Cohousing-L Mailing List: Stories

[Ann Zabaldo (zabaldo]

Tell me a fact and I’ll learn. Tell me a truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a 
story and it will live in my heart forever.
– North American Indian quote

A few days ago I announced that we are running a contest on the 
cohousingblog.com site.  Two people have already posted!!  
http://www.cohousingblog.com  And as a carrot to increase participation we're 
offering the chance to win a $25.00 gift card to Amazon.  

Now why would we (Cohousing Collaborative LLC) be interested in doing this?  
And offering $$$ to do it?

Because stories are the best way to get information across to people you want 
to remember you, your community, your product ... whatever.  If you're involved 
in marketing and outreach for your community, if you're raising kids, if you're 
reselling a home, ... whatever business you're in ... stories are the key to 
grabbing your audience.  I see this drilled by folks in the advertising 
industry. 

I find that the best way of describing what cohousing REALLY is ... that is, 
beyond the bricks n' mortar ... is through stories.  People grok cohousing when 
they hear a story.  A loooonnnng time ago, a member of this list whose name I 
think is Lori, wrote a post called:  What I Like About Living in Cohousing.   I 
still have it.  I still pass it out to people who ask me what it's like to live 
in one of our communities.

And we know there are a LOT of great cohousing stories out there.  We don't 
want to lose any of them!  What we ultimately hope to do with these gifts is 
create an online database where anyone can go read vignettes about cohousing.  
Someday we might even publish a book of them.  

This time ... we're collecting best summertime stories.

Please have some fun by entering your favorite tale.  And you just might win 
that $25 gift card.  But you'll have fun regardless!

http://www.cohousingblog.com  scroll down to the announcement!

Best --

Ann Zabaldo
Takoma Village Cohousing
Washington, DC
Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
Falls Church VA
703 663 3911