SociaBulls: On New Members & Applications

Our  Chicago SociaBulls group is always a work-in-progress, and it's funny to think how much it has evolved over the past two years(!).
I remember during the earlier days it was easy enough to just have people email us that they were interested in the walks, and they would basically just show up. We didn't know the benefits of pre-creating a pack order back in the day.
Though it was this unexpected surprise that really changed everything.

Suddenly, we had more new member requests than we could handle.
And we had to create a waiting-list.
We also realized that it was more beneficial for new members to attend walks without their dogs first so that they could learn about the group first before concentrating on walking their dog.

One thing that also helped us was creating a new member application process.
We don't discriminate and everyone has a chance to join as long as they follow the rules. The applications help us understand more about the members and their dogs, and it helps us align them with a similar 'new member buddy' during their inaugural walk.

We've loved how we have so many diverse and interesting members joining our group, even with such a long wait.

These photos were from an early summer walk I had forgotten to post!

Also:
Tips on starting your own group!
Why we don't publicize our group
How we have been managing.