Communities designing their common houses often ask about what they will need. What do people really use? What kind of storage is needed and what will go in it? Is an office necessary and for what? They don’t know about storage for 8 snow shovels or 6 different kinds of brooms and mops. When our... Read More

Over the last several years I have served on the Cohousing Association of the US Board of Directors and it’s been an absolute delight! My term will be ending the end of this year. The board meets monthly by phone and with a well-crafted meeting by our executive director, Karin Hoskin, we move expediently through... Read More

In sociocracy, consent and consensus decision-making are only used for policy decisions. Policy decisions are those that govern actions and allocation of resources (budget, people, etc.). But this leaves questions for many people about when to use consent and consensus decision-making. It helps to look at policy decisions v, operations decisions. Operations decisions are the... 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

Question: We are 3 months into starting a co-housing community in western MA. We will soon be discussing how we will make group decisions. I don’t think we have to reinvent the wheel on this one. Consensus and sociocracy seem to be common strategies. Which do you recommend? Sociocracy and consensus are not opposite things.... Read More