You Add to P.E.O. is a fun initiative within the P.E.O. Sisterhood where chapters are challenged to add two or more active members by February 28, 2025. Chapters that meet this initiative are eligible for special recognition, including being featured on the P.E.O. website.
Chapter JK, Maple Valley, Washington, was selected for February! As of February 1, the chapter had added 4 new members since the beginning of the initiative. Read below to learn more about the chapter.
What does your chapter do for fun?
Chapter JK has an annual picnic that includes BILs, family members, past members and potential members as well as the chapter sisters. It is held at one of the HOA parks on a lake, so the kids can swim and play on the big toys, while everyone barbecues, eats and visits.
We have socials to make products to sell at fundraising bazaars, like woolly dryer balls and bowl cozies. Participation in manning the booths at the bazaars has become a fun social event for everyone while visiting with sisters and connecting with customers, who could be potential sisters or project recipients.
We gather for a light supper prior to our monthly meetings and have expanded that time slightly, as we enjoy visiting while we eat. During our meetings, a group of our BILs go out to dinner and have developed their own email list for communication. New BILs have been included as their wives join the chapter.
What has been your most successful fundraiser?
Sisters in JK are strong believers in OPM (Other Peoples’ Money), and as such, have two main fundraising paths, selling plants and participating in bazaars selling chapter-made products.
A local nursery supports us with geraniums in the spring and poinsettias at the holiday season, and we have many repeat customers who order every year, which makes for an easy sale.
We have a marketplace table at our reciprocity brunch and participated in three other bazaars last year with great success. As sisters travel and/or shop they look out for fun new items that we could make and sell at our tables. New this year were kitchen boas and pocketed shawls that added to our long-time items like woolly dryer balls (made from locally sourced wool) and magnetic daisy pins to hold our P.E.O. pins.
What is your best tip for finding new members?
The chapter sisters talk about P.E.O. at the bazaar fundraisers we participate in, pass out business cards and have a sign up sheet for women who are interested in membership or project information. We have found several new members using this approach.
We contact sisters on the unaffiliate list and invite them to meetings and socials and we talk about P.E.O. to friends who could become sisters. We have had sisters moving from our area and have utilized the “Notice of a P.E.O.” in your area form to successfully connect them with new chapters in their new homes. We have also benefitted in finding new members moving to our area as their old chapters completed this form for them and we connected. We have been fortunate that for each sister moving out of Maple Valley, we have found others moving in.
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You Add to P.E.O.
