Government Issue vehicles

RantWoman is somewhat observing 12 days of Christmas with attention to various and sundry as who have showed up over the holidays, at least by phone, email...

Today is observation with attention to RantBrother lately in MT and indoors during subzero weather albeit under different circumstances than he told RantMom earlier in the month.

The bad news: whatever blessings in the realm of previous ways to live indoors RantBrother told RantMom about had dissolved by the time of RantBro's holiday call to RantWoman.

The good news: at least RantBrother had the sense to find a way in out of the cold.

The good news: RantBro is motivated to seek work.

The bad news: RantBro is interested in more mysterious law enforcement, the kind of job that comes with "a government issue 4x4 and a government issue .45.

Is this:

--redneck trashtalk that any red-blooded Monanan should just know to blow off?

--still yet more unrealistic 'bro thinking about employment

--yet another job possibility that we all get to be thankful has SCANT probability of actually turning into actual paychecks? Hallelujah! Praise Jesus. Amen!

--simply what RantBrother presence means today...?

Read More

No, No, DON'T expect the Faith Community to do it all!

This Friend speaks my mind:

http://emergingquaker.blogspot.com/2013/12/christmas-wish-if-only-we-could-rely-on.html

Read More

Mikhail Kalashnikov dies

RantWoman is posting this item here with good intentions about writing somekind of a reflection on Kalashnikov's life and the weapons that bear his name.

http://www.businessinsider.com/mikhail-kalashnikovs-death-and-his-greatest-regret-2013-12

Even if this turns out to be only good intetions, a blog as filing cabinet item.

Read More

Claremont Friends Meeting statement on Friends and Email

RantWoman's closet full of half-prepared Christmas presents includes this item and permission from a Friend at Claremont Friends Meeting to repost.

 

RantWoman has a tangle of thoughts derived from an email exchange related to this policy. It's on the shelf of half-sewn, not ready for the Christmas tree items and may or may not emerge timely.

 

In the meantime....

FRIENDS AND EMAIL:

Guidelines, Concerns and Reflections

Offered by the Committee on Ministry and Counsel of Claremont Friends Meeting

The rapidly-evolving realms of electronic communication—from email, websites and listserves to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, My Space, Friendster and beyond—pose both great opportunities and challenging issues for Friends. The complexity of these issues is compounded by generational differences: while most older Friends make regular use of email and websites, Quaker youth live in a new universe of additional electronic media. Concern for good Quaker process struggles to keep pace with this unfolding and multifaceted revolution. Most Friends understand that the revolution is irreversible. We need a collaborative effort to address it. For the foreseeable future, youth will be pioneers and teachers of the new technologies; the wisdom of older, seasoned Friends can bring the technologies into harmony with good Quaker practice. These “Guidelines, Concerns and Reflections” are provisional. Like The Elders at Balby, we offer them not “as a rule or form to walk by, but that all with the measure of light which is pure and holy may be guided . . . for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.” (1656)

The following is adapted from the “Milwaukee Friends Meeting Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on E-mail Communications,” by Kay Augustine, Elizabeth Evans, Tom Fritz, and Susan Perkins, June 10, 2010.
On the Positive Aspects of Email:

• Email allows for convenient and rapid exchange of information.
• Sending and reading emails may occur at the convenience of the sender and receiver.
• Emails also provide a written record of communication.
• Attachments to emails allow easy sharing of documents.
• When responding to an email, one may take time and care to compose a reply.
• When emailing multiple parties, a sender can ensure that all receive identical content.
• Email can be enlarged for those with difficulty seeing.
• Joint emails can be a convenient way to arrange meeting times and places, and to circulate agendas, minutes, and informational notes.

On the Negative Aspects of Email:

• Email is a poor medium for corporate discernment. Lines on a computer screen or down-loaded page cannot convey the full range of communication—facial expression, tone of voice, body language, etc. Thus emails can easily be misunderstood.
• Conveying delicate or sensitive information by email is especially challenging.
• The ease of email increases the likelihood that a message intended only for one person or group are inadvertently sent to others.
• Heavy reliance upon email contributes to information overload—and both the writing and the reading of email messages are labor intensive.
• The sender of an email may not be aware that the recipient is out of town (or checks his/her email rarely) and thus may falsely assume that a message has been received.

Please turn over.

Access issues: Those who do not have computers or whose computer skills are minimal may be left out of the loop. Even when recipients are computer literate, emails—and especially attachments—sometimes cannot be opened. Spam blockers often bury email communications in junk mail files, where they may never be read.
Recommendations:

• Whenever possible, corporate discernment should be conducted face-to-face, or when that is not possible, by means of sensitively-managed telephone conference calls.
• Access issues should be handled sensitively—for example, by arranging for an email buddy who agrees to communicate with persons who lack email access.
• Because computers do not always talk to one another, it may be helpful to send attachments in more than one format (for example, in both “pdf” and “.doc” formats). Pasting an attachment into the body of the email message avoids the “I can’t open your attachment” problem.
• When emailing time-sensitive materials, consider following up with a phone call to ensure that the intended recipient has indeed received the message.
• Sensitive email communications should not be forwarded without the author’s consent, and should be carefully stored or archived to preserve privacy.
• Read written communication carefully and take time before responding. Write clearly, reflecting on how one’s words may be read by others.
• Exercise discretion about the use of names, remembering that your message may be read by those for whom it is not intended.
• Remember that in all communications, we are asked to cherish one another. If in doubt, let love be your guide.

Revised and approved in CFM Meeting for Business on 27 January 2013

Read More

Truth, Heart, Healing

Truth, Heart, Healing


Lucy Duncan and Nionu Spann
at Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.

http://www.afsc.org/friends/truth-heart-healing-working-spirit-transforms

worth being able to find again.

Read More

Workshop on Christian Hegemony and Privilege November 9

Join CARW & friends for this exciting workshop with Paul Kivel...

Living in the Shadow of the Cross
Understanding and Resisting the Power and Privilege of Christian Hegemony

A Workshop by Paul Kivel

When: Saturday, November 9th at 1-4pm

Where: Jackson Place Cohousing (800 Hiawatha Place S Seattle, WA 98144)

Please join the event on Facebook.

Workshop Description
Over the centuries, Christianity has accomplished much which is deserving of praise. Its institutions have fed the hungry, sheltered the homeless, and advocated for the poor. Christian faith has sustained people through crisis and inspired many to work for social justice. Yet, although the word “Christian” connotes the epitome of goodness, the actual story is much more complex. Over the last two millennia, ruling elites have used Christian institutions and values to control those less privileged throughout the world.

As our triple crises of war, financial meltdown, and environmental destruction intensify, this talk/workshop will dig beneath the surface of Christianity’s benign reputation to examine its contribution to our social problems. Living in the Shadow of the Cross reveals the ongoing, everyday impact of Christian power and privilege on our beliefs, behaviors, and public policy, and emphasizes the potential for people to come together to resist domination and build and sustain communities of justice and peace.

Paul Kivel is the award-winning author of several books including Uprooting Racism and Boys will be Men. He is a social justice activist and a nationally and internationally recognized educator who has focused on the issues of violence prevention, oppression, and social justice for over 45 years. Paul is the director of the Christian Hegemony Project and has conducted thousands of talks, trainings, and workshops on diversity, men’s issues, the challenges of youth, and the impact of class and power on daily life.


*****Location & Accessibility: In an effort to make the space accessible to guests with chemical sensitivities, please refrain from wearing scented products and fragrances like cologne when you attend.

The event will be at the Jackson Place Cohousing common house dining room, at 800 Hiawatha Place South, Seattle, 98144. It is by buses 7,14,48,8,4,36,60,ST550, and is wheelchair accessible & ADA-compliant. From the intersection of Dearborn & Hiawatha, head up the hill a half block then take a right in the alley, and a right onto the terrace. There is very limited parking off the alley, which should be saved for those who require an accessible space.

Sponsored by: Jewish Voices for Peace, Coaliton of Anti-Racist Whites, Tools for Change.

About CARW: http://carw.org 


RantWoman accessibility tirades:
*****Directions helpful for people with vision impairments and for people who find it easier to climb stairs than to deal with hills: Jackson Place co-housing is located on the SE corner of Dearborn and Hiawatha Pl. S, one block E of Rainier Ave. S. Both the northbound and the southbound buses on Rainier Ave S stop N of Dearborn; the stoplight at Rainier and Dearborn is helpful for crossing streets.

Once you arrive at the SE corner of Hiawatha Pl. S and Dearborn, if you continue S on Hiwatha, there will be the first of two stairways going up from the street to the terrace level. Take the first stairway and turn Left at the top of the stairs to find the Dining room.

*****The dining room at Jackson Place co-Housing is wheelchair accessible provided one arrives by car and is able to park in one of the available spaces. If one arrives by bus, do not underestimate the significance of "up the hill!" The hill is steep enough that people who use manual wheelchairs will almost certainly appreciate someone helping to push them up the hill. People who use power chairs or scooters are invited to use their judgment about center of gravity issues.

*****The dining room at Jackson Place co-housing is also fairly live accoustically and some people with hearing impairments find it difficult to hear there.

Read More

Media Item about Bangor Explosives Handling Wharf

Mostly a blog as filing cabinet item on RantWoman's mean to write more list:

KOMO 4 TV aired an extensive segment in its Problem  Solvers series, titled "Unacceptable Risk?" on October 28th.
Subject: the Bangor Second Explosives Handling Wharf currently under construction . You can read the transcript and see the entire video of  the segment at this link:
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Navy-building-controversial-explosives-handling-wharf-near-Seattle-229639501.html?tab=video&c=y

The report is very thorough. It features Ground Zero’s Glen answering questions about the project. Glen continues with a serious effort to stop this very expensive and risky project in court.

RantWoman's mean to write more points:

--As RantWoman recalls from casual conversation, this project has some pork barrel aspects; now that its principal sponsor, Rep Norm Dicks, has retired, there may actually be some possibility of cutting it.

--What with the deficit and all, could the Navy maybe....?

Read More

Signs? Rush Hour and

Ordinarily RantWoman does not really go for all that "threaten them with hellfire" stuff. However, in the interest of #saveMetroNow #keepusmoving, RantWoman is going to digress SOMEWHAT from her #disasterprep #npm2013 threads and work with some actually existing disasters, the actually existing hell that currently is Puget Sound traffic gridlock. The basic #disasterprep point: if traffic congestion in the Puget Sound is this bad under normal conditions, heaven help us all after an earthquake.


The picture below arrived in RantWoman's blog roll just as RantWoman has been trying to zero in on the high points she means to propagate in connection with the WA State Senate's Transportation Listening Sessions now occurring around WA.

Churchsign: "Keep using my name in vain and I will make rush hour longer." God

In particular, recently RantWoman was called to spend several hours in a room full of people deeply concerned about Roads and Transit.

There were Death by Powerpoint elements: LOTS of small pictures on a couple slides of MANY spots in WA in need of road repair, bridges at risk, etc. There were a couple slides full of more data than anyone wants to try to look at on a Powerpoint slide. Nevertheless, RantWoman will need to make a reasonable accommodations request that the slides be available for accessible consumption in connection with the rest of the hearigs.

The point that sticks hardest in RantWoman's mind right now though: RantWoman listened to LOTS of elected officials, members of chambers of commerce... talk about needed transportation projects. RantWoman listened to SOME voices talking about the importance of transit. Most important, instead of hearing that WA's highly regressive tax structure makes it really, really easy to recruit people for high-tech jobs, RantWoman heard several big employers talk about how traffic gridlock is killing productivity, traffic gridlock is a reason people keep TURNING DOWN job offers.

Hold that thought because RantWoman also heard people with high incomes clearly say they are willing to pay more taxes to have a transportation infrastructure that works! In particular, someone needs to say it: is the state of WA ready to admit that gas tax, MVET, tolls alone will not meet our transportation needs and we need to c-c-c-cons-s-sid-d-d-der an in-n-n-come t-t-t-tax?

RantWoman herself can attest: there was a time in RantWoman's life when RantWoman took more calls from technical recruiters than she does now. RantWoman more than once:

1. THANKED employers for not hiring her because RantWoman did not feel she could safely get from the bus stop to the front door of the workplace especially in the wintertime.

or

2. Suggested that if the recruiter was serious about engaging RantWoman and wanted RantWoman to commute across a certain large lake, the first thing that would need to happen would be to insert another 0 into the proposed salary amount.

Bus connections have improved SOMEWHAT since RantWoman routinely made such demands; now RantWoman also HAS TO leave the driving to other people.

Improved bus connections are a GOOD thing. The bus not only is RantWoman's car, the bus is the family car for RantWoman's entire extended family, RantMom at 75, Little Sister, Brother in Law, Irrepressible Nephew as well as RantWoman. We ALL for different reasons need to leave the driving to other people BUT the bus is still stuck in the same traffic gridlock as everything else!

But back to the sign. God in his / her infinite wisdom and grace has seen to attach the various RantFamily households each to our own house of worship. Remember, the bus is our car. We even manage to worship whether or not the streets are clogged with other traffic. RantWoman is not prepared to evaluate anyone else's use of God's name in vain but RantWoman REALLY, REALLY does not want to spend any longer on the road than absolutely necessary! Word!

Read More

Show your work: seasoning Oversight

RantWoman is trying to get herself centered for a busy week. RantWoman is not clear that opining about what to call Oversight committee should be on the critical path to Monday morning centering. RantWoman suspects she has enough to say for several blog posts; this contribution is an effort to triage one issue RantWoman needs help about. If you have opinions, links, text excerpts to contribute to this discussion, please leave a comment!

First, this issue has been vexing folks for awhile. Fixing the terminology should in no way be equated with dealing with sundry thoughts about privilege, manifestations of privilege, whether we ARE actually called to eradicate every whiff of privilege OR just to recognize when we have a whole darn lot to be grateful for... In any case, fixing the terminology CAN wait for reasonable seasoning.

Next, Dude, PLEASE show your work.

RantWoman's blog roll has presented her with two blog posts referring to discussion by NPYM Faith and Practice Committee about what to call the committee sometimes called Oversight or Ministry and Oversight. North Pacific Yearly Meeting is in the throes of its approximately once / generation effort to update Faith and Practice and Faith and Practice committee is struggling about how to refer to said committee. Coincidentally the question of renaming said committee is alive in the life of both Friend Blogger's and RantWoman's monthly Meetings.
http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2013/09/quoting-from-facebook.html
http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2013/09/version-control.html

The first blog post refers to a conversation on Facebook. RantWoman would be ever so grateful to know which Facebook group the discussion is taking place in. RantWoman would not in the least mind a few excerpts of the discussion to which Blogging Friend is reacting.

RantWoman specifically further takes issue with  Blogging Friend's view that the question of what to call the committee sometimes called Oversight is not important or is unreasonable to talk about. Blogging Friend refers to conversation in his own Meeting so RantWoman is happy to see whether that conversation addresses the unexamined privilege reflected in Blogging Friend's views.

The committee currently called Oversight in RantWoman's Meeting is the committee seasoning what to present to Business Meeting.  RantWoman wants that committee to consider points related to discussion in other Meetings and to the work of Faith and Practice committee about this very topic. In the process Gmail autofill added someone to the to list who weighed in forcefully about issues of unexamined privilege.

RantWoman has emailed the clerk of Faith and Practice committee and is confident that Faith and Practice committee is attentive to the importance of what this committee gets called. Faith and Practice committee has a meeting coming up and RantWoman is confident attention will be paid to concerns even though RantWoman does not unite with Faith and Practice Committee's desire to refer to this committee as "Pastoral Care." RantWoman promises to hold forth about what to call the committee and why or why not in a separate post.
RantWoman concurs with a point made in the first blog post: unless Faith and Practice committee discerns resounding unity about what to call said committee, RantWoman thinks it is Faith and Practice committee's job to articulate something about the range of views and ongoing discernment in individual Meetings / worship groups and then to suggest some descriptive shorthand for said committee while referring to functions usually performed by that committee. Again, based on email with the clerk of Faith and Practice committee, RantWoman thinks the new draft includes paragraphs speaking to this.
The second blog post suggests, to RantWoman's ears that the final Faith and Practice would benefit from including some history in its work. Um, how on earth is history supposed to be reflected if a blog does not provide comments and there is no way quickly to track back to conversation on Facebook?

RantWoman is aware that the NPYM website contains drafts revisions of many sections of Faith and Practice. RantWoman feels no need to go quote individual passages just now. However when discussing texts, it makes RantWoman's screen reader addled brain really happy if the chunks of text under discussion get mentioned in blog posts along with links to the whole document.

RantWoman is not sure that having conversations about this topic across multiple different media streams and modes of communications will lead to either great Light or simplicity, but RantWoman is called to aimfor both, preferably from multiple directions, with or without hyperlinks.

Word!

Read More

Minutes on Climate Change and Transformations

RantWoman means to see whether coherent thoughts can be woven from the following items in terms of what is my Meeting / Yearly Meeting / my own soul called to do, to do next in the presence of Climate Change. But RantWoman is posting these items together unwoven thinking that others might feel called to weave faster than RantWoman will



An interesting minute arising from holding Meeting for Business every day during a workshop at Friends General Conference 2013
http://pathsoflight.us/musing/2013/08/quaker-workshop-minute-on-climate-change/

Closing statement from the World Gathering, the Kabarack Call for Peace and Ecojustice, findable via http://www.saltandlight2012.org/

The Overconsumption / Overpopulation Minute seasoned but never approved by North Pacific Yearly Meeting
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2011/07/population-overconsumption-climate.html

2008 NPYM MInute on Climate Change
http://www.npym.org/archives/minute2008_climate.html

Read More

Protect and Survive

RantWoman thanks her public radio infostreams for calling to mind to strands of thinking from RantWoman's past: Protect and Survive, the British government's civil defense initiatives related to the possibility of nuclear attack, and Protest and Survive, a slogan adopted by many nonviolent activists in the US during the 1980's. Protest and Survive gets its own post. Protect and Survive: a sampling of web links for Friends' amusement. And PLEASE be amused. There is much of seriousness to contemplate; a healthy sense of the absurd is also a gift, especially since history has marched forward with a whole new tangle of issues.

A wonderful archive of materials: http://www.atomica.co.uk/

Some graphics for the sake of nostalgia

Hiding out from fallout under a bridge, from this archive:
http://www.missourah.com/2009/12/28/protect-and-survive-disturbing-british-nuclear-survival-videos-1980s/

Read More

Exercise, Families, Saturday Plenary, MONEY

RantWoman DOES have an I voice. If readers are lucky, RantWoman will preserve her I voice out of an edited email. This item summarizes some circumstances feeding into the famous Saturday plenary at NPYM Annual Session where God needed to rearrange the agenda as well as some points RantWoman heard or did not hear spoken out of worship.


RantWoman notes that God still seems to be organizing several points related to how NPYM conducts Annual Session in addition to the content questions connected with the items being discussed. In other words, RantWoman means to post a couple other pieces of the picture separately and pointedly encourages readers to hold all the pieces when trying to understand why Friends needed just to work with God.

At an earlier plenary the Annual Session had approved creating a 1/4 time paid position to coordinate the entire Annual Session children's program, carry out the requirements of the Youth safety policy, and find people to staff programs for all age groups at Annual Session. This proposal emerged from an ad hoc committee in late spring and was circulated among Monthly Meetings and Worship groups before Annual Session. The proposal included straightforward job descriptions and suggestions about how to fund the work but did not address some points which RantWoman speaks to below..
RantWoman's Meeting heard an announcement about it almost in passing at the very end of June Meeting for Business and the actual proposal was distributed electronically the next week with the weekly bulletin. RantWoman read the proposal including a proposal to fund the first year of the position out of reserves and a request later for about a 17% increase per capita in Yearly Meeting dues assessments and a proposal in subsequent years to add an outreach component.
RantWoman sent the clerk of the ad hoc committee some questions:

--Should the outreach component begin immediately if only so that the person doing the work can identify counts of children and of adults who might be recruited to support the work to be done?

--Should there be targeted fundraising so that assessments do not have to be increased so much, particularly for Friends who never attend Annual Session?

--Does the proposal need to take into account other issues such as the Great Recession, our Yearly Meeting's practice of changing venues every two years to reflect our geographic size, addition a few years ago of an additional day?

--How does this proposal relate to several questions about attenders, identity as members of a Friends' community, membership coincidentally being thought about as the Committee on the Discipline works to describe current practice and to revise our Faith and Practice.

RantWoman did not expect a reply to her questions any sooner than Annual Session; RantWoman did not hear her question about numbers addressed at all one way or another in the plenary discussions of the paid children's program arranger position.

RantWoman remembers speaking to support the general thought of investng in youth programs. RantWoman also remembers urging Friends to go forward in faith about money even though for her some money parts of the proposal did not compute; at the time RantWoman was assured that discussion of the Ad Hoc Committee on affordability for families committee work would address RantWoman's concerns. This turned out not really to be feasible.

The Ad-hoc committee on Family Affordability was the focus of the agenda for the Saturday plenary when God and several young Friends rose to speak. There had been various questions about how the committee proposed to work to better understand the issue, what it was trying to accomplish and other ways to understand priorities. Process, content, how to listen to movements of the Divine were all muddled in Friends' questions about the proposal and ministry on the topic.

This was the point where a Weighty Friend spoke to a sense of unease in the room and a whole sequence of Friends spoke before a suggestion was made simply to go into worship and allow Friends to speak out of worship for the remainder of the time for that plenary. RantWoman spoke of her sense that the question before the group was how best to use our resources to draw our community closer to God and to each other.

(RantWoman also led a worship group. Email among Worship Group leaders after Annual Session indicates that several of the Saturday Worship Groups, though not RantWoman's were led to speak of the plenary within their worship groups.)

Here is RantWoman's email after Annual Session, in the spirit of Minutes of Exercise edited only minimally, and offered with RantWoman's name attached even though she is NOT the Recording Clerk: This is such Light as has come to RantWoman and RantWoman is specifically NOT speaking on behalf of the whole group.


This message is topical to the paid children's program discussion and to the Family Affordability committee. Friends are welcome to ask for clarifications or to forward. I do not want to make a blanket offer, but would also be willing to discern whether I have additional increments of time to devote to this work.Other than that, I am happy just to feed my thoughts into others' work and not necessarily expect responses right away.

As a process point, I am aware that I may be suggesting things other than decisions made in plenaries and I would remind Friends that Coordinating Committee (the representative body which meets a couple times / year between Annual Sessions) might be a place to consider adjustments to charge, scope of work, objectives for the newly approved position of children's program arranger.

Here I want to outline some stuff I heard, some stuff I did not hear, questions on my mind, and see how my thinking feeds into next increments of work.


To Friend Clerk of the Ad hoc committee on children's program coordination:

I did not hear ANYTHING in my report about your committee's request for numbers. I was hoping someone else would have the same thought in plenary; they did not so I am raising it here. I asked for data about numbers of people of different ages at Annual Session different years, different locations with a couple other before and after points in my ask.

To me a bunch of people looking at numbers CAN be really valuable and that is the kind of thing I wish Friends could wade into when an issue is framed. My request may or may not have been easily doable in the time between when I made it and annual session, but it's something to think about. In fact, in the car on the way home, I jotted down some other thoughts about making an analysis dataset from historical registration data. MAYBE I will elaborate especially if anyone else is interested in this idea.

I DID NOT hear ANY mention in either the Annual Session affordability or the Paid childcare arranger discussion of the survey done at the beginning of 2012 about families and Annual Session. The survey was HOPEFULLY going to collect input from people who do not attend annual session. Since the survey was done, even the fact of there being only a few respondents might be important in thinking about next steps. I heard LOTS of people talk in plenaries and otherwise about the value of Annual Session.

I heard some amorphous thoughts about care of Quarterly meetings as an idea not attached to particular actions. On the way home a Young Adult Friend mentioned Young Adults' interest in travelling among different Quarterly Gatherings. I wonder what opportunities there are for synergy with Outreach and Visitation, information sharing....

I heard and share a concern about sucking out Spirit either with too much business or in how we do business. I will send some thoughtsabout my Quakers go to Camp / Business Meeting EVERY DAY theme and will write separate emails about these thoughts.
I heard complete lack of clarity about a whole bunch of questions to do with assessments, various charges for Annual session. I think complete lack of clarity is actually a helpful place to start. I would find it valuable for the family affordability committee at next year's Annual Session to present a few different scenarios addressing both the length of Annual Session and apportionment of costs between assessments and things charged to those who attend Annual Session and even some different per person breakouts. For instance, I think it might be fine to ask all annual session adults to help subsidize children / families.

I heard voices of Monthly Meetings saying "ask us what we need, don't just ask us to keep seasoning stuff." (This is a reference to our evolving standing committees, all of whom seem to be sending out queries asking Monthly Meetings and Worship groups to season various questions.) I do not know whether there is a disconnect about the ask here but the "ask us what we need" is important.

I heard mention of lots of interest from Monthly Meetings in educational curricula and help with children's programs. I am not sure where that comes from but I have heard it before and for instance the paid children's program coordinator job description as written does not address that concern right away. Would anyone besides me find value in reconsidering elements of the job description?


Friend, Clerk of the Ad Hoc Committee, you talk about wishing more of your Meeting would come to Annual Session.

--Why do you think they don't? Are they not interested? Does no one do anything to promote? Is it only cost or are there other barriers?

--What if anything would a paid children's program arranger position contribute to getting more people specifically from your Meeting to attend Annual Session? Do Friends feel any call to think about this question with respect to other Meetings?

--Here is a blog post with my take on some possible barriers:
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2013/07/annual-session-ad-copy-too-late-and-too.html

--I always have a reflex to try to spell out some "how do we know it works" criteria. I know God showing up is--and SHOULD BE--hard to measure, but things like numbers, repeat attenders, finances that balance might suggest some basics.

I hope these comments are helpful. I would be interested to hear Friends responses if led but I am also happy just feeding thoughts into the work.

Thank you all for your work.

In the Light.

(RantWoman)

Read More

Annual Session Ad Copy, too late and too early

Ad copy: Why should YOU consider attending Annual Session:

How will Annual Session make you / your Meeting more open to movements of Spirit, better steeped in God's currents, more full of daily centering and prophetic witness?

What will you bring with? What might you take away?
Look world, RantWoman actually does NOT prefer to offer ad copy after Meeting for Worship about “why should YOU consider attending Annual Session” on the last day of registration. RantWoman prefers to weigh in a lot sooner, like maybe January so families who need to request vacation time and fit things into a tight budget have a prayer of doing so. RantWoman further points out that these days RantWoman goes to Annual Session already wearing too many hats, determined not to take on more hats, and aware that there are hats attached to fun, rewarding doable work which RantWoman wishes would find other heads. This year, RantWoman went so far as to tell Worship and Ministry that if heads who might be inspired to take on some of this work apply for money, they should get money ahead of RantWoman! Guess who got her full grant request approved!


Ad copy, such as it is:

LOTS of ways to renew connections and nurture spiritual growth including Friend in Residence, Interest Groups, Worship Sharing, singing, singing, singing.

It’s Quakers go to camp! Business Meeting EVERY DAY! ?!?!?

It’s our youth needing to get together.

1. RantWoman remembers the Central Friends calling adults out last year. The latest CO mass shooting occurred during last year’s Annual Session. The Central Friends were the ones whose epistle called Friends’ attention to this outrage. RantWoman has been holding that concern all year as Friends Committee on WA Public Policy talks about different aspects of gun violence, suicide, shootings in the headlines and which states have most well-developed restorative justice and violence prevention programs; RantWoman admits this energy from our youth also causes her to invite youth to talk to Friends Committee for WA Public Policy about leadings which might develop further.

2. RantWoman remembers Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting last year, the one where urban families all got smoked out by wildfires in the area. Two business meetings did need to happen, but the youth who had come from many less urban places also implored the adults who came to please stay so the youth could also have time together as Quakers.

RantWoman has been holding these thoughts while considering a large proposed dues increase to fund planning of the youth and children’s program at Annual Session. See “it’s Business Meeting EVERY DAY.” RantWoman has some probing questions about Annual Session and planning youth programs and has duly made, basically, a data request; RantWoman also finds herself wondering whether a good youth program at Annual Session might depend on outreach and nurturing local Meetings and Worship Groups all year. RantWoman has two further possibly controversial thoughts:

1. RantWoman suggests that NPYM do targeted fundraising to support both immediate outreach and work focused on youth programs at Annual Session. RantWoman’s Meeting has been able to invest from a large donation to pay First Day School teachers. A more stable program with more consistent participation has bloomed because of this. In other words, there are youth whose families theoretically might come to Annual Session precisely because we are investing all year. RantWoman thinks targeted fundraising could share the costs of this outreach. The proposed dues increase also just looks really dramatic.

2. RantWoman is all for good Annual Sessions, BUT RantWoman notes that some Yearly Meetings only have large gatherings every other year. RantWoman remembers a couple years ago when a proposed minute arrived about overpopulation and was left hanging without final action after being transformed into concerns about overconsumption. RantWoman thinks Friends should test the thought of having large gatherings only every other year and investing our travel time and other resources in activities closer to home on the off years.


It’s two contradictory extreme writing exercises:

1. Daily Bulletin editor. 1 page, 2 sides, a deadline, God and LOTS of people with opinions about what should go on that page every day. Someone with even the slightest inclination to be a petty tyrant might be a good match for what is needed.

2. Epistle Committee. The fun parts: Epistle Committee gets to read all the epistles from all over the world. This is a great opportunity for naturally introverted Quakers who do not just burst into spontaneous conversation every time they find themselves in a flock of people. One contributes by reading quietly on one’s own and by seasoning with a committee how to send a sample of the year’s gathering out into the wider world. The downside: reading the epistle in plenary where God and 300 people all want to help edit one’s STUFF.




Ad copy HIGHLY specific to RantWoman’s situation that probably ALSO speaks to at least a few other Friends.

RantWoman’s annual session lately has come with bonus interactions with campus tech support staff when RantWoman has encountered difficulty interfacing with campus computer networks. RantWoman considers it a great good thing that over time she has acquired more of her own technological prerequisites AND also received appropriate technologically competent and otherwise astute help, particularly dealing appropriately with the presence of RantWoman’s assistive technology from the tech support staff of every university where Annual Session has taken place.

It’s a really awesome place to hang out while living with a long succession of medical issues. RantWoman is not sure the Quaker spa angle is the BEST marketing she can come up with, but….

If you are not interested in RantWoman’s experience on this score, please stop here, check out npym.org and get about discerning what Annual Session might have to offer you. If you want testimony to community in spite of multiple forms of difficulty read on.

2012: PLU Reports back from World Gathering; Benigno Sanchez Eppler. Many messages of renewal in closing worship and work to get there. RantWoman broke her arm a week before Annual Session. RantWoman spent all of Annual Session seesawing between pain and the downsides of different painkiller regimens. More than enough said. RantWoman held daily one-person worship lethargy events during Worship Sharing time. RantWoman is deeply grateful that every day someone sat down for a visit and that someone was willing either just to help RantWoman tie up her hair OR let RantWoman teach them how to French braid. RantWoman in passing also particularly upheld epistle committee and participation by one youth attending with his grandparents and masterful attention from his age group leader.

2011: PLU RantWoman’s attention and Light were needed by situations not suitable for specifying in further detail except to say this was a blessing as far as channeling scorching opinions of other matters.

2009, 2010: U of MT. RantWoman was Daily Bulletin editor. RantWoman has written previously of her long life history with the University of MT campus. RantWoman loves having Annual Session in Missoula, and RantWoman also always has to tend to layers of memory.

2008: Oregon State. Great swimming pool. Same great dorm windows that always irresistibly draw people to sit and dangle their legs several stories above the ground. RantWoman has decidedly mixed feelings about the allure of these dorm windows and visitations to Annual Session by state police who prefer to err on the side of caution as far as gravity and potential lawsuits.

2007: Reed College. RantWoman thinks, looking back that by this year she at least had taken up with Ambassador Thwack the Badly-behaved White Cane. RantWoman THINKS she was in pretty good shape, but her roommates, Grandma and granddaughter had some rough moments RantWoman found herself unsure how to uphold. RantWoman learned after the fact that those organizing Annual Session need upholding as far as relationships with our venues. RantWoman thinks that is enough said about the change in venue for the next year.

2006: PLU abbreviated session before Friends General Conference. RantWoman was very glad to get to go to the FGC gathering. RantWoman also was glad to help about accessibility. And RantWoman was not yet speaking up for herself as far as desire to consume Quaker print in forms accessible for her. Sigh. But half the allure of Gathering was just a big break from other family members’ medical issues.

2005: PLU. RantWoman had some role related to Interest Groups for Annual Session planning. RantWoman does not think she fulfilled it brilliantly. On the contrary, RantWoman thinks it MAY have been at least a mixed blessing that RantWoman left Annual Session 2 days early to fly to MT and tend to RantMom after cancer surgery. RantWoman also thinks she had some undiagnosed eye yuck because the eye yuck was finally diagnosed after RantWoman returned from MT in September.

2004: U of MT. Two months out from surgery for detached retina. Face still swollen with a serious “my doctor got paid to do that to me bruise.” RantWoman spent lots of time falling asleep in plenaries or on whatever furniture was handy in air conditioned spaces. RantWoman was blessed by a travelling companion who asked her thoughtfully whether she ever considered having an anger management moment. No, not in the last 11 seconds or so. And what about a service python? RantWoman considers the idea of a service python so deliciously inappropriate that she grins every time it comes up. Thank heaven RantWoman does not try to get into a cab with an actual python though.

2003: U of MT: RantWoman’s other arm was still in some kind of cast or exercise regimen. RantWoman apologizes for not remembering who were Friends in Residence….

RantWoman is grateful to feel well-held in many ways; RantWoman does NOT think she could have handled all her own circumstances if, for instance, she also needed to tend to a child. RantWoman thus finds yet another reason to be humble and seek Light about what exactly Annual Session offers others and how to make those blessings more apparent when people are choosing whether to attend. RantWoman also darn well wants to interact with the questions more timely with respect to future years!

Read More

Hashtags of the Week

RantWoman MIGHT just go download a pendle Hill Pamphlet called On Being Present Where You are from the free Pendle Hill pamphlets in PDF site. RantWoman MIGHT do that. OR RantWoman might just Rant and ramble:


RantWoman is once again attending multiple events from the proximity of her cat, the Queen of Spades, and her Twitter feed.

RantWoman wholeheartedly endorses holding FGC gathering west of the Mississippi from time to time. RantWoman gave thought to attending #fgc13 but did not.

Nor is RantWoman chatting up #marriageequality at #BPI13 even though #BPI13 is a really good reason RantWoman would be more likely to go to #acb13 than to #nfb13. RantWoman gets to be happy enough having seeded #marriageequality conversations at #BPI13 with a few selected links about #marriageequality in WA and in the process to have heard really nice voices from WA speak highly of #bpi13.

But as long as we are talking about #acb13 and #nfb13, RantWoman would like, HOPEFULLY in politer terms to restate a concern from a recent post http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2013/06/new-book-about-gordon-hirabayashi.html  about #quakers and #accessibility of Quaker-generated print

Look, RantWoman understands that the world of publishing and ebooks and getting content into everyone's devices is kind of brutal for everyone, not just blind people. RantWoman understands that meeting the needs of blind people is not a slam dunk. RantWoman would so like to have concise and centered tips to help. Instead RantWoman has, for today, one interesting blog link, http://burley-wilson.com/blog/  and a sincere hope that all those #quakers at QUIP and otherwise will begin to think about this. See RantWoman knows a lot of blind people. Some of them would probably be interest in #quakers. Some of them are actually better grounded and centered than RantWoman. (That is not hard right now.)


Meanwhile, the Queen of Spades thanks RantWoman for not leaving town THIS weekend. Just you wait. The Queen of Spades came to live with RantWoman before #fgc09 on a catsit. The Queen of Spades arrived with rumors that she would disappear for 3 days, but RantWoman lucky-guessed how to find her kitty nose about 3 hours after she arrived; both RantWoman and the Queen of Spades seem grateful though the Queen of Spades has peculiar ways of showing it. Fortunately, RantWoman will close without going to dig up some hashtag for #psychokitty.

Warmest wishes to everyone travelling and gathering under the above hashtags this week.

Read More

Food, Fed, Feed Spiritually

On eating,food, stewardship and Wealth

Eating sunshine for the butterflies in one's stomach
http://nancyjthomas.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-sunshine-eater.html

Spirituality and community and struggles with anorexia
http://morewithmuchless.blogspot.com/2013/06/my-name-is-michelle-and-i-am-thirty-two.html

Biking as meditation and the gratitudes involved in a family being able to do it.
http://quakeroatslive.blogspot.com/2013/06/mama-does-god-hate-cars.html

Pope Francis: Wasting Food is like Stealing from the Poor
http://sojo.net/blogs/2013/06/05/pope-francis-wasting-food-stealing-poor?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sojourners%2Fgods-politics+%28Sojourners+God%27s+Politics+Blog%29

The Lamb's war wioth dialogue in the comments about stewardship
http://www.lambswar.com/give-it-all-away/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LambsWar+%28The+Lamb%27s+War%29

Read More

Global Accessibility Awareness Day

RantWoman feels called to take a break from other matters roiling her soul. RantWoman specifically invites Quaker content providers to participate in Global Accessibility Awareness Day.

--RantWoman honors and reveres many weighty Friends who are paper only people. But RantWoman is impatient and prefers things she can access independently.

--RantWoman is deeply grateful to Friends publications that have electronic versions. RantWoman becomes crabby in the presence of various Quaker info streams that exist only on paper with no options for electronic access.RantWoman recognizes that this point of view comes with challenges. For the time being RantWoman is humbly holding in the Light improvements in these realities.

--RantWoman deeply appreciates Quaker blogs.

--RantWoman appreciates a wide variety of sound and video archives. --RantWoman becomes crabby when all kinds of content is published only on paper. RantWoman TRIES to make allowances for old material that is out of print. RantWoman TRIES to make allowances about this but succeeds unevenly. RantWoman thinks Quakers have a lot to say to the world today but unfortunately a lot of the world is digital and just won't find or interact with paper.

--RantWoman greatly esteems Quaker authors who make their work availabe through Amazon. RantWoman is aware of MANY issues for authors. Nevertheless, RantWoman is FAR more likely to interacti with authors' offerings if she can access material independently. RantWoman for example thanks John Calvi for making his forthcoming book available through Amazon and in electronic format! http://johncalvi.blogspot.com/2013/05/29th-beethoven-letter-may-2013.html

RantWoman apologizes in advance that her offering here is raggedy, disjointed, probably overpowering, and generally WAY TOO MUCH. RantWoman encourages Friends to trust your Light and read selectively from the following links for today.

A general enough item about Global Accessibility Awareness Day. Worth reading because it has a couple simple ways people can try to access web content without relying on a mouse. http://www.sitepoint.com/global-accessibility-awareness-day/

Friends who want to wander further into the topic are invited to use your search engines or click on links within the article.

RantWoman likes the Our Daily Bread site for providing material in LOTS of formats with LOTS of ways to adjust presentation.
http://odb.org/

A random good news about new paths to Kindle accessibility / bad news about the federal government item. http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-good-ios-accessibilty-for-kindle.html

RantWoman notes that Global Accessibility Awareness Day is only about accessibility of electronic content;Accessibility is a MUCH bigger area than that, so do what you can, do the best you can, but don't get complacent after dipping toes in only slightly.

Read More

The Race Card Project, among other things

Blog posts topical to #theracecardproject, assembled partly in preparation for #wpc14
Wherein RantWoman confesses to having designed an intake form that does not include an option for mixed race / mixed ethnicity and statistical hilarity (?!?) arising from further bad assumptions
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2013/01/fixity.html

Wherein there are numerous places in a muddled narrative where race is one big part of how actual data looks and maybe RantWoman should pull together some maps to make her point.
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2013/03/relic-edge-of-new-millenium.html

Wherein RantWoman manages NOT to hyperventilate about differences in possible perception because Irrepressible Nephew and his father are of Guatemalan heritage.
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2013/03/nerf-war-morality-moments-conflict.html

Wherein RantWoman makes an uncharacteristically gushy observation about an activity run by her college alumni association.
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2012/01/princeton-prize-in-race-relations.html

Wherein RantWoman dumps a whole bunch of posts tied in some way or another to interactions across race.
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/search/label/Twenty-Three-and-U

Special bus geek terminology notes: RantWoman has experience with more than one bus system where drivers develop comparable shorthand about significant bus stops. RantWoman's experience and awareness of history in Seattle, the intersection of Twenty Third and Union represents many cycles of redlining, cross-race dialogue, gentrification, and intra-family dialogue as different members of RantWoman's extended family have come and gone from RantWoman's immediate orbit. Hence the blog tag, which is as idiosyncratic as many of RantWoman's other blog tags.

Further meditations for all the other Quakers come to town for the White Privilege Conference:

--RantWoman is not sure why, but RantWoman had not even the faintest leading until after registration has closed to forward info about the White Privilege Conference to the contact list lurking in RantWoman's email for the Pacific Northwest Quaker Women's Theology Conference.

http://pnwquakerwomen.org/conference/

RanWoman IS all about doing what she can to have the next conference do the work to include women from Spanish-speaking Friends churches. Many are eager and see this is both possible and reasonable; others are still to be labored with. RantWoman would be happy to talk to visiting Friends about the dialogue across Friends traditions which are woven through the Pacific NorthWest Quaker Women's Theology Conference.

--RantWoman will post a separate item extracted and expanded from email about leadings she is seasoning related to the Friends Committee for WA Public Policy,
www.fcwpp.org

Read More

Mental Health Care: HARD even with good insurance and great personal support.

RantWoman notes this item about mental health care in another state. It's pretty daunting even for a native English speaker with good insurance and excellent support.
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/04/05/mental-health-new-hampshire

RantWoman has anecdotal and observational information to the effect that realities in WA are just as hair-raising. RantWoman has further information that needing interpretation or having other language access barriers makes the challenge of living with mental illness even more daunting.



Once upon a time, long ago, RantWoman also worked as a bean counter in an organization where the norm was--and RantWoman thinks still is--to expect primary care doctors to manage most mental illness in primary care with medication. Enough said for now!

Read More

War Tax Resistance: Could not say it better myself

RantWoman would absolutely consider having enough income to need to think about the share of her taxes going for war a VERY good thing. It even occurs to RantWoman that this thought would be among the more unusual things a vocational rehab counselor might ever hear.

RantWoman, for better or worse, is in Make Your own job mode so RantWoman simply gets to highlight this excellent item from Waging Nonviolence about war tax resistance and trust that seeds might fall somewhere fertile.

http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/what-if-they-gave-a-war-and-nobody-paid/

Read More

Business Meeting snapshots

Blog as filing cabinet items about Meeting for Business

The new priesthood, Sheffield
http://sheffieldquakers.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-new-priesthood.html

Chris Mohr, as to the funnel, as to the sifter
http://chrismsf.blogspot.com/2013/03/vital-quaker-tools-kitchen-remix-version.html

Read More