Praise -- Title Page -- Dedication -- Acknowledgements -- Foreword -- Introduction -- Part One: - Planting the Seeds of Healthy Community -- Chapter 1 - The Successful Ten Percent - and Why Ninety Percent Fail -- Lost Valley - How One Group Did It -- What Works, What Doesn't Work? -- The Successful Ten Percent -- Why Ninety Percent Fail -- "Structural Conflict" - And Six Ways to Reduce It -- What Will it Cost? -- How Long Does it Take? -- How Many People do You Need? -- Chapter 2 - Your Role as Founder -- What Kind of Person Founds a Community? -- What Else You'll Need -- "If Only I Had Known!" -- Chapter 3 - Getting Off to a Good Start -- Don't Run Out and Buy Land - Yet -- When You Already Own the Property -- Organizing Your Group -- Getting Real about Finances -- Collecting Funds -- Raising Money from Supporters -- Attracting and Integrating New Members -- Creating "Community Glue" -- Pioneers, Settlers, and the Flow of Members -- Chapter 4 - Community Vision - What It Is, Why You Need It -- Sound a Clear Note -- Elements of a Community's Vision -- Your Vision Documents and Vision Statement -- Do It First -- Chapter 5 - Creating Vision Documents -- More Than One Vision? -- A Sacred Time -- "That's Not Community!" - Hidden Expectations and Structural Conflict -- Exploring the Territory -- Sharing from the Heart -- Writing it Down -- Chapter 6 - Power, Decision-making, and Governance -- Power - The Ability to Influence -- Focused Power, Widespread Power -- How Consensus Works -- What You Need to Make Consensus Work -- "Pseudoconsensus" and Structural Conflict -- Agreement-Seeking - When You Don't Want to use Full Consensus -- Multi-winner Voting -- Community Governance - Spreading Power Widely -- More than One Form of Decision Making? -- What Decision-making Method Should You Use? -- Part Two: - Sprouting New Community: Techniques & Tools.

Chapter 7 - Agreements & Policies: "Good Documents Make Good Friends" -- Remembering Things Differently -- Giving Yourselves Every Chance of Success -- Your Community's Agreements and Policies -- Chapter 8 - Making It Real: Establishing Your Legal Entity -- Why You Need a Legal Entity - Before Buying Your Property -- Using a Lawyer -- Finding the Right Lawyer -- Chapter 9 - The Great Land-Buying Adventure -- Legal Barriers to Sustainable Development -- Shopping for Counties - Zoning Regulations, Building Codes, Sustainable ... -- The Proactive Land Search -- Friendly Loans from Friends and Family -- Onerous Owner-financing (Better than None at All) -- Do-it-Yourself Refinancing with a "Shoe Box Bank" -- When One Person Buys the Property -- Acquiring Fully Developed "Turn-Key" Property - Confidence, Persistence, and Negotiation -- If at First You Don't Succeed … -- Chapter 10 - Finding the Right Property -- Choosing Your Site Criteria -- How Much Land Do You Want? -- Raw Land - Lower Initial Cost, Years of Effort -- Developed Land - Electricity, Toilets, and Showers -- Fully Developed Turn-key Property - Move Right In (With a Big Financial Bite) -- Buying Property like the Professionals Do -- Conducting the Search - On Your Own or with a Real Estate Agent -- Investigating Likely Properties -- Taking Property Off the Market While You Do Further Research -- Chapter 11 - Neighbors and Zoning -- How Zoning Issues can Impact Community Plans -- Zoning Issues and Your Property -- Gambling with Former Use Permits -- Seeking a Zoning Exception -- Negotiating for What You Want -- Zoning Exceptions, Neighbors, and Public Hearings -- Chapter 12 - Financing Your Property (Loans You Can Live With) -- About "Renting Money" - What You Should Know -- Private Financing -- When One Member Buys the Property -- Protecting Your Sole Owner with a Triple Net Lease.

Owner Financing -- Bank Financing -- Drawing on the Cohousing Model -- What about Grants and Donations? -- Refinancing Your Property -- Chapter 13 - Developing Sustainable Human Settlements -- Earthaven's Development Process -- Listening to your Land -- Creating your Site Plan Yourselves -- Avoiding "Urban Refugee Syndrome" -- Creating Privacy in the Midst of Community -- Designing for Conviviality -- Chapter 14 - Internal Community Finances (Can We Afford to Live There?) -- Rural Communities - How will your Members Make a Living? -- The Risks of Community Businesses -- Keeping Member Assessments Affordable -- Joining Fees -- Housing Arrangements -- Site Lease Fees and the Debt Load -- Labor Requirements -- Building Equity -- Can People Afford to Join You? -- Chapter 15 - Legal Entities for Owning Property -- Checklist for Choosing a Legal Entity -- How You'll Hold Title and Arrange Members' Use Rights -- Organizational Flexibility -- How You'll be Taxed -- Overview: Corporations and Non-profit Corporations -- Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) -- Homeowners Associations - Tax Advantages (and Disadvantages) -- Condominium Associations -- Housing Co-ops - Separate Ownership and Use Rights -- Non-exempt Non-profit Corporations -- Chapter 16 - If You're Using a Tax-exempt Non-profit -- Advantages of a 501(c)3 - Donations, Tax Breaks, Limited Liability -- Disadvantages of a 501(c)3 - Onerous Requirements, Irrecoverable Assets -- Land-Owning Entities and 501(c)3 Corporations - The Best of Both Worlds -- How One Group Retained Control of its Board -- Title-holding Corporations - Collecting Income from "Passive" Sources -- Private Land Trusts - Protecting the Land -- Community Land Trusts - An Irrevocable Decision -- For "Common Treasury" Communities - 501(d) Non-profit Corporations -- Part Three: - Thriving in Community - Enriching the Soil.

Chapter 17 - Communication, Process, and Dealing with Conflict: The Heart of ... -- The "Rock Polisher" Effect -- Nourishing Sustainable Relationships -- The Roots of Conflict: Emotionally-charged Needs -- High Woundedness, High Willingness -- Seven Kinds of Community Conflict We Wish We'd Left Behind -- Twenty-four Common Sources of Community Conflict -- The Fine Art of Offering Feedback -- Receiving Feedback - Listening for Kernels of Truth -- Threshing Meetings -- Creating Specific Conflict Resolution Agreements -- Helping Each Other Stay Accountable to the Group -- A Graduated Series of Consequences -- Chapter 18 - Selecting People to Join You -- Select for Emotional Maturity - the "Narrow Door" -- But is it Community? -- Passive Victims, Outraged Victims -- Membership Screening and the Law -- Dealing Well with Saying "No" -- How Can You Tell? -- Questions, References, "Long Engagements" -- Appendix 1 - Sample Community Vision Documents -- Appendix 2 - Sample Community Agreements -- Appendix 3 - Setting Up and Maintaining a 501(c)3 Non-profit -- Resources -- Index -- About the Author -- Copyright Page.