Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: group facilitation for financial issues

[Ann Zabaldo (zabaldo]

Frog Song to Aptos, CA

125 miles = 3.5 hours depending on traffic?  That’s some very serious traffic …

> On Dec 7, 2015, at 9:28 AM, Jerry McIntire <jerry.mcintire [at] gmail.com> 
> wrote:
> 
> 
> 125 miles, almost 3.5 hours-- depending on traffic! Right through the Bay
> area.
> 
> On Mon, Dec 7, 2015 at 5:04 AM, Ann Zabaldo <zabaldo [at] earthlink.net> 
> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> Hello Fern --
>> 
>> One of the best facilitators working in cohousing is Eris Weaver. Have you
>> read her book Let's Talk About Money?
>> 
>> She lives at Frog Song Cohousing in Cotati CA.  Is that very far from you?
>> 
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>>> On Dec 7, 2015, at 12:54 AM, Fern Selzer/US/CA/95003/NBC via Cohousing-L
>> <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Hi everyone,
>>> Our cohousing group, New Brighton Cohousing in Aptos, CA is in need of
>> some group processing regarding money issues.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> I'm just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for us.    We are not
>> likely to spend a lot of money importing someone here, and we do know some
>> local people who we have used before that we are considering, but if you
>> can recommend anyone in the SF Bay area, we would be interested.
>>> Do you have experiences processing overall money values and/or resolving
>> long-term financial conflicts:   what was helpful?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Below are some of the questions/issues that we are  thinking about, but
>> we will be trying to prioritize and narrow down in our next meeting in
>> preparation for planning the training.  We are financially interdependent
>> even more so than many communities because we are a TIC with a group loan.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Some issues:
>>> A diversity of values, sense of trust, scarcity vs. abundance re:
>> money.   These issues have never been directly discussed, but are in the
>> background and often foster creativity and compromise, but sometimes
>> problematic.
>>> Some people may have chosen to live in our community mainly because it
>> was affordable to buy in, while others were mainly attracted to the
>> cohousing aspect.
>>> Some of our original plans were completely unhinged by the real estate
>> bust of 2008.  Now most of us are wanting to move forward with some of the
>> improvements we had planned originally.
>>> What to  do if someone can no longer afford to live here but doesn't
>> want to leave even though it is holding us back from getting a better
>> refinance. (this hasn't exactly happened, but could soon)
>>> Financial situation and/or preference (and often we don't know which)
>> causes some households to be unwilling to fund our recommended deferred
>> maintenance and would rather have lower standards of upkeep or wait until
>> something happens that must have a repair.
>>> We are considering building a new unit in our community and how we would
>> fund this and how we would use any profit, how much profit to build in,
>> etc., are all in question and either stopping or really slowing down the
>> pace of movement forward.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> So you can see, there are a lot of possible ways for us to enter this
>> conversation.  Any thoughts? I would appreciate any ideas or stories about
>> your community processing around these issues.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Thanks
>>> Fern
>>> New Brighton Cohousing
>>> 
>>> 
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> 

Best --

Ann Zabaldo
Takoma Village Cohousing
Washington, DC
Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
Falls Church, VA
703.688.2646