The society was called "Preliminary" because it was regarded as but the first step toward a more ideal organization to which people were to be educated. The constitution adopted announced that the object of the society was to secure for its members "the greatest amount of happiness," and to "transmit it to their children to the latest posterity." All members of it were to be of the same rank, with no artificial inequalities, and all were to be "willing to render their best services for the good of the society, according to their age, experience and capacity." The official name of the society was to be "The New Harmony Community of Equality," and its social program was long and elaborate, covering, or aiming to cover, the many and variable relations that must exist in any society. One feature of the general plan, which was described in the Owen address above referred to, was a series of ideal villages, as the community grew, each of which was to consist of solid rows of dwellings or apartments something like a modern tenement, but arranged around a hollow square one thousand feet long. The village was to have, besides these living apartments, a primary and high school, public dining hall and kitchen, common nursery for the children, and rooms for community purposes, such as lectures, dances, concerts, etc.

This "model village," as it was designated, along with other plans and ideas, never got beyond the idea stage, and it may be added here that in the character of the people attracted by the experiment, and in their diversity of views when brought to the test of a definite social scheme, was the fatal obstacle to any kind of success.