Cohousing-L Mailing List: 2009 Conference - multiple all-time records

[Craig Ragland (craigragland]

Here are five all-time records set by the 2009 National Cohousing Conference
(which wrapped-up this past Sunday).

1) More attendees than ever before: 2009: 356 registrants. 2008: had 264.
That's a 35% increase, which is really pretty amazing given the current
economy.

2) More money raised from the fund-raising auctions than ever before: while
exact numbers on our costs are still coming in, it looks like we'll raise
about 3 times as much as at the 2008 conference. The Fund-a-Dream portion
(to increase 2010 Scholarships) raised more money for the new Scholarship
Fund than the total net income from 2008. This means we will offer more
scholarships in 2010 than we could in 2009.

3) More "big-name" featured speakers in the General Sessions, including the
Danish Founder of the Cohousing Movement (Jan Gudmand-Hoyer), City Repair
Founder (Mark Lakeman) and one of the intellectual leaders of the Ecovillage
Movement (Robert Gilman). Note: Robert lived at Winslow Cohousing during
this very important work.

4) More press coverage than ever before - in the days leading up to the
event we had both local Radio and TV coverage, which drove a bunch of
last-minute registrations. We also had multiple reporters on-site during the
conference.

5) More promotion than ever before - you've witnessed some of it on Coho-L,
but we also did 10 Cohousing Now issues which included Conference info,
flyer mailings and postings in the greater Seattle area, online calendar
postings, search engine advertising, and more.

There were many other accomplishments. The most important are how well we
meet the needs of the attendees and the degree to which we advanced the
Cohousing Movement.

Because of my role in the association, I've received many personal kudos.
While I accept and acknowledge that my role was important, my most
significant contribution was recruiting great people who themselves
recruited great people. Together, we are building a more sustainable world,
one neighborhood at a time - and the way we collaborate to make a real
difference is very important to the world.

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

Please consider attending the 2010 National Cohousing Conference (June 16-20
in Boulder, CO). Register now to receive the lowest possible price ($300) -
which is lower than the early-bird price for 2009. Click here to sign up
now:

http://www.cohousing.org/2010/register