Early Fellowship Newsletters: All About People

If you want to know what an organization values, read what its publications write about and what its members talk about. And in the first newsletters, there was a strong emphasis on reporting about the Fellowship’s people, who they were and what they were doing,

Although the January 1956 newsletter is missing, those for December 1955 and February and March 1956 are consistent—official events are covered. But activities of people—including some who did not join—often received more space.

There were exceptions: Monroe Husbands’ address at the first exploration meeting on Oct. 18, 1955 received detailed coverage and plans were outlined for the Sunday School curriculum in that first publication.

But the December 1955 issue also featured thumbnail sketches about each of 10 members of the Fellowship steering committee, which guided the organization until an election was held on Jan. 26, 1956.

There were accounts of how many Fellowship members—not really members as of the December newsletter They would sign December 18) —were also members of the Masterwork Chorus. An account of the activities of the local League of Women Voters chapter was published and the names of the several of its members who were Fellowship founders.

The February newsletter reported a poll in which 30 members voted they would prefer Sunday morning worship starting in March while 24 voted “no”, preferring to keep the Sunday evening slot for services.

But there was a longer discussion of members participation in the Morris County Mental Health Association, reports of three individuals winning honors and the elections of another three (who did not join) to posts with other organizations, along with an account of what were labeled “Miscellaneous Newsmakers”.

And there was a complete list of committees with the names of all committee members under the headline “Do You Have an Appointment” [to a committee presumably]—twenty nine out of the first 52 members did (and at this point, several were yet to sign) And Eleanor Mason was also organizing a group to visited the United Stations—something she would do until her death in 2014.

The March newsletter noted the Fellowship’s recent incorporation but gave more space to the promotion of members in their jobs and members speaking engagements. It devoted even more copy to the Morristown Committee on Public Education, recently organized by Fellowship founder, Dan Weggeland, and it would be part of a decades-long commitment to supporting the Morristown public schools.

Longer bios were given for founding members Marsh Steiding, and Robert and Eveyln McCready. There were more notes about members activities, new babies, and other organizations our members had joined.

And oh yes, there was a note about the first annual meeting to be held on March 15. That was noted on three of eight pages of the edition. But there were only 15 words for each insertion. The fact that tickets were on sale for the Masterwork Chorus’ upcoming performance of the Bach B-Minor Mass was given 26 words.