Category: TCCN history

Twin Cities Cohousing Network

The Year in Review

In 2023, the all-volunteer nonprofit Twin Cities Cohousing Network (TCCN) continued its theme of “Catalyzing Cohousing in Minnesota.”

The Meet the Professionals lecture series brought to Minnesota audiences two more well-known experts who educate and consult about their cohousing specialties. The Zoom video recordings of the presentations and audience Q&A can be found on TCCN’s YouTube channel.

In addition to the YouTube channel, which showcases recordings of our virtual events, a monthly electronic newsletter, TCCN News, updates subscribers about upcoming cohousing events and information. TCCN also maintains a website, and has a presence on Facebook, Linked In, and uses MeetUp to enable broader communication with our Minnesota audience and beyond. 

Despite significant increases in the cost of construction since the pandemic, and the current lack of sufficient housing supply at all price points, TCCN continued to encourage the formation of new cohousing core groups working toward the creation of new cohousing communities. In addition, TCCN worked to network existing cohousing groups to other cohousing groups, and with groups that share the desire to create intentional communities in variations other than the gold-standard-model-of-cohousing developed by Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett. 

Finally, TCCN continued its financial support in 2023 to the national nonprofit, Cohousing Association of the United States (CohoUS) and received CohoUS Partnership  status. This provided all TCCN supporters who made a gift of $60 or more with access to the many additional educational and networking opportunities, including free and discounted webinars and access to CohousingUS’s online education platform, Cohousing Institute 

Cohousing Events

Feb 8  “What’s New in Cohousing” 

After a brief presentation on the characteristics that make a housing development a cohousing community, representatives from groups working to create cohousing communities in Minnesota gave updates on their progress and challenges; included discussion breakout rooms for participants. Zoom registrations: 62.

Jul 12  Annual Picnic

 An in-person picnic was held at Como Park Picnic Grounds to provide a social gathering for individuals and families with an interest in learning more about cohousing and current efforts to create cohousing communities. Pre-registrations and walk-ons 16.

Aug 21  Conversation with Mary Novak, Executive Director of Riverton Community Housing. 

Riverton Community Housing is a nonprofit organization that holds individual apartment buildings organized as cooperatives.  Attended by Lynn Englund, Becca Brackett, and Fred Olson.x

Board of Directors

TCCN operates with a working board of directors and no paid staff. We are an all-volunteer organization. Each director donates time to govern the organization and also works to develop TCCN’s programs and promote them to the public, and to produce a monthly newsletter. Officers of the Board for 2023 were:

Other Volunteers

Volunteer Hours

The continuation of our organization is dependent on volunteer time and talents. In 2023, more than 457 volunteer hours were recorded as having been contributed to TCCN by a total of five volunteers.  Estimated to have a value of  $34.47 per volunteer hour (2023 Value of Volunteer Time Report), TCCN volunteers contributed efforts valued at  over $15,750 in 2023. Because it is challenging for volunteers to record every hour volunteered, this value is less than the actual value of time volunteered.

Financial report

Revenues for 2023 totaled $2,528.61. All donations (except $2.05) came from charitable contributions made by generous individual donors.  Retained assets of 3,312.38 strengthened our financial position. A total of 11 individual donors contributed $60 or more during 2023 and enjoyed access to CohoUS’s online community partnership program of free online programs and discounted multi-day training courses through The Cohousing Institute and the CohoUS websites.

Expenses totaled $2,009.73 and consisted of program expenses (9%), professional subscriptions and web hosting (11%), CohoUS community partnership for 2024 (37%), business liability insurance (39%), and refunds and fees (3%). 

Twin Cities Cohousing Network had no liabilities. The net gain in retained assets was $518.88. See also, 2023 annual financial reports, Statement of Financial Position and Statement of Operations.  

Organizational Information

Twin Cities Cohousing Network  2650 University Ave W, Unit 315 St. Paul, MN 55114 EIN: 41-166891

Phone: 612-470-4629 Website:  https://www.tccoho.org/ Email: info@tccoho.org Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube

Twin Cities Cohousing Network is delighted to welcome the new ideas, skills, and enthusiasm that Lee Pedersen brings as a new member of TCCN’s Vision Circle. Lee lives in Duluth, MN, where she actively promotes cohousing by offering community education classes and hosting regular MeetUp groups while seeking others to join in the goal of creating a Duluth-area senior cohousing community.  She had her article Cohousing is a return to village living published in The Reader Duluth October 16th, 2021.

Lee also helps us expand our attention beyond the Twin Cities Metropolitan area to include cohousing initiatives within Greater Minnesota. After completing a probationary period, Lee was appointed to fill the remainder of an open term and will be appointed to a new three-year term starting January 1, 2022. 

As a result of a resurgence of interest in the cohousing model of housing-community development, the Twin Cities Cohousing Network was reactivated in July 2016.

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