Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: New group in Hartford forming/lot of interest

[Tonka444 (Tonka444]

Hello to everyone and to Dorothy in Ontario who is having her own "kick off" 
event.

Thanks to all of the advice from this list.  Our first slide show 
presentation in West Hartford, CT was definitely a success.  We had a good 
crowd of 40-50 inquiring minds, which is promising as the large article in 
our Hartford paper is not coming out for several weeks.  This turnout was 
from fliers and a notice in the "coming events" section of our paper.  

Many audience members asked questions I would never think of...like what 
about gun policies or Christmas trees in the common house.  Luckily for our 
group, we had hired professionals to handle these questions.  

Our presenters were Peter Jesep, the builder/developer and a resident of 
Pioneer Valley Cohousing in Amherst, and Peggy MacLeod, a member and future 
resident of Pathways Cohousing in Northampton, Mass., where the foundations 
are now poured.

My favorite quote of the night came from Peter when he was asked whether or 
not this was some sort of yuppie commune.  He said, "listen, we are not 
running around naked and smoking dope EVERY night."  Luckily everyone laughed.

My advice to you, Dorothy, is make sure your event is located in the coming 
events section of your paper.  Most of the people that came to our show had 
seen that.  Secondly, use this list.  You get the advice you need from 
experts and frankly, it's free.  Even if you just get one message from Rob 
Sandelin you are ahead of the game.

To the other lurkers out there thinking of starting a group, it does take a 
little work to start it up with an event like this, but I have received 15 
phone calls and several emails inquiring about directions to the next meeting.

My little group of 5 is growing.

Good luck,

Shelly DeMeo
Greater Hartford Cohousing