Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: National Cooperative Bank -- Community Contacts -- Connections

[Ann Zabaldo (zabaldo]

I so agree w/ Sharon on this.

On an even smaller scale (or larger scale depending on your view) when Coho 
communities are in formation they do a good job of keeping their website and/or 
other social media up to date.  That tails off after move in.  If there’s phone 
number that leads to a recording it’s not monitored.  If there is a contact 
form to fill out … goes unanswered.  It’s frustrating trying to reach even one 
person in some communities.

Very recently I emailed a friend at a cohousing community asking for the best 
contact for them. I’m often asked for contacts at coho communities by people 
wanting to visit or stay.  My friend forwarded the email to three other people 
in his community, cc’ing me, asking them to address my request.  So far … more 
than a week has lapsed … not a peep.  Maybe expecting a reply in one week is 
not feasible in our workaholic society.

Back in the early-ish  ‘90s I remember Zev Paiss addressing this issue of coho 
communities being out there in the world during development but once the 
community moves in, they close the front gate.  Not too much on this front has 
changed since then.The missing piece, I believe, is the lack of a larger, 
articulated vision beyond one’s own community, that draws people out and into a 
larger stream of connectedness.    But I could be out to lunch on this whole 
topic.

As Rosabeth Moss Kanter is often quoted: “The most radical thing we can do is 
connect people to one another. That starts conversations toward a vision for 
change.”

Cohousing does that connecting thing hands down.  Now, how do we get that 
message out in the world?

Best —

Ann Zabaldo
Takoma Village Cohousing
Washington, DC
Ex. Dir. & Mbr. Board of Directors
Mid Atlantic Cohousing
Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
Falls Church, VA
202.546.4654
zabaldo [at] earthlink.net

Just once, I want a username and password prompt to say "close enough”,  I 
agree.

NOTE:  I’m switching back to using zabaldo [at] earthlink.net.  Many apologies!








> On Sep 2, 2021, at 1:15 PM, Sharon Villines via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
>> On Aug 30, 2021, at 4:11 PM, Kathryn McCamant <kmccamant [at] 
>> cohousing-solutions.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Yes and Yes.... I've spent a fair amount of time developing a relationship 
>> with NCB. They did the Village Hearth construction loan. 
>> 
>> Unfortunately, a few years back when they wanted more data on cohousing and 
>> specifically wanted more data from communities on the East Coast that I had 
>> not been involved in, they could not get information out of communities and 
>> they gave up on that effort.
> 
> One problem is that the people are are contacted in each community sometimes 
> have no idea how important this information is to the larger cohousing 
> community or the future of cohousing. People don’t understand why anyone 
> should be asking about their mortgages, or they don’t understand their 
> mortgage details themselves. 
> 
> We have to get creative in finding people in each community who will ferret 
> out information.
> 
> Sharon
> ----
> Sharon Villines
> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> http://www.takomavillage.org
> 
> 
> 
> 
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