Re: Prospective non-locals
From: Sharon Villines (sharonsharonvillines.com)
Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 08:32:01 -0600 (MDT)
On 5/05/2003 9:29 AM, "Fred H Olson" <fholson [at] cohousing.org> wrote:

> Several non-local people have expressed interest in becoming members, and
> we were wondering how other groups have handled the membership
> requirements for people who can't get to meetings. Some of these
> prospective members are several states away, so we'd like to get an idea
> of what might be a reasonable request for participation.

I truly believe that the growth of cohousing and the greatly reduced time
from initial meeting to move-in is the result of email and the ease with
which allows people to find, join, and keep in touch with developing
communities. There are many things people can do from a distance by email.
And you need all the people you can find who will sign on, pay money, and
move in. Don't worry about where they live now.

Stop and think about what "a distance" really means. Some people will live
an hour away and consider this too far to drive to attend meetings in the
evenings or more than once a month on weekends. Others will live near but
have jobs that require them to work at the very times others are available
for meetings. Someone may live 8 hours away but come to town every week on
business. Another lives across the country but will move closer as soon as
they know the project is a "go" and can find a new job. Some people will be
very active at particular points of the project and less active at others --
"distance" has lot of different meanings.

At Takoma Village (in DC) many people joined the project who lived at a
distance. Over two years of the development they gradually moved closer and
became active on organizing. Some lived in the next major city, others lived
in the distant suburbs, but several lived states away. I was in Florida,
Carol was in one of the Carolinas, Rich was in Rochester NY. We now have a
family in San Francisco waiting for a unit large enough to become available.
Doris was moving from Denver; Eric and Betsy from Chicago.

We picked up people who wanted to move and were ready to move but needed a
place to move to. They gradually moved to temporary housing in DC. Since our
move-in date was changed several times, most of us were in temporary housing
of one kind or another in the area for the last months.

As long as people are willing to make a financial commitment, those at a
distance are as reliable as those living close. Two households that dropped
out at the very last minut, were living and still live within blocks of the
property.

Sharon
-- 
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org

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