Cohousing-L Mailing List: Visiting a CoHousing Community

[ElanaKahn (ElanaKahn]

This is partially in response to A Cautionary Tale on Marketing, about how
CoHousing communities handle communications with visitors and potential
visitors.

Westwood CoHousing Community in Asheville, NC is in the throes of
pre-construction development. It is an exciting time, and also hectic and
pressured. We as a group encourage visitors to come to our weekly group
meetings (as observers) and especially to our twice-monthly combination
meetings, potlucks and site tours. The local members are usually all
available at these times to answer questions, show folks around, and get to
know new people. This is a good time for other CoHousing activists also, to
exchange ideas and get a feel for what we are doing. In between meetings we
are all very busy and it is harder for us to make the time to meet with
newcomers, especially as people see that we are filling up and come here in
greater numbers than ever to check us out.

When people come at other times than our scheduled events it is sometimes
difficult for us to accommodate them to their satisfaction. An appointment
ahead of time helps. However, the visitor will not meet many people that way,
will not get to observe the group in action (which we think is very
important), and may get only limited time from the project manager or from
another member, simply because of other work that goes on during the week. 

My point is, when anyone reading this visits here or any other CoHousing
community, it will help a lot to find out what are the arrangements for
visitors, and to plan your visit accordingly if at all possible. We in
CoHousing generally do not have fully staffed offices with people available
to greet visitors at the door. Perhaps we can all avoid some hurt feelings
this way.

Elana Kahn