Minutes of Peace & Social Concerns Committee, 12/5/2019
Present: Diane (clerk), Ka (recording), Dan, Jane
***The first half of our meeting was merged with another meeting,
a coalition of environmental
groups planning actions
to shut down a coal-fuel power plant, in
involvement, as a meeting
location and in action, has been facilitated by Peter Blood.
Peace and Social Concerns supports these actions. We will let
Peter know we support the effort
and as individuals may be
involved in actions. We will ask Peter to liaise with the Committee
and keep us informed. We
anticipate Climate Witness Committee joining with us in this support.
Friends who would like more information could contact Peter Blood
for add’l information.
****
Following this, we separated for our own agenda:
We began with a time of silence
1. Promised Land exhibit http://promisedlandmuseum.org
Jane & Ka saw it. Concern re amount of space it takes + amount
of reading. Ka will find out how
long (in time) it can
be left up. Also how long (distance) it would be set up in a
single line. Could
we set it up outside during
fellowship, some Sunday in nice weather? It would have to be first or
fourth Sunday. Another
idea: set it up throughout the Meetinghouse, and provide a game (like a
trivia quiz) to
encourage people to see it all.
2. FCNL priority setting begins in January. We discuss different
methods. Once there was beans
to vote with - we like this. Ka
will bring to next P&SC a list of poss topics. We’ll
associate it with
tax time, in March.
3. Dan and 11:40 hour planning on peace and P&SC committee
campaign for more members
The date is March 3. He is thinking about the Quaker peace
tradition.
4. Letter writing?
Still on hiatus. We discuss
changing the format to electronic. We agree that writing together
(physically), somehow, is important.
5. Concert planning off the regular Concert series schedule:
Yosl Kurland: A
Jewish Perspective on Social Justice: Songs in Yiddish, Hebrew and English
Diane has been to one of his workshops, and proposes bringing him
to MT as an ‘extra’ in the
concert series, and as a
next event in the Jewish Matters series. We discuss other, more
politically oriented,
possibilities, such as a dialogue including Palestinian voices. We will go
ahead with this
concert, probably on Jan 11. He would come with accordionist & extend the
time
to 2 hrs. It would be financed
in the usual way of the concert series.
6. Nuclear ban.
David has sent us an update (see below). We want Mount Toby
Friends to be informed of
progress made. We will
ask David to speak to this at a MfB. Dan will talk to
David, asking him
not to drop it quite yet. We are
not clear whether all the actions decided at previous MfB,
including letter to the
editor, gave been completed.
Follow-ups:
Dan: ask David to speak at MfB (Jan or Feb?) on nuclear ban status and to obtain
closure on
previously proposed tasks.
Diane: arrange Yosl
Kurland concert, Jan 11.
Ka: communicate to Peter regarding
actions relative to Bow, NH power plant.
Prep possible topics for FCNL priorities for next meeting.
Get info re Promised Land exhibit.
Next meeting: Thursday, Jan 23, 2020, 7 pm at the Meetinghouse.
*****
Status Report on Nuclear Ban Treaty alignment – December 2019
For Mt Toby P≻ Provided by David Ahlfeld
To become treaty aligned, the meeting is asked to:
1. Determine whether the meeting has any investments in the
companies involved in
nuclear weapons or products being purchased from those companies.
2. Send letters to the CEOs of those companies informing them of
this decision.
The meetings funds are held in two locations: Greenfield
Cooperative Bank and the New
Greenfield Cooperative Bank has confirmed, through a letter from
its President, Michael
Tucker, that the bank has no “investments in companies that invest
in or are involved in
the manufacture of nuclear weapons.”
avoids investments that are inconsistent with Friends’ testimonies,
including companies
that depend upon war materials, alcoholic beverages, tobacco or
gambling, and
companies that conduct unfair employment practices or pollute the
environment.”
[Investment Guidelines, Section
II.B, NEYM Pooled Funds, 17May, 2016].
The meeting does not own, nor does it intend to purchase any
products from these
companies. This includes thermostats.
P&SC has submitted an article to the Mt Toby newsletter
(published in October) and the
meeting has directed the Clerk of the meeting to write to the CEO of
Honeywell.
I learned in early November that Tim and Vicki have decided to “suspend”
the treaty
alignment campaign so as to allow more time to focus on the 2020 election.
They note in
their message about this that the campaign had not taken off as they
had hoped.
I am not clear where this leaves Mt Toby’s process for treaty
alignment. It appears to me
that we have completed the steps needed for alignment but the campaign
to which we
report our alignment is now in limbo.