Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: What data system CRM are you using?

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Nov 26, 2024, at 12:43 PM, Yael Bat-Chava <yael.bat.chava [at] gmail.com> 
> wrote:

> Hudson Valley cohousing (in formation) is looking to start using a data
> system for our contacts, events, etc. We know a lot of communities use
> HubSpot, and we’re curious what other systems communities are using. What
> pros and cons are you seeing?

One of my personal goals for cohousing is “the perfect software” to do 
everything cohousing communities need done — one integrated set of programs 
that do everything.

We are using Mosaic for the meals program (calendar, jobs, signups, reminders, 
billing) and the photo album. People like Google forms for one-time signups 
like the Holiday cookie exchange, WordPress for the facilities Wiki (history of 
buildings and grounds related stuff), Groups.io for email, CalendarWiz for the 
many calendars, and AssociationVoice for document storage, coordination, and 
information. Then Survey Monkey and a program to find out when people can meet. 
And Summit Management to take care of bill paying and acounting.

Gather can do all of these things under one hood plus it can connect to other 
programs when useful. One community that uses Gather said people think Zoom is 
a Gather program because the link appears in their site menu right next to 
everything else.

Gather has moved forward by integrating the Google options. It has an 
incredibly detailed meals program that will track things like the percentage of 
vegetarian meals. I haven’t studied it as extensively as Mosaic so I’m not sure 
about all the features but the general theory seems to be only to develop those 
features that cannot be found free on Gooogle. 

We started our Wiki on facilities management, which was very successful and 
very easy to use. A flaming success, but Google has a history of dropping 
features or changing capabilities without notice. Since the services are free, 
they are under no obligation to ensure that they will do what they say they 
will do. After years of this, I finally set up the Wiki on Wordpress so we have 
full control. I think another problem with Google is that they are constantly 
implementing new things and staff turnover is so great that they really can’t 
guarantee features. They says yes one month and a few months later the feature 
disappears and no one remembers it. 

One caution — whatever you use be sure that your information is stored in a 
format that can be downloaded and loaded somewhere else. Although Google 
ensured me that everything was exportable in a standard format, when it came 
time to transfer it, it was too large to transfer. They didn’t even say sorry. 
I had to do a ton of cutting and pasting. Weeks of work for years of 
information.

I would confirm with a developer to be sure the information can be transferred 
and do a test shortly after you start using it. I had 1000+ photos in Wordpress 
that Sean was able to import directly to Gather with no problems. It was 
Amazing! In WordPress I had to do the additions but now anyone can.

1. Ability to transfer data
2. Size limitations — think years ahead. What happens to 20 years of minutes?

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org