Participating in community life at Sirius can mean as little as attending our neighborhood parties and coffeehouses, or joining our community bulk foods buying coop. It can also mean becoming a fully active member, living on the land and working side by side with other members in governance and day to day operations.
One may apply for our year-long Exploring Member Program to pursue this latter option, spending up to a year trying the status out. The program includes some classroom-type instruction along with participation in all other aspects of residency:
- At least 4 hours per week of community work
- Attending monthly Thursday night community meetings
- Participating in the consensus decision making process on various community agenda items
Many members have outside main jobs and work only part-time on the land. Saturday is Work Day, when most pitch in together on various projects and chores. The shared task might be preserving a store of food, or working in the garden. It could be felling trees, milling lumber, installing photo-voltaic banks, or chopping/storing firewood for the winter. Sometimes the community will travel offsite on Work Day, donating the collective labor to some other organization. We have, for instance, built a deck for the town around the recycling dumpsters.
Family Life
Sirius offers opportunity for a rich family life, whether referring to parents with young children or the extended family: an inter-generational village of all ages. Some members have home-schooled their children; others have their kids to private or public schools. There are designated playing areas for children, and cooperatives spring up both within the community and immediate neighborhood as needed to provide childcare for working parents. There is also a preschool for young children that is run by two Sirius members and a neighbor.
The Application Process
To apply for exploring membership, those interested must first fill out an application. This application can be sent to exploring.membership@siruscommunity.org. Following this, our housing coordinator will be in touch to set up an interview with a team of Sirius members onsite if we feel you are a good fit. Visiting Sirius during our community work days (Saturdays at (9am) are encouraged at any point during the process (and at least one visit is required). We don’t always have spots available, and they tend to be filled quickly, so we also can put folks on a waiting list if either they or we aren’t ready for the moving process. For more information or to apply for our exploring member program, email us at at exploring.membership@siriuscommunity.org.