Dear WES Members,

As members of the Community Relations Committee (CRC), we are reaching out to invite you to shape an important new document that we believe can strengthen our interactions with each other. The CRC is charged with supporting all WES members in developing healthy communications, especially during times of conflict. You may see us at the feedback table after platforms, and in the past, we’ve also presented workshops about how to practice ethical behavior.

At the request of the WES board and Amanda, we are currently developing a new document that builds off of our Statement of Purpose. It does not yet have a name (please suggest your best ideas!), but some folks have referred to it as a covenant, or a Statement of Expectations of Interactions, among other names. In these times of dislocation, disruption, isolation, and conflict, we are hoping that together we can put into practice the best of our values as we all navigate external and internal challenges in our community.

The CRC is using the Statement of Purpose (SOP), broken into parts, to provide structure to our approach. At the June 2018 membership meeting, CRC members led an exercise in which the SOP sections were read and listed on large pieces of butcher paper hung around the meeting hall, and on tables, along with examples of language captured from CRC members to give WES members a sense of what we are looking for. Attendees at the meeting then discussed and shared their ideas. The list of ideas that we collected can be viewed on the CRC page listed below. We want to continue to collect your ideas, and we are reviewing every single suggestion as we edit the options into a new draft document that will be presented this fall. Our hope is to continue to refine the document with your inputs, and present it for a vote at a membership meeting.

The CRC welcomes each part of our community, including our youth, to send ideas from now through August to us via:

Thanks for your time,

Bob Pokorny, Jo London, & Randy Myers