Cohousing-L Mailing List: internal communications vehicle

[Rita Bullinger (ritabullinger]

Even though my email address is included, please reply/comment to the 
cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org

Hi, at Germantown Commons Nashville (GCN) we use a web-based project tool 
developed in 2004 and updated in 2012 called "basecamp.” We pay for it but it’s 
really reasonably priced. It holds all of our archives and everything else.
We have various projects/committees such as Landscape, HOA, Membership, 
Marketing & Merrymaking, etc.
We also have a common calendar with lots of ways to list separate items that 
are color-coded, such as the Common Meals schedule, Common House needs, Finance 
& Legal meetings, etc.
Our talk-about-anything is called Community Forum and Community Meetings lists 
all our meetings and minutes.
It’s easy to upload photos or minutes from your chosen committee and it’s 
graphically pleasing to look at!

Google Basecamp LLC to find out more.

We also have a mailroom where we post our common meal signups and weekly common 
house cleaning tasks-to-be-filled sheets. Our Landscape Committee created a box 
for input on our common land use still undeveloped.

But, what I notice, and Charles Durrett talks about this in his book(let) 
Happily Ever Aftering in CoHousing, is that we email and use our basecamp forum 
rather than actually talking to each other. It’s so much easier to vent and 
call people names, however non-violently tweaked, online than it is to walk 
across a courtyard and talk to the person who’s hurting or angry or whose neck 
you’d like to wring because his/her sexist/homophobic/elitist comment makes you 
want to puke.

I’d love to hear from people about internal communication where folks do not 
rely upon online message boards (or at least not to the social detriment of 
their community) but actually practice talking to each other and sharing 
information in real time in a concerted, intentional manner.

Thanks! — Rita