Do you want to be “Stepping into Cohousing?”

Saturday,  February 20th, 2021

Zoom conference — 11:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M CST

“Stepping into Cohousing,” is a jam-packed, online mini-conference for the person who wants to be part of forming a cohousing community or is wondering what to look for in choosing an existing community:

  • Developing core values and vision
  • Key steps and processes
  • Common hurdles and ways to overcome them
  • Resources 
  • Presenters with lived experience in cohousing will address these topics
  •  and more!

From the moment you first say to each other, “Let’s build cohousing,” to move in day, learning from those who have gone before will help you gather members, create connections, and build the buildings that make cohousing a reality.

Cohousing USA

Purchase a discount code for just $20 as a subscriber to TCCN’s Newsletter. The code you receive will save you $55 over the standard registration fee of $75. 

Once registered for the conference you can participate live, and if unable to participate for the full time that day — or at all — you will have access to video recordings of sessions you missed. Follow the simple steps below:

  1. Purchase your discount code now for $20,
  2. Enter your name and email address in the form below
  3. Receive your discount code by email with a link to register for $0 at Stepping into Cohousing.

This conference will take the place of our quarterly TCCN meeting this winter. Cohousing USA is planning a series of on-line conferences in 2021, but not all of them will be discounted through TCCN.

The transformative impact of intentional Community

Event date: Wed. Nov. 18, 2020

Join others to view a prerecorded webchat discussion with Sky Blue and Avi Kruley on the potential of intentional communities to help transform our world.

Humanity is in crisis. The feedback loop between larger society, the communities we live in, and our personal experiences reinforce systems of privilege and oppression that create harm – for people and the planet.

From the safety of your home*, learn what makes a group an intentional community. Are intentional communities part of the problem or part of the solution? How can we do better? This conversation between Sky and Avi will delve into these multifaceted experiments known as intentional communities and their potential to help transform our world.

Register now to view this prerecorded discussion made available through our national cohousing information source, Coho USA.

Head shots of featured speakers Avi Kurley and Sky Blue.
Avi Kruley, Community Wellbeing Facilitator at the Mount Madonna Center in Watsonville, CA, and Sky Blue, Executive Director of the Foundation for Intentional Community. 

Register in advance to join this special Zoom meeting.

Wednesday, November 18, 2020
7:00-8:00 P.M. Central Time (U.S. and Canada)
Free.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Cheerful diverse friends gathering in modern studio apartment suggestive of an intentional community.

* Due to COVID-19, Twin Cities Cohousing Network has shifted to holding virtual events that bring people together from the safety of their own homes.

Finances and funnies

Wed. Sept. 16, 2020

A window on cohousing sharing and caring, with a bit of pandemic humor

Learn how cohousing communities are being affected by COVID-19 and how they are responding to meet new social and financial challenges. Humor is included in the presentation, including a series of one-liners written and delivered by a participant.

Register now to obtain your personal Zoom link in order to view this special presentation by Cohousing U.S. Communications Director Karen Gimnig and Executive Director Karin Hoskin. Discussion among registered Zoom participants will follow.

Wednesday, September 16, 2020
7:00-8:00 PM
Free, but registration is required by 6 PM on September 14 to receive your personal Zoom link.  

Artist's image of happy and expressive people standing on their balconies making music, singing, dancing, and enjoying themselves while social distancing.
Inspired by the balconies around the world and the spirit of humanity while social distancing. Image created by Shua Baber. Submitted for United Nations Global Call Out To Creatives – help stop the spread of COVID-19. Accessed at Unsplash.com.

Personal Growth: Maybe the Most Important Reason for Cohousing (Aug. 5)

Wednesday, August 5, 2020
7:00 – 8:30 PM.
Free, but advance registration is required.
Please register by 6 p.m. on August 4th to receive your link to Zoom. 

We hope you will gather with us from the safety of your home to learn why personal growth may be the most important reason to choose cohousing. Participants will view a pre-recorded “Webchat” by Karen Gimnig. After the presentation, which has been edited for length, there will be time for Q&A among participants and Twin Cities Cohousing Network board members.

Photo of Karen Ginming.
Karen Gimning

Karen Gimnig is a resident of East Lake Commons cohousing community near Atlanta, Georgia, and is the communications director at Cohousing USA.

We look forward to connecting!

Register here. You will receive a link to the Zoom presentation and directions for how to access the meeting.

What’s Up With Tiny Houses!

February 19, 2020
Optional Potluck dinner: 6PM
Program: 6:30-8:30 PM.
Cost: $8.00

St Frances Cabrini Catholic Church
1500 Franklin Ave SE · Minneapolis, MN (east side of the river)

Local organizer Dylan Linet will be speaking on the potential of Tiny Houses to provide low-cost housing communities. He is a member of the Twin Cities Ecovillage. A proposal for an Envision Community of tiny homes to address homelessness was recently covered by Minnesota Public Radio.

Tiny houses are just one form of community. Are you looking for more connectedness and social community in your life? Consider making your next neighborhood a cohousing community. It’s a great time to get involved and start designing an intentional housing development with your future neighbors.

Register now for this chance to connect to learn about tiny houses and connect with others seeking more satisfying, stable and interconnected forms of housing.

Cost to attend is $8.00. Preregistration and payment helps us but is not mandatory. You may pay at the door.

Location: St Frances Cabrini Church, 1500 Franklin Ave SE (on the east side of the river), Minneapolis.

If you wish to eat with the group, come at 6 PM and please bring a potluck dish to pass. An ingredient list is appreciated. See you there!

To stay informed about upcoming meetings, join the Twin Cities Cohousing Network email list. 

Cohousing 101–key benefits, common coho types, local cohousing initiatives

Housing ownership is a key wealth-building strategy for people in America, and everyone seems to be looking for a greater sense of community where they live.

Cohousing–condo or townhome communities that are collectively designed, built and managed–is a fairly recent addition to the Twin Cities housing landscape.

Learn about local existing and new cohousing initiatives, and get a general overview of what cohousing is, its key benefits, and some variations on the cohousing model. Bring your curiosity and your questions. All are welcome.

Register now for this chance to connect with others seeking a more satisfying, stable and interconnected form of housing.

Wed., Nov. 13, 2019

Optional potluck 6 pm

Program starts at 6:45 pm. Cost to attend is $8.00. Preregistration and payment helps us but is not mandatory. You may pay at the door.

Location: St Frances Cabrini Church

1500 Franklin Ave SE (on the east side of the river)

Minneapolis

View of sidewalk along Franklin Avenue S.E. at turn in for parking lot of St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church.
Free parking on the east side of the building, and on neighborhood streets.

After a summary of the basic features of cohousing, including short videos, we will cover a capsule history of cohousing in the United States before opening the floor so you can meet folks who have formed core groups for developing their own close-knit cohousing communities.
We will end with a round of Cohousing Jeopardy.

Registration link.

Free childcare will be made available but only on advance request. Contact us at twincities@cohousing.org by Nov. 6 to arrange.

Twin Cites Cohousing Network  is a 501c(3)  organization that educates about cohousing and provides related networking opportunities in the Twin Cities area.

Affordable cohousing – how we can make it happen (Sept 19, 2019)

Speaker: Barbara Bailey, Partnership for Affordable Cohousing

Many people wonder if affordable cohousing is an unreachable ideal. Barbara Bailey, Partnerships for Affordable Cohousing, is coming up from Iowa to talk with us on Sept. 19th about why and how it is feasible.

Barbara recently retired from The Housing Fellowship, a non-profit affordable housing developer, where she worked first as an independent accounting professional, and then as the finance manager. She worked in the fields of non-profit business and financial management for more than 35 years, and is certified by the National Development Council as a Housing Development Finance Professional. Barbara lives in Prairie Hill Cohousing a community that she helped found in Iowa City, IA.

Register to attend and engage with our guest speaker as she provides ideas for bringing cohousing within reach of people with modest means. We hope you will contribute some of your own ideas and questions to the discussion following the presentation.

Doors open 5:30 pm
Optional potluck 6:00 pm (please bring a dish to share)
Program 6:45 – 8:15 pm
Clean up 8:30-9:00 pm

Cost to attend the program: $8
Free childcare

Registrations are now open at this link.

Barbara Bailey, with Partnership for Affordable Cohousing and resident of Prairie Hill Cohousing in Iowa City, is speaking at the Sept. 19th TCCN event on affordable cohousing

Getting your cohousing story out – May 2 – marketing essentials for early stage group formation

How to Get Your Cohousing Story Out: Skills You Need to Grow Your Group. Panel discussion with workshopping on Thurs., May 2, 2019. Register now.

You’ll get practice in the skills presented, and come away with an uplifting elevator speech about your project and phone tips for how to connect with people without pushback. Optional potluck and social time, 6 pm. Program starts around 6:45 pm. All are welcome. Cost is $8.00.

Panel discussion with Ken Fox, Peter Piché, Becca Brackett, and Brian PaStarr. Register.


[Some of these techniques were shared by Shelly Parks of CoVision at Bassett Creek cohousing core group’s marketing workshop in October.]

LOCATION:
Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church
420 Cedar Lake Rd, Minneapolis.
Cost $8.00.
Free childcare provided in the adjoining nursery room. Parents might wish to bring things that they know their child enjoys.
Enter via main south entrance door, near the accessibility ramp; look for the Twin Cities Cohousing Network banner.

Register for the program. You may pay in advance or at the door.

DETAILS ABOUT THE OPTIONAL (but encouraged) POTLUCK:
If you’d like to participate in the optional potluck* and social time preceding the presentation, please bring a dish to share.

Group meals are a key feature of cohousing communities, which is why we include them as an option prior to our quarterly presentations and encourage people to attend that if they are able. TCCN provides water, coffee and tea. You’re welcome to bring a non-alcoholic beverage of choice for yourself, or to share.

*A potluck meal is “a meal at which attendees bring food that is donated and shared by the attendees” (MN Dpt. of Health).

SCHEDULE FOR THE EVENING:
Gather 5:30 pm
Meal 6:00 pm
Program 6:45 -8:15 pm (times approximate)
Clean up 8:30-9:00 pm.

A NOTE ABOUT THE $8 COST: A donation of $8 is requested for each adult. There is no charge for children. Donations are accepted in advance or at the door. All donations support the programs and other educational work of Twin Cities Cohousing Network, a  501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. No funds collected are payment for the shared potluck meal or in exchange for food provided.

This is the quarterly presentation and potluck of Twin Cities Cohousing Network. Reach us via email at twincities [at] cohousing [dot]org or at our website tccoho.org.

Sociocracy – circles, rounds and consent | Feb. 21

Lynn Englund, local Sociocracy trainer, presents on Thurs., Feb.  21, 2019 the three foundational tools that are part of this common governance system that’s used in some self-managed cohousing communities.

These tools are: rounds, circles and the practice of consent in small group decision-making.

Informal networking will happen during the potluck that precedes the program.

Registration is open now. Optional potluck at 6 pm, program at 6:45 pm.

“I would love meetings if they didn’t have people…”

Does your group have lofty ambitions but struggle with making and following through on decisions? Learn the basics of Sociocracy, a system that distributes authority and helps groups to optimize their meeting time. This form of decision-making and governance allows all voices to be heard.

  • Doors open 5:30 pm
  • Potluck 6:00 pm
  • Program at 6:45 pm  

Location: Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, 420 Cedar Lake Road, Minneapolis

Presenter: Lynn Englund is an educator and trainer in the areas of group process and governance.

Resource links:

  • Sociocracy.info – prolific author & cohousing resident Sharon Villines’ blog about improving democratic processes
  • SociocracyForAll.org – nonprofit offering Sociocracy training & resources

Register now at https://tccoho.org.customers.tigertech.net (Events page)

Contact TCCN at twincities@cohousing.org

This is the quarterly program meeting of Twin Cities Cohousing Network (TCCN), a nonprofit organization that educates about cohousing and provides related networking opportunities in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.