Membership

Some of the adult members of Los Horcones, Summer, 2002.

"The problem is to design a world which will be liked not by people as they now are, but by those who live in it. 'I wouldn't like it' is the complaint of the individualist who put forth his own susceptibilities to reinforcement as established values. A world that would be liked by contemporary people would perpetuate the status quo."

B. F. Skinner. 1971. Beyond Freedom and Dignity. p. 164

At Los Horcones, full membership is based on the commitment people show towards the community, not on the basis of the length of time they live here.

Some behaviors of committed members are:

--Learning as much as possible about the community's goals, about its functioning and future plans. The time it takes a person to know the community, depends on how curious and interested he or she is (how reinforcing it is for them to know about Los Horcones).

-In order to take a good decision aboutwhether to join the community or not, it is essential to know it deeply. We do not want people that just live in the community without knowing about what we are doing and why. We want that all members live in the community knowing what it really is. We do not want to impose newcomers a set of behaviors and communal values. We want them to know and feel the advantages of behaving communitarianly.

-- Attitude of openness towards personal change. The community does not require that people who join have already learned to be communitarian, but it does require us to show clear and consistent attempts to gradually learn more and more communitarian behaviors and reduce or eliminate from their old behavioral repertories non-communitarian behaviors . A desire to be a better person is essential.

*In Los Horcones the area of human behavior is very important. All members participate in this area with the objective of helping one another to become more communitarian people. Unfortunately, due to the scarcity of human resources in this area, it has not developed as much as we should like. See Human Behavior Area.

-- We observe that members are committed to Los Horcones when they plan to live here and do not have plans for living outside the community. People who are living in the community, thinking of what they could do or want to do outside never really commit to this idea. Thus, a committed member lives here and his/her future plans involve the plans the community has for the future (of course he or she can participate in the proposals of new plans). On the contrary, a member who is not committed with the community lives here planing to travel around the world next year, or is making the arrangements to get a job.

Of course, something unexpected might come up that changes our long term commitment to the community, but that is different from living here while having other plans.

When newcomers have plans they want to realize outside the community, and they are frequently thinking about them, this may interfere with living in the community with satisfaction. A person who is focused in the community while living here obtains more reinforcement (feels better) and better understands the community than someone who has one foot in and one foot out.

Note. There has been people who have spend months and even years living in Los Horcones, thinking about what they could do outside the community (relationships, business, studies, etc.). When they leave the community and come back to visit, they realize they were never committed with Los Horcones, that they were not really living in Los Horcones even when they were physically here.

For many years we have observed that those who consider the community as another experience in their life, not as a lifestyle, have problems integrating to Los Horcones and eventually leave.

-- Committed members gradually share more responsibilities. Committed members consider Los Horcones as their home and take care of it. Uncommitted members have a strong preoccupation with individualism, ("What will the future bring for me?", "What will happen with me if Los Horcones fail?")

Note. Over our 25 years of existence we have been observing that people in general blame others for their problems. They place themselves outside the community, so they can say : "The members of Los Horcones are guilty for the problems I have here".

-- Community responsibility is not shared by those who come looking for what they can get instead of what they can give. In Los Horcones rights imply responsibilities. Commitment levels correspond to rights levels.

Uncommitted members place themselves as observers and critics of what members do.

- Committed members learn about he philosophy in which Los Horcones is based ("Radical Behaviorism"). When we refer to behaviorism, we do not refer to the misunderstood behaviorism that most people have heard about. Radical behaviorism does not consider people as robots, it takes into consideration feelings and thoughts. Radical behaviorism is humanistic. See Radical Behaviorism.

We can build a communitarian society only with individuals committed to communitarian goals.

Membership categories

The following categories are based on the person's understanding about Los Horcones, the extent of agreement with its objectives and procedures to achieve them and his or her commitment in trying to become a more communitarian person and help others do so.

Visitors:

• A visitor is any person who come for a visit which can last from a few hours, a weekend, a couple of weeks and up to a month. Visitors pay a daily fee. They participate partly in the community's work, are invited to some of the organizational meetings where they can present proposals and ask questions. They participate in most cultural and recreational activities.Visitors pay for their expenses other than the meals and room provided by the community. Visitors do not take the responsibilities members have taken and thus are not entitled to share the same rights or benefits.They keep all their property private (they can also share or donate what they want).

Extended visitors:

• They are visitors who for some reason (like volunteering, coming from faraway or taking a course here) need to spend more than one month in the community. Extended visitors also pay a daily fee (can apply for a reduction or elimination of the fee in exchange of labor). They participate partly in the community's work, are invited to some of the organizational meetings where they can present proposals and ask questions. They participate in most cultural and recreational activities.Extended visitors do not take the responsibilities members have taken and thus are not entitled to share the same rights or benefits.They keep all their property private (they can also share or donate what they want).

Soliciting members or Pre-members

• They are visitors interested in becoming members. They have already visited the community for at least 2 weeks or have visited for shorter periods on various occasions. They have read about the philosophy in which it is based and agrees with the objectives and procedures to achieve them.
• The time they need to live in the community before becoming a member is different for each person and depends on how soon it learns about Los Horcones and becomes involved in the main aspects of community life. They fully participate in the community's work (like members), they are invited to most of the organizational meetings and can present proposals and ask questions. They participate in most cultural and recreational activities. Soliciting members instead of paying a daily fee are asked to make a contribution according to their possibilities. They can keep all their property private (they can also share or donate what they want).

Members or permanent members

• They are the comunity's legal members. They identify with the objectives of the community. They consider the community's problems as their own and because of that, they act to solve the problems instead of complaining about them. Since permanent members have all the responsibilities, they also have all the rights. Los Horcones is a cooperative association.
• Permanent members do not have private property, instead they donate it to the community (communal property). The community covers all of their expenses. They fully participate in all the organizational meetings where they have a decisive vote in decision making. They can participate in all cultural and recreational activities. All their medical expenses are covered by the community. They are fully committed to the community's objectives.

If you want to be a member but find it difficult for you, you can join the Walden Two International Association.

We can not create a better society, without assuming our responsibilities as citizens or members of the community

Last up-date: January 2003

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