--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/Sufferings/2019-04-06/notes.txt	Sat Jul 06 14:59:57 2019 +0100
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+23.48
+*Court and Prison Register*
+
+[York meeting attender] had a contract with the Church Commissioners
+cancelled mid-way through for "attending Quaker worship and refused to
+give any assurance that she would cease to do so"
+
+Change name to "Record of Sufferings" and expand the scope?  We'll
+come back to that, some hard boundary questions...
+
+*Diversity*
+
+  "Sometimes [I don't] feel at home among Friends, but I do feel at
+   home in Meeting for Worship"
+
+  1) Does anybody have a claim on the universal / baseline?
+
+  2) Do Quakers think that everyone should aspire to become middle
+     class by middle age?
+
+  3) What makes for a welcoming welcome?
+
+  Overall, what are the weaknesses inherent in my [privileged] position?
+  [I.e. what do I have to _gain_ from diversity?]
+
+----------------
+[Does an unselfconscious internal question along the lines of "would I
+like to be friends with this person" get in the way of an effective
+welcome?]
+----------------
+*Vibrancy*
+
+See papers for lengthy report, of little interest to us IMO
+
+Median size (wrt Members) of LMs down from 24 -> 18 over last 10 years
+OTOH More LMs have childrens' meetings
+     16 Younger Friends groups
+
+Goal is to reinvigorate Quakerism
+
+Trustees: How to take forward the benefits:
+
+  "How best [can] the essence of the vibrancy work help us achieve
+   the priorities that we have identified towards 'A simple church
+   supported by a simple charity to re-invigorate Quakerism'. We have
+   to find an affordable, sustainable and spirit-led solution for the
+   whole of the yearly meeting and not only in the pilot areas."
+
+Some interest in the idea that not all Central-Managed Work has to be
+managed by someone actually in the centre (London or, wrt Woodbrooke,
+Birmingham).
+
+[Option 4 vs option 5 as crisis team or towards a new normal?  Compare
+aid charities which focus on helping after the earthquake/crop
+failure/flood to rebuild the schools/provide food and seed corn/dry
+things out and rebuild and once they've done that go home with aid
+charities which fund agricultural development workers and scholarships
+for medical school]
+
+[Individual VW staff need some modest amount of discretionary
+spending]
+
+[Risk register: lack of a transmissable Quaker culture
+    Woodbrooke: big drop in Quaker attendance at Woodbrooke events]

--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/Sufferings/2019-04-06/report.txt	Sat Jul 06 14:59:57 2019 +0100
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+*Meeting for Sufferings*
+
+6 April 2019
+
+Henry S. Thompson, SE Scotland AM representative
+
+All the papers for the meeting are available online at
+
+  https://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/mfs-2019-04-agenda--papers-package
+
+The minutes and other follow-up material are available from
+
+  https://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/mfs-2019-04-follow-up-packagev4
+
+Not really much to report from this meeting.
+
+The major item of interest was a summary of the external review of the
+Vibrancy project, and Trustees' considerations of whether and if so how
+it might be continued.
+
+The goal of the Vibrancy project is to "reinvigorate Quakerism":
+   https://www.quaker.org.uk/our-organisation/support-for-meetings/vibrancy-in-meetings
+
+The problem: Median size (wrt Members) of LMs down from 24 -> 18 over
+last 10 years
+
+Trustees: How to take forward the benefits:
+
+  "How best [can] the essence of the vibrancy work help us achieve
+   the priorities that we have identified towards 'A simple church
+   supported by a simple charity to re-invigorate Quakerism'. We have
+   to find an affordable, sustainable and spirit-led solution for the
+   whole of the yearly meeting and not only in the pilot areas."
+
+Some interest in the idea that not all Central-Managed Work has to be
+managed by someone actually in the centre (London or, wrt Woodbrooke,
+Birmingham).
+
+*Report from Trustees*
+
+Apparently we have, or rather Trustees have, a Risk Register. Two
+entries in it caught my attention:
+
+  * With respect to Britain Yearly Meeting as a whole: the "lack of a
+    transmissable Quaker culture";
+
+  * With respect to Woodbrooke: a recent big drop in Quaker attendance
+    at Woodbrook events.

--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/Sufferings/2019-07-06/notes.txt	Sat Jul 06 14:59:57 2019 +0100
@@ -0,0 +1,100 @@
+*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.
+