Cohousing-L Mailing List: Hmmmm...

[Jose Marquez (marchpower]

> GREAT.  Tell how busy working people can be involved
> too.  In case you're going to tell me they need to quit their jobs, please
don't.
> Tell me how the typical single working parent can
> be involved in creating cohousing in the current model of taking 5 years
plus
> to build, inflating the costs of the units.>

Maybe you need to talk to busy, single parents who have done exactly this?
I have two single moms in my community who could share their success stories
with you.  Visit the website and read the family descriptions and ask
questions.


> And of course my favorite pet peeve -- cut the meetings to a minimum so
that
> people who work can participate while still having a life outside of
> cohousing...!

This is a valuable point.   In our community there are those who attend
every meeting, participate in many committees and put tons of energy into
the project (including the two working single moms, btw), and there are
those who are on "sabatical" from coho, rarely attend meetings, and do very
little.  So it is possible to find a community to join without having to
give up your life, so-to-speak.  However, the folks who do little in our
community feel guilty from time to time that they can't contribute more and
plan to take on a lot of stuff once we move in to relieve the hard-core
folks.  Still....I think that a mix is workable...some folks have traveling
jobs, others are out of town for weeks on end, some have illnesses that
limit them.  And, I believe everyone works in our community....where are all
these rich, unbusy, non-working cohousers?  I haven't met one yet.

March
Duwamish Cohousing
West Seattle, WA