SFL

We were quite taken aback by South Florida’s announcement that they were seceding from the SRA, given that we were unaware of the chapter’s continued existence.

Our last official communication from the chapter was in 2022. Since then we have received no assembly reps from the chapter, no annual audits, and no financial disclosures. Our repeated attempts to contact the chapter through official channels were met with no response, leading the chapters department to categorize SFL as “inactive” in our databases. There they remained for some time until last month when they were removed from our databases entirely.

Its always a sad day when a chapter dwindles away. Organizers burn out, membership in the chapter declines, and, ultimately, chapter activity ceases. We hate to see it, but it’s understandable. Sometimes entirely new organizations sprout from the ashes of an old chapter, and for that we rejoice.

There are many valid criticisms of our organization's bureaucracy. We continue to strive to correct them, and support our chapters and members at large as best we can. We are aware of many of our shortcomings, and have plans in place to fix them in the long term (Blog post on that coming; This is not the space for that). However, we are, and always have been, a safe place for marginalized communities to seek education and engage in mutual aid. Something to that effect has consistently been in our bylaws in some form or another since 2018, when we became a 501(c)(4) and were required to have bylaws.

Anyone who believes that we are responsible for taking up arms is lacking this information. Anyone who believes that we don’t, as a default, see the service of marginalized communities as a priority, lacks this information.