First of all, one of the most important things to realize is that a community is made by the relationships between people, not by a physical location and its associated resources. While I would LOVE to go out and buy a chunk of land, that is just not a possibility now.
With that said, I have been wondering the same thing... Everyone seems to be waiting for someone else to step up to the plate and start organizing. So I gave up waiting for someone else to do it, and started doing it myself! Just this last hour I started a Yahoo group for a Texas ground crew. I sent out an invite to everyone that replied and showed interest on the Texas threads, and hopefully at least a few will join. I have also sent out requests for help from a few of the members. One really important part of having a community is that everyone participate in a way they know how. So hopefully with a little management and guidance I can get people to start participating. Eventually I would like to link up to other groups out there.
At this point I aiming to at least learn where everyone is- physically what town they are in, where they are spiritually, and what their feelings/attitudes are about the coming challenges. From that I would like to create a vision statement and a list of goals. At the very top of that list is establishing TRUST among members. This is very hard. If I have an onion, you have a potato and that guy over there has a carrot, I am sure everyone would like to feel they can get a bowl of the soup before they give up their one vegetable to a bunch of strangers!
One of the biggest problems we face is trying to straddle two paradigms at the same time. Like I said before, I would love to create a little community of homesteads somewhere... But before I start sharing my assets with people I would like to know I could trust them. Do I trust the guy buying the land to know what he is doing? If I want to pull out of the community, do I give up everything I have put in? Are there any criminal/creepoid types I don't want around my children? These are all very important issues. Until everything changes, we are always going to deal with these kinds of questions.
I think one of the bigger possibilities coming up is that of economic problems and internal displacement. Are your group members capable and willing to help support each other financially? Will you share that bag of rice hidden in the attic?
If there is a catastrophe somewhere, are group members willing to allow other members to live in their homes until they can make other arrangements? These are the important first steps in creating a community.
Also, members need to be like-minded. We definitely need a variety of points of view, talents, and abilities, but we still must have a common general outlook. If your group is more new-age oriented, do you want that one evangelical Christian to come in and nag you about Jesus all day long?
This is my own personal belief on this issue, but I really feel strongly that there shouldn't be any kind of "application" process for admitting members. It may become obvious that a group really should be two, or that someone either belongs or would be more help somewhere else- but just because a couple wants to join and neither are physicists or physicians or healers or agriculture specialists doesn't mean they aren't valuable to the group. I feel really strongly that we need to get out of this kind of judgmental mode if we hope to create a better future.
99Boogies
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/texasgroundcrew