Workshops & Consultation-Workshops

Diana’s Workshops and Consultation-Workshops are designed to be a lot of fun—with lively presentations, experiential exercises, role-plays, and musical skits. (See “What Participants Say.”)

A Workshop has a standard format and is either (1) open to the public, or (2) private, held specifically for one or more forming community groups or existing communities. Workshop Endorsements.

A Consultation-Workshop is an event tailored ahead of time specifically for an existing community or forming-community group, based on their particular needs as determined by phone conversations, emails, surveys, etc. ahead of time. It is presented in workshop format. Consultation-Workshops can contain most or all of the same information, presentations, and experiential exercises as a Workshop. However, while Workshops have a standard format, Consultation-Workshops are based on the needs of the group. The fees are the same for both. Consultation-Workshop Endorsements.

Phone Consultations are also available for forming-community groups and existing communities.

Diana’s 1-1/2-hour Ecovillage Slide Show can be an adjunct to workshops, for example, as a presentation the evening before the workshop.

You’ll find descriptions of three different workshops, below. Fee information.
1. Growing a Successful Ecovillage or Intentional Community
(one- or two-day Workshop or Consultation-Workshop)
2. Consensus and Facilitation
(one- or two-day Workshop or Consultation-Workshop)
3. How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community (one day)

           
1. Growing a Successful Ecovillage or Intentional Community

Two-day workshop, 9:00 am – 5:30 pm each day

Lively exercises, humorous musical skits, slide show presentations, and vivid anecdotes about real problems and their successful solutions. What works well, pitfalls to avoid, how not to reinvent the wheel. Antidotes for common kinds of “structural conflict” and interpersonal conflict. The “Board Game” demonstrating the relationship between mission, membership process, and decision-making method. Building trust and connection, increasing social capital, dealing with the challenging group member. Case histories of community development demonstrating aspects of property purchase, financing, zoning, and legal entities for owning shared property. Community economics: internal community finances, creating a village-scale economy.

The workshop benefits forming community groups (with no property, as well as those with property), as well as existing communities.

First Day of Workshop

(1) 9:00 – 10:40 am - Preventing “Structural Conflict”
“Visible” & “Invisible” Structures. Steps to Creating Community. Preventing Structural Conflict. Trust/Conflict Cycle. “That's Not Community!” Handouts.

 (2) 10:55 – 12:30 pm - Mission and Purpose, Decision-Making
Vision, Mission & Purpose, Goals, Strategic Plan. Sample Mission Statements. Exercise: Creating Mission & Purpose Documents. “Where Do We Draw the Line?” “Public-Private Scale.” Multiple Communities in the Room? Consensus Requirements. Decision-Making for Mission & Purpose. Consensus Overview: Proposals, Agenda, Facilitation, Participants, Evaluation. Community Governance. Committees. Minute Books & Decision Logs. Handouts       

(3) 1:30 – 3:00 pm - Consensus
Shopping a Proposal. Three Decision Options.The Sunset Clause.Gradients of Agreement. Blocking. Criteria for a Principled Block. Slide Show: Decision-Making in Communities. Solution-Oriented Meetings. Threatening to Block. Premature Proposal Death. Pseudoconsensus.     

(4) 3:00- 4:30 pm - “Board Game,” Communication Agreements, Accountability
“Board Game.” Exercise: Communication Agreements. Helping People Stay Accountable to the group. Exercise: Telephone Buddy System. Graduated Series of Consequences.

(5) 4:45 – 5:30 pm - The Effective Community Founder
Social Capital. Dealing Effectively with the Challenging Group Member. “Community Glue.”

Second Day of Workshop

(6) 9:00 – 10:40 am - Case Studies, I
(1) OAEC: Property Search/Turn-Key Property, Bidding on Property, Renovation Contracts, Down Payment/Development Fund/Mortgage Fund, Owner-Financing, Private Loans/2nd Mortgages,  LLCs – Pros & Cons, 501(c)3 Nonprofits - Pros & Cons, Leases, Using LLCs & 501(c)3s Together, Member Fees, Refinancing.
(2) Dancing Rabbit: Property Search/Raw (Prairie) Land, Bank Loans/Private Loans, 501(c)3 and 501(c)2 Nonprofits, Land Trusts: Pros & Cons, Leases, Covenants.

(7) 10:55 – 12:30 pm - Case Studies, II
(3) Earthaven Ecovillage: Property Search/Raw (Forested Mountain) Land, Finding Land/Breaking Up, Pioneers & Settlers, Raising Funds with Pledges & Founders’ Perks, Homeowners Associations: Pros & Cons, Refinancing/Earthshares Fund. Shared Property Ownership: Do You Really Own Your House? Raw, Developed, Turn-Key Property. Exercise: Your Site Criteria. Owner-Financing, Banks, Personal Loans, Member-Financed Loans, Revolving Loan Funds. Different Ways to Co-Own Property. Steps of the Land-Search Process. Zoning.

(8) 1:30 – 3:00 pm -  Financing Your Property
“Community Glue” Exercise: Mildly Taboo Topic. Pioneers & Settlers. Financial contribution and decision-making in the group. Exercise: Your Group’s Potential Assets. Helping less affluent members afford it. When one member owns it. The Triple-Net Lease.

(9) 3:15 – 4:15 pm - Legal Entities for Shared Property Ownership
Why We Need a Legal Entity. Checklist for Choosing a Legal Entity. Limited Liability. Double-Taxation. Which Entities Not to Use. Trusts, Community Land Trusts: Pros & Cons. Exercise: Legal Entities & You.

(10) 4:45 – 5:30 pm -  Community Economics
Community Income & Expenses. Slide Show: Community Economics. Operating and Capital Budgets. Rural Communities: Creating a Village-Scale Economy. Community-Owned Businesses/Onsite Individual Member-Owned Businesses: Pros & Cons.

2. Consensus and Facilitation

This can be a one-day or a two-day event. Participants will receive a handout booklet.

The first day, “Consensus Decision-Making: How It Works,” usually held on a Saturday, is foundational and can be presented as a stand-alone, one-day event. It is designed to benefit forming community groups and existing communities who would like to learn the consensus decision-making method or get additional consensus training.

The second day—“The Effective Facilitator”—is designed to either follow the first day in a two-day workshop, or to stand alone to benefit people and communities who want to improve facilitation skills.

Diana has taught this workshop and portions of it to various cohousing communities in Canada and Mimbres Hot Springs Ranch in New Mexico. She has facilitated consensus meetings for various communities and for Earthaven Ecovillage, where she lives. Her consensus teachers were Caroline Estes, CT Butler, Bea Briggs, and Tree Bressen.

Saturday: Consensus Decision-Making: How It Works
This workshop is lively and fun, with a few short musical skits and a stand-up-and-move Board Game: “A Proposal’s Progress.” Topics include power, decision-making, and governance; how consensus meetings function; requirements for an enjoyable, productive, upbeat meeting (trained participants, good agenda-planning, well-crafted proposals, and a skilled facilitator); supporting, standing aside, and blocking; and three special features, “What Community Consensus Trainers Advise about Blocking,” “Is Pure Consensus the Best Choice for Your Group?” and “How Some Communities Use Closely Related Alternatives.”

Sunday: The Skilled Facilitator
This skill-building workshop includes more short musical skits, as well as participatory exercises on agenda review, stacking, summarizing, responding to various kinds of meeting situations, and dealing with various kinds of disruptive meeting behaviors. It focuses on the facilitator’s basic underlying attitude: inquiry and requests.

3. How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community

This one-day workshop on joining community also includes musical skits, role-plays, and experiential exercises to help people find and join the community of their dreams. It includes material from Diana’s book, Finding Community: How to Join an Intentional Community or Ecovillage.

Topics include: how to research communities on the Internet (and how to separate the ‘wheat’ from the ‘chaff’). Your criteria for communities to join, and how to find communities that match your criteria. What it costs to join, and what it takes personally to live in community. How to plan community visits, how to be a “great guest,” and how to get the most out of your visits. Evaluating your visits (and debunking common assumptions and expectations). An “Insider’s Guide” to choosing your community. The membership process, and how to enter your community gracefully.
Includes handout booklet.

More information :
Workshops and Talks at Conferences and Fairs
Fees
What Participants Say