Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Looking for advice about enhancing our Friends

[katie-henry (katie-henry]

> The question I am asking is about people who want to support us in some way, 
> be involved with us in some way, but are not on track to move in with us.

I don't recall that we ever had any "friends of the community" in the sense 
that they wanted to hang out and participate but didn't ever intend to buy and 
move in. We have always had prospective members who were eyeballing the 
community (still do), but they eventually either buy in or fade away. We also 
have lots of people who are friends of members and who attend a lot of 
functions -- at the invitation of a member. 

I am uncomfortable with the idea of a "friend of the community" who isn't 
primarily a friend of an existing member who is responsible for him or her. 
Especially after move-in. Can the friends use the facilities unescorted? Do 
they get entry codes? What happens if the friend's kid trashes the kid's room? 
Etc. It's less of an issue before move-in because presumably you're still 
selling units and thus your meetings and events are announced and open to the 
public.

Eris Weaver's post summed it up nicely for me. There are many other important 
issues for the community to be focusing on during development. Managing a 
friends network seems like a time-consuming chore with little return, unless 
there is some clear benefit, such as winning over the neighbors for a zoning 
change.

Katie
Eastern Village Cohousing
Silver Spring, MD