How the community works

Management in preliminary plans

The community gathers minimum 1 time a month to a community meeting to discuss, develop decide issues that need. Normal things are decided with simple majority. Some few "base rules" (see later) can be changed with ¾ quarter majority in 2 succeeding meetings.

Members select among themselves a board of 5-7 people to run together with the members practical issues which the community meeting has decided, or which come from the routine life and actions. This part time CEO is the chairman of the board. 

The Sahala owners Vessi and Marie have 1 seat in the board together. Detailed forms of management shall be found and decided by the members when the community is up and running. 

Selecting members to our community

We believe that this kind of community idea, social model, and super potential environment as we have in GLC, shall attract many. Potential applicants are welcome to see and visit to get to know this place and those people present at the time. We want to give realistic understanding to potential members about numerous good things and limitations of this kind of living.
Members of GLC shall be accepted from any countries, cultures, and religions. They can be young families and single people, but also some active and functional seniors can be accepted.

The GLC members need to be people with friendly and warm-hearted character, value of equality between all people in theory and practice, adoptable, developing minded, having at least some practical skills in the start, and with good interaction and social skills.
Multi step member selection process shall select well-fitting people to GLC. They should have flexible, patient, and constructive attitudes and values for satisfactory, peaceful and high-quality community living. More practical and interaction skills shall naturally be adopted in actual living and learning together too.

GLC shall actively inform about the possibilities to become a member to this super good community many ways including own high quality web site and various social media channels.

The selection may include the following steps:

  1. Pre-approval based on papers etc.
  2. Compulsory preliminary 2 week visit and living in the GLC,
  3. Member candidate time living as equals in GLC for 6 months.
  4. Final approval to be a full member.

    In case some member does not get motivated anymore to follow the values, principles of the rules of GLC, the community meeting can terminate the membership of such member in its meeting but in compelling cases, the board can do that too. All members need to be aware of the risk of narcissistic or psychotic personalities trying to become members of GLC. They need to be identified as early as possible and stop from becoming permanent members if possible.

The first step in collecting the community members is to find 5 -10 people into the starting group, who would work for the start of GLC and organize marketing, selecting members and management.
Very important is to find the soonest a competent person with organizing skills to be the leader of GLC. All who are interested, should call to Vessi any time to + 358400 763700.

The GLC shall do its utmost and develop several mechanisms to notice and eliminate any destructive social behaviour inside the community and firmly and swiftly balance the situation with whatever it takes. It's a great and known risk from various examples in the world, that in the course of time social and interaction problems corrupt the good atmosphere of the community living. 

Living and working properties which are in use of GLC at Sahala

Community has full control of:

  • the fields (63 hectares organic fields)
  • agriculture machinery (3 tractors, combine harvester, field machines)
  • agricultural buildings (8), 3 living houses (with 42 individual rooms besides the kitchens and common living rooms together), main farm centre building. See more here.
  • 4 lake side saunas, 3 basement saunas
  • old stable, 2 large underground cellars
  • lakeside fireplace for 40 people
  • tennis court
  • small museum room, barn - chapel
  • 0,5 ha vegetable / berry garden with over 100 berry bushes
  • 1.2 hectares of lawns
  • 2 hectare park.


There are 23 km of forest roads in beautiful and peaceful forests with active timber growth.

NEIGHBOUR MEMBERS (NM) IN GLC

One possibility for a membership in GLC is to be a "neighbour member".

  • They can be people or families living in their own houses in the surrounding society.
  • For them GLC does not help with any housing arrangements or costs.
  • They do not need to do voluntary work for GLC except in happenings where they partizipate.
  • GLC makes a simple contract with them about the rights and duties of the membership.

BENEFITS TO BE A NM IN GLC:

  • NM can benefit from the exchange economy, which can help their health, family life or business.
  • NM can get more friends and eliminate loneliness and improve the quality of life.
  • NM:s can enjoy by coming into the evening gatherings, parties, dinners, hikes, retreats and sauna with some minor exchange cost.
  • NM:s can come to eat healthy food with the GLC members (for them the food costs the cost price), which improves their nutrition and health.

BENEFITS OF NM SYSTEM TO THE GLC:

  • Variety of professional skills in the GLC grows.
  • Work power for special happenings grows.
  • NM workforce can enable new production in GLC.
  • GLC members can have more hobby etc, friend opportunities.
  • Together we are stronger – idea improves.

Earnings, economy and duties of the community

The plan is to have GLC as a co-operative (osuuskunta), which in the Finnish law is a safe and clear unit in relations to the authorities. GLC pays very moderate, fixed base rent of 2000 €/month (but only when it is properly running). If the surplus of the GLC grows, the rent raises too. The earnings of GLC are as follows:

  • The official farming supports about 42000 €/ year.
  • The rent of Salli company (7200 €/month), who is renting the production building now.
  • The rents the members pay for their rooms.
  • Certain percentage of the production or profit what the production teams earn.
  • Visitor fees.
  • Other public supports.

This means, that the member does not necessarily need to have much money but can work for GLC without pay instead.

GLC lease responsibilities includes the maintenance of all Sahala properties (not forest roads or forests) like buildings, machinery, rods, garden, park, beaches. Now they are all in good conditions, so no need for major repairs exist if normal annual maintenance is just carried out. The plan is to leave just one house Kalliotalo (500 m away) house for the use of the farm owners Vessi and Marie. Also, the conventional timber production is also left out of the community recourses. All side products possibilities (several of them) of the forestry would be available for the community, but not the sales of logs and pulp timber.

Housing costs and housing responsibilities in the GLC

Living in a GLC is intended to be made very cheap in many ways, while at the same time offering quality in many ways.

This will be achieved through:

1. the amount of room and floor space needed by a member or family is designed only to meet the actual need, with no extra space, because space and services cost money to maintain.

2. interior design solutions are thoughtful, space-saving, smart, multifunctional and innovative, so that the space works well, meets basic needs and is comfortable.

3. public spaces such as kitchens, living rooms, recreation rooms, washrooms, saunas, terraces and courtyards are tidy, well-organised, well-equipped, comfortable and comfortable, and also make you feel at home.

4. Having neighbours in the same house who are perceived as friends also contributes to a sense of well-being, community and security. Everyone shares the same warm, flexible and agreed-upon way of living, which also maintains and strengthens goodwill.

5. Members pay a fixed rent for their flat/house only up to the actual fixed payments. These include property tax, insurance, net rent, chimney-sweeping fee and a small fixed management fee to the GLC administration.

6. Other housing costs, which are paid/managed by the residents themselves and which they can influence through their own consumption patterns and their own house maintenance activities:

  • Electricity tariffs (while rationalising electricity use in many ways)
  • Choice of fuel (electric heating and its timing, pellets, solar, firewood). The price of sawmill-finished firewood for the GLC is €30 per log (€60 when sold out), but the GLC has a large quantity of finished semi-dry firewood in logs already in a pile under the tarp for much less than this, and the house has an electric-powered efficient chipper that can easily provide more firewood. The pellet price is 370/tn.
  • Indoor temperature level
  • Waste payments to the waste management company, i.e. the level and diligence of own recycling (including taking some types of waste to the village waste station)
  • Level of self-care for heating and other appliances in the house.
  • Minor repairs and maintenance of the house (e.g. exterior and interior painting, gutters, roofs, window sealing, plumbing) (self and/or purchased), quality of work and activity to be done at the optimum time, i.e. usually as early as possible.
  • Method of snow work (how much with tractor / plough and shovel)
  • Amount of water used. In the Kattis house the water comes from the municipal network and the waste water goes there. Water + sewage costs a total of about 5 €/m3. Sahala and Kasvu place have their own sludge systems, the small costs of which of course go with the consumption (chemical, electricity costs at the waste station). Composting toilets can improve sludge and nutrient management if you are prepared to manage them carefully.

To minimise housing costs, residents need to have the will and skills (or learn to) and the cooperation to do all the maintenance themselves. If they are left to Sahala's mechanics, Sahala should charge them at cost price, i.e. around €23/hour. The roads have to be cleared with a tractor anyway, but this tractor work of about 10 times per winter will only cost a tenner per house per winter if the bumps in the yards are done by the Sahara themselves. The most important thing is to take care of water sealing on roofs etc., where late repairs will increase costs exponentially, In old houses the condition of the roofs (sealing, coating) must be monitored every year and the gutters cleaned at least 3 times/year.


Failure to carry out maintenance repairs on houses is not an option. The future agreement between Sahala and the GLC cooperative already prohibits this, and on the other hand requires that the condition of these old houses be maintained in a good, healthy and well-maintained state by means of high-quality and up-to-date maintenance. Otherwise, the repair debt will also become unmanageable in just a few years.

Sahala's equipment maintenance depots are available to GLC for house repairs. The materials already in stock (boards, planks, locks, fittings, etc.) are available free of charge in small quantities. Maintenance materials purchased from hardware stores are then included in the cost of house maintenance. There are now no such things on the horizon in any significant quantity.

Residents can also build even more efficient solar collectors on their own to keep costs down and increase the efficiency of solar energy production between March and October.

The key is a cooperative atmosphere, rules that are accepted by all, flexibility, encouragement, thanking, encouraging, teaching others the best knowledge and skills, innovation, good cleanliness and order, and maintaining a common and non-annoying lifestyle.

In that spirit, things can be done easily, costs down and comfort high.