Thanks for your interest in East Wind.
Below you will find information describing many facets of community life here at East Wind as well as an explanation of our visitor process. Please read it over carefully and then feel free to write or call with any questions or plans that you may have and we can begin a real dialogue together.

For more information about visiting us at East Wind, please write to: visit_us@eastwind.org
In order to make sure that your e-mail doesn't get lost in the frey, please put membership in the subject line of your message.

Day tours
Day tours can be arranged by contacting us by e-mail. We would appreciate at least 1 week notice. We don't accept visitors without invitation or on short notice as we are very short on people now and our businesses keep us very busy. We prefer to arrange for visits after corresponding with you. It gives us a chance to get to know you before we invite you into our home. It also gives us a chance to make sure that your visit will be pleasant and that we have room to accommodate you at the time you wish to visit.

Membership And The Three Week Visit
We ask that visitors who are interested in membership come for a three-week stay, arriving on the Saturday before a visitor period (listed below) or on the day before if being picked up in Mountain Home, AR on a town trip. It is easier to orient visitors when they are here as a group. It may be possible to arrange for a shorter visit than 3 weeks; however, you cannot be considered for membership if you stay for less than the full visitor period.

Families with Children
Families with Children The child branch manager gives approval for families to visit after being given a recommendation by the membership correspondent. Families interested in membership are scheduled for a 2 week visit first, and then asked back for a 3 week visitor period when space and time work out best for everyone.

Requesting a visit
To request a visit, please, if you haven't already, send us a letter about yourself, your talents, your work and living situations. Describe why communal living interests you and how you found out about East Wind. Include your questions and concerns about us, our philosophy, rules, facilities, etc. Indicate when you would like to visit and for how long. If you're considering membership, let us know. We'll write back with any questions we may have or to tell you that you may visit. When your travel plans are made, please let us know a "for sure" date and time of arrival, so someone can meet you and get you settled in. Please do not drop in unannounced. You would be asked to leave. If you change your mind about visiting or about the date, no problem. Just let us know so we can plan accordingly and make any further arrangements that we need to with you.

Fees
Our visitor fee is $2.00 a day up to a maximum of $20.00 and should be paid to the cashier soon after arrival. The money goes into our building fund; additional donations are always welcome, but not tax-deductible. The fee can be waived if it is a hardship for you. If you want to mail your fee to us in advance, you may, but it's non-refundable, so don't pay it until you're sure of your plans. It's OK to change the date of your arrival after you pay the fee. Please do not come without the means to leave.

Accommodations
You will be given a space in our multi-bed or bunk visitor rooms. None of the spaces are luxurious, but they are clean and comfortable. Camping out is OK; you'll be shown a good place to set up. We have plenty of linens and blankets. Visitors are welcome to use community clothes ("commie cloz"). The laundry room is open for personal use between 6PM and 6AM. Lunch is served at noon, supper at 6PM, Monday through Saturday. On Sundays and holidays, we have brunch in mid-morning and supper at 5PM. Our community is approximately half meat-eaters and half vegetarians, and we try to meet the needs of both groups (including vegans). The kitchen is always open, and all may use it. The only items off-limits are those with someone's name on them (which were purchased with individuals' spending money) and some marked by cooks to be reserved for community meals. We clean up after ourselves in the kitchen and elsewhere.

Facilities and Equipment
Community facilities are generally open 24 hours a day. However, there're some pieces of equipment that are supervised by a manager or a group of workers, and there may be some restrictions involved or an orientation required before using them. Generally, it's a good idea to ask if you have any doubt. Please treat what we have as though it belonged to a friend.

What to bring
You may want to bring a flashlight, rain gear, musical instruments, camping gear if you prefer to camp, a personal tape player, warm clothes in winter, boots or rugged shoes for hiking. The basics are provided, but if you have special needs in food or toiletries, bring those special items. Do NOT bring guns (or other weapons), pets, or folks who have not been invited to visit. Please do bring a good attitude, an open mind and a pair of helping hands!

Orientations
You will have a contact person who will meet you when you arrive, show you to your room, and give you a tour of the community. This person will be available to answer your questions, and may also be involved in giving you some of your orientations. There will be meetings that you participate in that will give you an introduction to our history, philosophy, rules, economics, government, and social structure. You will be directed to the managers in the areas that you may be interested in for work. Training is available by appointment in the hammock shop, and nut butter shifts are easy to plug into. You'll be shown how to do laundry and kitchen clean-up shifts in case the regulars ask for a substitute during your visit. Folks are generally quite friendly and helpful. Visitors are left on their own some; we tend to be self-reliant and self-starting. If you are used to a work situation that is heavily scheduled and controlled, you may need to adjust to our flexible work situation. There are lots of opportunities to socialize informally, but you can have solitude if you need it.

Concerns:
If you get four "concerns" (essentially 'no confidence' votes) in the first week of your visit, you will be expected to leave immediately. This is rare. If you get concerns equivalent to one-quarter of the current full member population during the balance of your visitor period or provisional membership period, you'll be asked to leave. This is also rare, but it is possible. The vast majority of people have an enjoyable visit and are readily accepted by the group. The visitor manager would pass on concerns to you if and when they are received.

Provisional Membership
The provisional membership period is one year. After six months, provisional members receive the same medical benefits as full members. An orientation toward the end of the visitor period will be given to explain the financial agreement as it applies to provisional members and what will be expected at full membership.

Please give membership the consideration a major decision warrants. Membership can be a deeply rewarding experience, as enriching as world travel, a university education, practicing a profession or advocating for political and social change. It is an opportunity to grow as individuals and pioneer an effort to make the world a better place to live.

VISITOR PERIODS
We are currently scheduling visitors to come for our three-week visitor periods during the summer and fall. Short-term visits for less than three weeks are also possible although they are given lower priority in our scheduling. In order to become a member of the community, people need to go through the three-week visitor period; it's really a good way to get a close up view of community life even if you are not interested in membership.

E-Mail Us at membership@eastwind.org for the 2007 visitation dates.

Generally they are always on the first Monday of the month. For a variety of reasons, it is helpful and important that you arrive the weekend before the start date and stay the full three weeks.

Our visitor period is a full three weeks because we feel that an extended visit is the best way to find out what life is like at East Wind. During your visit, you will participate in both our work and social lives, so that you will see how we make decisions. You will be given tours and orientations and you will probably begin to know all of the faces in our small village.

Please don't bring your pets with you when you come to visit! If you have a pet, you will be able to bring it after you become a member providing we have an open pet space.

CONTACT
We prefer e-mail for communication as people can be hard to contact by phone.