Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Re: start up

[Diane Simpson (coho]

Well, not knowing how much studying you've done ahead of time or how 
many other cohousing groups you might have been a member of, it's kind 
of hard to answer this question. I'm going to assume that you've never 
been a member of a cohousing group and neither have the other members 
of your circle.

My husband and I started two cohousing groups which both failed before 
we got a successful one going. But I wouldn't call the first ones 
complete "failures" in  the sense that they didn't accomplish 
anything--we learned a great deal from them. The first thing we learned 
is that you have to get clear on your vision if you hope to go 
anywhere. Our first group never sat down to write a vision statement, 
so we went along under assumptions later proved to be inaccurate. So 
one of the first things I would do is a "visioning exercise" in which 
you write down your hopes for:
1) type of area you envision living in
2) the size of the development you envision living in
3) the type of development you envision (i.e. connected units or 
stand-alone houses)
4) the amount of money you envision spending for your houses
5) your timeline for getting there
6) your method for getting there (i.e. capital project model; 
lot-development model or retrofit model)

I would strongly advise you to attend the cohousing conference in 
Boulder and learn from the groups that have gone before you. You will 
make valuable connections there and get information that will come in 
handy many years later.

I would also strongly advise you to get Chris Scotthanson's book, "The 
Cohousing Handbook" and use it as a springboard for discussion. There 
are many useful chapters in there that will help you get started. The 
Cohousing Book by McCamant and Durrett is also useful, but mostly for 
ideas.

Good luck, and please keep us all posted and let us know how you're 
doing.

--Diane(:^]
JP COHOUSING  617-524-6614
P.O. BOX 420 BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS
HTTP://WWW.JPCOHOUSING.ORG
"The people who surround you define the quality of your life."

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Date: Sat, 31 May 2003 21:05:34 GMT
From: timnabby [at] juno.com
Subject: [C-L]_starting up - what to do firs
Hi!

We've started a cohousing group in NJ, (our second meeting is tomorrow) 
and
I'm trying to figure out what we should be doing now, and what we 
should be
waiting to do until after we reach some sort of critical mass, so I 
thought I'd
ask how each of your started.

We have done some flyers, and advertised it to friends and 
acquaintances, but
although there is a lot of work to do to get this going, we don't 
really know
where to start.

Does it make sense to create mission/vision statements at this point?
Does it make sense to go to county planning meetings and talk to the 
planners
about cohousing when we don't even know what county we're interested 
in, or
how long it will be until we have enough serious interest to decide?

Thanks,
Abby

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