Re: COHOUSING-L digest 622
From: cjsheehan (cjsheehanjuno.com)
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 16:34:38 -0700 (MST)
At Sonora Cohousing, we marketed many ways over the years.  Based on
feedback from interested parties the biggest draw came from a nice ad we
had in the Tucson Weekly newspaper.  We also held open house every Sunday
at the same time, at our location once we bought land (in the existing
house) and before we had land in a local library.  At our open house we
had a general slide show about cohousing, then had question/answer
sessions and site tours.  We had ads in many other local publications as
well - university faculty newsletter, Co-op newsletter, various other
club newsletters, newspapers.  We had a flyer service distribute our
flyers once a month, with a heading like "looking for a friendly
neighborhood".  Another thing we did was sponsor our local radio stations
that broadcast NPR and many folks heard about us that way.  We hosted
several public slide shows with Charles Durrett.  In 1998 when we were
near the beginning of construction we held a "groundbreaking ceremony"
with speakers from our local city major and councilperson.  Then in 1999
we had a "strawbale wall raising" weekend that drew huge crowds ( our
common house is made out of straw bales).  Other things we did were
getting the local newspaper to do an article(s) on us, we've been in the
local news and on the PBS station (Arizona Illustrated) several times and
set up info tables at various events.  We sold out before the end of
construction so we did something right in the way of marketing and I
think it was not one specific thing but the efforts of many different
avenues.

Jenny Sheehan
Sonora Cohousing, Tucson AZ where it is cold and rainy but the
wildflowers are still blooming!

On Thu, 15 Feb 2001 09:52:26 -0600 HeidiNYS [at] aol.com writes:
> Dear Hal,
> 
> It may be 'cold comfort', but your situation  may be not so unusual. 
>  We have 
> had contact with perhaps 200 over the course of perhaps 6-7 years 
> development/prep work and 3 yrs in residence.  
> 
> We did have a connection with one pice of land over this period, 
> which, as 
> Becky points out may help.  From what I gather, consensus on 
> location seems a 
> huge hurdle.  We had someone willing to hold on to this land for us 
> while we 
> found folks, went thru board approvals, lost 3 full members [in a 
> co-housing 
> group originally numbering 12.  We are about to increase to 16-18 
> households, 
> if anyone knows a family interested in Cantines "Island.  We are 
> near 
> Woodstock NY.]  found more folks, etc. 
> 
> We did also start rotating our meetings, all full group meetings 
> remained 
> weekends, but rotated between saturdays and Sundays.  committee 
> meetings were 
> usually just before full business meetings.  
> 
> It was a surprisingly long development time those six or so years!!  
> We had 
> ads in the local paper, RE section, and made up 5x8 posters with 
> good visual 
> appeal, and tear-offs at the bottom.  We spoke/set up tables where 
> ever we 
> could, including Clearwater festivals, a most likely source for 
> members, we 
> thought.....  tho never did yield a direct result!!  
> so, keep trying.... having a long perspective may help.  I always 
> thought 
> this had so much appeal, we'd be stampeded with people. I'm still 
> surprised 
> we weren't!!  
> good luck,
> Ruth
> 
> In a message dated 2/15/01 11:12:31 AM, cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org 
> writes:
> > Here in Chicago Marty has been trying to form a core group Chicago 
> Village
> > Cohousing (formerly Lake Village Cohousing) for a Cohousing 
> community in
> > the city of Chicago.
> > 
> > Although we have over 60 contacts we can't seem to get people 
> together for
> > meetings.
> > 
> > I would like feed back from cohousing groups and communities on 
> ads they
> > have created to attract new people.
> > 
> > What has worked or what does not work.
> > 
> > Hal, Chicago Cohousing Network

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