Sentence:  The work of getting <WSD>sign-ons</WSD>, for example, was also beneficial because it literally facilitated talking among strangers, and after one <WSD>sign-on</WSD> was done, a person who had been approached as a stranger the first time could now be spoken to as a colleague to see whether she or he might be interested in being part of a group working on a project or action. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  (more generally) An instance of signing on to something.