Kathy Ahlers – Twin Cities Cohousing Network

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.

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.

Potluck next step after the Durrett talk

by John Kalmon

We had a great turnout for the presentation on cohousing by Charles Durrett, who took us through a verbal tour of many cohousing communities, accompanied by great photos and punctuated with stories that were engaging and enlightening. He described how cohousing improves peoples’ lives by bringing a new level of social connection into their day-to-day activities.

As an example, Durrett recalled an elderly woman who moved from the home closest to the parking area to the furthest away because it improved her relationship with her neighbors, which she described as more important than her relationship with her car.

The idea of resource sharing was explained—not only lawn mowers and common-house amenities, but more importantly the opportunity to share one’s time, knowledge or emotional support. All this can and does happen easily because of the arrangement and design of the structures, and because the people who have chosen to live in cohousing recognize that their social well-being and connections are among their highest priorities.

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Durrett spoke of “social tax” as well, the work a community needs to put in to assure long-term success. This needs to be addressed early in the formation of a core group by establishing their goals and values, and learning how to make decisions as a group, often by some form of consensus. Stories of specific challenges faced by groups and how they overcame them were very informative.

The audience asked good questions. Stimulating conversation continued among attendees long after the presentation, and many pitched in without hesitation to stack the chairs!

To learn more about what is happening locally in cohousing, please continue to check our website and sign up to receive TCCN News, our e-newsletter, which will bring you all the latest news and events. We hope to see you at our next event on October 20th.