*Court & Prison Register*

 Some 14 Friends are reported as arrested in connection with 1 or more
 alleged offences undertaken as part of Extinction Rebellion actions.
 5 of these are from SE Scotland Area Meeting:

  Cath Dyer
  Justin Kenrick
  Saul Kenrick
  Lesley Morrison
  Eva Schonveld

Please hold these Friends in the Light as they prepare for their
trials.

*Gender diversity*

Sufferings are going to consider this matter in more detail in our
October meeting.

The background for this is QLCC's November statement _Quakers and
gender diversity_ and YFGM's _YFGM minute and values statement_.  The
YFGM value statement is at least in part a response to the QLCC
statement.

We are asked "to encourage Friends [to reflect on these statements
and] to explore this in our local Quaker communities."

My personal view is that it is the very politically-charged issue of
shared spaces that is implicated in conflicting interpretation of the
wordings where it is felt that "the two statements contradict".

Although the MfS agenda quoted above continues "... perhaps using the
resource provided at the end of this paper."  I doubt that this issue
can be explored without participation from both sides of the matter,
as third party assertions of the form "feminists think X" or
"trans-rights people think Y" are rarely either accurate or useful.

QLCC are happy to receive submissions, which will be treated
confidentially if so requested, from individuals and Meetings on this
matter.

*Sustainability*

Three thoughtful minutes received.  I particularly like the _West
Weald AM Statement from the Quaker Meeting for Worship held at the
Extinction Rebellion camp at Marble Arch, Easter Sunday, 21st April
2019_.  MfS takes no action to speak of.

QPSWCC is trying to raise 75K to keep support for Sanctuary Everywhere
via Sanctuary Meetings going for another year.

*Trustees*

Joint full-day meeting with Woodbrooke Trustees on "taking forward the
benefits of the Vibrancy Project".

[blamed it on us, for saying we thought Vibrancy and devolved projects
 were working well "very strongly" "being encouraged to be bold" [!]]

Joint statement: "a meeting-centred approach to providing support can
deepen our worship and transform our communities".

  "We share the aspiration to

   a) extend and expand the current model of Locally Based Development
      workers so that there is a local development worker within reach
      of every Meeting in Britain within 5 years.

   b) work rapidly towards more local support for Meetings and begin
      to experiment with new regional bases, hubs or clusters."

Details still "totally up in the air".  Not a cookie-cutter, same
thing is not going to work everywhere.

[Area Meeting that has a lot of money, could fund a worker for 'us'
 and the next door AM]

"Evolution not revolution" [she would, wouldn't she]

Going to use reserves to cover the [short-term] overspend.

Transition planning in hands of Management Meeting.

Q: what's meant by "within reach of" [Roy Stevenson]?
CN: [that's challenging]
PP: [reaching out _to_ Meetings][HST: Ah, so it's _peripatetic_ pastors :-]

HST: The cost is not just financial -- we are admitting we can no
longer say that we take care our of our business ourselves, we have to
pay someone to do it for us.

[The big meetings are dwindling the most -- ref. average size dropping]

Staffing impact - we're not closing Friends House!  Management C'ttee
are working actively on what will be devolved, where/when/how this
will happen, what IT infrastructure is needed.  Hubs/clusters/bases
important for staff welfare: 100% lone-working is not always an easy
life.