Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Seeking Advice on Membership Outreach

[Kay Argyle (argyle]

> 2) What outreach methods have been most effective for other groups? We
are
> looking into print ads in newsletters and small weeklies. We have also
done
> local presentations (dog-and-pony shows). How effective have these
methods
> been for other groups? What other methods have you used?

The experience at Wasatch Commons in Salt Lake City was that --

Two separate realtors didn't produce a single lead.  Neither did the ad in
the Salt Lake Tribune (large local daily).

For a few members, the first contact was a flyer for a presentation.

The most successful ads were in an alternative weekly paper (The Catalyst,
covering politics, environmentalism, alternative medicine, feng shui etc.,
restaurant reviews; ads for coffee shops, independent bookstores, health
food stores).  Those generated a couple of calls a month, which we would
follow up with a mailing of the brochure describing our project and
literature on cohousing (copies of articles, etc.).

Nearly a third of our residents are staff or faculty at local colleges or
universities.  I don't know if this is typical of other cohousing groups,
but it indicates a possible target audience.

Probably the most effective recruiting tool was word of mouth.  A lot of
our members first heard about cohousing from someone they knew.

Some of our efforts were simply for name recognition and to introduce more
people to the concept of cohousing.  We underwrote programs on one of the
local public radio stations, and we got written up in local papers several
times.

Kay Argyle
Wasatch Commons