P.E.O. Record
Together We Can...
Humor frequently brings a serious issue to the forefront where people can laugh and then take a look at an issue from a different perspective. Not only is laughter shared but concerns common to all become easier to discuss. Such was the “light bulb” joke which circulated during a conference of presidents and organizers a few years ago. Remember those pithy, funny jokes?
One president asked another: “How many P.E.O.s does it take to change a light bulb?” The other answered: “What, P.E.O. change?” Everyone laughed but the truth was there.
P.E.O. is a living, dynamic organism which has evolved and continues to evolve. We are not the same organization we were in the 1860s nor are our daily lives the same as our Founders. The reality is that the society we live in is so very different—faster and busier.
For the last several decades, women have returned to the work force in record numbers. Many reasons have been cited for this shift from home to marketplace but P.E.O. has not kept up with this trend. We have ignored the signs and expected busy women to do jobs in the same way they have always done for fear that we’d lose something from our sisterhood. Technology has changed how we communicate and yet we continue to use outmoded processes to accomplish our jobs for fear we’d lose something from our sisterhood.
We haven’t had a sharp downturn in our actual membership numbers; it isn’t a crisis, we’ve just hit a plateau and with it we have become complacent. Unfortunately we have paid little attention to changing our work, ridding ourselves of inefficiencies and restructuring our meeting patterns to be more in touch with our members’ needs, where they live, work and how and when they can participate in activities
To address these concerns, the executive board appointed committees at the beginning of the biennium to look at all issues of growing our membership and streamlining our work so that we are competitive for the free hours each woman has so that she would consider P.E.O. a valuable use of her time. This has been a task of vital importance to our organization. You can read a brief update of the committees’ work on pages 24-25.
It is time for all of us to meet head-on the necessity that P.E.O. needs to modernize, to streamline, and to provide quality programming. We are at a crossroads. We have kept true to the principles and the sustaining virtues of our sisterhood and this will not change but what we decide will determine the future of P.E.O.; if we will be relevant and attractive to women of all ages. Proposed amendments will be printed in the March-April issue of the Record. Read the amendments, study them and discuss the possibilities. It’s up to us. What will we decide?
“To you, choice women that you are, I plead with you to limit the worship of old traditions…and forge ahead to newer, better things…”
Founder, Franc Rhodes Elliott, 1922
How many does it take to change P.E.O.?
The answer—all of us!
Together We Can Do It!
Barbara Andes, President
International Chapter