Housing is now at the newly acquired
Clark Perry House. Click HERE to learn a lil' more about
it.
To give you an idea of some of your workerbee
responsibilities, here’s a short list of some things
that will be expected of you as a participant in this group.
Please remember, collective living is often the hard way
to do things compared to the comfortable individualism
of the typical American lifestyle. There are SO many benefits,
but it’s uphill all the way.
Workerbees rotate shifts:
- cooking and cleaning group
meals
- cleaning of the grange
and beehousing in general
- coordinating weekly community
events
- volunteering with local
farmers in exchange for produce
- facilitating and attending
group meetings
- general office chores
like mailings and data entry
- fundraising efforts such
as tabling and other pollination opportunities
We
eat SUCH good food!!! Two or three meals a day are prepared and all bees, apprentices and
guests are responsible for cooking and cleaning shifts.
The meals are free of animal products, white sugar, and
strive for organic and whole food ingredients. Exceptions
to our vegan kitchen policy are made for community potlucks
and events, especially those that involve the Grangers
(though they have vegetarian potlucks themselves.) We are able to order in bulk weekly, and get produce locally
through work exchange with local farmers whenever possible.
Both the local hardware and health food stores sell bulk
herbs and spices, and other health food supplies.
When we have children involved with the
Hive. We expect that they be treated with care and respect,
and that assistance with their, and their parent’s
special needs will be given enthusiasm in the spirit of
mutual aid.
At this point in our evolution, the hive
is entirely volunteer run. No one gets paid, but some folks
that are working full time have their expenses of food
and housing covered by the projects they are dedicated
to. There are many pros and cons to this, enough that we
probably shouldn’t get into explaining why
in this short writeup. But in short, we’re still
a very young group, having only been together since 2000,
and don’t have the capacity to make the transitions
that would need to be made for any of us to have a salary.
We are at the awkward startup stage of a small non-profit
organization. We are always exploring the ways that the
hive can grow more of an organizational backbone, but not
sell its soul. So for now, please know that we would LOVE
to have your experience and enthusiasm on board with us
as we continue to solidify ourselves… but that there
aren’t many models of how to do this kind of work
out there, and we’ve been really straining ourselves
trying to make it up from scratch.
Many of us bees
have a way to make money by spending short amounts of
time outside of Washington County, or are self-employed
part time. You’re welcome to come and go to generate the
money you’ll need to volunteer your time with us,
but we recommend that you come ready with some sort of
plan of how this can work for you, and still be able to
primarily focus on your Beehive projects and responsibilities.
We know this is a tall order for most people, and we have
lots of advice and connections to help in the transition.
The work we are doing has potential for including your room and board under it’s wing,
but self-sufficiency in organizational and a high level
of self-motivation will be required for you to expect this
support.
Presently housing costs are covered by the ollective.
—Full time Bees have their food costs covered by the Collective
—Guests are expected to contribute $90 month to group food, and you’ll
need a little extra for your personal vices, as we don’t
purchase much processed food together, or sweets, and go
out to eat (very) occasionally. This breaks down to: $3
a day, $20 a week, or $90 a month
—Please know that applications
for food stamps cannot be connected to the Beehive’s
address, for small-town reasons
--the hive covers expenses for our group vehicles, for
group activities
—if you’re bringing a car, you’ll need
to cover your own insurance and related expenses
—utilities are covered by the hive
—we have an unlimited long distance
plan to the U.S. and Canada
--Again, you will need to cover this yourself.
These are things that we could always find useful... donations of goods are appreciated, and some of the things on the list below you may want if you're visiting. Call if you've got questions!
- A bike or rollerskates, if you want, but we also
have a few kickin around.
- Marble and granite slabs or tiles that are 3/8" thick… (Scrap
or odd lots of stone), don’t bother bringing
white or beige colors, they’re easy to find.
Please call if you have questions about whether some
stone you’ve
found is worth bringing.
- **Garden tools (pruners, shovels, chainsaw, hoes,
etc…)**
- **Half gallon & gallon mason and pickle jars (the
big ones!) and clean five gallon buckets with lids**
- *Demolition tools (crow bars, saws all, sledgehammer,
etc.)
- **Houseplants**
- **Safety equipment (ear protection, respirators)**
- Welding mask and other welding safety equipment
- Political (or otherwise thought provoking) videos
for our film series
- Wet suit for you or others to use (for seaweed harvesting)
- Personal art supplies for yourself or to share
- Spices and teas
- Musical instruments
- Ergonomic chairs
- Printing equipment to share or personal use
- Racquetball equipment, yah really
- **A tent and/or mosquito netting if you have them
- donations of books for our community library
