Peace and Social
Concerns Committee minutes of 11/21/16
Present: Dan G, Jane J, Connie B, Roger C, Beth A
We began
with silence, then reviewed a hefty agenda.
Friends Concerns: Other
Organizations. We reviewed the 5 organizations supported
last year (Centro, Right Sharing, Cambodian Water, QVS, Nonviolent Peaceforce) We need to have
someone on our committee take oversight of this for the current year. Nobody
volunteered at this meeting. Meanwhile Dan will announce the FC:OO issue to the meeting.
Roger
was designated as the contact person for
the Newsletter editors.
A form
has been created to help us find out when might be a feasible time for our committee to meet. Those present filled out the form and Roger
will contact others with the form, and he will tabulate the results.
It
seemed that the experiment with computers
used for letter-writing was a success and many people used the
computers. Connie and Dan will cooperate
in hosting letter-writing on December 18.
Human Rights Day December 6, 6-8pm co-sponsorship: we agreed to co-sponsor
it. Roger will tell Martha that we co-sponsor
it and he will make an announcement at the appropriate time.
Quaker Voluntary Service: A Boston staff person offers to
have an information session about QVS in early December. We felt that this
could be handled best by Young Friends, and Dan will send this notice on to
Isaac.
Refugees: Ka could not attend but sent an
informative email about what she has learned, including that there is a
possibility of having a refugee family in Amherst. We will invite her to write an article
telling what she has learned about developments, for the next newsletter. We want to know more about how our committee
and meeting could help. She may be
willing to talk with people, for example after meeting some Sunday.
Rebecca
Ray sent an email concerned with the new
Sanctuary effort; she sent her message to Frank who is on ION, and Frank
sent an email telling of discussions within ION. We are supportive of the concern in Rebecca’s
letter , and we hope that ION or individuals in it
will suggest action for us.
Beth has
talked more with Pat Hynes about the
two-focus talk mentioned last month,
but a date and details have not been set.
Roger
will pursue the document, apparently
from Quarterly Meeting, on BDS. We
do not have this document but Roger will work on getting is, so we can
understand its call and suggestions.
We have
an 11:40 reserved for February 26. We need to consider at length what the focus
should be.
We
closed with a time of silence.