Path to joining the Community
This guide is designed to assist you with the process of considering whether to purchase a residential unit in this intentional community. If you have a disability and need a reasonable accommodation in order to accomplish these steps, please let us know. Thank you for your interest.
Explorer » Associate » Purchaser
For those visitors wanting to explore joining the Columbia Ecovillage community, we welcome you to become an Explorer.
Pathway to becoming an Explorer:
•Attend at least one social event or information session.
•Become familiar with the cohousing concept and environmental issues. (See the end of this document for suggested movies and books).
After becoming an Explorer you can:
•Get invited to business meetings and social events
•Attend meetings with future residents primarily as an observer.
Associates are Explorers who are very interested in purchasing a unit at Columbia Ecovillage.
Pathway to becoming an Associate:
•Complete the above steps to become an Explorer.
•Commit to reading the first seven chapters of Creating a Life Together.
•Attend at least one business meeting of future residents.
(For out of town folks discuss alternatives with us).
•Make an appointment to discuss the answers to the Associate application with someone on the membership team.
•After reviewing your Associate application with the membership team pay a $200 non-refundable community commitment fee for each adult which includes a background check.
•Attend consensus, facilitation and conflict resolution training when available.
•Optional: Visit at least one or more existing cohousing community.
After you have completed the steps as an Associate you:
•Have access to the group site which contains our decision log, minutes and other’s answers to the Associate application questions (item#3).
•Attend and participate in discussions (but not decision making) at meetings.
•If after becoming an Associate, you decide not to pursue purchasing a unit or you decide to explore renting in the Ecovillage your status will automatically revert to Explorer.
Purchasers are Associates who have made the personal and financial commitments to join the Community and intend to purchase a residential unit.
Pathway to reserving or purchasing a unit at Columbia Ecovillage Condominium:
•Demonstrate the financial ability to purchase your home.
•Attend at least two business meetings and two social events, including those attended as an Explorer or Associate.
•Confirm that you agree with and have the ability to abide by the Community Vision and Values and prior decisions made by the community.
•Attend a document review meeting prior to completing a sales agreement
•After the community agrees you have met the above requirements, you become a Purchaser when you pay the earnest money to secure your unit.
Suggested Movies and Books:
We would like potential community members to be aware of some of the environmental and other issues that the current members consider important.
These following films and books illustrate the urgent need for changing the way we live:
Voices of Cohousing, Building Small Villages in the City (film)
An Inconvenient Truth (film)
The 11th Hour (film)
The End of Suburbia (film)
The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil (film)
Power Down, by Richard Heinberg
Books and magazines with solutions—cohousing, community, ecovillages, permaculture:
Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves by Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett [Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 14]
Creating a Life Together: Practical tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities by Diana Leafe Christian [Part 1]
Reinventing Community, Stories from the Walkways of Cohousing Edited by David Wann
Ecovillage at Ithaca: Pioneering a Sustainable Culture by Liz Walker
Ecovillages, A Practical Guide to Sustainable Communities, by Jan Martin Bang
Great Meetings! Great Results, by Dee Kelsey and Pam Plumb
Introduction to Permaculture, by Bill Mollison
Gaia’s Garden, by Toby Hemenway
Communities Magazine
