The fence went up and the building went down! The countdown clock has started. We are VERY excited to have officially broken ground today. We’ve started a blog page on our website at http://capitolhillurbanwww.cohousing.org/blog where you can subscribe to track our progress. There are more photos posted there but below is one to whet your… Read More
My son and his dad went up in a small private plane this past weekend, and took this amazing picture of Mosaic Commons and Camelot Cohousing. Our land extends to the North (left in the picture) for another 50+ acres, but this shows all of the built area.
Now is the time of year when many cohousing communities review their budgets. Does your community include a budget for supporting Coho/US with an annual gift? Including an annual gift as a recurring donation allows your community to affirm ongoing support without requiring discussion by the finance committee or the whole community every year. What… Read More
Group Works: Power Shift This entry continues a series in which I’m exploring concepts encapsulated in a set of 91 cards called Group Works, developed by Tree Bressen, Dave Pollard, and Sue Woehrlin. The deck represents “A Pattern Language for Bringing Life to Meetings and Other Gatherings.” In each blog, I’ll examine a single card… Read More
Off my usual topic of governance but this was a response to a question from a new community that I thought might be helpful to all new communities, and some settled ones. What should we buy of the kitchen? On small appliances: At 14 years we still have donations and have just started buying more… Read More
I received this email from Leah Fisher in response to my opening “Alleviating Fear” article in Cohousing Now! eNews (#71, 10/28/14). Leah makes a compelling case for “fear of regret” as a stumbling block in committing to cohousing, and suggests, “Support for dealing effectively with these concerns could be of great value to prospective members.”… Read More
I was struck by Marilynne Robinson’s assertion in a recent issue of NY Times Magazine (10/5/14): “Fear has, in this moment, a respectability I’ve never seen in my life.” She was referring to what she thinks is a “default posture” of human beings: fear. This recalled for me a presentation at Shadowlake Village that included… Read More
“It is a strategy I think a community could use to jump start their program, and then talk about how to reduce the centralization after a year or more of successful meals. Since we have quite slowly added new households it is quite clear that our successful meals program is what has helped get more… Read More
I’m currently immersed in four days of FIC organizational meetings, where a key focus has been how to make better connections with others trying to build cooperative culture. Essentially, those of us with deep familiarity in community living believe that we’re learning something in the crucible of that experience that has wide application—in neighborhoods, in… Read More
Last week in Nevada City, a team of over 20 attendees – having traveled from as far away as Brazil – participated in a week-long workshop on Aging Successfully in senior cohousing. The concept stems from a workshop in Denmark that is designed to set seniors up for success, called Study Group One. The approach… Read More
After 5+ years in development we’re very excited to announce we have broken ground! You can read the entire story with photos at http://bit.ly/CHUCblog. We are an inter-generational urban community committed to sustainable living on Seattle’s Capitol Hill. We currently have 8 of our 9 households committed, ranging in age from infant to mid-60s, families… Read More
What a great community we have at Silver Sage Village! And if anyone asks about how many it takes to boil a lobster … the answer is simple: It takes a village to boil a lobster at least the village at Silver Sage. When we started to plan on Monday for the Lobster Boil …… Read More