05 Feb 2009

Meeting Minutes of UUFP Social Concerns Committee

Attendees

Review Minutes

I hope Chris Hicks and everyone else won't get mad. But I put everything together. Under New Business. Which sounds a bit like nude business. It makes me wonder if a Catholic naturalist with a foot fetish would go to confession to bare his soul.

Agenda Items

PORT

TJD

New Business

UUFP Social Concerns Meeting Minutes for the January 25, 2009 meeting

Please note this meeting took place much later that same day at Aroma’s at City Center and not Mikes on Warwick Blvd.. I must confess I was relieved to find out that Aroma’s was not a beanery.

Also, I recorded the event and transcribed entirely from that a tape recording and that meant that I don’t have everyone or everything said because I am half deaf anyway.

Present at the restaurant: Sandra; Chrissy; Donna; Patricia; Mason; Pam; and Jerry. And Chris Hicks is still a yahooligan in California.

For a while we were reading the December minutes and laughing. It was funnier than the sales figures for GM, Ford, and Chrysler.

While we reading the minutes our consciousness morphed into a discussion of PORT.

Chrissy was mortified that Jerry’s dementia meant that he omitted to mention her presence at the last meeting in the minutes.

There was some discussion of the merits of the movie “Fargo”.

Posey couldn’t attend because of knee surgery which all present hoped went well.

Mason asked about the group’s comfort with the minutes and then Mason said the minutes were approved.

Sandra said that the statement of conscience at the next meeting of the General Assembly (GA) would be: “Ethical Eating”.

We all digested this and the looked for the next tasty topic.

Sandra said the idea was about something we could do in our local community. Donna wanted to know about the adoption of the next topic. Mason brought up peacemaking which is a 5 year project.

The most awesome Quaker Hymn: “A Gift To Be Simple” was played at the Inauguration. (I wonder if the restrooms in a choir rehearsal room would be Hymns & Hyrs).

No one here knows anything about when a vote on the next GA topic will be.

Donna said no agenda was a good agenda. And Mason, sounding like he had fallen off a cliff, but was hanging on and climbing back on top of the butte while Indian smoke signals were visible in the orange sunset, said he wanted to exert some leadership.

So, we started talking about PORT and said we collected around $571 to use on PORT. Mason said: “Wow!”

We spent $471 at Costco and $30 at Entemann’s. Pam said there were unused supplies that would be taken back. Donna said it was $60 worth of supplies. So Pam said we would have a $100 to $125 available for the next PORT date and we would need to have about $400. Donna said it is amazing how much food has gone up. Cans of food that were $.80 are now $1.20. Donna says she still has the chili base. It is a quantity the size of a gi-normous can of green beans. (I wonder if the Jolly Green Giant ever has to take a drug test. I promise I won’t think about when I open the next can of peas). Donna is going to call Wendy to find if the secret of chili making will be shared and she will see if they have any more, maybe they would be willing to donate it.

Mason suggested that as a matter of planning, we need to raise at least $400 and Donna said there is a holding account to carry over to next year if we do raise a surplus.

Sandra asked if we will do the chili. Chrissy said: “Dry beans.”

Pam said the date of the nest PORT was uncertain. Sandra said this time we should be more clear about the date. Donna said the problem was that the First Baptist Church was unorganized.

Mason waxed poetic about friday night beer and pizza.

Warwick Memorial United Methodist Church on Old Courthouse Way will be the next host of PORT. Sandra said that we took a tour and saw their monster mixer. (Personally, I don’t want to go to any monster mixer because: A. I am already married, and B. monsters get mean when they have too many drinks in them).

We won’t have to buy plates or silverware to use then because the WMUM Church has them.

There was some further discussion of how to get the church. I am not going to transcribe it because the same directions could also be used to drive to Richmond or to make a dry martini, and I don’t want anyone reading these minutes drinking a dry martini on the road to Richmond.

The further suggestions offered while trying to pinpoint the location made me wonder if some of us were on the road to Richmond already.

Mason asked if there was an owl here. He asked if anyone knew what an owl is. I thought he was losing his mind An owl? Mason is a real hoot. You try transcribing minutes from a tape player and you might understand how so much of this reported here are unattributed. I can tell you this; if the invasion of Normandy was a carefully planned as our description of directions, we would still be singing God Save the King.

Donna said we must make a bag lunch for the people at port to take with them in the morning we have PB and J for those sandwiches.

We agreed peanut butter was safe.

We lost one volunteer for PORT in the last minute switch from Friday to Sunday.

We need to thank the peeps that helped with PORT because things went so smooth.

Mason said bravo for all of our efforts. Donna said kids helped.

The Thomas Jefferson District is having an intense antiracism workshop. Sandra has sought interest but knows of no one going. The cost is $45. It is in Raleigh. Mason said that it was happening February 20-22.

The big event for the TJ District is Mother’s Day in May 40 miles north of somewhere in North Carolina. After a lightening round of Wheel of Fortune, it turned out to Greensboro. It is about a 4 hour drive. Sandra said that it would be the annual meeting May 9-10

Pam says we have commitment for first weekend in May to the adult RE group Donna said she could do RE.

Mason asked where are we and the clerk at Aroma’s called out another order for pickup.

There was discussion of the GA in Salt Lake City. Alice, Bob, and Judy are interested in going. Sandra says that the UUFP has to decide by its April meeting as to who they would subsidize for the registration for trip.

Kids are talking about going to the GA Youth conference.

Along about this time your secretary’s gaze became fixed on what was going on outside of the restaurant. From where he was sitting, he had a clear view across the street where a small entourage had assembled. Using the City Center pool and fountain as a backdrop, a photo shoot was taking place. Two attractive young women were posing for summer cheesecake pictures in summer clothing, including a bikini and a sun suit. This was happening in spite of the fact it was a cold afternoon. Chrissy had a view too. We watched this develop and the remainder of our group was generally unaware. What were we talking about? If we only had Humphrey Bogart playing the piano and Lauren Bacall leaning over it with her smokey eyes and ...

oops, back to the notes...

Mason said he was going to collect materials for Justice Sunday. (Half of the Sundays at the UU in Anchorage are Just Ice Sundays) I think he said March 29. Mason said he would talked to the minister to better inform us. Pam thinks the topic will be Martin Luther King. Mason said it was a celebration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 60 years of justice. We can choose from one topic concerning justice. Mason will get more info for us by next meeting.

About this time Chrissy and Jerry were laughing about the photo shoot and Chrissy successfully predicted the next pose.

Jerry (that’s me) mentioned meeting Barbara Richardson who would be a good speaker concerning civil rights.

Mason wonders about having a Saturday meeting to get feedback from the UUFP peeps about what we can do with the participation of more of the fellowship.

Then came the suggestion to have a meeting after Justice Sunday with a potluck.

The Welcoming Congregation was helped by many people.

PORT is popular with congregation because everybody works. Chrissy said it is also a one shot deal.

Sandra said maybe a handout that would go with the 29th. We talked about getting the word out through a web page and/or the annual report.

Sandra said put it in writing, verbalize it, and put it on the web.

Mason was thinking about making Social Concerns a bigger tent. He felt we could promote a stronger environmental effort.

Pam brought up the fair trade festival.

Then Pam suggested we could tie the fellowship in with fair trade.

Jerry said fair trade could be tied to ethical eating. He said a fair trade festival and a potluck with local food would do it. Donna said Dean’s Farmers Market on Harpersville Road buys locally and the Farm Fresh on Hampton Roads Center Parkway prefers to buy locally.

It would be a one day event to raise consciousness and mentioned it would tie into GA again.

Jerry said we could call a Saturday event: “ Focus on the Family’s Dinner.”

We talked about available foods and Patricia pointed out that many fresh local veggies don’t come on line until June.

Discussion about was held about what do we want to do.

Donna says people are more interested in a cause than a committee

There was some contemplation of scheduling a Sunday service on ethical eating before GA.

Mason summarized and said we need to e-mail.

Donna said we would benefit from the members’ input on causes. Mason said lets try it different ways. Mason and I think Chrissy said they would create a form to hand out to members concerning their interests 22nd February will be the next meeting and it will be at Mike’s Pub. So I have no idea where we will wind up then. That is what makes it interesting. But I do know this. Spring training will have started by then. Yea! I love this planet.

Next Meeting:

That would be February 22nd at Mike's Pub.

  • Posted by: JerryTenney - 05 Feb 2009

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