2020 Cohousing Open 

Session Notes

ROOM 3

Time Slot 1 (10:40PDT, 11:40MDT, 12:40CDT, 1:40EDT)

Title of session:  Fantasy vs. Reality

Convenor:  Jennie Lindberg

Who participated:  Lexi, Ljuba, Kyle, Trudy, Jennie

Key Points & Actions:   

• Challenges at Fair Oaks
  • Came in knowing everyone’s name, but not too much more
  • Interpersonal, communication challenges
  • Still better during covid than without cohousing
  • New people moving in expecting everything to be done just right, fixed, 
  • Everyone is looking to someone else for how to do things
  • Possibly due to lack of strong governance, confusion about expectations of committees. 
• Advice
  • Don’t just make rules. You need to work on relationships
  • “Conflict resolution team”
  • “Community support team”
  • Do the work to onboard and orient new people to the mores of cohousing
  • It can be hard to maintain the group cohesion while you’re so busy building the housing. Not enough for folks who’ve come later. 
• Bringing new people on
  • They’re assigned a guide, told to read the bylaws, meeting everyone in the community. 
  • Getting lighter on requirements b/c of a desire to get the last of the units sold. Probably a bad idea.
  • Examples of ways for vetting people: personal essay, required to join committees, disciplined about finding the right people