Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Members at a distance

[JoycePlath (JoycePlath]

Marsh Commons in Arcara California had three long distance members.  One
couple who visited numerous cohousing groups last winter, joined our group in
February, and moved here last week.  They say that it has been great to move
across the country and have a new community that found them a place to live
until our houses are built, helped them move in, and allmost instantly gave
them important development work to do.  
Long distance members have had a great deal of trust for the members living
in close by,  All members have contributed about $12,000 toward
preconstruction costs.  Long distance folks have been paired with a  local
member with whom they communicate as needed.  They have trusted the local
group to decide when decisions as important enough to require their imput.
 The only difficulty we have experienced is that as aa group of nine,
  having three members not available for the work of the development (we are
our own developers)  has caused us to feel a little thin on energy.  There
are some folks who are not enthusiastic about taking on any more long
distance members but nnoe that Peter and Sara are here and actively
participating I suspect we would accept members from just about anywhere if
we really liked them.  In fact , since the coonference we have heard from
people in Minnesota and New Mexico who are interested  in our cohousing
group.

Joyce