<< I also have some thoughts about characteristics that are good for founders of community, people who wanted to get the ball rolling. I would want them to have all the same characteristics that I hope for in a person that joins a community which is: a willingness to contribute, humility — What can I learn here, confidence — Yep, I can help, responsibility and willingness to work. In addition, I would want founders of community to be people who know that they need to have a variety of kinds of skills and practices to get the place going. So, not one person necessarily has all of these qualities, but I would like them to respect and want these qualites and skills in the group. >>

Diana Leafe Christian, author, ex-editor of ‘Communities magazine’, Group coach (interview by David Sheen, transcribed by Anne Ennis)

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<< Best persons zijn mensen met een bijzondere visie. Ze hebben een afwijkende mening, vertonen vasthoudend gedrag en zijn vaak voor de anderen wat eigenaardig of onbegrijpelijk. […] Het zijn veranderaars die een gefundeerde visie hebben op de samenleving, organisaties, mensen en op de functie van een nieuw gebouw. Ze hebben een verhaal dat mensen bindt en bij elkaar houdt. […]

Avontuurlijke projecten kunnen […] niet zonder deze avonturiers. Ze gaan processen met elkaar aan zonder dat ze precies weten hoe ze zullen verlopen en wat het resultaat zal zijn. Het zijn deze bijzondere mensen die het initiatief voor nieuwe woonvormen nemen.

Betrokken familieleden, de professionals van corporaties, architectenbureaus, bouwondernemingen en corporaties die buiten de paden denken en durven te handelen, ambtenaren die het veld opzoeken, de bestuurders die delend wonen op de politieke agenda zetten en de bedenkers van nieuwe woonconcepten. Al deze mensen vormen samenwerkingsverbanden, vitale coalities, ontwikkelgroepen. Ze zorgen voor creatieve oplossingen op allerlei gebieden en maken daarvoor intensief gebruik van de expertise in hun netwerk. >>

Peter Camp, auteur, organisatieadviseur (in: ‘Wonen in de 21ste eeuw -naar een hedendaags Utopia’, 2016)

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Ces projets [d’habitat coopératif] se rapprochent également sur le fait que les personnes qui démarrent ce genre d’initiatives ont souvent une confiance en elles-mêmes suffisante pour avoir le courage d’initier une aventure qui va sans doute leur coûter beaucoup d’engagement. On peut souvent trouver des fondateurs dont la confiance en eux-mêmes, ou bien en l’autre (“peut-être que je n’y arriverai pas, mais ensemble avec d’autres nous pouvons changer beaucoup de choses”), s’associe à un réseau humain riche, des inquiétudes sociales (et très souvent aussi environnementales), un intérêt fort pour la justice sociale ou les rapports nord/sud, etc. Ce sont donc souvent des personnes qui se questionnent sur le système global qu’elles habitent.

David Moya & Claudia Flatten (dans: ‘Le mouvement de l’habitat coopératif en France : Diversité, innovation, difficultés et perspectives’, Association OïSA & RELIER, 2012)

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<< I was recently approached by a facilitation friend, asking what advice I could give a community founder who was struggling with the question of their best role after 20+ years in the saddle. […]

In ways, starting an intentional community is a lot like parenting. If you succeed (and why would anybody start a community they hoped would fail?), the community’s future is trying to figure out how to make it work without you. Sometimes that happens sooner, sometimes later, but it always happens if the community lasts.
If you step back a bit and look at the trajectory of parenting, you’re more or less preparing for your kids to do without you from the moment they’re born. Sure, this unfolds over a couple of decades, but that’s your future from the outset. […] To some extent, they’ll want to make their own choices and part of growing up is differentiating from one’s parents.

The same happens in communities. For better or worse, the newer people will be different and they will make different choices. Will they be better choices? Maybe, maybe not. But their day is inexorably coming—you may as well prepare for it, rather than lament its arrival. >>

Laird Schaub, community coach, living in Sandhill Farm, US (in: ‘When Founders Founder’, 2014)

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<< Power struggles may drive out some of the group’s most responsible, effective members. When people with high levels of personal effectiveness, initiative, and leadership make proposals in a community they often expect and require a timely response. If there are underlying paradigm-differences in the community, or people block for personal reasons, or for subconscious bids for group attention, these natural leaders may end up spending a lot of time in whole-group meetings processing people’s reluctance or anxieties, or having long discussions outside of meetings. This kind of high-initiative person usually prefers situations in which their contributions are more easily understood, appreciated, and approved in a timely manner so they can get on with the project. When their proposed initiatives are slowed or stopped—and when this happens repeatedly—they are often too discouraged and frustrated to stay, so take their talents elsewhere. >>

Diana Leafe Christian, author, ex-editor of ‘Communities magazine’, group coach (in: ‘Busting the Myth that Consensus-with-Unanimity Is Good for Communities’, 2012)

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<< Leadership often functions best when it is shared. Unfortunately our culture seems to either exalt or revile its leaders — giving them the status of superhero or demon — rather than allowing them to be simply human. We certainly need leadership if we want to get anything done. But rather than vesting it in one individual, we can view leadership as a role that needs to be performed. Within that definition many people can become leaders and take on different roles at different times. […]

One of the most gratifying aspects of living at EcoVillage is that I get to watch people grow into their larger selves. Dozens of individuals at EcoVillage have felt passionately about an issue and convened a team of neighbors to act on it […]

It is truly exciting to see what one person’s focused work can accomplish and to see how different individuals ripen into leadership. I celebrate the strength and beauty of our collective leadership. Every person in our community can offer some of the qualities, skills, and passion needed to manifest the EcoVillage vision. Without each contribution, the project would never succeed. >>

Liz Walker, grass root organizer, author, co-founder,co-director and resident of EcoVillage at Ithaca, US (in: ‘Ecovillage at Ithaca, Pioneering a Sustainable Culture, 2005)

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<< I believe strongly in the power of entrepreneurship wielded wisely to improve our way of life, and to transform and spread technology, ideas, and opportunities. […]

Entrepreneurs see creativity all around them. Most things and systems around us have been designed by someone, and so can be re-imagined and re-designed. An entrepreneur sees opportunity where others see problems, and is willing to take risks, do experiments, and take action to set something right. It is an approach to the world that believes the answers are out there if you ask the right questions, that hard work and studying pas off, and that doeing what is different or hard is sometimes the best and only way.

It’s a view which interprets mistakes and detours as lessons and bridges towards greater understanding and awareness. It is knowing that in order to make a bigger impact and to make more money you have to serve more people and provide more value to the world. >>

Christopher Kindig, founder of a green technology company, serves as the business, website and advertising manager for the Fellowship of intentional communities, US (in: ‘Business. Busy-ness. Coincidence?’, Communities Magazine, 2014)

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<< Natuurlijk zal een persoon die al vele jaren in de gemeenschap woont en op een verantwoordelijke positie zit meer invloed hebben dan iemand die er net bij is gekomen. Hierover nadenken en kansen bieden om van status te kunnen veranderen (bijvoorbeeld door verantwoordelijkheden op te nemen), liever dan je ogen hiervoor te sluiten, zal bijdragen aan een meer gelijkwaardige samenleving.

Leiderschap is een vergelijkbaar onderwerp dat in egalitaire gemeenschappen vaak ontkend wordt. Zelfs als het niet wordt omschreven, gebeurt het. Er zijn mensen die [de dingen aanpakken] en anderen die nooit de rol van initiatiefnemer op zich nemen. Het kan opluchting geven als deze impliciete rollen expliciet worden gemaakt. Mensen met expliciete rollen kunnen heldere feedback op hun werk krijgen. Een rol kan worden teruggetrokken als de mensen die hem vervullen niet voor het beste voor de gemeenschap werken. >>

GEN Global Ecovillage Network (in: ‘CLIPS Guide for Group Projects – Community Learning incubator programme for sustainability’, 2017)

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<< In communal transformation, leadership is about intention, convening, valuing relatedness, and presenting choices. It is not a personality characteristic or a matter of style, and therefore it requires nothing more than what all of us already have. >>

<< In addition to convening and naming the question, we add listening to the critical role of leadership. Listening may be the single most powerful action the leader can take. Leaders will always be under pressure to speak, but if building social fabric is important, and sustained transformation is the goal, then listening becomes the greater service. >>

Peter Block, USA (in his book: ‘Community: The Structure of Belonging’, 2008)

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<< La partie de nous qui a souffert sous le joug de l’autoritarisme est celle qui rêve d’écovillage, de démocratie participative et de bienveillance. C’est aussi cette partie qui, chez l’adolescent, se rebelle pour élargir les murs de sa cellule familiale, revendiquer sa propre autorité et faire ses propres choix. Ainsi, en grandissant, la plupart d’entre nous n’a qu’un seul modèle relationnel concret : celui de la relation dominant-dominé. […]

Très concrètement, ce rapport souffrant à l’autorité créé une aversion caractérisée pour tout ce qui y ressemble de près ou de loin, et un besoin de lutter «contre». N’ayant pas vu venir ce mécanisme, nous, fondateurs, sommes devenus les boucs émissaires de notre propre création. >>

Sophie Rabhi, co-fondatrice et habitante de la communauté ‘le Hameau des Buis’, directrice de ‘la Ferme des Enfants’, auteur (dans: ‘Démasquer les mécanismes de la violence dans le collectif – L’exemple du Hameau des Buis’, par Sophie Rabhi & Laurent Bouquet, 2020)

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<< There are […] patterns that seem to reoccur in communal groups around founder members […]. One pattern seems to be that after two or three years of a community starting some founders leave – often after getting into conflict with other members and often leaving being critical of the group.

[…] … there is almost inevitably going to be at some point a disparity between what any member envisioned that the group would be like and the reality of what it turns out to have been possible to achieve. The pain and disappointment that this disparity causes it likely to be felt more strongly the earlier that you joined and perhaps most strongly by those who founded the original vision for the group. Is the pattern of people leaving a community a few years after it is set up a sign that the disparity/pain caused by the vision/reality gap in the end just becomes too difficult to reconcile and it is easier to move on than to continue to try and bridge the gap? >>

Chris Coates, project manager on community based construction projects, was part of the management team for ‘Forgebank Cohousing’, UK (in: ‘Suffering from Founder Member Syndrome’, blog utopia britannica, 2016)

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<< Co-op leaders must balance the demands of creating community, which include time spent in formal and informal communication and a dedication to “really listening,” against immediate personal responses to emergencies, fiscal requirements, and physical upkeep. The strain is obvious, and many fail. Leaders and more active members often feel overwhelmed and burned out; less active members are often suspicious of leaders’ priorities and driven to apathy by the leadership’s unresponsiveness to input. These tensions can lead to an inability to maintain and improve the buildings’ condition. Or they can lead to the emergence of new and more effective relationships among residents. >>

Saegert and Winkel, US (in: ‘ Paths to community empowerment: Organizing at home’, American Journal of Community Psychology, 1996)