Ugne told me yesterday we are thinking about new recruitment strategies.
These are my personal ideas to enhance our recruitment process for new members who have the resources to buy an apartment in our project. I am happy to offer my support to make these ideas happen.
Creating a New Landing Page and Brochure
We need a clear and attractive website, along with a brochure, that includes:
The available apartments and their specifications
A brief description of the project and our core values
This landing page will include an automated registration process to book a call with one of us for more info. Weekly Meeting availiability to be discussed.
Engaging Influencers in Sustainable Living and Real Estate
We could reach out to influencers in the sustainable living and ethical real estate space to help spread the word about our project to their communities.
Partnering with Multiplier Organizations
We could connect with organizations such as Full Circle, Ecoteal, Commons Hub, Courjette, The Barn and ask them to feature our project in their newsletters and communication channels.
Organizing an Inspiring Talk
We could design an inspiring talk about cohousing and the future of sust urban living and offer it for free to these partner organizations. This event would serve as a great opportunity to announce that we still have available apartments.
Increasing Online Visibility
Optimize our landing page for search engines (SEO)
Ask other actors in the sustainable real estate space to link to our site
These actions could help us better target and attract new committed members. I am ready to contribute to their implementation and to collaborate with the recruitment team on the next steps.
We have a Team R&O meeting on the 20th, a few days after the deadline for current Exploring Members to apply for associate membership. At this point we will have a better idea about how successful weāve been attracting possible households for the final apartments in the project following the last presentation. We may indeed need to āup our gameā moving forward, and whether that involves more presentations, some of the suggestions you make above, a radically different approach that we havenāt thought of yet or a combination of all three will be the subject of discussion.
Weāll be talking to various people over the next couple of weeks to clarify our options, with a potential proposal on the way. Thanks again for getting the ball rollingā¦
@manuelpueyo maybe you can volunteer to join team R&O? I am sure they could use the extra help.
Disagree, Chris. As much as Manuelās approach might feel refreshing, we just approved a proposal on R&O 32 days ago. I advocated for a radically different process then (based on interviews), but the decision went another way. The approved proposal says:
Reforming this now would cost at least three weeks of preparing the proposal and getting it on the agenda, plus precious plenary time. Additionally, when we approved this proposal we mentioned its constraint: that people need to have completed the process by June 2025, when we submit the permit application (and pay a big bill from the architects).
So, if you really must reform recruitment again, by all means do so. But, in the name of the Gods, I beg you: please keep a safety belt in place. This means scheduling another presentation in three-four weeks and announce it this Monday, after which the current recruitment process will be too long to produce results within Q2 2025.
@alberto - Youāre reading way too much into my comments mate. The proposal you mention was consented to with amendments, one of which (see agenda minutes) is that we will evaluate in February to see if we have enough candidates. It seems likely that when the deadline arrives for associate membership on the 17th that we will not. But no-one is suggesting that we rip the proposal up and start again. The next presentation is already in the process of being booked (for 27 Februaty). My comments were about adding more elements to the process, in response to Manuelās suggestions to do exactly that. And the irony is that I included the part about a radically different approach to acknowledge your voice in the previous discussion. I would still like to hear about what you had in mind, in case we can enhance the process we have going on, or if we decide to change it in the future. In the notes of the plenary you will also see that we agreed to prepare a plan B sooner rather than later, in case we need it, and if anyone had the energy to do so. I do have the energy to do so. Iāll send you a message to meet up for a coffee at some point soon (if you want to), to have a ānon-bindingā chat about it allā¦
Personally I wouldnāt make drastic changes to our recruitment process at this stage. For example, I think we are better off only buddying the people who register for the survey, than offering interviews to any random stranger who barely knows about the essentials of our project. The essentials, to me, are relatively clear: I think our website offers the information it needs to offer, with easy links to the Blueprint and the slide deck.
Where I agree there is improvement potential is getting the word out. The strategies that you list would be great, and I think I would add trying to get an article in the written press (maybe Bruzz?) and even more importantly: a full on attack on Jette. Weāve been saying for a while that the families with children would only join once they knew whether the site was close to the school of the children, so I think there is potential in leaving flyers near schools, in the library, with hairdressers (who talk to everybody), in Gasaps and all the organisations that you have mapped last year. Ideally everybody in Jette should get to know that there is the possibility to join a cohousing.
Thanks @manuelpueyo ! That sounds great, and thatās very appeasing to know that people are putting attention to this crucial issue.
I agree with @Lee about flyers, and I have been thinking that it could be efficient as well as pleasant to organise a day were we roam the street of Brussels in squads to distribute them. Some sort of trip down memory lane, to that idyllic scouting periodā¦
It makes it fun and itās also a nice opportunity to get to know the exploring membersā¦
I wonāt be there to be taking the lead on this unfortunately (unless we decide to do it in March), but Iām happy to help a bit if somebody also thinks thatās a good idea and is ready to set it upā¦ @reef-recruitment ? @reef-communitylife ?
its a great general introduction but right now i am concerned with the fact that there is not a place on the web that shows the offer of appartments (which are mostly 3 bedroom appartments).
the problem i see is that we may be targetting too broad when our real target now is people who buy 3-bedroom appartments whoever these people may be. maybe we need to go flyering in schools in jette
