The Quaker blog

• The new Recording Clerk was introduced to us. We were given some of the background to the process of discernment in appointing him. He is Paul Parker. Some Area Meeting Friends might remember him from his time spent at Central Manchester Meeting in the early 1990s.
• A report from the BYM Trustees was presented. It was noted that fundraising strategy, encouraging Local and Area Meetings to give more financial support to central work, is bearing fruit. The suggestion of £150 contribution a year is proving helpful.
• A project board has been set up to oversee the development of the Large Meeting House at Friends House, with responsibility to BYM Trustees.
• Work continues to make Friends House an exemplary sustainable site. Targets have been set for reducing energy and water consumption and waste production, and also to reduce CO₂ emissions by 10% in 2010 and by 30% by 2013.
• We are asked to note and collect evidence of hardship resulting from the inequity of public expenditure cuts, particularly in the areas of housing, housing benefit and in health related benefits.
• Experiment with Light – Lancashire Central and North AM Minute. Rex Ambler is giving up training workshops to concentrate on writing. It was felt that adding it to central work is not appropriate, but it was suggested that there might be a core group of interested Friends to support the future of this   valuable work.
• During the triennial report from Quaker Housing Trust, we were reminded that they can offer environmental assessment grants for the cost of employing specialist consultants to help housing projects assess how they can achieve good practice and high standards.
• Ongoing business:

QPSW Annual Conference 2010
Quakers Networking for Peace: Exploring the Work of QPSW
26 to 28th of March 2010
Hayes conference centre, Swanwick, Derbyshire.

Outline of the Agenda
At registration we were informed to which base groups we had been assigned, each group bearing the name of a different fruit. The members of each group ate together on the Friday evening and met for two discussion sessions over the course of the weekend.
After the evening meal on Friday night, the first session was an introduction to QPSW staff by Helen Drury. This was where the 10 staff present at the conference introduced themselves to the attendees and gave a very brief description of their work.

Saturday's itinerary comprised a keynote speech by Val Ferguson on the long tradition of Quaker Social Witness and work for peace with personal observations on organising Quaker activities by this long established friend. A Base Group session and lunch was followed by the first workshop and later an opportunity to meet the staff and discuss in more detail their work. The evening was available as free time or to attend an entertainments session organised amongst attendees.

Sunday morning contained the second workshop session and the final meeting of the base groups. After lunch and Meeting for Worship people departed around three o'clock.

Personal observations by Gareth Rees
The Friday evening session was very useful. As a complete newcomer to Quaker Peace and Social Witness this was a fascinating overview of the wide variety of work carried out in our name.

Val Ferguson's speech on Saturday morning was entertaining and inspiring in equal measures and demonstrated what a life devoted to service can achieve.

The first Base Group session involved the usual sharing of name, experience and what we hoped to get out of the conference. During this it became apparent that most people were new to the work of QPSW and indeed many were new to Friends having been nominated by their area meeting to attend. The group then went on to explore what was our personal relationship with peace in our own lives and in our community.

My first workshop with Debbie Taylor provided information on how Quaker values can be promoted through grant giving. QPSW Grants fall into two areas firstly higher education and helping people into work and secondly relief grants throughout the world for unforeseen natural disasters. This was an admirably concise and articulate presentation full of useful information and even finished before the allotted time.

The afternoon's meet the Staff session provided some fascinating detail about the different areas of QPSW’s activities. Of particular note was the contribution made by Rachel Brett who is the Quaker United Nations organisation representative for human rights and refugees. She demonstrated the dedication required to do a taxing and time-consuming job where the benefits of lobbying and advising may not be seen for over a decade and always several years after the start of any initiative.

On Sunday the second workshop led by Stuart Martin described Quaker support in networking for peace in South Asia. Again, despite having lost his notes, the speaker gave a highly informative talk with plenty of practical advice for anyone trying to facilitate networking whether at home or abroad. This advice was based firmly on experience and gave one the feeling that you too could make something happen.

The second base group session discussed our experiences and impressions of the conference. Although most people had found it enjoyable and worthwhile many people said they felt it challenging and somewhat stressful. We were reassured that we could all do our bit to help regardless of whether that bit was large or small, whether talking to nations or talking to the window cleaner (that was an actual example that came up).

After the meeting for worship I think that most people came away tired but with a great deal of positive and useful information to think about.

Dear Friends, I work at the Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) in Brussels. Since January we have been doing a lot of work on the European Parliament elections which are coming up in Britain on Thursday 4^th June. Our work includes information for Quakers about the upcoming elections and how to vote as well as looking at issues of particular interest to Quakers (such as peace) and how the next European Parliament could work better on these issues. Information on this and much more, including links to all the different political groupings and information for Quaker meetings can be found on our website at: http://www.quaker.org/qcea/epelections/index.htm

These elections are important as the European Parliament is the main body that represents us, the citizens of Europe, to the European Union. We may agree, or disagree with much of what the EU does, but the European Parliament is our voice in this system. As the European Parliament uses proportional representation every vote really does count. We therefore have the opportunity, if we vote, to make sure that British MEP’s truly represent British citizens to the EU.

I was wondering whether you would be able to announce that the European Parliament elections take place on Thurs 4^th June in notices in the next two Quaker meetings and let F/friends know that there is information available on QCEA’s website if they are interested in finding out more about the elections.  We also always welcome feedback from Friends on our work, so please let me know (awhiteside@qcea.org ) if there is any other information you would find useful.

Thank you for your time and for your help.
In Friendship,

Anya Whiteside