Re: Cohousing Digital System
From: Heidi Beke-Harrigan (hbekeharrigangmail.com)
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2020 15:49:06 -0800 (PST)
I'm with a newly forming cohousing group in Columbus called Central Ohio
Cohousing and we also have a digital system question.

We're very grateful to the folks at Gather who are allowing us to explore
their platform. I find it well designed and think it will serve us well
once we are needing to manage the cohousing daily activities of living.

In the meantime, we need to create a website, consider contact management
software and additional platforms to help us successfully get to the formed
community stage.
I searched the Cohousing-L archives and was able to find reference to
management software such as My Green Condo, Bazinga, Basecamp etc. that's
been useful to folks once a community has come together, but not so much
about what has helped as communities form and deal with attracting
potential members, managing work and contacts, etc.

We're trying to decide between meeting basic immediate needs with a free
website using Wix, for example, or balancing the long term needs of members
only web page
access, payment processing, membership mailing and contact etc. through a
more comprehensive package like WIld Apricot.

Is this a topic that has already come up and is in the Cohousing-L archives
somewhere? We're grateful for any tips or experiences you care to share.

Best,
Heidi Beke-Harrigan




On Mon, Feb 10, 2020 at 11:56 AM Sharon Villines via Cohousing-L <
cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:

> > On Feb 10, 2020, at 10:03 AM, Chris Terbrueggen <
> christopher402 [at] gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Greetings, I would like to know if any cohousing communities are using
> > internal membership software that has at least 5 contributors that are
> > administering it.
>
> I think you might have better luck finding a system that many cohousing
> communities use so if you have a problem, you can contact another
> community. Finding 5 people in my community who would go near overseeing
> any computer based system would be impossible. I’ve tried. Some do computer
> work all day—installing, fixing, programming, spam detection, etc.—so they
> are totally uninterested but will confer.
>
> To monitor a system that people are dependent on is something most people
> don't want to do. I’ve not been able to find anyone who will be second
> chair to our email discussion lists. It isn’t a big job but when someone’s
> email is hacked or a list isn’t working, it has to be fixed quickly. Email
> hacks get our whole system closed down by our ISP. With so many people
> working at home now, this is crisis time.
>
> Gather is the best I’ve seen and most predictably sustainable on their end
> because it is supported by a cooperative that includes more people than
> work directly on the software. And it seems fairly easy to learn so many
> members could be familiar enough to troubleshoot. Or call someone at
> another community.
>
> Sharon
> ----
> Sharon Villines
> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> http://www.takomavillage.org
>
>
>
>
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