Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Early Group Growth

[Judy (BAXTER%EPIHUB]

Corey wrote: 
        Our group is 5 households presently moving forward with site ,
developer, and architect search. One issue presently for us is how important it
is to recruit new people at this stage. We know at some point (maybe sooner
than we think), we will have to have more households on board, but at this
point we move swiftly (okay, maybe with a little burden due to the work load)
through meetings and decisions. I would be interested to know how much efforts
other groups put in to early recruitment. We eventually want a community of
between 18 and 30 households. Is it always a good time to get commited people?
It seems like most people who are interested don't want to spend their time at
this point, or they aren't ready to put money down after a few meetings. Thanks
for your input.                 Corey Yugler                                   
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I've been thinking about that a little.
Our experience (MoCoCo) was that we had about 10-13 households for most of the
time before purchase, and 12 households (16 or 17 adults) aactive for the
first year of move in, developer and architect selection, rehab of existing
condos, planning, etc. etc. etc.  And it has rarely felt too big.  There is a
lot to be done.  I would think 5 households would be at risk for early burnout. 
 
        Recruitment does take time and energy, though.

One thing that has worked well for us in our membership/recruitment process is
to ask interested people to become  associate members, and get involved, and
being active in the group is what builds commitment to the process.  We
*REQUIRE* active involvement before you can apply for full membership.

By the way, we are now up to 17 member households, and 8-10 associates of very
varying levels of commitment. The involvement level is how I judge commitment.
        Judy

Judy Baxter, Monterey Cohousing Community, (MoCoCo)
Twin Cities Area, Minneapolis/St.Paul Minnesota
e-mail: baxter [at] epivax.epi.umn.edu