Regional gatherings planned on both coasts this September: Can you help?

Several years ago, Mid Atlantic Cohousing sponsored a wonderful one-day regional gathering at Takoma Village in Washington DC. A similar and equally valuable regional event occurred late in 2005 at Swan’s Market Cohousing in Oakland, CA.
These gatherings were planned as networking, experience-sharing and problem-solving sessions for completed communities, but both of them also attracted several people from forming and developing groups and even a few folks just beginning to learn about cohousing. Participants, including those relatively new to cohousing, felt they benefited a great deal as the experienced cohousers learned from one another.
Highlights of these gatherings were:

• Representatives described aspects of community life that worked well for their particular community and elements that needed improvement.
• A panel discussion tackled the topic of getting the work done.
• Another panel explored the benefits and challenges of consensus decision-making in five different communities.
• Small groups discussed topics chosen by attendees: improving common meal arrangements, conflict resolution, integrating new residents, marketing for resale and committee or team structures.
• A common meal (lunch) allowed participants to talk further about specific shared interests.

The Cohousing Association wants to support events like this, especially in parts of the country where cohousing is thriving – namely, where there are more than a half dozen completed cohousing communities.

Two areas are targeted for such regional gatherings in Fall 2007. Coho/US hopes to see one event taking place in Massachusetts (Boston area) on Saturday, September 15, and one in Northern California (San Francisco Bay Area) at an early September date still to be announced.
We are seeking three or four people in each area to plan these events. Coho/US has prepared “Guidelines for Regional Gatherings” which you can be read through before committing yourself. The Guidelines consist of a menu of possible activities and programs for such gatherings which should be of great help. We estimate the planning time for such an event to be 15 to 18 hours total or 5 to 6 hours per person for three people.

Coho/US will assist directly in the promotion of these events by sending out invitations and announcements to the California and New England segments of our mailing lists. Online registration will also be provided. Fees for registration will be modest, simply covering the cost of venue rental (if any), lunches and snacks, promotion or advertising and perhaps a facilitator for certain portions of the program.

Questions? Would you like to be a part of either planning team or wish to request the guidelines or help us with our planning? If you think there’s a good possibility that you would attend one of these regional gatherings (assuming you will be available on the date it is being held), click joani [at] cohousing [dot] org. If you give us your email address, we will send you a reminder closer to the date of the event.