I lived in East Wind community  in 1994.  I found that their labor system was extremely efficient, fair and even fun. I even got credit for taking care of my five year old son, Christopher, as long as I had another child who was present. He had a special friends, Sequoia, who loved having Chris around.

I was so inspired by the fact that their very successful peanut butter business was started by someone who had a marketing degree and was very savvy I that field.  He left the rat race and came to East Wind where he was the key player in helping the community have a thriving business. He was able to get support, of course, by other community members who were getting labor credits just as this innovator was. Everyone got equal credits. Everyone was motivated. Not by money, or greed, but by care for the whole community.

Here is a very detailed article which will give you both ideas and inspiration: http://eastwind.org/labor.php

This paragraph was particularly inspiring to me:

“East Wind’s labor system allows self-motivated and community-minded individuals to thrive. Most East Winders find work in community deeply satisfying (in sharp contrast to many employment experiences outside community). We are able to pursue our own interests and use our skills to better life for ourselves and our friends. We don’t work hard to make money and buy material goods; we work hard to sustain our lifestyle and to provide for ourselves and our community. When our fellow communitarians put in a hard day of work, the results are visible and we are all able to enjoy the benefits (whether those benefits are a hot cooked meal, a fixed automobile, or a successful business). This daily sense of symbiosis, cooperation, and purpose strengthens our sense of community and our appreciation of the individuals we share it with.”

I am really looking forward to seeing what kinds of businesses we will develop which will serve many purposes:

• Support Wellspring Community so everyone can their financial needs met
• People won’t have to leave the community to work at other jobs
• People will want to come to the community because they can receive compensation
• We will develop businesses that are in alignment with our values and be of service to all of life.
• Create the infrastructure we need such as tiny huts, finishing the common house, getting electricity and internet
• Eventually, buy more land. Hopefully the land adjacent to Wellspring with a lovely waterfall, and beautiful wilderness area which is even more remote than Wellspring land, will still be available.

Ideas for businesses

Retreat center: We can teach all kinds of classes including:

• Nonviolent communication
• Natural parenting
• Healing of the inner child
• Vegan permaculture
• Vegan living

Organizing: Patricia can easily train someone to oversee a team who goes in and helps people declutter and purge. She can do the initial analysis and connection, and then lead her team in decluttering fast. Then people can start doing this without her. If someone with the skills to create a course comes a long, Patricia can partner with them to complete the course she has started.

Youtube news channel and podcasts. We can build a soundproof room in the common house which will serve as a recording studio where we develop all kinds of videos and podcasts which are educational and helpful and funny. We will be able to draw even more people to our community as they learn about us.

Learning Center:

We will attract people who pay to learn all the skills that we teach and we get free labor to build such things as:

• rainwater catchment systems
• master gardening
• hugelkulture
• food forest creation
• herb gardens
• communicating with nature spirits

The learning center can also be for children who are being homeschooled, and who’s parents would like them to be in a group setting. We can find someone who wants to start such a school.

……….

Right now we don’t have internet–but it is accessible, and we do have a generator if we needed to use it to power the internet. We can do a lot without the internet. It costs $185 to get hooked up, and from $40-85 a month, depending on how fast the speed is.

………..

Here is an article I wrote a while back with some more ideas

Right Livelihood: We create business and income streams that enable us to do things that we love and which are in alignment with our values and goals. This website from the Right Livelihood Foundation states: “The idea of ‘right livelihood’ is an ancient one. It embodies the principle that each person should follow an honest occupation, which fully respects other people and the natural world. It means being responsible for the consequences of our actions and taking only a fair share of the earth’s resources.”

I hope we will develop businesses such as my team organizing method described here. 

We can also do gardening/landscaping jobs with the right people helping. I used to do this with my family. Read in Functional Family blog here. 

I have a 19 years of experience with professional organizing which I can teach others about and create a very successful business with the right entrepreneur talented person helping. Here is my website. 

Coaching people how to start communities is something that we could develop. I started a blog about that topic.

Team organizing is a form of helping people downsize fast which Patricia designed and describes here. We will have cooperative business based on models such as Mondragon. so that we can have plenty of money to fund everything we need. businesses based on models such Mondragon. Mondragon is a cooperative model that we learn from here.