular community meetings and conflict prevention and resolution/management processes;
A participatory democratic decision-making process, with ‘sense of the group’ practices leading up to final decisions, the N Street method for contentious issues, and a “consensus minus one” decision rule;
Simple living, energy conservation and material cycling (e.g., compost toilets, rainwater capture, passive solar and super-insulated (e.g. passive house) buildings and renewable energy systems);
Growing food for the community (and others when excess), using sustainable farming, such as organic methods, permaculture, and wild-simulation propogation. Three market-farm partners currently share the site, with areas designated for them and for the co-op residents' homesteading garden and animals and food forest;
New resident screening process and trial period;
Opportunities for agreed-upon community mind/body/spirit practice and also an acceptance of a variety of individual practices (yoga, meditation, prayer, etc.) or none;
Sharing responsibilities and work of the homestead, honoring the particular skills members bring to the community as well as sharing basic chores, etc.
Sharing many things, such as meals, a truck, appliances, kitchen, laundry, bathrooms, etc., to conserve resources and make community living more affordable than single-family housing. However, this is not an income-sharing community. Private ownership of cars and personal effects will be allowed and rules for borrowing established by each individual.
The cooperative as a whole will own and share the common house, barn, appliances, solar power equipment, tractor, many tools, etc. Rules about sharing will be developed through the group decision making process (see above).
A market farmer or farm family could buy a special share that designates a portion of the arable land for market farming, to be stewarded by the farmer(s) in a land tenure contract with the housing cooperative. See below for details.

Our community aspires to provide educational service to the state and beyond. We will promote and conduct workshops (e.g. deep ecology – the ‘Work that Reconnects’ – workshops, a permaculture charette) and host apprentices who will live with us for a summer or semester to learn community life, food and shelter provision and about local/global transition to sustainable living more generally. We may choose to partner with an existing nonprofit organization to help raise money, recruit apprentices, and provide high school or college credit.

We plan to ensure affordability and equality by setting up ownership as a limited equity co-operative. A limited equity co-op is an alternative legal ownership entity which allows people to buy into the property and own shares of the co-op and thereby be given rights to live there and use designated and shared space for living and working, while keeping equity earned at the level paid in vs. market price. This removes investment/speculation from housing and keeps it affordable in perpetuity. Purchasing or financing a share grants holders the right to live in and otherwise use the land and structures, but also to transfer this right by selling their share back to the coop. Unlike a condo, the co-op community has the right to vet new members when shares are transferred.

A service of the Data Commons Co-op. The project has been supported by Equal Exchange, the Cooperative Charitable Trust, the USDA, and many others - thank you! Tech volunteers over the years include: Benjamin Bradley with support from GAIA Host. Ben Mauer with support from Quilted. Paul Fitzpatrick. Ronin Tech Collective, Brattleboro Tech Collective, Sligo Computer Services. Jason Lemieux. Default map tiles courtesy of MapQuest. Default map data (c) OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA.