RE: CoHousing and Descrimination: Call 4 Experiences | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Rob Sandelin (robsanmicrosoft.com) | |
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 95 14:37 CST |
I do know that at least one group in my area did in fact discriminate against people without children by "restricting" memberships to people who had kids. No lawsuits were filed but I did get an earful from a person who was "declined" an associate membership because she was single and gay. I don't think the gay part was the issue, it was that she wouldn't have kids and the group wanted families with kids to buy the last of the associate memberships. She didn't see it that way. This kind of selective recruitment goes on frequently in cohousing and one issue of very big controversy at various times in my own community is that we have no real means of selecting who we want to live with. If Rush Limbaugh wanted to buy a Sharingwood lot, then although many people in my group would not ever want to live with Rush Limbaugh, we would have to take his money and sell him a lot. Before I joined Sharingwood someone actually gave money who was later deemed unsuitable by the core group and his money was simply returned by the owner of the property. I gather that the feeling was mutual and so no problems happened but what if it had not been? One way to select membership from a particular set of humanity is to advertise in ways which will attract the set you are looking for. For example, if you are looking for families with kids, then advertise in parenting magazines and such. Our local baby diaper service has a newspaper on parenting which accepts advertising. Although membership is "self-selecting" I often wonder if that is really true. The way your recruiters approach people, what they tell them, how much information they share, etc. will all reflect on the picture of who wants to join. For example a person who is doing a tour or recruitment pitch could make a sexist comment about women and instantly turn off all the women in the crowd. Any given presenter will affect the pitch by their personality, their age, their sex, their general appearance and demeanor, how they handle questions, friendliness, etc. etc. It is probably a good idea to have a mixed pair, man and woman do your recruitment pitches together. For example market research shows that one factor in personal communication in selling is how much the seller is like you. For example, females respond differently to male presenters than female presenters. Kids respond to kids in a very different way than they do to adults. Also having two people give presentations allows for people to hear two differing perspectives. Rob Sandelin Sharingwood - that melting pot of middle-class white liberals.
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CoHousing and Descrimination: Call 4 Experiences BPaiss, January 20 1995
- RE: CoHousing and Descrimination: Call 4 Experiences Rob Sandelin, January 20 1995
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