Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: bulletin boards and communication

[Jennifer McCoy (jmccoy]

Re Peg Blum's questions on how to organize bulletin boards and other
forms of communication:

        At Lake Claire in Atlanta, after nearly one year of living together, we
have experimented and come up with this:

a)  Bulletin Boards are divided into 3 topics:  Urgent Notices of
meetings, etc; Official Coho Business (meal sign-ups, memos,
informational items); and Community News and Announcements.  We have a
bulletin board guru who monitors the stuff, taking down items after 2
weeks or after event has passed.  People sign and date notices.  Removed
items are placed in an archival box for later retrieval; official coho
stuff we want to keep goes in a notebook.  Yes, the boards fill up fast.

b)  Bulletin Board locations:  Urgent Notices is right above mailboxes
so people will see it; other two are on wall facing the entry door. 
Still, some people don't read the bulletin boards.  We often put notices
on the entry door glass as well.

c)  Unit cubbies:  In addition to the locked U.S. mailboxes, we have
cubbies in which we distribute minutes, notices, memos, and notes among
ourselves.  This is invaluable.

d)  We've tried other ways to communicate, too, outside of business
meetings -- grafitti boards posted on the walls for people to comment on
special issues for a specified time period; improvement plans and
designs posted for comments.  This saves some meeting time.

Jennifer McCoy
Lake Claire Cohousing, Atlanta