To GDUI Members Past and Present I, Wish to Hear from You
patty.vo...@gmail.com
Hi, everyone. I hope you’re all well.
Here, I’m amazed to realize we’re already ending August and heading into September. I’m not quite sure where 2026 has gone. Between battling cancer, reconnecting with Blue, and getting back out into the community around us this summer, the months seem to have flown by.
Since taking on the role of GDUI Membership Committee Chair, I haven’t done nearly as much with you, the members, as I would have liked. So, I decided it was time to change that.
After all, Guide Dog Users Incorporated must be a member-driven organization.
We have elections coming up, followed by our annual membership meeting, and then the holidays will be upon us like a beautiful—and sometimes terrifying—whirlwind.
Before all that happens, I want to check in with you.
How are you? What are you doing? What do you need from GDUI? What do you believe we’re doing well? Where are we falling short? Most importantly, how can we work together to build a more cohesive organization, bringing our members, affiliates, committees, board, and other moving parts together?
I want to see a larger, stronger, more active Guide Dog Users Incorporated, working together on advocacy, education, awareness, and the issues affecting guide dog users everywhere.
Like many organizations, GDUI has known times of disagreement and conflict. But if we are going to do real and lasting good for guide dog users—members and nonmembers alike—we must continue learning from the past while gathering together as one big pack and moving forward.
That means I need to hear from you.
I want your thoughts. I want your ideas. I want your knowledge and experience. Tell me what you would like to see from the Membership Committee and from GDUI as a whole.
And if you used to be a member but are no longer one, I especially want to hear from you.
What made you join GDUI in the first place?
What made you stay?
If you left, why?
What, if anything, would make you consider coming back?
Those answers matter.
YOU, the member, matter.
That isn’t just something I say as Membership Committee Chair. It is something I believe. Without members who participate, ask questions, share ideas, disagree respectfully, volunteer, vote, advocate, and show up for one another, we cannot be the organization we have the potential to become.
So, I’m coming directly to you.
Let’s begin with an email between us. Reach out to:
Please address your message to Patty Fletcher, Membership Committee Chair.
You may also visit the GDUI website, look under the Membership Committee, and use the contact information found there.
Whether you have a suggestion, a concern, an idea you’ve been carrying around for years, or simply want to introduce yourself and tell me about you and your guide dog, I want to hear from you.
Come on, GDUI.
Let’s gather the pack and see what we can accomplish together.
Blessid Be,
Patty L. Fletcher
Membership Committee Chair
Guide Dog Users Incorporated
Patty L. Fletcher – Author and Content Promoter.
About Patty L. Fletcher
Updated November 2024
Patty L. Fletcher is a woman of passion and exploration.
She studies the art of manifestation and is a seeker of knowledge and the wisdom to know what to do with it when it’s learned.
To learn more visit: https://pattysworlds.com/about/
If you have made mistakes, even serious mistakes, you may have a fresh start from any moment you choose, for this thing we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.
Mary Pickford