Membership meeting:  how come just the thought makes us groan like we just got more homework assigned for spring break? Or run away like “ohhh nooooo, Mr. Bill, no more home movies…”? Or think blah-blah-boring, I can miss that, everyone else is going?

WELL!  What’s going on here, that Membership Meetings have such a bad rep, don’t got no respect? WES has 2, count ‘em, two platforms now, in celebration of our growing wealth of new members. We have all bemoaned–in various tones and words and times–that we don’t manage to meet everyone, that we miss seeing our special friends (who now go to the “other” platform), and that we don’t all get to get together.

But…wait for it…we DO have all-WES events that draw us nigh to be together:  the auction, the Winter (and Spring) festivals, the Follies, the Memorial Day camping trip, the large pledge dinner. So-o-o-o-o-o, how come we don’t consider Membership Meetings as fun, gotta-go-to-WES, wanna-get-together events too? Consider:

We are together in one place. → check

We drink and eat together. → check  

We play games. → check

We laugh at skits.  → check

We [sometimes] wear costumes or hats. → check

We sing [at most of them]. → check

Sound familiar?

So let me introduce the MEMBERSHIP MEETING. Ta-dah:  it has fun, eat-drink- laugh together, games-silly skits stuff too.

And yes, we also do our WES-citizen bit and commit some attention to important WES business. Like hearing how our budget is doing, how our social justice work is visible, how our growth is happening. Like checking in on HOW WES IS. And we do other crucial biz–electing new board Trustees, discussing and voting on new policies, and even occasionally amending the WES Constitution all come to mind.

Membership meetings ARE the Washington Ethical Society.  Next Sunday June 10, after platform, is the Spring Membership Meeting. How about we make this a good time? Gonna eat our favorite food—PIZZA, yay!—and hang out together. Ain’t nothing I like better. And yeah, like jury duty and voting for US president, let’s do a little WES-citizen work TOGETHER.

See you there.

Kristin Hunter, Board of Trustees’ Member