Re: Very Quick Question
From: Craig Ragland (craigraglandgmail.com)
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:28:10 -0700 (PDT)
In addition to the volunteer efforts that Donna invites I'd like to remind
folks that Coho/US also uses money to make good stuff happen. A future, paid
deliverable that COULD address some of the questions Kay would like answered
is the upcoming 2009 Annual Cohousing Census, but only if we can
sufficiently support that project.

We were unable to expand the 2008 Census scope due to lack of funding - FYI,
the 2008 Census also included data on groups that have chosen not to list in
the FIC or Cohousing Directories and active outreach is required to collect
data from a great many groups that are not actively communicating online.

Coho/US buys staff time and contracts with others for specific deliverables.
As most members of built communities know, money can focus the attention
required to develop most successful cohousing projects - and effectively
combining volunteer and paid efforts is one of Cohousing's "secrets of
success."

I am quite hopeful that Coho/US will find ways to grow our funds to better
support more Cohousing-related work - enabling us to buy more time from more
people. I am working to help this happen by working on defining our
fund-raising efforts. My hope is that we can help more people understand why
Cohousing is of deep importance to the broader culture.

I hope that this leads to more income in the form of donations and grants.
Coho/US is a 501(c)3 non-profit, which accepts fully tax-deductible
donation:

http://www.cohousing.org/contribute

Some will use some of their money to support the growth of Cohousing
Movement. Those "angels" are voting with their dollars to create a better
world, one neighborhood at a time.

Craig

On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 12:40 PM, Donna Freiermuth <editor [at] 
cohousing.org>wrote:

>
> It's always wonderful to see ideas for better collection of cohousing
> data that could be centrally located and more accessible.
>
> Coho/U.S. created a new section of its website called the Members Area
> which we hope will serve as a place for in-depth discussions and a
> repository for this type of information. All that section needs now is
> more involvement from the folks who know so much about cohousing --
> which is you -- lots of the people who read and write to Coho-L.
>
> If you have any interest in seeing a resource like this grow and thrive,
> please consider becoming a cohost of one of the planned (or an
> unplanned) topic room. Your interest is what matters.
>
> For more information about the Members Area see:
> http://www.cohousing.org/ma/overview
>
> Please email me if you have questions about what would be involved. I'd
> love to talk to you about it.
>
> In community,
> donna
>
> Editor
> /Cohousing Magazine /
>
>
> From: Kay Argyle (kay.argyleutah.edu)
> Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:23:34 -0700 (PDT)
>
> Physical structure and legal status tend to be stable once a community
> is finished, compared to dynamic statistics like population, which
> fluctuates - at least, in some communities, per a recent discussion :).
>
> It strikes me that this is, thus, one of those questions that it makes
> sense to collect the answers in a central repository, in the cohousing
> wiki or someplace, that forming groups could easily be referred to, to
> avoid the fatigue of "I've already answered that question three times
> ..." from long-time cohousing-L members, or the difficulty of tracking
> down somebody, somewhere, who somebody dimly remembers collected
> information from a
> previous thread and may or may not still have it on their computer.
>
> The Cohousing Association's directory has number of units and property
> size, which (with their permission) would provide a start on such a
> table, with Diane Simpson's and Tom Hammer's tables filling in a few
> more facts on a few communities. Even if, to start with, much of the
> information was blank on most communities, whatever was there would be
> useful.
>
> Include a form linked to the webpage, so that communities could submit
> their information to be added.
>
> Some of the FAQs that (from ten years' observation of cohousing-L) occur
> to me for inclusion:
>
> - name
> - location
> - # of units
> - size of common house
> - property size
> - mix of unit sizes: studio/1br/2br/3br/4br, and/or range of square
> footages
>
> - # of fully/partially handicap-accessible units and/or common house
> - # of low-income units, or other affordability measures
> - # of guest rooms
> - dining room capacity
> - checkoff columns for common (in the sense of "frequently existing")
> amenities such as a common laundry, workshop, bike shed, community garden
> - condo or lot development
> - new-built or retrofit
> - type of incorporation such as condo, co-op, etc.
> - zoning (e.g., farm animals allowed?)
> - special features like geothermal heat, alternative construction methods,
> conservation easements, on-site businesses, or any focus such as elder
> housing or religious affiliation
>
> Kay
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
>
>
>


-- 
Craig Ragland

Coho/US executive director
http://www.cohousing.org
craig [at] cohousing.org

Please try email first, include your phone number (w/time zone) - or give me
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