Peace and Social Concerns meeting June 5 2017

Present: George M, Frank G, Roger C, Airlie R, Susan C, Geoff L, Dan G, Jane J.

We began with a time of silence.

1.The $2000 donation proposal and dealing with its delay by the meeting’s Clerk in bringing it to MfB: We had a discussion about the proper relation between the Clerk and committees of the meeting, and a wider discussion about the structure and culture of the meeting. We decided to send our original proposal to the Clerk and ask her to put it on the agenda for the meeting for business, where we expect that it will generate discussion.

2.We endorsed Beth’s proposal for her NEYM proposal and sent her our best wishes for her time away.

3.Some time back, we moved letter writing to the third Sunday even though that conflicts with singing, which is unsatisfactory. We will ask Worship and Ministry if they can work out a better arrangement which will let our letter writing prosper by allowing an announcement about it on the second Sunday. This may involve W&M rethinking the policy of “no-announcement Sundays.”

4.Dan offered to handle letter writing at the retreat, taking Ka’s suggestion that we do it there this month.

5.Diane brought to us a proposal for a presentation about sexual abuse called “What She Knows, One Woman’s Way Through Incest to Joy.” Questions were raised about the ability to take donations for it, and other issues such as whether other venues would be more successful than ours, for attracting attendees. It was suggested that Diane talk with the presenters to see if they believe another venue would be better, and if they would be willing to do the presentation at MtToby without donations.

6.The local AFSC office will close at the end of the summer, and we are concerned to continue the work of Jeff and others at the office in some new configuration. We want the local effort to continue and will consult with Adele and Roxanne, inviting them to come to our next meeting and how to proceed, for example with revising our MtToby budget which currently allocates money to the national and local AFSC offices. (Note added Tuesday morning: I just heard the tail end of an announcement on the radio, with Jeff, of the initiation of the Pioneer Valley Peace Center – hope I got that right!)

7.Peter B-P suggested a Sufferings Fund to aid people who have been fined and/or jailed for civil disobedience. Peter has offered to draft a proposal, which we will ask him to do, and we will also ask him to come to a meeting of our committee to discuss it.

8.We will print up the proposed Time-sensitive Action idea and pass it out for comments, but after the Retreat.

We closed with a time of silence.