Representatives from the four communities in Madison are collaborating on plans for the National Cohousing Open House Day. The Arboretum Cohousing common house will serve as the main venue and the event will run from noon to 4:00 on April 30. Visit their Facebook event page here.

The day will include socializing with cohousing residents and organizers, community tours, refreshments, fun activities for kids, current sales info, and take-home brochures and fact sheets. Individual communities will schedule showings at their own events. We will have a continuous loop slide show with photos of community activities, children’s play, work projects in progress, etc., and have solicited photos from all the communities to include in the show.

The Village Cohousing community is only five blocks away from Arboretum and we’ll have a map for folks to walk or drive there where they’ll be greeted by Village residents for tours, a snack and socializing. The map will also show the location of the two other communities in Madison, Troy Gardens Cohousing (Madison’s northside) and Union Corners Cohousing (forming on Madison’s eastside). Troy Gardens will offer tours beginning at 3:00 pm.

We’re contacting local media and neighborhood associations, sending emails to friends, acquaintances, and prospective buyers, recruiting tour guides, developing the slide show, creating a poster and flier to distribute around town, posting on an event Facebook page and community web and FB pages, and spreading the word verbally when the opportunity arises. A resident at Arboretum is coordinating the food and beverages, asking each community to provide “two sweets and two savories”.

On the day of the event, each community will have prepared their own information pertinent to their cohousing. This will be an excellent opportunity for the forming Union Corners Cohousing to spread the energy about their project and perhaps gain new membership. The other cohousing communities may have units for sale they can promote. We’ll also share the list of cohousing communities nationwide and put folks in touch with www.cohousing.org.