July 11, 2009 9:00 AM - 15 attended

Growing a Successful Ecovillage or Intentional Community: 2-day workshop

East Bay Cohousing Clubhouse (map)

Selected By: Raines Cohen

East Bay Cohousing is proud to announce that we are hosting the Northern California exclusive event:
Growing a Successful Ecovillage or Intentional Community
with Diana Leafe Christian (who will be giving an EcoVillage slide show at the Commonwealth Club in SF Thurs. nite July 9th)
- NEW! Register Today for best rates and to hold your seat. Use the link on the right to pay via credit card using Amazon Payments, or this link for Paypal or Google Checkout.


Sponsors: The Cohousing Coaches at Planning for Sustainable Communities and East Bay Cohousing

at the Sustainable Communities Center / East Bay Cohousing clubhouse
Downtown Berkeley, California - July 11-12, 2009
Two-day workshop, 9:00 am - 5:30 pm each day

Saturday:

  • Structural Conflict
  • Mission & Purpose
  • Decision-Making
  • Communication
  • Accountability
  • Community "Glue"

Sunday:
  • Property Purchase
  • Financing
  • Legal Entities
  • Zoning
  • Community Finances
  • Creating a Village-Scale Economy

with discounts for paid annual EBCOHO members. Register today - seats are limited.



Lively exercises, humorous musical skits, slide show presentations, and vivid anecdotes about real problems and their successful solutions. What works well, pitfalls to avoid, how not to reinvent the wheel. Antidotes for common kinds of "structural conflict" and interpersonal conflict. The "Board Game" demonstrating the relationship between mission, membership process, and decision-making method. Building trust and connection, increasing social capital, dealing with the challenging group member. Case histories of community development, aspects of property purchase, financing, zoning, and legal entities for owning shared property. Community economics

The workshop benefits forming community groups (with no property, as well as those with property), as well as existing communities.



About the presenter: Diana Leafe Christian is author of Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities and Finding Community: How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community. Editor of Communities magazine for 14 years, she publishes "Ecovillages," a free online publication. Diana leads workshops, offers consultations on process and communication issues, and speaks at conferences internationally. Her articles have appeared in Mother Earth News, Cohousing magazine, Permaculture Activist, and the Encyclopedia of Community. She has been interviewed by Time Magazine, the New York Times, Harper's Magazine, AARP magazine, New Dimensions Radio, Peak Moment TV, NPR, and the BBC. Diana writes about consensus and process and communication skills for the website of the Cohousing Association of the U.S. She lives at Earthaven Ecovillage in North Carolina.


Here's some excerpts from the course outline. You can view the full schedule here.

Saturday, July 11:

Structural Conflict, Mission & Purpose, Decision-Making, Communication, Accountability, Community "Glue"

Mission and Purpose, Decision-Making 


Vision, Mission & Purpose, Goals, Strategic Plan. Sample Mission Statements. Exercise: Creating Mission & Purpose Documents. "Where Do We Draw the Line?" "Public-Private Scale." Multiple Communities in the Room? Consensus Requirements. Decision-Making for Mission & Purpose. Consensus Overview -- Proposals, Agenda, Facilitation, Participants, Evaluation. Community Governance. Committees. Minute Books & Decision Logs. Handouts

The Effective Community Founder

Social Capital. Dealing Effectively with the Challenging Group Member. "Community Glue."

Handouts: Social Capital. Conflict resolution methods. Mildly Taboo Topic. Gifting Circle.
Sunday, July 12:

Property Purchase, Financing, Legal Entities, Zoning, Community Finances, Creating a Village-Scale Economy
Case Studies, Property Search/Turn-Key Property, Bidding on Property, Renovation Contracts, Down Payment/Development Fund/Mortgage Fund, Owner-Financing,

Private Loans/2nd Mortgages, LLCs - Pros & Cons, 501(c)3 Nonprofits - Pros & Cons,
Leases, Using LLCs & 501(c)3s Together, Member Fees, Refinancing.

Financing Your Property
"Community Glue" Exercise: Mildly Taboo Topic. Pioneers & Settlers. Financial contribution and decision-making in the group. Exercise: Your Group's Potential Assets. Helping less affluent members afford it. When one member owns it.

Legal Entities for Shared Property Ownership

Community Income & Expenses. Slide Show: Community Economics.

Register Today for best rates and to hold your seat.

  • You must be a member to post a comment. Join or login.

15 attended
4.50 4.502 (2 ratings)
  • Event Host
    Raines Cohen
    Cohousing Coach and Aging In Community Author, Co-Organizer
  • JoannaFolino
    Within Reach Movie Producer/Supporting EBCOHO member 'til 7/1/10
    She is very very knowledgeable, experienced and engaging. I would highly recommend to anyone SERIOUS about growing a community
  • Anne Shapiro
    A wealth of information was presented.
  • Betsy Morris
    Cohousing Coach, Organizer
  • Tim Rice
    +1 guest
  • Mike Boss
    Supporting EBCOHO Member through 8/22/2010
  • Arthur Kopecky
    "New Buffalo" commune author
  • A former member
  • A former member
  • A former member

Your organizer's refund policy for Growing a Successful Ecovillage or Intentional Community: 2-day workshop

Refunds offered if:

  • the Meetup is cancelled
  • the Meetup is rescheduled

Payments you make go to the organizer, not to Meetup. You must make refund requests to the organizer.

Optional supporter dues

$100.00 /yr; $250 for groups/sponsors

This covers: Supporting members get event discounts, Cohousing Coaching, a book, introduction

Payment is accepted using:

  • Amazon Payments
  • Cash or check - “at meetings, tours, workshops and other events that we put on (but not at our partner events that we sometimes cross-post here).

Your organizer will refund you if:

  • Your organizer closes their Meetup Group
  • Your organizer removes or bans you from their Meetup Group

Cohousing Coaches

Concierge for all members; Coaching and more for supporting members.

Phoenix Commons

Senior Cohousing @ Park Street Bridge. Aging in Community Study Groups

Golden Gate Cohousing/Parker Street Fdtn

New Cooperative Community in the historic Oak/ville neighborhood

Welcome Folsom EcoHousing

Now a supporting group member of EBCOHO/Cohousing California.

Bay Area Community Land Trust

Membership and advocacy for affordable senior cooperative housing.

Jerry Michalski/Sociate

A visionary connector of people and ideas for The Relationship Economy

Congrats Parker Street Coop

Your supporting membership means a lot to us in EBCOHO.

Yay! Triple Point Cohousing

6 households of adults and kids where Oaktown/Eville/Berkeley meet.

Cohousing California - Resource Network

Web portal to communities, openings, and trainings

Member, US Green Building Council

We are a professional member of USGBC; Raines is a LEED Green Associate.

Prudence Crandall House

Coop house and informal ecovillage with neighbors on 66th Street

Other nearby
Meetups
Why these groups?
x

The Meetup Groups shown here are topically similar to East Bay Cohousing - Berkeley/Oakland/Emeryville/SF.

Groups are more likely to be displayed here if they:

  • have a Meetup scheduled
  • have a high rating
  • have a group photo
  • are "public" and not "private"
  • have shown they are likely to stick around (older than 30 days)
Find more Meetup Groups
near Berkeley

Log in

  • Not registered with us yet?
or

Log in to Meetup with your Facebook account.

Sign up

or

Join this Meetup Group even quicker with your Facebook account.

By clicking the "Sign up using Facebook" or "Sign up" buttons above, you agree to Meetup's Terms of Service