The Freedom Community Movement

This chapter answers the question, "What is a Freedom Community?" in two ways. The first part presents a summary regarding how this community looks and feels and briefly describes its component parts. The chart at the end of Part 1 shows its overall structure.

Part 2 defines a Freedom Community from three perspectives: First, as a real estate development project. Second, in terms of similarities with a number of different types of communities. Third, as a list of the key elements found in a Freedom Community.

The remaining chapters provide the details.

Part 1: Freedom Community profile

Land

Each Community is developed on a large parcel-a minimum of two sections or 1,280 acres-of rural land within a reasonable commute to a town or small to medium-sized city.

Development

All development and construction is done with minimum impact on the environment.

Appearance

The entire community has the look and feel of a nature preserve or park.

Buildings/landscaping

Buildings blend into their natural surroundings. Landscaping consists of native vegetation that existed on the land prior to development, additional plantings of native vegetation and food-bearing trees and vines.

Component parts

The community consists of (a) A residential subdivision and (b) A campground, a farm with extensive orchards and gardens and a school/business campus, which are referred to, collectively, as "Community Property". 

Ownership of Community Property

The residents who own the lots in the subdivision also, collectively, own the Community Property including the improvements, buildings, land and community business interests.

Development profits

As opposed to most real estate development projects, the motivation for this project is not to make money for the developer. The people who establish the community, including the developer, are rewarded with leadership positions and reasonable compensation of salary and/or ownership of residential lots.

All development profits derived from the sale of residential lots and all construction profits derived from building homes are used for the purchase of the property and to pay for the development and construction of Community Property. This provision not only facilitates rapid expansion of the community, thus benefiting residents, staff and students but also discourages involvement from people motivated by the prospect of enriching themselves financially rather than spiritually.

Distribution of operating profits

After initial construction is complete, 25% of the operating profits are used to maintain and upgrade Community Property and 25% is paid as bonuses to staff members (instructors, managers, administrators and others) who operate community businesses. The cash flow projections in Chapter 25 show that from years 6 to 10, the average annual bonus per staff member increases from $4,000 to $34,000.

The remaining 50% of operating profits is distributed to the owners of the lots. The owner of each lot is entitled to the total of the profits allocated to owners divided by the total number of lots in the subdivision. The cash flow projections in Chapter 25 show that from years 6 to 10, the average annual distribution per owner increases from $2,000 to $22,000.

Seller financing

The land is purchased at fair market value. The seller agrees to hold a promissory note secured by the property and receives payments as cash is generated from the sale of lots.

Automobiles

There are no cars in the community other than in the campground and in perimeter parking lots. People walk, ride bikes or drive battery operated carts. Many college and university campuses, as well as resorts, are similarly designed to minimize the impact of cars by allocating perimeter space for parking lots and streets, thus preserving the bulk of the property as a peaceful refuge from the visual, noise and air pollution and danger inherent with automobiles. 

Many residents do not own a car. On the occasions they need to travel, they rent one at reasonable rates from an onsite rental agency. Given the wealth of the community in terms of beautiful, peaceful natural settings, many creative, inquiring minds, intellectual and artistic stimulation and the satisfaction of living with others who share common values, most people thoroughly enjoy their reprieve from driving. 

Work/travel

Most homeowners work at the school or in a community business or have their own home or community-based business and, therefore, don't have to commute to work. Others are retired. Additionally, the following reasons minimize the need for travel outside the community: (a) Onsite stores and restaurants provide the necessities of life. (b) Instructors, visiting authors and guest lecturers as well as courses offered by the school provide an intellectually stimulating environment. (c) Numerous venues on the campus provide an abundance of quality entertainment (music, dance, theater, readings, movies and so on).

Sounds/noise

The most noticeable sounds in the community are birds singing. Since the landscaping is primarily native vegetation requiring little maintenance and not requiring lawnmowers, edgers, weed wackers or leaf blowers and because cars are absent, the Almighty Internal Combustion Engine is nowhere to be heard.

Campground

The campground is for people wanting to learn about the community, take advantage of various services offered by the school or simply camp in a beautiful, peaceful, natural environment. It also provides campground facilities for the initial students and staff during the first years of development before other housing is available.

School

The school welcomes anyone of any age. However, the emphasis is on launching careers and businesses for people in the age range from roughly 16 to 25, where energy level and ambition are high and where there is great interest and motivation in becoming self-sufficient and independent. The primary emphasis of the school is developing successful businesses and careers.

The school, through its institutes, emphasizes three areas of study. The Sustainable Technology Institute ("Technology Institute") offers programs in building, agriculture and energy. The Art Institute offers programs in the visual arts, dance, theater, writing and music. The Natural Healing Institute offers natural healing programs and services.

Tuition

Students pay for their tuition, room and board by working four hours per day in their areas of interest. Thus, lack of money does not prevent students from attending the school.

Courses

Courses are a combination of self-study modules, lectures and extensive hands-on apprenticeship type work under the supervision of instructors with particular expertise.

Technology Institute

The Technology Institute has three departments: Sustainable Development (non-toxic, environmentally-friendly materials and methods), Renewable Energy (non-polluting, renewable), Natural Farming (organic, non-toxic, environmentally friendly).

Using student labor, the Development Department develops the entire community and constructs all buildings.

Working with the Development Department and using student labor, the Energy Department acquires and/or designs, builds and installs the renewable energy systems for all buildings.

Using student labor, the Farming Department plants and maintains the orchards and gardens, operates the greenhouses, provides fresh, organically grown produce for all members of the community and sells the excess to surrounding communities. It also cares for the chickens, goats and other animals.

The Technology Institute attracts the most creative, knowledgeable and gifted technical people from all over the world, those who want to associate with others who share the vision of satisfying basic human needs–food, shelter, energy and medicine–with non-toxic, non-polluting, environmentally-friendly products and services. These technical people bring their experience, expertise, ideas and inventions to the Institute, where they work with comparably creative, knowledgeable and gifted business and marketing people to develop and execute business plans.

Art Institute

The Art Institute has five departments: Music, Visual Arts (painting, drawing, sculpture, photography), Dance, Drama (stage and film), Writing. The students and instructors, as well as visiting and guest musicians, artists, dancers, actors and authors, provide a rich, aesthetic, entertaining environment for all members of the community and visitors.

The Art Institute attracts the most creative, knowledgeable and gifted artists, writers, musicians, dancers and actors from all over the world, those who want to associate with like-minded people in a beautiful, stress-free environment where they can do their most inspired work. They bring their experience, expertise, ideas and creations, where, like their technical counterparts, they work with comparably creative, knowledgeable and gifted business and marketing people to develop and execute business plans. In this way, they market their art, music, fiction, non-fiction, films, photographs, dance and theater productions and so on to make their mark on the world and earn a good living doing so.

Natural Healing Institute

The Natural Healing Institute trains students in numerous natural-healing modalities. Also, using a combination of natural health care professionals and students under their supervision, it offers natural healing programs to students, residents and guests.
 
The Natural Healing Institute attracts the best practitioners in the world, those who want teach, work with and learn from other great healers. Like their technical and artist counterparts, they, too, bring products and ideas around which they develop businesses.

Business Services

The School's Business Services Department operates a Business Incubator, which assists students and others in preparing and executing business plans. The Incubator provides the following: space to conduct business; consulting, administrative, bookkeeping and accounting services; marketing assistance (including use of the Internet); contract negotiation consulting; headhunting (finding key officers and employees); technical support (including creating a web site); legal assistance; financing or help finding it. Those who use the services of the Incubator provide compensation through fees or profit sharing agreements based on the Incubator's total investment of money and/or other resources. 

Additionally, when strategically important to do so, the Incubator: (a) Creates companies by assembling teams of key people, such as inventors, engineers, marketing people and so on, to execute business plans and (b) Purchases the rights to technologies or products and creates companies around these or joint ventures with those who own such technologies or products

Education Services

The school's Education Services Department (a) provides administrative services, (b) works with the three institutes to produce educational programs and self-study courses, (c) operates the Lifelong Learning Center, which provides a wide range of general interest courses and lectures and (d) assists parents with homeschool and day care programs.

Population

Once fully developed, the community has a total population (students, instructors, staff, residents and guests) of approximately 2,500 people, enough to provide a rich social environment but small enough for people to feel part of a defined and friendly community. Because students–as well as guests of the Natural Healing Institute, school and campground–are constantly coming and going, the population, like flowing water, remains fresh and invigorating.

This link opens the organization structure diagram


Part 2: Defining a Freedom Community

Since a Freedom Community is a mixture of numerous components, which when combined create a concept not previously defined, it is a challenge to give a simple answer to the question, "What is a Freedom Community?" In reality, many terms describe what it is but none, alone, captures the entire personality.

This section enumerates these component parts. There remains, however, the challenge of imagining the whole. Eventually, when people hear or see, "Freedom Community", especially after visiting one, they will form a concept inclusive of all these descriptions and elements.
 
To the end of answering the above question, these communities are approached from three perspectives. First, as a commercial venture. Second, as a listing of types of communities that share with Freedom Communities at least some of their characteristics. Third, as a listing of key elements, each of which is essential to achieving the intended, integrated result.

A Freedom Community defined as a commercial venture

As a commercial venture, a Freedom Community is, in the broadest terms, a real estate development project, as described below.
 

Real estate development

The plan described in this book is based on proven principles and practices routinely used in the real estate development industry. While, for any number of reasons, one can have an allergy to the notion of developers and development, the fact is, like it or not, this industry gets things built. Ignorance of these principles and practices results in things not getting built, the fate of many development concepts long on idealism and short on practical knowledge and experience.

In terms of subsets of real estate development, it can be described as all of the following:

Raw land development

Developing Freedom Communities begins with raw ("unimproved") land. The overall process of developing raw land involves:

Finding and securing suitable land through a purchase and sales agreement

Getting the land rezoned

Getting a site plan approved

Obtaining construction permits

Selling or leasing parcels or lots

Paying for the land and development expenses

Freedom Communities follow the above pattern.

Green/sustainable development

Green/sustainable development emphasizes some or all of these elements:
 
Working with and preserving a property's natural beauty and resources (trees, vegetation, wildlife, wetlands, streams, lakes)

Employing energy saving strategies, practices and technologies

Using recycled building materials and recycling construction waste

Using non-toxic building materials and air filtration systems to create healthy indoor air quality

Planned community development principles and practices (see below)

Emphasizing proper balance between nature and technology, Freedom Communities are on the leading edge of green/sustainable development. The goal is: (a) maximum comfort for occupants (including clean, fresh air), (b) maximum energy efficiency, (c) minimal maintenance for buildings and grounds, (d) minimal impact on the environment, (e) maximum connection to nature and   (f) low cost of construction. These goals are accomplished with intelligent design, economy of scale and using cost and energy-efficient building systems and materials.

Planned community development

A planned community development emphasizes an overall master plan, which includes a combination of some or all of the following elements:

Residential housing (single-family, condos, townhouses, apartments)

Common amenities (clubhouse, golf course, spa, swimming pool, recreational facilities, parks and so on)

Retail (stores and shops)

Commercial (offices, businesses, restaurants and so on)

Freedom Communities are planned community developments with additional elements typically associated with new town developments, as discussed below.

New Town development

This term is sometimes used interchangeable with "planned community development". However, another definition, useful for our purposes, includes the concept of providing valuable social, environmental and economic benefits not typically found in planned community developments.

In Freedom Communities, most of the residents work and shop within the Community, don't commute, share values that are sufficiently similar to have caused them to relocate to the same destination and are co-owners in the Community Property and business interests owned by the community. These are significant social, environmental and economic benefits. Thus, Freedom Communities are really new towns, which may eventually incorporate as self-governing municipalities.

A Freedom Community defined as a community

A Freedom Community, as a community, depending on what one wants to emphasize, can be described as being similar to several existing types of communities as well as several types of hypothetical communities. These comparisons follow but let's first ensure clarity on the definition of "community".

Definition of community

A group of people living in the same place or region,

A group of people who share certain beliefs, values, interests or activities,

Social activity marked by a feeling of unity but also individual participation completely willing and not forced or coerced and without loss of individuality

(Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged)
 
The third definition is a perfect description of a Freedom Community. In fact, not only is participation not forced or coerced but is passionately desired, for many reasons, by its members. Not only is individuality not lost, but is constantly nurtured and encouraged because it is recognized as the most valuable asset of the Community.
 

Intentional Community

Intentional communities, which may or may not be associated with real estate development, are "intentional" in that their members make the conscious decision to join them based on common, strongly held social, political, religious, environmental, lifestyle, spiritual and/or other values and visions. Members often share resources and responsibilities. A Freedom Community, for the most part, fits this definition. The common values and visions are expressed in this book.

Cooperative Community

A cooperative (also co-op) is a jointly owned enterprise engaged in an economic activity mutually beneficial to its members. In a Freedom Community, the "enterprise" is the sum of the various business interests associated with Common Property and is jointly owned by the homeowners, who may or may not be directly involved in these businesses.

College Community

Relevant to a Freedom Community, a college is defined as a school offering specialized education and instruction in technical, professional or artistic subjects, often, but not necessarily, designed to prepare students for available jobs in the local economy. The local economy of a Freedom Community includes all of its businesses.

Business Community

A Freedom Community is a beehive of business activity. But without the liabilities often connected to work: commuting; a sense of irrelevance; environmental, emotional and spiritual toxicity; the challenge of reconciling the nature of one's work and the products produced with one's personal purposes, values and interests.

To serve as a model community that will be broadly emulated throughout the world, thus changing our civilization, a Freedom Community has to have a vibrant, sustainable economy. Freedom Communities, collectively, must have businesses generating not only the wherewithal to satisfy the needs and desires of their residents but also the success to effect fundamental change in global economic and political dynamics. 

Sustainable Community

Sustain means

To provide with the physical necessities of life: food, water, air, shelter, protection from hostile forces and so on

To provide with the mental, emotional and spiritual necessities of life: love, affection, trust, sharing, encouragement, a sense of belonging and so on

To keep up, to keep going, to keep in existence, to maintain an action or process
Sustain comes from the Latin word, sustinere meaning "to hold up, to support," from sub "up from below" plus tenere "to hold". Something that sustains, therefore, is a foundation.

Thus, sustainable means that which provides the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual necessities of life and does so in a way that can be maintained over time. Freedom Communities are planned, built and operated according to this definition.

A Freedom Community provides:
 
Highly nutritious food, clean water and air, energy-efficient shelter and every other physical necessity of life and does so with beauty and in harmony with nature.

An overall environment of beauty, balance and creativity, economic and financial security, intellectual and spiritual stimulation, satisfying social interaction and other such elements that sustain people mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

A society, economy and environment capable of lasting for generations without depleting natural resources and largely independent of the fate of the less sustainable, "outside" world.

Self-sufficient Community

Self-sufficient means having the ability to provide for oneself without requiring outside aid or support. A Freedom Community is self-sufficient not only for the security, wellbeing and peace of mind of its residents but also in order to serve as a model of self-sufficiency, which, if copied, gives communities and populations control over their own destiny. It shows people a formula for gaining independence from inefficient and corrupt economic and political systems, for pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, for rising above poverty. It shows people how to reduce or eliminate their dependence on the products and services of corporations and governments, whose practices and policies, whether intentional or not, do not always serve people's best interests. 

Earth Charter Community

An Earth Charter Community is hypothetical at this point. Such a community would embody the principles expressed in the Earth Charter declaration.

The following is from the Earth Charter web site:

"The Earth Charter is a declaration of fundamental principles for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society for the 21st century. Created by the largest global consultation process ever associated with an international declaration, endorsed by thousands of organizations representing millions of people, the Earth Charter seeks to inspire a sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the well-being of the human family and the living world. The Charter is an expression of hope and a call to global partnership at this critical time in history."

The Earth Charter's vision for an ideal world is completely consistent with the Freedom Community vision for an ideal community (and world). The intention is that Freedom Communities lead the way, by example, to the world envisioned in the Earth Charter. Thus, one day, Freedom Communities may also be referred to as Earth Charter Communities. Read the declaration at www.earthcharter.org.

LOHAS Community

A LOHAS Community is hypothetical. Such a community would embody the principles shared by LOHAS consumers, also know as Cultural Creatives.

The following is from the LOHAS web site:

"Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) describes an estimated $209 billion U.S. marketplace for goods and services focused on health, the environment, social justice, personal development and sustainable living. The consumers attracted to this market have been collectively referred to as Cultural Creatives and represent a sizable group in this country. Approximately 16% percent of the adults in the U.S., or 35 million people, are currently considered LOHAS Consumers."

The LOHAS web site www.lohas.com and the Cultural Creatives web site www.culturalcreatives.org describe the characteristics of people who fall into these categories. There is great consistency between what LOHAS consumers and Cultural Creatives desire and what Freedom Communities offer.

The key components

The key components of a Freedom Community, each one of which is essential to its overall character, include the following elements (which are described in detail throughout this book):

School/business campus with classrooms, offices, stores, restaurants, a library and entertainment venues

Campground

Residential subdivision

Farm

Natural Healing Institute

Sustainable Technology Institute

Natural Farming Department

Renewable Energy Department

Sustainable Development Department

Art Institute

Dance Department

Writing Department

Drama Department

Music Department

Visual Arts Department

Lifelong Learning Center

Business Incubator (for "hatching" and growing new businesses)

Recording studio

A book publishing company

An art publishing company

A record company

A film company

A management company for artists

A booking and promotion company for artists