Newsletter April 2025
Building a community that enjoys a rich quality of life for all ages, brings a more equitable society, and a harmonious and responsible relationship with the natural world.
While there may be snow on the ground in Minnesota, the rest of winter is over. Spring is a time of new growth and Twin Cities Family Cooperative is growing! We’re excited to have new folks joining us as exploratory members and we’re excited that we will start living together in our first community property this summer!
Upcoming Events
In an attempt to not fill your inbox with unwanted emails, we don’t send out reminders throughout the month. If you would like to receive email reminders before each event, email tcfamilycoop@gmail.com and say “sign me up for reminders.” You can specify if you only want reminders about online events and not in-person events.
Online Intro to TCFC and the Membership Process - Interested in learning about our community or ready to start the process of becoming a member? This is the place to start! You can email tcfamilycoop@gmail.com to let us know you will be attending or with any questions. Letting us know who will be attending is helpful for us in preparing. Thanks!
Tuesday April 8th 8:00-9:00pm (use this link)
Saturday April 12th 11:00-noon (use this link)
Monthly Potluck - Sunday, April 13th 10:00-1:00pm
Join us for good food and good company! We’ll provide a vegetarian main dish, drinks, and dishes. This is a very family friendly event. Please email tcfamilycoop@gmail.com to let us know if you plan to attend and we will send you the address. We will not be at the new property yet. Also let us know if you have any dietary restrictions.
National Cohousing Week - March 27th-May 4th
We will plan at least one activity as part of National Cohousing Week. Stay tuned!
Check our website or facebook page for events in the coming months. If you can't make it to these events and you want to connect, email tcfamilycoop@gmail.com. We’d be happy to connect in person or online.
Being an Exploratory Member
Exploratory Members may enjoy living together with us in community and share resources. As part of our community, they give and receive support. They participate in community activities from meals and impromptu social gathering to work days and being on working teams. Exploratory Members participate in meetings and help to shape decisions and the formation of this newly emerging intentional community. They continue the process of discernment, getting to know the Members, completing training in governance and decision-making, and getting grounded in TCFC’s philosophy of community, with the support of their Membership Guide.
If you are thinking of membership with Twin Cities Family Cooperative, this would be a great time to start the process, which takes several months. We are putting together a cohort of those who want to become Exploratory Members to move through that together and a bit more efficiently. Those currently in the membership process are meeting with their Membership Guide and reviewing the vision, values, and agreements of TCFC. We will have cohort meetings starting in April to discuss some of the Community Agreements. Come to one of our info sessions to learn about starting the membership process and join those who have recently started becoming Exploratory Members.
Learning From The Experts
Nancie has just completed Yana Ludwig’s course on Membership and Karen Gimnig’s course on Communication and Building Relationships in Community. And Beka is completing a course that these consultants co-taught on Aligning Values & Creating Agreements in Community. We are learning valuable information and weaving that into our membership process as well as how we are thinking about ways to build our community. We will be sharing pieces of that over the course of the next several months.
Upcoming Learning Opportunities
Did you know that Exploratory Members can use up to $200 of their $500 member fee to take classes and get reimbursed for them? Several great opportunities are coming up. For months we have been exploring Cooperative Culture values and practices based on Yana Ludwig’s and Karen Gimnig’s book “The Cooperative Culture Handbook,”. Yana Ludwig is starting a study group to study these values Sunday mornings starting May 11th. She is also teaching several classes through FIC. Labor and Money in Community is a 4 week online course, starting April 2nd. Governance in Community is a 4 week online course starting May 6th. Community-Centered Facilitation training is an 8 week online course starting June 30th, register here. Karen Gimnig is teaching Understanding and Resolving Conflict in Community, a 5 week online course starting April 3rd. Please take a look at these and other course outlines on the FIC website.
If listening to a podcast or reading a book works better for you, here are some of our favorite resources.
podcast: Inside Community (episode 2 is a favorite)
book: “Creating a life together: practical tools to grow ecovillages and intentional communities” by Diana Leafe Christian
book: “The Cooperative Culture Handbook: A Social Change Manual to Dismantle Toxic Culture & Build Connection” by Yana Ludwig and Karen Gimnig
book: “Together Resilient: Building Community in the Age of Climate Disruption” by Ma'Ikwe Ludwig (Yana Ludwig)
book: “Creating Cohousing: Building Sustainable Communities” by KathrynMcCamant & Charles Durrett
book: “The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups” by Starhawk
Property Update and Community Work Day
As we get closer to closing on our 7-unit property at 421 6th Ave SE, Minneapolis (Marcy-Holmes neighborhood) we have a lot to prepare for. Once we close, there will be lots of repairs and maintenance work to do. Some repairs will be done by contractors, others can use DIY/handyperson skills. If you have skills to share, please let us know of your interest and availability. Some examples of the work needed are electrical - e.g. replacing 2-prong outlets with grounded 3-prong outlets, hardwiring smoke/CO detectors; plumbing - e.g. replacing sink drains, reinstalling toilets; bleeding radiators; repairing, calking, and painting weathered window trim; and any variety of things. We will plan a community work day in late May.
Our Vision
We are an intergenerational community of individuals, couples, and families. We are queer-affirming, gender-inclusive, and multicultural. We value the spectrums of the human experience and each individual’s diverse abilities. We support each other in raising children and throughout all stages of life.
We strive to live out of a place of abundance. We develop internal economic policies that actively push back against capitalist expectations, while also making compromises to allow members to maintain their financial autonomy.
We are committed to nonviolence and environmental sustainability. We believe in the potential for radical transformation of society and see communal living as an element of that change. We strive to make meaningful contributions to society, engaged in dismantling the systems of racism and oppression in our society.
If you would like to learn more about Twin Cities Family Cooperative, please visit our website and facebook page, attend our events (online and in-person), or fill out our Interest Form to connect. If you would like to be removed from our email list, please email us and let us know.
