Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Choosing units

[Dahako (Dahako]

Hi -

I got enough responses on and off list to my question about choosing units that 
I thought I'd report on how our "mock draw" last night went.  

First off, Ann Zabaldo facilitated the meeting and did a great job!  She and 
Katherine Matthews of the Ecohousing staff worked with a couple of members for 
several days to flush out things to consider in choosing a unit.  Initially, 
most people focused on the view from or light into their units (we're very 
urban - a retrofit of a four-story commercial building into condos).  
Ecohousing helped members consider questions of noise, location relative to the 
common spaces, and several other issues unique to the site (such as ceiling 
heights on the ground floor).

During the initial part of the meeting, the architect presented the new plan 
for our common spaces based on our recent common house programming retreat. We 
had a Q&A session on that. 

Then the additional considerations/questions list was read and the new unit 
floor plans (tweaked per our recent unit programming sessions) were distributed 
during a long break. Everyone wandered around and looked at everything and 
talked a lot.  

Then we came back and, in seniority order, put a green sticky on the building 
plan to mark our first choice unit and put a blue sticky on the plan for our 
second (and sometimes third) choice. Prospective members who were present put 
up yellow stickies to show the units they were interested in.

When all the stickies were up, we only had a handful (literally) of overlaps on 
first choices.  Amazing when you consider we have about 35 member households 
(heading for 40 to start construction and 57 at build-out).  

So, during this week, we're having Laird Schaub in to do training on 
communication skills Thursday and facilitation and consensus Saturday.  We plan 
to "go live" and use discussion of the draw to learn the skills and help bring 
the community together.  (Wish I could say we planned the training overlap with 
the draw, but the truth is we were panicked about packing too much in until we 
realized the two activities could support each other.)

Then next Tuesday we have the real draw for units and hope all goes even better!

later-
Jessie Handforth Kome
Eastern Village Cohousing
Silver Spring, Maryland
"Where we're in one of the country's great public school districts with some 
family-sized units still available."
www.easternvillage.org
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