Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: [C-L] community newsletter?

[Berrins (Berrins]

We have a mostly regular newletter, usually every one to two months.  It 
started out as a subcommittee of the community living committee but is now done 
primarily by my wife, Tracy.  She has a tiny staff of semi-regular 
contributors, 
some reliable and others not so, and she also asks for contributions from the 
community.  

Regular items are very brief committee reports (usually one to two 
sentences), birthdays for the month, an appreciation column, an "I saw you..." 
column, 
and occasional profiles of community members (its fun when one of the kids do 
the interview). Kids send in drawings or folks submit photographs, poems, or 
whatever moves them.  Committees or individuals can also make announcements.  I 
think she does a great job, especially considering that she gets practically 
no help putting it together and has no journalistic experience.

I don't think its a replacement for announcements or appreciations at general 
meetings.  Not everyone reads it or, if they do, remembers specific items.  
The information needs to be restated at meetings.  Since not everyone has email 
and some of those who do don't read it regularly, the only acceptable 
official modes of announcement are flyers put in the cubbies and reminders 
taped to 
doors- these may also refer to information posted on the committee bulletin 
boards.  But if you really want your message heard, you put it out in as many 
forms as possible.

The newletter runs anywhere from two to four pages, which we either print out 
on our computer or copy at my office or Tracy's.  With no more than 50-60 
sheets of paper used per issue, cost is minimal and we usually don't even ask 
for 
reimbursement.  But it certainly could be a regular line item on a committe's 
budget.  It's so inexpensive it would be kind of silly to get a sponser.

Its possible someone will take over if and when Tracy eventually gets tired 
of doing it, but there is no guarantee, which would be too bad.  These are the 
pages we will refer to in 30 years for facts and memories. 

By all means get started on your newsletter.  Its a terrific contribution to 
your community.  

Roger Berman
Pathways Cohousing
Northampton, MA

Where we have had more rain than the northwest U.S. this spring- the state of 
drought we had from last year is long gone!
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