Hello,

Communities Magazine is now seeking articles for issue #141, “Scarcity and Abundance.” The issue will be out in December 2008.

Please send your article idea to editor@ic.org by Friday, June 27, or sooner if possible.

Your final article must reach us by Friday, August 22.

1. Theme articles: Scarcity and Abundance

Do you or your community find yourselves scarce on time, resources, or other elements essential to a happy and productive community life? How can communities achieve both the feeling and the reality of abundance? Do you have too many projects envisioned, but too little funding to complete them? How do feelings of connection, friendship, and community influence your sense of scarcity or abundance? Is there a role for "prosperity mentality"?

In what ways have you felt frustrated and limited by scarcity or perceived scarcity of any type, whether in an intentional community or other community-minded or activist group? Do you see inherent flaws or liabilities in the philosophies that such groups bring to their work? How much responsibility for scarcity lies with individuals, how much with the collective group, and how much with forces in the dominant society that may suppress cooperative ventures? Can such groups find abundance? What will need to change for that to happen?

On a broad scale, does your community plan for future abundance or scarcity in the world? How do national and global economics affect your group? Does scarcity in the wider culture push people to create community? Does abundance?

[Please forward this email to anyone you think has a good story on this theme for Communities magazine.]

2. We are also seeking articles about:
- Creating community in your neighborhood;
- Starting a new community;
- Process and communication issues in community; and
- Seeking community to join.

Suggested submission length is from 900 to 2500 words. We’re seeking articles written in a reader-friendly, popular-magazine style, rather than in academic style. Please share stories and experiences, not just ideas; write about challenges, not just successes; and describe specific situations that will help your story come alive for the reader. Before you start writing, please contact us for our full Writers’ Guidelines--and let us know your article idea so that we can give feedback on how it may fit into Communities. Contact Chris Roth at editor@ic.org or 541-937-2567 ext. 116.

If you don’t want to write an article but want to submit photos, please check http://communities.ic.org/submit.php or email us for our Photo Guidelines.

I. WHAT "SUBMITTING AN ARTICLE" MEANS. We will promise to read your article, but we may respectfully decline it and not publish it, or save it and publish it in a future issue. We also reserve the right to edit, shorten, or revise your article. Most of the time we contact authors about this ahead of time and get their comments, corrections, etc.
 
II. GETTING PERMISSION AHEAD OF TIME. Please send the article only when you have permission from anyone you need it from, such as fellow community members. It’s difficult for us to get all set to run an article only to find that the author’s fellow community members say No at the last minute.
 
III. PUBLICATION RIGHTS. Once your article appears in Communities magazine, we own first North American Publishing Rights. This means your article appears in Communities magazine the first time it appears in North America. After that, you own it again. If you’d like to use it elsewhere, you can, and we would appreciate your using an attribution line saying, “This article first appeared in Communities magazine, (date); for further information on Communities magazine: www.ic.org.”

IV. PHOTOS. If we publish your article, we want to accompany it with compelling images that illustrate your subject. You know your subject best, so we are appealing to you for images. If others in your community like taking pictures, they might already have great images to go with your article. If you would like to submit an article but cannot supply photos, that’s fine; however, please give us plenty of advance notice so that if we use your article we can get an illustrator. Please check http://communities.ic.org/submit.php or email us for our full Photo Guidelines.

Thanks for your contributions!

Chris Roth
Editor, Communities Magazine
editor@ic.org