Mid-Atlantic Cohousing Members Page

Mid-Atlantic Cohousing Annual Report 2005

Synopsis:

In 2005, Mid Atlantic Cohousing (MAC) accomplished a host of activities by and on behalf of its member communities. The organization is growing and is financially stable (as long a member communities pay their dues!) We continue to improve our website cohomac.org and to offer outreach services to the larger community via our annual bus tour(s) and participation in the Annual Green Festival held in Washington, DC each Fall.

MAC provides member communities with tours, technical support, facilitation and mediation services, training, workshops, and places to find answers to the challenges encountered on the path to creating community.

MAC's purpose is to provide member communities with support and networking for the everyday challenges we all face, whether building or already living in our cohousing community. MAC communities are sources of support and neighborliness to each other.

MAC’s goal is to increase cohousing in the region.

Summary of MAC Activities in 2005:

Completed the two-year intensive Facilitation Mentoring Program comprised of four three-day weekends held at Shadow Lake Village, Blacksburg, VA, Eno Commons, Durham, NC, Liberty Village, Libertytown, MD and Eastern Village, Silver Spring, MD.
Welcomed Concord Village, Kennett Square, PA as a new member community bringing our total membership in 2005 to 12 communities.
Staffed a booth at the 2^nd Annual Green Festival held in Washington, DC. We upgraded the booth with large poster boards of several communities as well as a large map of the area with dots showing the location of each member community. We also had a table banner proclaiming COHOUSING made by the members of Catoctin Creek. In 2006 we will design and purchase a banner for the back wall of the booth. The Green Festival was extremely well attended. We ran out of much of the literature provided by our communities. Raines Cohen, representing CohoUS, helped staff the table and organized book sales.
Conducted two successful bus tours, one in May and the second in Oct.
Multiple social events included a square dance hosted by Takoma Village; a house concert with professional songwriter and guitarist, Kathy Moser also held at Takoma Village; three well attended “Family Days” hosted by Catoctin Village.
Organized a tour for architects and other building professionals of LEED certified and award winning Eastern Village showcasing its many green and sustainable features. The tour included a talk by Graham Meltzer as part of publicizing his new book Sustainable Communities. Learning From The Cohousing Model.
In addition to the talk given at the above tour, Ann Zabaldo and Neshama Abrahams wrote and disemminated a press release to various media outlets publicizing this most important work documenting the energy savings and community building nature of cohousing neighborhoods.
Organized and carried out a book tour and slide show for Chuck Durrett to publicize his new book Senior Cohousing. The tour included three public talks, a targeted talk with AARP’s Liveable Communities division, and a radio interview at AARP. Eco Housing Corporation hosted the talk for housing professionals held at Takoma Village. Eco Housing also hosted the dinner for professionals held after the lecture and slide show. Catoctin Creek and Eco Village of Loudoun County, VA hosted the talk for the general public held in Sterling, VA.
Hana Newcomb, Blueberry Hill, Martie Weatherly, Liberty Village and Ann Zabaldo, Takoma Village, conducted a five hour consensus training on “The Myth of the Block” for MAC communities. It was held at Catoctin Village.
Moved the website to an independent hosting service. We thank CohoUS for the many months it hosted our site. Moving the site has resulted in the MAC site coming up more frequently and higher in the search order by internet users looking for information on cohousing.
Both the Facilitator Pool and the Mediation Pool are available for member communities to use. These “pools” provide names of MAC members willing to assist sister communities in resolving issues.
MAC continues monthly phone meetings and quarterly Face to Face meetings.

Our challenges for 2006 include integrating and providing programs for our member communities that are far from the Washington, DC area, continuing to upgrade our website and upgrade our display materials for events such as the Green Festival.

We tip our collective cohousing hats to Shadowlake Village in Blacksburg, VA for the completion of its community. They sold their last spec house! Congrats to all!

In early 2006, we welcomed Hundredfold Farm in Gettysburg, PA to MAC. We now have 13 member communities.

We welcome all communities who wish to be part of our regional organization.

To be a member community in MAC, each community is asked to designate a representative to MAC. MAC is only limited by the number of people who are willing to help organize events. We can do whatever activities member communities are willing to support with time and effort. Each MAC representative has the same ability, power, and responsibility as every other MAC rep to suggest and promote activities MAC can do to further cohousing in the region.

Just as being a member of a cohousing community allows people to enjoy much more than they could ever afford or create by themselves, MAC leverages a small community investment into having a much larger regional influence and marketing opportunity.

Member communities pool resources at the regional level to answer community needs for technical assistance, education, information, etc. We also educate and inform the public about cohousing in general and about member communities in particular.

We invite each member community to designate one or two people as representatives and to work as part of MAC to shape the programs we offer throughout the year. See the information below on MAC membership and the responsibilities of being a MAC representative.

Expectations of a MAC Rep:

One rep from the community will be on the monthly phone calls and attend
quarterly face-to-face meetings which are held at member communities on a rotating basis.
Forward email announcements to home community and bring info back
from the community to MAC.
Take an area of responsibility and make it happen! This can be working on any project we have going (e.g. regional conference, workshops, Facilitation Mentoring course) or working on one your home community wants.
Each community provides a back-up person to be at the meetings if their regular rep cannot attend.

MAC Membership:

Initial membership fee for new member communities is $250.00 which includes 1^st year annual dues.
Dues for renewing member communities are $100.00 per year.

Submitted by: Ann Zabaldo, Takoma Village Cohousing, March 5, 2006

Prior Years Annual Reports: 2004

JOINING MAC

Membership is by community. (See MAC responsibilities and expectations above.) If your community is a member then individuals within the community are entitled to the benefits of membership. We use a calendar year to determine when memberships are due. For new communities there is a $250.00 joining fee which includes 1st year membership. If joining after June 30th of the year the joining fee is $175.00 and includes the remaining 6 months of membership. Renewing member fee is $100.00 per year.

Send checks made out to "MAC" to Ann Zabaldo, 6827 4th St. NW, #312, Washington, DC 20012.