“Through the ages family and community have been the chief agencies for transmitting human culture from generation to generation. Character is largely fixed in early life. As children see parents and neighbors in many relationships and activities, what they learn becomes second nature. The mutual confidence and respect, co-operation, integrity, and sharing of burdens of the community are the foundations of civilization. Where community dies these qualities weaken.”  – Arthur Morgan, Community Service founder

The 61st annual Small Communities Conference

Creating Sustainable Alternatives to Centralization:

Intentional Communities, Cohousing, Eco-villages and Small Towns

September 12–14, 2003, Camp Clifton, Yellow Springs, Ohio

Cosponsored by the Fellowship for Intentional Communities,

Leaders of the intentional and small communities movements are gathering from across the country for a weekend retreat. Cosponsored by two of the oldest community movement organizations, Community Service, Inc. (1940) and the Fellowship for Intentional Communities (1948), this conference is a rare opportunity for anyone interested in or working for small community to learn and share with people who have dedicated their lives to this cause.

The conference site will be Camp Clifton (near Yellow Springs) located in a beautiful natural setting, adjacent to Clifton Gorge State Nature

Preserve, with rustic accommodations—bunk beds, camp-style dining hall. An open air assembly pavilion with large fireplace overlooks the limestone gorge and hiking trails.

Much of the magic of a conference is the informal interaction of participants. Both our site and the participant core of panel and workshop presenters promise a special brand of magic. Join us for talk, good food, music, dance and wonder in the woods.

ACCOMODATIONS are simple. Camp Clifton provides bunk beds in summer-camp-style cabins. You need to bring your own bedding. There are toilets and hot showers in bath houses. There is electricity, but the buildings are not heated. No pets.

FOOD will be vegetarian. Our cook will be moonlighting from Antioch

College’s Outdoor Education Center. He is experienced with veggie cuisine and food preparation for large groups. Although dairy products will be used, we have planned a menu that we believe can accommodate vegan needs.

Tell us when you register if you are vegan.

WORKSHOP LEADERS (with representative workshop title):

Harvey Baker (Building Community Wherever You Are), does custom woodwork in Dunmire Hollow intentional community, Tennessee, where he was a founding member 29 years ago. He has been active in FIC organizational work for 15 years.

Manda Gillespie (Ecovillage Cleveland) has been a writer and project manager for EcoCity Cleveland since 2000. She manages EcoCity Cleveland's involvement with the Cleveland EcoVillage, an urban redevelopment project on Cleveland's west side that demonstrates the potential for cities to manifest ecological principles. The project brings together principles of green building, transit-oriented development, and the best of the New

Urbanism movement.

Karen Hansen spent 20 years in corporate America as a programmer and systems analyst.  In September of 2001, she embarked upon a 20-year commitment to end corporate domination.  She divides her time between caring for the elderly, participating in volunteer and activism work, exploring intentional communities, gardening and playing with her grandchildren.

Don Hollister (Community Is a Many Layered Thing) is Co-director of

Community Service, Inc. Don, one of the founding editors of Communities magazine in 1972, has been a student of community in its many forms ever since. A native “villager” of Yellow Springs, Don is a father, a local politician, a carpenter. He is particularly interested in the effect on a community of having a web of shared experiences that stretches back many generations.

Geoph Kozeny (Visions of Utopia) is the producer of the video Visions of

Utopia: Experiments in Sustainable Culture. Geoph’s ongoing travels among intentional communities are reflected in his regular column for Communities magazine.

Elph Morgan (Cohousing) is a resident of Sunward cohousing community near

Ann Arbor, Michigan, and is a founding member of Great Oak, a new

cohousing community next door. As managing editors of the Communities

Directory 2000 Elph and his partner Jillian Downey visited over 200 intentional communities. During the week after our conference Elph and

Jillian will move across the pond to their new home in Great Oak

Pat Murphy (Community Resurgence and Oil Depletion & Cuba and Community),

Co-director of Community Service, Inc., recently returned from a trip studying the social effects of Cuba’s shift to an “oil deprived” economy.

In his previous lives, Pat has been a solar home builder, a software company executive and an early computer industry engineer.

Phoenix (Conceptual Outreach), a member of Twin Oaks community, has been called "a force to be reckoned with." Influential both inside and outside the system, she has worked as an advocate for Campaign Finance Reform, a community organizer in oppressed neighborhoods of Cincinnati, an actress with a travelling theatre company, an organic farmer in Maine, and as an activist in the Mobilization for Global Justice. At Twin Oaks, she spends her time milking cows, mending fences, inspiring revolutions, and directing musicals. She is a respectable troublemaker looking for minds daring enough to embrace something completely different than what they have been taught.

Laird Schaub (Consensus Simplified & Rx for Facilitators Nightmares) is Executive Secretary of the Fellowship for Intentional Communities. Laird was a founding member of Sandhill intentional community in Missouri. 

Jim Schenk (Appreciative Inquiry)is the co-founder and co-director of Imago, a 25 year old ecological education organization, located in

Cincinnati.  As a way of walking its talk, Imago is engaged in developing an Urban ecovillage in Price Hill in Cincinnati.  They are using a process called Appreciative Inquiry, an asset based method of planning in developing the ecovillage.

Tony Sirna (Legal Entities for Owning Land as a Group) was a founding member in 1995 of Dancing Rabbit ecovillage in rural Missouri. He is currently supervising construction of a post and beam strawbale communal house at Dancing Rabbit.

Marilyn Welker is a leader of  Simply Living, a Columbus, Ohio, network that  supports its members in their search for earth friendly living.

PROGRAM SCHEDULE

Friday Sept. 12

5 pm: Registration and check in begins, but no meal is provided until

Breakfast Sat. AM  Early birds may want to eat Friday supper at one of

Yellow Springs’ varied eateries

Sign up for workshops. This sign up will determine how often each workshopwill be offered over the four schedule blocks for workshops: Sat 10-12,

Sat. 2-4, Sat. 4-6 and Sun. 10-12.

7 pm: This We Know from Experience. A panel of Laird Schaub (Sandhill

Farm—intentional community), Elph Morgan (Sunward cohousing), and Don

Hollister (Yellow Springs villager) will share success stories from their years of experience.

9:30 pm: Campfire and singing

Saturday, Sept. 13

7:30 - 9 am: Breakfast in dining hall

9 am Welcome and Introductions

10 am – 12 noon Workshops

12 pm: Lunch in dining hall

12:30 pm as lunch continues: Auction to benefit the Fellowship for

Intentional Communities

2-4 pm Workshops

4-6 pm Workshops

6:15 pm: Supper in dining hall

7 pm: Community Ohio. Marilyn Welker of Simply Living in Coumbus and Jim

Schenk of Imago in Cincinnati  will report on how their networks support

members to live more sustainably, develop cohousing and eco-villages, and

establish rural/urban connections.

8:30 pm campfire and music

Sunday, Sept. 14

7:30-9:30  am: Lazy Breakfast in dining hall

10 am -12 noon Workshops

12 noon: Lunch and good-byes in dining hall  

DIRECTIONS:

The conference is at 4-H Camp Clifton, 2256 Clifton Road. Although their postal address is in Yellow Springs, Camp Clifton is a four mile drive east of  Yellow Springs, just southwest of  the Village of Clifton, Ohio. Clifton is roughly 18 miles east of Dayton, Ohio, approximately 7 miles south of I-70. The Dayton airport is closest – 30 minutes drive. Sometimes cheaper flights are available through the Columbus, Ohio, airport – 70 minutes drive.

>From west (I-75) and east (Columbus): take I-70 to exit number 54…OH-72 toward CEDARVILLE. Go 7 miles to Clifton. Pass on your right OH-343 and then the Clifton Mill. Immediately after crossing a small bridge over the Little Miami River turn right onto CLIFTON ROAD. Look for conference signs on your right within one mile.

>From Cincinnati (south): Take I-71 N toward Columbus to exit number 58 toward JAMESTOWN-SABINA. Turn left onto OH-72 north for 18.49 miles.

Turn left onto CLIFTON ROAD (just before the Village of Clifton and

OH-343). Look for conference signs on your right within one mile.

>From Yellow Springs: Head north on US-68 (Xenia Avenue), turn right onto

OH-343. After 3.36 miles, in the Village of Clifton, you will “T” into

OH-72. Turn right and proceed 0.32 miles  and immediately after crossing a small bridge over the Little Miami River turn right onto CLIFTON ROAD.

Look for conference signs on your right within one mile.

For further information call the Community Service, Inc. office:

937–767–2161 or email info@smallcommunity.org

SPECIAL REMINDER:

As one of the conference events, we will be holding a fast-paced, high-energy benefit auction for the Fellowship for Intentional Community, publisher of Communities Directory and Communities magazine.  Proceeds will help the FIC continue to bring the exciting news of community to a world hungry for it. You can help in two ways: 1) bring items to donate to the auction--products, crafts, services that can be delivered locally, a weekend stay for two at your luxurious home... use your imagination! 2) bring your wallet--there will be bargains galore, and every dollar spent will be used to make community that much more accessible to those seeking it.

Click here for the conference registration form