Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re:

[Deborah Behrens (debbeh]

a response to Susan Murphy (Cantine's Island), c/o johnj [at] pipeline.com
>  
> I so regret that I couldn t come to the Gathering in Boulder this past
> Fall.  It came at the end of a 5-week (for me, unpaid) vacation trip, and
> we just couldn t justify the $800 or more that it would have cost.  But on
> that Friday when the Burning Souls were meeting, there was truly nowhere
> else on earth that I belonged.  I was hitting a slump in my Outreach work
> just then, and could have used the infusion of energy and vision. ...

Hang in there.  While you may not be able to get to Colorado, perhaps 
there'll be a regional conference in New England or DC that will help you 
get back some of the enthusiasm and perspective.  Or just get together
with a few of them to swap ideas.  Don't overlook the nonprofits that 
work with low/moderate income home buyers. Media attention really helps too. 

> ... It has been so hard for us to get and keep Full Members.  We need 12,
> currently have 7 (3 have resigned over the past several months).  Of our 9
> Participating Member households, I estimate that we ll be lucky if 1 or 2
> actually come through to become Full Members and residents in the
> community. .....
> I wonder all the time why we re having so much trouble getting members, and
> why other groups don t seem to have this problem.  This is what I think: ...

Believe it or not, many groups have the same problem.  We at Highline 
Crossing have gotten occasionally quite discouraged that in the last 
year and a half we've lost as many people as we've gained.  We remain 
at about 23 households, only 2/3 of our hoped for (and budgeted) total 
of 36.  And we're in the middle of construction, with some of our building 
construction stalled, waiting for more people to sign contracts.
But the first group of 5 households has moved into the first building, and
that media attention has brought a few more very good prospects to 
check us out.  At the same time, a longtime member had to drop out,
and another may not be able to sell her current home to enable her to buy
her cohousing home.  Anyhow, that's just to show you that you're not alone in
having recruitment problems, we all do have them.  The Cohousing group
that has its full membership before construction starts is very rare -
(Nyland did it), but it's probably more likely with a *much* smaller scale
project.

Best wishes for Cantine's Island

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 +-----------------------ooO-(_)-Ooo---------------------------------+
 |  Debbie Behrens             debbeh [at] auto-trol.com  W (303)252-2215 |
 |  Highline Crossing CoHousing                      H (303)457-4184 |
 |  Rocky Mountain Cohousing Assn                    Fx(303)252-2249 |
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 |      All opinions expressed are mine, and do not necessarily      |
 |   reflect the opinions of Highline Crossing or RMCA in general.   |
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