Sightseeing

Experience history

To the casual observer, Waltham might look like any number of small cities that dot the New England landscape: an old factory town undergoing resurgence thanks to an influx of high-tech enterprises and the economic prosperity they bring. But Waltham is not just an old factory town. It's THE old factory town, home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, which in 1813 opened America's first integrated manufacturing enterprise and gave the country its push into the Industrial Revolution. The great thing about Waltham is that it wears its history on its sleeve. Start your visit at the Charles River Museum of Industry (CRMI), located in the massive power house of the original 1813 textile mill. The CRMI is a great place to get oriented. Its exhibits trace the evolution of Waltham's innovation from Francis Cabot Lowell, the world-famous Waltham Watch Company, early Charles River automobile makers (including Henry Ford), and on up to the dawn of high-tech. Ask to see a demonstration of some of the antique steam engines and power tools.

Enjoy the views

Just outside the CRMI's door is the Riverwalk, a scenic 1.5-mile hiking/biking trail through Waltham along the banks of the Charles River. As you leave the museum, walk upstream to the Moody Street dam and waterfall, which powered the factory until the advent of steam machinery in the 1850s. In the spring, this area is alive with piscatorial activity, as alewife and salmon labor their way up a fish ladder to spawn. The Moody Street bridge provides an excellent view of the Charles. Canoes and kayaks frequently dot the water in fair weather. Head upstream to the Prospect Street bridge, where you can see the mysterious pilings of Nuttings-on-the-Charles, a popular jazz-era ballroom, and the impressive Waltham Watch Company building. It was here, in 1854, that Aaron Dennison developed his concepts of mass production that made the Waltham Watch one of the most successful products ever. A young Henry Ford visited the watch factory and adapted its methods to automobile manufacturing. Before returning to the city center, pay a visit to Mount Feake Cemetery and its lushly landscaped, meandering pathways.

Tour downtown

A trip to Waltham wouldn't be complete without a stroll along the Moody Street Retail District, a throwback to the golden days of downtown shopping areas. As you browse the eclectic stores, including the original Jordan's Furniture (a Waltham landmark), antique shops and creative toy stores, you may notice your tastebuds beginning to tingle. That's because Moody Street is a cosmopolitan “Restaurant Row,” with countless opportunities for ethnic, upscale, downscale and good old American cuisine. Make sure you time your shopping around lunch or dinner - you won't regret or forget it.

Visit historic homes and gardens

Next, hop in the car to visit Waltham's historic houses. The oldest is the Lyman Estate, a 30-acre English-style estate built in 1793. The gardens and greenhouses are a year-round delight; buy yourself a specimen to take home. Gore Place is the 45-acre estate of Christopher Gore, Massachusetts governor in the early 1800’s, who hosted a variety of notables under his roof. Kids love the working farm with sheep and poultry. Last but not least is Stonehurst, the idiosyncratically beautiful home of Robert Treat Paine. The original house was built in 1866, but was given the mother of all makeovers by renowned architect H.H. Richardson and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of New York's Central Park and Boston's Emerald Necklace.

Enjoy culture

Museum-lovers will want to make an appointment to visit the Waltham Museum for full immersion in the city's history; rooms are dedicated to Waltham's auto-making, military, sports and business history. The National Archives & Records Administration displays historic photos, letters, plans and documents from John Adams, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Daniel Webster and other prominent citizens. On the campus of Brandeis University is the Rose Art Museum, which houses a rich variety of modern art. Waltham's performing arts scene is second to none. The Spingold Theatre Center at Brandeis, the Bentley College Performing Arts Series, the Hovey Players, and the Reagle Players (where Broadway professionals often share the stage with talented locals) all offer top-drawer entertainment. If your tastes run more toward the silver screen, check out the Embassy Cinema off Moody Street for the latest popular or art release.

Aging in Place: Cohousing: An Alternative For America’s Older Adults

Christine Kennedy

Since working on the book Senior Cohousing with Chuck Durrett in 2003, Christine Kennedy has traveled throughout the United States researching and sharing information about elements of cohousing as an option for older adults. This presentation includes an overview of economic and demographic trends, and the senior cohousing movement, and a “virtual tour” of the only three American “dedicated” senior cohousing communities reveals who built what, where, and why. The session culminates in a discussion of the pros and cons of being a senior in multigenerational versus senior cohousing.

Christine Kennedy has been recognized as an expert regarding innovative, aging-friendly housing options by such national interests as AARP and O Magazine. Her presentation style creates workshop environments where expertise is shared, ideas are elicited and everyone contributes to the learning experience. Christine currently serves as CEO of The Leading Age Institute, Inc. , a California non-profit corporation, accelerating the launch of age-friendly projects and practices through innovation, collaboration, and program specific technology.

Aging in Place: Aging Successfully: A Community Approach to Independent Living

Charles Durrett

Traditional forms of housing no longer address the needs of many older Americans. Nor are baby-boomers going to accept what our parents had. Most of the current options for “retirement living” are inadequate, both socially and healthwise. Cohousing opens up new alternatives for seniors to take control of the inevitable, to live as independently as possible, as long as possible. Cohousing offers aging adults a way to live among people with whom they share a common bond of age and experience—an entirely new way to house themselves with dignity, independence, safety, mutual concern, and fun.

Charles Durrett, with his wife Kathryn McCamant, introduced the concept of cohousing to the U.S. with their book Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves. Charles authored Senior Cohousing: A Community Approach to Independent Living – The Handbook and coined the word “cohousing” for which he is credited in the Oxford English Dictionary. He has designed over thirty cohousing communities in the United States, including Muir Commons, the first cohousing community in North America, and has consulted on many more around the world. Durrett, Katie, and daughter, Jessie, now live in the Nevada City, CA cohousing community with 20 seniors and 20 other families.

Aging in Place: Cohousing and Beyond (Panel)

Raines Cohen, facilitator, Susan McWhinney-Morse (panel members TBD)

While we’re debating whether creating aging-friendly communities involves adapting various models like senior cohousing or creating aging-friendly neighborhoods, community groups are moving forward with initiatives to make existing neighborhoods more like cohousing and more supportive of aging-in place, without people having to leave their existing homes. We'll hear from a leader from Beacon Hill Village, the Boston-based model for the movement, a local architect/developer of senior-friendly cohousing, as well as stories about how intergenerational cohousing can support the aging process. We will continue the discussion about how we can support and learn from each other in this growing movement.

Susan McWhinney-Morse is a founding boardmember of Beacon Hill Village, a Boston-based organization that is promoting neighborhood-organizing strategies to support aging in place, both locally and as a national model.

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.

Aging in Place: Creative Community Options for the Second Half of Life

Fred Lanphear

This is an interactive workshop that looks at how communities can intentionally embrace and celebrate the second half of life. It focuses on acknowledging and creatively preparing and caring for the inevitable aging process that happens to us all. It will include: 1) Celebrating the transitions of aging and providing significant roles of engagement, 2) Exploring ways and the extent to which communities can provide care for aging members, 3) Preparing for and participation in final transitions. Some specific topics include realities and fears of getting older, co-care and outside care, and staying healthy through community.

Fred Lanphear has lived in various forms of intentional community for over 35 years. He is a cofounder of Songaia Cohousing near Seattle where he currently lives and where he was initiated as an Elder in 2006. Fred was a cofounder of NW Intentional Communities Association (NICA) and serves on its Board of Directors. He also serves on the Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC) Board of Directors.

Aging in Place: Panel: Formal and Informal Supports

Ruven Liebhaber, moderator, Robert Cowherd, moderator, David Hornick, Jean Mason, Maura Parente, Vera Prosper, Dana Snyder-Grant, Steven Stadler, Karen Sternfeld

Panelists examine the advantages and challenges of aging-in-place in cohousing drawing upon their own wealth of experience and that of audience participants. Panelists discuss designs that have been successful in supporting the aging-in process as well as designs that have been unsupportive. They will suggest corrective / preventive strategies that have proven successful and analyze interventions that have failed. The goal is to identify and develop take-away strategies that others may utilize for planning new communities as well as retooling existing communities.

Ruven Liebhaber is a project development advisor, master planner, architect, group process facilitator, author, teacher and inventor. His dynamic thirty-year career path spans a broad spectrum of professional endeavors. He has completed public policy studies, senior living campus development projects and a variety of building designs. Starting in the late 1990's he has facilitated 2020 LifeVision group empowerment trainings for community planning and advance care directives.

Robert Cowherd, PhD, Associate Professor of Architecture at the Wentworth Institute of Technology, is one of the original residents of the Cambridge Cohousing. For the last decade he has been active in addressing the ongoing design and construction issues of the community, including retrofitting facilities for aging in place. He has participated in several thesis projects focusing on cohousing design, and published extensively on the role of space and culture in social communities internationally.

David Hornick is a physician who specializes in providing medical care to people of all ages who are homebound in New York’s Capital District. He has also directed a project to renovate senior apartments utilizing universal design technology. He is interested in cohousing as a partial solution for housing the rapidly increasing numbers of aging Baby-boomers. He is a graduate of Cornell University, The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and the SUNY at Albany School of Public Health.

Jean K. Mason is a retired clinical psychologist who developed programs for women living alone (SHARE). She was teaching “Shared Housing” at the Boston Architectural Center when the term “cohousing” was brought to America. She and her husband, Ed Mason, were instrumental in founding Cambridge Cohousing where Ed died in 2007 surrounded by loved and loving family and friends. Jean served on the Board of Equal Exchange, the oldest and largest for-profit “fair trade” company in the US. She is the author of Intimate Tyranny (forthcoming). Her next book is an account of life in cohousing.

Maura Parente is the Coordinator of the Institute for Human Centered Design in Boston, an international educational non-profit organization committed to advancing the role of design in expanding opportunity and enhancing experience for people of all ages and abilities. At the Institute, Maura works with the international design community to generate awareness about human-centered design. Maura has a Masters Degree of Industrial Design from Pratt Institute and specialized in designing products for the health care industry.

Vera Prosper, PhD, is a senior policy analyst for the New York State Office for the Aging and an Adjunct Professor of Public Policy in Gerontology at the University at Albany, NY. Her experience over 22 years includes research, publications, policy analysis, and program development in senior housing alternatives, the living environment preferences of older people, housing and services integration, implications of demographic change, universal design, informal caregiving, outcomes measurement, and intergenerational programming.

Dana Snyder-Grant is a writer and psychotherapist, specializing in chronic illness and disability. She received her Masters Degree from Simmons College School of Social Work in 1986, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1981. Dana is the author of Just Like Life, Only More So and Other Stories of Illness (2006), which includes tales of cohousing. She and her husband live at New View Cohousing in Acton, Massachusetts.

Steven Stadler is a founding Trustee of Cambridge At Home and the President of the Board of Trustees. He is a resident of Cambridge and graduate of Harvard College. During his career Mr. Stadler founded Grason—Stadler Company and Finanz, Inc. He also held the position of CFO and Treasurer of Genrad, Inc. (then General Radio). He has been a Director and Chairman of the Finance Committee for both Emerson Hospital and the Institute for Contemporary Art.

Karen Sternfeld has just completed her Doctor of Pharmacy degree and is a practicing pharmicist in Boston. She is an active skier, water skier, and hand cyclist. Her goal is to raise awareness of disability all around us by altering the language we use in everyday exchanges, changing the world one word at a time.

Aging in Place: Tool Kit 1: Universal Design for the Long Run

David Hornick, Maura Parente

This session provides information to enable cohousing planners and residents to assure a supportive living environment for people as they age in place in cohousing communities. The main components of the Toolkit are presented in two parts. First, David Hornick discusses the interplay between housing, preventive health, wellness and chronic illness. Second, Maura Parente presents the concepts and features of “universal design.” Universal design extends the accessibility and usability of as much of the environment as possible by as many people as possible and pertains to interior spaces of homes and community rooms as well as landscaping.

David Hornick is a physician who specializes in providing medical care to people of all ages who are homebound in New York’s Capital District. He has also directed a project to renovate senior apartments utilizing universal design technology. He is interested in cohousing as a partial solution for housing the rapidly increasing numbers of aging Baby-boomers. He is a graduate of Cornell University, The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and the SUNY at Albany School of Public Health.

Maura Parente is the Coordinator of the Institute for Human Centered Design in Boston, an international educational non-profit organization committed to advancing the role of design in expanding opportunity and enhancing experience for people of all ages and abilities. At the Institute, Maura works with the international design community to generate awareness about human-centered design. Maura has a MA of Industrial Design from Pratt Institute and specialized in designing products for the health care industry.

Aging in Place: Tool Kit 2: Making Cohousing Livable-for-a-Lifetime

Ruven Liebhaber, Greg Olsen, Robert Walters

This session identifies strategies for creating a livable-for-a-lifetime home environment in three parts. First, Ruven Liebhaber presents the tools for formal and informal caregiving within an intentional community. supports within a cohousing complex and He discusses them community supports in terms of the boundaries, whichthat define their implementation in cohousing. Second, Greg Olsen describes an elder care model fully embedded within the structure of existing neighborhoods. And third, Robert Walters describes how advanced home automation technology can support eldercare in private homes. The three strategies are designed to interface with existing housing and community programs to support aging-in-place. They offer important information for designing new cohousing communities as well as for retooling established cohousing communities.

Ruven Liebhaber is a project development advisor, master planner, architect, group process facilitator, author, teacher and inventor. His dynamic thirty-year career path spans a broad spectrum of professional endeavors. He has completed public policy studies, senior living campus development projects and a variety of building designs. Starting in the late 1990's he has facilitated 2020 LifeVision group empowerment trainings for community planning and advance care directives.

Gregory L. Olsen, MLA, is principal of Patina Consultants, LLC, a design firm promoting PatinaCare, a nurturing philosophy of configuring public space in existing towns in ways that maximize the health benefits of their residents. His master’s thesis, entitled “Community-Centered Elder Housing and Care: An Option of Community Interdependence” helped form his philosophy of aging-in-place. Greg is Adjunct Instructor of Landscape Architecture at Penn State, and joint research associate at Penn State’s Smart Spaces Center and the Center for Sustainability.

Robert Walters is the Director of Technology and a Professor of Engineering at the Greater Allegheny Campus of Penn State University. He started Blueroof Technologies in 2002 to integrate service, learning, community development and smart technology into a non-profit corporation that designs and builds smart homes for older adults. He also has worked with the City of McKeesport to bring technology-based companies to the area. Mr. Walters holds ten patents, presents frequently at national conferences, and is a registered engineer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Communications: Building Great Websites for Cohousing Communities and Professionals

Catya Belfer-Shevett

Building a great website starts with asking three questions: Who will be using this website? What do they want and need? What’s the easiest and most attractive way to help them find it? In this session we’ll start with the basics of identifying your users, go over categorization (aka information architecture) and how that plays into building site navigation, and talk about content, tools, and bells and whistles. Other website builders are more than welcome to attend and share your expertise!

Catya Belfer-Shevett is a cohousing 'burning soul'. My cohousing community, Mosaic Commons, is completing construction in Berlin MA and we will be moving in this fall after 8 years of work. I create websites for cohousing communities and others, including www.cohousing.org On the non-technical side, I am fascinated by how we build community through ritual, tradition, and song.

Communications: Community Before the Common House—Using Online Tools to Stay Connected Before Move-in

Dave Belfer-Shevett

Communication within a cohousing group is critical, particularly during the organizing and planning stages, when geographic separation, conflicting schedules, and life in general get in the way of 'traditional' organizing processes (such as face to face meetings and telephone calls). With such wide acceptance of the web as a communication tool, cohousing groups are faced with many choices in how information is exchanged, projects are planned, and communication happens. Mailing lists, wikis, websites, chat systems, instant messaging—all of these tools have the promise of being the perfect solution, but like any tool, they'll be successful only if implemented correctly and used wisely. This workshop will discuss the variety of tools available, reviewing the relative merits of each technology.

Dave Belfer-Shevett, a self-proclaimed professional computer geek living in Natick, Massachusetts, is an equity member in Mosaic Commons Cohousing, currently under construction in Berlin, Massachusetts. Dave has over 25 years experience in the computing industry, having worked up the ranks through senior management and founding his own company, Stonekeep Consulting, Inc.

Communications: Finding Your Ideal Cohousing Community

Diana Leafe Christian

Are you longing to join a forming cohousing group, or an already existing cohousing community, but aren’t sure how to go about it? This workshop offers the best tips author Diana Leafe Christian knows about how to research existing and forming cohousing projects, visit your favorite cohousing neighborhoods or cohousing core groups and get the most out of your visits, evaluate what you’ve seen, and join your chosen community gracefully. Plus, the pros and cons of joining an existing cohousing neighborhood or core group or starting your own! Diana wrote about both processes in her books, Finding Community and Creating a Life Together.

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 and 2007). Former editor of Communities magazine, she now publishes “Ecovillages,” a free online publication (EcovillageNewsletter.org/subscribe). Diana speaks at conferences, and leads workshops for and does consultations for cohousing communities in the U.S. and Canada. She lives at Earthaven Ecovillage in North Carolina. .

Communications: Group Development and Resales Using The Social Web

Raines Cohen

The classic approach of cohousing groups to the internet—throwing up a simple brochure-like site—just doesn't cut it anymore. 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 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 directory entry, YouTube, FaceBook, MeetUp, Craig's List, MySpace, online calendars, regional boards, and newspapers, thereby making your online presence into an engaging conversation.

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.

Communications: Putting the Cohousing.org Website to Work

Craig Ragland, Catya Belfer-Shevett, Donna Freiermuth

Come check out the new www.cohousing.org! Take a tour of the great features of the site, and talk with the web team about how you can best use it to help your community, whether your group is brand new or you've been living together for years. Get a sneak preview of our new Premium Access, with forums, blogs, and more ways to both join the cohousing conversation as well as get your questions answered.

Catya Belfer-Shevett is a cohousing “burning soul.” My cohousing community, Mosaic Commons, is completing construction in Berlin MA and we will be moving in this fall after 8 years of work. I create websites for cohousing communities and others, including www.cohousing.org. On the non-technical side, I am fascinated by how we build community through ritual, tradition, and song.

Donna Freiermuth is the editor of Cohousing Magazine.She has more than two decades of editorial experience. She is She is also a web designer for nonprofits. She holds a master of journalism degree in written communications. Donna is a founding member of a forming cohousing group in Santa Monica, California and another group in Ventura, California.

Craig Ragland lives at Songaia Cohousing and loves working/playing with cohousers. He is project manager for a forming group, New Earth Song Cohousing, which is creating more cohousing on adjoining property. Craig joined the Coho/US Board in 2006, working with staffing and technology planning. In December 2007, he retired from the board to become the Coho/US Executive Director. Craig is committed to community and action—to helping the association better meet the needs of forming groups, established communities, and cohousing professionals.

Culture: A retrospective of Danish Cohousing

Grace Kim

This session will provide a comprehensive overview of successful cohousing communities throughout Denmark. Photographs and floor plans from over 20 communities will be presented. Anecdotes from current residents as well as architects of cohousing will be shared via audio recordings. Communities featured include Saettedammen, Jystrup Savvaerket, Jernstoberiet, Aadelen I and II, Jerngaarden, and Bo90—representing rural, suburban, and urban settings as well as a range of community sizes.

Grace Kim, AIA is a co-founding principal of the architectural studio of Schemata Workshop and has been in practice for 14 years. She has worked for internationally known firms such as Skidmore Owings & Merrill in Chicago as well as regionally respected firms like Bumgarder Architects in Seattle. Her practice focuses on projects that reinforce community, enrich the pedestrian experience and create vibrant places to live. She firmly believes in mixed use neighborhoods that support a diversity of age groups and income levels.

Culture: Cohousing in Japan

Diana Leafe Christian

This slide show explores how cohousing projects in Tokyo are similar to yet different from cohousing communities in North America. After presenting at the Ecovillage Conference in Japan in 2007, Diana visited three cohousing projects with poetic names that show the Japanese love of forests and trees: Kankanmori no Kaze (“The Winds of Kankanmori Forest”), a 28-unit project located on two floors of a 12-story community center for elders; the 12-unit Kyodo no Mori (“Forest of Kyodo”) (featured in Graham Meltzer’s book, Sustainable Communities), and Keyaki House, a 15-unit project centered around a beloved 80-foot Keyaki (Japanese Zelkova) tree

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 and 2007). Former editor of Communities magazine, she now publishes “Ecovillages,” a free online publication (EcovillageNewsletter.org/subscribe). Diana speaks at conferences, and leads workshops for and does consultations for cohousing communities in the U.S. and Canada. She lives at Earthaven Ecovillage in North Carolina. www.DianaLeafeChristian.org.

Culture: Futures Festival: An Intergenerational Participatory Visioning Process

John Engel

A Futures Festival is an intergenerational participatory visioning process for developing new, or recreating existing, communities. A Futures Festival event is a safe space for people of all ages and abilities to creatively express their vision for the future of their community by designing and experiencing interactive exhibits in a festival-like setting. The Futures Festival model was developed by Matthew Kaplan, PhD, who is based at Penn State University and who conducted a train-the-trainer workshop on Futures Festival planning at the Wild Sage Common House in Holiday neighborhood of Boulder, CO in November 2008. In this workshop, participants will learn:

• Brief overview of IISN and its origins
• The story behind the creation of the Futures Festival process
• The value of conducting a Futures Festival
• Community building lessons from a Futures Festival in the Holiday neighborhood in Boulder, CO, which includes two cohousing communities (Wild Sage and Silver Sage)

John Engel’s academic training includes a BA in Psychology, an MA in Political Science and an MA in Ecopsychology. He served as a leadership and development consultant to a variety of client groups from 2000-2007 and an Instructor in the fields of sustainability and community-based leadership at Naropa University from 2003-2007. John currently serves as the Executive Director of the Institute for Intentionally Sustainable Neighborhoods (IISN) and as Community Builder for Wonderland Hill Development Company cohousing and cohousing-inspired communities.

Culture: Singing in Community

Catya Belfer-Shevett & Craig Ragland

Would you like to sing more in your cohousing group? Come experience how groups use song to grow community. Combining conversation and singing, we will share some great songs that really work well for different cohousing groups. Learn about why "having a good voice" doesn't matter. Learn pitfalls to avoid when selecting songs. Learn about bringing singing into your group's culture. We will create space for songs from participants, so bring your favorite. If possible, contact Catya beforehand to teach us your song. (Note: we'll not be sharing explicitly religious songs.)

Craig Ragland lives at Songaia Cohousing and loves working/playing with cohousers. He is project manager for a forming group, New Earth Song Cohousing, which is creating more cohousing on adjoining property. Craig joined the Coho/US Board in 2006, working with staffing and technology planning. In December 2007, he retired from the board to become the Coho/US Executive Director. Craig is committed to community and action – to helping the association better meet the needs of forming groups, established communities, and cohousing professionals.

Catya Belfer-Shevett is a cohousing 'burning soul'. My cohousing community, Mosaic Commons, is completing construction in Berlin MA and we will be moving in this fall after 8 years of work. I create websites for cohousing communities and others, including www.cohousing.org On the non-technical side, I am fascinated by how we build community through ritual, tradition, and song.

Culture: Songaia...an unfolding dream

Fred Lanphear, Brian Bansenauer, and Craig Ragland

Songaia Cohousing (38 people in 15 homes on 11 acres near Seattle), emerged out of a dream in the early 1990's to present a vibrant alternative to suburban sprawl and disconnected neighborhoods. Share this inside view through video, ritual, and conversation to learn how that dream took shape and continues to unfold in unexpected new ways. Learn about Songaia's active local culture, including its organic gardens serving a food program with 5 meals-a-week and shared pantry food program, ceremonies and celebrations, and sustainable practices - and how they inter-relate to realize our dream. Hear about the recent 10-session dialogue on “Aging in Place Successfully” and the emerging outcomes. Discussion will focus on how Songaia relates to and informs other cohousing communities.

Fred Lanphear has lived in various forms of intentional community for over 35 years. He is a cofounder of Songaia Cohousing near Seattle where he currently lives and where he was initiated as an Elder in 2006. Fred was a cofounder of NW Intentional Communities Association (NICA) and serves on its Board of Directors. He also serves on the Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC) Board of Directors.

Brian Bansenauer and his family have lived at Songaia Cohousing since its creation and has served in a variety of capacities including president of the board, bookkeeper, and computer/media guy. Brian teaches computer science and web development at Cascadia Community College in the area.

Craig Ragland lives at Songaia Cohousing and loves working/playing with cohousers. He is project manager for a forming group, New Earth Song Cohousing, which is creating more cohousing on adjoining property. Craig joined the Coho/US Board in 2006, working with staffing and technology planning. In December 2007, he retired from the board to become the Coho/US Executive Director. Craig is committed to community and action – to helping the association better meet the needs of forming groups, established communities, and cohousing professionals.

Deep Process: Appreciating Diversity

Elizabeth M. Magill

Do you find issues arising along race, class, gender, religion, disability, education level, sexual orientation, or family structure lines? Has your community created its own “in” and “out” groups? Some of the challenge of living with diversity involves dealing more directly with how much we have in common with how different we are. In this workshop we will introduce tools that every cohouser should have for living with diversity and discuss how to use them in everyday situations. We will learn to name, appreciate, and celebrate our differences, how to evaluate both the intent and impact of our actions, how to empower others, and how to be an effective ally.

Elizabeth Magill (Liz) has been trying to live in cohousing since 2002. We move into Mosaic Commons this fall! A white, middle class, formally educated, queer, Christian, without any visible disabilities, and with English as her first language, Liz has worked as an anti-racism/diversity trainer for six years. Kids in Mosaic call her “crafty-Liz” which is about paper, glue, glitter, yarn, and beads, rather than a comment on her facilitation style. She’ll live in Mosaic with her partner Ken.

Deep Process: Cohousing and Deep Democracy

Lisa Poley

Cohousing communities are serving as ‘school houses’ for profoundly rich forms of democratic engagement with significant potential for fostering social change in the broader civic arena beyond their boundaries. This session will raise awareness of how living in cohousing may impact our civic and democratic skills and practices. Participants will learn how to help build the skills and capacities that increase our power and potential as citizens in a democracy. In this particularly dynamic election season, how is your community experiencing democracy beyond its boundaries?

Dr. Lisa Poley is a founding member of Shadowlake Village Cohousing in Blacksburg, Virginia and recently completed her doctoral research which focused on democratic and civic engagement and cohousing. She is currently a post-doctoral scholar at Virginia Tech teaching and researching in the areas of community development, democracy building and sustainability.

Deep Process: Facilitation Free-For-All

Eris Weaver & Liz Logan

Do you facilitate meetings in your community? Come get together with other facilitators for a freewheeling session of discussion, problem-solving, and sharing. Bring problems or questions that are currently challenging or puzzling you and receive group support and suggestions for solutions. This is not intended solely for professionals!

Eris Weaver’s career as a facilitator and group process consultant has grown directly out of her nine years of experience living and working in cohousing. She enjoys working with forming and existing communities to improve their interpersonal connections, communication skills, and decision-making processes. With a background in improvisational theater, she brings a sense of humor and playfulness into everything she does. Eris is part of the community building team at Cohousing Partners and a founding member of FrogSong in Cotati, CA.

Liz Logan is a facilitator, trainer and a strategic planning consultant. She has been teaching communication and group process skills since 1994 in academic, corporate, and most recently, cohousing settings. Liz spent the last year working with an ad hoc Communication Committee at East Lake Commons Cohousing, and together they developed a series of Salons that have had a dramatic effect on the communication climate in that community. She holds a Masters Degree in Speech Communication.

Deep Process: Sociocracy: Dynamic Self-Governance

Jerry Koch-Gonzalez

Sociocracy is defined as governance by the “socios”—those who work together. Sociocracy is an effective system of decision-making and governance that values equality of power and is proven to work in businesses, nonprofits, and political organizations. Sociocracy has its roots in nonviolence and Quaker practice and has been shaped by cybernetics and systems theory. More cohousing communities are adopting sociocracy as they seek that balance between equivalence of voice and efficiency that is absent in board-led communities and often elusive in consensus-based communities. This session will cover both theory and practice.

Jerry Koch-Gonzalez has lived in the Pioneer Valley (MA) Cohousing Community since move in day in 1994 and is a consultant and trainer in communication skills and organizational decision making and development.

Deep Process: Using Humor In Facilitation & Conflict Resolution

Eris Weaver

Good process doesn't have to be boring! Learn how humor can help defuse tension and increase connection. We’ll discuss when (and when not) to use humor in meetings and conflict situations; the characteristics of humor – which are universal and which are culturally determined; and engage in games and exercises designed to strengthen your “funny bone.” Workshop leader Eris Weaver is a founding member of FrogSong (the ultimate party community), a professional facilitator and group process consultant, and a certified leader of the improvisational practice InterPlay. Come prepared to laugh!

Eris Weaver’s career as a facilitator and group process consultant has grown directly out of her nine years of experience living and working in cohousing. She enjoys working with forming and existing communities to improve their interpersonal connections, communication skills, and decision-making processes. With a background in improvisational theater, she brings a sense of humor and playfulness into everything she does. Eris is part of the community building team at Cohousing Partners and a founding member of FrogSong in Cotati, CA.

Development: Cohousers Partnering with Developers? The Pros and the Cons

Jim Leach, Stew Mayer

Why does developing a cohousing community sometimes take 10 years or more to complete? Would groups have an easier time if they partnered with developers? Would it be more expensive? Would the group have to give up control? How can decision-making be handled fairly between cohousers and developers? This workshop explains in detail how a group and a development firm can successfully work together as partners. Questions that will be touched upon in detail include: a) What is the difference between a contractor and a developer? b) Who is taking how much risk and what is the cost of that risk? c) Where does the money come from? d) Budgeting and transparency.

Jim Leach is president of Wonderland Hill Development Company of Boulder, Colorado, 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 communities. He has led the industry in implementing energy-efficient strategies combined with community participation of the future 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.

Stew Mayer is an Ecodevelopments principal and co-founder of Nexum Development Corp. . As a registered architect, general contractor, and licensed real estate professional, he possesses an unusual breadth of experience. Stew’s focus on green building and sustainable technology began in the late 1970s, and for the last 15 years he has focused exclusively on “smart-growth” projects both domestically and in “eco-resort” ventures in the Caribbean. Stew has assisted in the financing and/or project management of cohousing communities valued at over $36 million dollars.

Development: Creating Sustainable Communities

Zev Paiss

It has been well documented that most cohousing communities are far more sustainable than almost all other housing options now available. But how does cohousing fit into the larger issues surrounding sustainable development? This includes land planning strategies, being part of a larger pre-planned development, local food production, reduced transportation requirements, mixed use options and the increased social interactions these strategies allow. This interactive presentation is designed for those who want to take cohousing to the next level and learning how this housing option works with the overall sustainability of future community developments.

Zev Paiss has become one of the country's most experienced cohousing professionals. Over the past 12 years, he has become a nationally recognized consultant to sustainable developments. He is known for his expertise in the areas of Environmental Planning, Renewable Energy and Transportation and Neighborhood Community Building. Zev is the founding Executive Director of The Cohousing Association of the United States, an organization he ran from 1998-2002. Zev was the co-founder and president of the Rocky Mountain CoHousing Association (RMCA), based in Boulder, Colorado, from 1991-1997. Since 1997, Zev has resided in the Nomad Cohousing Community in Boulder, CO, with his wife Neshama Abraham and their two daughters.

Development: Endless Meetings or Efficiency in Design Decision Making – The Workshop Approach

Laura Fitch

How can a group get the most out of their architect’s time and expertise? How can design meetings be run efficiently without a lot of stress or railroading? Kraus-Fitch Architects has evolved a workshop approach that consolidates the programming and design of cohousing site, common house and units into (3) 2-day and (4) single-day workshops. Laura Fitch will explain why she thinks this is a win-win approach for architect and group. She will also share the history of this development and the details.

Laura Fitch is a principal with Kraus-Fitch Architects, Inc. in Amherst, Massachusetts and a 14-year resident of Pioneer Valley Cohousing. Kraus-Fitch Architects has worked on programming, schematic design, and/or full services on 2-dozen cohousing communities across the US. Laura can be contacted at lfitch [at] krausfitch [dot] com.

Development: Fair Housing Act Compliance in Laymen’s Terms

Joshua Rucker

Intentional communities want to welcome diverse residents including people with disabilities and older people. Accessibility is a factor. Legal requirements for accessibility are a baseline for thinking through both design and policy. This session gives an overview of the several statutes that have been enacted to help ensure nondiscrimination against people with disabilities both in design and program policies. They include: the Federal Fair Housing Act (FHA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. The most pertinent law (FHA) includes seven basic design and construction accessibility requirements. This session offers guidelines to help professionals and the general public satisfy the federal requirements and better serve those with disabilities.

Josh Rucker directs the national Fair Housing Accessibility FIRST Design and Construction Resource Center which provides free technical assistance on the design and construction requirements under the Fair Housing Act as Amended in 1988 to developers, builders, design professionals, housing authorities, fair housing organizations, advocates, service providers and consumers. Rucker graduated from Clark University and previously worked in homeless services and affordable housing.

Development: Grow Your Own Cohousing Developers

Carol and Tom Braford

In many parts of the US, the demand for cohousing outstrips the supply. Too few cohousing developers and builders. One way to build more cohousing is to recruit other housing developers to take up the cause. While some are focused on this approach, we are trying a more grassroots method, turning development professionals and builders into cohousers, and turning buyers into developers and builders. In a region new to the movement, this may be the easier row to hoe. We will share how this is working in St. Louis and would love to hear what has worked in your community.

Tom & Carol Braford are co-founders of Irresistible Community Builders, LLC, in St. Louis. They are creating Culver Way Ecovillage, which will eventually include three contiguous communities. The first, Metro Cohousing at Culver Way, a 43-unit multi-generational neighborhood, is now under construction, restoring a row of century-old commercial buildings, and the first season of the Green Beings CSA is being planted. Tom is a charter member of Coho/US and Carol just completed six years on its board.

Development: Participation in the Cohousing Design Process by Future Residents ... Part of the Solution or Most of the Problem

Ann Zabaldo, moderator, Chuck Durrett, Chris ScottHansen, Don Tucker

This panel will discuss the vices and virtues of when and where to include future residents in the design process. From the beginning? After a site plan, housing plans or CH plan are developed? Can a community be called cohousing if there is NO resident involvement in the design process? What is the impact of including or excluding residents in the design process on community building including developing “social capital” among the future residents?

Chris Scott-Hanson specializes in non-profit self development—saving you money while you stay in control. A development consultant since 1981 he has specialized in cohousing since 1988. From land search through construction he has assisted dozens of groups across the country through the challenges of the cohousing development process. In addition to self development, he has assisted numerous groups in working with local developers. He is the author of The Cohousing Handbook: Building a Place for Community (New Society Publishers, 2004)

Charles Durrett, with his wife Kathryn McCamant, introduced the concept of cohousing to the U.S. with their book Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves. Charles. He is the author of Senior Cohousing: A Community Approach to Independent Living–The Handbook and coined the word “cohousing” for which he is credited in the Oxford English Dictionary. He has designed over thirty cohousing communities in the United States, including Muir Commons, the first cohousing community in North America, and has consulted on many more around the world. Durrett, Katie, and daughter, Jessie, now live in the Nevada City, CA cohousing community with 20 seniors and 20 other families.

Don Tucker, President of Eco Housing Corporation has been responsible for the design and development of projects ranging from small group homes to large residential complexes. He received his Bachelor of Architecture Degree from the University of New Mexico in 1968 and was awarded a Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a Masters Degree in Architecture in 1970. Mr. Tucker has taught Architecture at Temple University, lectured and written articles on affordable housing and elderly housing design. He is also a principal of AHD, Inc., a developer of affordable housing and EDG Architects.

Ann Zabaldo specializes in marketing, outreach, lighting and fueling the fires of burning souls. Ann is one of only 23 people certified by McCamant & Durrett to lead Senior Cohousing Study Group I workshops. 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 (CohoUS) and is currently working on a project to increase the number of master plan developers to include cohousing in their projects.

Development: Realizing Aspirations—Managing Expectations.

Bruce Coldham

Cohousing is challenged with balancing the aspirations of custom-designed housing with the standardization (driven by the desire to realize cost affordability) of production building. This presentation explains how the offering of a small set of “basic unit types” with a modest “standard package of options” and the opportunity (disencouraged and priced accordingly) for customization at the discretion of the architect has produced a delightful, award-winning residential setting beloved by its inhabitants. The Rocky Hill cohousing community in Florence MA is the third in an evolving suite of cohousing projects by Coldham and Hartman that have dealt with this challenge.

Bruce Coldham has run his own architectural practice in Amherst, Massachusetts since 1989, which is dedicated to producing high performing, green buildings for clients that care about producing enduring architecture. He has been active in the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association over the same period, receiving in March of 2000 a "Lifetime Achievement Award" from its Quality Building Council. He joined its Board in April 2003 and has Board Chair for the past 3 years. Since 1989 he has lead the effort to establish cohousing as a viable housing option in the US northeast including founding the Northeast Cohousing Quarterly, now part of the national Cohousing Journal.

Development: The Good... The Bad... and The Ugliest

Ann Zabaldo, moderator, Katie McCamant, Don Tucker, Chris ScottHansen

Each member of this panel will share their fondest and most nightmarish experiences building cohousing, from “absolutely do” to “run for your life.” These experts offer their version of the top five things that every person embarking on developing cohousing needs to know. This session will include a generous question and answer time for participants.

Kathryn (Katie) McCamant is a licensed architect and co-author of the book Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves, She 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. Kathryn lives with her husband and teenage daughter in the Nevada City Cohousing Community.

Chris Scott-Hanson specializes in non-profit self development—saving you money while you stay in control. A development consultant since 1981 he has specialized in cohousing since 1988. From land search through construction he has assisted dozens of groups across the country through the challenges of the cohousing development process. In addition to self development, he has assisted numerous groups in working with local developers. He is the author of The Cohousing Handbook: Building a Place for Community (New Society Publishers, 2004)

Ann Zabaldo specializes in marketing, outreach, lighting and fueling the fires of burning souls. Ann is one of only 23 people certified by McCamant & Durrett to lead Senior Cohousing Study Group I workshops. 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 (CohoUS) and is currently working on a project to increase the number of master plan developers to include cohousing in their projects.

Don Tucker, President of Eco Housing Corporation has been responsible for the design and development of projects ranging from small group homes to large residential complexes. He received his Bachelor of Architecture Degree from the University of New Mexico in 1968 and was awarded a Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a Masters Degree in Architecture in 1970. Mr. Tucker has taught Architecture at Temple University, lectured and written articles on affordable housing and elderly housing design. He is also a principal of AHD, Inc., a developer of affordable housing and EDG Architects.

Development: Zoning Issues for Cohousing

Clay Mitchell, Liz Ryan Cole

This session will provide an overview of some of the issues co-housing communities face as they develop their cohousing project. Using a few case studies we will provide some introductory language, a take home list of references, and an opportunity to discuss zoning questions participants bring to share.

Liz Ryan Cole has lived in collective housing on and off since she went to Oberlin in 1968. She is part of a developing cooperative cohousing project with seasonal resort business near Hanover, New Hampshire . Liz is a clinical law professor at Vermont Law School and Director of the Semester in Practice.

Clay Mitchell is a planner and an attorney in New Hampshire. He has recently completed his dissertation in Natural Resources and Earth Systems Science at the University of New Hampshire. Graduating in May of 2008, Clay hopes to use his PhD in pursuit of a blended professional/academic career in planning and energy. He graduated from Vermont Law School with a joint JD/Masters in Environmental Law and loves to get lost in the environment he hopes to protect.

Green: Beyond Comfort: Designing Homes as Places of Peace, Remembrances, and Beauty

Laura-Belle Robinson

This is for architects, builders, designers, and space planners. It is also for potential cohousers who will be involved in the design of their built living environment. It is generally taken for granted that design is concerned with the creation of objects and places that will satisfy the uses to which people will put them. Human factors—dealing with the comfort and convenience of the occupants—and social responsibility—the impact of design on society—are two major areas of consideration in programming. There is a third consideration that is often bypassed. Your home is more than a place—it is your larger body, the place where soul is renewed and made visible. This presentation examines the importance of soul in buildings and the enrichment of daily life when it is present.

Laura-Belle Robinson is a Domestic Designer trained in interior and garden design. She is the founder of HWYL Collaborative, Inc., enriching lives with sustainable development. Deeply influenced by her experiences in the cultures of Japan, England, Canada, and the Caribbean, she creates spaces that show the power of design to influence our lives and the environment. Her holistic approach embraces the needs of family and community to reconnect. Her passion for the sacredness and protection of family are reflected in her style.

Green: Common Sense Sustainable Site Development

Best Site & Land Use Strategies - That Can’t Be Cut in a Budget Crunch

Jack Wilbern/Meda Ling, Cohousing Collaborative

What is Sustainable Site Development? This discussion will look at Cohousing’s potential as a catalyst for renewed understanding of the interrelationship between environment, economics, and human society, and will examine several common sense approaches toward building truly sustainable communities.

Jack Wilbern and Meda Ling are principal partners of Cohousing Collaborative, LLC, a cohousing development company serving the mid-Atlantic region.

Jack 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 is a graduate of California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo (where he and Chuck Durrett were classmates). He is a member of ULI-The Urban Land Institute, holds an NCARB national certification and is currently licensed as an architect in 12 states.

Meda is a professional site architect who provides the Collaborative with innovative problem-solving and project management skills honed from more than 27 years of diverse international project experience including numerous award-winning planned residential communities, urban revitalization, resort, institutional, commercial, recreational parks, arboreta, ecologic sanctuary and mitigation projects. A graduate of University of Virginia, her areas of expertise include site acquisition, property visioning, RE investment, and sustainable land use planning and design.

Green: Environmental Design in Cohousing in the Northeast US

Marc Rosenbaum

This session will examine the state of the art in environmental design in cohousing in the northeast US. The focus will be on energy use, renewable energy supply, waste treatment, and building durability. The bulk of the presentation will be case studies of built projects. Some guidelines for prioritizing green investment will be given. Presenter: Marc Rosenbaum, P.E., Energysmiths, has consulted on environmental design for cohousing since the early 1990s. Projects include: Pine St., Pioneer Valley, Alchemy Farm, New View, Island Coho, Cobb Hill, Pathways, Mosaic Commons, Peterborough, Ulster County, and Putney Commons.

Marc Rosenbaum, P.E., Energysmiths, has consulted on environmental design for cohousing since the early 1990s. Projects include: Pine St., Pioneer Valley, Alchemy Farm, New View, Island Coho, Cobb Hill, Pathways, Mosaic Commons, Peterborough, Ulster County, and Putney Commons. He is a longtime student of how to make good buildings.

Green: Getting a Zero Carbon Footprint

Charles Durrett

There are brilliant minds working today to design new solutions that will make a difference on the impact we have on our environment. But if we do not build places where people can come together, learn about their green responsibilities and possibilities, and support each other to implement these changes, these brilliant solutions will go unused. Charles Durrett, internationally recognized architect and author, will demonstrate how cohousing offers a sense of community that holds people accountable to others and to their environment. McCamant & Durrett consistently employs green and sustainable practices because together with the group they are able to discover and implement zero energy solutions that really work -- a solution where people can save and steward successfully.

Green: Green Design Case Studies 1: Daybreak & Ann Arbor

Grace H. Kim, J.D. Lindeberg

Daybreak Cohousing in Seattle was built with a strong commitment to sustainable design. However, the budget realities of construction often cause communities to value engineer out many of the sustainability strategies. So how does a community to balance their shared values and a limited construction budget? Daybreak’s journey from sustainability workshop to final construction offers ideas for low- or no-cost passive strategies, and lessons on how to make the most of more expensive active technologies.
Ann Arbor Cohousing offers a similar story in which the inherent values of cohousing community development—smaller footprint, shared resources, attention to public transit access, healthy house materials, natural landscapes, efficient appliances and fixtures—made them an ideal candidate for achieving both Energy Star status and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. With little extra effort, the recognition conferred by these programs can translate into environmental, marketing and financial benefits.

Grace Kim is a co-founding principal of the architectural studio of Schemata Workshop and has been in practice for 14 years. She has worked for internationally known firms such as Skidmore Owings & Merrill in Chicago as well as regionally respected firms like Bumgarder Architects in Seattle. Her practice focuses on projects that reinforce community, enrich the pedestrian experience and create vibrant places to live. She firmly believes in mixed use neighborhoods that support a diversity of age groups and income levels.

JD Lindeberg, PE, LEED AP, is the managing partner of Cohousing Development Company which has developed over 140 units of cohousing in the area around Ann Arbor, Michigan. JD is CFO and principal of Resource Recycling Systems, one of the continent’s largest recycling and resource management consultancies. He is the lead developer of an eco-resort in Baja, Mexico. He is an engineer and economist trained at Dartmouth College, Stanford University and Princeton University. He lives in Ann Arbor with his family in an old house that constantly needs remodeling.

Green: Green Design Case Studies 2: Nubanusit Neighborhood & Farm

Nubanusit Neighborhood & Farm is New Hampshire’s first green residential development and its first cohousing development. It consists of 29 clustered homes, a Common House, an organic farm, and professional office space in a restored historic house on 113 acres of land along the Nubanusit River in Peterborough, within walking distance of the town’s center. The homes are registered for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification. The presentation will give an overview of the process of weighing the pros and cons of the different alternatives when “choosing green.”

Michael Bruss, builder, has 30 years of experience in the construction business and is the founder and president of Bruss Construction, based in Bradford, NH. He is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) accredited professional and has extensive experience in green building technologies and the adaptive reuse of historic structures.

Shelley Goguen Hulbert is a community organizer and dairy farmer in Peterborough, NH. She has a master's degree in social work and a certificate in biodynamic farming. Shelley and her husband Robin, are two of the cofounders of Nubanusit Neighborhood & Farm.

Green: Net-Zero Energy homes and community buildings

Bryan Bowen, Bryan Bowen Architects, P.C

We'll define Net-Zero Energy, look at general strategies for achieving it, and review some case studies of remodels, new homes, community buildings, and new neighborhoods.

Bryan Bowen Architects, P.C. is a multidisciplinary design collaborative: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 solarsingle-family homes, eco-retrofits, multifamily housing, mixed-use projects, and commercial work.

Green: Renewable energy at achievable scale and cost

Bryan Bowen, Bryan Bowen Architects, P.C.

This is an informative session on what alternatives exist for renewable energy for your communities, how to find out about rebates and tax incentives, and how to implement these systems successfully.

Bryan Bowen Architects, P.C. is a multidisciplinary design collaborative: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 solarsingle-family homes, eco-retrofits, multifamily housing, mixed-use projects, and commercial work.

Green: Sustainability through Comprehensive Design

Mary Kraus, Kraus-Fitch Architects

From the initial design process through day-to-day neighborhood living, cohousing offers unique opportunities for creating a more sustainable society. Beginning with an outline of what is inherently sustainable about cohousing, this presentation will examine a wide range of sustainable design opportunities available to cohousing groups – from climate-sensitive site design and energy-efficient detailing to the bigger picture of relationships and context. Sustainability is not just about solar collectors – it’s about understanding how everything fits together to allow lower-footprint living.

Mary Kraus is a principal architect with Kraus-Fitch Architects, Inc., specializing in cohousing and ecologically sustainable design. She has been living at Pioneer Valley Cohousing, the first cohousing community to be completed on the east coast, since move-in 14 years ago. Mary can be contacted at mkraus [at] krausfitch [dot] com.

Planning: Getting Real, Making it Affordable: Strategies in Cohousing

Betsy Morris, Don Tucker

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. Topics include defining affordability, building your case, and finding the right partners.

Betsy Morris lives at Berkeley 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.

Don Tucker, President of Eco Housing Corporation has been responsible for the design and development of projects ranging from small group homes to large residential complexes. He received his Bachelor of Architecture Degree from the University of New Mexico in 1968 and was awarded a Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a Masters Degree in Architecture in 1970. Mr. Tucker has taught Architecture at Temple University, lectured and written articles on affordable housing and elderly housing design. He is also a principal of AHD, Inc., a developer of affordable housing and EDG Architects.

Planning: Integrating Affordable Units Into Cohousing Communities

Bob Engler

How can non-professionals succeed in taking on the role of “developer”? How can communities succeed in making affordable units a significant part of the their development projects? How and when should cohousing groups seek outside help and advice? This session covers these questions and more in a presentation of “The Housing Delivery Process.” A thorough familiarity with this process will help groups get from vision to permitting approvals, to financing, to construction. The focus will be on a specific set of critical decisions, and the key considerations that will help your group navigate your way to making the best choices.

Bob Engler is the President of SEB, a consulting firm specializing in the development and occupancy of mixed income and affordable housing throughout Massachusetts. During the course of his 38-year consulting career, Bob has worked in over 175 Massachusetts communities on 9,000 units of housing. He has assisted cohousing communities in Acton and Berlin (Massachusetts) with permitting, financing, and lottery administration. Bob has a Masters in City Planning from MIT and an MA from Notre Dame. He lives in Newton, Massachusetts.

Planning: Urban Cohousing - A Discussion of Obstacles and Opportunities Unique to Creating Cohousing in an Urban Environment

Brad Gunkel

The transience and anonymity that plague many suburbs and towns also impact larger cities. Demand for cohousing is seriously exceeding supply in some urban areas of the United States, yet there are many challenges unique to cohousing in these dense, high-priced markets. All of this requires that groups, developers and architects revisit the physical cohousing model as well as the development models that we have grown accustomed to in this country. Learn about the challenges and potential solutions to creating urban cohousing in America in this image and anecdote filled seminar with plenty of opportunities for questions and answers.

Brad Gunkel is Managing Associate of the Berkeley Office of McCamant & Durrett. He is an Architect who specializes in cohousing, community planning, sustainable design and affordable housing. Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, Brad is intimately familiar with the challenges of creating cohousing in high-priced urban markets. Brad and his wife, Marie, are the newest residents of Doyle Street Cohousing in Emeryville, California.

Planning: Working with New Urbanist Masterplan Developers

Katie McCammett & Jim Leach

Since the 1981 building of Seaside, Florida, New Urbanism has become one of the most significant movements in American architecture, planning and development dedicated to providing alternatives to suburban sprawl. Committed to developing the physical settings most likely to support close-knit relationships, cohousing is a perfect fit with New Urbanist development. Learn how to pitch your cohousing community to a New Urbanist masterplan developer. Learn to identify the most attractive opportunities for optimizing the natural advantages of cohousing neighborhoods within the larger context of planned New Urbanist developments.

Jim Leach is president of Wonderland Hill Development Company of Boulder, Colorado, 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 communities. He has led the industry in implementing energy-efficient strategies combined with community participation of the future 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.

Kathryn (Katie) McCamant is a licensed architect and co-author of the book Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves, She 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. Kathryn lives with her husband and teenage daughter in the Nevada City Cohousing Community.

Planning: Working With Non-Profit Developers to Create Affordable Rental Cohousing

Brad Gunkel, Eris Weaver

While many groups are looking for ways to create greater affordability in cohousing, many non-profit developers are looking for ways to create tightly knit communities in their affordable developments. Is this a marriage made in heaven? Or do institutionalized restrictions on non-profit developers make this partnership too encumbered to be worth pursuing? The reality tends to be somewhere in the middle and may be worth considering. Learn about the process and challenges of working with non-profit developers to create affordable rental cohousing through an interactive discussion with the architect and group process consultant for one such community.

Brad Gunkel is Managing Associate of the Berkeley Office of McCamant & Durrett. He is an Architect who specializes in cohousing, community planning, sustainable design and affordable housing. Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, Brad is intimately familiar with the challenges of creating cohousing in high-priced urban markets. Brad and his wife, Marie, are the newest residents of Doyle Street Cohousing in Emeryville, California.

Eris Weaver’s career as a facilitator and group process consultant has grown directly out of her nine years of experience living and working in cohousing. She enjoys working with forming and existing communities to improve their interpersonal connections, communication skills, and decision-making processes. With a background in improvisational theater, she brings a sense of humor and playfulness into everything she does. Eris is part of the community building team at Cohousing Partners and a founding member of FrogSong in Cotati, CA.

Process Skills: Dealing With Dysfunctional Group Members

Joanie Connors, Ph.D.

People who work in group settings often encounter difficult personalities who paralyze and frustrate group discussions. The most common dysfunctional roles found include the Monopolizer, the Just Plain Difficult Person, the Drama Queen or King, the Narcissistic-Opinionater, the Critic, the Outsider, the Problem Avoider, the Worrier, the Help Rejecting Complainer and the Uninvolved One. This session will describe these dysfunctional member roles and strategies for dealing with them. Participants will learn how to: shift the dynamics, make the covert overt, add structure and tailor responses to specific personality types.

Joanie Connors, Ph.D. is a licensed therapist and psychology teacher who specializes in group and relationship dynamics. She has over 30 years experience doing psychotherapy, teaching and consulting and has been an activist in peace and human rights causes since 1969. Joanie is currently involved in her 2nd forming cohousing group in Silver City, New Mexico. She is an adjunct faculty at Western New Mexico University and is working on several writing projects.

Process Skills: Group Process Skills for Committees

Liz Logan

As small groups, committees are subject to the principles of group development. In effective committees, the members understand these principles and know what behaviors build team spirit and get things done. In this experiential workshop, we’ll cover: the four stages of group development, formal and informal roles, and how to fulfill them, task and relational functions, and how to balance them, participation levels, and how to equalize them, and the key elements of assigning responsibility, and how to generate accountability.

Liz Logan is a facilitator, trainer and a strategic planning consultant. She has been teaching communication and group process skills since 1994 in academic, corporate, and most recently, cohousing settings. Liz spent the last year working with an ad hoc Communication Committee at East Lake Commons Cohousing, and together they developed a series of Salons that have had a dramatic effect on the communication climate in that community. She holds a Masters Degree in Speech Communication.

Process Skills: Negotiating the Stages of Group Development

Joanie Connors, Ph.D.

Over 50 years of research has shown the many ways communities change over time in two distinct ways. Groups have “life cycle” stages as they move from infancy into childhood, adolescence, maturity, aging and death. Groups also react to short-term stress and difficulty in “change cycle” stages. This session will teach strategies to negotiate the vulnerabilities of each stage in order to cope with difficulties more effectively and sometimes prevent them. This workshop will present a variety of strategies to help your group negotiate the vulnerabilities of each stage and develop greater strengths for coping with the complex work of community.

Joanie Connors, Ph.D. is a licensed therapist and psychology teacher who specializes in group and relationship dynamics. She has over 30 years experience doing psychotherapy, teaching and consulting and has been an activist in peace and human rights causes since 1969. Joanie is currently involved in her 2nd forming cohousing group in Silver City, New Mexico. She is an adjunct faculty at Western New Mexico University and is working on several writing projects.

Process Skills: Talkers vs. Doers: How Personalities Affect Decision Making Processes

Liz Logan

We all have a unique learning or processing style, and our style impacts the way that we engage with the decision making process. We may either spend too much time researching, or rush to a conclusion. Sometimes is seems like the gap between the “process people” and the “action people” can never be bridged. However, there is hope! In this experiential workshop, we will explore the four primary styles, and do a simple self-assessment. We will then map these onto the decision making process, and learn how to take advantage of our strengths and compensate our weaknesses.

Liz Logan is a facilitator, trainer and a strategic planning consultant. She has been teaching communication and group process skills since 1994 in academic, corporate, and most recently, cohousing settings. Liz spent the last year working with an ad hoc Communication Committee at East Lake Commons Cohousing, and together they developed a series of Salons that have had a dramatic effect on the communication climate in that community. She holds a Masters Degree in Speech Communication.

Work: "Fair Share" - Getting the Work Done

Norma Wassel & Lyons Witten

This workshop will examine the philosophy and practice of “sharing the load” of community work, both physical and non-physical—those ever-present committees! Issues of equity, setting expectations, and implementation will be reviewed, including what has worked and not worked in different cohousing communities.

Lyons Witten has lived at Pioneer Valley Cohousing in Amherst, MA since it was built in 1994. He has been Chair of the Buildings & Grounds Committee for most of the last 14 years, and is married to cohousing architect Laura Fitch. Lyons' focus is on the practical methods of keeping systems running, knowing when to ask for help, and finding ways to include everyone in the work of keeping community running. Lyons likes to cook and plow snow.

Norma Wassel is a co-founder and current resident of Cambridge Cohousing, MA. While living there over the past ten years, she has been an active member of the community, including development oversight, managing board, and other various committees. Trained as a social worker, Norma has worked as a human services administrator throughout the country, as well as abroad. In addition, she has also taught graduate level courses in administration, planning, and program policy within an inclusive decision-making framework.

Work: A Clinic for Ailing Common Meals Systems

Joani Blank

Your common meals aren’t frequent enough, or not nearly enough folks attend those meals. Or the meals are too much work, or the record keeping is frustrating. Or there’s something else about your common meals that just doesn’t work as well you'd hoped it would. Bring those challenges to the clinic and we will aim to come up with a diagnosis and treatment plan. Although this session is designed for people living in cohousing communities, those in developing groups will benefit too as they can learn in the workshop how to avoid common pitfalls in designing a common meals system.

Joani Blank has lived in two cohousing communities in the S.F. Bay area for a total of 16 years (and has visited 61 others). Several years back Joani surveyed 19 U.S. communities about their common meals systems and wrote an article published in the print magazine Cohousing, which has been useful to many new communities in their planning. Coho/US will be doing a new and broader survey later this year, and will use the information gathered to update that article.

Work: Guilt-Free Workshare

Kevin Oliveau & Brigitte Wazans

Come hear how Workshare has evolved over time into a system that is fun, fair and easy-going, with valuable lessons learned along the way. Workshare is part of the contentious issues for communities, involving money, labor, fairness. Members will have different opinions about what should be done, how much work to require, what counts as work, and how to enforce agreements. A second community will share a different approach to all those questions. Can we promote a sustainable process for common grounds and spaces without a carefully structured system? Can we expect accountability and commitment by invitation only, and can we help to create motivation and pride with a good breakfast? Seven years of this = some results to share.

Kevin Oliveau is a founder, developer, and builder of Catoctin Creek Village, a cohousing community located near Taylorstown Virginia, 1 hr from Wash, D.C. Kevin is a trained consensus facilitator and is a licensed Green Home Builder. Before starting CCV, worked in computers at America Online, WAIS, Inc., and Thinking Machines Corp. Kevin holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a PhD in Political Science, both from MIT.

Brigitte Wazans is the Happy French Cohousing Divorcée of beautiful Blueberry Hill cohousing. She was a burning soul with the passion and time to make sure it got built and lived in. She credits the experience and lessons of the last seven years of meetings, consensus and facilitation as the key to making getting a divorce easier. She and her two teens love having such a wonderful and close circle of friends.

Work: Proven Marketing Strategies for Cohousing Communities

Zev Paiss

This interactive presentation will cover the five most effective marketing strategies your group can use to identify, attract, educate, integrate, and retain your cohousing members. We will cover the use of marketing during the feasibility stage, the development phase, and proven strategies for those communities who are now re-selling their homes.

Zev Paiss has become one of the country's most experienced cohousing professionals. Over the past 12 years, he has become a nationally recognized consultant to sustainable developments. He is known for his expertise in the areas of Environmental Planning, Renewable Energy and Transportation and Neighborhood Community Building. Zev is the founding Executive Director of The Cohousing Association of the United States, an organization he ran from 1998-2002. Zev was the co-founder and president of the Rocky Mountain CoHousing Association (RMCA), based in Boulder, Colorado, from 1991-1997. Since 1997, Zev has resided in the Nomad Cohousing Community in Boulder, CO, with his wife Neshama Abraham and their two daughters.

Work: Using Reserve Studies to Understand and Manage Facilities

Sharon Villines

Often not understood is how useful reserve studies are in understanding and maintaining facilities. Sharing copies of her community’s study, Sharon Villines will explain how her team uses their study to manage their facilities. A Capital Reserve Study, often called a “replacement reserve,” is designed to protect the investment of owners by ensuring that current owners are saving enough to pay future replacement costs. It lists each component of the buildings and grounds, analyzes their current condition, estimates the useful life of each, and calculates its future replacement cost. A Maintenance Reserve Study does the same for shorter-term maintenance. A $10 fee is required for those wanting a copy of the 60 page Reserve Study and spreadsheet materials.

Sharon Villines is an original resident of Takoma Village Cohousing in Washington DC and budget and reserve study coordinator for the Facilities Team. She lived through moving into a construction site where, to her dismay, she became close friends with the construction company manager since many things were not working as planned. She currently writes on community development and governance issues and is co-author of We the People: Consenting to a Deeper Democracy, A guide to Sociocratic Principles and Methods.