Insights > Welcome 4 of 6: Welcome: Moving In

Welcome 4 of 6: Welcome: Moving In

By Published On: December 16th, 2024

Above: Wild Sage is thrilled to welcome new members to community meals. Photo courtesy of Karin Hoskin.

Welcome to the Community: A Series from Caddis Collaborative

By Karin Hoskin
Karin Hoskin is business manager for Caddis Collaborative, former executive director of the Cohousing Association of the United States, and a founding member of Wild Sage Cohousing Community.

Now that the new members have moved in, it’s time to welcome them!

The buddy – or another community member – might bring a ready-made meal or snack basket for move-in day. And it’s important to invite new members to a community meal as soon as possible so that they can begin to meet their neighbors. Be sure to ask about dietary restrictions or preferences and let them know about your meals program and other community events.

Parents will appreciate it if you consider age appropriateness when welcoming new members. Encourage the current community kids to invite the new kids to play!

It’s also important to invite new members to attend community meetings. If your community meets in person, community members might consider wearing name tags to help new members get acclimated. If you’re meeting on Zoom, make sure that everyone on the Zoom call has their name clearly displayed.

We have also developed a one-page, front-to-back “Wild Sage at a Glance” document. We print it on glossy cardstock, and new members can hang it on their fridge. The “Guide to Wild Sage” is too much information for some people, and not everyone will take the time to log onto the Wiki. So information we consider to be especially important is included on the Wild Sage at a Glance document. If new members hear the key information several times and in several ways, perhaps it will be easier for them to remember.

The Wild Sage at a Glance document includes information about: email lists; contact numbers (such as whom to reach out to if there’s an Internet outage); our community’s “culture of participation” (such as meetings, team email addresses, and work days); formal and informal opportunities for socializing (such as meals, retreats, and happy hours); and logistics (such as parking, door codes, and bus passes).

We also provide new members with a map of the community (showing who lives in which unit) and a contact list (including name, phone, email address, and street address for each member). Part of our contact list is the “Wild Ones” list; it gives information about kids and pets.

All of these are tools to help incoming members learn how the community works and get to know their new neighbors!

Click on the links below to learn more!

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