Newsletter October 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.
October marks 5 months in our community property! A lot has happened in the last 5 months. We’ve done tons of work on the property, transformed 2 apartments into community spaces, worked with an architect to start developing plans to build an addition to double our building, held more than a dozen events (online and offline), welcomed an Exploratory Member, and had more meetings than we can count! The best part has been meeting people who are interested in joining our community either as members or as part of a wider network of community. We look forward to seeing what the coming months bring!
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 Drop-In - Tuesday, October 7 12:00-12:45pm
A time to drop in and ask a question or just say hi. Life can be busy but this is an easy, informal opportunity to connect. No need to register ahead of time, just put this link on your calendar and show up.
Sam Naylor, AIA - Wednesday, October 22 7:00-8:30pm
Online discussion on the effect of housing design on cooperative living. See below for details!
October Potluck and Halloween Party - Sunday, October 26 4:00-7:00pm
Join us for some Halloween fun! We’ll have a community potluck 4:00-5:00, followed by a Halloween party open to the public. We’ll provide a vegetarian main dish, drinks, and dishes. Bring your kids, bring your friends, we can’t wait to see you! Please RSVP HERE if you plan to attend.
Online Drop-In - Tuesday, November 11 12:00-12:45pm
Fall Feast Potluck - Sunday, November 16 4:00-7:00pm
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.
Virtual Tour of Intentional Communities
If you missed joining us live at this event last month, you can watch the recording. Twin Cities Family Cooperative was the featured community in this online event, a collaboration of Foundation for Intentional Community and CommunityFinders. We gave a presentation packed with information, took participants on a tour of our community, and answered questions. Watch it again here! If you have questions after watching the recording, a great time to ask them is at our Online Drop-In on Oct 7th (see above). Otherwise, just reach out, we’d love to connect!
Visiting Other Intentional Communities Part 2 - Twin Oaks
At the beginning of September, I (Steve) had the opportunity to travel to Louisa County, Virginia to attend the Twin Oaks Communities Conference. Twin Oaks is one of the oldest and best-known intentional communities in the United States, and they’ve used their reputation well through events like this conference to foster growth and wider networks within the communal living movement. Several other communities have been founded in Louisa County over the past couple of decades, benefiting from their proximity to each other and to Twin Oaks for mutual aid.
Attending this event and meeting hundreds of other communitarians reinforced my commitment to outreach and networking as a critical part of our mission. It was also an excellent learning experience to meet organizers from many other communities around the country and hear about all the different ways they’ve been able to make communal living work for them. We’ll make a point to look for other in-person events and share them with you going forward.
Sam Naylor, AIA - The effect of housing design on cooperative living
Register for this free virtual event, hosted by CohousingMN, to learn what Sam Naylor discovered about the influence of architecture on community living and his insights into how design can influence housing equity.
Over three years, Sam Naylor, architect, educator, and researcher, visited over 100 cooperative housing projects on four continents. His visits included cohousing communities, housing cooperatives, and other informal communal living arrangements, which helped him distill the housing design elements that contribute most to the cooperative spirit and ethos of community living.
Register here to attend.
Cooperative Culture Study Group
“Beyond Narcissism”
This month Nancie reflects on “Beyond Narcissism,” one of the Cooperative Culture keys in Yana Ludwig’s and Karen Gimnig’s book “The Cooperative Culture Handbook.”
The ongoing push in mainstream culture to always “be the best” (e.g., get the best grades, get the most promotions, win in competitive games, etc.) according to the authors, leads to a culture that values independence and the ability to meet all one’s own needs. This then downplays the value of relationships and interdependence and can lead to a kind of isolation where giving and receiving are not part of the flow of one’s core existence.
In counterculture, where one is not expected to meet all one’s own needs, the result can be the individual expecting the group to meet all their needs. This can then lead to a focus on one’s own needs and take up the energy of the group without discernment about balancing the individual’s needs and the community’s needs.
Cooperative Culture can lead to a place where there is a mutual exchange of giving and receiving, not in a way that keeps score of how much the individual gives or receives, but in a way that balances the needs of the individual and the needs of the community. This in turn can lead to deeper relationships where it is okay to both give support to others and to ask for support, and where the response to one’s request is accepted with grace. When the response to an individual’s request is “no,” the group or community member might help the individual look at the deeper need and alternative ways to get that need met. A person can trust that the “yes” or “no” are genuine, making it safe to ask again in the future.
If you are interested, you can join Yana’s weekly Cooperative Culture Handbook Book Club Series on Sunday mornings. Here is the link with more information and registration. You can find other really great courses and resources on the FIC website. Remember, Exploratory Members can use up to $200 of their $500 member fee to take classes and get reimbursed for them.
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.
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. All past newsletters can be found here. If you would like to be removed from our email list, please email us and let us know.
