Upcoming Events

Woodstock And Its Housing Needs -
The Conversation Continues….

To continue the discussion Woodstock, Our Town is pleased to announce two important events to take place in the beginning of November:

November 3, 2007: John Abrams, a builder and housing specialist from Martha’s Vineyard, will give a presentation on how his community is addressing the housing question. Saturday, November 3^rd , from 4:00 to 6:00 at the Community Center on Rock City Road.

November 10, 2007: Woodstock, Our Town, will host the Third Stone Soup Café. The question for this Café bubbled up out of the rich brew of conversations in Cafes One and Two: “What are your thoughts on how we can meet the housing needs of our community?” Saturday, November 10^th , from 11:30 to 3:30, at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church.

Woodstock, Our Town selected Abrams to address our community, because of the many similarities between Woodstock and Martha’s Vineyard. Since 1976, Abrams has served as president of South Mountain Company in Martha’s Vineyard, which, today, has 30 employees (over half of whom share ownership in the business), has designed and built more than 100 major renovation and new housing projects, and earns $6 million in annual revenues. His book, The Company We Keep (Golden Notebook), demonstrates that one can bring strong personal values to the workplace, protect natural resources, uphold high standards of craftsmanship and green construction, control growth, and still run a successful (and highly collaborative) enterprise. He frequently lectures to university audiences, building associations, business groups, and environmental organizations on the topics of affordable housing, socially responsible business, and ecological design and building, and has trained several groups in meeting facilitation and consensus decision-making. Those who cannot attend the Café the following Saturday are very welcome to attend Abrams’ talk.

Space is limited for the Café on November 10^th, please RSVP by Monday, November 5^th to cafe@woodstockourtown.org. Please bring a dish to share, and a vegetable for the “stone soup.” We would like to minimize our use of non-recyclable items so if possible please bring your own place settings (soup bowl, utensils, plate, etc.) Please plan to stay for the four hours, as full participation makes all the difference to the outcome. This conversation is relevant for all Woodstockers. You are welcome no matter how short or long a time you've been in town, no matter whether your ideas are young and fresh or based on years of wisdom and experience.

Volunteer help is welcomed and means a lot. Please let us know if you could help out with either event set up, clean up or in another capacity email us.