Cohousing-L Mailing List: Visitor's to cohousing

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

On Thu, 5 Dec 2002, Guy Dundas 
(who tracked down Graham Meltzer - see prev message) 
wrote:

> 
> PS: I think I mentioned earlier, I am hoping to visit some cohousing in 
> Denmark and the US on my travels in 2003. I was wondering what visitors 
> policy US cohousing communities tend to have and whether they would be 
> receptive to my emailing "out of the blue" as a potential visitor. Any 
> thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks!
Guy's  Cohousing S AU Website:  www.picknowl.com.au/homepages/dundas 

My (Fred's) response:

This is a question that comes up from time to time; we should have a FAQ
on it.  I decided to answer it here and maybe others want to comment.  If
anyone wants to edit responses into a FAQ (and maintain it), they would be
doing a service to the cohousing...

In my experience cohousing folks (in the US and Denmark) are happy to
entertain vistors with a tour BUT it certainly helps to be sensitive to
the fact that some communities have been overwhelmed visitors. 

Communities in more traveled locations and more well known communities
tend to be more sensitive.

Knowledgeable visitors are more welcome. (Ie - do you homework before
considering visiting - dont just visit becasue it's convenient.

Do make contact ahead of time , introduce yourself and your cohousing
interest.

In Denmark cohousing communities often seem to keep a lower profile -
there is no online database of Danish communities that I know of.
(Maybe as a strategy to reduce visitor overload?)
This complicates contacting them ahead of time.  When we visited
Denmark in 1999 we sometimes did not have a way of contacting people in
advance and did just show up.  We were always welcomed.  Of course we'd
come across the ocean to visit and were all involved in cohousing which
probably eased things along.


Fred

--
Fred H. Olson  Minneapolis,MN 55411   (near north Mpls)
fholson [at] cohousing.org 612-588-9532 (7am-10pm Cent time) 
List manager of Cohousing-L & Nbhd-tc  Ham radio:WB0YQM          
More info:   http://www.mtn.org/~fholson/sig-detail.htm




_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l