Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Esalen cohousing workshop

[Jeff Papineau (jeffp]

OK Mr. Tracy,

I appreciate the comments on the Esalen workshop. I would like to post this
query publicly, to share with all. Please take a moment and let me
in on a few insights of the Esalen workshop:

1) Did they mention any way to proceed, as far as getting people together? Is
there a formula for starting with the right group? I'm wondering if they
told of obvious failure states to be avoided. I'm wondering how many people
would be required for an average community, if everyone were equally responsible
for sharing the expenses involved in setting it up. I would imagine that
they had some guidelines about knowing when is the right time to act, when
is the group ready, and should stop searching for others to include in the
initial start-up process?

2) Did they have some type of guidelines as to how much space would be
required for any given expected number of community members? Like
1/4 acre per person, minimum, in a rural setting with gardening/agriculture
as a prime focus?

3) What is the "gun collection issue" relating to conflict resolution. 
I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with it.

4) What about a vision statement and the bringing together like individuals
with the same ideals? Was this characterized as very important, or what?

5) One last one; did they discuss the many types of ownership structures to
 be choosen from? (Corporations, trust funds, separate mortgages, etc?)
I'm interested in what the basic options are...

Thanks much,

Jeff Papineau

PS - Do you have a contact phone or address for Kathryn McCamant or the 
Cohousing Company? Do they offer literature or assistance, or only the
workshops?