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Activism
Twin Oakers are involved in a variety of activist work. Some social
justice activities that members have participated in include serving
food to the homeless with Food Not Bombs, working at a battered women's
shelter, going to demonstrations, animal rights work, protesting the
School of the Americas/Assassins in Georgia, writing letters for Amnesty
International, participating in Lesbian/Gay/Bi/Trans/Queer Pride marches,
and more. While many individuals at Twin Oaks engage in activist activities,
as a community we do not officially endorse any particular course of
political activism (i.e. members do this work as individuals, not
in the name of community).
Computers
We
collectively own about 15 public computers, many of which are networked
with each other and connected to the internet. They are available
for both community work and personal use. Some members have their
own personal
computer (laptops and desktops) kept in their bedroom, which they
can use for either community work or personal use. Most members have
email
accounts and use them for both internal (within the community) and
external communication. As you've discovered, Twin Oaks has an extensive
webpage and several members have their own webpages.
Conflict
In
any group of people living or working together, some amount of conflict
is inevitable. At Twin Oaks, there are different types of
conflict. Conflict can spring from values differences, from communication
difficulties, from different assumptions of what's "normal" or "acceptable" and
from having different perspectives on the same set of events. Some
conflict is work-related, some is interpersonal. There are different
ways we deal with conflict as it arises. Sometimes the people involved
simply talk to each other to resolve differences. Sometimes the people
prefer to have a mediated meeting, in which a third party is present
either as a facilitator with skills in helping resolve conflict, or
simply as a witness, creating a feeling of greater safety. Our Process
Team offers support and resources for people in conflict, and also
keeps an eye on "hot" issues in the community which might
cause conflict to come up. We try to keep in mind that it isn't the
existence of conflict that determines the health of a group, but rather
the manner in which a group does or doesn't deal with conflict which
determines it's health.
Twin Oaks culture places a much higher value on cooperation than
mainstream culture. Sometimes, this can mean we need to learn new
skills, and we
strive to "raise the cultural bar" around communication skills.
To a large extent, the expectation at Twin Oaks is that if conflict
does arise, members be willing to engage in working it out,and to use
respectful communication in doing so. The ability to see and understand
(although not always agree on) more than one perspective of "the
truth", and each of us being able to take responsibility for our
own behavior in partially creating the conflict are skills that can
go a long way in resolving conflict . We're still learning. Conflict
resolution exists here along a spectrum; different members have different
opinions. We find common ground in our hope that ultimately we can
find a way to work out our differences and work together.
Connection to the Mainstream Members can be as connected to the mainstream as they desire.
A few prefer to live a quiet life on a farm, while many others are
quite
connected to the mainstream. We get newspapers from Louisa, Charlottesville,
Richmond and Washington DC. Many members listen to the radio, especially
NPR. We have chosen to not have television here, as we want to avoid
it's influence in importing mainstream values such as consumerism,
violence, pre-packaged "canned" entertainment, etc. However,
we are not purists, and we do rent and watch various movies, including
documentaries and independent and foreign films.
We have more than a dozen public
computers, all linked to the internet, and many members read news,
surf the net and email with friends. There are almost daily trips
to town for social, volunteer, or political activities, to go to
the library,
to visit friends, to take a day off, etc. We shop at local shops
and know the people there. There are also quite a few ex-members
who have
settled in the town and city near us, and so we are further spread
out into the larger community in that way. Although we are interested
in creating a culture that is distinct from the mainstream, we are
not interested in isolating ourselves from the mainstream.
Diet We have a mixed diet at Twin Oaks--some members are vegetarian,
some are meat-eaters, and some are vegan (people who consume no animal
products
at all e.g. no butter, no eggs). Diet can be pretty fluid at Twin
Oaks; members often follow their dietary instincts, and eat differently
at different times over the months and years. We produce a significant
portion of our own food including vegetables, fruit, beans, and meat,
and this
means some people make diet choices based on knowing they are eating
organic, free-range, locally-produced food.
Ecological Sustainability
Twin Oaks incorporates a variety of ecological
practices. Our choice to share houses and cars reduces our footprint
on the earth; our 18
vehicles and 7 residences for 100 people are both well below the national
average, and use substantially less resources per person. Because we
work in our community-owned businesses on our land, our commute involves
a short walk through the woods instead of using fuel. When we do drive
(for business or social reasons), we carpool extensively.We build our
own buildings, and although our building techniques in terms of structure
of the building are fairly conventional, we incorporate a wide variety
of alternative energy features. These include passive solar features
(large south-facing windows to light and heat the building), super-insulation,
skylights and suntubes for natural lighting, cellulose insulation in
some places (instead of fiberglass), wood heat (using wood from our
own forests and scrap from our sawmill) in almost all of
our buildings, solar hot water, photovoltaic solar electricity in one
residence, multi-use of most spaces, permaculture landscaping around
buildings, and more.
Growing a significant portion of our food in our organic garden also
helps us be more sustainable, by not using pesticides, and by reducing
the amount of food we buy that needs to be transported by trucks. We
also buy most purchased food in bulk, thereby reducing packaging.
Feminism
Twin
Oaks feminist values manifest on at least two different levels--systemically
and culturally.
Systemically: Much of the organizational infrastructure
here is classically feminist in nature; for example, our decision-making
process is egalitarian (as opposed to hierarchical) and the community’s
labor system equally values traditionally women’s work (cooking,
cleaning, laundry, some amount of child-care) whereas in the mainstream
this work is often undervalued when done as paid labor, and/or is done
over and above paid labor.
Culturally: We have much less division of labor based on gender.
Women and men both do traditionally women’s and men’s
work. Both men and women prepare food, fix cars, do child-care, use
power tools,
etc. Unlike the mainstream, there are no cultural barriers to being
a manager or being involved in our system of self-government. It’s
assumed that personal boundaries will be respected and that all people
(especially men towards women) will be sensitive and tuned into interacting
with and treating each other with appropriate respect. We largely ignore
mainstream values of clothing choices, make-up, hair (including body
hair), etc., instead opting for a fashion of self-determination. Whereas
in the mainstream, certain relationship styles tend to be socially
and economically rewarded (most notably a man and woman married to
each other), at Twin Oaks a much wider range of relationship choices
are accepted as normal and are not remarked upon.
Holidays
Twin Oaks is sufficient in size to have developed our own holiday
culture, including rituals and ceremonies which are unique to our
village life. We have one member who serves as our Holiday Manager,
who coordinates the organization of each holiday activity. Read
about specific examples.
Non-Violence
One
of our primary values is non-violence. Our culture is one that values
resolving conflict in a cooperative, peaceful manner, and living
one's daily life in line with those principles. We do not tolerate
physical violence at Twin Oaks, and verbal violence (this can mean
different things to different people) is discouraged. We have members
who have been involved in the war-tax resistance movement, and our
choice to not have television here is partially rooted in wanting to
avoid importing the violence often found in that medium.
Relationships
We
have a quite wide variety of intimate relationship styles at Twin
Oaks. Some members are single, some are married, some are in non-married
but long-term committed relationships, some have a series of relationships
over time, some people are celibate, and some are polyamorous (in relationships
with more than one person at a time). We have bisexual, lesbian, gay
and heterosexual people living here. (plus some who would refuse to
be labeled). There is no community norm about relationship choices--it's
up to the individual. Unlike mainstream culture, we tend not to have
social or economic rewards for choosing a particular relationship style.
Social
Scene
We are very social creatures at Twin Oaks. We have all kinds
of different social and cultural activities. We have innumerable
on-going, weekly
activities that are at least somewhat social in nature, and over time
have included a singing group, a band, yoga class, juggling group,
knitting group, art night, scrabble night, video nights, women's and
men's groups, political discussion groups, etc. Events of a more purely
social nature (dances, parties, games nights, etc.) also happen frequently.
We also tend to socialize throughout the day, during work and at other
times.We chat with each other, lay in the sun in hammocks, read, email,
canoe on the river, play music, go to church, do political activism
work, etc. However, members also take alone-time as needed, walking
in the woods, spending time in their room, and other solitary pursuits.
People can be as socially engaged or as solitary as they like, according
to personal preference.
Spirituality/Religion
As a community,
we purposefully have no one specific spiritual direction/path; the
choice is left up to the individual. As a result, we have quite
a variety. Many members practice no spiritual path or religion at all,
and would be identified as atheist or agnostic. Our membership also
includes Buddhists, Pagans, Christians of several (mostly progressive)
varieties, and general "New Age" types.
In terms of religious observances: the community officially celebrates
the Solstices and Equinoxes, usually with a day off of work, a party
and an informal ritual. (all optional) There is a group of Pagans who
gather throughout the year for more involved rituals. We host a local
Quaker meeting, we sometimes have Friday night Shabbat gatherings,
we sometimes have a meditation group, and sometimes members attend
services at a nearby country church.
Businesses
Twin Oaks collectively runs several community-owned businesses.
This is how we earn the income needed to purchase that which we cannot
provide
for ourselves. Most members work in at least one of our businesses,
and a good portion of members work in several of the businesses.
Our
largest business is Twin Oaks
Hammocks,
in which we make and sell hammocks, both retail and wholesale. We sell
them through our mail-order business, our webpage and at crafts fairs.
Our second-largest business is Twin
Oaks Community Foods,
in which we produce and sell tofu, tempeh and soymilk. We sell primarily
through organic/natural food distributors. Our third-largest business
is Twin Oaks Indexing, our book indexing business,
in which publishers send us a manuscript and we create the index for
the back of the book. In addition to these three main businesses, we
have many smaller businesses--our Women's
Gathering and Communities
Conference, herb workshops, we are hired by the Fellowship
for Intentional Community to distribute the Communities
Directory and magazine, we teach reading classes in town and more.
Income-Sharing Twin Oaks is
an income-sharing community. Members keep all assets they come with
(they are frozen during membership), but all income
from our community businesses goes to the collective; no one earns
individual "wages" or a "salary". We all work approximately
40 hours in our community businesses and domestic areas (for example,
cooking, gardening, building maintenance, etc.) and more or less in
exchange for our work, community members receive everything we need
including housing, food, clothing, health care, etc. That is the economic
agreement between the individual and community. The money received
from the businesses is pooled and each year we collectively decide
how to allocate it to our various community budgets. Also, each member
receives a small personal spending allowance ($75 a month) to cover
items the community does not provide (e.g. chocolate, a trip to town
to see a movie, etc.). Our tax status reflects our income-sharing--we
are a 501(d) entity which is based on having a shared treasury, and
is similar to a monastery. In addition to being a working model of
a more equitable and just distribution of wealth, pooling our income
allows us to be able to afford amenities that can benefit the entire
community that would be difficult for one or two people to afford on
their income alone.
Vehicles
Twin Oaks collectively owns a fleet of about 18 vehicles
(including cars, pick-up trucks, cargo vans, and a mini-van) for
our approximately
85 adult members. Members do not have personal vehicles. One of our
core values is resource-sharing, and we're able to get all of our transportation
needs met with vehicles shared by all of us. Most of our day-to-day
interactions take place within the community. We don't need a car to
commute to work since most of our work is done here. We have a group-shopping-and-errand-running
system where one person goes into town every day and shops and does
errands for people here, so that 15 people aren't taking 15 separate
trips into town. We carpool a lot. Our vehicle-sharing is also related
to our value of egalitarianism. One of the most concrete ways we do
this is by creating a system where members have equal access to resources.
Access to transportation is a powerful tool and we don't want some
members to have access to their own transportation while others don't.
Possessions The
community provides for all our basic needs--food, clothing, housing,
health care, etc. Each member has their own private bedroom. The community
will provide furniture (bed, lamp, dresser, etc.) or members can bring
their own. Members bring their own clothing when they move here, and
we also have Community Clothes aka "Commie Clothes" which
provides additional clothing as members need it over time. Members
can bring personal possessions with them (e.g. books, musical instrument,
camera, stereo, CD's, computer, etc.) and whatever they keep in their
room remains theirs. Other personal possessions can either be stored
elsewhere (usually at family/friend's house), donated to the community,
or lent to the community for the duration of the person's membership.
Please also see our Property
Code for more
information.
Work Work is a significant part of life at Twin
Oaks. People often invest a lot of their identity in the work they
do here. Members work 42 hours
each week, both in our collectively-owned businesses and also our domestic
areas (see below). No one earns individual "wages" or a "salary";
in exchange for our work, community members receive everything we need
including housing, food, clothing, health care, etc. That is the economic
agreement between the individual and community.
We use
a labor credit system to track our work. Every hour of work a member
does is worth one labor-credit; each member needs to earn
42 labor credits each week (this system is adopted from Walden Two,
the book on which we were founded). Every week we each get a labor
sheet, which we each fill out ourselves with our own work preferences,
and then hand in to the labor assigner, who makes sure that all the
workshifts are filled for that week. The only work each member is required
to do is one two-hour kitchen cleaning shift each week; all other work
is decided by each member, according to personal preferences (indoor/outdoor,
physical/sedentary, day/evening, etc.). Each day as we complete our
work, we record it on our labor sheet, and at the end of the week we
turn our sheets in to the Labor Manager. This both helps ourselves
to keep track of how much work we've done, and also tracks labor as
it relates to our community budgets.
There are many different types of work available at Twin Oaks; in
addition to our community businesses, there is plenty of work
in our domestic areas which include gardening, milking cows, building
maintenance, office work, plumbing/electrical projects, cooking and
baking, cleaning, childcare,
computer work, bike repair, yardwork, sewing, carpentry, farmwork,
forestry, as well as serving on the teams that manage various aspects
of life here (Membership Team, Health Team, Child Board, Planners,
etc.).
Tours
We give tours of Twin Oaks almost every Saturday afternoon
from March through October, and on most alternating Saturdays from
November through
February. Your tour guide will tell you about the history, culture
and philosophy of the community and will be available to answer any
questions you may have. The tour is from 2 - 5 PM, and much of this
time is spent walking around the community. Please dress appropriately
for the weather, wear comfortable walking shoes, and let us know if
you have particular mobility needs. Do not bring pets. Phone (540)
894-5126 during regular business hours, or email us at our main email
address, to make reservations. We will double-check that a tour is
being offered on the date you want. (Sometimes we don't offer scheduled
tours for various reasons.) We request a $5.00 donation per person
for the tour.
Visiting Twin Oaks puts a lot of time and energy into our Visitor Program,
and we haveThree-Week visitor periods scheduled throughout the year.
We welcome people
who think they might be interested in living at Twin Oaks as well as
people who just want to spend three weeks experiencing the community
but aren't interested in living here.
During the three-week program, visitors live together in our visitor
building, work alongside members doing the work of the community, and
attend orientations about the systems, policies and culture of our
community, including the financial, legal, health, labor and governmental
structures at Twin Oaks.
Visiting Twin Oaks is good way to learn an incredible amount about
the workings of a thriving intentional community, and to meet a wide
variety of people with quite diverse life experiences and knowledge.
It's also a lot of fun! Lastly, a visitor period provides an opportunity
for community members and people who think they may want to live here
to get to know each other, and start to explore how good a fit there
is between the visitor and the community.
Becoming a Member Basically,
in order to become a member, a person needs to be willing to abide
by the agreements of the community (e.g. no personal cars,
our income-sharing agreements, and lots more). They also need to be
able to fit into our social norms which, because we live so closely
together, are quite particular (e.g. being sensitive to people's "personal
space", being able to pick up social cues, being able to be cooperative
and share control, etc).
The process for membership involves an interview with the Membership
Team during a Three-Week Visitor Period. The interview consists of
telling one's life story, and answering questions about how one deals
with various aspects of community living like conflict, anger, people
with different values, etc. Then there is an input period during which
all visitors leave Twin Oaks for some time, and have the opportunity
to reflect on their experiences and decide if they really do think
they want to live here. During this time, each member of the community
has an opportunity to give input on the visitor (Accept, Visit Again,
or Reject for membership). If there are outstanding health (including
mental health) issues those will also be taken into consideration.
The Membership Team makes the final decision about a visitor becoming
a member.
Internships
The primary internship
that Twin Oaks offers is that of Conference Organizing, which involves
helping to organize our two conferences
(Women's Gathering and Communities Conference) which take place in
late summer. That internship usually runs from spring to early autumn,
although there's some flexibility. More details are available here.
Some years we offer other internships; contact us for specifics for
this year. If you are interested in interning here during another time
of the year, or aren't interested in conference organizing but would
like to spend a few months here, you might be interested in our Residency
Program. Residents live in the community 2 - 6 months and participate
in various aspects of life here. Please contact us for more information,
and specifically mention that you are possibly interested in Residency.
Leaving / Being Asked to Leave
There are many
different reasons people choose to leave the community, although
they can be broken down into a few main categories. Sometimes
the person wants to pursue a different life path (e.g. go back to school,
travel, follow a certain career path). Sometimes the person has felt
dissatisfied with their life for a while (like everyone does everywhere)
and something happens to tip the scale for them to decide to leave
(e.g. a relationship break-up, a difficult community issue, etc.).
Sometimes the person decides they want a different lifestyle than
we live (e.g.
private housing, more individual money, etc.) and so they pursue that
elsewhere.
On very very rare occasions we will ask a member to leave, if repeated
instances of unacceptable behavior have occurred. (e.g. consistently
not working enough, violent behavior, etc.) However, many steps are
taken to try to address the behavior before asking someone to leave,
and often a member who is having repeated difficulties will choose
to leave before being asked to leave, when it becomes evident that
it isn't working to live in the community.
Basic Values
Our basic guiding principles are cooperation,
egalitarianism, income-sharing, and non-violence. We are a member
of the Federation of
Egalitarian Communities, which is an organization made
up of communities which share those values.
Decision-Making
Our decision-making model is based on the Walden
Two Planner-Manager system combined with our egalitarian values.
Managers are responsible
for the day-to-day decisions for their area. For community-wide
decisions and larger issues, the Planners (3 rotating members) make
decisions by looking at our bylaws and policies, and by soliciting
community input by posting papers for comment, holding community meetings,
putting out surveys, talking with members (especially members that
are closely involved in the issue or have strong feelings), etc. They
don't make decisions based on their personal preference, but rather
by gathering information and determining the larger will of the community
on a given issue. Any member can appeal a Planner decision they feel
is unfair, although this rarely happens as Planners generally do a
pretty good job at considering all the aspects of a given issue. The
community as a whole does not use consensus for making decisions, but
some decision-making bodies within the community use consensus to make
their decisions. (eg. the Membership Team)
In keeping with our egalitarian values, we all have a voice in making
the decisions about how to spend our collective money and labor during
each year’s economic planning. The Managers and Planners put
out their proposed economic plan, and each member can alter the plan
according to their values and preferences (eg. I can cut the office
budget, and shift that money/labor to the garden budget instead, if
I want). Once every member who wants to has done this, the Planners
synthesize everyone’s changes to create the final budget.
Egalitarianism
Egalitarianism
is one of our primary values. Each member here has equal access to
our decision-making process; we all have a voice in
making decisions, unlike hierarchical communities where a sub-group
of the community or a single individual makes decisions for the whole.
This value also plays out in how we share our resources. We all have
an equal opportunity to access our resources; there is no individual
or group here that has access to community resources that others don't.
We have no structured inequality as can be found in the mainstream
(one example: there is no disparity here between what women and men
or new members and long-term members receive as compensation for their
labor). However, we also balance this with our creed "From everyone
according to co's abilities, to everyone according to co's needs".
("co" is our gender-neutral pronoun that means "s/he".)
We
are a member of the Federation
of Egalitarian Communities, an organization of communities
that value egalitarianism, income-sharing,
non-violence and cooperation.
Health Care
Once someone becomes a full member of the community,
the community provides for all basic healthcare needs. Our Health
Team oversees all
health care issues, and we support both allopathic ("western")
medicine as well as alternative healing modalities, as our annual budget
allows.
The community stocks all sorts of remedies for common problems - everything
from aspirin to homeopathic remedies to tinctures made from our own
herbs. We also provide some on-the-farm alternative care such as massage,
reiki, etc. Because of our income-sharing, our members often qualify
for state-subsidized health care at medical facilities in the area.
Sometimes it will happen that we have a member who is a health-care
practitioner, and to the extent that person is qualified and willing
to treat members, that can be an option for those members who feel
comfortable with it. We are also part of a larger mutual aid health
care program for intentional communities.
Housing
We
live collectively in residences of approximately ten to twenty people.
Each member has their own private bedroom, and the living rooms,
bathroom and kitchen are shared public space. We have a total of 7
residences (each named after a historic community) and they each have
their own distinct style. New members are assigned to a room wherever
space is available, and as other people move and rooms become available,
the member can find a room in a residence that is suited to them.
Child Care We started out with
a completely communal child-care system modeled after the Israeli
kibbutzim, in which children lived in a special child
house and were cared for in shifts by "metas". However, the
system eventually proved unsatisfactory to parents, who wanted more
contact with and responsibility for their children. So now a certain
number of childcare labor credits are allotted per child, more for
infants and less for older kids; parents generally take some of these
credits themselves and give the rest to other adults who help. Non-parent
adults who commit to spending regular time with specific kids are called
primaries. Depending on the preferences of individual parents and kids,
some kids are cared for almost solely by their parents and some kids
spend much more of their time with primaries. There is no one who just
does childcare and housework. Both parents and primaries frequently
bring kids with them while they work; for example, in the hammock shop,
the kitchen, etc.
Education
Children at Twin Oaks have
several choices for education. Some attend public schools in town.
Some are home-schooled by their parents and
other community members. In the past some of our children have gone
to an alternative private school (Montessori), and, just like any family,
we had to make decisions based on what we could afford and how much
financial aid we could receive. The choice about what type of schooling
each child will have is up to the parent(s) and child to decide.
Founding
Twin Oaks was founded in 1967 by a group of people who were
studying psychologist BF Skinner's book about a fictional behaviorist
community,
called Walden Two. They were so impressed and intrigued by his fictional
community that they decided to create a real-life community modeled
after it. A supporter leased the land to Twin Oaks for 3 years for
$50 with an option to buy at the end of that time if the group was
still in existence, which it was and which we did. After a few years,
we stopped defining ourselves as a "behaviorist" community,
although we still use the labor credit system and the Planner-Manager
system of self-government originally described in the book. We have
also bought more land since that time, mostly contiguous but also about
50 acres of non-contiguous agricultural land up the road. Our current
total acreage is 465 acres.
Walden Two
Twin Oaks was founded
in 1967, based on the book Walden Two by BF Skinner. The book described
Skinner's vision of what a community would
look like if his principles of behaviorism were practiced. The book
was the blueprint for the original forming of the community.
The community has changed significantly since we were founded. We
no longer identify ourselves as a "behaviorist community",
and haven't for a long long time. However, we have kept several of
the features from the book, most notably the Planner-Manager decision-making
model and the labor-credit work system. Some of our members have read
Walden Two, but the majority are not very familiar with it. BF Skinner
did visit Twin Oaks twice. When he was here in 1979, his visit was
featured on the PBS program "Nova".
