Cohousing-L Mailing List: The NW Cohousing Conference

[Rob Sandelin (Floriferous]

October 25-27th, 18 Cohousing groups from WA, OR and BC gathering in Seattle 
for the NW regional Conference.  Pretty much the same format as the others, 
Friday night dinner, slides and a keynote address by Chris Hansen. Saturday 
was devoted to workshops and we had a "resource room" full of displays, books, 
magazines, etc.  Marci and Tom from Puget Ridge have this conference gig down 
pat, had a computer and printer on the premises so the session notes were 
typed up and available, minutes after each session. There was special white 
board materials, sheets of plastic mylar that magically clung to the wall that 
you could write on with dry-erase markers.

Had several small group sessions in corners and at lunch and dinner on 
Saturday. Although many sessions had notes, you had to be there to get the 
best effect.  

Sunday was a brunch, another keynote, a debriefing then a Cohousing Fair, 
which attracted a steady crowd and allowed groups seeking members to display 
there show and tell and do some marketing.

I wonder if there is the possibility of creating a webset from the conference 
notes? I have all the files from the sessions and could send them to Stuart or 
anybody who is interested? Maybe we could create a web area on the cohousing 
website for these sorts of things?  

Quote that got often repeated:" Group process is like a bird whose wings are 
task and process. When both wings are the same size and beat together the bird 
flies straight and true, when one wing gets bent or broken, the bird goes 
around in circles"

Person of day: Marci Malinowcyz, conference-meister extrodinaire.

Joke of the day: Cohousing kid to parent: dad what's that bug on my wall? 
Parent: Oh, that's just a common house fly.
Kid: So if its a commonhouse fly, what's it doing in my room? 

Groups attending were: Cascadia, Cascadia commons, Vashon, South Whydbey, 
Bellingham, Olympia, Sharingwood, Puget Ridge, Winslow, Trillium Hollow, 
Cardiff place, Windsong, West Vancouver, Ceil, Rosewind, North Peninsula 
ecovillage, Songaia, and Teramanto an intentional Community. (I think there 
were a couple others but I never got the list)

Much to everyones surprise and delight, the conference, which was organized 
somewhat late, came out in the black enough to give us some captial to start 
with for the annual conference next year.  A huge round of applause to the 
sponsers and donators who made it all work!

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood