CALL FOR COMMITTEE VOLUNTEERS
Wednesday, January 8, None Specified
National Spiritual Alliance
The National Spiritual Alliance, Inc.
2 Montague Avenue, P.O. Box 88,
Lake Pleasant, MA 01347
January 8, 2025
The National Spiritual Alliance Board of Directors hereby issues a call to all members and friends for volunteer hands on deck to assist in saving the soul of the TNSA ship.
Membership attending the 2024 annual meeting voted to send Thompson Temple into hibernation in November for the first time in a quarter century.
Membership also tasked the incoming board to research options to reopen this spring with a viable plan for continuation as a non-profit religious organization as it has been since incorporation in 1913, or to also provide under the TNSA umbrella certain secular services similar to a community center.
Since closure TNSA’s Board has embarked on multiple short-term and long-terms projects and goals.
The board has created a Development Planning Committee charged during closure with finding alternative sites to conduct as many in-person programs and income-producing events as possible, as well as to conduct a variety of other activities via Zoom. Upon reopening, the focus will shift to long-term goals.
The board has also created a Strategic Planning Committee charged with researching and recommending “best option” organizational alternatives — sacred and secular — to restore ongoing spiritual services and achieve financial viability.
The next step for both committees is this open invitation to TNSA friends and members — past and present — to become Zoom meeting volunteers involved with ensuring salvation of the flag-bearer of the oldest continuously-existing, same-site, year-round Spiritualist center in the United States, which for its first half-century following founding as a summer camp in 1874 was also the largest gathering place for Spiritualists and like-minded others in the nation.
Volunteers should respond to Vice President and Acting CEO David James at djjames3@valinet.com stating committee preference. Meetings of both committees will be scheduled and publicized before the end of January.
The Development Committee to-date has concentrated on arrangements for in-person continuation of TNSA programs at alternative sites, as well as via Zoom.
+Rev. Sheryl Sadler-Twyon’s Psychic Development Circle meets Mondays from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Montague Center Fire Department.
+The Tea and Crumpet Society meets the third Thursday of each month from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at 11 Montague Avenue next door to the Lake Pleasant Post Office for readings by village writers.
+The last Saturday of each month from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Psychic Medium fairs will be conducted via Zoom beginning this month.
+In-person Sunday services will be conducted the first Sunday afternoon of each month from January through April at First Congregational Church in the neighboring Village of Montague Center. ( Feb 2nd at 2PM; March 2nd at 1PM; April 6th at 1PM)
+Efforts to find additional in-person program rental space and/or Zoom presentation of pre-recorded services on non-live service Sundays are being pursued.
The Strategic Committee to-date has gathered preliminary information regarding TNSA’s viable continued existence as either a religious 501c3 non-profit organization, or as a dual-focus non-profit religious organization and a secular service-providing community center.
+Information gathered to-date focuses on legal, historical, economic, cultural, and self-sustainability issues moving forward into TNSA's second century of existence.
+Following spring reopening, the committee’s intent is to have a recommended plan for presentation to TNSA membership for approval.
Looking forward to working with you all and continuing to bring Spiritualism to our community.
TNSA Board Directors
Rev. Joanne Matthews
Sally Miller
Kara Kharmah
David James