Post (mortem?) on my LV experience

 My intention ohere was to chronicle my experience at LV.  Totally forgot about this blog/website for 2 years... so it's appropriate to post this final chapter of my Lost Valley experience here.  

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My experience at Lost Valley started in September 2014 and came about after extensive visits to the ecovillages of Sieben Linden in Germany and Twin Oaks in Virginia. LV was the only viable ecovillage west of Dancing Rabbit and it was a lot closer.

Lost valley ecovillage is located ~15 miles east of Eugene, Oregon in Dexter. It sits on 88 acres: 80% forest, ~35 structures, 2 acres of vegie farms, ~5 acre meadow. More information is at www.lostvalley.org

Most people stay less than one year. One becomes a full member after one year. There are ~10 people who have been there more than 5 years. One person more than 10 years. It is relatively cheap to live at LV – and that's a big driver for residents.

Please note: this is MY view only – subjective & opinionated... a summary of my experiences based on my limited memory after six months of leaving LV (August 2016). 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I first arrived at LV in September 2014 looking to stay for a couple weeks and evaluate whether it would be a good fit for me to try living there: my first full-time immersion of living in a community (and get away from business, legal, finance doings). Within four days I was recruited to run for outside Director on the Board (BoD). I wish I had declined and stuck with my original plan. My overall experience and other peoples' views and acceptance of me would have been different. I was quite reluctant to change my purpose, but decided to accept the BoD invitation... something about the buddhist philosophy of 'being in the service of others'. 

the beauty of living at LV: the land: Forest trails, the river, the proximity to Eugene. Having 50+ people around 24/7. Their willingness to try to be fair, to listen, to engage with each other, to try being sustainable, to make a community work. The Community Petal meetings, the initial Zegg Forums, the Monday nite meditation, the piano,

the challenges of living at LV: constant transient nature, the 'illuminati', young people (who know everything), minimal activism, minimal long term planning - and the big one:  'not invented here (NIH)'. and for me: after Simon left – there was no one to have good conversations with. The interview process - my two community interviews. The Site Manager's military management style.

my history

a few cliches come to my mind when I think of LV:   On one hand it's a lo-impact, quiet, river & forest enclave where I can pretty much chill and do my own thing, on the other hand it's 'no country for old men' and elicits a kind of 'Lord of the Flies' scenario for me - where you're either with them or against them.  

The demographics of LV are 20% kids, then a lot of young'uns in their 20's, a few in their early thirties, a couple of elders – but mostly it consists of transient people (who stay less than one year) looking for a place to live cheaply. LV is definitely for 20's people and like most intentional communities, moves very very slowly in adopting anything new or to make fundamental changes.

What are the things that drove me out of LV?

1. 2^nd community interview (and the 1st one also)
2. NIH - not invented here culture
3. Ananda exit process
4. Simon leaving and what was behind it
5. the 'illuminati' 'behind the scenes' manipulations
6. Fern - site manager's control, subtle 
7. no good conversations, intellectual sparring/engagement for me
8. Rain - hey: it's oregon!

What are the things that attract me to LV?

1. viable ecovillage – closeby
2. Oregon & the LV land ( a LOT less people than California)
3. Oregon coast
4. cheap cost of living
5. education potential
6. real ecovillage/sustainbility potential

Why I left?  I can think of many easy reasons of why, but the main underlying reason is I felt like a fish out of water. I had no one to have a good conversation with. It felt that I would have to get immersed in the UofO environment to get that. After Simon left (we had daily long talks when we were both around), there was really nobody to talk 'turkey' (eco, liberal politics, the world, big issues, etc) with. I have special needs for engaging conversation. And that brings up another point: communities don't really do a good job of meeting individual's special needs. And that's again where the mainstream does a better job - more choices.

A question that comes up often is if LV is better or worse than mainstream housing. For me, it's a slam dunk: it's better. But on several fronts it's the same as the mainstream and in some instances worse. The 'conservative liberalism' just reeks out of every corner: 'if you don't think like us, you're not welcome here.' There's obviously tolerance for non-believers, but at the core it's what I call conservative liberalism.

sustainability at LV

This one's easy: there isn't any. Outside of the kitchen and food operations, it's pretty much mainstream. As a matter of fact, some areas are worse than mainstream. For instance the septic system is dysfunctional at best. Anyone that thinks a 40 year old percolation field would still work properly in an overgrown forest (that was clear cut (heavy equipment!) 30 years ago) is fooling themselves, and it astounded me that the county inspector approved it! sheer nonsense.  Manually hauling 55gallon barrels of human shit around into a leach field that could potentially leak into the river – yikes! 1970's bathroom and shower facilities use 1970's water rates (3-4gallons per flush).

I think the best example is when Gabi Bott – Sieben Linden ecovillage – came for a visit and we were standing in the meadow next to a leaking hose bibb, and she just shook her head and said – that would never happen in Germany. And when I said that Oregon has plenty of rain and fresh water – she said: 'doesn't matter, it's still wasting resources and so easy to fix & maintain'. So for me it's also a huge cultural divide in thinking, that Europeans are way ahead of the USA on.

governance at LV

LV says it's governance is 'inspired by sociocracy' - that's kinda like saying I'm inspired by dictatorship (control freak) or inspired by democracy (an autocracy) or....??   The reality in my 2 year experience is that sociocracy only worked when we had a proactive sociocracy expert (John Schinnerer) present at a specific meeting (usually a BoD meeting).  After that it was an easy slide back down the slippery slope for illuminati's business as usual - what was comfortable before.  And I think that was by necessity.  There was and is no real strategic planning or master plan for continuity and real owned shared values and vision - it's all kinda happenstance words on paper.  So the current people in charge (illuminati) were thrown into this role by necessity when the last directors decided to throw in the towel.  It was sink or swim time.  With no real experience managing a site like this, much less working with the 50+ people on-site, I believe it was kinda like design through necessity and kinda 'feel your way around' in an organic 'let's see what happens if we do this' routine.   If only the NIH mentality had not stuck so early and been pervasive throughout, then perhaps some more experienced, battle tested, politically/financially/legally/personnel etc experienced people or group of people could have taken LV in a whole different direction.  I believe that until that happens, LV will continue to flail around in a 'come-see, come-sa' type modulation.

I do have to give credit to the illuminati - it's not easy to run a complex of this size, decrepit infrastructure (from the 70's) that's deteriorating rapidly, keep 50+ people relatively happy, work on the organic farm to supply the kitchen, cook 2+ meals each and every day, etc...  AND  there's an annual budget of around $300k, and cooking the books on that ain't easy either. 

LV Board

Being on the board at LV gave me a different perspective and outlook than most. In a nutshell: it was amateurish at best, and ego driven at worse. I've never seen such obfuscation of simple things like financial transparency, lack of important team work, developing long term strategies, or ANYTHING remotely resembling strategic direction setting.  For the first year it was a learning curve for me with the exec director calling all the shots and steam rolling a very weak board.  The second year was a bit better, but still dysfunctional for anything resembling a normal board that provides strategic and managerial guidance. 
At LV, if it wasn't 'organic' it didn't get done.... in other words: something could not be put forth by any one person if everyone didn't 'feel' like it sprouted and grew from within.  the NIH (not invented here) was pervasive through all.

If a board member can't freely have access and analyze financials – well, then the rest of it is inconsequential. That's one of the biggest jobs of a board: fiduciary responsibility. For two years I struggled with that, and in the last few months one of the board members made some inroads into that – but as with many items: too little too late for my tastes.  There were obviously some shenanigans going on with the finances.

Conclusions?
I'm not a fan of summary conclusions which require passing judgement.  But I will say that I discovered the collective ego of LV as a community.  I never thought that 'group think' and 'group peer pressure' could be so pervasive within a supposedly 'enlightened' group of people that were practicing permaculture, teaching young people about it, and had been around for 25+ years.  
I guess probably all communities, or groups of people have this collective ego in one form or another.  At LV though, it was insidious: 'come on and join us, work your butt off and prove to us that you belong, and then we'll decide if you're one of us, and maybe invite you to stay.  In the meantime we'll watch and judge you through our interviews and if you ever dare to come up with any innovative ideas - well if it ain't organic and if one of our illuminati didn't come up with it... you're welcome to try pushing your 'cart' up the hill.
Ok - that's not judgemental is it :-)... I'll leave it at that.

I have some wonderful friends and acquaintances at LV, and if by chance they stumble across this... sorry for 'speaking my truth'.