A blog from the WES Board of Trustees

“Engagement” 

It’s a word at once very simple and very hard to define. What, indeed, makes any of us an “engaged” member of the Washington Ethical Society? Is engagement measured by the number of platforms we attend each year, the number of committees and special teams we serve on, the extent to which we get involved in our social justice and political action work, or in our youth education programs, or our Anti-Racism, Anti-Oppression, Multicultural (ARAOMC) work, or even something as direct as participating in a Sunday platform or singing in the WES Chorus? Most of us at WES would say that these are some yardsticks of engagement. But that’s only part of the answer. 

Engagement at WES also means each member looking as often as possible at the totality of who we are and what we do as a community; of being willing, when needed, to do the “deep dive” into the mechanics of what we’re about; to fine-tune, course-correct and even reaffirm that WES’s activities are in keeping with our mission of shaping a world where everyone’s worth and dignity is respected. WES members get any number of opportunities to do that granular inspection each season, and one such event is about to take place on Sunday, November 1 at 12PM: the 2020 Fall Membership Meeting. 

This is the time when each of us have a chance to hear from our governance committees—the WES Board, the Community Relations Committee and the Lay Leadership Development Committee. At this meeting, we will also vote as a community on proposed amendments to the WES Constitution proposed by the LLDC to spell out more clearly the role of the LLDC in forming a Leader Search Committee. It is the time also to hear a report from our Interim Senior Leader Lyn Cox, and an update on pandemic precautions from WES Business Administrator Tom Hutton. It’s the last day of voting to elect two new members of the LLDC in a ranked-choice election by electronic ballot. And it’s the time for WES community members to ask questions and respond to all of these agenda items.

It’s going to be a full community meeting giving every member the chance to get involved on that nuts-and-bolts level. Will some agenda items be difficult to navigate? Perhaps. Is the membership meeting essential in providing a level of engagement to each member on matters that concern us all? Absolutely. 

But engagement at WES doesn’t stop there. We on the WES Board urge members to observe one or more of our monthly Board meetings and hear our discussions. We urge you to read and respond to the Board monthly blogs and those of the LLDC, the CRC, the Stewardship Committee, and other WES groups. Read the emails and notices that give the dates and specifics for events within the WES community. Above all, always let your voice be heard when you have something to say. 

The WES Community has a long tradition of working together for a more just and ethical community, country and world. Let’s continue to be no less diligent in paying attention to WES’s internal workings…and let’s each of us continue to stay engaged with one another in the best ways possible as we do. 

We look forward to your participation at the Fall Membership Meeting! 

The 2020-2021 Washington Ethical Society Board of Trustees, 

Josh Blinder, Abi Daken, Trang Duong, Kate Lang, Lauren Strange, Vincent Tyler and Rajesh Vidyasagar