NEXT STEP: HOW TO JOIN WINSLOW COHOUSING GROUP

When you join the Winslow Cohousing Group as a member/owner, you are doing much more than just buying a house. Before joining WCG, purchasing shares and signing a lease for your home, you must get to know us and become familiar with how we operate. We ask that you complete the following steps.

1. Send us your request for the Joining Pack with your $100 per household non-refundable application fee. You will receive the following materials:
   • Joining Pack cover sheet with Checklist for Membership
   • Membership Application and Credit Profile
   • Clearness meeting information
   • Cooperative Identity
   • WCG Articles of Incorporation
   • WCG Bylaws
   • Sample copy of Proprietary Lease
   • Sample Agreement of Sale of Cooperative Unit
   • Guidelines and Regulations for Expansion and Remodeling of Homes
   • Disclosure Statement
   • Community Participation Manual
   • Subletting Guidelines, Policies and Values
   • Sample Rental Agreement
   • Who's Who (adopted 5/1/94): classification of participation in/affiliation with WCG
   • WCG Pet Guidelines (adopted 3/1/98)
2. Every every adult member of the household, within the year before the signing of a purchase and sale agreement, should complete the following steps (in any order):
   • Take a community tour. Tours are held by arrangement.
   • Review the $100 Joining Pack.
   • Submit a Membership Application and a Credit Profile.
   • Attend one General Meeting of the community. Meetings are held monthly, usually on the second Saturday or Sunday of the month, starting at 9:00 a.m. Meetings last from 2 to 5 hours depending on the agenda. You should plan to stay for the entire meeting to learn about our process. Child care is usually available, but we need to know your needs in advance.
   • Attend a cluster meeting of your choice. Every adult member is required to participate in the work of a cluster. Clusters meet at different times and in different places. To find out where and when just talk to the seller or leave a message on the WCG office phone for the Cluster Coordinator.
   • Attend a common dinner, or other community-wide social event. Dinners are held 5 times a week—Sunday through Thursday. Attending an open house, party or celebration would also meet this requirement.
3. Participate in a Clearness meeting.

   We ask persons weighing the decision to become residents to explore and clarify their understanding and expectations in joining this community in a Clearness meeting after reading the materials in the $100 Joining pack and taking the other steps outlined above. We also recommend that you read Cohousing, a Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves by McCamant and Durrett if you have not had a chance to do so yet.

   A Clearness meeting brings you and several members of the community together in the setting of a private home. This meeting is a chance for you to hear answers to any questions you may have and a chance for us to provide you with facts, ideas, impressions and accounts of our experience in order to make clear the nature of life in this community. We believe that people who are suitably informed will decide wisely for themselves whether or not to make their home here.

Copyright © 2003 Winslow Cohousing Group