Cohousing meeting

Tonight I met Diana Leafe Christian at the parker st coop in berkeley. she was speaking about ecovillages- manythat she had visisted, in the us, and others outside that had researched and cooresponded with. it was quite interesting, both meeting and hearing her, and also meeting the locals in attendance.

she has written two books- one on building community and one on finding and moving to an ecovillage. very thoughtful observations about many ecovillages.

one observation that was of interest- when starting a community, have a clear membership policy, including a probation period, and that mentally ill or those 'who have a hard time dealing with society and people now' should not be included in the beginning. tyey will take too much time to dela with their particular issues and tkae away form the needs of the group at the critical early stages.

she is not at all opposed to bringing in a more diverse group later but feels that this should only be after the group is established and stronger. she says this not as an opinion but from observing many ecovillages, 90% of whom fail, and noting what they did that worked and didn;t work.

one local i met was laurence of berkeley, laurenceofberk@aol.com whose mission is to grow veggies right in the neighborhoods of berkeley.

my initial thoughts about growing in s berk are to continue what spiral gardens is doing on the the old train tracks as they head north from ward to parker.