Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: failure of local umbrella groups

[Rob Sandelin (Floriferous]

Bob Morrison wrote:
 For example, Boston's umbrella 
group (Boston Cohousing Network) folded a few years ago. This group served a 
wide area in which there was, and is, a lot of cohousing activity.

Why did this group fold? Did it fold from lack of people, or money? How could 
a national organization provide either? I have seen a couple of other umbrella 
groups fold up, mostly because the people involved with them got involved with 
cohousing projects of their own and no longer had time or interest.  Volunteer 
organizations only function at the level of the volunteers. If you have lots 
of volunteer time and energy you roll along well, but the 20th time you do 
that slide show it stops being interesting and fun and becomes a chore. I 
don't know what the average volunteer lifespan is, but from previous activist 
gigs I have been involved in, getting 10 hours from people is about all you 
can expect. There are a very small handful of people in any  volunteer group 
that do more than that but they are one in a thousand type of people. 

So how would a national organization keep a local umbrella group going?

Rob Sandelin