Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: community communications: how to do it

[Lynn Nadeau / Maraiah (welcome]

RoseWind Cohousing, Port Townsend WA, long-built.

A few years ago we had a very useful Sharing Circle on people's  
personal preferences around contact and communication. This included  
visting homes (range included don't drop in, call first, observe nap  
times, on through drop in any time, even if I'm not home- help  
yourself to what you want...). Telephone preferences, such as time of  
day. Email preferences. Some really didn't want to deal with anything  
emotional via email, others actually preferred it for sorting out  
upsets. It's probably time we did that again.

That said, we do have a standard set of tools.
Big bulletin board monthly calendar has schedule of common-house  
events, both community and sponsored events. Standard office calendar,  
notes written in.
Other bulletin boards (there are 4 in the main hall from the foyer/ 
mailbox area to dining room) include one with hard copies of emails to  
the whole community, such as minutes, committee reports, upcoming  
agendas. After a period of being posted, they move to a pocket folder  
on the same board, then get filed in looseleaf notebooks in the common  
house book area.

Email reaches all but a couple households who have purposely refused  
to use it. Some track it more diligently than others.

For current and archival minutes, financial reports, and committee  
notes, we use Google Docs. I'm not thrilled with it, but it does  
provide the option of searching in the material, which is useful.

In the common house, in addition to postal mailboxes, everyone has a  
cubby bin, some of which get used for dropping items off to  
individuals, such as receipts for reimbursement to the treasurer, or  
payments for common house events. Mainly the cubbies are for slippers.

Maraiah Lynn Nadeau
www.rosewind.org
2 houses for sale, @ $215K and $362K.
Sunny and green these days.