Community startup program

Launch Teams

Overview

As a founding resident in your community, you will be invited to “roll up your sleeves” and join a small team to help establish one of the core systems that keep every community running smoothly. These small working groups – or “Launch Teams” – are an efficient way to develop essential aspects of the home & culture without the load falling on any one person. There are six of them total.

Once you have selected or are placed on a team, please review the items in your section and then read the information below on establishing the Weekly Dinner & the overall Process and Timeline around launch teams. Onward!

The teams

1. Food & Finance Team

Our longest term communities say that sharing food is what makes “our house feel like a home.” This team is concerned with coordinating the launch of the shared food program as well as starting a house bank account. It includes planning which items are a part of the food program, where they will be sourced from, and how often the community wants to dine together. This role is usually split between several people. If you are someone who loves food, bringing people together to dine, and has a mind for complexity, this one’s for you.

2. Contribution Team

Every healthy community has a clear way in which every person contributes. When everyone feels like they have a role, the collective care for the community is magnified. This team is focused on creating an overview system for the chores, roles, and contributions to keep the property clean and thriving. This includes making sure key chores are defined and making sure key roles are filled to keep the house functioning smoothly. It also involves identifying any additional roles that would be beneficial (i.e. events planner, sustainability ward, etc.). If you are someone who wants to create belonging as well as organizational efficiency, consider joining this team.

3. New member onboarding team

Onboarding is a hugely important system to have in place for new members joining and can be done with a lot of creativity. This team helps create a clear onboarding experience for any new member joining the community. It involves designing a unique system and process to make introductions to existing members, get new members up-to-speed with the house functioning, and make sure that they have key logistics like door codes, wi-fi passwords, etc. You can think of this role as a kind of concierge to make people feel welcome. It may involve text, email, phone communication as well as in-person meetings over tea, rituals, or whatever you think up! If you love being a welcoming presence and have an eye for process design, this one’s for you.

4. governance & Agreements Team

It is important for a community to have an eye on the governance process and agreements tracking. This team will oversee the process of house-meetings and a system to document agreements decided on by the house (i.e. quiet hours, use of common spaces, etc.). The team will consult housemates to find the best time and frequency for house meetings. If you love group decision-making and documentation, consider being part of this team.

5. vision & values Team

This team is responsible for stewarding an ongoing process to clarify the community vision, values, purpose, and clarifying cultural norms. This is done over facilitated dinners, workshops, gatherings, and surveys, where the vision & culture are discussed and feedback is garnered from the group. An output would be a Community Vision & Purpose statement as well as identifying 3-5 core Community Values. To be on this team you are someone that enjoys engaging the group in discussion and process to find what unites you as a whole.

6. Community outreach team

If you are excited about certain types of people living in your community, then developing a strong internal marketing and outreach channel for your home is essential. There are two leasing tracks in our homes: one led by OpenDoor where we filter and select people on our own, and one led by the community where the community filters and selects people on their own (and also receives a referral bonus when they sign!). If you have a mind for social media, marketing, and developing processes to find great people, this team is for you.

First task! the weekly dinner.

The Weekly Dinner is a core of every community home. In order to help establish this, each launch team will fulfill a function:

Vision & Values
- Generate seed questions or conversation topics to get to know one another’s dreams and visions
Governance
- Set up a facilitation schedule for holding timing, space, and process for the dinners, capture agreements in a place that can be accessed for future meetings
Food & Finance
- Come up with a menu
- Come up with a system to collect money for folks to help pay for the meals
New Member Onboarding
- Design a system for some kind of welcome ceremony to each person as they arrive into the community
Community Outreach
- To coordinate with OpenDoor around open houses and the house dinners
Contribution Team
- Will create a system for roles in terms of who is buying the food, who is cooking the food, and who is cleaning.

the process

Each team should have at least two people per team to help conduct the initial groundwork for these systems or processes. Once the system is active, you can choose to shift your attention to a different aspect of the community. You are, however, committing to the following as a part of your team:

Thinking about the unique needs of your community in this specific domain
Reviewing existing tools, templates, and best practices provided by OpenDoor. (Use the menu above to navigate to your team’s respective section.)
Talking with your housemates about their needs and views on the subject.
Creating a proposal for an initial system and proposing it to your community at an appropriate meeting.
Integrating feedback and/or questions about your proposal and design from your housemates.
Stewarding the launch of the system you are in charge of until it is stabilized.
You can expect something like 5-10 hrs/month of time spent on your Launch Team in meetings, research, focused work, and presentation with your home.

Timeline

Depending on the item, the process usually follows a timeline like this:

1 month of design consideration and reviewing existing tools & templates in the OD ecosystem and beyond.
1 month of community approval process, taking questions from housemates, tweaking the proposal, distilling a prototype version.
1 month of monitoring the system while it goes live.
~2 months of keeping an eye on things and making adjustments as necessary
At the 6 month marker, taking a look at how it is functioning and making suggestions or adaptations as needed.
Stepping away as the system stabilizes.