Cohousing-L Mailing List: 2009 Cohousing Conference: 111 registrations and counting...

[Craig Ragland (craigragland]

Hi all - just 81 days until the 2009 Cohousing Conference! You'll need
to act soon before the price increases - or to even claim your "seat
on the bus"

I continue to be surprised by the small numbers who have applied for
the 2009 Conference scholarships. In the past, some have been quite
vocal about our ever increasing costs. Our main problem is that
attendance has grown to the point that we must look to venues other
than Cohousing Communities, like Colleges. It used to be that we paid
low or even no rent. Those days are past - its great that interest has
grown, but there are also increased costs.

The deadline for Scholarship applications is April 15 (9 days from
now). If cost is holding you back - and you want some help, please
consider applying for a scholarship:

http://www.cohousing.org/2009/scholarship

It was generous, anonymous donors that helped make these scholarships
possible - you know who you are and I do THANK YOU!

This year's price structure made it possible for the first 50 to
receive the best, early-bird price - all of those sold out a while
ago. Registration price then increased by $50 to its current level of
$375 - the price for the next 100 people to register. After we have a
total of 150 Conference Registrations, the price increases by another
$50. Last year, many registrations arrived in the last couple of weeks
- if you are able to plan ahead, you will save some money..

http://www.cohousing.org/2009/registration

In preparing for a Conference planning meeting today, I spend some
time looking at our numbers. I'm particularly exciting by the numbers
for the pre-conference workshops:

http://www.cohousing.org/2009/pcw

Costs?

- FREE (for a workshop with Univ. of Washington Architecture Grad Students)

- $20 (for Cohousing 101)

- $60 (for many great half-day choices)

- $95 (for three 1 day workshops)
  --- Getting it Built - Katie McCamant
  --- Essentials of Integrative Facilitation - Laird Schaub & Maikwe Ludwid
  --- Consensus Decision Making - Tree Bressen
These workshops are far less expensive than what has been available in
other settings.

- $195 (for our only 2-day workshop):
  --- Senior Cohousing - Charles Durrett
Chuck is the author of Senior Cohousing. I find it interesting that
this workshop, the most expensive, currently has the largest number of
registrations. I'm not sure why, but Chuck has done some promotion for
this event on his own.

While on the topic of pre-Conference options, I want to remind Coho-L
readers (who are still reading) that our Bus Tours always have defined
seat limits - this includes the May 16 tours (in CA and MA):

http://www.cohousing.org/tours

And our conference bus tours, which are limited to 45 seats - and one
of them already has 29 registrations! To join those touring 9 unique
and special Puget Sound Cohousing communities, you may need to act
soon:

http://www.cohousing.org/2009/tours

Hope to see you in Seattle!

Craig Ragland
Executive Director
Cohousing Association of the United States (Coho/US)
425-487-3550
http://www.cohousing.org
craig [at] cohousing.org