Lucy Beck		Debbie Ramsdell
	Tanya and Matthew		Marjan van den Belt and Robert Costanza
	Marlee, Rick & Nina		The Devine Family
	Per, Jenny, Solvei & Aren Eisenman		Cara Taussig and Marty Gawron
	Dennis and Trisa Gay		Marc Greenblatt
	Shelia Kerr		Carina Cartelli and Joe Lasek
	Melissa Mcginty		Sarah Sinnott
	Elizabeth Storey		Larilee Suiter
	Peter van Schaick		Mary Van Vleck
	Clark and Suzanne Hinsdale		Jonathan, Lorelei and Finn Atwood
	Gordon Gieg and Amy Snyder

For Marjan and Robert co-housing is an important means toward the goal of a more ecologically and socially sustainable lifestyle. Living in close harmony with nature is important to us. Marjan gained experience with farming and providing organically grown food while living on a 55 acre farm in Maryland. However, when our children Kaia and Milo arrived, it became clear that a 55 acre farm for one small family unit was not ideal from a social perspective. This realization, along with a longstanding interest in eco-villages, caused Marjan to become excited to move to Burlington Vermont and join CVC when the opportunity presented itself. Robert currently is director of the Gund Institute of Ecological Economics at UVM (www.uvm.edu/giee). This institute and most of its staff moved from the University of Maryland in 2002.

Marjan is originally from the Netherlands and arrived in the USA almost eight years ago after a five year detour through Sweden. She has a professional interest in participatory processes for environmental consensus building in the form of her company Mediated Modeling Partners, LLC (www.mediated-modeling.com). Her book on this topic will be published by Island Press in April 2004. Marjan works from home, both in terms of raising Kaia and Milo and also professionally. Therefore, a supportive and stimulating community is a very important part of the co-housing vision in several ways; 1) the children can easily interact with other children and adults in a safe environment, 2) interesting adults are relatively accessible for socialization after a working day within the confinement of a private unit, 3) farming requires an abundance of farming hands if one wants to enjoy the pleasures of a healthy (and fascinating) lifestyle without becoming a slave to it and 4) it is great fun to share meaningful projects with other people in a close community.

Robert was born in Donora, PA, two years after the first case of fatal smog in the US occurred there. A week-long temperature inversion trapped the fumes from the local zinc works in the small Monongehela river valley town for more than a week. More than 20 people died, including what would have been Robert’s older brother. The zinc works shut down and the Clean Air Act was eventually passed, both as a direct result of this incident. Robert’s family moved to Florida where he grew up and went to college, eventually earning a Masters degree in Architecture and a Ph.D. in Systems Ecology (with a minor in Economics) from the University of Florida. Robert was fascinated by trying to understand the links between the built and the natural environment, and trying to figure out how to improve those links (a result of his earliest childhood memories??). His first job post-Ph.D. was as an Assistant Professor at LSU in Baton Rouge, studying the magnificent (but rapidly disappearing) coastal wetlands of the Mississippi deltaic plain. Here he met Herman Daly and together they formed the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE - Robert was the first President) and the academic journal Ecological Economics (Robert was the first Editor). Ecological Economics is devoted to the integrated study of human-in-natural systems, and the design of a sustainable and desirable future. In 1988 Robert moved to the University of Maryland. In 1992 he attended the 2nd ISEE Conference in Stockholm, Sweden, and briefly met a stunning, amazingly intelligent blond at the conference banquet. Later that evening he met Marjan (no - just joking, that WAS Marjan). The next summer he returned to Stockholm to help teach a short course in Ecological Economics and who should be in the class but his future wife. Robert had to spend a sabbatical in Stockholm before Marjan consented to being imported to the USA. The rest is history.

Kaia is 5 years old. She likes to grow food, chase chickens and ride horses with mom. She enjoys cooking with dad. She loves arts and crafts especially with Larilee (CVC member). She shares a passion for photography with Melissa (CVC member). She is looking forward to having playmates close by and safe spaces to play indoors or outdoors, everyday and not just when mom has organized a play date and is willing to drive her there.

Milo is 3 years old. He likes to investigate the world "hands-on" and he loves music, dancing, running/climbing and ball games. When our horse Vinnie was still with us, Milo loved to help taking care of him, but he thought Vinnie was too big to ride. He’s keeping his eye out for a pony when we settle in Charlotte.

As of next year, we will be a home-schooling family and building a house and barn at CVC will be part of the curriculum.