Cohousing-L Mailing List: Hi from Don @ CoHousing Journal

[DLinde (DLinde]

At Fred Olson's suggestion, I am taking this opportunity to introduce myself
to the other participants here.  I am Don Lindemann, managing editor of the
CoHousing Journal, a quarterly publication that many of you are probably
familiar with.  I am separately posting a table of contents for the current
issue under the subject line "CoHousing Journal - Summer 94".

I have not yet had a chance to view most of the comments over the past
several weeks as I've been travelling up and down the West Coast.  (I even
met Rob Sandelin face-to-face -- imagine that!).  However, I made extensive
use of the April and May files for my article on Cooking and Dining in the
current issue.  (Thanks again to several participants who agreed to let me
quote from their postings.)

>From now on I plan to monitor the internet discussion as much as I can, and
perhaps even pipe up now and then.  I think of myself as an
observer/journalist rather than some kind of cohousing "expert" (although I
recently completed a master's degree in city planning/housing development at
the University of California, Berkeley).  I do not yet live in cohousing,
although I've been actively involved with the Journal (let's call it
Cohousing-J) since it was a thin newsletter in 1991.  I've visited many
groups and communities along the way -- just call me the Peripatetic
CoHouser.

I work closely on the journal with editor-in-chief Bill Paiss, a founder of
the Rocky Mountain CoHousing Association and now a resident of the Nyland
community who also consults with groups around the country.  We both hope
this electronic forum will provide a convenient way for cohousing enthusiasts
(the computer-literate ones, at least) to give us informal feedback as well
as suggestions for future directions.

Cohousing-J has usually been an eclectic assortment of news, articles about
aspects of the development process and accounts of life in cohousing
communities.  It will probably remain eclectic (reflecting our diverse
audience), although we would like to continue the recent trend of including
longer, in-depth pieces on specific topics.  Anybody want to propose an
article?  Issues in the coming year will probably address
recruitment/marketing, legal/financial structures and site design -- we're
still wrestling with possibilities for the upcoming fall issue.

Please note that the fall issue will contain an updated list of cohousing
contacts around the U.S. and Canada -- so if you have any additions or
corrections for the version we published in the Spring, please send me a note
(DLINDE [at] AOL.COM) (or P.O. Box 2584, Berkeley CA  94702).  You can also send
status reports (a paragraph or two about your group including group name and
contact name/phone) to me and I will forward them to the appropriate editor
for inclusion in one of our regional editions.  (We have 6 editions for the
U.S. and 2 for Canada; our sysop suggests that I tack a note about
subscriptions to my separate posting of the Table of Contents.)

I've really enjoyed what I've seen so far in cyberspace -- the medium
definitely has some advantages, although I suspect there will be a niche for
the printed word for some time to come.  Good luck to all of you.