Does membership matter?

The WEA is a membership organisation. Since last September, our new scheme has brought us over 20,000 members. We see membership as key to democracy in the WEA and that democracy (in all ways) is vital to education. But it isn't easy. Does our membership reflect our students or our provision? Is it well distributed across the country? Does it deliver the WEA's mission locally?

Matthew Taylor, the Chief Executive of the RSA, has written on this issue in his blog (click here) and this shows the WEA is not alone in seeing this as an important and tricky issue.  

It has to be a key issue for the WEA. We know the level of concern about the loss of individual choice and influence in adult education and the disappearance of community learning opportunities. We need our members to feel confident about acting on this in all parts of the country. Some of them fear the WEA is 'captured' by the government and its funding policies, others are weary of the bureaucracy required to put on provision that is planned and organised by volunteers in partnership with tutors and staff. Equally, as Matthew Taylor says, how can we have a democratic membership without 'activist capture, cumbersome governance and stuffy inward looking cultures'?

We need to find a way that allows people to align themselves through membership to the WEA's commitment to adult education and addressing disadvantage. That needs to be something that can help them help the WEA make a difference to people's lives in many localities and communities and to continue to enjoy opportunities for serious informal education themselves. It isn't going to be easy but a refreshed membership cohort, the communication opportunities of the age and a determination around the WEA's reason to exist must be key to this work.