Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Converting PUD to cohousing project

[Rob Sandelin (Exchange) (Robsan]

What I would do if I were you is to start by  setting up community =
dinner. See if you can use the common facilities and get this going.  I =
suspect that what you will find is that people will slowly discover =
community dinners convienience and attractiveness and this will build up =
a core of folks who want to become "more intentional".

Start out twice a week, advertise it to everyone, then see how it rolls. =
 Allow that only a few will check it out at first.  I have found that in =
households where one person (usually female) does ALL the food prep and =
cooking, that community dinner is a huge attraction, if for no other =
reason that an occiasional break.

Another thing which might be a good community builder would be to do a =
newsletter.  Write up stories of general interest about your building =
(The Pattersons 20th anniversary, the kids going off to school,  local =
community projects, interviews with residents, tips on household stuff, =
and most importantly, want ads, for sale, for trades, for free, etc.

Once you get this going, it then becomes the conduit for advertising =
future social events.
My mother lived in a very large, low income housing project that was =
mixed elderly and single parents.  A couple of folks starting doing a =
homey little newsletter which soon became one of the most important and =
anticipated communications by everyone.  After about 6 months, the two =
folks who wrote the newsletter held a fundraiser.  They raised over =
$500! from low income families because everyone loved their neighborhood =
newsletter and wanted it to continue.  About half the newsletter was =
listing of things people had or knew about which were for sale or for =
free.  The kids were always trading bicycles this way, somebodies =
son-in-law donated 40 packages of halibut from his big fishing trip, =
etc. etc.=20

Good luck on your endeavors.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood