Roughly 30 people gathered at the Princeton IYCC on Sunday, August 11, 2019 for the initial organizing meeting for the new NJ Cohousing Development Cooperative, moving forward with the proposal and establishing initial Circles or working groups to tackle the key questions of Membership; Finance & Legal; Site Assessment,  Design & Construction; and Organization and Community Development. Brief descriptions of the key functions of these Circles are:

1. Membership (Interim Coordinator, Victoria Zelin)

Including all aspects: roles and responsibilities of members, one-time and recurring fees, recruitment criteria and intake interviews, etc.

2. Finance & Legal (Interim Coordinator, Rosemarie Stupel)

Including the management of members’ funds, legal basis for the organization and its member communities, arranging financing for homes, neighborhoods, and communities, etc. Acquisition of properties. Valuation of shares. Share transfers.

3. Site Assessment, Design, and Construction (Interim Coordinator, Larry White)

Some of the things that are critical to real estate development; these may not needed for every project, but will be for any project the co-op is starting from scratch.

4. Organization and Community Development (Interim Coordinator, Jonathan Cloud)

This includes everything from continuous learning, to internal and external communications, reorganization if and when needed, events, etc.

Coordinating Circle

Delegates + Leaders

Members’ Circle

Includes everyone

If you’re not a member of at least one of these Circles, we invite you to join one, or propose a new one that addresses some specific domain or function that we may have left out.

The group consented to “try out” sociocracy (or dynamic governance) as an operating model, and the way that sociocracy works is by assigning domains to smaller Circles that are double-linked to the Coordinating Circle, and that ultimately derive their authority from the full Member Circle.

Interim coordinators will be organizing conference calls with Circle members to follow up on the items discussed at Agust 11 meeting, and develop proposals in each of the functional areas for the next meeting on September 22. In the meantime, there will be a social event, featuring three outstanding vocalists — Elaine “Faerie” Slver, Kathy Moser, and Kyrie London — at the Zelin-Cloud’s home on Saturday, September 7.

Here are Nina Dalal’s notes on the meeting — thanks, Nina!