Karen Gimnig was with us for a WebChat last week with a new look at conflict in community and in life.  While conflict is not always welcome and rarely easy, she suggested that we can embrace conflict as an opportunity to grow.  Conflict arises when something in us that is ready to grow, or finish... Read

Joe Cole joined us this evening for a thought-provoking presentation on Addressing Racism and Working for Racial Equality in Community Building. Joe started with a long view of history, noting that the competitive culture of domination is recent, only 5000 years. Prior to that human cultures were collaborative, demonstrating that a cultural values of sustainability,... Read More

Below is an excerpt from a Communities Magazine article. Read the full article at https://www.ic.org/im-not-a-racist-but-racism-is-in-me-and-in-my-community/ Author Joe Cole will be presenting at the National Cohousing Conference in Portland this June. A few years ago I attended a film showing at a restaurant in Durham, North Carolina. Seventy people turned out to watch the film, which... Read More

Yana Ludwig’s second WebChat was another great success. This time she tackled the topic of Cooperative Culture, giving us 6 of her 10 strategies for being effective in cooperative governance. Yana begins with an introduction to the extremes of the cooperative spectrum and the dangers of overcompensating. Then she guides us toward balance in the... Read More

Cohousing community members begin with some basic assumptions. We expect to do some downsizing. We know we will be sharing space and will need to make some comprises about how we use that space. We plan to reduce our impact on the planet and increase our social connections. These tend to be shared assumptions and... Read More

In our most recent WebChat, Alan O’Hashi shared techniques for facilitation in consensus cohousing groups. His approach is to shift from the transactional methods common in the greater culture, to methods focused on transformation. Watch the video at this link: https://youtu.be/ZQnz8X_7DME Alan gives detailed explanations and interesting stories that demonstrate four major strategies for fac

While tackling the long and sometimes daunting list of tasks required to start a cohousing group, I draw daily upon every prayer, affirmation and inner trick I know to keep the faith and grow the vision. As our core group grows closer, steadily inching toward this goal, we fine-tune ways to share the vision with... Read More

Today I’m blowing on the coals of an exchange I had right before Thanksgiving with my friend, who offered the reflections below on my blog of Nov 20, 2016 Defining Cooperative Culture. As I am taking a few days off work, I thought I would comment on your latest very interesting blog. I think you... Re