Re: To HIre or Not to Hire a Cohousing Consultant? | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Philip Dowds (rphilipdowdsme.com) | |
Date: Sun, 21 Apr 2019 13:32:49 -0700 (PDT) |
Frances — Creating cohousing may look like mostly like a real estate development project, and in many respects, that’s often a major part of it. Finding land is key: No land, no project. And if you don’t have realistic expectations for the time and money involved, you may feel trapped in an endless sequence of disappointment and pain. If you’ve got your land, your time and your money squared away, designing a configuration of buildings to meet your needs should be relatively straightforward. It certainly helps if you have some competent contractors, developers and designers in your group, but many cohousing projects go forward without these internalized skill sets. In all likelihood, you will need development, design and construction consultants. But there’s more to it than buildings. Maybe most of you are already experienced communitarians, and come from prior successful communal living situations. But that’s unusual. Most forming groups are attracted (they think) to a communitarian living ideal, but have had little practical experience with it. So the years of the real estate development process are the also time during which you can (and should) figure out how to be a community. For example … Who is a “member” of your group? What are the criteria? Does it ever happen that one of your “members” is a major problem, and if so, is it possible to divest yourself of this “member”? How? Yes, we all want consensus decision-making to bring us into unanimity … but, what if consensus doesn’t work? What if you can’t agree about something important? What happens then? Plenary time is scarce and valuable, and you can’t do everything in plenary. So how do you delegate, and to whom? Do subcommittees have powers as well as duties? Can they spend big bucks without coming back to plenary? Must everything be done face-to-face, or is there a way to communicate, to do communal business, that doesn’t require everyone to be in the room at the same time? You thought you were lucky to have a real estate expert as a group member … but is this “expert” trying to boss you around? Who should do what when two valued member households are having a hissy fit about each other? And so on. Maybe the answers to these questions are obvious and simple for you, but for most groups, not so much. Many sincere cohousing creation efforts come to naught because their excellent real estate attorney and excellent architect don’t have a clue about how to build and sustain a viable communitarian culture. So, in addition to development consultants, you may also need a group process consultant as well. The number of consultants out there who are good at both development and group process aren’t so many. Thanks, Philip Dowds Cornerstone Village Cohousing Cambridge, MA mobile: 617.460.4549 email: rpdowds [at] comcast.net > On Apr 21, 2019, at 3:02 PM, frances woolison <franceswoolison [at] > hotmail.com> wrote: > > > > To hire or not to hire a cohousing consultant? > > We are a small forming cohousing group in a part of Canada where cohousing is > as yet unknown. A few years ago, one of our members was in a forming > cohousing group in another province. That group had a very negative > experience after hiring an American cohousing consultant. The project fell > apart and the group collapsed. > > Our group has been busy, mostly working on marketing and recruiting new > members. After a year of limited success, we feel like we’re going in > circles. How do we know what this project will cost? When should we > incorporate? How do we keep the interest of individuals who come to our > information sessions, and those who become associates? How and when do we > set up equity memberships? And the big question, should we hire a cohousing > consultant? Knowing from the experience of other groups, that hiring a > consultant doesn't guarantee success, our membership is divided on this > issue. The alternative of simply hiring a local project manager has been > presented, partly because there are no local cohousing consultants. Some of > the group insist that “Cohousing isn’t rocket science.“ Other members are > leery about working with someone who is unfamiliar with cohousing. > > Having explained our situation, I’d like to ask the following questions: > > - Which communities have succeeded without hiring a cohousing consultant? > Has anyone tried? How many have failed? > - Is it a problem if a cohousing consultant is not local and therefore > unfamiliar with local laws? > - Is it necessary to hire a cohousing consultant? What specific issues are > unique to cohousing and therefore unfamiliar to project managers? > Our group has reached a stalemate and would appreciate answers which might > help us move forward. Thanks. > > _________________________________________________________________ > Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at: > http://L.cohousing.org/info > > >
- Re: To HIre or Not to Hire a Cohousing Consultant?, (continued)
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Re: To HIre or Not to Hire a Cohousing Consultant? Sharon Villines, April 21 2019
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Re: To HIre or Not to Hire a Cohousing Consultant? KAREN A CARLSON, April 22 2019
- Re: To HIre or Not to Hire a Cohousing Consultant? Lynne MARKELL, April 22 2019
- Re: To HIre or Not to Hire a Cohousing Consultant? Sharon Villines, April 22 2019
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Re: To HIre or Not to Hire a Cohousing Consultant? KAREN A CARLSON, April 22 2019
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Re: To HIre or Not to Hire a Cohousing Consultant? Sharon Villines, April 21 2019
- Re: To HIre or Not to Hire a Cohousing Consultant? Philip Dowds, April 21 2019
- Re: To HIre or Not to Hire a Cohousing Consultant? Sheila Hoffman, April 22 2019
- Re: To HIre or Not to Hire a Cohousing Consultant? Lynn Nadeau / Maraiah, April 22 2019
- Re: To HIre or Not to Hire a Cohousing Consultant? Fred-List manager, April 30 2019
- Re: To HIre or Not to Hire a Cohousing Consultant? Pat McAulay, May 29 2019
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