Peace and Social Concerns Committee, 2/16/15

Present: Chris M, Beth A, Susan C (clerking), Adele P, Carol L, Diane C, Roger C

We began with a time of silence and a meditation on listening, offered by Beth.

The proposal for a concert series has been taken to the clerk of the Finance Committee who approved, and the proposal, to be finalized by Diane and Roger, will be given to Andy for the next meeting for business. The proposal will state that 90% of the attenders’ donations will go to the performer and 10% will go into Mount Toby’s general funds, which will be expected to pay any committee expenses for the concerts.

Roger will arrange the letter writing on March 8.

We did not agree to cosponsor the event “Good Mental Health: It Starts with a Conversation” from 7 to 9pm on March 11at the Amherst UU church, but we will post a notice of the event on the bulletin board.

We agreed to recommend Right Sharing of World Resources for the $100 donation in the “Other Organizations” part of the budget.

The film “Guswenta” and panel presented on February 12 was a big success with about 50 people attending, and we thanked Beth for the big amount of work she put into it to make it such a good event. There were some travel expenses incurred by some of the speakers, and we understand that Dan paid some of these himself. We considered repaying him but felt that Dan should be consulted first.

We were clear that our committee should be informed about anticipated expenses, for possible approval, ahead of time, preferably in our regular committee meeting. If necessary a called meeting of the committee can be held to discuss and consider approving unanticipated expenses, but payments should not be made on behalf of the committee without its prior approval. It was noted that $136 remains in our committee budget.

The film “Living on one dollar” was recommended by Diane for the film series but it may not be available from Netflix. Beth has a suggestion for a film showing history of Northeast Native Americans. Dan has mentioned a film. The Prestons suggested a film. If you have suggestions for films, please tell Dan and Roger.

The audio volume for our movie series has been insufficient, and Diane and Roger will consult about it.

Dan and Roger will consider having “snow days” for films scheduled in winter.

The Syrian Refugee Relief meeting was postponed because of weather. It will be rescheduled.

How shall we carry out the concern about the Doctrine of Discovery? Beth offered to consult with Carol L and Susan R and Andy G about how to proceed. It was noted that Susan’s perspective may be of particular interest.

We postponed consideration of the committee’s name for another time, when more members are present.

Beth expressed that she would appreciate it if others would contact her with proposed issues for the fourth Sunday FCNL announcements.

Adele offered to clerk our next meeting.

We closed with a time of silence and reflections on our success at good listening.