Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: integrating new members/community building

[Peg Blum (pegb]

When Cambridge Cohousing was forming and gathering new members, we found
that assigning new members to a buddy as soon as they came to meetings
really helped.  Two of my buddies are still good friends of mine.  Part of
the buddy job was to catch the new folks up on the history of the group,
answer questions and then they'd each help each other out by reporting the
happenings at any missed meetings.  This was particularly important for one
of my buddies who was living in New Haven (Conn.) and missed many meetings
especially when we were meeting during the week.

We also assigned one member to be a greeter at each general meeting for new
folks coming to their first meeting to help introduce them to members and
make them feel comfortable.

Peg Blum
Cambridge Cohousing
Cambridge, MA

pegb [at] cambridgecohousing.org
www.cambridgecohousing.org



----- Original Message -----
From: "Rosa Leah" <rcarson [at] wso.williams.edu>
To: <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 19, 2002 8:24 PM
Subject: [C-L]_integrating new members/community building


> and we've recently had a significant influx of new folks join us.  We've
> struggled with integrating these new folks, and we've had varying levels
> of success.  We have social events, but frequently, new folks feel like
> they're not sure who they'd talk to there!  Any ideas as to ways to help
> new folks feel more comfy, and ways to help our (largely
> shy/introverted) "established" folks be more welcoming?  Activities, etc.
>


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