About Us | Visiting | Participation | How We Live
About Our Community
- What is your vision?
- How did you get started?
- How many people do you have?
- What is the land like?
- Who owns the land and buildings, including the houses?
- Do members share housing?
- What is your governance structure?
Visiting
Participation
- How do I get involved?
- Do you have to be a Quaker to join?
- Do any members live there part-time?
- How do I become a member?
- How much does it cost to be a member? What is the financial commitment?
- What are the time and work commitments that are part of living at QIVC?
How We Live
- What does it mean to live in a Quaker community?
- Do people have their own houses?
- How do you share your lives?
- How do you earn income?
- Do you grow your own food?
- Do you allow pets and farm animals?
- How is your lifestyle environmentally sound? How do you care for the Earth?
About Us
What is your vision for QIVC?
Our vision, as currently stated, is captured in our five intentions:
We believe conscious culture creation in community can be a means to advance our intentions:
1. To live in worship, increasing our mindfulness, spiritual focus, and God-centeredness by intertwining our daily lives with others who share these intentions
2. To create a village setting that values and engages participation by people of all ages, expands our experience of family, and supports our expression in the world
3. To create wealth that embodies integrity and Truth by carefully examining our engagement in the current economic order and stepping away from its destructive elements
4. To live in unity and harmony with the earth by considering the near and far environmental impact of our actions while striving for thrivability
5. To include a good measure of joy, fun, creativity, and service in our lives
We believe that our communities' success in achieving these five intentions will be aided by membership diverse in race, age, ethnicity, gender, sexual preference, and economic situations, and therefore it is our aim to gather a community whose members are diverse in these ways as well as others.
How did you get started?
From 1993 to 1995 Jens and Spee Braun convened a “Community Building” discussion group at Wilton Quaker Meeting in Connecticut out of their leading to build an intentional community. Over the next 5 years, many people participated in contributing ideas, energy, time, and dedication to the project, including Interest Groups at New York Yearly Meeting’s Summer Sessions and a Powell House retreat on “Deep Community.” In the year 2000, Jens, Spee, and several other interested individuals found the land where we now live and made the concrete commitment to community by purchasing it. During this process, the Quaker Intentional Village Project was formed, and from that, the Quaker Intentional Village — Canaan.
How many people do you have?
We have about eight member households and three associate member households. These households include roughly 1 elder, 16 adults, and 8 children. We are seeking new members to join us.
What is the land like?
Together we care for and love 135 acres of mixed pasture, farmland, woods, and wetland. The houses surrounded by gardens are clustered on the south-facing hill on either side of a dirt road, and there is a larger community garden as well. We have wild apple trees and cultivated cherry, apple, peach, pawpaw, and pear trees, many flowers both cultivated and wild, wild thyme, and all sorts of berries and some nuts. In the winter we have cross-country ski trails crisscrossing the snow. Many species of birds thrive here, and a resident coyote family thrills us with late night howls and yips. A creek runs through our land in a deep ravine and several vernal ponds produce raucous spring peeper and bullfrog choruses.
Who owns the land and buildings, including the houses?
As a community, we own all the land in common. Owner members own their own homes, while renter, associate, and prospective members may lease. We also own in common the farmhouse, which serves as our common house, and a large farm shed that was on the land when we got here.
Do members share housing?
Members do not currently share housing, though if someone rents the space in the farmhouse, they share common space with the community.
What is your governance structure?
We make all decisions by a process called “sense of the meeting” or “unity.” These are Quaker terms for a process that goes beyond consensus to seek the will of God.
Our main decision-making happens in monthly business meetings, while various committees, from Community Life to Buildings & Land, oversee specified areas of our life together, make some decisions, and bring recommendations to the larger body at the monthly business meetings.
Visiting
Where are you located?
Our land is on a well-maintained gravel road, with little traffic and a small number of other houses, just outside the hamlet of East Chatham in the township of Canaan, New York. Located in Columbia County, we are 35 minutes from Albany and Hudson, 20 minutes from the Berkshires of Massachusetts, and 2.5 hours from both Boston and New York City. For more information and directions see Location/Directions.
How do I arrange a visit? Do you host visitors?
We welcome visitors to QIVC! Contact us ahead of time to determine the best time to visit for your purposes--our Friday or Saturday evening campfires or potluck dinners are a good time to meet members in a casual way, but not necessarily a good time to see our land, gardens, and houses. We hold meetings for business monthly and these are open to potential members and attenders as well, with advance notice. Contact Sandra Beer (518) 392-1971 between 7 pm-9 pm ET) or e-mail info@qivc.org if you'd like to arrange a visit.
While we welcome visits by those interested in our community, we are not always able to offer visitor housing. However, within six miles of the community is Powell House, a Quaker conference and retreat center, that often has reasonable, overnight accommodations available. In addition, there are several B&Bs, motels, and inns close by.
Do you have internships?
Individual families have overseen interns in the past, and there may be interning opportunities in the future.
Participation
How do I get involved?
The best way to get involved is to come to our weekly potluck dinners or campfires (contact us for day and time); you will get a sense of the people and the place who comprise this community as well as get to know some of our supporting F/friends and neighbors. If you are still interested, you can ask about coming to any of our committee meetings to start to get a sense of our governance.
Do you have to be a Quaker to join?
No! Many member families do have some regular affiliation with our nearby Quaker meeting, Old Chatham Monthly Meeting, but not all identify as Quaker. You just need to be open to the Quaker processes we employ.
Do any members live there part-time?
No, we are seeking only members for whom QIVC is their primary residence.
How do I become a member?
We do have articulated steps toward membership that have served us well in the past. The goal is to come to a sense of clearness, for the applicant as well as the community members, about whether the fit is a good one. In short, after getting involved with the community through community gatherings like potluck dinners, committee meetings, and monthly business meetings, and getting to know member families, an interested person or family expresses their interest in an application letter. See Getting Involved and Steps in Membership for details.
How much does it cost to be a member? What is the financial commitment?
See our Financial Aspects of Membership page.
What are the time and work commitments that are part of living at QIVC?
- We have monthly business meetings (4 hrs/mo)
- We serve on an average of 2 committees at a time, which meet monthly or twice a month for 1-2 hrs
- We have quarterly workdays for the Farmhouse (4 hrs)
- We have 2-3 firewood workdays in the fall/winter (4 hrs)
- We take turns keeping fires going in the farmhouse furnace and woodstove
- We do cleaning chores in the farmhouse
- We shovel snow in the parking spaces and along major pathways
- We offer childcare when families have an emergency and occasionally at other times
- We loan out cars and give rides and sometimes do errands and shopping for each other
- When we go to the dump or recycling center we often take each other's stuff when we can (and also the farmhouse's stuff)
- The community puts on occasional Passion Nights (evenings for people to share their interests)
- We have Rhythm Days quarterly to celebrate the seasons
- Members attend two weekend retreats each year
- We have weekly potlucks at the Farmhouse
- We sometimes volunteer to take a turn preparing a simple community dinner for all residents
- We help corral the sheep, pigs, chickens, or other animals when they escape
How We Live
What does it mean to live in a Quaker community?
While a primary intention of creating this village is to uphold each other in living mindful, God-centered lives, there is no requirement to be Quaker. We share core Quaker values of simplicity, peace, equality, community, and integrity, and we make decisions using Quaker process (see the governance question above).
Do members have their own houses?
Yes! We live in a community of individual households, and while we do depend on each other in various ways we all have our own spaces, too.
How do you share your lives?
We eat together at least once a week, we garden together, we delight in each other's children, and we care for this land and its non-human inhabitants together. We work together to care for and maintain our common house, including making firewood for heat and hot water, cleaning the chimney of our wood-burning stove and furnace, washing windows, shoveling snow, and mowing common lawn areas and paths. We hold centering silence together, however briefly, before, after, and when needed, during meetings, and many of us worship together at our local Quaker Meeting. And, most importantly, we enjoy each other's company, care for each other, challenge each other to live ever closer to our intentions, laugh and play together, and share joy and appreciation of the beauty we are a part of.
How do you earn income?
Most current members are employed off the land, though several work from home. For example, our community does or has include(d) a finish carpenter, outdoor educators, an international relief and development consultant, a social worker, a psychologist, a midwife, a developer of software infrastructure for the new economy, an actor, a writer, a musician, and more.
Do you grow your own food?
We do grow food in many family-tended gardens around the center of the community. Some of us grow most of what our families consume. Some produce jams, pestos, and pickles, and freeze produce to get through the winter months. We currently have make maple syrup and several families have chickens for eggs, and there is always a possibility to produce more. While we don't currently have livestock, in the past families have raised sheep and pigs for consumption.
Do you allow pets and farm animals?
Yes! But we do have a process by which they are invited into the community. Please see our Policy on Animals.
How is your lifestyle environmentally sound? How do you care for the Earth?
Please see our article on Earthcare (care for the environment).
