2009 Pre-Conference Tours

We hope you will join us on one or more of our four half or full-day tours. In addition to visiting and learning all about nine unique and wonderful Cohousing communities, you will enjoy the spectacular Northwest Washington scenery, including Puget Sound, the Kitsap Peninsula and urban Seattle.

With the guidance of an experienced cohouser, and in the company of other cohousing enthusiasts, the tours are designed to give you the unparalleled experience of visiting a wide variety of urban and rural communities in a short period of time.

During our travel time, your guide will lead a discussion about cohousing, share his or hers experiences and resources, and answer your questions - It really is a traveling workshop and more! The diverse mix of participants on these tours generates dynamic conversations, lots of learning in a fun environment and more often than not, the beginning of many new friendships.

At each stop, our community hosts will lead you on an informative tour of their community. You will learn about each community's history and values, and about the systems which keep everything running smoothly. You will have a chance to take a closer look at building and site design as well as to hear many inspiring stories about living in a cohousing community. You will also receive written materials about each community including a site plan of each.

We look forward to meeting you and together creating a fun, inspiring and unforgettable experience.

"And the contrast between the urban Seattle area and the rural ambiance of Indianola where Wise Acres is located will help visitors understand why so many of us who live here wouldn't live anywhere else. We truly have it all." Songaia cohousing resident.

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Wednesday - 8:00am to 5:00pm (Going North Tour) - $105
We will travel North to visit and learn all about the Bellingham, Songaia and Sharingwood Cohousing communities. The journey to Bellingham includes lake, forest and mountain views. We will enjoy a delicious lunch in Songaia's common house in the company of some of its residents.

Stats:
Bellingham Cohousing: 33 homes on 6 acres, completed in 2000
Songaia: 13 homes on 11 acres, completed in 2000
Sharingwood: 29 homes on 40 acres, completed in 1999

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Thursday Morning - 8:00am - noon (AM Seattle Tour) - $60
Puget Ridge, Duwamish and Jackson Place
Cohousing are located in Seattle itself and will be the focus of this half-day tour.

Stats:
Puget Ridge: 23 homes on 3 acres, completed in 1994
Duwamish: 23 homes on 3 acres, competed in 2000
Jackson Place: 27 homes on 2 acres, completed in 2001

Thursday Afternoon - 1:00pm to 5:00pm (PM Seattle Tour) - $60
Identical to morning tour; see description above.

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Friday - 8:00am to 5:00pm (Peninsula Tour) - $105

We will travel by bus to the Ferry, then across Puget Sound to Bremerton on the Kitsap Peninsula! The ride will give you a chance to see great views of the Seattle skyline, Olympic Mountains and lots more. Once in Bremerton, we will continue our bus journey to Bartimaeus, Wise Acres, and Winslow Cohousing communities. Ferry tickets and a lunch are included.

Stats:
Bartimaeus: 25 homes on 7 acres, completed in 2006
Wise Acres: 9 homes and 17 acres, completed in 1990
Winslow: 30 homes on 6 acres, completed in 1992

Senior Cohousing: A Community Approach to Independent Living.

Two Day Workshop: Wed, 6/24/09 – Thur, 6/25/09 (8:30 am – 5:00 pm)

Price: $195, including lunch

This workshop presented by Senior Cohousing author, Charles Durrett, will help participants examine issues related to aging and aging in place, within the context of a safe and comfortable environment of inquiry and discovery and in the context of cohousing. It seeks to foster the consciousness necessary for seniors to choose among a broader set of choices and become more deterministic about their future. Participants in this experiential workshop will engage in a comprehensive exploration of the issues that surface when working with a diverse group of people who are actively grappling with aging, denial, and the growth necessary to become more self-deterministic about their own future.

In Denmark they call this workshop Study Group 1: Aging Successfully, Aging in Community. Even there, if you ask one thousand people on the street if they would ever be interested in moving into Senior Cohousing, only two or three would say yes. But if you ask the same one thousand people after they attended a Study Group workshop, about 400 would say yes. Only then does the general population become aware of the emotional, physical, and spiritual benefits of living in a supportive environment — an environment where proximity and mutual concern play such a large role in making life more economical, practical, environmentally responsible and fun. Come find out what “factory” of consciousness raising that Danes have employed to build over 250 senior cohousing projects in a country of less than 5 million in the last 20 years and that has influenced senior housing across the board. Slide shows, talks, fun and games and more — don’t miss it!

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PRESENTER: Charles Durrett, noted architect and author, introduced the concept of cohousing to the U.S. from its success in Denmark. Cohousing offers new architectural and social models of housing designed for families seeking a balance of independence and sociability, community and privacy. As a leader in sustainable design, Durrett designs projects that are space-efficient, easy to maintain, and cost-effective. His firm’s primary concern is people, their environment, and the quality of their lives. His socially relevant projects have won numerous awards, including the Human Habitat Award by the United Nations, and his work has received considerable national recognition. He is also the author of the groundbreaking book, Senior Cohousing: A Community Approach to Independent Living – The Handbook (New Society Press).

Getting It Built

One Day Workshop: Wed 8:30 – 5:00
Price: $95

This workshop will give participants an overview of organizing, planning, and designing a cohousing community with emphasis on the steps necessary for site acquisition and learning from the lessons of other cohousing groups. It is most powerful when several people from the same group take the workshop together so that several participants have an understanding of the process ahead. The GIB Workshop covers:
- Group Formation
- Group Process
- Project Financing
- Design Issues
- Government Approval Process
- Finding and Purchasing Land
- Recruiting New Members


PRESENTER: A licensed architect and co-author of the book Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves, Kathryn McCamant founded McCamant & Durrett Architects and The CoHousing Company with her husband, Charles Durrett in 1987. The firm, with offices in Berkeley and Nevada City, California, specializes in sustainable design, cohousing, affordable housing, urban planning, and childcare facilities. In 2006, she founded CoHousing Partners with Jim Leach, a cohousing development company, of which she is now president. CP is currently working on projects in Fresno and Grass Valley, CA. She sat on the CohoUS Board for six years from its initial founding. Kathryn lives with her husband and teenage daughter in the Nevada City Cohousing Community. They previously lived at Doyle Street Cohousing in Emeryville, California for 12 years.

The Essentials of Integrative Facilitation: How To Get Through the Agenda and Build Energy at the Same Time

One Day Workshop: Thurs 8:30 – 5:00

Price: $95

Good meeting facilitation can make the difference between pain and gain. We'll look at the basic qualities needed to become a full-service facilitator, the process agreements needed to spread your wings, and how to recognize those magic moments when passion can be harnessed to transform binding into bonding. Presentation of principles in the morning, followed by hands on practice in the afternoon.

PRESENTER: Husband and wife team Laird Schaub and Ma'ikwe Schaub Ludwig are professional facilitators, both of whom have lived the bulk of their adult lives in community. Their life experiences inform their unique, holistic approach to meeting dynamics. Ma'ikwe has worked for 19 years as an organizer, nonprofit director, teacher and, most recently, consultant. She serves as the events team chair for the nonprofit Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC) and lives at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. Laird has a national reputation in Integrative Facilitation, conflict management and consensus. He has been a process consultant for 20 years and has worked extensively with collaborative groups across the country, including nearly 40 cohousing groups. Laird serves as the Executive Secretary of the FIC, and is a founding member of Sandhill Farm Community. His website is: www.sandhillfarm.org/canbridge.html Together, they teach a 2 year intensive facilitation training, primarily attended by cohousing community members.

Consensus Decision-Making

One Day Workshop: Fri 8:30 – 5:00

Price: $95, includes lunch

Wondering how to make consensus really work for your group? This workshop will offer a coherent approach to both theory and practice, explaining what you need to know to bring together the wisdom of the group for the best possible decisions.
Topics include exploring multiple perspectives; how to get from an issue through creating a proposal to crafting an agreement; and the careful balance between nurturing dissenting voices vs. offering a robust response to inappropriate blocks. Presentation will be mixed with exercises and practice to help you learn to put the ideals into action.

PRESENTER: Tree Bressen says she is blessed to have group facilitation as her calling, defined as "the place where your passion meets the world's crying need." She's been helping organizations have meetings that are more lively, productive, and connecting for over a decade. With long experience in community living, Tree has worked with more than fifty intentional communities (including dozens of cohousing groups at all stages of development). Her highly interactive workshops on facilitation, consensus, conflict resolution, and other group skills, offered on a gift economy basis, consistently receive enthusiastic reviews. Tree's website www.treegroup.info offers free articles and resources.

Download the handouts! Nurturing Dissent, Voting Fallbacks, Consensus, and Resources

Social Permaculture: Building Community Resilience

Half Day Workshop: Wed 8:30 – 12:00

Price: $60

A skills building workshop which will be both fun to participate in and will deepen people’s interpersonal skills and the resilience of the community. The focus is on creative ways to apply a Permaculture framework and appreciative principles to community life. Get ideas on how to support your community to develop deeper connections and to function more effectively.

We will cover:

• Patterns of Social Permaculture.
• Moving from conflict avoidance to embracing it in ways that strengthen relationships.
• Understanding and transforming power dynamics to inspire people to contribute their best.
• Using Appreciative Inquiry and Applied Meditation to solve problems, vision and create a positive was forward that inspires everyone.
• Ways to tap heart and spirit to deepen bonds.

PRESENTERS: Margo Adair & Bill Aal are co-directors of Tools for Change, have lived and or worked in a variety collectives. For over 25 years TfC has been offering training, facilitation and mediations to co-housing communities, collective households, community groups and nonprofits so that difference becomes a source of strength, and trust and accountability are the norm. The mission of Tools for Change is to bring history, heart, spirit, values and vision into the center of public life. (see www.toolsforchange.org ) Together they have co-taught, with Starhawk, principles of Social Permaculture at Earth Activist (permaculture) Trainings. Bill is a part of the newly formed Transition Town USA training working group.

From Trees to Houses: Green Harvesting, Processing and Building

Half Day Workshop: Wed 8:30 – 12:00

Price: $60

This workshop will examine sustainable choices from siting, harvesting, and processing to building with your own resources. We will focus on energy and material efficiency, low cost and low impact options, natural lighting, heating and cooling and how small can be both beautiful and sustainable. We will also examine sustainable forestry's connection to green building including embedded costs, assumptions and appropriate scale/size. As a case study we will examine an 800 square foot hybrid house kit (an example of end-product forest management) helping to clarify the integration between sustainable forestry and efficient and affordable housing. We will explore concepts which include direct solar gain with air-core mass floor, hybrid post and beam, I-Beam rafters and joists, membrane insulation systems and much more.

PRESENTER Craig Patterson, 59 years young, has spent 30 years involved with sustainable forestry; 25 years in renewable energy and conservation; 38 years of working to understand and integrate how our shadow issues effect our ability to find real solutions; and 7 years with the National Roundtable on Sustainable forests and Montreal Protocol. His paper for the 2005 National Roundtable is available online at http://www.safnet.org/periodicals/multipleperspectives.

Let’s Talk About Money

Half Day Workshop: Wed 1:30 – 5:00

Price: $60

Many communities find themselves in conflict over financial and budget issues…and the current economic situation doesn’t help! Conflicts about money are really conflicts about values. In this experiential workshop we will discuss how to have useful conversations about our financial values - conversations that lead to greater understanding & connection as well as more effective financial decision-making.

PRESENTER: David Ergo & Eris Weaver (http://www.erisweaver.info/)
David Ergo has developed and conducted training seminars in financial management, communication and conflict resolution and served as a financial consultant to individuals and small businesses. He is a founding member of FrogSong in Cotati, California

Eris Weaver is a professional facilitator and group process consultant, providing trainings in consensus decision-making, meeting facilitation, and communication skills. She also serves on the Coho/US Board of Directors. She is a founding member of FrogSong in Cotati, California.

Serving Your Larger Community: through Video, Photos, and the Web

Half Day Workshop: Wed 1:30 – 5:00

Price: $60

To grow the Sustainable Communities movement, it is important to do what you love, and share what you know

In this interactive multimedia workshop, we'll share real-world examples of how Sustainable Communities (Cohousing, Co-ops, Ecovillages and Transition Towns) serve as living laboratories for the rapidly emerging worldwide sustainability movement. During our visits to many different communities, we've learned a lot, and look forward to sharing tools you can use, now.

During this participatory workshop, we'll do a case study of "Anywhere Cohousing." You will learn how this group might use FREE tools to organize and promote their workshops and potlucks. Using media including video, audio, photos and the web is a very efficient outreach method. We will discuss ways that you can share information that inspires, as we grow and serve our broader communities.

Topics Covered: Short Film Production, Photography, Website Development and Maintenance, Blogging, “Vlogging” (aka Video Blogging), Sharing, Social Networking, Viral Marketing. Participatory workshop, includes some slides and web, video and photo editing demonstrations.

Click to view video on Mandy and Ryan's Journey

PRESENTERS: Mandy Creighton and and Ryan Mlynarczyk are traveling 12,000 miles around the US by bicycle on a journey to visit and document people living in sustainable communities of all types. One of the main foci of the project is to explore how people live more sustainably in cohousing communities, as this is the fastest growing segment of the entire movement. The journey is currently underway, and a feature-length documentary film is set to be made at the end of 2009 to help advocate for the communities movement and educate viewers on the importance of living more sustainably in community. In addition to a comprehensive website, they give video and slideshow presentations to local communities as they travel. Both Ryan and Mandy have a passion for sustainability and want to bring their skills and knowledge into community life. They plan to move into one of the communities they visit at the end of their journey.

The Cohousing Timeline Game

Half Day Workshop: Thur 8:30 – 12:00

Price: $60

Soft costs... hard costs... feasibility studies... project manager... construction manager... bid... estimate... escrow... value... appraisal… variance... bylaws.. governance... partnership... workshare... marketing... end loans...

What do all these terms mean? How are they related? How can I find out? Is cohousing development something my group and I can realistically do? Before my group gets in too deeply, is there a way we can quickly find out? If you are asking these or other questions about the cohousing development process, come test drive The Cohousing Timeline Game!

In our highly interactive session the participants will see the arc of the development process. Working in teams we will also discuss, debate, and question a selection of the more than 150 major tasks that every development project must go through. We will actually create a timeline for the fictional (but based on REAL life!) "Living in Complete Harmony Cohousing Community”.

PRESENTERS Jack Wilbern & Ann Zabaldo of Cohousing Collaborative, LLC.

Ann Zabaldo specializes in marketing, outreach, and lighting and fueling the fires of burning souls. Ann is both a pioneer volunteer and a paid professional in the cohousing movement since 1991. Ann is past president of The Cohousing Association of the United States. She was the cofounder of Mid Atlantic Cohousing. In 2008, she completed a two year project co-producing a DVD on developing cohousing communities targeted to professional developers new to cohousing. Ann was on the development team for Takoma Village Cohousing in Washington, DC where she lives, and Eastern Village Cohousing in Silver Spring, MD.

Jack Wilbern is the architect/planner for Blueberry Hill cohousing community in Vienna, VA (completed in 2000.) He is also a principal partner of the architectural firm, Butz-Wilbern, with extensive experience in project development and management. Jack Wilbern is also a principal partner of Cohousing collaborative, LLC a cohousing development company serving the mid-Atlantic region.

Group Process Skills for Committees

Half Day Workshop: Thurs 8:30 – 12:00

Price: $60

In this experiential session, we’ll explore the formal and informal roles that people play in committees, and the way that these impact the power dynamics in the group. We’ll contrast when these roles are fulfilled competently, with when they aren’t, and generate ideas for what you can do about that before, during, and after the meeting. You will leave with a deeper understanding of this simple yet significant foundation of committee work, handouts with tips for success, and an exercise that you can share with the folks at home to increase the capacity in your community.

PRESENTER: Liz Logan, MA, is a facilitator, trainer, speaker, and strategic planning consultant. She has been teaching communication and group process skills since 1994 in academic, corporate, and most recently, cohousing settings. She has been to nine cohousing communities, and recently spent 11 months working with an ad hoc Communication Committee at East Lake Commons Cohousing, where they developed a series of Salons that have had a dramatic effect on the communication climate in that community.

Download the slides here

Affordable Cohousing: Making the Numbers Work

Half Day Workshop: Thur 1:30 – 5:00

Price: $60

Provides an overview of strategies currently in use in cohousing, and an introduction to the steps that a forming group can take early on to identify the most promising opportunities for them, and how even building groups can increase affordability in their projects. Topics to be covered include technical and practical definitions of affordability, building your case, and finding the right partners. We'll go over basics of inclusionary zoning, affordable-housing finance. In this extended format, we'll go through the basic budgets of cohousing developments and look at how to increase affordability in three different, sometimes complementary, often contradictory ways:

• Spend less (aka "build cheap") (but still make it nice enough that people want to buy it)
• Use internal price allocations (i.e. charge more for some units to make others more affordable)
• Get money elsewhere (aka "find subsidies") The challenge is, most subsidies, where you can find them, come with strings attached, limitations on who can benefit (typically income restrictions), lottery requirements that get in the way of member participation, and, paradoxically, local-hire and materials rules that can actually increase the cost of a project.

We'll share some case studies of cohousing projects that have used some of these strategies, and look at the short-term and long-term effects.

PRESENTER: Betsy Morris, betsy [at] kali [dot] com.
Betsy Morris, Cohousing Coach with Planning for Sustainable Communities, lives at Berkeley (CA) Cohousing and serves as research director for Coho/US. She is a long-time community and economic development planning and research consultant, with over 20 years experience on the east and west coasts. She has developed trainings for grassroots leaders, and created neighborhood housing plans with an emphasis on affordable housing. She has a Masters and Doctorate in City and Regional Planning.

The Right Site

Half Day Workshop: Thur 1:30 – 5:00

Price: $60

What we learned in Laura's site design workshop, at the 2006 Cohousing Conference, completely changed the way our forming group looked at our prospective site. It led to a major shift in our plans - ultimately, we walked away from that property without any investments. Chris adds even more expertise in identifying and acquiring sites - what a combination! Register Now

How do you choose the right site for your community. How do you know what will work? This workshop will explore the process of searching for sites, recording your efforts to share with others, and evaluating sites for actual development. Does the sewer and water work? Do you have adequate access - for fire trucks, delivery vehicles, and to meet local design standards? And most importantly, does your vision of community fit on this land, and can you see yourself living there? Following presentations we will lead you through a hands-on exercise that will show you how to find and then test a site. If you already have a site that you would like to test, bring a 1:20 scale plan to the workshop and we'll help you! PRESENTERS: Laura Fitch & Chris ScottHanson

Web Marketing for Cohousing: Finding Your Next Neighbors

Half Day Workshop: Fri 8:30 – 12:00

Price: $60

Learn how your group can weave every member's social network into an integrated “Web 2.0” marketing and outreach campaign that helps build support and recruit members, either for new groups or for resales in existing cohousing neighborhoods. We'll look at a variety of cohousing websites with common structural issues and do some “virtual makeovers,” showing best practices for using your cohousing.org directory entry, YouTube, Twitter, FaceBook, MeetUp, Craig's List, MySpace, online calendars, regional boards, and newspapers, making your online presence into an engaging conversation, not just a static web page. Participants who register in advance can get the group working on their sites and internet marketing strategies during the class.

PRESENTER: Raines Cohen raines-cohoUS [at] raines [dot] com
Raines Cohen is a Northern California Cohousing regional organizer and a Cohousing Coach, teaching Cohousing 101 online and in person and launching Cohousing.TV. A Certified Senior Cohousing Facilitator and Certified Green Building Professional, He's been in the movement for a decade and building community for more than a quarter century and has served on the Coho/US board and helped organize the 2001 national conference; he currently serves on the FIC board and lives at Berkeley (CA) Cohousing (originally at Swan's Market in Oakland), with his wife Betsy Morris.

Project Management Best Practices

Half Day Workshop: Fri 8:30 – 12:00

Price: $60

A project management primer from top cohousing professionals who will share lessons learned from a decade plus of working with dozens of cohousing communities. This workshop is for members of cohousing groups that will be working with design and development professionals, as well as aspiring cohousing professionals. Topics will include construction and financial management, options and upgrades, partnering with developers from a distance, and project managers who are also group members. Participants will have the opportunity to raise questions and discuss issues they are facing.

PRESENTER: Katie McCamant & Jim Leach, kmccamant [at] cohousingpartners [dot] com.

A licensed architect and co-author of the book Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves, Kathryn McCamant founded McCamant & Durrett Architects and The CoHousing Company with her husband, Charles Durrett in 1987. The firm, with offices in Berkeley and Nevada City, California, specializes in sustainable design, cohousing, affordable housing, urban planning, and childcare facilities.In 2006, she founded CoHousing Partners with Jim Leach, a cohousing development company, of which she is now president. CP is currently working on projects in Fresno and Grass Valley, CA. She sat on the CohoUS Board for six years from its initial founding. Kathryn lives with her husband and teenage daughter in the Nevada City Cohousing Community.

Jim Leach is president of Wonderland Hill Development Company and chairman of CoHousing Partners. Jim has led Wonderland Hill Development Company as the largest developer of cohousing communities in the United States. Jim is a professional engineer with over 40 years of experience in the design, construction and development of sustainable, planned neighborhoods and cohousing communities.

He has served as a trail blazer in the industry in implementing energy-efficient strategies, leading-edge design and community participation, resulting in neighborhoods that provide maximum value to the residents. His award-winning neighborhoods have been recognized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, National Association of Home Builders, National Council of the Housing Industry, Urban Land Institute and The Congress of New Urbanism. Jim holds a Bachelor of Architectural Engineering and Bachelor of Business Management from CU and a Master of Construction Engineering from Stanford University. In November 2007, Jim and his wife moved into the newly completed Silver Sage Cohousing in Boulder, CO. He is enjoying the community he developed, and the daily oh-so-short-five-minute walk to the office

Incorporating Affordable Units into Urban Cohousing: A University of Washington Architecture Student Project

Half Day Workshop: Fri 8:30 – 12:00

Special FREE Workshop

Graduate students at UW studied 3 urban sites in Seattle for hypothetical cohousing projects. They worked with a “client group” that included cohousing residents and a non-profit affordable housing developer. The student projects will be on display in Gould Court but this session will give forum for some of the students to present their projects; the “clients” to give comments on what aspects of the project were realistic / problematic; and how affordable units could be incorporated into real cohousing projects. Conference attendees are invited to come listen, learn, and ask question of the students and “clients”. This free session is intended to bring ideas to forming and existing groups on how they can incorporate affordable units into their community, thereby integrating people of mixed incomes and backgrounds into cohousing.

Cohousing 101

Half Day Workshop: Fri 1:30 – 5:00

Special Price: $20

This introductory session is an ideal primer for newcomers to cohousing. You will learn about the history of cohousing and receive an introduction to the development process. You will gain exposure to the roles of key participants and cohousing jargon. And you will hear tips about how to get the most out of your conference experience. This session is a must for any first-timer to the conference.

PRESENTERS: Grace Kim, Coho/US Board member and Chair of Conference Planning Team; Eris Weaver, Coho/US Board Co-President and Chair of Conference Program Committee; and others.

Grace Kim is an architect and co-founding principal of Schemata Workshop, a 5-person architectural collaborative in Seattle. She attended architecture school at Washington State University and received a post professional Masters in Architecture from University of Washington, where she also received a grant to live in Copenhagen and research Danish cohousing – specifically Common House design. She has visited over 20 communities in Denmark and more than 20 in North America. She is actively involved with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Congress of Residential Architects. In 2004 she was the first recipient of the national AIA Emerging Professionals Mentorship Award and in 2008 she was received the national AIA Young Architects Award. Grace is also the author of The Survival Guide to Architectural Internship and Career Development and the architect for Daybreak Cohousing which is under construction in Portland, OR.

Eris Weaver is a professional facilitator and group process consultant, providing trainings in consensus decision-making, meeting facilitation, and communication skills. She also serves on the Coho/US Board of Directors. She is a founding member of FrogSong in Cotati, California.

Antidotes to Five Common Kinds of Community Conflict

Half Day Workshop: Fri 1:30 – 5:00

Price: $60, including playful insights

With lively exercises, humorous musical skits, and vivid anecdotes about real problems and their successful solutions in healthy, thriving communities (and cautionary tales from those that failed), Diana Leafe Christian focuses on skills for building trust and connection and reducing conflict in existing cohousing communities as well as in forming groups. Based on her 15 years’ experience in the communities movement, her work as a consultant to cohousing and other communities, and her own experiences living in community, she identifies and briefly discusses six crucial organizational structures that, when missing, create “structural conflict” and lead to failure in forming-community groups or wrenching conflict in existing communities. She covers the significant, mutually influencing relationship between mission and purpose, decision-making method, and new-member policy; creating communication agreements; helping people stay accountable to group agreements; instituting a graduated series of consequences; creating a sense of trust and connection; and dealing with “the challenging group member.”

PRESENTER: Diana Leafe Christian is author of Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities and Finding Community: How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community (New Society Publishers, 2003 & 2007). She hosts a blog on the Coho/US website with frequent postings on communication and process issues as well as how to join a cohousing community. Editor of Communities magazine for 14 years (1994-2007), she now publishes Ecovillages, a free online publication. Diana speaks at conferences, and leads workshops for and does consultations for cohousing communities, ecovillages, and other kinds of intentional communities in the U.S. and Canada. She’s been interviewed by Time, the New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, AARP magazine, NPR, and the BBC. She lives at Earthaven Ecovillage in North Carolina. Her website is www.DianaLeafeChristian.org.

Designing super eco-cohousing, start to finish

Half Day Workshop: Fri 1:30 – 5:00

Price: $60, includes lower carbon footprint

Beginning with site analysis concepts, and moving through a participatory design process, integrated systems design (including passive solar, passive cooling, solar thermal, pv, ground source heat pumps, rainwater collection, greywater reuse, blackwater treatment, and maybe even a little food production), and into community supportive design, we’ll spend a half day together working through the nuances of cohousing design. We’ll take a look at recent progressive projects and talk about what the next generation of cohousing needs to achieve to meaningfully address climate change and one planet living.

PRESENTER: Bryan Bowen, bryan [at] bryanbowenarchitects [dot] com.
Bryan Bowen Architects, PC is a multidisciplinary design collaborative that explores how we may live more lightly upon our earth in beautiful and healthy environments. In addition to a focus on cohousing, the practice includes passive solar single-family homes, eco-retrofits, multifamily housing, mixed-use projects, and commercial work.

Friday Keynote: Cohousing in Denmark - a look back and forward

featuring Jan Gudmand Hoyer

Friday 7:00pm - 8:30pm
Note: Also available for $20 cash at door - check back here for directions to auditorium (no credit cards/checks). The keynote address is part of the full conference package, so there is no charge for attendees who are registered for the Fri-Sun event. This address is also available to the general public for $20 (cash at the door with limited seating: first-come, first served).

In this thought-provoking presentation, we will look at the emergence of Cohousing in Denmark - where it all began. This is a rare opportunity for the those involved in Cohousing to hear how it all started from Jan Gudmand Hoyer. He is uniquely suited to address this topic as one of original founders of the Cohousing Movement in Denmark. Gudmand Hoyer is an internationally recognized architect of numerous cohousing communities.

After authoring the seminal paper, The Missing Link between Utopia and the Dated One-Family House, Gudmand Hoyer was established one of the most influential early thought leaders of the cohousing movement.

An interview with Jan Gudmand Hoyer

Cohousing Association Board Member Grace Kim recently interviewed Gulmand Hoyer in preparation for the upcoming International Cohousing Summit.

What led you to explore cohousing? Can you share your first experiences with cohousing?

In 1951, while attending school, I had to prepare a paper on the subject Kibbutzes. The collective life form fascinated me. Later in about 1954, I read Thomas More’s Utopia and found the ideas very compelling. These factors took form with my first academic cohousing project for summerhouses in 1958. My teacher didn't like the idea and, once again, I received a poor grade. Then in 1960, I attended a master’s class at Harvard with Christopher Alexander. Alexander proposed a car city and openly opposed my idea of having the cars kept outside the housing group. Many years later, he made his Lima project with cohousing groups, feeling that in undeveloped countries, this idea would provide a workable solution. Even through our disagreements, many ideas where exchanged and this opened new avenues for changing architecture’s traditional perspective.

Why do you think cohousing has been so successful in Denmark?

Danish lifestyle really changed radically in the Fifties when women started to work outside the house. The standard house plans, both for apartments and one-family houses were at this time still made in same style as the beginning of the industrial period. People were ready for something new. Cohousing gave place for a new kind of people: it gave the family a structure for better teamwork. Cohousing allowed for the kitchen island and sectioning of the house. Common house dining gave people more time. Children were secure, without danger from neighborhood cars. Crime and juvenile delinquency were prevented because of nearby neighbors always watching. Plus, there were more possibilities for economically developing special features, like swimming pools, workshops, music rooms, children's playroom, library, or common caretaking for children. Lots of new social interaction was inviting for both children and grownups. I even think there are less divorces among the couples. Add to this lots of green economy and new ideas from their interacting with many professionals in the cohousing community. By driving together, to work, vacations, and entertainment like movies and theater, daily CO2 use is significantly reduced.

Are there things that you now view differently from your early work?

That people are more different in their lifestyle choices than I envisioned. I thought that the choice of a house within the overall plan, would be difficult and it was not. In the end, some wanted to be near the common house other to be near the pool, the tennis Court or the vegetable garden and so on. People naturally tend to be attracted to different things, so everything works pretty harmoniously.

I also notice that in most cohousing initial planning, community members think they want walls around their gardens and other types of privacy, but in the end, when they get used to each other, nobody wants this. By the time planning is completed, people want to break down the walls and share with each other, almost universally.

How do you see cohousing growing as an international movement?

In EU and US there is a natural need for cohousing. I see the greatest need in the US because there are less social support services than in other parts of the world. In EU, where the nuclear family is small compared to pre-industrial times, there is a significant up-tick in cohousing projects. The EU has increased numbers of single people, many elderly, and single parents—all feel very isolated and seek the fellowship of cohousing.

Some cultures still have tight relationships between generations. In Asia, for instance, many young people find the power of family obligations restrictive and are not ready to embrace multi-generation common living situations. Iran has a big need for cohousing in the cities, but not in the countryside, where women’s freedom is limited, like in Arab states.

The Cohousing Association has the opportunity to connect these disparate views and bringing people together in conference is a strong beginning for an international movement.

What do you see as contributing factors to cohousing’s developing success in America?

The financial crisis. The isolation of nuclear families. The many divorces. The desire for a sense of increased security and well being. People are more aware of the need for a greener lifestyle and suffer loneliness. All these needs and wants are addressed by cohousing communities.

Can you discuss differences between Danish and American cohousing projects?

Because of the cold climate and limited places for new development, many Danish cohousing projects are third generation projects with everything under one roof. Danish Cohousing projects in general have less square meters and more intimate social contact between separate dwellings. For example, it’s common in Denmark to have a window directly to a semi-private area with clear view of the neighbor’s dining room.

Has cohousing evolved in Denmark to include senior specific cohousing projects?

Yes, there are specific senior projects, but the preference is to have the whole life circle represented in mixed projects.

If you could shape or influence cohousing trends, what would you like to see happen?

To have whole cities divided into cohousing groups in future. Neighborhoods and districts could function as mini-villages.

Residents most often develop Cohousing projects. Do you have any sage advice for residents starting the development process?

Keep groups under 33 participants. If there are more than 33 in the group, divide the group. Have parties and social events together, go on excursions together. Give marks to the architecture you best like, discus it together, let everybody participate in these mini-groups. Also avoid groups with less than 20 participants. 33 seem to be the best number for several reasons. Utopia. Several primal groups. You don’t have to leave the project if you get unfriendly with one group, just move to another group. The optimal cohousing group size is 33, in my experience.

Is there something that you wish you would have known before you began your first cohousing experience?

Yes, a very important thing: have members write down their requirements and let the newcomers accept them and sign this acknowledgement… I mean, for instance, have group members designate specifics and priorities, such as which area belongs to the children and for what purpose. Is a garden more important than a pool or exercise room? Getting clear on these and putting them into writing will help attract the right new members and keep everyone working together toward Utopia.

On Friday, June 26, 2009, Gudmand Hoyer will give the National Cohousing Conference's Keynote Address. He is one of three Featured Speakers presenting at this annual National Conference.

Saturday Plenary: Love, Home, Village, Earth

featuring Mark Lakeman

Saturday 8:30 - 10:00 am

A highly visual journey of momentum and transformation that describes essential strategies and initiatives for localized action that is designed to transform the social networks of cities. This also will be a story of communities rising, to ultimately become The City Repair Project, emerging from within the creative culture of Portland, Oregon. Much of the work described has also been in collaboration with City Repair's sister architecture and planning affiliate, Communitecture. While City Repair inspires and guides the retroactive transformation of the grid infrastructure of the typical American city into a vital social commons, Communitecture often provides a supportive community-process design role. The approach has been broadly successul, engendering movement across the social and ecological spectrum of civic life.

Click above to see Mark Lakeman as he repairs his city, one intersection at a time.

This presentation compares the historic settlement patterns of village societies with the dominant forces of Western colonization as a context for describing City Repair's work. As a multidisciplinary culture, City Repair combines architecture, urban planning, anthropology, community development, public art, permaculture and ecological design in projects that transform space and transfer power at local levels. While both City Repair and Communitecture support the same approaches to community self-development, the latter's work results in larger, built proptotypes that include village designs and cohousing.

Through a restorative process in which citizens re-imagine and literally re-build their own habitat and commons, we are engendering relationships that revitalize the fabric of our local community within the existing context of social isolation. By re-asserting localized village patterns in the city grid, City Repair establishes both the physical and social foundation for sustainable culture.

The presentation is chronological, proceeding from the most elementary and accessible scale to enormous visionary collaborations involving thousands of people. As an overall movement, each project repeats the essential principles of localization, community participation and placemaking, while building upon each success to manifest larger and larger impacts.

Presenter

Mark is the co-founder of the City Repair Project in Portland, Oregon. City Repair is a multi-disciplinary, non-profit organization which works with place-based communities to creatively transform the infrastructure of the public commons where people live. Whether converting street intersections into public squares, or organizing other forms of permanent or ephemeral place interventions, City Repair is effectively engaging citizens in the reinvention of the public landscape. All of these projects are ecological in emphasis, using natural building and permaculture techniques. City Repair projects are underway in more than a dozen cities in the USA and Canada, including citizen-driven designs for the Winter Olympics of 2010.

After working for several years in the 1980's as a lead designer of large scale corporate projects, in the 1990's Mark embarked on a series of cultural immersion projects with indigenous societies in order to derive placemaking patterns which could be applied to urban settings in the United States. These patterns include broad participation, local ownership, transference of authority to local populations, creative expression in planned and unplanned processes, and social capital as both the primary constant for stability and the economic engine of change.

Mark is also the principal of Communitecture, a creative and aggressive archiecture and planning firm with award winning ecological building and planning projects at many scales, including Portland, Oregon's ReBuilding Center, and numerous cohousing and ecovillage projects.

City Repair Project

The multidisciplinary nature of the City Repair Project defies categorization. It is a model for social and ecological restoration operating in a landscape characterized by isolation and compartmentalization. The project takes Fritjof Capra's 'Tipping Point' as a model for paradigm change by intentionally focusing upon intersections in space and time. We are directly reclaiming those intersection points and opening the field for what automatically happens when people reunite with their Place: everything. The projects restate the same themes over and over, but the forms change and grow. Each project questions convention, and reinvents it as we restate the principles of creative community involvement and ownership, working to rejoin people to time and space as a place for sustainable, creative, localized culture.
The City Repair Project is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. For more information, visit their website at www.cityrepair.org.

On Saturday, June 27, 2009, Mark Lakeman will give the National Cohousing Conference's Plenary. He is one of three Featured Speakers presenting at this annual National Conference.

Sunday Closing: Cohousing's Contribution to the Great Transformation

featuring Robert Gilman

Sunday, 10:30am - 12:00pm

In these momentous times, cohousing and cohousers have a powerful opportunity to bring their learnings and experience to bear on some of the core issues facing our society. This presentation will provide a context for understanding this opportunity, a celebration of what cohousers are already doing, and an exploration into the still greater possibilities that open before us now.

Local 2001 show featuring Robert Gilman - don't let long (50 sec.) title-roll stop you - its worth it!

Presenter

After his first career as an Astrophysicist, Robert co-founded the influential In Context magazine, A Quarterly of Humane Sustainable Culture. In 1991, Robert wrote and published the seminal article The Eco-village Challenge, which provided the definitive description of ecovillage.

An Ecovillage is a:

• human-scale
• full-featured settlement
• in which human activities are harmlessly integrated into the natural world
• in a way that is supportive of healthy human development, and
• can be successfully continued into the indefinite future

Since that article, he has added that an ecovillage must have multiple centres of initiative. 

Robert and his first wife, Diane, were also instrumental in the founding of the Global Ecovillage Network. They were early members and lived for three years in Winslow Cohousing, one of the first cohousing projects in the US. Since 2004, Robert has served on the City Council of Langley, (a small town on Whidbey Island). In this capacity, he has applied his sustainable community ideas to a larger scale.

Robert also offers consulting, facilitation, and is a sought-after public speaker that we are fortunate to have for the 2009 National Cohousing Conference.

On Sunday, June 28, 2009, Robert Gilman will give the National Cohousing Conference's Closing Address. He is one of three Featured Speakers presenting at this annual National Conference.

Growing our Sustainability

This track offers four breakout sessions.

Growing Our Communication Skills

Descriptions & Bios

Growing Our Physical Structures

Descriptions & Bios

Growing our Community Connections

Descriptions & Bios

2009 Featured Architects

On June 24-28, 2009, our Annual National Cohousing Conference will feature a number of Top Cohousing Architects - some very well-known, established green architects with many built sustainable communities - and some whose emerging practices are generating new ways of looking at Cohousing and green architecture. We are also sharing the work of some architecture graduate students who are addressing the challenges of cohousing design for their very first time.

Those who attend the 2009 conference have the opportunity to enjoy and learn with...

Bryan Bowen

Conference Session: Renewable Energy at Achievable Scale and Cost, included in Conference
Pre-Conference 3 hr Workshop: Designing super eco-cohousing, start to finish, $60
Bryan Bowen Architects, PC is a multidisciplinary design collaborative that explores how we may live more lightly upon our earth in beautiful and healthy environments. In addition to a focus on green cohousing, the practice includes passive solar single-family homes, eco-retrofits (making existing buildings green), multifamily housing, mixed-use projects, and commercial work.

Charles Durrett

Conference Session: The Top Ten Impediments to Cohousing – and How to Get Around Them, included in Conference
Pre-Conference 2-day Workshop: Senior Cohousing: A Community Approach to Independent Living, $195
Charles Durrett, noted architect and author, introduced the concept of cohousing to the U.S. from its success in Denmark. Cohousing offers new architectural and social models of housing designed for families seeking a balance of independence and sociability, community and privacy. As a leader in sustainable, green design, Durrett designs projects that are space-efficient, easy to maintain, and cost-effective. His firm’s primary concern is people, their environment, and the quality of their lives. His socially relevant projects have won numerous awards, including the Human Habitat Award by the United Nations, and his work has received considerable national recognition. He is also the author of the groundbreaking book, Senior Cohousing: A Community Approach to Independent Living – The Handbook (TenSpeed Press).

Laura Fitch

Conference Session: Endless Meetings or Efficiency in design decision making – the Workshop Approach, included in Conference
Pre-Conference 3-hr Workshop: The Right Site, $60
Laura Fitch is a principal with Kraus-Fitch Architects, Inc. in Amherst, Massachusetts and a 15-year resident of Pioneer Valley Cohousing. Kraus-Fitch Architects has worked on programming, schematic design, and/or full services on over two dozen cohousing communities across the US.

Grace Kim

Conference Session: Three’s Company : A Collaborative Effort Between Owner, Architect and Contractor, included in Conference
Pre-Conference 3-hr Workshop: Cohousing 101, $20
Grace Kim is an architect and co-founding principal of Schemata Workshop, a 5-person architectural collaborative in Seattle. She attended architecture school at Washington State University and received a post-professional Masters in Architecture from University of Washington, where she also received a grant to live in Copenhagen and research Danish cohousing – specifically Common House design. She has visited over 20 communities in Denmark and more than 20 in North America. She is actively involved with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Congress of Residential Architects. In 2004 she was the first recipient of the national AIA Emerging Professionals Mentorship Award and in 2008 she was received the national AIA Young Architects Award. Grace is also the author of The Survival Guide to Architectural Internship and Career Development and the architect for Daybreak Cohousing which is under construction in Portland, OR.

Kathryn McCamant

Conference Session: Working with Consultants Effectively, included in Conference
Pre-Conference 3-hr Workshop: Project Management Best Practices, $60
Pre-Conference 1-day Workshop: Getting it Built, $95
A licensed architect and co-author of the book Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves, Kathryn McCamant founded McCamant & Durrett Architects and The CoHousing Company with her husband, Charles Durrett in 1987. The firm, with offices in Berkeley and Nevada City, California, specializes in sustainable design, cohousing, affordable housing, urban planning, and childcare facilities.In 2006, she founded CoHousing Partners with Jim Leach, a cohousing development company, of which she is now president. CP is currently working on projects in Fresno and Grass Valley, CA. She sat on the CohoUS Board for six years from its initial founding. Kathryn lives with her husband and teenage daughter in the Nevada City Cohousing Community. They previously lived at Doyle Street Cohousing in Emeryville, California for 12 years.

University of Washington Architecture Students

Pre-Conference 3-hr Workshop: Incorporating Affordable Units into Urban Cohousing, FREE
University of Washington Architecture Graduate students studied 3 urban sites in Seattle for hypothetical cohousing projects. They worked with a “client group” that included cohousing residents and a non-profit affordable housing developer.

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A number of the cohousing architects enjoy a get together at a recent National Cohousing Conference

2009 Featured Developers

Cohousing Developers are a rare breed in the United States. While many have been involved as developers (of their own, self-developed cohousing community), very few have been involved in more than one project. All of these developers have, and will share what they have learned with you. Developing property in the United States is a very difficult thing and it's far too easy to make very costly mistakes - some of which are easily avoided if you have the right information. Whether you want to self-develop or work with a professional developer, come learn from these experienced Cohousing Developers about how to create a more successful project.

Jim Leach

Conference Session: Developing and Living the Senior Cohousing Experience, included in Conference
Pre-Conference 3-hr Workshop: Project Management Best Practices, $60
Jim Leach is president of Wonderland Hill Development Company and chairman of CoHousing Partners. Jim has led Wonderland Hill Development Company as the largest developer of cohousing communities in the United States. Jim is a professional engineer with over 40 years of experience in the design, construction and development of sustainable, planned neighborhoods and cohousing communities.

He has served as a trail blazer in the industry in implementing energy-efficient strategies, leading-edge design and community participation, resulting in neighborhoods that provide maximum value to the residents. His award-winning neighborhoods have been recognized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, National Association of Home Builders, National Council of the Housing Industry, Urban Land Institute and The Congress of New Urbanism. Jim holds a Bachelor of Architectural Engineering and Bachelor of Business Management from CU and a Master of Construction Engineering from Stanford University. In November 2007, Jim and his wife moved into the newly completed Silver Sage Cohousing in Boulder, CO. He is enjoying the community he developed, and the daily oh-so-short-five-minute walk to the office.

Kathryn McCamant

Conference Session: Working with Consultants Effectively, included in Conference
Pre-Conference 3-hr Workshop: Project Management Best Practices, $60
Pre-Conference 1-day Workshop: Getting it Built, $95
A licensed architect and co-author of the book Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves, Kathryn McCamant founded McCamant & Durrett Architects and The CoHousing Company with her husband, Charles Durrett in 1987. The firm, with offices in Berkeley and Nevada City, California, specializes in sustainable design, cohousing, affordable housing, urban planning, and childcare facilities.In 2006, she founded CoHousing Partners with Jim Leach, a cohousing development company, of which she is now president. CP is currently working on projects in Fresno and Grass Valley, CA.She sat on the CohoUS Board for six years from its initial founding. Kathryn lives with her husband and teenage daughter in the Nevada City Cohousing Community. They previously lived at Doyle Street Cohousing in Emeryville, California for 12 years.

Chris ScottHansen

Pre-Conference 3-hr Workshop: The Right Site, $60
Chris ScottHanson has been a cohousing development consultant since 1989, working with groups all over the US and Canada. He specializes in non-profit self-developed cohousing for groups who are surprised to discover that they actually have the financial horsepower to do it themselves.

Jack Wilbern

Pre-Conference 3-hr Workshop: The Cohousing Timeline Game, $60
Jack Wilbern is the architect/planner for Blueberry Hill cohousing community in Vienna, VA (completed in 2000.) He is also a principal partner of the architectural firm, Butz-Wilbern, with extensive experience in project development and management. Jack Wilbern is also a principal partner of Cohousing Collaborative, LLC a cohousing development company serving the mid-Atlantic region.

Ann Zabaldo

Crucial Conversations: Case Study for Regional Outreach, included in Conference
Pre-Conference 3-hr Workshop: The Cohousing Timeline Game, $60
Ann Zabaldo specializes in marketing, outreach, and lighting and fueling the fires of burning souls. Ann is both a pioneer volunteer and a paid professional in the cohousing movement since 1991. Ann is past president of The Cohousing Association of the United States. She was the cofounder of Mid Atlantic Cohousing. In 2008, she completed a two year project co-producing a DVD on developing cohousing communities targeted to professional developers new to cohousing. Ann was on the development team for Takoma Village Cohousing in Washington, DC where she lives, and Eastern Village Cohousing in Silver Spring, MD.

2009 Featured Process Consultants

On June 24-28, 2009, our Annual National Cohousing Conference will feature a number of Top Cohousing Process Consultants - some very well-known, established consultants with years of experience with facilitation, consensus training, and group process consultations and numerous Cohousing Communities - and some who's emerging practices are generating new ways of thinking about group decision making.

Those who attend the 2009 conference have the opportunity to enjoy and learn with...

Margo Adair & Bill Aal

Pre-Conference 3 hr Workshop: Social Permaculture: Building Community Resilience, $60
Margo Adair & Bill Aal are co-directors of Tools for Change, have lived and or worked in a variety collectives. For over 25 years TfC has been offering training, facilitation and mediations to co-housing communities, collective households, community groups and nonprofits so that difference becomes a source of strength, and trust and accountability are the norm. The mission of Tools for Change is to bring history, heart, spirit, values and vision into the center of public life. (see www.toolsforchange.org ) Together they have co-taught, with Starhawk, principles of Social Permaculture at Earth Activist (permaculture) Trainings. Bill is a part of the newly formed Transition Town USA training working group.

Tree Bressen

Conference Session: Basic Facilitation Skills., included in Conference
Pre-Conference 1-day Workshop: Consensus Decision-Making, $95
Tree Bressen says she is blessed to have group facilitation as her calling, defined as "the place where your passion meets the world's crying need." She's been helping organizations have meetings that are more lively, productive, and connecting for over a decade. With long experience in community living, Tree has worked with more than fifty intentional communities (including dozens of cohousing groups at all stages of development). Her highly interactive workshops on facilitation, consensus, conflict resolution, and other group skills, offered on a gift economy basis, consistently receive enthusiastic reviews. Tree's website www.treegroup.info offers free articles and resources.

Diana Leafe Christian

Pre-Conference 3-hr Workshop: Antidotes to Five Common Kinds of Community Conflict, $60
Diana Leafe Christian is author of Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities and Finding Community: How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community (New Society Publishers, 2003 & 2007). She hosts a blog on the Coho/US website with frequent postings on communication and process issues as well as how to join a cohousing community. Editor of Communities magazine for 14 years (1994-2007), she now publishes Ecovillages, a free online publication. Diana speaks at conferences, and leads workshops for and does consultations for cohousing communities, ecovillages, and other kinds of intentional communities in the U.S. and Canada. She’s been interviewed by Time, the New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, AARP magazine, NPR, and the BBC. She lives at Earthaven Ecovillage in North Carolina. Her website is www.DianaLeafeChristian.org.

Liz Logan, M.A.

Conference Session: Talkers vs. Doers: How Personalities Affect Decision Making Processes., included in Conference
Pre-Conference 3-hr Workshop: Group Process Skills for Committees, $60
Liz Logan, MA, is a facilitator, trainer, speaker, and strategic planning consultant. She has been teaching communication and group process skills since 1994 in academic, corporate, and most recently, cohousing settings. She has been to nine cohousing communities, and recently spent 11 months working with an ad hoc Communication Committee at East Lake Commons Cohousing, where they developed a series of Salons that have had a dramatic effect on the communication climate in that community.

Laird Schaub

Conference Session: Power Dynamics and Leadership in Cooperative Groups, included in Conference
Conference Session: This is delegated to the ones I love., included in Conference
Pre-Conference 1-day Workshop: The Essentials of Integrative Facilitation: How To Get Through the Agenda and Build Energy at the Same Time, $95
Laird Schaub has lived the bulk of his adult life in community. He has a national reputation in Integrative Facilitation, conflict management and consensus. He has been a process consultant for 20 years and has worked extensively with collaborative groups across the country, including nearly 40 cohousing groups. Laird serves as the Executive Secretary of the Fellowship for Intentional Community, and is a founding member of Sandhill Farm Community. His website is: www.sandhillfarm.org/canbridge

Eris Weaver

Pre-Conference 3-hr Workshop: Let’s Talk About Money, $60
Pre-Conference 3-hr Workshop: Cohousing 101, $20
Eris Weaver is a professional facilitator and group process consultant, providing trainings in consensus decision-making, meeting facilitation, and communication skills. She also serves on the Coho/US Board of Directors. She is a founding member of FrogSong in Cotati, California.

Contribute to Auction

We welcome additional contributions to the auctions - see Auction Catalog to see what's already available. What makes our auctions fun are the many creative and interesting contributions that people like you decide to offer.

Items donated to Coho/US will be put into the Live Auction if they seem more likely to sell well or are particularly fun. The Live Auction can only present a limited number of items. The Silent Auction is better suited for smaller items and those which require more thought and consideration before making a higher bid. The LIve Auction requires you to make purchase decisions on-the-spot, in real-time. Silent Auction buyers have the time to think about how much they really want something... you can even give friends and family a call to decide if you want to share in the cost of a buying a Silent Auction item. In addition to auction donations, we also seek some specific types of items for the Dessert Dash and the Restaurant Frenzy - other parts of the Saturday Night Fundraising Banquet. See below on contributing a dessert or items for the Restaurant Frenzy.

Auction Solicitation

The following is the web-version of a solicitation letter that has now been sent out to thousands of people.

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From: Craig Ragland <craigragland [at] gmail [dot] com>
Subject: Please donate a product or service to Coho/US and FIC for our Fund-Raising Auction

Over the years, a great many Cohousing Supporters have made some
amazing donations--including many from folks who were unable to attend
the auction. Not only is this a great way for Established Communities,
Forming Groups, Cohousing Professionals, and Individual Supporters to
support the Communities/Cohousing Movement, but it is also draws some
attention to you/your group/company--from a very large gathering of
Cohousers.

The following request is from Laird Schaub, who some of you know as
the Executive Secretary of the Fellowship for Intentional Community
(FIC). Like Coho/US, FIC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a mission to
help grow the Intentional Communities movement. Laird is the Benefit
Auction Solicitor for the 2009 National Cohousing Conference--a role
he's also done for some of our past auctions. These have proven a lot
of fun and a great way to share some of our resources while supporting
a couple of vital nonprofit organizations.

Craig Ragland
Coho/US Executive Director
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As has become a regular feature at Cohousing conferences, we will be
holding both a high-spirited Live Auction and a bargain-filled Silent
Auction at the national event coming up June 24-28 on the campus of
the University of Washington in Seattle.

The Live Auction will occur after dinner Saturday evening (June 27).
The Silent Auction will open as soon as the conference begins and
continue until after lunch on Saturday. There are two ways you can
help make this a resounding success:

a) Donate to the auction--products (how about a jar of Aunt Polly's
award-winning cherry preserves, or a bottle of vintage wine), art
(maybe a silk batik, soapstone carving, or set of hand-turned wooden
bowls), services (anything from a site plan review to a Tarot reading;
from financial planning to a Feng Shui consultation), or vacation
opportunities (perhaps a weekend stay for two at your luxurious home).
Use your imagination!

We'll decide which items are offered at the Live Auction and which
will be available at the Silent Auction.

b) Bring your wallet--there will be hot deals galore!

Proceeds will be split between Coho/US and FIC. As both organizations
are 501(c)(3), the value of your donated products or services can be
treated as a tax deduction, and we'll be happy to send you a letter of
recognition to that effect.

We are expecting a boisterous crowd and this could be an easy way to
promote what you do or things you support, and at the same time help
two great networks finance more of their programs. It's a relatively
painless way to help us help others find community.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss the best way to
offer something, please contact me at your convenience. Here's what
we'll need from you to present your offering to best advantage:

1. A complete description of the product or service.

2. If it's a service or usage, please give us acceptable times for
when the offer is good.

3. Your phone number (in case the winning bidder needs to contact you).

4. If it's a physical item, will you bring it with you to Seattle, are
you willing to ship it to the conference, or will you mail it to the
winning bidder?

5. If it's not a physical item, do you have an electronic color image
we can use to promote the item, or perhaps a brochure describing it?

Thanks for considering lending a hand. I hope to see you in Seattle.
Together we can have a good time and make a difference.

In cooperation,

Laird Schaub
FIC Executive Secretary & Benefit Auction Solicitor
laird [at] ic [dot] org>laird [at] ic [dot] org
660-883-5545

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Restaurant Frenzy

Do you go out to eat? Why not buy some restaurant gift certificates (from both local favorites and national chains) to help out the association? Its relatively easy for Coho/US to get donations from restaurants, so why not help us out by pre-paying for a meal in the Restaurant Frenzy. The gift certificate from different restaurants have values from $20 to $100. Winners just pay the face value. There is a catch - to win, you must be the first to get our auctioneer's attention, so Whistles, Props, etc. are both encouraged (and fun).

If you would like to provide a gift certificate for the Restaurant Frenzy, please Val at organizer [at] cohous [dot] org.

Dessert Dash

You’ve heard of singing for your supper… well, no need to go to those lengths. However, to get the best desserts, you need to chip in with others are your table to pay for it. Each table will pool its bids and the table raising the largest amount has first choice from the scrumptious desserts donated by some of Seattle’s best bakers and confectioners. Tables get to select their desert by "dashing” for their dessert as they are called, in an order established by the amount of the table's total contribution… The table contributing the least will “win” a plate of twinkies, unless one of the more generous tables picks that first (as if).

If you are an excellent cook and would like to provide a dessert for the Dessert Dash, please Val at organizer [at] cohous [dot] org.

Thank you

Thanks so much for thinking about making a contribution to the 2009 Fundraising Banquet. Your donations help make the event a lot more fun - and delicious!

2009 Auction Rules

Overall Auction Rules

1. Winning bidders are expected to pay for their items promptly, at the conclusion of the auction (the Silent Auction ends Saturday afternoon at 1:30 pm; the Live Auction will end Saturday evening at around 8:30 pm). You may pay for items with a major credit card, check, or cash. You may not take possession of the items you purchased until after you pay for them.
2. Auction items will be awarded to the winning bidder who will be responsible for full payment of the item. With the exception of the Dessert Dash, which involves a "private, pooled split" of the cost of your table's dessert, any purchaser who wishes to split the payment for an auction item must collect the contributions from other participants and present the payment in full to the cashier.
3. Unless otherwise noted, all goods, services, or certificates must be claimed and used within one year of the auction date. Restaurant certificates do not include tax, gratuity, or alcohol, and cannot be redeemed for cash.
4. Redemption of services is subject to the purchaser and service provider negotiating a mutual agreeable time and location.
5. Redemption of vacation stays may have additional restrictions based on the donor's standards and practices. For example, communities may only offer no-smoking rooms, may not allow pets, or may have defined quiet hours. There may be other restrictions as well. These items are for a single stay by one or two people, unless otherwise noted. These may also require advance planning based on the schedule of the hosts and the availability space for guests.
6. Coho/US reserves the right to add or withdraw, without notice, items to or from the auction. Reservations for trips and vacation accommodations must be mutually arranged with the donor, unless otherwise noted. No refunds will be allowed on travel packages for canceled tickets and/or accommodations.
7. The Cohousing Association of the United States will attempt to describe and catalog all items correctly. However, in the event of discrepancies, all items are offered on an "as is" and "where is" basis. Coho/US neither warrants nor represents, and in no event shall be responsible for the accuracy of the item descriptions. No statement made in the auction catalog or made orally at the auction or elsewhere shall be deemed a warranty, representation, or assumption of liability. The values listed are estimates only, and are not warranted for tax purposes, fair market value, or otherwise. Items have not been appraised unless specifically noted.
8. Each bidder assumes all risks and hazards related to the auction and items obtained at the auction. Each bidder agrees to hold the Cohousing Association of the United States and its agents and affiliates, appointed officials, members, the auctioneer, event organizers, sponsors and/or volunteers connected with the auction harmless from any liability arising therefrom.
9. All purchases are final and there will be no exchanges or refunds on items unless otherwise noted.
10. All bids must be in whole dollars.

Live Auction Rules

1. The bidding order of items is subject to change.
2. To bid in the Live Auction, raise your bid card (provided at the auction check-in) above your head, with the number oriented toward the auctioneer. A bid acknowledgment by the Auctioneer is a legal contract to purchase the item.
3. Winners are expected to pay for their items promptly at the end of the Live Auction, at the cashier tables provided in the same room where the auction takes place.
4. The purchaser assumes responsibility for locating and removing purchases from the auction premises. Please see volunteers if you need assistance claiming physical items, or need help locating certificates for goods or services to be redeemed later.
5. Unless otherwise noted, all goods, services, or certificates must be claimed and used within one year of the auction date. Restaurant certificates do not include tax, gratuity, or alcohol and cannot be redeemed for cash.

Silent Auction Rules

1. Items will be displayed on tables located in the vicinity of the Conference Bookstore.
2. To make a bid, simply place your name and the amount of your bid on the highest available open line. Your bid must be higher than the previous bid. The winner will be the person who bids last.
3. NOTE: Some silent auction items may be purchased on the spot for a set price. If that option is available, it will be indicated clearly at the bottom of the bidding page by the wording PURCHASE NOW FOR $___ with an amount filled in. If you wish to exercise this option, take the item and its corresponding bidding sheet to the Conference Bookstore for immediate purchase at the stated PURCHASE NOW price.
4. The Silent Auction will end promptly at 1:30 pm Saturday, June 27.
5. Payment for items won at the Silent Auction should be made at the Conference Bookstore (located in Gould Hall). Note that this is different than where Live Auction items will be paid for.

2009 Other Area Accommodations

Hotels and Bed and Breakfasts Near the University of Washington

Housing in dormitories at the University of Washington will be offered as part of the registration process for the 2009 Cohousing Conference. This information is provided as a service for those seeking an alternative to the dorm experience. If you wish to explore staying at any of these places, please contact them directly. All listed rates are subject to change.

Distances are approximate walking distances from the UW North Campus.
Listed rates are undiscounted and subject to change. Contact the hotel directly for the most up-to-date information.
Information last updated: December 4, 2008

Chambered Nautilus Bed and Breakfast Inn
5005 22nd Avenue, N.E.
Seattle, Washington 98105
(206) 522-2536 or (800) 545-8459
Fax: (206) 528-0898
Website: www.chamberednautilus.com
Price: $129.00 to $194.00 plus tax
Distance: 0.5 mile
We are having no increases for 2008-2009 year. Rates will range from $129.00-$194.00 for single or double occupancy depending on what room they choose. WE will offer conference goers $10.00 per night off of that published rate. They do have to tell us at the time of booking that they are with the conference.
All our rates include our full 3-course gourmet breakfast, complimentary tea, cookies, coffee, and fresh fruit that are always out for guests, use of our wireless internet system and/or use of our guest computer. We are located just 4 blocks north of the UW Campus, within walking distance.
All rooms have queen or king beds, all have private baths, 6 have porches, 2 have fireplaces and 4 are suites with kitchens, one is a 2 bedroom suite so it can be shared by 2 colleagues or is great for a participant that brings their family along. Breakfasts are pretty amazing!!

College Inn
4000 University Way NE
(206) 633-4441
Fax: (206) 547-1335
Website: www.collegeinnseattle.com
Price: $60.00-$90.00 plus tax, including continental breakfast
Distance: 0.5 mile
All rates are per night, single occupancy, and subject to applicable taxes. Each additional person is $10. Note: We are a small historical hotel & our applicable taxes are considerably lower than most hotels. Each room is equipped with a telephone and sink. Separate men's and women's bathroom and showers on each floor. In our fourth floor lounge you will find the office, sitting room, and breakfast area. A high speed internet room is available to guests. Due to the building's age there are no elevators or wheelchair access. The College Inn Hotel is non-smoking.

Greenlake Guest House
7630 E. Greenlake Dr. N.
(206) 729-8700, or toll free (866) 355-8700
Email:stay [at] greenlakeguesthouse [dot] com
Website: www.greenlakeguesthouse.com
Price: $159 + $214 plus tax
Distance: 2.0 miles
We are only about 2 miles from UW and have door to door service via the #48 bus, which stops across the street from our inn and then runs along 15th from 45th clear down to the medical center. I (Julie) am a 1989 graduate from the UW Nursing Program.
Our rates are $159-$214 during that time, which includes a full breakfast and many other amenities. We do offer a $10 per night discount for guests that stay 4 or more nights.

Hotel Deca (formerly University Tower Hotel)
4507 Brooklyn Ave NE
(206) 634-2000
Fax: (206) 545-2103
Website: www.hoteldeca.com
Price: beginning at $179.00 plus 15.6% tax
Distance: 0.6 mile
The University District's only full-service three-diamond hotel, recently renovated with complimentary wireless Internet access, free parking, complimentary breakfast, free hotel shuttle, 32" flat panel TVs, DVD players, and iPod docking stations in every room.

Lake Union Courtyard
925 Westlake Avenue North
(206) 213-0100 or toll free (800) 321-2211
Fax: (206) 213-0101
Website: www.courtyardlakeunion.com
Price: $269-$359 + 15.6% tax
Distance: About 3.5 miles

Residence Inn by Marriott
800 Fairview Avenue North
(206) 624-6000
Fax: (206) 223-8160
Website: www.marriott.com/SEALU
Price: $164-$189 + 15.6% tax
Distance: About 3 miles

Silver Cloud Inn
5036 25th Ave NE
(206) 526-5200
Fax: (206) 522-1450
Website: www.scinns.com/universi.htm
Price: $129-$209 plus 15.6% tax, including continental breakfast
Distance: 0.7 mile (steep hill)
Microwave and refrigerator in every room. Close to University Village shopping center.

University Inn
4140 Roosevelt Way NE
(206) 632-5055 or toll free (800) 733-3855
Fax: (206) 547-4937
Website: www.universityinnseattle.com/
Price: Deluxe room: $150 single/double occupancy plus tax. Please specify the “National Cohousing Conference” rate when making reservations. Early reservations are strongly advised. Rates are subject to availability. If you wish to reserve your room via the internet, go to the hotel website www.universityinnseattle.com and click on the Group Reservations button. Note that you are a “National Cohousing Conference” participant.
Distance: 0.6 mile
Large, close to the University and to U-district shops and restaurants. Seasonal outdoor pool, complimentary breakfast bar, complimentary afternoon snack served 4-5 PM, free wireless internet in guestrooms and pubic areas, non-smoking.

University Hotel
4731 12th Ave NE
(206) 522-4724 or toll free (800) 522-4720
Fax: (206) 522-4728
Website: www.university-hotel.com
Price: $93 for one guest to $121 for 6 guests in summer of 2008, plus tax
Distance: 0.8 mile
Inexpensive but comfortable. Most rooms are actually large suites containing a bedroom, sitting room, and kitchen. Fills up fast.

University Travelodge
4725 25th Ave NE
(206) 525-4612
Fax: (206) 524-9106
Website: www.the.travelodge.com/seattle07053
Price: $78 single/$88 double plus 15.6% tax
Distance: 0.5 mile (steep hill)
No frills, but comfortable. Close to University Village shopping center.

Watertown Hotel
4242 Roosevelt Way NE
(206) 826-4242 or toll-free (866) 944-4242
Fax: (206) 315-4242
Website: www.watertownseattle.com
Price: $179 single/double studio room plus 15.6% tax. Please specify the “National Cohousing Conference” rate when making reservations. Early reservations are strongly advised. Rates are subject to availability. If you wish to reserve your room via the internet, go to the hotel website www.watertownseattle.com and click on the Group Reservations button. Note that you are a “National Cohousing Conference” participant.
Distance: 0.8 mile
The newest and by far the most upscale hotel in the University District. Features Wi-FI Internet access in each room, complimentary continental breakfast, free underground parking, loaner bikes, free shuttles to downtown Seattle and area attractions, non-smoking hotel. All rooms are studios with microwave, refrigerator, hairdryers, coffeemaker and ironing board.

Directions:

Exit Interstate 5 at NE 45th Street, a few miles north of downtown Seattle. Go east -- you will soon cross Roosevelt (which would be 10th Avenue if it had a number), 12th, Brooklyn (13th), and University (14th). If your hotel is on one of these avenues, turn left if the number is greater than 4500, right if less.

For the Travelodge and Silver Cloud, continue along 45th past the University of Washington, down the viaduct, and make a 270-degree right turn back under the viaduct so that you're heading north on 25th Avenue. The Travelodge is across from the University Village shopping center on the left, and Silver Cloud is just past the shopping center on the right.

2009 Seattle

Seattle is anything but ordinary. It's a place where bike messengers share elevators with world-renowned researchers. Where fishermen have lunch alongside top surgeons. It's a city where the extraordinary is commonplace and commonplace is anything but. And if you look closely, you just might discover that in Seattle there are amazing things happening all around you.

From a jet engine to an espresso machine to grunge rock, Seattle's world-changing events have all had a distinct sound. But the symphony doesn't end there. Your visit to Seattle may bring you the sound of an orca blowing as it surfaces, the roar of the crowd at Safeco Field or the near silence of the Olympic rainforest. Come to Seattle and hear for yourself.

Visit Seattle’s Visitors Bureau for more information. http://www.visitseattle.org/visitors/default.asp

To learn about Seattle and Washington History visit http://www.historylink.org/

Area Attractions
University of Washington - http://depts.washington.edu/mediarel/temp/tours.shtml
Pike Place Market - http://www.pikeplacemarket.org
Seattle Center - http://www.seattlecenter.com/
Space Needle http://www.spaceneedle.com/
Underground Seattle Tour - http://www.undergroundtour.com/
Tillicum Village – scenic boat tour, Native American dinner and show. http://www.tillicumvillage.com/
Alki Beach (where Seattle was originally settled) - http://www.seattletravel.com/alki-beach-seattle.html
Ferry ride to Bainbridge Island - http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/
Whale watching - http://www.clippervacations.com/
Kayaking on Lake Union - http://www.aguaverde.com/ (near campus) and http://www.nwoc.com/

Museums
UW Burke Museum – http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/
UW Henry Art Gallery - http://www.henryart.org/
Museum of Flight - http://www.museumofflight.org/visit
Seattle Art Museum - http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/
Museum of History and Industry - http://www.seattlehistory.org/

Easy Excursions
Visit the San Juan Islands or Victoria BC by boat - http://www.clippervacations.com/
Or by Sea Plane - http://www.kenmoreair.com/
Visit Portland or Vancouver BC via Amtrak - http://www.amtrak.com
Olympic Rain Forest (the only in North America) - http://www.nps.gov/olym/