Presentations

Short (1–3 hour) Workshops or Presentations for Conferences and Fairs

For presentation at conferences and fairs, Diana’s workshops and sections of workshops can be adjusted in length from less than a half-hour (for example, for a panel discussion) to one- to three-hour workshops.

1. Ecovillage Slide Show
“Ecovillages: Where They Are, What They’re Doing, Why They’re Important.” Ecovillage Slide Show.

2. Starting a Successful Ecovillage or Intentional Community
The “successful 10 percent”—steps to take, sample time-frames and costs, skills and areas to learn more about. Legal entities for shared property ownership; three kinds of shared property purchase; four kinds of property financing. Overview: antidotes for six kinds “structural conflict.”

3. Antidotes to Five Kinds of Community Conflict
To enhance health and satisfaction and reduce resentment and conflict in communities. Identifying and briefly discussing six crucial organizational structures that, when missing, create “structural conflict” and lead to failure in forming-community groups or wrenching conflict in existing communities. The significant, mutually influencing relationship between three of these structures—mission and purpose, decision-making method, and new-member policy. Plus communication agreements, helping people stay accountable to the group, a graduated series of consequences, reducing the impact of conflict with a strong sense of trust and connection, and dealing with the challenging group member. Suggested minimum time: 2.5 hours.

4. Getting Off to a Good Start
Tips, techniques, and suggestions for first steps: promoting your new community project and attracting new members, creating “community glue” and sustaining group energy, and tests your forming-community group can use to assess itself for various potential success factors, purchasing power, and borrowing power.

5. Creating Community Mission & Purpose: What It Is, Why You Need It.
Elements of community vision, and mission & purpose in ecovillages and intentional communities, mission & purpose documents and mission and purpose statements, hidden expectations about community and “structural conflict,” what happens when a group has more than one mission & purpose. Exercises for identifying community mission & purpose which participants can take back to their own forming-community groups.

6. Power, Decision-Making, and Community Governance
The nature of power in communities (the ability to influence others); how the group's decision-making method can help focus power among a few people or spread it widely. A brief look at the kinds of decision-making methods communities typically use — from pure consensus (and “pseudo-consensus”), to the close cousins of pure-consensus that some communities use successfully, including using more than one form of decision-making.

7. The Great Land-Buying Adventure
Three kinds of property purchase; four kinds of financing. Tips for the land-search process, working with realtors (or not), real estate attorneys, zoning and neighbor issues, and sources of financing. The Catch-22 between location, zoning, building codes, mortgage payments, and locally available jobs.

8. Legal Entities for Owning Land as a Group
Why you need a legal entity to own land together (and what happens if you don't); checklist for assessing potential legal entities relative to your group's values, mission and purpose, and plans; how to use (and find) a good lawyer; basic overview of for profit and nonprofit corporations and basic legal terms; brief overview of  legal entities most commonly used by communities formed in the last decade: Limited Liability Companies, Homeowners Associations, Housing Co-ops, and non-exempt nonprofits.

9. How to Look For, Evaluate, and Join an Ecovillage or Sustainable Community
How to research, visit, evaluate, and join communities — what to look for and what to ask, pitfalls to avoid, how to clearly assess a community for a good fit, how to be a successful incoming member.

Fee Information.

What Participants Say

“Diana is a joy to work with, always getting and giving the big picture of a group, yet never losing sight of the details.  She is a sparkling trainer, with a  unique ability to integrate the 'see-hear-do' learning modes so important to adult learning.  Always fun and lively, my community was energized for a year with follow-up activities inspired by her workshop.”

—Lois Arkin, co-founder, Los Angeles Eco-Village

“Diana's workshops have been outstanding. She has been very responsive to and has tailored her workshop to the specific needs of our participants.  The workshop is very well planned out and organized.  On a scale of 1 through 10, Diana's four-day section was consistently rated 9 or 10 and was one of the highest-rated sections overall in our 2 month program.”

—Marc Tobin, Coordinator, Ecovillage and Permaculture Program, Lost Valley Educational Center, Oregon

“The love, support, clarity, and wisdom Diana gave our community were felt and noticed deeply. I truly appreciate the work she did for us.”

—Margaret Hecht, Olohouna, Kipahulu, Maui

“Diana's work as a workshop presenter and consultant to our community was extremely helpful — strong, effective and clear. Her help was a gift.”

—John Stasio, Director, Easton Mountain Center, Easton, New York

“We at Enright Ridge Eco-village have not come across anyone with the breath and depth of knowledge that Diana offers.  Her presentations are folksy, easy to follow, while being very insightful.”

—Jim Schenk, Coordinator, Enright Ridge Eco-village, Cincinnati, Ohio

“Worth six months of individual research on how to form a new community.”

—David Boddy, San Mateo, California

“Truly astounding! Clear, concise, direct, informed, and fun. Diana’s workshop powerfully distilled both what I have and have not learned from 20 years of exploring community!”       

—Don St. Clair, Eugene, Oregon

“Invaluable. Diana’s workshop will save our forming community years of research."       

—Rev. Tim Eberhart, Nashville, Tennessee

“Diana's years of research — made more interesting through a multitude of stories — make her one of the foremost authorities in ecovillage and intentional community development.  She is grounded and realistic, has excellent command of her material, and exudes a level of genuine interest and enthusiasm that is quite contagious.  New community builders well as seasoned veterans will find rich content and value in her workshop.”

—Bill Becker, CEO Sunrise Credit Union, Loveland, Colorado