Membership Drive Results -- in Poetry form by Paige
I begin with a goal-- 400 new members-- that seems reasonable enough.
After all I watched "Field of Dreams" with Kevin Costner in 1989.
"If You Build it They Will Come."
I'll put this out to our audience and they will come...
They don't.
1989 was well before the internet glut.
Kevin Costner didn't have to contend with
instagram posts getting buried in
reels of babies' dancing on hoverboards.
Social media platforms would have destroyed his baseball field appeal
so that the signals couldn't get through
even to the ghosts of dead baseball players.
Week 1 of the Membership Drive:
Two new members: My sister and my brother.
Thanks fam. I appreciate the support,
I won't give up,
not this time,
I know I have to fight for this.
Week 3:
I am learning perseverance,
I am learning showing up over and over and over and over
and in slightly different ways every time.
Learning...How hard it is to
Be heard through the noise,
how frustrating when you feel it,
And you KNOW that it’s good,
That people need what you have to give,
and you can’t get through enough to make
a Connection,
Mr Farts has 25,933 monthly listeners on Spotify.
Jeff and Paige have 119.
As one long time fan put it during the drive:
"You are so what families and kids need,
in a sea of what families and kids do not need."
Keep Going.
Week Five
The messages from fans and friends,
and gaining the courage to talk about what's real
with well.. everyone, is helping.
Some new members join.
I try to give a speech at an event and end up crying on stage.
The part of me that wants to be a "good businesswoman" feels stupid.
But the part of me that knows
"good business woman" is a cultural value that isn't serving me,
feels relieved, a dam bursts.
I won't hold back anymore.
Week Six
We're nowhere near our goal,
but we're not nowhere.
Luckily I love this work,
or it would be too hard
And I'm learning that I love it,
in part through the perseverance
and the storytelling
of this campaign,
which is making me
name what we do and why it's important.
Week Seven: The Last Week of the Membership Drive becomes...
The devastating fires in Colorado.
Like all massive moments of grief,
the fires make everything else seem small and insignificant.
Why bother? I wonder
What do I have to offer?
In the scope of such devastation.
And then I remember.
This. Is. Why. We. Do. This. Work.
To bring people together,
to create a new way forward for families.
Showing up for our community,
in love, in authenticity, with joy
for kids young and old.
To fight for the goodness
and sacredness of childhood
while working to create
climate change resilience.
The Last Week (Actually)
The numbers...150/400 person goal
helps us pay bills,
gives breathing room,
is making a difference.
Members thank you.
YOU make a difference.
Where we go from here: building a resilient community in the face of climate change.
As the dust settles on 2021 and the snow settles on the ruins that a climate change sparked fire started a few miles away from where I write, I want to pause and report back to you, my beautiful "Jeff and Paige" audience, about what is going on for us. The pandemic, blah! It has schooled us. It has taken everything that we held stable and dear, from gathering casually with friends, to being able to support our family through live performances, and turned it on its head. This is not a unique journey / new story but it gives context to the rest of what I have to say.
Jeff and I have always known that we wanted to teach children about the natural world, create connections to nature, and inspire science minded environmental citizens for years to come. The pandemic, however, forced our hand to get more serious about this mission. Out of the pandemic the Jeff and Paige Membership was born. It is a low cost membership that gives grown ups tools to connect with their kids through science and nature activities. All of it joyful, fun, educational and guided by Jeff and Paige.
But we don't do the work for you, we invite you to engage with it and your little ones, to create connection around something meaningful and fun. The membership also supports the reach and scope of our work (from free concerts to YouTube videos, to the creation of music, which is the foundation of our educational work).
In short, our members are helping us keep our doors open right now.
The guided activities (one every week!) that our members complete are the building blocks for what comes next in the journey of being an environmentally literate citizen. And what comes next? It's learning about climate change, learning about the "state of the world," learning how to be a good friend/community member. That's right, our babies are going to have to learn fast, we know this now. We know that the climate change discussion is not just a discussion and anymore, But, and every parent knows this, it's not all about the kids!!
In fact, it's about us grown ups, what we need to know, and do, and be to show up differently for our whole community, our kids, our planet.
And how do we talk with our kids about climate change? How do we talk with them about houses burned because of a drought in a snowy month, and how do we talk with them without creating hopelessness, despair and inaction? How do we talk with them without creating blame (external and internal), guilt, confusion and suffering?
These are some of the things we're beginning to explore through our shows, our Jeff and Paige membership, and soon our parent offerings and workshops.
The J&P Membership is becoming a platform for building a resilient community in the face of climate change. And through this community, we will all face it together. As we've all learned in these last three years everything that is deeply challenging has a point at which community is needed. And I believe the time is now to begin to create that community for ourselves.
If you are moved to join the Jeff and Paige Membership because you want to connect with little ones in your life through science and nature, and begin building the environmental citizens of the next generation OR if you no longer have a child to work with directly, but want to support this work, click on the big old button below.
