Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Best Places to Advertise for New Members

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

An odd thing happened in the 20 year evolution of our community. When we
were first starting out in the late 1980's, nobody had ever heard of
cohousing and so a great deal of time was spent explaining what cohousing
is.  Almost all of the early members were local people, who could come to
meetings, get in on the ground stuff, hang out at dinners and parties.  Now,
most of our new members come from the internet and have moved here from
other states. We used to do a lot of local advertising in the old days with
fliers on Coop grocery bulletin boards and in the Coop newsletter, The local
progressive churches, and writing articles for local newspapers and
encouraging interviews.  Now we only advertise off our website and we are
linked to from the cohousing and FIC websites. I think for a forming group,
you need to scour the  local area for people who can show up to meetings and
be involved in the early development decisions and risk and out of towners
are not going to likely join in until things are well settled and almost
done.  So perhaps a two pronged approach?

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood Resident for 17 Years
Snohomish County, WA