Philadelphia Chesterton Society

Important Meeting to Reorganize

2/20/2024

The Society will have an important Zoom meeting on Monday, March 4th to discuss our future activities and organization. We hope all concerned or interested parties will join us. Details can be found below.

Brief Background

The Philadelphia Chesterton Society began (as the Southeast PA Chesterton Society) way back in 2014; this year therefore represents our 10th anniversary.

I must acknowledge the gracious hosting and partnership of John Haas and Ivy Hall where we have been welcomed as guests for our regular meetings and other events.

In the early days, I had a core team of locals and friends helping with some of the organization, but over the years, for various causes, responsibility for conducting and organizing meetings and other events has come to be mostly my responsibility alone. The obvious drawback to this is that if ever I am ill, traveling, or somehow otherwise encumbered, meetings simply have to be cancelled. This leads to where we are today.

How to Join the Meeting on
Monday, March 4, 2024 at 7 PM

You have several options for joining the meeting on Monday, March 4.

Firstly, you can bookmark this page and return to it the evening of the meeting to join. A link will be posted here.

Alternatively, click here to add the meeting calendar invitation with all join details to your calendar.

Finally, if you RSVP in the form below (and we ask that you would), we will email you information on how to join 30 - 15 minutes before the meeting begins as a reminder.

ADD THE MEETING TO YOUR CALENDAR

On the agenda for this meeting will be a blank slate consideration of how we are organized and how we can move forward. For example:

While we have typically met on Sunday evenings once monthly, perhaps another weeknight might be more advantageous? Or Saturday afternoons?
Would hosting at members’ homes be better than Ivy Hall? Or a restaurant or other venue?
Do we want to switch to hybrid meetings or online only meetings?

Apart from the above, and perhaps importantly, I want to try and recruit some help so that, in the event of my own absence for any reasons, events can continue as planned and scheduled.

A Lot of Opportunities, If We Can Organize

This year is a particularly advantageous time to reorganiza and revitalize our local activities, for several reasons…

First of all, the wonderful Joseph Pearce will be coming to Philadelphia to give a talk in May; he is always worth seeing as an eminent Chestertonian (among other things), and I’d like to help Ivy Hall promote this talk as widely as possible.
Secondly, the annual Chesterton conference will be taking place right in our back yard - at the Alloy King of Prussia, July 25-27! I want to ensure a robust local presence, but some community volunteers would also be a great boon to the event.
Thirdly, with two Chesterton Schools Network member schools in our area, there are lots of opportunities to find synergy and collaborative chances between varied interest groups.
Finally, we may have the opportunity to bring in other outside speakers and host other events - beyond what we already do (our monthly meetings, the Four Men Feast, and so forth) - provided we have a willing core team.

More information on all of the above will be forthcoming soon!