Vince L Rodriguez — President’s Statement

As I begin my term as President of Dignity Washington, I have thought a lot about what I hope to accomplish in the next year. After all, a year (11 months really) is not a very long time. Nevertheless, there are a few activities where I would like to focus my energy and attention.

First and foremost, I want to ensure that we continue to celebrate our weekly Mass and provide for the spiritual needs of our membership. I have no doubt that Mike O’Donnell and the Liturgy Committee will continue the wonderful work they have done for decades.

In my candidate statement, I noted my desire to work with the Board and members on attracting and retaining new members. I have been a member of the community long enough to remember the years when our membership was in the multiple hundreds, and we celebrated two Masses to accommodate that demand. While fluctuating membership totals is natural in any church or group as members move, pass away, or start worshipping in more inclusive traditional churches closer to their homes, I remain concerned about the viability of our chapter in the long run without an influx of new members. I strongly believe that there will always be a need for Dignity Washington.

Therefore, I would like to gather a small group of seasoned and new members to discuss/brainstorm ideas and tactics we could easily implement to see if we can increase awareness of Dignity and our membership roster. Do we need to reinstate a membership committee? Do we reinstate the family and friends Mass, when members were encouraged to invite loved ones to introduce them to our Mass and organization? How can we increase the visibility of and get to know our current members better? I found the in-depth interviews with Rory Hytrek and Mark Clark in the weekly Bulletin very informative. I see them at Mass frequently but knew very little about them as individuals. Should we make that a quarterly feature of the Bulletin to get to know each other better? A member spotlight column, if you will. I don’t have the answers … I’m just posing some questions for consideration and welcome your thoughts, ideas, and recommendations.

Additional priorities during this coming year will be the opening of the Dignity Center and working with the Board and other chapters to plan and finalize activities for World Pride 2025. How do we communicate the opening of the Dignity Center to the membership? To the community? Do we plan an open house for members and guests to visit? Is there something that we should do during World Pride in addition to celebrating Mass and inviting participants for join us in the celebration? How do we let participants know of our existence and extend the invitation of come and worship with us while in town? I believe that our social media channels can be effective tools we can use to inform them and extend an invitation to come and celebrate Mass with us. Our social media channels can also be conduits for increasing awareness, educate, inform, and celebrate. How can we include more photos of younger members so those viewing our Facebook or Instagram accounts see themselves represented?

I look forward to working with the Board and you during the next 11 months to do what we can to increase our chapter’s membership and participation and, hopefully, ensure a financially viable and thriving chapter for generations to come.