Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: National Cohousing Open House Day

[Raines Cohen (rc3-coho-L]

Thanks for asking, Linda, and thanks for clarifying, Alice.

Indeed, we are trying to make National Cohousing Open House Day(s) this
year as open as possible... not just one day, virtual and in-person,
collaborative with other communities, regional and national.

This year's open house page was just created with info from previous years,
and we are updating it with more options and easy steps and examples of
outreach before widespread invitations go out at the end of this month.

So you don't need to ask members to take attention away from your workshop.
Go ahead and schedule something during the week or when it is convenient.
Make it virtual so you don't have to worry about COVID or safely managing
visitors onsite.
Pre-record a video (you may have one from a prior event already) and make
that available.

Better yet, join up with other groups in your area, as Bull City Commons
coordinated in Raleigh-Durham in a previous year, perhaps another forming
group can take the lead this time around.

Partner in promoting people building awareness of cohousing in your region,
and getting onto lists to hear about opportunities for both resales in
established communities like yours and joining the development process in
forming groups.

One of the things that stops people from forming cohousing is the
perception "this is so much work, I can't do it all myself!"
The secret that makes it possible is the realization that "this is a
community - I DON'T have to do it all myself."

The same applies to cohousing outreach in towns/areas like yours, where you
are lucky to have a dozen communities.
Marketing and educating people about cohousing is hard -- but much easier
together.

Even when there are multiple forming groups, you can cooperate instead of
competing.
People like choices, and are more likely to get into some cohousing if they
are choosing between instead of just figuring out if they can find one that
meets their every need.

We'll be offering some specific pre-event workshops and training with
examples from other regions doing exactly that.
As Coho/US is changing leadership, we're figuring out how to independently
support this kind of community organizing.
In the long term, we're going to need that capacity as a movement.

Raines Cohen, Coho/US Volunteer and Cohousing Coach
Regional Organizer, Cohousing California (part of the Cohousing Open
network)
at Berkeley (CA) Cohousing