The Peace and Social Concerns Committee oversees the “Friends Concerns: Other Organizations” part of the budget (FC:OO), where typically five or six organizations are listed. Every year a call goes out to Mount Toby, asking if Friends will be willing to bring an organization to the Committee for consideration. A person willing to do so comes to our committee meeting and tells us about the organization, and if our committee agrees to recommend it, the organization goes to a Meeting for Business for consideration in the budget. This Meeting for Business gives the advocate an opportunity to tell the whole meeting about the organization, in addition to writing a Newsletter article and posting information on the Committee’s bulletin board. The amount put in the budget is typically $100, only a token amount but which we hope will encourage Friends to support the group individually.

In every year, this process starts anew; groups in the FC:OO budget last year will only be in this year’s budget if a Friend comes to the Committee offering to be its advocate. Some very worthy organizations have been dropped simply because nobody came to speak for them. Please consider bringing an organization to us! In the past the Committee has recommended groups which are Quaker organizations or have a Quaker history or influence, such as Right Sharing of World Resources, or else which exemplify Quaker principles and are connected to Friends in our meeting, such as the Cambodian Water Project.

The criteria for such FC:OO organizations is that they should be:
1) Quaker organizations or organizations with a Quaker governing board – like QUNO and Right Sharing of World Resources; and/or
2) Organizations that directly help us carry out the peace the testimony by implementing Quaker testimonies of peace and justice – like the Central Committee for Conscientious Objection and the Nonviolent Peaceforce; and/or
3) Organizations which are directly connected to Quaker testimonies and in which Mt. Toby Friends are deeply involved – like AVP and the Cambodian Water Project.