Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Front Porch Activities

[Elizabeth Magill (pastorlizm]

It's an interesting question. Do communities know what their individual
members are involved in?
For our community of 34 households I can't imagine even trying to know such
thing.
Certainly churches, UU associations, synagogues, some work for the food
pantry. We have 3 or 4 or 6 I guess in town government.
I know there is much more, but I don't know what.

As a community I know more!
2/3 of our land is public conservation land with walking and horse trails.
Some hunting. All open to the public.
We are a big center for our town's halloween--as a rural town families love
to come to our community for one stop trick or treating and we promote it
widely.
We give tours as requested and our meals are open (with pre-registration
and a fee).
We regularly have elected officials come hang out at meals or to give talks
on upcoming issues.

We are not a non-profit (are other communities one???) so that part is not
relevant.

-Liz
(The Rev. Dr.) Elizabeth Mae Magill
Pastor, Ashburnham Community Church
Minister to the Affiliates, Ecclesia Ministries
www.elizabethmaemagill.com
508-450-0431


On Sun, Jan 26, 2025 at 8:54 AM Joel Bartlett <altairecovillage [at] gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dear Friends,
>
> Some of the research shows that Cohousing groups are active in the larger
> community out of proportion to that of  other types of developments.  We're
> working with the Study Group 1 material and Front Porch conversations, and
> would like to know...
>
> -what activities does your Cohousing neighborhood do with the neighbors?
> -which NGO's or Voluntary Associations (to use the sociological term) are
> your Members engaged with?
> -are there specifically non-profits your community or Members actively
> support?
> -any Common House activities you invite the surrounding community to?
> -other aspects of your community - trails, community gardens, bicycle
> repair, etc. that you invite the public to?
>
> This is also a very relevant conversation with respect to the 501c4
> Association tax-exempt status, because in Part III of the application, it
> is essential to say that the community is not gated, but open (in many
> respects) to the public.  Plain and simple, the tax exemption cannot simply
> benefit just the Members of the Cohousing group.
>
> Thank you for your contribution to what we hope will be a lively
> discussion!
>
> Yours,
> Joel Bartlett, R/A
> Project Manager for the Members
> www.altairecovillage.org
> 610-220-6172
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