About Earthaven Membership

We're seeking emotionally mature, cooperative people of all kinds to join us in creating our ecovillage dream — including (but not limited to) entrepreneurs, organic growers and raisers of livestock, people with mechanical and engineering skills, healers, artists, and families with children. 1. What are Earthaven's membership categories?

Full Membership. Full Members ("members") can live here and enjoy our beautiful mountain forest and our village social life. They take physical, cultural, and financial responsibility for developing our aspiring ecovillage — a decades-long, maybe lifelong, ecological and cultural project. As a Full Member you can live at Earthaven (or can live elsewhere); you can lease a homesite; and you can build a home on your homesite or a small hut in the Hut Hamlet. If you're an active member, you have full decision-making rights in Council and committees.

Supporting Membership, the first step on the membership track, was created so people can support and feel connected to Earthaven, and get to know the community better.

Supporting Members sign the ReMembership Covenant and Liability Waiver, and contribute dues on a sliding scale of $120–$200 for a year (or $60–$100 for six months). They can camp at Earthaven for free for a week for each six months of supporting membership. They receive the Earthaven Newsletter, are emailed Council minutes, and can attend Council and committee meetings as an observer. (Under certain circumstances, a Supporting Member can also serve on committees.) They can live at Earthaven temporarily as a non-member resident.

Provisional Membership is the second step on the membership track. It's a six-month or longer period during which a Supporting Member can better understand what Full Membership in Earthaven means, and community members can get to know and assess the Provisional Member better.

2. What are a Full Earthaven Member's rights and privileges?

• Enjoy our beautiful mountain forest setting and the social life of our village.
• Help build Earthaven ecovillage over time with other like-minded people.
• Co-own all Earthaven property and common facilities.
• Attend Council Meetings, participate in discussion, and if an active member, be counted for quorum, and approve, stand aside from, or stand in the way of Council decisions;
• Draft proposals for Council (usually through a committee); receive all Council and committee minutes, by email or posted, and all inter-community discussion on email; receive the Earthaven Newsletter; participate in community Threshings, Heartshares, and other group processes.
• Live on-site. Options include living on one's own or another member's homesite; renting, buying, or building in the Hut Hamlet or in a trailer in the Caravan Park (for up to five years); or camping temporarily in the family campground. You can also live off-site.
• Lease a full or compact homesite, individually or with other Earthaven members, through a 99-year renewable, transferable Site Lease. You can also lease a business or agricultural site.
• Build a home on a homesite (individually owned or shared with others); build on a business site.
• If you wish, own and operate a business here, and/or an agricultural project.
• Have an indoor cat or dog, or one confined to your homesite (but not in the Hut Hamlet). You can have a free-ranging cat or dog (not in the Hut Hamlet) with explicit Council permission.

3. What are a Full Earthaven Member's responsibilities?

• Abide by all Earthaven agreements and policies, as outlined in documents, Council Decisions, and committee decisions.
• Contribute 1500 hours/Leaps (or their monetary equivalent) in the first ten years of membership, with fifty hours/Leaps a year minimum.
• Pay a one-time Joining Fee ($4,000), paid when first becoming a Provisional Member.
• Be affiliated with a homesite at Earthaven, either by leasing one, or by joining with another full member who has already leased a homesite. Up to four people can go in together on a full site (roughly a quarter-acre); two people can go in on a compact site (about half the size of a full site).
• If you lease a homesite, pay a one-time Site-Lease Fee (paid in full or by initiating an approved payment plan when first becoming a Full Member). The compact Site-Lease Fee is 60% of the current full Site-Lease Fee. For 2007, the Site Lease Fee for a full site is $20,000 and for a compact site, $12,000. Until 2007, the Site Lease Fee had increased $500 to $1,000 annually, but a site-lease cap of $20,000 is currently in effect.
• Choose one of three options for paying your site lease fee.
  Site Option 1: Payment in full in one lump sum.
  Site Option 2: Down payment of approximately half the fee and monthly payments with interest.
  Site Option 3: No Site Lease fee for five years; monthly payments of $100 in a dedicated savings plan. Only five SO3 members at any given time; limited to applicants who qualify.
  
• Pay annual fees and assessments. These include (currently): Dues ($120); Assessment to support paid contractors for maintenance and other administrative activities ($140); Facilities fees ($90, or more if using Hut Hamlet facilities); Vehicle Fee, if you have a car on the land ($100); and tax assessment fee if you have built buildings on a home or business site. Additional food and upkeep fees if you eat at the Hut Hamlet Kitchen.

4. If I left Earthaven, would I get my money back?

• You won't get your $4000 Joining Fee back, nor refunds on annual fees.
• If you own a Hut in the Hut Hamlet, you can sell it to another member by following the approved agreements for Hut Hamlet sales.
• You can sell your Site Lease to another Earthaven member, with explicit Finance Committee approval. Earthaven is not obligated to refund your Site Lease Fee, but it may choose to do so when the Finance Committee determines that Earthaven has available capital funds. You might be paid back through payments, not a lump sum. It could take years for payments to start, and years for your Site Lease refund to be paid off.
• You can sell your building(s) and other improvements on your homesite to another member by following Earthaven's approved guidelines.

5. What about my partner?
Membership at Earthaven is individual. Your partner can also apply for Provisional Membership or seek a non-member resident status (and apply for Provisional Membership later). If your partner didn't also want to become a Full Earthaven Member, that could be a problem for you, because the non-member resident status offered by Earthaven for a Full Member's partner is time-limited.

6. What about my children?
If you have children who will live with you at Earthaven, their behavior and any special needs will be taken into account when we consider your membership. In other words, we would want to feel good about your children too.

7. What about my dog or cat?
It's possible to have a dog or cat at Earthaven; however, we do have restrictions on pets. While Full Members may have dogs or cats on their homesites under certain conditions, a Provisional Member who wants to bring a pet to Earthaven during the Provisional Membership period would have to get special permission first, and such a request may or may not be granted. After becoming a Full Member, the person's pet would be considered for acceptance at Earthaven separately from the person, and the pet's behaviors and impact on the community would be taken into consideration. If there are no concerns about the pet, there might be a provisional term for the pet as well.

Additional documents relating to membership (pdf format):

• Sample Ways to Join Earthaven if You Live Far Away
• Council and Committees at Earthaven
• Choosing Sites at Earthaven
• Earthaven Agreements
• Excerpt from Land Use Planning Agreements