Schedule & Sessions
Friday, July 24
12 pm – 430 pm Mountain
Welcome
Introductions including who is The Cohousing Association of the US and who is our event host Casa Verde Commons.
Session 1
Bryan Bowen
Cohousing 101
In this session you will hear from Bryan Bowen. He’s an architect with lots of experience designing cohousing communities around the world. Bryan and his family walk the talk since he lives in Wild Sage cohousing. On top of all that, Bryan is formerly a member of the city of Boulder Planning Board so he has insight about how cohousing communities can best go about navigating through local zoning regulations. He’ll give you a little bit about the many types of intentional communities including cohousing. Bryan will talk about what makes cohousing different than ‘other’ HOA’s. He’ll describe some general characteristics and define some vocabulary specific to cohousing.
Colorado Communities
Representatives from various cohousing communities in Colorado will take a few moments each to share the basics of their community and something that makes them unique.
Session 2
Dick Kohlhaas and Joan Huntley
Touring Casa Verde Commons
Founding members Dick and Joan will give a virtual tour of Casa Verde describing life there while pointing out some features of the community. You’ll even get a peak inside one of the units!
Session 3
Alan O’Hashi
The Secret Sauce
Alan will present about the cohousing ‘secret sauce’ which is the main ingredient for creating a strong and vibrant community, and particularly during these crazy times of the COVID-19 pandemic and related racial justice issues, cohousing is more important now than ever before. How can cohousers pour the secret sauce over the wider community? He’ll present a case study about the forming Colorado Springs Healthy Co-Living Affordable Housing Community, which is a multi-organizational collaboration.
Closing
We’ll close the day with a conversation about cohousing and the city of Colorado Springs.
Saturday, July 25
9 am – 1 pm Mountain
Welcome
Introductions including who is The Cohousing Association of the US and who is our event host Casa Verde Commons.
Session 1 Choices
Karin Hoskin and Alan O’Hashi
Cohousing 101
Karin will give a presentation about the basics of cohousing, general characteristics, and common vocabulary. Alan will introduce you to the cohousing ‘secret sauce’ which is the main condiment that adds cohesion and vibrancy to your forming and existing communities
or
Joan Huntley, Angela Sullivan, Chris Rodriguez
Pets, Parenting, Parking and Pandemics!
These Casa Verde Commons members will talk about things that can lead to conflict within a community and how the consensus process helps resolve them. Sometimes conflict resolution evolves into new CVC’s policies. Joan and Angela will provide insight into policy development and approval.
Session 2 Choices
Michelle Rodriguez, Barb Kohlhaas and Christina Rader
Is Cohousing for Me?
All at different life stages, all from different backgrounds and all in different circumstances … all choosing cohousing. These CVC members will share their stories and why cohousing is for them.
or
Fran Larkin, Julie Lohre and Jeff Lawhead
People and Participation
Members from three different cohousing communities will present their community’s policies. Then open it for discussion with prompts such as ‘is it important?’ ‘why is it important?’ and ‘how do we get more?!’
Connection
Time to connect. We’ll divide into breakout rooms in small groups with some prompts for discussion.
Closing
We’ll close the day by offering a virtual tour of Casa Verde Commons.
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