July:
----------
One fact mentioned almost in passing that was a surprise to me, at
least: Britain Yearly Meeting has 179 paid employees at last count

In an otherwise business-as-usual report from BYM Trustees, the
process of strategic planning I reported on from the April meeting has
continued, and its goal has been distilled to a remarkable one-liner:

 "a vision of a simple church supported by a simple charity to
  reinvigorate Quakerism"

*Revising our Book of Discipline*

Meeting for Sufferings has asked Central Nominations Committee to
bring forward names to serve on a Book of Discipline Revision Committee

It's too late to put your name forward for consideration to serve on
on this, but you _can_ submit material for consideration, via

  https://forms.quaker.org.uk/qfp-idea/
-------------
Minute 17 records our agreement that Area Meeting trustees be
encouraged to report on sustainability actions in their annual report.

Guidelines for this have been prepared by Quaker Stewardship Committee
and members of BYM Sustainability Group have indicated they would be
happy to supply help and support on request.
------------
============October==========
Trustees: Simplifying and removing some restrictions on the process of launching
and managing legacy-funded projects.

Three strategic priorities, to bridge the planning gap between _Our
Faith in the Future_ and the Operational Plan: "thriving Quaker
communities, a sustainable peaceful world and simple structure and
practice"
-------------
We (BYM) now have a Inclusion and Diversity Co-ordinator, her name is
Edwina Peart.

Responses to the request for input from Area Meetings:
  * Doing well on age (but see immediately below), gender and sexual orientation
  * Not so well on race, class and <18 ages

What questions are good to ask a newcomer after meeting?
  * Don't ask questions, say a little about yourself, and then leave some space...
  * Asking questions often unintentionally reveals mistaken assumptions
    which can lead to awkward silences...

*BYM investments and occupied Palestine*

We do not currently have any investments in any companies known to be
"profiting from the occupation of Palestine".

Trustees have asked MfS to advise on whether we should explicitly make
divestment a policy.

There is an excellent review of the background to this in the papers.

Recognising the difficulties in identifying such companies...

MfS advised Trustees to go ahead and "exclude from its investments
companies profiting from the occupation of Palestine, and to amend the
BYM Investment Policy accordingly."
------------
MfS have agreed an experiment to appoint 4 YAFs to MfS for the
remainder of this triennium.  Interested YAFs should contact the
============November============
Residential
-----------
QCCIR have been busy, with a very extensive research effort on "The
Changing Face of Faith" [1].  The first part of this was discussed at
a conference in March, there will be another in March 2019 to which
AMs are invited to send representatives: "Area Meetings are encouraged
to send representatives to share local experience and learn for
experience in other parts of the yearly Meeting.":
-----------
*Quaker Peace and Social Witness*

Promoting a new film, _War School_, "this film from Pow Productions
takes a closer look at militarisation in Britain":

  https://www.quaker.org.uk/our-work/peace/challenging-militarism-1#heading-1
------------
*Quaker World Relations Committee:

Promoting a new film, _Quakers and Climate Change around the World_:

  http://fwcc.world/sustainability-resources
-----------
*Trustee's strategic priorities*

"A simple church supported by a simple charity"

Brilliant presentation by Ingrid Greenhow, Clerk to Trustees for just
a bit longer, and Paul Parker, Recording Clerk, on new strategic
priorities, BYM Trustees: see the diagram
-----------
* Recommendations from the Review of the Committee on Clerks*
[A bit of a procedural mess, ask me if you are interested in the
 minutiae of BYM procedures]

"Nominations is the holiest thing we do" [Elsie Dick]

*Sustainabilty Group, again*
We laid down the Sustainability Group, but Liz Birch did not go
quietly, in the best possible way.

She raised again the elephant in the room: what does it actually mean
in concrete practical terms for YM to adopt a concern?  Substitute
'AM' for 'YM' and you have something we've known we need to address, if
not how...

"Are [we] ready to be held accountable on how [we] are working towards
 sustainability?"
--------
*Diversity*

We have a new Inclusion and Diversity Coordinator at Friends House,
Edwina Peart.  She quite sensibly suggested that we need to know where
we actually _are_ before we can decide what we need to _do_.  She's
produced a survey:

  http://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/quakersurvey

which I would encourage everyone to fill in, it's quite short.

People might also be interested in Quaker Life Central Committee's new
statement on gender diversity, which was introduced to us by Jocelyn
Bell Burnell:

  http://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/qlcc-gender-diversity-statement-for-discussion-2018-11

============
"goatwalking" jim corbett