This page was started during a relaxed meeting in WuppDays #9, Kirchheim unter Teck. As more opportunities and actions towards getting a more permanent space for yunity, it seemed wise to reflect on the experiences - good and bad - of living with other people in order to learn and reach a shared dream. This is a living document and you are welcome to add extra content for collective learning.

Specific living experiences

Douglas Webb stayed at the Sikkelstraat building in Rotterdam (Netherlands) for about three weeks in April 2016. A building lent to and run by the Meesteren Foundation. Key issue was not having a residential permit: when some neighbors got suspicious and didn't like the compost heap, a council inspection was called leading the the rapid exodus of inhabitants. Additional issue was of unclear rules and boundaries. Lessons: Buildings with residential permits are nice, becoming friendly with neighbors is good and defining rules - if there are rules - is very good.
Douglas Webb stayed at the Antonius building in Rotterdam (Netherlands) for about 6 weeks in June/July 2016. Another building lent to and run by the Meesteren Foundation. Residential permit in place! However, still issues. Many firm rules from council, building owner and Meesteren were communicated very poorly. Incoherent message between different messengers. Many diverse groups in the building with no reason or opportunity to get to know each other or work together. Lessons: Again, defining rules - if there are rules - is very good. Building community between users of shared resources is super important.
Anna O'Neill lived in the Edinburgh Student Housing Cooperative, (Scotland) during its first two years, 2015-16. A building bought and owned by a student led cooperative. Still no explicit mission or vision leads to confusion/frustration as members believe it should be going in different directions. Initial broadcast message of 'cheap housing' lead to many individuals solely concerned with minimizing personal financial costs to join: some tension between those enthusiastic and those uninterested in pursuing cooperative lifestyles. The work of some individuals was done without others realizing, lead to feelings of disrespect and confusion. The pursuit of a nice living environment using a 'Safe space policy' has been only understood by some. Some meetings super long. Using mostly Facebook for digital comms. Lessons: Mission and Vision useful for steering. Outgoing message impacts incoming applicants - tailor wisely.
Andrei Savca stayed at La Cavallerizza, Torino (Italy) for for several weeks in March "Don't like the style so much now, not the type of place I'd promote outside. Amazing place and people... but lacks something. Really connected with the city politics."
Henning stayed at Beneficio, Granada (Spain). A camp-ground started by Rainbowers, a very open space and almost self-sustaining. Openness to anyone has lead to many people smoking a lot of weed in central, communal areas and not contributing. The ones trying to be self-sustainable keep to themselves.
Henning stayed at Parimal between Kassel and Göttingen (Germany). They vote for role-holders and have fortnightly community meeting. What makes it great is the sharing circles which were sometimes occurring daily. 100 people in the community.
Anna O'Neill stayed in an ex-hospital in Paris (France) for some time. The building was co-run by Yes We Camp and Oror The council gave it to the homeless charity (Oror) and then decided to allow other things too (Yes We Camp). Yes We Camp run a bar and restaurant from the building which allows them to employ 25 workers across France. Biggest challenge was collaboration between Oror and Yeswecamp.
Joachim Thome stayed in Tamera, Colos (Portugal). The most promising community he's seen so far. Founded on anarchism, free love and no-force. They manage to provide work to local Portuguese, building dams to serve nature. There is a 100 acre plot nearby which is leaning towards building new communities. Every winter they restart their internal system; they shut down and for three months they reinvent themselves. In Tamera there is a lot of excess drinking but the community decided to leave them to it. Tamera made a really tiny space where smokers can smoke and the rest is smoke-free. In Portugal, one stray cigarette can lead to a wildfire.
Douglas Webb stayed in the Liebemenschhaus, Mainz (Germany) for about a month. This was an intentional community of people living in a drug-free and vegan zone. There was a strong group coherence and powerful positive energy - amazing vegan food and great lust for life. Sometimes not clear how to 'do things properly' and was easy to burn out. Cleaning was done continuously and deep cleaning was done once a week at a cleaning party: At a mutually agreeable hour, everyone gets up and cleans with music. Lessons: Forming a group before finding a building and having clear entry requirements can lead to harmony. Having a manual for interested people to fully integrate makes it easier. Cleaning parties are the best way I've experience to do group cleaning.
Anja Konhäuser was wwoofing on a huge farm in NewZealand for 3 month together with 5-15 other wwoofers. As there were daily tasks and specific jobs the farmers gave us we were kept really busy but we also had the choice to pick partners to work with. The farm is self-sufficient and sustainable so the variety of tasks is huge. We could pick our own working hours as it was not easy to seperate the living from the working. Common group activities were done like going to the river or having a bonfire in the evening - nothing mandatory though. Lessons: Working/Living together with a big group of young people (usually age 18-25) needs a big amount of tolerance and taking certain tasks might create jealousy or tension as not all the work is the most pleasant one or more than one person wants to do the same task. Also more experienced wwoofers did seem to act superiorly towards newbies but on the other hand some developed a buddy system to pass on their tasks.

Communities

Findhorn: "Spiritual Community, Learning Centre, Ecovillage". A long established and self-sustaining space in Northern Scotland.
Schloss Tempelhoff: A recently started intentional community/cooperative in Southeast Germany.
Noisebridge: "Noisebridge is a hackerspace for technical-creative projects, doocratically run by our members" found on the West coast of USA. Well documented and with a wealth of conflict experience.
unMonastary prototype Matera: A co-living/co-working modern monastery in Southeast Italy - now no more. The learnings are gathered in "The Book of Greater and Lesser Omissions

Supportive organizations

Radical routes: "Radical Routes is a network of radical co-ops whose members are committed to working for positive social change"
Mietshauser syndikat: "provides advice to self-organized house projects interested in the Syndikat’s model invests in projects so that they can be taken off the real estate market helps with its know-how in the area of project financing initiates new projects."
Rhizome network: "We are a co-op providing facilitation, mediation, consensus building and training to community activists and co-operatives across the UK, and to those organisations that support activism in all its forms."
Seeds for Change: "We are an activist training co-op providing training and workshops on group and campaign skills. We support people who want to make our world a better and more sustainable place."
The Meesteren Foundation: "is a platform for creative, social and community initiatives in which the universal philosophy of the future, based on unity instead of" every man for himself', is energized." Clearly some skill at working with the city/etc. Robert might be willing to help.
Diggersanddreamers: "The guide to communal living in Britain" A directory of intentional communities across the UK
Yes We Camp: They try to manage the space so that all occupants can do what they want. They are organizers or many temporary projects. Very easy to get space for a few months (France). Staying for more than a couple months can be difficult. Working with government to get buildings that would otherwise be knocked down.
Squatters European Kollective:
Squat.net: "Squat!net provides websites, email and mailing lists for squatters and related projects since 1997 !"
Cultivate.coop: "Cultivate.Coop is a library of information about cooperatives. Everything here is created by and for people who work in co-ops."
Fellowship for Intentional Community - Communities Wiki: "The Communities Wiki is a collection of shared knowledge and resources for Intentional Communities, and those interested in them or in creating more community in their lives."
Ganz Viel Land: A prospective project near Berlin - people want to set up place for 200-300 people to live in a self-sustainable community.
Konohana Family: 100 non-blood related people living together near Mt. Fuji, growing food and working with finance.
Terra Libra: An organization building a land commons, branches in France and Germany.
Park Istra: A holistic house and community in Slovenia, founded on a legal set-up similar to Schloss Tempelhof.
Global Commons Trust: "promotes the creation of trusteeships, where the rights to our commons may be realized for the benefit of all."
Sende.org: "Old Galician houses converted into creative spaces optimized for collaboration and getting work done. Enjoy the company of like-minded people, good food, and a supportive ambience."
Coconat.: "We are looking for a new place for concentrated work in the countryside." (translated from DE)

Principles and theory

Rochdale cooperative principles: "The Rochdale Principles are a set of ideals for the operation of cooperatives. They were first set out in 1844 by the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in Rochdale, England and have formed the basis for the principles on which co-operatives around the world continue to operate."
Tuckman's stages of group development: "The forming–storming–norming–performing model of group development was first proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965,^[1] who mentioned that these phases are all necessary and inevitable in order for the team to grow, to face up to challenges, to tackle problems, to find solutions, to plan work, and to deliver results."

Generalized personal experience

Douglas Webb: Have personally seen many regions with abandoned building - basically all over Spain, Center South France (Ardeche), many sites in East Germany and Eastern Italy. Stayed at the first Open Source Ecology Europe camp in Extremadura (Spain), site didn't continue partially because of hostile environment and partly because the owner was vague as to use conditions. During shared flats at uni, I regularly was rushed in with others and didn't get the time to know them beforehand - much better to do beforehand and not scramble.
Anna O'Neill Between the 15th of November and the 15th March, squatters may not be evicted in France. Acquiring is different to managing, though both must be addressed. Important to consider who is in the space. Also needs: What will the space be used for? Temporary or permanent spaces have significantly different characteristics.
Henning. Structural stuff is important, but internal stuff is important too. Especially internal organization becomes important over long term. Long term communities that work well had good internal communication structures. Have seen several communities handling drugs differently. Taking drugs changes your experience and the atmosphere for others. People experiencing drugs in a communal space will change the feeling. I appreciate having most space where I can relate to people in a drug free state. Would feel uncomfortable people doing drugs in central spaces. Don't want non-community stuff to dominate the community.
Joachim Thome made a page in the wiki with all the places I visited and gave them a rating: https://yunity.atlassian.net/wiki/display/QUEL/Community+experiences. Squatting is interesting as people have to get on board making decisions not based on money. Rarely seen success in owned buildings, tendency towards hierarchies. Communities need a common vision and decision making system. Have seen problems with drugs really harming a project. Have seen a lot of communities fail in early stages from cannabis, leading to big dreaming but little doing. What made me want to leave Beneficio was that I saw many small huts which were cool, but the huge mansion in the middle is that of the drug lord, easy to use violence on nonviolent people. Some people exchange addiction with freedom. Conscious freedom not equal to subconscious daily addiction.
Philip: In uni a lot of people were taking drugs. I have one rule for me, but others have different rules. At least 12 of my friends didn't finish uni because of cannabis and some others took longer. Cannabis can demotivate some from motivation, but not others. Some say that freedom starts and ends (0 sum game). I don't like the concept. Emphasis on really communicating information.
Adrian: Cites Southpark episode, 'Die hippy, die' as something to be wary of.

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