--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/Sufferings/2018-02-03/notes.txt	Sun Feb 04 11:08:57 2018 -0500
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+*Committee on Clerks review*
+
+ Take the lessons/ideas that came from the review of Central
+ Nominations into the ConC.
+
+ [DS has seen the CN review report?]
+
+*Yearly Meeting 2018 -- report from the Clerk*
+
+ 2020 Gathering will be in Bath 1--8 August
+
+ Most of the time to deciding on revising the BoD
+   * Theological differences
+   * Structural proposal, wrt CG [principles in book and guidelines
+                                  e.g. online]
+   * Trustees' report (highlight of 2017?!)
+
+ Deadlines for JYM _next week_, other youth programmes mid-March
+
+ There will be registration again
+
+*Report from BYM Sustainability Group*
+
+  Near the beginning of their 2nd 3-year 'term'
+
+  Struggling a bit to get the resourcing they think they need
+
+  Uptake of the sustainability concern is very uneven across the YM --
+  YM said we need to change in the 2011 Canterbury Commitment [1], but
+  that hasn't always translated into action
+
+  Sufferings appointed a Review Group, (now) due to report in time for
+  April MfS
+
+  G. K. Chesterton:
+
+   “I tell you naught for your comfort, 
+    Yea, naught for your desire, 
+    Save that the sky grows darker yet 
+    And the sea rises higher.”
+
+[1] http://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/minute-36-leaflet-2011
+
+*Quaker Life CC report*
+
+  A lot of changes, in CC and in central Staff
+
+  A new (no longer draft) Strategy
+
+    Staff say existing work all fits
+
+    QLCC mindful that membership is declining, and aging
+      What _can_ we do?  Is what we are trying to do working?
+
+    Organised in terms of OFitF
+
+    Priority to 1 (MfW), 2 (Community), 6 (Visibility)
+
+  New "Quake!" e-newsletter: [ref coming]
+
+  1330 House group Hilda Clark 1 [time, participation, questions]
+  1445 back to plenary
+-----[House Groups on QLCC report]-----
+Carol Rakoby & Gill Reid facilitating
+ plus usual suspects, one or two changes
+[membership, meetings for learning, [afterword]] 
+----------QLCC report revisited--------
+Flexible membership - email JBB about FWCC c'ttee
+
+[?email to Clerk? -- concerned at your (2nd meeting in a row)
+ appearing to rebuke someone for their ministry.  Not my understanding
+ of a Clerk's job]
+
+Are we slaves to our buildings?
+
+Welcoming isn't enough -- without depth, people won't come back
+ Qualitative indicators
+

--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/Sufferings/2018-02-03/sesame.txt	Sun Feb 04 11:08:57 2018 -0500
@@ -0,0 +1,110 @@
+Meeting for Sufferings
+
+3 February 2018
+
+Henry S. Thompson, SE Scotland AM representative
+
+All the papers for the meeting are available online at
+
+  http://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/mfs-feb-2018-updated-agenda--papers-package3
+
+The minutes and other follow-up material will also appear sometime
+soon linked from
+
+  http://www.quaker.org.uk/our-organisation/meeting-for-sufferings/papers-and-minutes
+
+*Yearly Meeting 2018 -- report from the Clerk*
+
+We had a brief introduction to plans for Yearly Meeting (4--7 May 2018
+at Friends House, London).  Perhaps the most interesting thing in this
+regard was a phrase from YM Agenda Committee (YMAC) at their recent
+meeting: "Preparing YM for radical change".  This came up several
+times in different contexts during the day, and was explained as
+referring to the growing awareness of the need to recognise and
+respond to the fact that we are shrinking, and getting older.
+
+Further to Sufferings' decision, as reported in December, to recommend
+to YM that we should set about revising our Book of Discipline and
+that Sufferings should manage the creation of a Revision Committee to
+undertake the necessary work, the largest agenda item at YM 2018 will
+be devoted to preparing for and making that decision and addressing
+the consequences.
+
+Deadlines for young people's participation in May are fast
+approaching:
+
+  Junior Yearly Meeting:  23 February 2018
+  Young people's YM programme: 18 March 2018
+ [Those two are not at Friends House]
+  Children's programme at YM: 18 March 2018
+ [This one _is_ at Friends House]
+
+See http://www.quaker.org.uk/events/?category=1 for details.
+
+Once again those planning to attend YM in May are asked to register in
+advance:
+
+  https://forms.quaker.org.uk/ym/
+
+*Yearly Meeting Gathering 2020*
+
+Deborah Rowlands, YM Clerk, also gave some background to the
+recommendation from YMAC, which Sufferings agreed to, that the 2020 YM
+Gathering should be held at the University of Bath from 1--8 August,
+2020.
+
+*Report from BYM Sustainability Group*
+
+This Group, which is not itself empowered or funded to do work itself,
+is near the beginning of their 2nd 3-year 'term'.
+
+They have sometimes found the lack of resources of their own difficult
+to deal with.
+
+They are concerned that the uptake of the sustainability concern is
+very uneven across the YM -- YM said we need to change in the 2011
+Canterbury Commitment [1], but that hasn't always translated into
+action
+
+Sufferings received the report but postponed any discussion until our
+own review group, appointed last year, reports.  This is now planned
+to be in time for April MfS.
+
+The Group's report closed with these lines from G. K. Chesterton's
+_The Ballad of the White Horse_:
+
+   “I tell you naught for your comfort, 
+    Yea, naught for your desire, 
+    Save that the sky grows darker yet 
+    And the sea rises higher.”
+
+[1] http://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/minute-36-leaflet-2011
+
+*Quaker Life Central Committee (QLCC) report*
+
+This item took by far the most of our time, and was structured by way
+of a response to a challenge from QLCC's Clerk (now co-Clerk) Jocelyn
+Bell Burnell in her report to us in December 2016 to make these annual
+reports from the major central committees more than just a box-ticking
+exercise (see my report of that meeting for details).  The core of
+this year's report is QLCC's new Strategy (see the Agenda link above)
+and their proposed priorities within that.
+
+Jocelyn gave a brief introduction to these before lunch, and QLCC
+members were available over lunch to discuss them.  Then after lunch
+we met in our geographically-determined House Groups (Scottish and
+Welsh representives in our case) for an hour-long worship-sharing
+session, followed after a short break by a return together and a
+continuation of the worship-sharing approach.  I think the change in
+process worked very well, although we really need to hear back from
+QLCC as to what _they_ got from it before we really know how well it
+succeeded.
+
+In our group, and more widely, I think the deepest concerns around
+QLCC's role all centred around membership and worship: the process of
+admission to membership, the need to understand Quaker discipline as a
+key part of membership, the centrality of deeply experienced worship
+in holding our community together, making it attractive to enquirers
+and sustaining us as we seek to witness to our faith in the wider
+world.
+