by Joe Cole
“Community is not a place, but a way of life.” –Herbert Lovett
On June 30, the Membership and Marketing Circle hosted a Last Saturday event to provide an overview of the work of the circle. We discussed issues in membership, explored our work addressing racism and racial equity, and offered a forum for small-group processing. We also worked on building collaborative skill and strengthening community bonds.
We began with the question: “What are we doing as a community, and why aren’t we done yet?” Part of the answer is that we are immersed in a project of Culture Change, and the work of creating Collaborative Culture is never complete. As we plan and develop an Ecovillage, we seek to deepen our own capacities for cooperation, sustainable living, and social justice. To support those goals, we have a membership process with multiple levels that provides members and the community opportunities to check how we are doing and how good of a fit we might be together in the journey ahead.
Over the past year, we as a community have learned more 
about who we are and what we are looking for: we are committed to creating an Ecovillage, and we are looking for people who are willing to work collaboratively, live sustainably, and learn together along the way. Membership and Marketing has focused on recruiting and supporting members, clarifying policies and levels of membership, and also building skills for collaborative work in the community. We’ve incorporated “regenerative sustainability” into our mission, which signals a deeper commitment to living sustainability in ways that heal, restore, and enrich the land and the larger ecosystems and social systems in which we live.
During the gathering, we asked those present about their experience in the membership process, whether anything has been holding them back, and what they needed to move forward in membership at Hart’s Mill. Some folks are moving slowly in membership, while others are just starting out, and some have been advancing at a steady pace. Creating an Ecovillage requires a lot of work, and some of us occasionally feel daunted at the immensity of the task. Others are very interested in the community, but have a partner who is not as keen. Some members spoke of the challenges of balancing work, family, and participation in the community development process. Others wanted to know more specific details about what the community would look like and how much it would cost to live there before they felt comfortable committing to the membership process.
We also asked for input and suggestions that might aid Hart’s Mill in attracting members 
more effectively. Attendees brainstormed a lot of good ideas: community participation in events like the Eno River Festival, finding more places to post flyers, expanding our online and social media presence, looking west of the Triangle towards Burlington and Greensboro for recruiting members, soliciting news and journal articles about the community, nurturing relationships with those who have already shown interest, and crafting our marketing message to clarify who we want to attract and who would be a good fit for our community. We had a few visitors from other local communities who spoke about how much it has helped their communities to have expert consultants guide them and shape their vision and approach to development.
In the second half of the afternoon, we talked about the community’s commitment to Diversity and Racial Equity. Why does this matter at Hart’s Mill, and what are we doing? Amy spoke from the heart about the urgency of addressing racism in our society, our community, and ourselves, and she talked about how this work is needed to address injustices and also heal ourselves and our relationships in the wider world. While we are still a mostly white community, we are working on understanding racism and striving for racial equity. Several members have taken the weekend trainings on Anti-Racism work through the Racial Equity Institute, and Hart’s Mill has also co-hosted an educational session with Standing Up for Racial Justice. Some Hart’s Mill members participated in the Hate Free Schools Coalition, which worked over a year to persuade the
Orange County School Board to ban displays of the Confederate Flag in public schools. In addition to diversifying our membership, our goals include supporting racial equity work in the broader community around us.
Next, we paired up and discussed what the issues of race, racism, and racial equity bring up for us, and also how people are feeling about Hart’s Mill’s approach to racism and racial equity so far. Members shared their thoughts about both the importance and the challenges of working on racial equity and deepening our awareness of racism in our community, our society, and our everyday lives.
We also asked participants how we as a community can keep fostering racial diversity and racial equity. Members offered ideas for expanding diversity and equity within Hart’s Mill and also in the broader community. As a mostly white group, it may be difficult for people of color to join, and yet Hart’s Mill can still work for racial equity and social justice by increasing our own understanding of racism and by cultivating relationships with people and organizations who are working on these issues. We strongly recommend racial equity trainings for all who are interested in Hart’s Mill.
To prepare for the discussion on racism and racial equity, we recommended a list of short readings. Please take the time to check these articles out (links provided to pdf files on our website):
- I’m not a Racist but Racism is in Me, by Joe Cole, Communities Magazine #178
- Barriers to Diversity in Community, by Crystal Farmer, Communities Magazine #178
- Starbucks and the Issue of White Space, by J Cobb, the New Yorker
- Geri’s and Anthony’s blog posts concerning racial equity and Hart’s Mill: Viewing Racial Equity with New Eyes; What is Hart’s Mill Trying to Become?
We closed the afternoon by distributing commitment cards to invite people to name how they would like to contribute going forward. Folks volunteered for website maintenance, social media support, distributing materials and flyers, and participating in Membership and Marketing Circle meetings (first Thursday of every month). After the gathering, a couple of people decided to move up to the next level of membership!
One of our jobs in Membership and Marketing Circle is to nurture community bonds, and we are glad this Last Saturday gathering brought people together to get to know one another and explore the joys and challenges of membership at Hart’s Mill Ecovillage
Please contact us and let us know how you would like to contribute to the growth and development of our membership at Hart’s Mill. The Membership & Marketing Circle would love to have you come visit! We meet the first Thursday of every month–check out the monthly calendar for information and to RSVP.
Our June 21 Third Thursday event fell on the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. About 2 dozen people arrived at Hart’s Nest to celebrate the abundance of summer with food, juggling, music, and playmaking. Though the rain held off, the air was thick 
with steamy heat. Victuals sizzled on the grill. Two jugglers—Felipe and Tain—joined forces with a spellbinding performance, culminating in a fire-y finale 
with flying torches. 
long-standing tradition of offering a reading Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream on this day. On this occasion, Anthony found a shorter version for us to enact so that the evening might end at a reasonable hour. 
Costumes were hastily concocted out of colorful shawls, fascinators, and baubles brought along by Amy, Marilyn, and Victoria. With a pinch of fairy dust supplied by Puck, we were ready to entertain
each other with bewichments. The best laid plans of kings and queens quickly went awry and the mischief commenced. 
We took advantage of the long Memorial Day weekend to split this month’s work into two days. 
Under the guidance of members of the Hart’s Mill Financial/Legal Circle, presentations and discussions focused on (1) the inner workings of the financial and legal life of both the Hart’s Mill Ecovillage and the Hart’s Mill, LLC (Limited Liability Company), (2) a detailed summary of where our money comes from and how it’s responsibly spent, (3) how these topics relate to our anticipated home ownership model – a limited-equity housing cooperative 
Included in the discussions were many personal expressions of how the vision and practice of Hart’s Mill calls to our hearts and expresses our values. In the face of deepening national crises (including diminishing affordable housing, widening income and wealth disparities, shamefully stubborn social, racial, and environmental injustices, urban/rural inequities, 
and disgracefully broken governmental institutions), Hart’s Mill is resolved, through our farm and community practices, to be an agent in moving forward an agenda of deep and meaningful cultural change.
Many members of the Hart’s Mill community gathered on Saturday April 28th for a fuller exploration of our new Building Block plan and the options it creates for economical and appealing house and suite design. The result was a lot of community excitement, along with some very useful feedback to the Planning, Design, and Development Circle as we go to the next stage of planning with our architect.
One of the great advantages of spending much more time on the land, tending to our little farm, is that I get to witness really cool stuff. Earlier this spring, Jeffry and I became aware of a pair of pileated woodpeckers building a nest in a dead pine tree. It was conveniently located where we had a direct view of the hole from the farm.
wonderful regal bird look briefly very silly. After a couple of weeks, we heard soft taps, indicating the next phase of nest-building, which is to create a “bed” of smaller chips. Time passed, and one day at the beginning of May I was weeding and suddenly heard what sounded for all the world like a swarm of angry bees. It was a pileated feeding its new family!! I later learned that this buzzing begging sound is typical of all young woodpeckers; very 
unlike the typical peeping of baby songbirds.
much work to be done) a sudden loud buzzing ensued from the treetops. I witnessed and was able to photograph the male woodpecker feeding a beak-full of something (delicious, I’m sure) to two reptilian-looking babies with fuzzy red topknots. Feeding done, the bird went all the way into the nest hole, only to reappear moments later and toss out some, ummm… “debris”.
communal and social insects and they choose to survive together as a community. One way they communicate to each other is by “dancing”. Through a kind of dance, or shimmy, foraging bees that have found an abundant nectar supply can share, with other members of the colony, information about the direction and distance to the nectar or pollen bounty! 
beekeeping also includes exploitation, stealing, culling, and manipulation. Small scale farms can use small scale bees. Though many beekeepers take the honey and replace it with sugar water, I would like to allow the bees to use all the honey they need and not have to make them work harder than they already do. Honey 
Due to dire warnings about severe afternoon thunderstorms, our workday began a bit early, spanned lunch, and wrapped up around 3:00—just as the skies opened for the first round of rain. On the workday agenda were several clean-up tasks: bringing trash out of our otherwise beautiful woods, breaking up and removing the concrete and stone around the abandoned well up by Kim’s house, and clearing tailings and soil from around the new farm well.
Jeffry and Anthony brainstormed about the farm well and came up with a plan to not only level the site but dig a circular trench for a pump-house foundation while they were at it. Paul gathered up much of the fine gravel the well-drillers brought up, and used it to fill potholes in Ben Jones Drive. Meanwhile, Margret led a contingent of 
volunteers into the woods at the Far Field to begin trash cleanup. She and Tain were joined by Earth’s Turn Community members Tami, Whit, and Rico (thank you!!). As is often the case in rural areas, a few spots on our property are long-ago dump sites for a curious variety of items; we extracted, among other things, washing machines, a kitchen range, bicycle parts, a car bumper, a dishpan, a large amount of bright-blue plastic, bottles and cans (but sadly, no treasure). We plan to take all these items to the local trash/recycling site in the near future.
After lunch, Jeffry and Margret started breaking up the old abandoned well. After many Herculean swings with a maul (Jeffry) and many chunks of stone and cement tossed into a trailer (Margret), we were about half done and called it a good start. Anthony declared the chunks of stone perfect filler for the pump-house footing, so they were immediately re-purposed! As the skies darkened, Paul led a quick impromptu tour for 4 young people who came by to visit. Fat cold raindrops ended another successful Hart’s Mill workday.
