Cohousing-L Mailing List: Reasons for attending the National Conference July 2006

[Rick Mockler (rick]

We're delighted to see the growing interest in the National Conference,
which is shaping up very nicely.

Our Program Team actually has an entire track devoted to "Living in
Cohousing," for people living in completed communities.  The team has
recently confirmed these workshops and will be posting them to
www.cohousing.org shortly. 

My experience is that the national conference is an opportunity for
people from built communities to share best practices with their peers
and to keep in touch with the broader movement, including strengthening
ties within local regions.  

As a ten year resident of Muir Commons, I've appreciated problem solving
everything from participation issues to HOA policies at the national
conference, but I also get a charge out of seeing what's happening in
the broader movement.  Some younger communities are pushing the envelope
and educating us about things we had never before considered.  And I
love sharing our story with newcomers, whom are hungry for information
and encouragement to help get their project off the ground.

For me, the most valuable part of the national gathering is that it
helps us all stay connected with each other and the larger vision, so
that we don't default into being isolated communities looking inward.
I'd encourage every built cohousing community to budget registration for
several of its members, because what they bring back enriches their
entire cohousing community.

Rick Mockler
Coho/US Board Volunteer


P.S.  I'm also looking forward to touring the built cohousing
communities in the Raleigh/Durham area!



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Message: 1
Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 13:30:35 -0700 (PDT)
From: Carol Robinson <carolrslv [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: [C-L]_ Reasons for attending the National Conference July
        2006
To: Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org
Message-ID: <20060518203035.62135.qmail [at] web35508.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Hi all!
  I live in a community that started forming in 1997, started building
in 2001,
  and completed in 2005. I consider us to be in "early adolescence." I
was
  considering attending the National Conference and then the details of
  the costs and events were published. I am considering that the cost
  is more than I would like to pay at this point and I am not seeing
many
  events that would be informative for me.
   
  My questions are: 
  What do others expect to gain from this conference or why are you
considering going?
  What information would be available for members of communities that
are complete?
  In general, what benefits are folks expecting to get?
   
  Thank you for your time!!
  Carol Robinson
  Shadowlake Village
  Blacksburg, VA