Hello WES, 

Since the fall, WES Transition Team members: Brennan Barber, Julie Campbell, Andrea Naranjo, Lauren Strange, and Jenna  Umbriac have been working alongside KC to provide opportunities for connection in these initial months of KC’s leadership. So far, we’ve hosted 6 small gatherings with key WES groups and open houses to make space for WES members to get to know KC and for KC to be introduced to WES. 

We hope that if you’ve attended any of these “Crowd to Community” events you’ve learned something new about KC’s personality and leadership style. Maybe you heard about their dream community-building project of a no-cost laundromat or their favorite food to eat at a fair.  Through facilitating these conversations, we’ve been struck by KC’s fresh-eyed assessment of WES.  Listening to KC we began to consider whether we often underestimate our community or, at the very least, at times focus so much on what there is to fix that we forget all that we have to celebrate. 

This month the transition team is taking a break from the work of concentrating on WES’s transition. We’re going to put away our meeting agendas and pause our planning in order to turn our attention to being in this community that we love. April is going to be full of moments to participate and invest in what makes our congregation special.  From the “Invest in WES” day, to the Capoeria class held last Sunday. to SpringFest on April 30, we encourage all of you to join us in delighting in what is best about WES. 

In May, we’ll organize more transition-specific actions.  In the meantime, if there’s something that would help you feel more connected to KC and WES during this time, please share it with the team at transition@ethicalsociety.org. 

Best,

Brennan, Julie, Andrea, Lauren, and Jenna 

WES Transition Team 2023