As of December 31, 2006 , a total of 355 members were recorded. Of these members, 213 were recorded as adults, and 142 were recorded as associates. Associate members are children of members who have been recorded at the request of their parents. While Baltimore Yearly Meeting does not further differentiate among associate members, Bethesda Friends Meeting distinguishes between junior members (those under age 21) and associates (those 21 and over). Of the 142 associates recorded, 85 were junior members and 57 were associates by Bethesda Friends Meeting's definition.

Total membership in the Meeting increased in 2006 by 8, or about 2.3%. This follows a 1.7% increase in 2005 and a 5% increase in 2004, continuing a trend of moderate expansion.

Total adult membership increased by 3, with 8 increases and 5 losses. Our youth membership increased by a net of 5, with 5 new junior listings. Eight junior members turned 21 this year, upon which their memberships converted automatically to associate status.

Six of the new adult memberships in 2006 were by convincement and two were by transfer. Losses consisted of two transfers out, one resignation, and two deaths.

While attenders constitute a very important part of our Meeting community, no official statistics are recorded on them. A quick count in the 2006 directory showed about 940 names, suggesting that our community is made up of roughly 1/3 members and 2/3 attenders.

The number of new members, transfers out, resignations, and deaths this year are quite in keeping with the trends in our meeting over the past few years. The net increase in total membership of a few percent is larger than the general population increase of Montgomery County and The District of Columbia, which have averaged just under 1% per year for the past few years.

A statistic that is of interest is the age distribution of members. The accompanying chart shows two prominent peaks, one in the 50- to 60-year-old range, consistent with “baby boom” demographics, and another in the 10- to 20-year-old range, which is perhaps related to the “baby boomlet” phenomenon.

A concern is the rising number of associate members who are over 30 years old. There are now 19 such associate members and this number has increased steadily over the past 5 years from 4 in 2001. According to current membership policy, these children of members should be making a decision to either become full members or lay their membership down. The Pastoral Care Committee is working on this difficult issue, and hopefully a resolution satisfactory to all will be forthcoming.