New Membership Rules for All DCAW Members

To All DCAW MEMBERS
Sunday July 6 , 2008

New Membership Rules For All DCAW Members


I just wanted to detail for all of members the recent changes going on in the group so that we can move forward from a common footing. First, I'd like to assure you that DCAW is now private, so any imformation that you share about your personal story is viewable only to members.


To make the group as cohesive as possible, it is important the we maintain a strong core of active members. Starting from July 6 '08 , 'Active' participation includes :

1) Filling out the new profile questions.

The profile questions are intended to help us know each other better and encourage participation between meetups. Also, so many of our members are thoughtful, creative women with compelling personal narratives to share. Reading and sharing these stories is enriching and can help us spark dialog and discover our commonalities and differences. We hope someday to collect these stories into a booklet (with permission, of course!) to serve as testament to the diversity and vibrancy of our group.

Though it is not required , all new members are asked to answer the new profile questions as best as they can or write a free-form story of how they came to atheism.

This same request is made of all our current members as it is only fair to new members. Please answer the questions or write your narrative by September 2008.

If you are unable or unwilling to complete the questions, please share your reasons with the organizer.


2) Bi-monthly attendance.

Attendance at least one monthly group meeting in a two month period is now required. From now on there will be three opportunities to attend a monthly 'All-group Discussion Meeting' on either a Tuesday at 7 pm , Thursday 7 pm , or Saturday at noon towards the end of each month.

RSVP is now either Yes or No.

If you are unable to attend any of these 'All-group Discussion Meetings' due to special circumstances within a two month cycle , you are required to provide the organizer with an explanation.

3) Website participation

Since reforming, the group has heard from only a small portion of its members. To make sure that the group's future is shaped by all of its members, it is important that we hear from everyone. When group discussions / polls are posted , as all opinions are valued no matter how small and therefore must be heard , you are required to participate:
by voting in all polls,
and by posting at least one opinion in new discussions.


I realize that in the past, membership has been fairly laissez faire, but this has left us with a dearth of active participants. We do not want to dump our old members but to encourage them to reconsider what the group means to them and to share these thoughts with the group so that we can make the right choices about our direction as a community.

If you are unwilling to adhere to the 3 above rules , then perhaps DCAW is not the right group for you at this time.

A special note to longtime members :

1)Until March 2008 , DCAW , organized by Melody Hensley was able to use the space at CFI-DC to sponsor special events such as movie nights and guest speakers. Unfortunately as of now Melody is no longer in a position to provide us with special access to to CFI-DC space. For the moment , until we can find other venues that are willing to work with DCAW to co-sponsor special events such as guest speakers and movie nights , our resources are limited. Hopefully together we can change this soon.

2)If anyone else who received a membership status update message was offended by the tone of the message , I apologize. I hope that the preceding rules and their explanations make my intentions clearer. Please contact me if you have any concerns or questions.

Thank You
Rainna ( DCAW organizer )
Erika ( DCAW assistant organizer )
--

Addendum :

If you are unable to fulfill the membership requirements but would just like to be notified of our up and coming events open to the public , please send a request to the organizer with your email address and you will be notified by email for future public events.

Also , all events open to the public in the future will be posted on our calendar for anyone to see , just check the site from time to time.


Thank You
DCAW Oganizers
--