Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Welcoming new members

[Catya Belfer (catya]

We have two different ones, one for associates, and one for members/buyers
- both happen in our general meetings.

Both start with the reading of a couple paragraph agreement document that
the new folks then sign.

For the associates, the circle of people at the meeting stands up, and they
get handshakes or hugs and welcomes going around the circle.

For the members/buyers, we have a tealight candle lit for each existing
household, and they light a new one off one of the previous ones, and then
they get applauded.

     - cat

PS - I'm doing a session on building ceremonies in your communities at the
conference this year :)

Catya Belfer   -  www.catya.org
Technical Director   -   www.cohousing.org
Cohousing in MA!  -  www.mosaic-commons.org


On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 10:08 AM, Spencer Beard <spencer [at] s2cycle.com> 
wrote:

>
> Hello,
>
> Our developing cohousing group is at a stage wherein a core group of 5
> families has been working together for 1.5 years and we are ready to bring
> in new neighbors. I was wondering what kind (if any) of welcoming
> ceremonies
> other cohousing groups may use to mark a prospective member's decision to
> actually join the community? At that point in the process, our new people
> will have had a "buddy" family assigned and have attended a number of
> meetings, both social and business.
>
> But how do any of you mark the change in status from "interested" to
> "committed"?
>
> spencer
> Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing
> Seattle
>
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