|
||
|
Agate Passage Friends Meeting for Business
The March 18 meeting was postponed so we could attend the 4th Anniversary Demonstration against the Iraq War in Seattle.
OPENING: The Clerk read a quotation written in 1998 from the Australia Yearly Meeting book of Discipline entitled, "This We Can Say"
ATTENDING: Judy Brown, Lucy Johnson, Leyla Welkin, Jim Rana-Meadows, Dorothy Rana-Meadows, Lisa Down, Bob Royce, Kathryn Keve, Bob Major, Michael Moore, Diane Carle, Mille Royce.
MINUTES: The minutes were distributed and there were no corrections. The clerk suggested we read them on our website before coming to Meeting for Worship for Business.
TREASURER’S REPORT: Michael Moore
OLD BUSINESS Gayle Henry has asked our Meeting to withdraw her membership from the Religious Society of Friends. We agreed that the Clerk will send her a note including the following Minute.
“With regret, the Agate Passage Friends Meeting accepts the resignation of Gayle Henry from the Religious Society of Friends. Our Meeting greatly appreciates Gayle’s contributions during her time with us, yet after many conversations with her, we must respect her decision to resign. We welcome any opportunities to keep in touch with Gayle.” NEW BUSINESS Guest Speaker: Carol Estes, New lobbyist for Friends Committee on Washington Public Policy (FCWPP) http://www.quaker.org/fcwpp
Carol’s background is with the Catholic Workers, she acted as an election observer in East Timor, was formerly the Managing Editor of Yes! Magazine, and continues as a consulting editor. Her special interest is Criminal Justice. Carol said that post-secondary education is the single most effective intervention to prevent recidivism. In the past prisoners could obtain Pell grants but this is no longer allowed. They earn 50 cents per hour for their in-prison labor. FCWPP is backing Senate Bill 5070 which would provide funding and housing for college education. Carol mentioned that the population has grown due to the three-strike rule which applies even to minor crimes. She added that there is no ombudsman for the Dept of Corrections while there are more than 17,000 in the state prison system. She talked about typecasting prisoners rather than seeing that they can be rehabilitated. One thing we can do is contact our legislators on Bills such as 5070. OLD BUSINESS Final Affairs Report, Leyla Welkin for Ministry and CounSEL Leyla passed out copies of a questionnaire that can be used as a guide for our own individual planning. The form is good for sorting out these issues. Participation is voluntary. The meeting agreed to keep copies on record. It was suggested also that we provide our families with a copy. The meeting approved a Minute authorizing the treasurer to rent a safe deposit box at our bank for the purpose of keeping these requests in a private and safe place. The Clerk of Ministry and Council would be in charge of collecting such written final affairs requests. Report from Peace & Social Concerns, Kathryn Keve Support our Troops This is a community project that originated with Women in Black, and was referred to PSC after the February Meeting for Business. Volunteers signed up at both showings of Ground Truth which were sponsored by our Meeting. We held several PSC committee meetings and then held a public meeting on March 27. Nine people attended and all but one were from the Agate Passage Friends. For the next several weeks, PSC members are not available to work on this project. Here are some action items that have been suggested: 1. Identify local troops, veterans or their families (the common theme all along) to support our troops by sending care packages, visiting and listening, or offering transportation for medical care. Military Families Speak Out is a good resource for supporting families
Items that soldiers like to receive: Soaps and other good-quality,
pleasant smelling body care products, batteries, CDs, DVDs, snacks that
will hold up, esp in hot weather 100° such as beef jerky, flip flops, baby
wipes, calling cards.
2. Visiting
recovering veterans in hospitals The
VA contact in Seattle for all Volunteers is :
NEW BUSINESS Nominating Committee
The
following people were approved as the Nominating Committee: State Of The Meeting Report: Due to the fact that she forgot to ask for another volunteer to write this report, Judy Brown volunteered to write the report and make it ready for approval at the April 15 Business Meeting before the April 21 deadline for submitting it. The Meeting closed at 12:55 with a moment of silence.
Kathryn
Keve Support Our Troops Project: Background The idea to support our troops originated with our February meeting of Women in Black because Donna Moore’s niece’s husband, Brad, was about to be deployed as a medic for the third time around. I brought the idea to the APFM the next Sunday where there was also interest expressed. Meanwhile Diane Carle mentioned that her daughter, Major Kirsten Carle and her nephews Ray and Adam Wyland were about to be deployed. She and Harry are feeling quite distressed. Since then she asked if the Meeting could hold them in the Light. There was the outpouring of support for Lt. Watada and to some extent, Agostina Aguayo as well as Suzanne Swift who were refusing to redeploy. Then APFM sponsored two showing of “Ground Truth” and again some people signed up to offer support for the troops. Next a group formed on the Island, called People for Peace and Social Justice (PPSJ). The group members are several of the usual local activists, including some WIB and APFM members. We adopted three projects, support for HR508, support for the 4th anniversary of the Iraq War demonstration at Westlake, and Support Our Troops. At our initial public meeting on Feb 27, we had a sign-up sheet and many people checked an interest in supporting the troops. APFM Peace and Social Concerns met several times to discuss and plan these projects. The idea of sending toys to the Iraqi children was raised and Craig Jacobrown thought finger puppets would be a good idea. Some of us felt some caution about this idea since we weren’t clear on cultural implications and many of the troops approach civilians in a combat mode rather than a friendly mode. Later this idea evolved to hacky-sacs (sp?) For the meeting on March 26, this past week, although we notified all those who had previously signed up, with one exception, all the attendees were from APFM. Because several groups and individuals have expressed interest, we have envisioned this as a community project. At our meeting, Kjell Anderson came and spoke about his experiences—3 months in Iraq and the rest of his service was in Afghanistan. He returned home in 2004. His experiences were different in Afghanistan—he said they are wonderful and hospitable people and he would like to go back. In both countries the conditions are harsh, so comfort items are greatly appreciated. He also told us about his new retail Internet business. In the meanwhile, we found that the BI School District had organized a project to send packages to the troops while two Windermere agents are sending items to Iraqi children. Here are some action items that have been suggested: 1. Identify local troops, veterans or their families (the common theme all along) to support our troops by sending care packages, visiting and listening, or offering transportation for medical care. Military Families Speak Out is a good resource for supporting families
Items that soldiers like to receive: Soaps and other good-quality,
pleasant smelling body care products, batteries, CDs, DVDs, snacks that
will hold up, esp in hot weather 100° such as beef jerky, flip flops, baby
wipes, calling cards. 2. Visiting
recovering veterans in hospitals The
VA contact in Seattle for all Volunteers is : |
||
|
|
