What’s happening to all the Welsh societies in America??
Promoting Wales in the USA
First of all, let me congratulate you on starting up a new Welsh society. In general, it's been my experience that a lot of cultural groups have been going through a rough patch the last few years. In our local group in the Capital Region of NY, we starting seeing a decline in attendance and membership about 7 years ago - and it didn't matter what we did (we did twmpath dances, movie days, etc.). Now we're back down to our two staples, the Gymanfa (yes, more hymn sining) and our annual dinner. Something that has never flagged over the years is our Welsh language class (which I teach). I basically do it under the auspices of the society, but not all the students necessarily join, or have an interest in joining. I think part of the problem is selling 21st century people a 19th century idea. It's too bad because a lot of fun and good can come out a group like this. When we were going gang-busters back in the late 90's and the first few years of the 2000's, we had monthly programs at which we normally got 20-30 people, and our membership had risen to around 150 people. Now we have maybe 60 or so members, and if 20 people show up to anything, we're happy!
Pob lwc,
RJJ
