Re: Associate members of completed communities?
From: Craig Ragland (craigraglandgmail.com)
Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 09:02:37 -0700 (PDT)
So far, we've not published any details on the program electronically
outside the community. As some might recall from my previous posts, there
are complications around making private documents public. When/if we are
ready to distribute an edited version electronically, we'll post it on both
the Songaia website and the Cohousing Website. Sorry for a less than
satisfying response... Craig

P.S. My neighbor, Fred Lanphear, has now written a few chapters of a book on
Songaia. Since I don't think he has covered the Associate program yet, I'm
cc-ing him to help make sure it does get included. I see our Associate
Program as core to Songaia's future.

On Fri, Aug 1, 2008 at 7:38 AM, Catya Belfer-Shevett <catya [at] 
homeport.org>wrote:

> Craig, would you be willing to send me the breakdown of rights and
> responsibilities (and costs) for each level?
>
>        - cat (with my community hat on, though if we want it on
> cohousing.org i can put that hat on too :)
>
>
> Craig Ragland wrote:
>
>> Rick, we should talk about this in our next phone meeting after your
>> vacation...
>>
>> Like many Forming Groups, Songaia used an Associate structure as a step
>> toward full membership - but we then shut this down after all our units
>> were
>> sold back in 2000.
>>
>> We recently revitalized our Associate program and now have 4 levels; 1.
>> Friends, 2. Familiars, 3. Proximals, and 4. Residents (people who rent on
>> the Songaia property). Each level has varying rights, responsibilities,
>> and
>> costs. The folks who created this program are into structure, systems, and
>> careful definition of detail.
>>
>> Why did we do this years after construction? Because of the level of
>> interest from neighbors and our frequent visitors in the area - and the
>> need
>> for everybody at Songaia to feel good about their frequent sharing of our
>> resources, that we needed more definition. Since getting it defined it all
>> a
>> few months ago, we're now up to about 10 participants in all four levels -
>> although one dropped out of the process (see below).
>>
>> It is turning out to be a HUGE influx of new resources into the community
>> -
>> new gardeners, dishes at potlucks, participation in creating more fun, as
>> well as help with other projects.
>>
>> Unexpectedly, it is also great marketing. For when a Songaia home came up
>> for sale recently, all 8 of the prospective buyers were Members,
>> Associates
>> or in the process of becoming Associates. The unit sold in about 10 days.
>> We
>> never dealt with any uninformed prospective buyers - and everyone who
>> considered the purchase was already in meaningful relationships with our
>> community. This does mean, however, that one of our prospective Associates
>> dropped out of the process and, as of today, is Songaia's newest member.
>>
>> Without this program, we would have put the home availability out to the
>> Songaia Announcement list - which now has several hundred "subscribers" -
>> you too can subscribe by just going to the Songaia Home page:
>>
>> http://www.songaia.com
>>
>> and entering your name and email address into the two fields at the bottom
>> of the page. This is a super-low volume list (about 4-8 mails/year). More
>> info on it appears there - I also strongly advise every cohousing group
>> (whether built or forming) to create easy ways (like this) for people to
>> sign up for your announcement lists. Most are just curious, but some may
>> be
>> your future neighbors.
>>
>> Craig
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 10:32 AM, Rick Mockler <
>> rmockler [at] cohousingpartners.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>> I am curious about the experience of "associate members" -  people who
>>> live
>>> outside the community but who have a special relationship, and who
>>> participate in some meals and activities.
>>>
>>> We are developing a cohousing project in Grass Valley, CA (located in the
>>> foothills above Sacramento), which has extra land which we plan to sell
>>> as
>>> eight single family lots, across the road from the cohousing community.
>>>  We
>>> have received inquiries from people who would like to build homes on the
>>> lots and participate to some extent in the community.
>>>
>>> We'd welcome any information on arrangements for "associates."  What
>>> expectations do you have of them, how much they pay in dues, how they get
>>> along with the rest of the community, etc.
>>>
>>> Thanks for any feedback!
>>>
>>> Rick Mockler
>>> CoHousing Partners
>>> Davis, CA
>>>
>>> _________________________________________________________________
>>> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
>>> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
> --
> Catya Belfer-Shevett   ~   webmaster, www.cohousing.org
> www.catya.org   ~   Cohousing in MA! www.mosaic-commons.org
>



-- 
Craig Ragland

Coho/US executive director
http://www.cohousing.org
craig [at] cohousing.org

Please try email first, include your phone number (w/time zone) - or give me
a call: 425-487-3550 (Pacific)... communicate!

Results generated by Tiger Technologies Web hosting using MHonArc.