Cohousing-L Mailing List: membership applications

[Denise Meier and/or Michael Jacob (dmmj]

Here at Two Acre Wood, we may possibly find ourselves in the enviable
position of having more applicants for membership than we have spaces
left! While we are thrilled not to have to carry unsold units during
construction and perhaps afterwards, this situation has its downside: How
do you decide? As we have demographic concerns (not enough kids, not
enough adults in a 14-unit community with lots of single person
households, the ever-bedeviling "diversity" issue) we are not using a
first-come, first served method for these last two units. (Also we were
not interested in getting into a "Well, I tried to fax you my application
at 2 pm but your fax machine didn't answer, and then she hand-delivered
hers at 3, but I should still be first" sort of situation!) 

We're planning to take all the applications we get in the next month, and
then choose the last two households. We recently spent about 4 hours
discussing each of our concerns and priorities regarding what we want the
community to look like, demographically, and I think we're in a good place
as far as understanding and respecting each other's preferences. 

I'm just curious to hear if other groups have been in the same or a
similar situation and if you have any wisdom to share, pitfalls to beware
of, etc, etc.

Thanks,
Denise Meier
Two Acre Wood,
Sebastopol, California