Joining the Board

After the election, which feels so long ago, I advised friends to mourn but not despair, and instead take action to help those you think will be endangered. I didn't have any practical advice on how to do that though.

Yesterday I joined the Board of the Theosophical Order of Service. It's a wonderful organization started by Annie Besant, with the motto, "A union of those who love in the service of all that suffers." My practical advice isn't to join a Board, but go join something. Join a group that's doing some good in your community. The Theosophical Order of Service (TOS) is one such organization that has local groups all over the country, but there are more than we realize.

Here are some resources presented at the Board meeting yesterday:

Serve.gov is a website run by the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency charged with promoting and fostering volunteering and national service in America. It offers toolkits for starting volunteering projects and helps one find volunteering opportunities. You can type in your zip code and an area of interest and it'll tell you what's already going on in your area. If you start your own project, register it there so other volunteers can find you.

VolunteerMatch.org is a similar website that also offers training webinars.

NextDoor.com is a social media site just for neighborhoods. In their words, "Nextdoor is the best way to stay in the know about what’s going on in your neighborhood—whether it’s finding a last-minute babysitter, learning about an upcoming block party, or hearing about a rash of car break-ins. There are so many ways our neighbors can help us. We just need an easier way to connect with them."

As we discussed the TOS' direction over the next year, these are some of the resources we intend to use, both at the national level and in local TOS groups. We're not yet ready to publicize the results of our discussion — it just happened yesterday! — but I'm really excited about what's in store.

The Theosophical Society has Three Objects, essentially a three-part mission statement. The TOS was enacted in order to create service projects based around the First Object: To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of humanity without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color. It's old language, but it's about recognizing the Oneness in which we all share, about striking down the walls that separate us.

I first got involved with the TOS in 2015 when I helped them redesign their website. Here's what I intend to offer during my term on the Board:

• Engage social media on the national level and encourage local TOS groups to actively participate. If reading this article is the first time you've ever heard of the TOS, the Theosophical Society, or theosophy, we need to fix that. Did you know that the title Mahatma was bestowed on Gandhi by the TOS founder, Annie Besant? That the Theosophical Society got Gandhi interested in Hinduism and helped to shape the Indian Independence movement? Theosophy has plenty to offer today. We can use social media to find the people interested in our kind of work and promote theosophy in the national consciousness.
• Create a "Get Involved" section of our website in order to connect people directly to local action groups. Publish a searchable list of all TOS groups throughout the country and also let people know how to start a TOS group in their area.
• Encourage TOS groups to use publicly accessible social accounts to allow more people to get involved. Encourage the use of these accounts, our website, or other technology (such as online conference technology) to hold meetings for people who aren’t able to physically attend.
• Make clear in our communications what constitutes a theosophical project. We explain the First Object on our website, and I explained it here in this article, but we need to make our mission and vision more concrete.

As an animal rights supporter I intend to initiate more animal-related service projects, whether on the Board or at the local level. We're already a very animal-friendly organization which is part of why I love the TOS and was so excited to be elected to the Board.

I carved out a ton of work for myself! I intend to do my best for the TOS while also writing more on this website and creating more art.