By Eirikah Delaunay

While the Board is still analyzing all the insights you shared in the recent membership survey, there were a number of messages that came through loud and clear:

• 27% of the 303 respondents were former members, and 27% have not attended an in-person event during the last year.

• The reasons shared for lack of attendance were overwhelmingly related to the inaccessibility of the Gallery Erato space, whether that inaccessibility was due to parking issues, concerns about the neighborhood, or challenges with the facility itself (stairs, air quality, etc.). Other top reasons were personal in nature–time crunches related to work, etc.

• Respondents could select as many preferred areas as desired for an additional space dedicated to CSPC activities. The top three selections were the East Side, North Seattle, and a continued presence at Gallery Erato, all with a 64% selection rate. Snohomish County was a distant 4th place with 37% of respondents. There were also numerous write-in comments, many of which suggested a South End location, which was not originally included in the survey due to other organizations already providing service in that area. We will dig into those comments in greater detail in the coming weeks.

• 62% of respondents said they would attend events in Bellevue more than occasionally, and 40% said they would volunteer either in person or behind the scenes if events at a Bellevue space were an option.

• Only 69 of 303 respondents had volunteered in the last year, although more than twice that number had volunteered sometime in the past. Again, the write-in responses to the question about volunteer roles was illuminating in terms of the breadth of service this community has generated during our 25 years.

• The top priorities of respondents based on our initial scan of the comments are accessibility in many different forms (good parking AND public transit access, more masked events, greater inclusion of BIPOC members, other disability access, etc.), stronger cultivation of and support for volunteers, and more events—parties with different themes, in-person munches and game nights, and education. Again, there is a lot of rich data that we are continuing to analyze toward taking action in alignment with member voices.

However, the Board has made progress on many fronts in the last month: in addition to extending our contract with our Operations Consultant, 7, we are now finalizing the job description for a paid role that will manage our daily operations to alleviate some of the burden on Board members and other volunteers; we have had an initial consultation with a non-profit attorney for advice on how we can better recognize our volunteers without creating tax liabilities for them or the CSPC; and we have rented a storage unit and moved CSPC inventory out of Larry Grella’s donated space and into paid storage. Huge thanks to Larry for eight years of donating space at his home to house CSPC property—a $16,000 value over that time period.

September 2024 is my last meeting as President of the CSPC Board, and October will be my last meeting as a Board member. While the last three years of service to the CSPC has been intense in terms of time and energy spent, I feel good about spending this time giving back to the community that has meant so much to me over the last 13 years. 

I have enormous faith in the incoming Board officers to continue leading this organization into its next 25 years, and I want to encourage the membership to get involved whenever and however you can. Ari will be sharing more later about an opportunity to serve a one-year term as a Community Board member, or on the Nominating Committee that will oversee the election process for those two Board positions, and we are working diligently to create a more accessible and actionable job board for the many volunteer roles that aren’t solely focused on running events. 

Thank you all for all you do to make the CSPC the community—and family—it is for so many of us. <3