Invite Friends or Neighbors

Teams Leaders can use these resources to find their team members.

How do you get started?

Now that you have completed our free half-day trainings to become Team Leaders, you are ready to gather your neighbors or friends and kickstart community climate action by making a fun, welcoming environment for people to get curious, explore ideas, and take action together.

Having a co-leader can make your experience easier and more enjoyable. Here is a fun video about the importance of welcoming your early adopters as co-leads as demonstrated by crazy dancers!

Two types of teams:

Cool Block Team - Their is real magic in starting a block-based team. Getting to know your neighbors can add real value to your life: from the joy of having friends next door to the security of knowing you can count on each other in emergencies to the convenience of sharing tools and food easily. It can also lead to collaborative projects like tree plantings, community gardens, traffic calming, garage sales, and block parties.
Cool Friends Team - Not everyone has the perfect set up for the Cool Block program. Some people live in apartment buildings with high turnover rates. Some people have small children making it hard to hang out with anyone other than your play group friends. Some people are just way too shy to overcome the hurdle of knocking on neighbor's doors. We don't want any of these real-life factors to prevent participation, so we are testing out friend-based teams. If you have a play group, book club, work team, or random group of friends you'd like to bring together so you can enjoy each other's company while you take care of the planet, this could be a great place to start!

To build strong connections and cover important topics, the team will spend time together over several months. The team can decide how often they want to meet. Most groups meet once or twice a month.

Think of this like a social club for building a planet-friendly community. It is meant to be enjoyed. We can have fun and be productive at the same time!

Find Your Team:

What is your block?

An ideal block is corner to corner, both sides of your street, a cul-de-sac, or an apartment building.
Look for a logical set of about 20 contiguous households.
In the end, you’d like to have 4-8 households participating.

Who are your friends?

Think of a friend group - through school, club, church, work, family, etc. - that you’d like to work with.
Or mix and match friends to create a new group!
In the end, you’d like to have 4-8 households participating.

How do you set the date and time for your gathering?

Pro-tip for walking your block if you have some flexibility to move the date/time of your gathering and you are concerned about getting enough participation: Try saying "We're hoping to have our first community building gathering on this date at this time. Would you be able to make it then? If not, what would work for you?"
Pro-tip for setting next meeting time when all together: Start by asking "Same time in three weeks?" (or whatever cadence you prefer) and then wait for feedback. It's easier to start with a date suggestion than to start with an open ended question.

Quick Tips:

Cool Petaluma has pre-printed material and a free copier in the lobby of our office at 245 Kentucky St. Several of you have already taken advantage of this! We are in Suite A3 if you want to stop by to say hello or ask questions. 👋
Your first gathering is the "Build Community" event. Your second gathering is "Prepare for Emergencies." We don't suggest trying to combine them because it is too much to cover in one gathering. (Natasha tested this and it was overwhelming!)
The Gathering Guides (the red sheets starting on page 23) should have everything you need to know to get prepared and run the meetings. (If you find something confusing or missing, please tell us!)

Block Invitation Script:

Hi! I’m your neighbor ______________ and I live ______________

I wanted to invite your to a neighborhood gathering I’m hosting.

It will be a great opportunity for us to:

get to know people on our block better
help each other prepare for emergencies
and learn how the community-led program called Cool Petaluma might work for us.

The event is at ______________ on ______________ (day of week, date, time)

Other neighbors have said they are coming, including ______________.

Can you or someone from your household join us?

(If yes or maybe)

Fantastic! Can I please get your email and phone number so I can send you details?

(If no)

No problem! Would you like to share your contact info so I can let you know what the block is doing and add you to the emergency contact list we create?

(Write down info on Invitation Tracker and hand out flier.)

Friend Invitation Script:

Hi ______________!

I was just trained by Cool Petaluma to start a new team and I thought of you! It’ll be our social club for building a planet friendly community. :)

I’m going to host an event to get our team kickstarted. We can enjoy each other’s company and make a difference in our community!

The first event is at ______________ on ______________ (day of week, date, time)

Our friend ______________ has already said they want to join us.

Can you come, too?

If you don’t already know Cool Petaluma, check it out here: coolpetaluma.org