Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Tapes of workshops 1999 Conference

[Raines Cohen (coho-L]

Howard Mead <h-mead [at] nwu.edu> wrote on 10/20/99 4:36 PM:

>I was at the North American Cohousing Conference at Pine Street and noticed
>that at least some of the workshops were taped.
>
>Is there a way to get tapes? Cost? etc.
>
>I am giving a slide show about the conference next Tuesday here in Chicago.
>It would be nice if I had some information about this.

I was the one doing most of the taping. It was a totally 
amateur/experimental effort, NOT a paid/professional gig. My goal was to 
capture some excerpts suitable for the website, and perhaps get some 
material to share with my group and use as a carrot to convince them to 
join TCN (as well as to help me gain info from the sessions I couldn't 
make it to myself).

The tapes just this week made it back from Boston (UPS seems to have 
trouble delivering to this little cul-de-sac during hours when I'm 
around). Some are audio; others are video.

Unfortunately, from what I previewed at the conference, some have 
inaudible audio (thanks go to the people who put up with the distraction 
of passing around the microphone in sessions); others may have none (odds 
improved after I went out and bought a mixer, and on the ones where I 
plugged into the tent's sound system); some are only partially recorded. 
Most of the videotapes came out OK, but some are suitable only for audio.

I'll be meeting up soon with Cohousing Journal Editor Don Lindemann, at 
his request, to go over the tapes and parcel some of the usable ones out 
to people willing to write up sessions for the Journal. After that, what 
probably makes the most sense is to dump all the usable pieces onto an 
audio/videotape package (probably 2 EP videos, 3 long audiocassettes) and 
sell the whole thing as a bundle, ideally through TCN if it's interested.

Keep in mind that the whole effort was done on a last-minute unprepared 
shoestring, 

Another person was doing high-quality videotaping of selected sessions; 
we haven't linked up to exchange material yet; chances are, she got more 
of the sessions in the tent and the large-group gatherings.

Also on my to-do list: sorting through the digital pix I took for TCN 
website/Journal use.

So the short answer: We won't have anything by Tuesday. But in the long 
run, yes, there'll be something... whether it'll be useful for anything 
remains to be seen.

Raines
(who briefly thought that the comment "hire a cohousing professional or 
hire a local professional or do-it-themselves" was in the polyamory 
thread!) ;-)
Raines

Raines Cohen <coho-L [at] raines.com> <http://www.swansway.com/>
  Member, Old Oakland [CA] Cohousing at Swan's Market
Where we are making a checklist, checking it twice, 90 days out!

  and Member, East Bay Cohousing [no site yet] <http://www.ebcoho.org/>
Which decided to set up a coordinating committee so meeting agendas 
aren't set just by facilitators.