Cohousing-L Mailing List: Sign me up for the Raines Cohen Fan Club -- (was Re: New member intro, from CT)

[Oz (oz]

Thank goodness for the bumble bees of the world that buzz about
cross-fertilizing all of us flowers. (an allusion to an Open Space
metaphor).

I am a HUGE Raines Cohen fan and would like to invite others who have been
personally touched by this remarkable man to share - or just lurkingly
appreciate.

My own, personal CONNECTION point into the movement was the consummate
cohoo-bumblebee Raines Cohen, who helped me engage with both the Fellowship
for Intentional Community and the Cohousing Association of the United
States.

We simply don't appreciate our Cohousing Professionals enough... especially
the many unique individuals who, like Raines, live life fully - as
themselves, rather pushing their square pegs into those very round holes.

Talking with many of the long-time amateur coho-advocates, I've witnessed
many distance themselves from people who "do this for money." All of the
professionals mentioned below also live in communities or are members of
forming groups - and many of them do most of their work outside of
cohousing, which helps subsidize the often unprofitable coho-work.

My own, personal DEVELOPMENT work has focused exclusively on Songaia
Cohousing and two adjoining properties, New Earth Song and Life Song
Commons which are Songaia's first two steps as it expands into a broader
community neighborhood.

New Earth Song has engaged with several cohousing professionals, including:
- Raines Cohen - who lead the visioning workshop for NES - and has made
many visits to Songaia
- Diana Leafe Christian - who consulted with NES to help refine its vision
- and has made many visits to Songaia
- Laura Fitch - who helped NES in its earliest site planning work at the
2006 Cohousing Conference
- Jim Leach - who visited NES and reviewed an early version of its site
plans, also at the 2006 Conference
- Chuck Durrett - who visited NES and Songaia with Jan Gudmand Hoyer and
provided advice on acquiring other adjoining properties.
- Katie McCamant - who visited NES and Songaia and provided advice on our
financial development/membership model
- Grace Kim - who has visited Songaia several times and provided early
advice on NES architecture
- Terri Huggett - who has visited Songaia and been influential in NES
community development
- Bryan Bowen - who has visited Songaia and been an inspiration to keep on
keepin' on.

More on New Earth Song:
http://www.newearthsong.com

All of these fine folk serve the movement - both through their lives in
cohousing and through their professional services. Songaia, NES and Life
Song Commons are all stronger because of your influences.

Thank you Raines, Diana, Laura, Jim, Chuck, Katie, Grace, Terri, and Bryan

Oz Ragland
http://ozragland.com

On Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 6:53 AM, Raines Cohen <rc3-coho-L [at] raines.com> 
wrote:

>
> I feel compelled to comment on one thing you mentioned in passing:
> > We've even had Raines Cohen drop in on one of our meetings
>
> (blush) while ubiquity may be my personal brand, and I have visited
> over 100 US cohousing neighborhoods, I should mention the context that
> made this possible, lest communities everywhere start to expect me to
> spontaneously manifest anytime they start chalking runes on the floor
> and chanting the necessary invocations.
>
>
-- clipped --


> Raines Cohen, Cohousing Coach http://www.CohousingCoaches.com/
> at Berkeley (CA) Cohousing
>  where we were just joined for common dinner last night by Jennifer
> Ryan, another serial cohouser, who migrated from being Ann's neighbor
> at Takoma Village Cohousing to Temescal Creek out here in Oakland, CA;
> she got several of my neighbors buzzing about potential talks and
> topics at the next national cohousing conference coming to town in
> June.
>
> Co-manager, East Bay Cohousing http://www.ebcoho.org/
>  the world's largest Intentional Communities/Cohousing MeetUp group,
> now with over 1500 members seeking sustainable community in the Urban
> East San Francisco Bay Area. And partner groups in Silicon
> Valley/Peninsula, San Francisco (hosting a Getting it Built workshop
> in March), Marin, and all around the state through Cohousing
> California http://www.CalCoho.org/
>