Peace and Social Concerns Committee, 5/7/18

Present: Dan G, Jane J, Ken H, George M, Beth A, Roger C

1. Roger volunteered to organize letter writing this month. He received an email that made carbon pricing sound possible.

2. 11:40 on nuclear ban. Several went and reported that it was very well done. Are there people who could suggest ways we could get beyond mere talk and take up actions for MtToby?

3. We agreed that we will not forward to the meeting for business the Amherst Food Coop for inclusion in the Friends Concerns: Other Organizations (FC:OO) part of Mount Toby’s budget.

4. Ken spoke in favor of including Right Sharing of World Resources in the FC:OO. Although Dan expressed reservations, we agreed.

5. Centro De Amigos Cuaqueros Para La Paz was proposed by Beth for FC:OO and we agreed.

6. The Nonviolent Peaceforce was proposed for FC:OO and also approved. Roger will forward these three organizations to the meeting Clerk.

7. We were reminded that the presenters of organizations approved for FC:OO should write newsletter articles and post to the bulletin board so as to inform Meeting members about them. This has not been done consistently in the past.

8. Ka has a strong interest in FCNL but has found it hard to present on 4^th Sundays. We encourage her to continue as our FCNL representative, and to use both first, fourth, and fifth Sundays as possible times for FCNL announcements. It seemed that Ken might be able to back up Ka at times on this.

9. Ruth’s request (below) was postponed until our June meeting.

10. Beth spoke of a collection for NuDay Syria, to be delivered by Wednesday. This seemed much too fast for us to respond well, but we learned that there will be another collection in the fall which we may be able to consider with more deliberate speed.

11. Beth will contact Pat Hynes concerning an 11:40 about the refugees that Pat has visited in Lebanon.

12. The discussion about funding the Resistance Center will be postponed until our June meeting.

13. We declined to make the donation to Loril Moondream which was recommended by Beth.

We closed with a time of silence.

Ruth’s request:

_______________________________________

To Peace and Social Concerns Committee, to be considered for recommendation to Meeting for Business.

The organizers of the recent racial justice workshop (April 20-21) with Amanda Kemp would like to invite Peace and Social Concerns to support our request to Meeting for Business for $125 in support of a special part of the workshop.  This day and a half workshop was cosponsored with Northampton Friends meeting and included 35 participants from NFM, Mt Toby, and Putney meetings. Participants collectively covered all of the costs ($3500) of bringing Amanda and two assistants here to offer the workshop.  It was a very rich experience which gave us a lot to work with as a community.

There was an additional piece that we'd like to ask support for.  About three weeks before the workshop, it was clear that all or nearly all of those registered were of European descent.  This was not unexpected, but it left us with no way to hear the voices of People of Color and hear about their experiences in the meetings. Amanda offered to hold an online videoconference, exclusively for people of color in our meetings, to hear from them. We reached out directly to all those in our meetings who we believe identify as people of color with an invitation to the videoconference.  Seven people participated, and Amanda provided us with summary notes that reflected their opinions.

Questions they considered were:

    1.  How has institutional racism affected you as a member/attender of your local Quaker meeting?

    2.  How do you feel that your meeting's culture centers whiteness?

    3. What do you want European American and other Friends to know about your experience as a person of color at your local meeting?

    4.  What would it look like to de-center whiteness?

We are grateful for this feedback and plan to review these responses in future meetings of the Race and Class group and explore ways to respond. The cost of this extra component of the workshop was $500, which is being covered collectively: half by extra registration money, one quarter by Northampton, and we hope, one quarter by Mt Toby. We believe that this way of hearing and raising up the voices of people of color in our meetings serves the life, the values and the spirit of the whole Meeting, and thus is worthy of support by the Meeting as a whole.

Ruth Hazzard, Kathleen Winkworth, and Karen Fogliatti, planning group.