In this guide
A new member should not have to work out how the co-op operates by listening for unwritten rules. A useful welcome pack makes the first few weeks understandable: what membership means, how decisions happen, what is expected and where to ask for help. It also gives existing members a chance to notice instructions that no longer match reality.
This is a suggested outline to adapt. Your approved rules, agreements and policies remain the authority. A housing co-op, worker business and consumer society will need different practical detail.
Start with the first week
Put the most immediately useful information on the first page. Explain who will welcome the person, how to contact them, the next meeting or induction session, and any action the new member needs to take. Distinguish a prospective member, an employee, a volunteer and an admitted member where your co-op uses those different roles.
Do not turn the first page into a catalogue of software accounts. Explain the work first, then the tools used to do it. For example: “Meeting papers are in the members' folder; your named account will be invited before the next meeting.”
A pack outline
- Our purpose: what the organisation exists to do and whose needs it serves.
- Membership: eligibility, application or probation process, rights and responsibilities, and where the approved rules can be read.
- Decisions: which decisions members make, what the board or delegated roles can decide, and how to propose an item.
- Participation: meeting arrangements, preparation, work or volunteering expectations where applicable, and adjustments people can request.
- Everyday information: contacts, shared documents, working routines and practical instructions specific to your activities.
- Money: how applicable fees, expenses or purchases are handled, with links to the current approved policy.
- Help and concerns: where to ask questions, report a mistake or raise a concern privately.
- Leaving or changing roles: whom to tell and how work, records and access are handed over.
Explain with an example
An illustrative worker co-op might write: “You can suggest a change to how we schedule jobs by adding a proposal to the operations agenda. The elected board reviews spending beyond the authority delegated to the operations group. Check the current delegation record for the limit.” That tells a new member where to act without pretending everyone votes on every purchase.
Include a small glossary of terms your group uses. Explain initials and role names when they first appear. A link to the co-op glossary can cover common terms, but local language still needs local explanation.
Make it easy to maintain
Give the pack an owner, a review date and a single published location. Link to current policies rather than copying them into several documents. Keep restricted personnel, tenancy or financial information outside the general pack, with access decided according to the person's role.
Offer a readable print version and ask whether another format would help. After the first month, ask the member what they could not find, which instruction was confusing and who helped them. Use that feedback to improve the next welcome.
Finish the induction
A pack supports a conversation; it does not complete induction on its own. Pair it with a walk-through, opportunities to observe decisions, and a named person who can answer questions without making the new member feel they should already know.
Use the member onboarding and offboarding guide for the access side, and the digital handover tool when the person maintaining the pack changes.