A Message About Affinity Nights

Hello, friends!

In the coming months, First Olympia is shifting the model used to host Affinity Nights. The program has grown so much that it has outgrown it's current model of operation! For this reason, we're going to be training people on the systems of our building, recruiting volunteers, and doing programming which adds to the sustainability of the ministry.

Here are a few actionable things you can do THIS WEDNESDAY (and beyond) to help keep Affinity Nights growing:

• Show up 10-15 minutes early (around 5:45) to set out chairs, table cloths, and water pitchers. These are things that are time consuming when only one set of hands are working. We're putting out EIGHTY CHAIRS these days. Imagine how much faster that goes with the help of a village.

• Bring any dish, side, or drink you can imagine. We've heard anxiety about bring the "right" food to potlucks. While we appreciate the thoughtfulness of this, what matters to us is feeding all of the hungry mouths. We will do themed nights sometimes, but we are practicing specifically and intentionally appreciating the gifts people give us, which includes embracing the uncertainty that is inherent in a potluck. Bringing a dish to share (anything you can think of), you are both cutting down on staff time spent lining up food and generously given, and limited amounts of money spent making sure everyone is fed.

• Consider doing the dishes during activity hour. This is helps with the sustainability of the ministry, but also offers a calmer activity option. Dishes crew is usually 2-4 people working together and chatting quietly, which is great when you don't have the energy to be part of a large crew or aren't interested in other options.

Having food and doing dishes is a necessary part of Affinity Nights, but it is not sustainable for staff to prepare food & set up for then do the dishes of eighty people by ourselves. For perspective, some Wednesdays, when we had only fifty people, I could spend the entire activity hour doing dishes and come back Thursday morning to finish them. We are moving to using "real" dishes, so that we can gather in a more eco-friendly way.

As a staff, we are so proud of the community that is building on Wednesday night. We love this ministry and often reflect on how far it's come with awe. That said, we can't sustain it at this level by ourselves. We need you to join in our pride, take ownership of your community, and add to the sustained growth of this program.

To everyone who is already doing this work, we see you and are so grateful for you. As different types of volunteer opportunities arise in connection to Affinity Nights, take time to discern what is sustainable to you, what you feel passionate about, and how you feel best connected to the space. As we require more support to grow this ministry, we want the generous volunteers we already have to feel supported and cared for, too.

Joyfully yours,
Savannah, Facilities Admin & Program Support