Ecovillage dwellers choose communal life

The Bay View EcoVillage-a small community that enjoys three communal meals per week, shares equipment like a washer and dryer, and cooperates in other ways-took years to create.

Seven adults and three children live in side-by-side duplexes containing private living areas plus a group dining room and a group living room.

The alternative lifestyle feels natural to its members, but they realize they are outside the mainstream’s living arrangements.

“It’s really not that crazy but it’s scary to a lot of people,” said Mark Gill, one of the founding members.

The ecovillage has long been a goal for Gill. His first meeting on the topic was about 15 years ago at the Unitarian Universalist church on the East Side, the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee.

Gill attended meetings with other people interested in an urban communal living endeavor but didn’t find the right situation and gradually “fell away” from the effort.

After making about five different attempts over the intervening years, Gill still could not find the essential aspect of an ecovillage: other people with the same commitment and ideals.

“I spoke to a lot of people who loved the idea but couldn’t make that kind of jump,” he said.

He eventually found the right partners in Eric and Alison Maynard, also Unitarian Universalist church attendees, and they advertised a startup meeting to find more ecovillage members.

After splitting off from people interested in a rural community, Gill and the Maynards began organizing a core group for weekly meetings.

Some interested attendees realized they couldn’t commit to the new lifestyle. Alison noticed that some people were engrossed until it came to the aspects of discussing funding, evaluating property lease versus purchase, and similar aspects.

“The details are what stymies pretty much all enthusiasm,” she said. She saw “lots and lots of interest in the idea” from people who did not eventually join the group.

The core group did have enough members to move forward and they decided to purchase property within a year.

To help prepare, the Maynards attended one week of training in Ithaca, N.Y. and Gill spent five weeks as an apprentice at The Farm’s Ecovillage Training Center in Summertown, Tenn. He said that experience gave him a lot of confidence.

As further preparation, the group developed a mission statement. Creating this statement is a crucial aspect of establishing a community, according to the Intentional Communities website, which is backed by the nonprofit Fellowship for Intentional Community.

(Intentional communities include ecovillages plus other groups living together with common values like cohousing and communes.)

They agreed on “…creating opportunities for individuals to build sustainable social, environmental, and financial systems.”

Members vary on which aspect of the mission most appeals to them. For example, Alison especially appreciates the interpersonal relationships because her extended family lives in Nebraska.

Other members are glad to avoid owning and maintaining tools and appliances in every household.

The group nearly purchased a large home in the Riverwest neighborhood but the house sold just before they made their offer.

Gill and the Maynards subsequently split with a group that was intent on living in Riverwest.

The narrow miss was the closest they had come to realizing their dream and they continued their quest.

At this point, Gill had been interested in the idea for a decade and a half, the Maynards a decade.

Claude VanderVeen, an acquaintance of Gill’s for over 10 years with experience living in cohousing, credits Gill’s perseverance to general tenacity, plus the “…desire to live an ecologically gentle life and get to know a few people deeply.”

Gill and the Maynards kept searching for property and people, and they found another committed member in David Johnson.

After years of trying, they realized their dream of an ecovillage in 2007 when Gill and the Maynards each purchased a duplex in Bay View on Linebarger Terrace. Johnson was the only additional member-tenant.

The group inherited two unaffiliated sets of renters and has replaced one set with new members.

One two-bedroom unit remains occupied by renters not involved with the ecovillage. That unit might house new members in the future.

They have enjoyed their new home for over a year and expanded the membership from four to seven adults.

The adults view each other as equals, but the founders are the homeowners with the others their tenants. Referring to the structures as “earth house” and “sun house” rather than by their owner’s names (e.g. “Mark’s house”) helps de-emphasize ownership.

Johnson is exploring arrangements that would allow other members to purchase ownership in the home within the confines of the mortgage.

Equality is balanced with the practicality of personal finances. The arrangement opens the ecovillage to people without the capital to buy in, explained newcomer Joshua Dostal.

He and his wife Angie are repaying student loans and could not have joined if the group’s structure required a significant upfront fee.

Food & Chores

In keeping with their intent to further “sustainable social, environmental, and financial systems,” the group makes an effort to buy local food, maintain a compost bin, and reduce energy and water use.

Coffee grounds from Anodyne Coffee Roasting Company are used in the compost and the group plans to add day-old bakery from East Side Ovens Bakery.

The residents buy food from a community supported agriculture system and grow 1 to 2 percent of their own food.

They hope to grow more vegetables next year. “This is our first year so we are hoping to do better next year. The best you can do is grow your own but it takes a lot of effort,” said Gill.

The group cooperates on meal preparation and cleanup for regularly scheduled dinners, plus property maintenance like snow removal. Efforts are kept uniform through an informal system and discussed at Sunday evening meetings.

Alison is unable to shovel due to an injury, so she contributes more to the group meals.

Each person declared their food preferences according to “strong dislikes” and “dislikes” and they have found their tastes compatible. Someone who doesn’t care for a particular dish typically eats more of the other choices that night.

Even the children, who don’t tend to eat heavily flavored foods, are happy with the selections on most nights.

“The best part has been all the fun it fosters with the group meals and such. It’s a far more natural and fun way to live,” said Gill.

Fitting Together

The group uses a consensus decision-making style that has worked well.

There have been no major, prolonged disagreements but the group has conflicting opinions on things like whether to shovel the snow or use a snow blower.

“We entered into this knowing full well there would be some disagreements,” said Gill. The group intends to enroll in a conflict resolution course to further improve their decision making.

The communal lifestyle is not a fit for every interested person. The founders had to turn away more than one individual whose personality didn’t mesh.

The current group seems to fit together well.

“I think what’s made this a successful operation is the people. We have just a really great collection of nice people willing to talk. If we get along, that just goes so far to making it pleasant,” said Gill.

The ecovillage members maintain standard jobs. Gill, for example, works in quality assurance at SHUR-LINE.

Gill’s journey toward an ecovillage has returned to the very place it began. In October 2008, a decade and a half after his first meeting on the topic, he discussed the Bay View EcoVillage at the First Unitarian church.

This time Gill was not an audience member; instead, he was the presenter.

More info: ic.org and sites.google.com/site/bayviewecovillage.

This edited version (1/6/2009) corrects an editing error in the fifth paragraph that appeared in print.

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