Plans for 2008 National Cohousing Conference moving right along

Mark your calendars for June 12 – 15, 2008, for the national conference to be held at Bentley College in Waltham, MA. Twelve miles from all that downtown Boston has to offer, charming Waltham itself boasts restaurants for every taste, as well as galleries, shops and an independent movie theater. A quick shuttle ride to Harvard Square connects you with the T – Boston’s mass transit system – to take you anywhere you want to go in the greater Boston area. The rolling hills of Bentley’s small, private campus are a picturesque setting for modern conference conveniences, from wireless Internet and projection-ready rooms to great dining options and apartment-style accommodations.

We’re excited to welcome John Abrams, founding member and resident of Island Cohousing in Martha’s Vineyard, as our keynote speaker. John is co-founder and CEO of the South Mountain Company, an employee-owned design-build firm. He chairs two nonprofits – the Island Housing Trust and the Island Affordable Housing Fund – and speaks often on affordability issues, socially responsible business and ecological building issues. John’s book The Company We Keep explores the “role of business in preserving and restoring local culture, social equity, and ecological balance.”

Our planning committee is constructing fresh, relevant programs both for the conference presentations and for the pre-conference workshops. Pre-conference workshops will be held Thursday, June 12, and Friday, June 13, before the regular conference programming. These half-day workshops will be led by experienced professionals addressing in depth specific issues on the pulse of cohousing development.

If you have an idea or proposal for a pre-conference workshop, please submit it for consideration by the program committee no later than October 15. It's also not too early to submit your ideas and proposals for the shorter (1.5 hour) regular conference sessions. Submissions may be made to Steve Hecht, Programming Chair, at shecht [at] newview [dot] org">shecht [at] newview [dot] org. More information will be available in late September when the 2008 Conference page will be up. At that time the link will be shown here.