Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Getting New Members to Make a Commitment

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Judy at Pacific Gardens Cohousing Nanaimo, BC Canada wrote:

> Everyone seems to want to wait until we're actually building to sign on
> so  we find ourselves in a Catch-22 situation. We can't get financing
> until we have more owners and we can't seem to get more owners until
> we're building.

A part of this dynamic seems to be people want to be assured that the
project will succeed before they are willing to commit.  That's
understandable.  In addition to having incentives, might it be possible to
offer people a contingent commitment.  Suppose you have 10 commited
members and need 17 to get financing which is your biggest remaining
hurdle. Could you persuade people to commit if 6 )or 7 or 8) other
households commit? That way they are only committed if enough other people
are committed to be assured of financing.

Fred

-- 
Fred H. Olson  Minneapolis,MN 55411  USA        (near north Mpls)
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