More About Heathcote

(continued...) We are committed to creating a permaculture demonstration site at Heathcote Community where we can live sustainably in balance with the Earth and guide others on this path. We strive to foster gender balance and a diversity of culture, spirituality and thought. The Heathcote Conference Center helps us to maintain an interconnectedness to the larger society through education and community outreach.

The community is run by a board of directors composed of the adult members of the community. Decisions are made by consensus at our weekly business meetings. We have each made a commitment to deal honestly with one another and to let the good of the community as a whole guide our decisions.

Most of us lead busy lives and are involved in activities outside the community. We don't currently have community businesses, so each member earns income individually and supports the community through monthly contributions to cover community expenses and food. As a community, we eat dinner together each night, have weekly community meetings, participate in other regular meetings to deal with interpersonal relationships and emotions, do community work projects on the weekends once each month, and participate in quarterly retreats.

You can find out more about who we are and what's important to us by looking at our core values and community vision. Also, if like pictures you can see more "group shots" that show who has lived at Heathcote over the years in our photo album.

(continued...) We've had a couple of new membership applications, including Cindy and Peter (and a couple of others who have said they'll be filling out the application soon). Right now we're concentrating on filling up the farmhouse, but the new building will be finished later this year, which will open up 3 more spaces. So membership recruitment continues to be a big focus for us.

We've had a variety of events recently, to fulfill our educational and mission (and just 'cause it's fun!). In February the open classroom had a Chinese New Year celebration, which included a parade with a Dragon! In April we had a house concert with Chris Ayer, which was well attended and lots of fun. Bob also led a bowl-turning workshop in April, which turned out some really nice wooden bowls. In May we had a 5-day leadership training workshop led by Teryani Riggs on a technique called the Zegg Forum. Keep an eye on the website for more events coming up soon, like our summertime party, dance free, and fall house concert.

If you enjoyed reading this, you'll find archived issues of the "What's New at HC" column saved on the newsletter page. Send us a note if there's something you'd like to hear more about.