Peace and Social Concerns Committee, January 19 2015

Present: Beth A, Susan C, Dan G (clerking), George M, Carol L, Diane C, Roger C

We started with a time of silence and then reviewed the rather lengthy agenda.

1. Syrian refugee relief (cf minute 6 of Dec 2014): There is a meeting Sunday Feb 14 (woops, Sat 14 or Sun 15?) at 4pm, at the Jewish Community of Amherst; there will be a presentation about these refugees, and MtToby Friends are invited to attend. Susan will send notice about this to the newsletter and later on to our listserv.

2. Michelle Alexander’s article: Adele has suggested passing on the article (“Race and Caste in the US”) , and Susan suggests adding a note at the top: “P&SC requests that after you read this article you pass it on to another Friend at Mount Toby. You are invited to add your name on the back when passing it on.” Roger will get the copy from AR and will make it available upon request to P&SC members. [Note: Download it at http://alternative-radio.fetchapp.com/files/zetine which will work for two people. If it doesn’t work for you, ask Roger for a copy.)

3. Beth will do letter-writing on February 8^th and as usual will send the background information electronically to Roger so it can be put on the MtToby website page.

4. Film series: “Guswenta” is about the Two Row Wampum paddle in which Beth participated. Dan will make a DVD, Beth will arrange a post-film conversation. The date is February 12^th. It would be good to invite others, e.g. the UUs, other Meetings, etc, and Beth will invite outsiders.

5. Film series: Diane suggested another film (available on Netflix) “Living on a dollar a day” which sounds very good for the film series. Roger will check it out.

6. Service project in Amherst: Dan has done research and found several opportunities, and he will circulate the email which lists them to our committee. How shall we organize this to offer these opportunities to Friends? Dan and Roger will talk later about how to carry this out.

7. Diane’s suggestion for “Music for Social Change at Mount Toby” was passed out. Diane has valuable experience in running the Echo Lake Coffeehouse, a long-running similar series. Proposed distribution of donations by attenders: 80% to the performers, 10% to P&SC for refreshments etc, 10% to the meeting for meetinghouse expenses. Diane will put together a committee to help. She will send her proposal (after revisions) to our committee. She will request support of the Meetinghouse Committee for the proposal. If this comes together quickly enough it will be sent to Andy for the February meeting for business.

8. Beth will request reservation of an 11:40 Hour in October 2015 or later for our committee.

9. Roger was given approval for his proposed gathering to discuss contributions for peace, justice, and environmental organizations.

10. Name change for our committee: Quaker Witness for a Just World? Mount Toby Justice Witness? The discussion did not lead to a resolution. To be continued.

11. Beth passed out a “Proposed Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth” for us to take home and consider. This led to a conversation about the right stewardship of Mount Toby’s land and a review of recent discussions (at the retreat and the meeting for business) about use of the land. This interesting conversation should be continued in a future meeting.

12. Susan agreed to clerk our next meeting, 7pm on Monday February 16.

13. We closed with a time of silence.