Great Oak Membership Committee Mandate

Membership 2005-04-06

Summary:

A description of what the membership committee does for Great Oak.

Proposal:

The Membership Committee is a non-empowered Standing Committee. We have
a community budget and hourly jobs in the community work system. We
only make budgetary decisions within our approved budget. Because we
are not empowered, we do not determine policy on our own.

Our mission is to welcome new members and explain how things work in
Great Oak. We interface between the community and the outside world,
particularly in the form of Outreach and Education in order to attract
quality members. We provide member services such as community meeting
childcare, website development, and new member orientation.

The goals that we are responsible for include:

Outreach:
* Coordinate major marketing events and new member get togethers
* Advertise
* Design and distribute tri-folds
* Prepare press releases
* Interact with the media
* Keep copies of tv coverage and articles published
* Coordinate outreach events and advertising with other groups
* Serve as contact people for potential members
* Create and maintain the community website and respond to web
inquiries
* Maintain membership in The Cohousing Network (TCN) and the Fellowship
for Intentional Community (FIC). Link to the TCN web site and submit
articles/updates for FIC�s Communities magazine
* Maintain a prospective member information packet
* Maintain a waiting list or prospective member list

Membership:
* Maintain a New Member Packet
* Assign buddies to new members (maintain list of interested Go members
and create a buddy program)
* Send out a newsletter to former/current/potential interested parties
regarding the state of affairs at Great Oak
* Participate in neighborhood/greater community meetings
* Explain to potential members how the community works, how to join
committees, etc
* Create a membership agreement which must be signed by prospective
members before
they join
* Inform the community about new members
* Maintain a database of members
* Monitor and coordinate community meeting childcare
* Help to facilitate social events and such FUN stuff

The Caring Committee is one of the branches of the Membership Committee.
Caring deals with facilitating assistance and support for people in
difficult situations. It is an ad-hoc association of people able to
help rather than a committee that meets on a regular basis. It only
meets when there is a need for help that has been identified.

We are not responsible for: Insuring that members don�t leave or making
sure that members are happy while they are here. Resolving conflicts
between members. Selling units for members.

Committee members are expected to attend twice monthly meetings which
are approximately 2 hours per meeting, do outside assignments, and to
participate over email. The Membership committee will email the agenda
to GO-talk at least 24 hours before the meeting time and will post
meeting minutes promptly after each meeting.

Objectives:
The following are projects and proposals we are currently
working on and their timelines:
New Member Packet � wrapping up
Buyers/Sellers to do list � wrapping up
Updating the website � Continuous
Teen Members � As time allows
Subscribe to Communities Magazine/ Maintain membership with TCN and FIC
- Continuous
Update member database � Done
Names and Faces distribute � Done
Marketing � Continuous
New tri-fold � wrapping up
Membership Agreement � April 2005
Put Great Oak documents online � in conjunction with process'
agreements DB
Community Meeting Childcare � Continuous
Coordinating prospective member events with LiLaCs brunches and dinners
� Continuous
Cohousing Info Sales Contingency � Very Soon, dependant on F&L finding
a legal liason