The future of PSA?
Results from keeping PSA on life-support
The Pagan Student Association at the Ohio State University has met seven times this (AU08) quarter with one more meeting planned on December 2nd. While there was one meeting with many people, the average attendance has been very low (6 or less people, the 11/25 meeting had 3 people which can be blamed on Thanksgiving but the previous meeting had four in attendance). There were so few meetings this quarter due to Veteran’s Day falling on a Tuesday (meaning that the University was closed) and due to the Election on November 4th (an off-campus event was held to watch the results, an invitation went out to the entire PSA listserv)
Unfortunately it appears that not enough qualified students want to step into a leadership role with the group. This coupled with noticeably decreased enthusiasm and attendance from non-qualified (alumni and non-University associated) members has led me to conclude that at this point there is no desire for a Pagan Student Association to exist on the Ohio State University’s Columbus campus. I also made this determination at the end of last school year but the group decided to make a good-faith effort to have at least five meetings at the beginning of this academic year and due to attendance at the first couple of meetings it was decided to stretch the scheduled to the end of Autumn Quarter. However, attendance has dramatically dropped with no new members attending the last few meetings which has caused me to reiterate my previous conclusion.
So, where do I propose we go from here? The first emphasis should be kept on keeping a web presence. While we will lose our (already out-of-date) University-hosted webpage, the LiveJournal ( http://community.livejournal.com/osu_psa/ ) and Yahoo (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pagansosu/ ) groups can be kept active so interested parties can find them. Instead of being PSA-centric, these online groups can broader based perhaps by focusing on the Pagan scene in Columbus/Central Ohio rather than just the campus area. Furthermore, Mike has hosted several PSA-related items on his website ( http://www.chronarchy.com ) and if he chooses to continue to host these items, they can help interested parties in forming future campus pagan groups and possibly contacting past members.
Secondly, there have been several suggestions that we try re-launching the group once the new student union is completed in 2010. Some people feel that without the cornerstone of the union and a nearly permanent meeting place, the group’s membership has suffered as it is simply too difficult to find out where we are meeting and parking can be and issue as well as the fact that our random meeting rooms and buildings are not convenient for those students who are curious about Neo-Paganism. While I don’t disagree with those points I do not think that it is in the hands of past members of PSA who are not currently students to try to take a lead role in forming a student group. Instead, we should be available as resources for advice and to potentially lead meeting topics if asked, but we should not be the driving force behind a future group.
Finally, I jokingly suggested the formation of PAA, Pagan Alumni Association, several quarters ago as the next logical evolution for the current members of PSA who still wished to get together and discuss Neo-Paganism and keep the group alive in one form or another. This idea has gained some traction as a non-University affiliated social group that would meet once or month or so at a member’s house instead of on campus. While there is no need for a constitution or even officially naming the group at this point, the idea might be worth a shot. (Name-wise however, it probably should not have Alumni in the title as it makes the group sound more exclusive rather than inclusive.) While many current members get together outside of PSA, it might help to occasionally meet to discuss a predetermined Pagan-related topic as well as catching up with what is going on in people’s lives. With this in mind I will gladly volunteer to host the first of such events at my house in January if there is enough interest.
While I cannot speak for anyone besides myself, I have noticed an increasingly frustrated tone among the current members who have struggled to keep the group afloat. Some of the strongest voices who argue for the continuance of PSA cannot or have not put forth any effort to help the group’s existence. There are many understandable reasons for this, busy course and/or work loads, family or health issues, being physically too far away from Columbus, etc. I am certainly not going to take the low-road and simply comment something to the effect of, “if you want the group to continue, then you do something”, but I will ask that those people understand that we have tried to keep the group going and at this point it seems to be a futile effort. We tried, we posted flyers, we pulled together presentation plans and we pulled strings to get a meeting room and still the attendance wasn’t there. Could we of done things differently? Could we of promoted the group better? Of course we could have, but the simply truth is that we ourselves have had some of the same issues listed above and we could not solely focus all our energy on PSA. The state that PSA has been in over the last couple of years required someone with real energy and drive who is dedicated to the group, such as the energy that JoAnn put into the formation of the group. For better or worse no one with that commitment stepped forward and this is the result.
Again, this isn’t meant to be negative to anyone at all, it is simply the way things are. PSA has had a great run, ten-plus years, which is very long for a Pagan student group. I doubt most Pagan groups even survive one “campus generation” (four years, once the original members have graduated and incoming members have to lead the group), we easily survived two. PSA can serve as a great example for future groups and I hope that past and current members can write some of their thoughts about the group, its rise and its slow decline, to be compiled (I volunteer to be the point-person on this) so that the lessons can hopefully be useful to future groups.
If you don’t agree with anything I’ve written above, let’s get a conversation going on the Live-Journal group ( http://community.livejournal.com/osu_psa/ ). Also, the last meeting, scheduled for December 2nd, should be focused on this topic as well as a general End-of-Quarter, perhaps End-of-PSA celebration.
Thanks,
Brian