We've come a long way.

I spent part of this morning looking at old calendars and notes from the early days of creating the Seattle Sex Positive Community Center.  I had forgotten how cutting edge we were back then.    While there were plenty of BDSM clubs and Swinger organizations around the country, no one had dared create something that attempted to bring all the different factions of our communities together.  We were, to paraphrase, "boldly going where no organization had gone before".

You may not know, but we held a lot of events prior to finding our current space.  In March of 1999 we had our first of three fundraisers.  We actually held it at a Godfather's Pizza on Capital Hill where we auctioned off the first 30 or so membership numbers.  That event started our formal membership.  We also held a Goods and Service Auction at The Cuff and an Erotic Art Auction at Amour on the Boulevard later that spring.  Those three events along with small regular play parties at a private space in West Seattle called Moist and Meaty,  helped us finance our bold venture.  The Moist and Meaty parties were where we began to create our base and why initially when we moved into our current space we focused on what we did best, events for the BDSM community.  However, we were dedicated to being diverse and inclusive, so within the first two months we added our Women and Men only parties and before the first year was out, HotSpot parties (which became Erotic City and Spin Nights) and the Grind, our most popular and enduring event of all.  I was looking at one of the early reports for the Grind and it noted that we were excited when we first passed 85 attendees.  Now the Grind is seldom less than 110 attendees and has topped out at almost 200.  Look how far we've come.

In that first month we had two support groups, the Women's and Men's Welcoming Committees.  The Welcoming Committees were designed for newcomers to the BDSM/Fetish Community and the brainchild of one of our founders, Silver.   The Men's Welcoming committee has sadly fallen away and the Women's' Welcoming Committee currently meets at Hot Dish in the first Monday of the month, so neither of those events now happen at the Center.   They have been replaced though by a huge variety of support and social groups that now fill most of our Mondays and Tuesdays.  (look at our calendar for a listing of those events)

Workshops were present pretty much from the beginning.  Our first workshops were held on Fridays before our Women's and Men's parties which started in August of 1999.  By the next year we were bringing in presenters, such as Carol Queen and Midori and our educational component soon became a huge part of who we were.

We've continued to add new events, workshops, support groups and social opportunities over the years.  Our calendar is so full and there is such a demand for space that we created our new Annex for small parties, theater and workshops.  (If you're interested in being part of our theatrical productions please write me.) We also currently produce three amazing yearly events outside of our venue, The Seattle Erotic Art Festival, Paradise and Cirque du Noc.   These events are all open to non members and members alike and have created quite a buzz both locally and nationally.  The Seattle Erotic Art Festival was even featured on MSNBC.com's wonderful Sexploration Column this year.

We've come a long way in 8 years and we're still cutting edge.  With the exception of the Center for Sex and Culture (started by Ms. Queen and her partner Robert Lawrence) we are the only organization of our kind.   In the future we hope to assist others cities in creating their own Centers.

And how did we do all this?  From a small group of people sitting in someone's living room and Russell Brunelle suggestion that we start a "sex positive community center" to those 6 people implementing his idea by reaching out to the community at large, to having over 9000 people join our organization over the last 8 years, we did it with our members.  People who saw our vision stepped up and became part of the grand scheme.  They hammered nails, painted, installed carpet, swept (boy, did they sweep), jack hammered floors, dry walled, donated supplies, built equipment and bondage beds, set up, tore down and worked at events and did our laundry.  And if they couldn't do that, they came to our events and supported us in our endeavors with their pocketbooks through donations and event fees.  And they still do all of the above (including sweeping).  This was and is truly a community enterprise.

I am very proud to be part of this organization and look forward to our growth and development as we expand and grow and move into our next 8 years

Allena