Cohousing-L Mailing List: [SURVEY] How do you communicate in your community?

[Craig R. Wright (crw]

Hello Fellow Co-housers!

I would like to know how you communicate within your communities. I am 
particularly interested in problems or dissatisfactions you have with your 
communication tools. 

As a template, I would like to know about your methods of communication in 
these high-level areas:

* All-community discussions and announcements
* Committee discussions and coordination
* Meals (menu announcements and sign-ups)

Please reply directly to me. Any additional information you would like to 
provide is welcome.  As an example, here are my answers for Swans Market 
Co-housing (speaking for myself, not the community):

—— 
* Community discussions, announcements, and social sharing happen in email on a 
special mailing list. Disagreements are resolved outside of email, either 1:1 
or at the HOA. Problems: works well, but sometimes it is hard to find what is 
relevant, as in what is an urgent request vs a link someone is sharing from 
Facebook. Also, sometimes disagreements do happen in email, and require 
intervention to de-escalate (usually just a reminder of our email practices). 
Tone and emotion can be difficult to judge (easy to misjudge) in email.  

* Committee meeting coordination happens in email (mailing lists), otherwise 
all discussions happen in person at the committee meetings. Problems: in my 
opinion, as a result of the lack of willingness to discuss smaller issues via 
email, we miss opportunities to coordinate and resolve issue between meetings. 

* Meals announcements happen on a paper sheet, signups on the same paper sheet. 
The schedule is managed with a big paper calendar. Problems: as a 
pre-millenial, the non-digital calendar makes it hard for me to plan and 
schedule to be at meals. :)
—— 

THANK YOU VERY MUCH for even reading this far, and an extra special thanks if 
you choose to participate.

Why? I am doing market research for a product. I am working on this 
independently, I do not represent an established company, just myself. The 
product concept is a group messenger focused on private, asynchronous 
conversations within friendly communities. It occurred to me that co-housers 
are potentially an ideal audience. I have interviewed all different types of 
people, including members of my community, but I hadn't thought to interview 
co-housers more broadly. So, I’m doing that now! :) Any questions or comments 
welcome.

Thanks, and be well,
Craig Wright