WWFOR Membership and Chapter Support Committee

by Glen Anderson

The Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation (WWFOR) believes in the power of grassroots organizing to promote peace, social justice and nonviolence.  When grassroots people come together in local groups (whether in local FOR chapters or other grassroots groups), we can accomplish a lot.

For the past 40 years WWFOR has had (off and on) a committee dedicated to reaching out to recruit new people into FOR, to strengthen existing chapters, and to start new chapters.

Now that WWFOR cannot afford to continue employing paid staff, it is much more important than ever that we build up our grassroots people-power.

WWFOR’s Area Committee recently approved the recommendation from our Transition Committee (which is helping us transition to an all-volunteer organization) that we revive WWFOR’s Membership and Chapter Support Committee.  I’m chairing this revived committee.

Our Membership and Chapter Support Committee can help WWFOR:

·  Reach out into our local communities throughout Western Washington

·  Recruit new people to join FOR, our local chapters, and WWFOR

·  Involve current and new members in the activities of our local chapters and WWFOR

·  Strengthen the existing chapters in Western Washington

·  Start new chapters throughout Western Washington

This is an ambitious vision, but we can rise to the challenge.   I believe in the old saying that “many hands make light work.”  If enough of us volunteer to work with WWFOR’s revived Membership andChapter Support Committee, we can accomplish this.

Will you serve actively on this revived committee?  I’m looking for:

• At least one (preferably two or more) members from each existing chapter
• Several persons from communities without FOR chapters
• Several additional persons who have insights or skills related to grassroots organizing, communications, and related aspects that will help us succeed

Please respond directly to me [Glen Anderson:  360- 491-9093 or  glen@olywa.net ] with your:

• Name
• Mailing address
• Area code and phone number
• E-mail address
• Skills you can offer, strategies and ideas for how we might proceed, etc.

I agree with the late Howard Zinn’s optimism about the power of grassroots organizing, even in hard times:

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.”

“And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”  – Howard Zinn