Cohousing-L Mailing List: Membership Requirements

[Glen Orcutt (gorcutt]

Ginger W. Long asks:
>I have a specific question about membership recruiting and 
>selection.  What specific steps does your group have folks take in order 
>to "join" the group?   How do you make sure that people know 
>about and understand cohousing?  Do you have any kind of "selection" 
>process?  (I couldn't find much in the archives on this subject.)
> 

The process our group asks people to go through is:
1.  Attend a one-hour orientation (which we hold every few weeks or by request).
2.  Attend two general meetings and participate (except on concensus issues).
3.  Complete an application which asks about the person (and family) and why
they want to live in cohousing.
4.  There is a minimum two week waiting period were current members can
review the application.
5.  The potential member(s) request to be approved for membership at the
next meeting.
6.  The group discusses and consenses on their membership while person is
out of the room.  Then we celebrate.
7.  We then have a schedule of dues ($200) and assessments ($2500) which
need to be paid to be full members.

Glen Orcutt
Valley Oaks Village
Chico, CA