In October 2011 in this part of Massachusetts, we had an unusual snowfall. Leaves were still on the trees, but big, fat flakes of wet snow fell from the sky. As the snow kept coming down, there was an increasing chance that snow-laden tree branches might fall on power lines and cause an outage. Now... Read More

Ted Rau Sociocracy for All Making Meetings Shorter Much appreciation to Ted Rau for presenting WebChat #5 earlier this month. We had a great audience who were drawn by Ted’s enticing topic “Keeping Meeting Shorter. After reminding us that meeting are about connection and that long meetings can breed resentment and lower participation, Ted offered... Read More

For most families it is easy to imagine the benefits of sharing a cohousing community with other families with kids the same age. Naturally the kids will play together, the parents will have peers moving through the same stages together, and carpooling to activities is likely. I want to take a moment to write about... Read More

This story was written in 2003 and first published in David Wann’s book Reinventing Community: Stories from the Walkways of Cohousing. We are republishing it here with permission because it is such a great example of how cohousing communities nurture and support beyond the community itself. We’ve been living with foster children in our house... Read More

The following question was asked on a WebChat on Oct 18, 2018. We didn’t have time to answer it there, so Karen is offering the answer here. Question: Is there a way to get folks who are extremely focused on “getting a lot done” — especially leaders/facilitators who make very packed meeting agendas down to... Read More

Last week we enjoyed our second WebChat. Karen Gimnig shared about the value of Getting Connected and strategies for making it happen faster. After a short presentation, questions ranged from managing speakers in meetings to balancing work on connection with decision-making. Video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWv9NEZB4Po Many participants asked for a write-up of the basic mirror

This fall I got to spend some time with long-term cohousers. I asked them “Why cohousing?” As expected, they told me about neighborly support, caring for the environment, common meals, and all sorts of details of why it’s enjoyable to live in cohousing. What felt more important, though, were all the reasons the world needs... Read More

The Cohousing Association of the US was delighted to host Jerry Koch-Gonzalez of Sociocracy for All for the first in our series of WebChats. Over 70 people attended the program, including groups that gathering in their common house to watch together. We always love to see cohousing in action. Jerry started the evening with a... Read More

The Northeast Cohousing Summit is coming to Amherst, Massachusetts, and that sure brings back memories for me! Want to know why? Almost two decades ago, in October 1999, the National Cohousing Conference was hosted by two Amherst communities: my home community of Pioneer Valley Cohousing, and nearby Pine Street Cohousing. For three glorious days, people... Read More