August 2019
Cohousing Now!
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“Why doesn’t the rest of my community want to learn about cohousing?” We hear this concern a lot from those of you who hang out with us on WebChats and cohousing-L. In other words, it appears that those of you who read things like this article often wish that your cohousing neighbors or future neighbors were more familiar with the collected wisdom of 30 years of cohousing in the United States.
We at the Cohousing Association want to help. We wonder if you community members would respond to specific recommendations from you about how to learn more about cohousing. To make it easy for you, we’re writing the emails for you. Just cut and paste the messages below, add a note of your own encouragement, and hopefully you will be well on your way to a more coho-literate community.
Dear Community,
There are so many great ways to learn about cohousing, we don’t have to figure this all out on our own. There are literally thousands of people who have done this before. There are great books about cohousing, but I know some of you don’t have time to read a whole book, so here are some ways to learn about cohousing in smaller bites:
CohoUS has a great newsletter. It comes out twice a month, so it won’t clutter your inbox, but it will give you information about cohousing and upcoming opportunities to learn about cohousing. Sign up for the newsletter here:
https://www.cohousing.org/enews/
www.cohousing.org
is a great website with dozens of pages of information on specific topics on cohousing. Reading just a couple of pages per week about whatever interests you most will help us all have the information we need to make great decisions together.
Not a reader, you say? Watch (or listen) to a WebChat. With 32 (and more coming) to choose from, there is bound to be one that interests you. It’s a great way to learn about cohousing while you are driving to work or making dinner. www.cohousing.org/past-web-chats
In community,
Your hopeful neighbor
We think this might work even better if you share a particular page or WebChat that is meaningful to your community at this time. By encouraging your neighbors to learn more from our broader community, you are making your community and our whole community stronger and more effective.
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By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second is by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest — Confucius
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We are firming up plans to host events during 2020 in the Southeast, on the East and West coasts, in the Pacific Northwest and the New England areas.
National Cohousing Open House Day April 26th, 2020 is shaping up to be bigger and better than ever!
We'll be hosting at least one and maybe even two virtual (on-line) conferences in 2020!
In creating this Simple Series, we welcome event ideas, sponsors, hosts and planners in every part of the US! If interested in volunteering, please contact
karincohous@gmail.com
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Thursday, Sep 12
Mac Thomson
The Heartwood Cohousing budget process - after decades of doing this, Heartwood Cohousing has a pretty successful annual budgeting process in place and a secret weapon for arriving at a balanced budget that we’ll share with you.
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Tuesday, Sept 24
Sky Blue
Humanity is in crisis. Our global community is facing a lot of big, difficult problems: Loneliness. Climate change. Sexism. Violence--to name just a few. And we know that there aren’t easy solutions or we wouldn’t be where we are today.
But it is the experience of intentional community that changes people, so what are the necessary ingredients for that experience?
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Thursday Oct 17
Diana Leafe Christian
Dealing Effectively with Especially Challenging Community Behaviors
After serving as a consultant for cohousing communities and other kinds of intentional communities and living in community myself for many years, Diana has seen four kinds of disturbing, disruptive behaviors that become painful and disheartening for the group. She will share what seems to work well in better understanding and dealing effectively with each of these kinds of challenging behaviors in community.
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5pm PT, 6pm MT, 7pm CT, 8pm ET
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Thank you Peter Lazar
for leading the association in recent years and for remaining on the CohoUS Board of Directors as Past President.
Thank you Jim Leach and Linda Herman
for sharing the Vice-President position and supporting not only the BOD, but the cohousing movement.
Thank you Alan O'Hashi
for being the BOD Secretary and ensuring our work is recorded properly.
Welcome to the newly appointed and continuing CohoUS Board of Directors and it's officers
:
President Alan O'Hashi
Vice President Ann Lehman
Treasurer Ty Albright
Secretaries Mary Kraus
and Megan Shea
Past President Peter Lazar
Director Linda Herman
Director Jim Leach
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Have fun poking around the new website, we have spent a lot of time organizing the information for you to more easily find! If you are searching for something specific, you can click on the magnifying glass in the top right corner to use the site search function, or you can go through the site map (
click here to see the site map
)
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Annual Community Donations
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As always, we very VERY much appreciate your annual community donations. Our suggested amount is $25 per household per year and may be tax deductible. Easy online gifts can be given by
clicking here; a check or checks can be mailed to CohoUS 4710 16th St Boulder, CO 80304.
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Some of our favorite blogs are stories by people just like you. Tell us about your favorite community experience, your biggest learning, the beautiful thing your neighbor did. We'd love to share it. Submit to:
karencohous@gmail.com
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By Jude Foster
Connecting Cohousing Communities in a Regional Network
Cohousing communities are scattered across this continent now, some in unique, solo locations, others in geographic clusters in and around urban areas, with new ones always in development. In each community the members dive into a new paradigm of relationships and shared responsibilities and begin to figure out how to live together. In Portland Oregon, some folks from different communities got together and began to collaborate ten years ago. We saw the big questions:
How to live together? How to help one another?
Cohousers have lots of support from our shared resources – the well-known books, the cohousing “elders,” the national association, listserv, and website, and the regional and national conferences. All of these provide invaluable information, patterns to follow, and voices of experience. And yet every community has to live into their own new story. Every community runs into unique challenges, and every community runs the gamut of the perennial and familiar rough spots.
How to live together. How to help one another.
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Group planning to bring cohousing to Bozeman
by Abby Lynes Bozeman Daily Chronicle staff writer
People are planning to bring a cohousing community to Bozeman, which would make it the first one in the state.
Consisting of about six families so far, the group formed this spring and has just begun looking for 2 to 3 acres of land to build on. The group’s leaders say it will be a good way to create density, a stronger sense of community and provide an environmentally sustainable option.
Every cohousing development is different, and leader Mark Owkes said those involved in
Bozeman Cohousing
haven’t worked out details on how the living arrangement would work yet. It will follow a basic model, though, with several individually owned homes for both families and single people.
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Collaboration, community the focus of new Spokane cohousing development
by Ariana Lake with KXYL.com
One of Spokane's oldest neighborhoods will soon be home to some of the most innovative housing options in the city.
Haystack Heights Cohousing
promises the area's first cohousing community. Mariah McKay, who is a co-owner, said there is a guiding principle to the new development.
"Life is better lived together," McKay said.
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Classified Ads
Forming Communities and Communities Seeking Members
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Directory - Find your community now!
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If your community has not created a new and accurate listing for the new website, please do that now. As part of that process you will need to create a new user account which will allow you to update your directory listing and access other website features.
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Thanks for reading
Cohousing Now!
provides news and events on Cohousing... Now! provided by The Cohousing Association of the United States. Please forward to your friends, communities, and other lists to spread the word about cohousing!
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The Cohousing Association is funded by donations from people like you. Thanks so much for your support.
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