Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: looking to form new group

[Joani Blank (joani]

> From: "christina guzman" <imdiabolita [at] hotmail.com>
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Date: Thu, 23 May 2002 14:18:09 -0700

> We are in Long Beach, CA and are looking to form a cohousing group in our
> area.  I need advice on how to "advertise" if you will to get more people
> interested.

Christina (and others who may live in an area where there is little or no 
cohousing at present),

I think one of the best ways to get some energy going in any area where 
there is little or no cohousing, is to plan an event, most likely a talk or 
a panel with a slide show in your area. Ideally, in California you would 
get Chuck or Katie to come down to do it. That is the best, IMHO, but 
probably also the most expensive way to do it.  The least expensive way to 
do it would be to invite Lois Arkin from LA to make such a presentation, if 
she is willing and able. I've not met Lois, nor visited Eco-Village or Los 
Angeles, but I understand she is a remarkable woman.  Her community is not 
"typical" cohousing. It is not even "typical" retrofit cohousing, and I 
don't know how up to date she is on other than retrofit cohousing, nor 
whether she enjoys this kind of public speaking.

A third alternative would be for you to invite  one or two of experienced 
cohousers from Northern California down to give such a presentation.  There 
are a couple of us (including myself) who would come down for the cost of 
our travel and homestay accommodations for a night or two. As a Board 
Member of the Cohousing Network, I personally would have another motivation 
for doing a presentation like this. And that would be to familiarize more 
people in the general public about cohousing.  Even if people see a flyer 
about a cohousing presentation, or attend a talk on it and decide it is not 
quite right for them in their lives now, the "movement" grows a little with 
each exposure.

If you think you can attract enough people who will pay 5 or 8 or 10 
dollars to hear Katie or Chuck, that would be the best. They have spoken in 
Southern California before and could probably advise you how best to get a 
good audience for a presentation by them.

Aside from a lecture/pane/presentation I think that the single best way to 
get a group going is to have two or three people from your area visit as 
many cohousing communities as they can. Two people from the L.A. area came 
up to participate in our six-community tour in May.  The next tour (this 
time seven communities including those in Sacramento and Davis) will be on 
September 14.

NOTE TO THOSE IN OTHER PARTS OF THE COUNTRY: Other cohousing professionals 
who live in your part of the country (Mary Kraus, Bruce Coldham, Ann 
Zabaldo, Chris Scott-Hanson, Zev Paiss, John Abrams) are often available to 
give presentation to help drum up interest in your area, as are Cohousing 
Network Board members and other enthusiastic volunteers.

Also, the Cohousing Network hopes to run tours in the Denver metropolitan 
area and in the Seattle area (as well as Northern California next year. I 
know that doesn't help your folks on the eastern seaboard, but if the tours 
go well we expect to expand them to other parts of the country where there 
are clusters of cohousing communities, in the not too distant future. Then 
there are virtual tours which may appear shortly (or not so shortly) on 
TCN's website.

Coheartedly Yours, (thanks to Patty Mara Gourley for this....er, closing? 
sign-off...what is the opposite of "salutation" anyway?)

Joani Blank

Cohousing Enthusiast
Resident, Swan's Market Cohousing
Board Member, The Cohousing Network



> Thank you,
> Chriss
>
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