Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Group Communication

[Emilie Parker (emilie.v.parker]

We are a forming group in Louisville Colorado -- Artists Cohousing.  We use
Googlegroups, Meetup and DropBox.  From time to time we use Doodle to
schedule meetings.

Meetup is to keep everyone in the loop as to when, where, what, etc of
meetings and posting pictures and documents.  We used that exclusively for
about a year until we formed a committed core group who have put down the
money for the Getting It Built Workshop.  Now that group which we call our
committed core uses Googlegroups (plus phone, and inperson of course) for
all internal communications.  That means daily emails and everyone's emails
go to everyone.

Now we have two groups one is our meetup group for people who just follow
all our activities and show up from time to time at our monthly outreach
orientations.  So at this point Meetup serves as a tool of our marketing
team.  Once people decide to join and pay a deposit they are in the
committed core and they get in the googlegroup and get on a team and attend
our monthly potlucks.

We keep our membership list and other important documents and pictures on
Dropbox.

Our teams use regular old email and meet for coffee sometimes and phone.

Emilie





-----------------
Emilie Parker
emilie.v.parker [at] gmail.com
303-317-4558 main
240-350-8533 cell
My website: www.emilieparker.com
Artists Cohousing website: www.artistscohousing.com
Art Cohousing Meetup:  www.meetup.com/artists-housing-community



On Mon, Dec 7, 2015 at 10:57 AM, Jasen Robillard <
jasen [at] connexuscohousing.com> wrote:

>
> *Hi Jasmine,*
>
> *The nearly defacto online tool used for communication in cohousing groups
> has been Yahoo Groups. This has waned in recent years since new
> collaborative tools have come to the market. *
>
> *The challenge with any communication tool is adoption by the whole group
> so while I would say that there are better tools than Yahoo out there, you
> likely need a tool that allows your group to use email as a backdrop to
> communication. If your group members are familiar with one tool, then it
> sometimes isn't worth the hassle to migrate. On the other hand, if you have
> a fairly tech savvy group then you have additional options. My
> recommendation is to use a system that requires the least amount of upkeep,
> as well as the least amount of training to accomplish your goals. Having
> someone take a "tech" lead within your group will likely pay dividends in
> the long run.*
>
> *I would highly recommend the use of Google Docs (spreadsheets, proposals,
> agendas, decision log, etc.) as your main document generation tool. Then
> for communication, you have a number of good options (Google Groups,
> Wiggio). I've personally shied away from Yahoo Groups mainly due to
> experiencing issues in the long term with their file size and quantity
> limitations (which you can pay $ to overcome). While I haven't tried it
> myself, another option might be the new Slack app which is getting rave
> reviews in collaborative teams. It integrates into a number of other online
> tools (Google, Dropbox, Asana, etc.). If I had a new forming group starting
> from scratch, Slack is likely what I'd test first within a small group.*
>
> *Hope this helps,*
>
> *Jasen Robillard*
> *Connexus Cohousing Collaborative, Principal*
>
> Project Management and Group Development Facilitation
>
> c: 403.554.8681
>
> e: *jasen [at] connexuscohousing.com <jasen [at] connexuscohousing.com>*
>
> > *From:* jasminephilip [at] lycos.com
> > *Date:* December 6, 2015 at 8:04:51 AM PST
> > *Subject:* *[C-L]_ Group Communication*
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am part of a newly formed group, who are trying to create a
> > cohousing development in Victoria, BC, Canada. We are really just
> > getting off
> > the ground and one of our biggest issues at the moment is how to best
> > manage
> > communications between members of the group. We are wondering what
> > people who have already established cohousing communities use for their
> > communications.
> >
> > 1. Are there any document sharing platforms that are favoured by your
> > cohousing groups?
> >
> > 2. How do groups disseminate information to group members. We are trying
> > to
> > figure out what would serve us best, a listserv or something like google
> > groups, or something else all together that we might not have thought of
> > yet.
> > We especially need ways for different committees within our group to
> > communicate with one another as well as ways for us to communicate to
> > people
> > who might be interested in our cohousing community vs active members.
> > Any suggestions?
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Jasmine Philip
> >
> >
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