Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Question about member orientation sessions?

[Jeanne Goodman, JP Cohousing (goodmanj]

Dear Ayala,

First of all, we learned relatively early on that an information session is 
for prospective members and orientations are for new members. The 
distinction was an important one for us.

We put together a very professional looking information kit with all of the 
most important information to have as a potential member in one, tastefully 
decorated folder.

The most important documents in the packet, from my perspective were the 
overall site plans, unit prices, an application, and the path to membership 
decryption. A Frequently asked questions page might be helpful as well. You 
don't want to give too much information or it will be overwhelming.

The next thing that we did is a slide show that starts with a general theme 
of "What is cohousing" and move on to images of your group in action. We 
were lucky because Diane has visited so many different cohousing communities 
and taken so many slides. We scripted this to try to keep things consistent 
and so that several different members of the community can run the 
presentation.

The last advice I can offer is that we scheduled the information sessions to 
come just before the community pot-luck dinner which was held just before 
the general meeting. So it made a very nice segue to meet the community and 
if the motivation is high to stay to see how business is done.

I hope that helps.

Jeanne Goodman
Jamaica Plain Cohousing -- on the precipice of moving in
Boston, MA

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ayala Sherbow" <asherbow [at] lineofsight.biz>
To: "'Cohousing-L'" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2005 10:17 PM
Subject: [C-L]_ Question about member orientation sessions?


> I am starting to coordinate a new series prospective member
> orientations/open houses and would love any and all feedback about what 
> you
> have done at your community.  The vision is that we would have these one
> weekend afternnon a month so that people interested in joining can learn
> more about us.
>
> What tips, advice, ideas can you share?
>
> Ayala
> Catcotin Creek Village [formerly Proximity Cohousing]
> Loudoun County, VA
>
>
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