Cohousing-L Mailing List: orienting out of town members

[Lynette Bassman (lbassman]

Hi, everybody.

 

I am a member of La Querencia, a cohousing community in Fresno,
California.  We have 15 member families (soon to be 17), and we have
bought land, submitted plans to the city, and are projecting a move in
date in Fall, 2007.  In our marketing efforts, a question has come up
that I am hoping some of you can answer.  Since some people relocate to
join cohousing, or join cohousing as part of a relocation, there are
likely to be people who want to join, but can't attend meetings because
they are not yet in town.  Our membership procedure involves people
attending some meetings and social events so we can get to know each
other, to determine the goodness of fit.  So I am wondering how we might
accomplish that when the people are far away and can't easily travel
here.  One solution might be to have them wait until they move here to
join, but the joining date determines unit selection seniority, and if
they wait, they may not get the unit type that they want.  Any ideas?

 

Thanks.

 

Lynette Bassman, Ph.D.