Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: making cohousing affordable

[Shane Strano (shaneclairestrano]

Hey Jim,

How does one create a login for gather.coop?

Best,

Shane Strano


On Sat, Feb 1, 2025 at 8:21 AM Jim Mendell <jim.mendell [at] gmail.com> wrote:

> At Bristol Village Cohousing in Vermont, we use Gather.coop. Developed by
> cohousers in Michigan, it serves us well for keeping us organized and fully
> informed.
>
> Jim
>
> On Tue, Jan 28, 2025, 11:47 PM Shane Strano <shaneclairestrano [at] gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Hey Sharon,
> >
> > Thank you for your positivity, the  thoughtful advice and for
> recommending
> > Mosaic - I will definitely check it out. I think you're right that
> getting
> > things organized and documented, even early on, is a great idea.
> >
> > I think it's really cool to credit Sean Davy, and cool that you've been
> > working on user experience. If we end up with anyone who is good with
> > coding and has time to volunteer, I will send them his way.
> >
> > Thank you again.
> >
> >
> > Sent from my iPhone
> >
> > > On Jan 28, 2025, at 1:49 PM, Sharon Villines via Cohousing-L <
> > cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
> > >
> > > 
> > >>
> > >>> On Jan 27, 2025, at 8:48 AM, Shane Strano <
> shaneclairestrano [at] gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > >>
> > >> Anyway, the topic of affordability is going to be a big one. I have
> > visited cohousing in the US and England and spoken to people on the phone
> > (mostly urban, as we are doing urban) - no one seems to have found a way
> to
> > do affordable CoHousing. Especially in an urban setting.  I've been in
> > touch with Katie McCamant for a while because I eventually want to put
> her
> > on retainer, and I paid her to speak on Zoom during our Interest Meeting.
> > To me, she plainly said that holding on to things like diversity won't
> > serve you in creating a community, you need to just get it done.
> > >
> > > Wonderful to have such a happy, exciting message from a first meeting.
> > While these will feel like the hardest, they are also the most
> energizing.
> > >
> > > The advice that you can only do one thing at a time -- I’ve heard it
> > from many directions and from every cohousing professional that I’ve
> talked
> > to. The bottom line is getting built. You have to do what you have to do.
> > Katie will also tell you that every cohousing group starts by wanting to
> be
> > affordable to everyone. It just isn’t possible. Groups become discouraged
> > and even feel guilty that things are costing so much. From working with
> > adults in other settings, my opinion is that adults can only put their
> > lives on hold to accomplish a goal that isn’t income-producing for 2-3
> > years. They can’t hold off on making commitments to schools, jobs, a
> tennis
> > prodigy, etc., forever. The longer the project extends, the more people
> who
> > have to drop out for personal reasons.
> > >
> > > Keep a good paper record of facts and figures and decisions. I find
> > spreadsheets to be so useful because you can build a workbook of related
> > information. You can have chronological pages and sorted by topic pages.
> > And they make numbers stand out on the page.
> > >
> > > Mosaic is a software developed for cohousing, it is free, and you can
> > start now. Use it to organize your people contacts first. Get everyone
> used
> > to using it. It has private pages for each household as well as a large
> > number of modules for the whole group. Pages can be open to the world and
> > restricted later to those who are financially committed. The flexibility
> is
> > wonderful. The Modules include:
> > >
> > > Household and People files — you can email people from Mosaic so it is
> a
> > perfect place to keep your mailing list. People can easily be added to
> this
> > list or that. Or archived — don’t be too hasty to write anyone off. You
> > will later be wondering who the guy was who knew about thermal floors.
> > >
> > > Documents — minutes, policies, bids, etc. Even if the digital file of
> > documents seems like an unsorted mess, keep everything. Memory is not an
> > issue. You can sort and reclassify forever. You can have a current folder
> > to group the documents you need today.
> > >
> > > Photographs — take photos. I love history and photos are an easy way to
> > begin building the history of the group. To make it tangible.
> > >
> > > Financial records — a simple financial feature for meals, plus a major
> > one for keeping a full set of books.
> > >
> > > Calendars — There can be many calendars of all kinds of things that can
> > be viewed singly and in an all-on-one calendar. Meetings, meals, site
> > visits, financial deadlines or targets, and later CH reservations. all of
> > this stays with you as long as you want to keep it. The people module
> > information becomes drop down menus for all the other pages. A name is
> only
> > typed once. Email lists of groups of people in teams, etc. A meeting
> > scheduler like Doodle. Surveys. The workshare module is wonderful. There
> > are additional pages for a lending library, pets, bicycles, etc. Most of
> > these are entered on the household page and viewed on other pages. It’s a
> > fully relational database that is fabulous.
> > >
> > > Mosaic is the work of Sean Davy and is developing every day but it has
> > been in use for at least 10 years and 100+ communities use different
> > modules. I’ve been spending a lot of time on the user experience — the
> > aesthetics instructions. So far Sean is the only developer (so we pray
> for
> > his soul) but he is always looking for more coders to work with him. All
> > the software is open source. You could download a version and host it
> > yourself — but it is a learning curve. At first, I recommend just using
> the
> > modules that are helpful — like the households, calendars, the
> > Facebook-like feed of announcements (I forget what he calls this). Just
> get
> > started.
> > >
> > > There is a sandbox and other information here;
> > >
> > > https://mosaicsoftware.org/
> > >
> > > The development possibilities are infinite. But like cohousing, it is
> > limited by available volunteer time. I do think there are income
> > possibilities for one or two people who want to work full-time, but that
> is
> > down the road. The objectives are not commercial.
> > >
> > > Sharon
> > > ----
> > > Sharon Villines
> > > Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> > > http://www.takomavillage.org
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
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