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Keeping Prospective Members |
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Written by Jessie Handforth Kome
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Saturday, 18 November 2006 |
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When Eno Commons was forming (before we had any buildings), we started
having pancake breakfasts on most Saturdays and later, on community
dinners on
Tuesday nights and after meetings. Locations varied from the homes of
members
to restaurants to meeting spaces. Our outreach group, Eno Commons Central
(aka Robert and Neal), tried very hard to get every prospective member
to at
least one meal during their visits to us.
The meetings helped us to bond with and retain the members we had, and
they
showed our neighborhood spirit and sense of community to prospective
members
in a fun way.
On ... following up with people who leave the group
for other than financial reasons after joining, I tend to believe the only
reason that is true is that they came to feel that the group was coming
together
in a way that didn't match with what they wanted or needed or expected.
They
may tell you other things, and some of those things may be "fixable",
but the
real reason is a fundamental social mismatch of some sort. After two
rounds
of this cohousing start-up thing, I have come to believe in honoring most
folks judgment. Just my two cents.
Jessie Handforth Kome
Eastern Village Cohousing (and previously of Eno Commons)
Silver Spring, Maryland
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