1) As far as visiting goes -- since I would not be visiting with the intention of staying at this time, are there accommodations for visitors and how much
would it cost to stay for a week?
2) I understand that folks have individual living spaces but are meals shared?
3) -- if so, what arrangements are made for cooking, cleaning up, etc.
4) -- if not, do folks buy their own food?
5) Is there a co-op nearby?
6) Do folks have their own car?
7) How do you get things done? Like gardening, firewood, preserving food,
etc. Are tasks assigned or do folks just do what needs to be done?
8) Do folks have jobs off property?
9) How do they earn money?
10) What about health care? Is it each individual's responsibility to
carry health insurance or is there coverage?
11) What do interested parties have to do to become eligible for membership/joining?
12) One question that I have is addressing the length of stay that is allowed. I did read that some stay for a few months, others for up to two years. Is
there a limitation? I ask because I was wondering if there are those that
arrive and seem somewhat uncertain as to what's next for them.
13) Enjoyed your web site. Was wondering if you had any special days or times set aside for visitors.
As far as visiting goes -- since I would not be visiting with the intention
of staying at this time, are there accommodations for visitors and how much
would it cost to stay for a week?
We ask that folks wait until they can come with the intention of staying for at least a month. We've found that a week just isn't long enough to get much of an idea who someone is, and we're just not interested in opening up our lives to a ongoing stream of strangers.
In short, we're working to build a community, not a bed and breakfast. Life in a small community involves a lot of trust. We don't lock our doors, we leave the keys in our cars, that sort of thing. That sense of security and ease evolves out of our mutual commitment and a respect earned over time. The upshot is that a casual visitor, or even someone who's here for a week, isn't going to have time to earn our trust and to make the sort of authentic connection that lies at the heart of this experience.
New arrivals get to choose from the various options that we have available when they show up. The three main considerations have to do with private space, work space and storage space, and each person presents a different set of needs. The person who wants to write a book needs less space than a person who wants to make quilts.
The monthly dues provides the funding source for new construction, so a new person means that there's more funds available to purchase construction materials, and over time that translates into more housing options.
I understand that folks have individual living spaces but are meals shared?
Like many things at Windward, the answer is "yes and no" :-)
Our major group activity is the noon day lunch. It's a time when everyone comes together to enjoy other's company and to catch up on what others are doing. It's also a time to update everyone on community progress and plans, and the noon meal plays an important role in building our sense of community.
As for breakfast and dinner, folks fix their own as suits their personal time table and tastes. The kitchen is open, food's on the shelf and in the frig, so it's a matter of fixing some cereal, warming up some leftovers, heating up some soup or making a sandwich, and so on.
Feeding a dozen plus people isn't an easy task, and especially when personal dietary needs and restrictions have to be taken into account. By doing one big meal a day, we maintain group continuity, and by doing for ourselves at other times, we insure that individual needs and tastes are met; it's a balancing act that lies at the heart of sustainability within community.
-- if so, what arrangements are made for cooking, cleaning up, etc.
Perhaps the most demanding administrative task we have involves coming up with the menu and working out the assignments needed to make it happen. It's a coordination/management task that requires a lot of input and flexibility.
There's usually a lead cook and an assistant in charge of each meal. That way no one is needed to cook more than once a week. We usually have four production meals (something like turkey with dressing, or perhaps a Chinese meal with dim sum) a week, and a couple of meals of soup and sandwiches and usually a day of left-overs.
The trick is that when you only cook once a week, it's fun to come up with something special. It's a lot more fun to do a meal that showcases your interests and skills, than having to crank out three meals a day, seven days a week.
Everyone living on site is expected to put in an average two hours a day on chores such as cooking and washing the lunch dishes (everyone is expected to clean up after themselves at other times), and clean up is scheduled just as cooking is.
Irregular tasks such as cleaning out the refrigerators is scheduled through a sign up sheet. A list of the tasks that need doing over the next two weeks is put up in the kitchen, and folks sign up for the tasks they'd prefer to do, or wind up having tasks assigned by default.
Other tasks happen when they happen. For example, when the shopping crew comes back with $600 dollars in groceries, all available hands pitch in and get the food sorted out and stored away--many hands make light work.
-- if not, do folks buy their own food?
Our dues are intended to cover the basics, and it isn't necessary for anyone to purchase food on their own. On the other hand, the kitchen budget doesn't cover items like junk food and soft drinks. or lobster and good wine for that matter.
Most of us have some degree of private kitchen capacity in our quarters; i.e. a small frig, a microwave, a hot plate, etc. And most of us stock the personal comfort foods that add a positive touch to life, but it's a personal expense and effort. As a group, we work together to cover the basics so that as individuals we can custom tailor our lives to suit our private needs.
Windward strives to distinguish between the needs we have in common, and the desires that make us individuals. Through teamwork and cooperation, we are better able to meet those basic needs than we could if we were each trying to go it alone. The sharing of information, the economies of scale and the division of labor are powerful tools that we use to enhance our lives, and Windward is the context within which those economic principles can work to our advantage.
Even so, efficiency isn't everything. Life should be a work of art, not just a sound business proposition. Once the common needs are taken care of efficiently, the goal is for the individual to use their time and resources to fulfill their vision of what their lives should be about. That's a different call for each person, and Windward has no interest in telling people how they should divvy up their personal time and resources.
is there a co-op nearby?
Not really. The nearest "convenience store" is 7 miles away, and we're 30 miles from the nearest Safeway, although there are smaller stores about 20 miles away. It's 90 miles into Portland, Oregon, and just about anything you'd ever want would be there.
do folks have their own car?
Some do, some don't. Gas and insurance can add up to notable expenses, and with more than a dozen people on site, there's usually someone you can catch a ride with. As a matter of practicality, it's way cheaper to kick in for gas than to maintain your own vehicle just to run to town now and then.
And if it's a trip to the grocery store that you want to take, well just volunteer to be part of the shopping crew :-)
How do you get things done? like gardening, firewood, preserving food,
etc. are tasks assigned or do folks just do what needs to be done?
Life "out there" is focused on progress--on life as a linear process. By contrast, life in a sustainable context is focused on cycles.
Much of the rhythm of life at Windward derives from the seasons and the things that need doing in order to keep the cycle of life going. Once someone has been through a winter in the woods, they don't need to be motivated to cut firewood in the spring. Indeed, there's a fundamental satisfaction that comes from looking at a full woodshed that one can never get from looking at a bank statement.
We expect everyone to contribute two hours a day towards keeping the community going. Over time folks find their niche and take on tasks that suit them for one reason or another. In my case, a chore that I've traditionally done involves hauling our trash to the dump. Compared with those living a consumer lifestyle, we don't generate a lot of garbage, but what there is still has to be dealt with.
Dealing with the garbage became my chore for a number of reasons. First of all, I drive an old 3/4 ton pickup which is the best vehicle on site for that task. Secondly, it's a task that helps me keep up with how we're doing in regards to sustainability, since you can learn a lot about a community by looking at what they throw away.
Perhaps the most important reason for me is also the most subtle. If our senior member is willing to take on a yucky task for the benefit of the group, then that says a lot about what sort of group this is.
In community, the only really effective way to lead is by example, and the willingness of everyone to get in there and do what needs doing is a key reason why this group has survived and grown. We're a group of diverse people, but one thing we have in common is a solid work ethic and a willingness to look around and see what needs doing.
One result of this laid back approach to divvying up the workload is that some things get done sooner, and some later, and some things just have to wait. So while our laid back approach might seem inefficient to some, it's a path that we find to be comfortable and which works for us. It's also why we have an apprentice program which works to sort out those who are willing to do their part from those who aren't.
The kitchen tasks are the most organized work that we have, and one of the directors is in charge of working out that schedule. Even then there it's a collaborative process where folks sign up for the tasks that suit them best, or to cook the sorts of meals that they're comfortable preparing. Since volunteers get first choice, there's an incentive to sign up early.
Do folks have jobs off property?
Our members have worked out a range of creative solutions in order to become financially independent. The only across-the-board rule is that no one derives an income from Windward, so the short answer is that everyone derives their income off property, although in some cases it's through the marketing of work they did on property.
There are many communities that provide folks with room, board and pocket money so long as they work a certain number of hours in the community owned business. We don't want to go that route for a number of reasons.
One reason is that having a community business makes the survival of the community dependent on the survival of that business, something which shifts the emphasis from the well-being of the community to the well-being of the business. It also brings about an inevitable subordination of the community's goals to the needs of the market place, and we don't want to go there.
Another reason is that folks already have a lifetime of experience within the work-place culture, a context within which the very term "cooperate" has been debased to the point where it's a synonym for submission. Instead, we want to build a social context within which people synergistically empower and support each other, and it's just not reasonable to expect to get there from the context of the already deeply engrained employer/employee relationship.
Another reason is that we believe that the key to Windward's survival, let along the accomplishment of its vision of a sustainable community, is the development of a diverse economic underpinning. Running a company business effectively precludes the development of diversity as greater levels of income are achieved through a greater degree of focus on the core business activity. That's not the path we want to pursue.
A more subtle reason involves what we'd miss out on. A prime income focus would create a situation in which the folks we'd primarily be working with would only come from that context. By having a wide range of small economic activities underway, we maintain contact with a much wider range of people, and that diversity enriches us all.
By helping our members work in areas that interest them, rather than in the bowels of one monolithic enterprise which does little more than pay the bills, we ensure that folks get more satisfaction out of what they're doing. While our diversified approach can be criticized as less efficient than a more centralized approach, we don't care because it's a lot more fun than the way that most people are used to working. When you do creative work that engages your talents and interests, it doesn't feel like work at all.
Which brings me to the point that what we want to do is to help our members be more creative, rather than more productive. It may be a subtle distinction, but it's the sort of core difference which determines the sustainability of a program.
How do they earn money?
Everyone here has worked out a solution to that problem which suits their talents, temperament and needs, so it's difficult to give a single answer. Also there's a privacy issue involved. I'm happy to talk about how I handle the need to generate funds, but as to how others do it, I'll have to provide general answers rather than specific details.
One option is to spend part of the year off earning income and part of the year here building one's niche. One of our founders was a desert rat who spent the cold winters down in southern Nevada working, and the summers here at Windward focusing on capital improvements. He was especially interested in developing Windward's renewable energy program, a capitally intensive project, so a split year approach worked well for him.
Another option is to spend part of the week off earning income. We have a stock of cab-over campers that make it easy to go off a few days a weeks to market our skills or products. By working a couple of long shifts on a weekend, and there are lots of employers looking for folks who'll work long shifts on the weekend, folks can generate enough income to meet their needs, thereby freeing up the week for things they want to do. The other end of the spectrum would be folks who do their work on site and then ship off their products to be sold for them elsewhere. For example, one member has sold five books since coming to Windward, and another has developed a business producing handmade cards and art work created from natural materials such as silk, fiber, feathers, flowers, lichens., and another does consulting work via the internet.
In order for work to be sustainable, it has to be something that you enjoy doing. Since everyone has different skills, talents and desires, each niche is a custom fit. As new people bring new resources and new interests, new niches will continue to evolve to suit. It's a process that requires patience and persistence, but that's an essential part of creating sustainability.
What about health care? Is it each individual's responsibility to
carry
health insurance or is there coverage?
Ultimately, it's each person's responsibility to care for their own health. No one can know your own system--its needs and shortcomings--as well as you can, and while the medical establishment has a positive role to play in that process, there's no effective substitute for
self-awareness and self-control.
In the world at large, it's especially hard to maintain good health within a social context which doesn't care, which uses every opportunity to induce people to consume
unhealthy products and to deny their basic needs. At Windward, we've
made conscious choices which serve to enhance our quality of life and our
health - in short, to live a wholesome life.
Modern life imposes a range of adverse conditions on the human body,
and life at Windward is consciously structured to counteract, or to at
least minimize, some of the forces which diminish our health and potential.
Our forest-sheltered well provides us with delicious, pure water to drink.
Our private location shelters us from the acoustic stress that comes from
living in a city environment. Just being able to look up at night and see a
dazzling display of stars helps one rest, and heal, and fulfill.
There's an old joke about the fellow who tells his doctor that it hurts
when he moves his arm. The doc's answers, "Then don't do
that." In many ways, that simplistic advice is relevant to most of
the health problems that plague society at large. A lack of sleep, a lack
of nutritious food, a lack of exercise, a loss of a sense of security and
social connectedness, all impinge on the health of people, and it doesn't
take much self-awareness to understand that in order to live a full and
healthful life, we've got to stop doing those things which harm us and
remove ourselves from those things which do us harm.
A sustainable community has to be a healthy community, so caring for
ourselves and encouraging others to care for themselves, is important to
Windward's long term success as a community.
Most folks come to Windward with some sort of pre-existing health
problem. For some, the healing context of this life makes a material
difference in their ability to heal themselves, or to at least find ways to
cope with the limitations their condition involves. We all have strengths
and short-comings, and by working together in community, we're able to
accentuate the positives and side-step the negatives to a substantial
degree.
Also, a group such as this embodies a substantial amount of knowledge
and experience. One of the key reasons this lifestyle works is that we, as
a community, are a lot smarter and knowledgeable than any of us are as
individuals, and every problem becomes more tractable when viewed from more
than one perspective.
It's important to remember that health is a cumulative thing, and that
while healthful living won't make some pre-existing condition
such as diabetes go away, an improved quality of life will help to offset
some of the adverse aspects of many illnesses.
Windward is committed to being a multi-generational community, and the health care needs of folks in their twenties and folks in their sixties are profoundly different. There's no way that we can see how to fairly fashion a "one size fits all" approach to meeting health care needs.
Just as a person has to develop and maintain appropriate personal boundaries, a community has to be realistic and pragmatic about what it can do, and what it can't. Any community that tries to do everything for everyone is going to fail in short order.
Health care issues are also lifestyle issues. For example, these days there's no reasonable debate as to the adverse impact of nicotine addiction on one's health. Still, a minority of Windward folk do smoke cigarettes, and our organizational position is that they're not welcome to smoke in the common areas such as the kitchen or the dining area. Otherwise, it's not the group's concern.
By contrast, smoking pot is not deemed to be a personal issue since, unlike tobacco, marijuana is illegal. The use and possession of illegal substances on site threatens the security of the community, and therefore one of our "no second chance" rules is "no illegal drugs, period."
Fortunately, Washington state has a good low-income health plan which many of us rely on for medical coverage in case of serious injury or illness. My experience with the program has been very positive.
What do interested parties have to do to become eligible for membership/joining?
Happiness is founded on realistic expectations, and so the first step has to do with addressing the expectations that you bring to Windward. The first step in that process involves some correspondence and discussion, and the Notes in general and these FAQs in particular are intended as a way to speed up the process of conveying useful information about Windward. The second part of that involves the need for people to convey useful and needed information about themselves.
The transition from a consumer lifestyle to a sustainable one--from a competitive social context to a cooperative one--involves some wholesale changes. It isn't something that's going to happen quickly, or without personal challenges and demands.
There are a host of reasons why so many intentional communities fail, and some of those reasons are not intuitively obvious from the outside. We've built a system that works, and any new person has to start from the understanding that they're joining us, and not the other way around. If some has an issue that going to affect their ability to become part of the community, then it's easier on everyone to address it early on. We'll deal with a lot, but we don't like surprises.
For example, if a person has a history of some bi-polar disorder, we need to know that. There's an epidemic of depression underway "out there," and while we've been pretty successful at helping people deal with depression, we can't address an issue that isn't on the table.
Denial is a way of life out there, but that's work for very long in a small community. Since we're going to find out anyway, the real question is one of timing, and the initial discussion phase is the time to transition from pleasant chat to serious issues.
For what it's worth, we expect there to be problems to work out. People who are well-adjusted and successful in the mainstream world don't have a lot of interest in seeking out social alternatives, so we expect that people who show up on our doorstep come with some baggage.
And for what it's worth, we don't presume that some quality which ill-served them "out there" is necessarily a barrier to their participation here. Windward is intentionally different from "out there," and operates on a substantially different dynamic--with the result that some personal qualities which functioned as liabilities in the work-a-day world can often be minimized here and sometimes they can even become notable assets.
Also, there are advantages that come with "team living," options which allow us to more effectively take advantage of our talents because we can rely on each other for back-up and perspective. The economies of scale, the division of labor and the accumulation of capital--three principles that make modern corporate civilization possible--work just as well within Windward's micro-ecomony; the key difference that makes all the difference is that we're the ones who choose the scale and divide the labor, rather than allowing the marketplace to do it for us.
Everyone fears rejection, so it's only natural to initially put one's best foot forward. We understand that and, since we're human, we do it too. But, that's why the discussion phase needs to continue until the new person is comfortable with the need to move beyond the superficial and get to addressing their key issues. My point in going into such detail above is to try and convey the understanding that everyone has changes that they need to make, issues they need to deal with, and that it's okay to talk about them.
Once some realistic expectations are in place, the next step would be to arrange to come and stay for a month. Our experience is that it takes about that long for a person to relax enough to start authentically connecting to the people here, and to start to sort out at a gut level just how Windward is different from what they've known and done in the past.
And, it's not a one-sided process. One challenge we have to deal with during this initial phase involves screwing up our hearts to the task of reaching out to yet another person. One reason we ask folks to go through a bit of process before coming here is to protect our ability to effectively engage with new people who sincerely do want to become part of our community. That will happen in due time, but don't expect us to emote on the first date :-)
Our emphasis on communication skills arises in part from our commitment to cooperative association--the core reality is that we can't cooperate any better than we can communicate. Another part arises from the fact that people come here used to communicating differently in different contexts, and context-cued communications systems don't transfer very well when you shift contexts, or when all the functions occur in a comprehensive context.
By way of example, a military officer needs to use one communication style at work with subordinates, and a different style at home with the family. That's hard enough to do when work and home are separate places; it's very challenging when they're the same place.
By the end of that first month, a person will have had time to get to know the people here, to ask questions about what we're doing and why in a way that enables them to work toward a meaningful understanding of what's going on and why. No matter how smart one is, it really does takes time to grasp an understanding that is outside the scope of one's previous experience.
One question that I have is addressing the length of stay that is allowed. I
did read that some stay for a few months, others for up to two years. Is
there a limitation? I ask because I was wondering if there are those that
arrive and seem somewhat uncertain as to what's next for them.
Folks come to Windward for a variety of reasons. One thing we learned early on was that we were good at providing haven for people in transition, and so we learned to include that as part of what we do. We'd like it if folks came because they already believed in community and were ready and willing to commit themselves to the process, but it rarely works that way.
Over time, people come to realize that much of their problems "out there" were an artifact of the culture they were caught up in, and that by changing to a more connected and relevant context, they can materially improve their lives.
Some come to that understanding, and some don't, but the two year window is usually enough for someone to decide whether they want the system to deal them another hand to play, or whether they're ready to opt out of the system and find a new game.
We don't want folks to simply exchange dependency on one system for dependency on Windward. In order to participate long-term, they have to be able to have made substantial progress towards mastering their unique personal challenges and take charge of their lives. Since life is a timed event, it's important that they undertake that process within a reasonable time frame, and while self-growth and exploration is a life-time adventure, two years is a reasonable amount of time in which to get the process well underway.
Windward does not have any paid staff. Those who've been helped "pay forward" by helping others in turn. We don't own the understandings that make Windward work; rather, we build on the work and understandings of those who've gone before, and strive to pass on that knowledge and opportunity to others--it's the only way the magic can continue to work and heal.
For folks who come to live this life, there isn't any bar to indefinite participation. On the other hand, we don't want folks to be intimidated at the start by an implication that by coming to Windward they're committing to do this indefinitely--in time they'll come to know what's right for them. It's sort of like the Zen saying that while waiting for enlightenment, chop wood and carry water, and that after enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.
If someone comes to Windward for just a month, and they go away more centered, more able to make effective, life-affirming decisions as to what they want to do with the rest of their life, then that's a victory for them and for us. If we can help someone, then we want to do it, regardless of whether or not that person is a candidate for long term participation.
Enjoyed your web site. Was wondering if you had any special days or times set aside for visitors.
Thanks for asking.
For the most part, we don't encourage visits from strangers.
On the other hand, once someone has spent time learning about us through extensive reading of the material on the website, and has given us a chance to get to know them by corresponding about their hopes and fears relative to Windward and community, well, by then they're not strangers anymore :-)
So, if you're seriously interested in us, and would like us to become seriously interested in you, then we would invite you to read what we have to say, and tell us about yourself, your experiences with team structured activities and what you want to do with the rest of your life.
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