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Middlesex Senior Cohousing -- Building the first senior cohousing community in New England!
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January! Named for Janus, the Roman god of thresholds, gates, and portals, of beginnings and endings. He has two faces because he's able to look simultaneously back at the past and forward to the future.
January's a good time for doing that, looking back and looking forward. What are we leaving behind? And what are our intentions, what do we want going forward? To quote the poet Mary Oliver, who died last week: "What will you do with your one wild and precious life?"
With a nod to Janus, here’s a glimpse of this issue:
- Upcoming Info Session -- Saturday, January 26 in Stow
- Update on Our Project
- Partnering with a Developer
- Senior Cohousing in the News
- Many Voices, One Song -- learn about sociocracy
- Calendar of Upcoming Events
- About Middlesex Senior Cohousing
Yours in community,
Victoria & Mayhew
Co-founders
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Upcoming Information Meeting
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Senior Cohousing:
Aging Together & The Power of Community
Saturday, January 26, 2019
2:00 pm - 4:30 pm
First Parish Church of Stow and Acton
353 Great Road, Stow
Middlesex Senior Cohousing invites you to come
learn about senior cohousing and our project!
Senior cohousing is an innovative model that started in Denmark and operates on the understanding that
community
is the best insurance for having a fun and fulfilling 3
rd
Act!
And
getting the nurturing care we need as we age.
Program features a slideshow, video, Q&A, and facilitated break-out groups. Learn about the cohousing development process and details about our project.
We're looking for new members!
Find out how joining early gets you seniority in home selection and a discount on your home price!
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A Bunch of New LLC Members!
Why are we celebrating? Because last Saturday, seven of our households officially joined the LLC (limited liability corporation).
We gathered at a member's rambling 19th-century house in Acton. A snowstorm was fast approaching. After the serious business of going over legal documents, people placed their checks in a little treasure chest. Then they took a "diamond" out of a dish and put that in the box too, all the "diamonds" symbolizing our treasure, which we're combining to get this project built. Then we held hands and did a Leap of Faith and did not knock over any furniture. Finally, just as it started to snow, we raised a glass of Prosecco to our future neighborhood. There was a lot of laughing and hugging, and then there was a huge pot of chili. Huzza!
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Looking Farther Afield for Land.
Our price negotiations on the site we found in Maynard are taking a long time, and for various reasons, we’ve hit a wall in Acton. So we decided earlier this month to cast a wider net and expand our site search to several other suburban towns west of Boston, between Rte. 128 and Rte. 495. Namely, Littleton, Boxborough, Sudbury, Hudson and Natick. Stay tuned!
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Zooming Around.
Question: How do 12 households living in nine different towns spread over a big geographic area manage to have team meetings? Answer: We Zoom around. Not in cars, but with a video conferencing app called Zoom.
This bit of technology is making it possible for us to hold evening meetings, even when winter weather makes driving risky, or when someone doesn't drive at night anymore (that includes a few of us). And save on gas. Members who are old-hands with video conferencing have brought the rest of us up to speed; newcomers get a tutorial when they join.
Sure, we'd still rather meet in person. (Our “full circle” meetings and other community-building gatherings are always in person.) And once our neighborhood is built, we'll never have to do this again. But for now, this video app is making it possible to get the work done. And who knew? -- sociocracy, our governance structure, works great for video meetings!
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Partnering With a Developer
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H
aving an experienced developer on board can be a real boon to a forming cohousing group!
A developer is technically the person who signs on the dotted line for the construction loan and thus takes the biggest risk that comes with real estate development. A developer can also take on project management and the nitty gritty, day-to-day details that ensure your project moves through each stage in a time- and cost-effective way.
Our consultant Katie McCamant (CoHousing Solutions) has developed many cohousing communities and knows how much work goes into it. That's why she was the perfect person to help us interview and select a local developer.
Matt Blackham (
at
right in the photo with member Judy Holmes
) has been indispensable in our site search. Once we find land, he will take on project management and secure construction financing for us. He has an MBA degree and is the third generation of a well-respected family of developers in the Boston area. He has extensive experience in developing multi-family housing in Massachusetts and elsewhere. He has wide-ranging professional contacts in the area and has dealt with many of the town officials we are or will be dealing with.
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Senior Cohousing in the News
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Senior cohousing an ‘antidote to the loneliness’ that hits people as they age
JoAnna and Ken Allen wanted to relocate from suburban Baltimore to the East Bay to be closer to their three children and four grandchildren. But JoAnna was reluctant to give up the friends and activities she had established after 45 years in Maryland and didn’t know what she’d do out here. “I was imagining living in an apartment and reading books all day long,” she said.
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We have chosen a system of governance called "dynamic governance" (aka sociocracy) and have been implementing it since September 2018 with the guidance of our process consultant, Jerry Koch Gonzales. To learn about it, go to the
Sociocracy for All
website. Or click on this short video for an introduction.
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2019 Events - Coming Soon!
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Catch up with us at these events:
- Saturday, January 26 Introductory Meeting, 2 - 4:30 pm, First Parish Church of Stow-Acton in Stow
- Sunday, February 24 Introductory Meeting, 2 - 4:30 pm, New View Cohousing in West Acton
Come join the conversation!
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About Middlesex Senior Cohousing
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We are a forming senior cohousing group in Metro-Northwest Boston. We're looking for three or more acres of land on which to build a collaboratively designed, self-managed neighborhood of 20 or so privately-owned, cottage-style houses (duplexes or triplexes) with large porches and private back patios. There will be shared open space, including a community garden, and a large common house with extensive amenities, including guest suites and a large kitchen and Great Room for optional community meals and celebrations. Other amenities may include spaces for a woodworking, crafts, yoga, etc. The group gets to decide!
We're growing our group and looking for members!
Take our
Survey of Interest
(also on our website) to find out if our future neighborhood might be just what you're looking for. To learn about cohousing go to The Cohousing Association of America at
www.cohousing.org
.
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