Cohousing-L Mailing List: 27 days to the Cohousing Conference; come early for facilitation intensive in the woods

[Raines Cohen (rc3-coho-L]

Howdy again, wonderful people of the world of cohousing. Will I be seeing
you at the National Cohousing Conference in Oakland (CA) in June?

It's another beautiful day in the Bay Area, where the morning fog that kept
it from getting too cold at night burned off in time for mellow outdoor
lunches.

Yes, you'll be hearing from me (or our members) every day from now 'til the
conference. Hopefully with something new and different each time.

Yesterday, my goal was to call attention to discounts on airfare and
conference tickets through Cohousing California. I'd like to express my
thanks to all of you who inquired, based on that post and our ad in today's
East Bay Express regional paper. Yes, deals and tickets still remain, but
nobody can say exactly how long. My offer stands: call 510-842-6224 and
I'll help figure out how to get you there.

Today, I'm writing to invite you to come out the weekend before the
conference to join us in the hidden hills of Sonoma County's Wine Country
for some hands-on practice facilitating a group.

FIC's Laird Schaub (of Sand Hill Farm in Missouri) and Betty Didcoct are
co-teaching our Northern California Facilitation Intensive workshops, a
2-year series taking place at cohousing and other intentional communities
all around the state.

Each quarter, students from many different forming and established
communities come together for instruction in the tools and art of consensus
and facilitation, and get hands-on experience running meetings for a
different group, with expert backup, support, and feedback. The community
provides room and board, and the students pay less than what a conference
or typical class alone would cost, and get experience to bring back to
their home community.

The weekend before the cohousing conference, we'll be gathering at Monan's
Rill, a cohousing-style community founded over 30 years ago. We'll be
camping out and helping bring together people from many area communities to
help our hosts in their visioning process. We expect nearly two dozen
students and auditors.

The primary topic focus for this weekend is: Delegation. Don't get stuck on
thinking that you have to do it all yourself, or that your community needs
everybody to participate in every decision and meeting.
You can be a part of it. Learn more about the workshop series on the
Cohousing
California website:
http://www.calcoho.org/cohousing-events/workshops-classes/community-facilitation.html

Of course, we'll catch you up and integrate you with the learning
community; at least one new student from the forming San Francisco
Cohousing group is joining us new as of this weekend. We do need to make
advance arrangements, and there are only a few student slots left, so
please do let us know soon if you're interested.

Raines Cohen, Cohousing Coach
East Bay Cohousing/Cohousing California Community Organizer
510-842-6224