NICA: Northwest Intentional Communities Association

Our Mission

• To coordinate the exchange of information and resources between NW Intentional Communities and others.
• Facilitate communication and networking between local, regional, and national intentional communities organizations.
• Ascertain and promote intentional communities aims and values that contribute most to community sustainability.
• Foster and assist the study of and education on all major elements of intentional communities.
• Assist organizing and financing efforts of and for intentional communities.

What we do

Since 1992, we have published Community Resources, a small newsletter containing information for, about and by intentional communities in the Northwest. The newsletter provides a means for any community in our network to send information to other communities in the area. We include information from the gatherings, resources such as books, websites, etc. and also list communities with openings and people looking for communities. We send our newsletter to every intentional community we hear about in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Individual subscribers from dozens of states also get our newsletter.

In the spring and summer we organize communities gatherings; intimate social networking events that are hosted by NW Intentional Communities. The gatherings provide opportunities for communities to meet each other, talk about similarities and differences and share our community experiences and learning's with each other. The gatherings are not designed to be promotional although some community seekers do typically attend.

Our Intentional Community Resources pages contain a comprehensive collection of online and offline information about all aspects of Intentional Communities. We willingly share all information we get and also can and will create simple, one page web pages for NICA member communities.

Some history

The Northwest Intentional Communities Association was formed by a coalition of intentional communities in the fall of 1992 following the Sustainable Communities gathering that was held in Seattle at Lincoln Park. The vision of NICA was driven strongly by John Affolter of the Teramanto community, who put in many hours and much energy into the early foundation. The forming group met in the spring of 1993 at the Weslayan community to create and ratify the bylaws and incorporation mission. We incorporated in the Fall of 1993 as a Washington State non-profit. We were involved in the 1993 Fellowship for Intentional Communities International Communities gatherings and have held summer gatherings ever since. We began publishing a small newsletter in the Fall of 1992, and we successfully became a 501 C 3 tax exempt organization in 1997.

Volunteers

We operate entirely with volunteer help. A volunteer board meets regularly in Seattle to plan events and oversee the newsletter and to work on various projects. If you have an idea for a project, or want to help us in our mission please make contact. Send mail to nica --at-- ic --dot-- org.

NW Communities E-Mail List

NICA has set up a Northwest Communities E-mail List, which is open to anyone interested in community events.  Use this list to post and receive things such as queries, community openings, events and calls for assistance. Subscribers have full access to read and send messages to the list.  Note that it is not necessary to be a NICA member to participate!

Annual Budget

Our income comes from memberships ($10) a small profit from sales of sample docs, and events. Our gatherings sometimes end with a small amount of surplus as well. Our primary costs are the printing and mailing of the newsletter. Just so you get a scale, our total annual budget is less than $1,000, with our income pretty much matching our expenses currently. We get donations as well, and now that we are 501 c 3, donations are tax deductible!

Future and ongoing projects

We always have many more projects than we have volunteer energy for, but slowly we are building a world class information resource on these web pages. Rob Sandelin has donated the contents of his book, The Community Resource Guide, and we have located many other great resources as well and are compiling them on this site. Other projects that have been suggested is a index of the newsletters, Moving our newsletter content online, creating a communities directory of NW communities, creating resource listings of goods and services from communities, creating a community membership outreach service. We can only accomplish these tasks, or others, if people volunteer.

Membership

To join send $10 to NICA, 9132 Ravenna Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98115, or click the button below:

Donations

Click here to make a tax-deductable donation to NICA.

Some Past Events

The NICA 2002 Spring Gathering was at Jackson Place Cohousing in Seattle on April 5, 2003.  The gathering featured community stories from the year just past, time for open-space discussions, an excellent potluck lunch, and a community tour.  We also had a special presentation on "Growing Up In Community".  Last year, we had an "Elder's Circle", honoring and hearing from those who have kept community alive in the Northwest.  We enjoyed hearing from them so much that this year we decided to listen to a group with another perspective: the children who have been raised in community.  Many of us joined community so that our children will be raised with more relationship: we are going to have a discussion by several young adults about what it's like to be raised like that.  The young people represent several types of communities and have interesting viewpoints about what they appreciated, what worked for them, and what they'd like communities to do differently.


• NICA had a great party and potluck at the Beacon Hill House in Seattle on Sunday, March 2.
   
• Community Discussion with the Fellowship for Intentional Communities.
  Nov 16th, 2002, Kitsap Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 4418 Perry Ave NE, Bremerton, WA.
   
• Fellowship for Intentional Communities Organizational Meeting and Regional Networking Gathering.
  Nov 15-18th, 2002 near Seattle.
     
• The NICA 2002 Summer Gathering was held July 26-28, 2002 at the Goodenough Community's new retreat center on the Tahuya River near Hood Canal.  A NICA gathering is a chance for people interested in intentional community to get together and share stories and information.  Attendees range from experienced communitarians to people who just want to learn what intentional communities are all about.  It is a great chance to visit an intentional community, meet some amazing people, and have a lot of fun.
   
• The NICA 2002 Spring Gathering was at Duwamish Cohousing in Seattle on April 20, 2002.  The gathering featured a special "Celebration of our Elders", featuring memories and visions contributed by three founding members of Northwest communities.  The gathering also featured community stories, a community tour, an open space session, and excellent potluck lunch and some time for general networking.  Thanks, everyone, and see you at the Summer Gathering!
   
• The Co-opportunities Northwest Conference was a three-day conference held at the Seattle Center from Oct 19-21, 2001.  The conference covered a wide range of community issues, from local food production to community banking, and included speakers, discussions, and field trips to local sites.  NICA was very involved in creating this conference, and had a table at the conference to distribute intentional community materials.  Thank you to all of the incredible people who volunteered their time for this celebration -- in particular, the heroic organizers who devoted their lives to the co-op cause!

Archives

2000 Annual Report