Hi everyone,

It was great to see you at Toiora last Sunday.  A big thank you to Catherine who gave us a presentation on cohousing and the establishment of Toiora.  Also thanks to Maria who shared some images of other cohousing communities.

I hope we can send out this newsletter once per month.  I'd also envisage the group will starting regular meetings at some point.

Could you please reply and let us know how you'd like to be involved?

• If you'd like to join a regular in-person meeting (from next year)
  
• If you'd like to join online discussion (email and/or chat)
• If you'd like to join field-trips to potential co-housing sites in Otepoti/Dunedin
  

Also, we have a survey where you can indicate what type of housing situation you prefer.  It's not an especially quick survey, I'd encourage you to put aside 30 minutes or so to complete it.  It's intended to help you reflect on what type of housing setup you'd like.  Fill in the survey here on sandstorm.

To recap the meeting, Catherine's talk covered some of the principles of cohousing as distilled by Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett in their book Creating Cohousing: Building Sustainable Communities.  This is a great book to get up to speed with cohousing in Scandinavia and North America.  There are copies in the public library and a couple here at Toiora if you don't want to buy one!

(There are also lots of cohousing resources available online, for example on the Couhousing US site.  There is also a (semi-academic, co-operative housing focused) Aotearoa national coho hui happening in Christchurch next April.)

Kovido told us about the property at 462 Waitati Valley Road and talked about a vision of a community living there with a peaceful rural outlook including the river running through the property, as well as potential for a forestry venture and other community-linked schemes.  If you're interested in visiting the site email me and I'll pass it on to Kovido.

Maria showed some images of cohousing communities in Europe.  For example, see some examples Maria shared from Vandkunsten Architects.  Maria was keen for us to see a variety of different cohousing types that have been built before we start to plan what we want.

Please let me know if you want to go on the email and/or chat app.  Please also fill in our survey.

Thanks,
Alex