Minutes of Peace and Social Concerns Committee meeting, 4/22/13

Present: Andy, Carol, Dan, Susan

We came up with a list of items that need to go in the next newsletter. Dan will submit articles about the FCNL Mission Statement and the film series; Susan will remind Adele to send in any items for the "Quakers in Action" column; Susan will remind Alan E to write about Quaker Earthcare Witness and Beth to write about Centro de Amigos Para la Paz. Articles need to be sent to George L. on May 2 or May 3 (he requests not to receive them earlier).

Gee sent us a note that included some thoughts about FCNL (which Andy will forward to Beth) and about gun control. Dan will look into whether there is a state-wide measure on gun control currently working its way through the MA legislature. This could perhaps be a letter-writing topic in June.

The committee will recommend Quaker Earthcare Witness (QEW) for funding from the meeting's budget for “Friends Concerns: Other Organizations." QEW and Centro de Amigos Para la Paz (CAP) will both be presented at the May Meeting for Business. (P&SC had already agreed at a previous meeting to recommend CAP for funding.)

At our committee meeting in May, we'll review the instructions for 2nd Sunday letter-writing and also review where those instructions are available.

Ongoing concern about issues of race and class: There will be an 11:40 hour on this topic on April 28th, led by Care and Counsel. There will also be a community discussion on Sunday, May 5th at 8:45 am, which Andy has offered to facilitate. Susan will make a sign about May 5th and put it on the fellowship room door on 4/28. We hope those present on May 5th can make a plan for the scheduling of future gatherings. A Friend spoke of the need for coordination at Mount Toby between the various initiatives on the issues of race and class.

Film Series: There will be a film on Th evening, May 9th. Dan will publicize it once he knows which film it will be. On 6/13 we will have an expanded film evening: potluck dinner at 6 pm, followed by a set of songs by members of the local chorus Amandla, and then the film "Amandla! A Revolution in 4-part Harmony."

We agreed to co-sponsor the film "Doctors on the Dark Side," which will be shown in Northampton on May 10th by the Massachusetts Campaign Against Torture.

Roger has been working on bringing Pat Lamanna to the Amherst area to give her presentation on Peace Pilgrim. We agreed to appropriate $50 from P&SC's budget for Pat's travel expenses.

Quite a few items are missing from the little P&SC library. Roger has compiled a list of the missing items, and it has been sent out to the meeting's email list.

We reminded ourselves to announce our committee meetings on 4th Sundays (when they precede 4th Mondays).

Roger suggests to we include on the P&SC portion of Mt. Toby's website the names & contact info for the organizations we are supporting through the meeting's budget. We gave him the go-ahead to look into doing this (understanding that permission to actually include it on the website may rest with others than P&SC).

Local service project: We tried to think of a project that the Mt. Toby community, including youth and children, could participate in, and the annual Source-to-Sea Cleanup rose as a possibility. It occurs in the early fall and all ages can participate. Susan will send Dan info about the Cleanup and he will pass the info on to the Young Friends. He will also let them know we'd be happy to hear about suggestions they may have for a local service project.

George L. suggests that we extend an invitation to someone from FCNL to come and speak to Mt. Toby. (He has a specific individual in mind.) We are interested and would like to hear more. We envision an 11:40 Hour as the most appropriate venue. It could be proposed directly by George to the 11:40 Hour committee; does not necessarily have to go through P&SC. Andy will follow up with George.

Our next meeting will be Monday, May 27th, 7 pm. (Memorial Day notwithstanding)

-submitted by Susan