Committee Purpose:

Chairperson:

Members:

Meeting Schedule:

e-Mail Contact:

Projects:

See the Social Action Links page

Attending: Robert Burnham, Phil Hurzeler, Carol Bisgrove
Harold Babcock and Chris Hyde sent emails citing scheduling conflicts that prevented their attendance.

We began with a moment of silence and reflection.

Rob wants to avoid conducting meetings by email. Emails should supplement not substitute for in-person meetings.

Rob reminds us that there is a Social Action folder in the office file drawer. He cited some of the pamphlets and letters that arrive at FRSUU and are forwarded to this folder.

• In particular the Church of the Larger Fellowship thanks us for the proceeds from the Loose Plate Collection

We must consider our process for collaboration with other committees such as the Community Human Services Committee.

We must refresh the list of candidates for the Loose Plate.

Phil expressed an interest to focus on global and national issues, such as Darfur, torture, security, the war in Iraq.

Rob is the UUSC liason, which is a big focus for him. It has resources and info on many global issues, such as:

• the Gulf Coast hurricanes
• the Tsunami
• Labor Rights
• Fair Trade (we can sell fair traded coffee at the church)
• Non-privatization of water
• Torture

Rob told us that Chris Hyde's focus this year is the Neighbor's Table movement in Amesbury. We all support this effort.

We discussed the logistics of "rounding up the troops" for short-notice events. Amnesty International (AI) has an "urgent action coordinator."

For events with greater notice, www.frsuu.org has a Social Action page. It could include a calendar. Phil will look into updating it.

The ongoing Visioning process has included comments on the importance of Social Action.

Newburyport has a City Commission on Tolerance and Diversity. We should cooperate with them.

Carol will be our conduit with WAND.

Meg Rayne intends to demonstrate on behalf of the Kyoto treaty Mondays 1:00 and 2:00 p.m. at Market Square. We support her call for more participants. We should add this to the calendar on the social action section of the church web page.

Nancy Sullivan is the liason with the Refugee Immigration Ministry (www.r-i-m.net).

The church website should include a list of other actions/topics/organizations seeking a "champion". It should also include a roster of Social Action Committee members.

Social Action meetings will be the 1st Tuesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the church.

Respectfully submitted,

Phil Hurzeler

In attendance: Harold Babcock, Eileen Fitzgerald, Rob Burnham

The meeting began at 7:00 pm with opening silence followed by a reading by Harold from "Open Eyes" by Victoria Safford in her meditation manual, "Walking Toward Morning."

The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee 2005 Guest at Your Table program was discussed. Our UUSC representatives, Eileen and Rob will coordinate the event activities. The opening service will take place on Sunday, November 20th and boxes will be made available in the vestibule, at coffee hour and at young church. The use of the supplied order of service cover and insert was approved. Eileen will order them along with the boxes.

Rob met with the RE Committee at their September 20th meeting and presented materials. The group was impressed with the age appropriate Guest at Your Table materials supplied by the UUSC. They will distribute the boxes at a young church Guest at Your Table ceremony. RE Director, Julie Parker Amery requested 100 boxes.

Emphasis was placed on promoting this event using information about the programs that the money goes to, setting contribution and membership goals and giving regular progress reports and reminders by announcement, newsletter, and coffee hour table featuring Guest at Your Table. The UUSC provided Posters will be displayed on the church vestibule and parish hall bulletin boards.

The October 2nd “collection for cause” was sent to the Transylvanian Unitarians to assist their recovery from a devastating flash flood that hit the Nyiko Valley of Transylvania on August 23rd. The rest of the October collection will go to the Pentengil House. Harold will prepare the announcement and order of service listing. The November contribution will go to the Church of the Larger Fellowship as previously approved. It was suggested that the YWCA’s anti-racist program receive the December collection with approval at the November 1st committee meeting. The YWCA sponsors the Martin Luther King, Jr. annual breakfast in January.

The Social Action Committee membership list needs to be updated. Harold suggested an e-note to those on the existing list to see who’s on board. Rob offered to chair the committee for this year if approved.

The meeting ended with closing silence at 8:15 p.m.

Rob Burnham
Acting recording clerk

In attendance: Harold Babcock, Carol Bisgrove, Liss Campbell, Amy Weickert.

Liss called this meeting because the deadline for voter registration is very close, and if we are going to do anything in that regard we need to motivate before the October 5 meeting. Thanks to those who showed up today!

Voter registration deadline is October 13. What can we do to work on this, especially in New Hampshire, a swing state? Carol suggested tapping into WAND (Women's Action for New Direction) to get involved in voter registration and election-related endeavors. Harold reminded us that it is against UU law to promote partisanship. We agreed to keep our activities non-partisan. Liss will pursue WAND and inform the Social Action group by e-mail if there are activities we can get involved in.

Regarding the Loose Plate project, Liss wrote an "essay" for the Steeple Biweekly spelling things out, especially about the results of the surveys and the tally of the votes for the different charities. As a group we discussed how to select which charities to support in what month and if the charities voted for make effective use of their funding and which organizations are already well-funded, etc. We talked about choosing one organization (national, global) for one month (the other 9 months would be local causes) and how does the committee choose... We discussed re-surveying the congregation in the months of highest attendance, asking for more local charity suggestions and perhaps listing a whittled-down list of national and global organizations to choose from. We will elaborate on this topic at the next meeting.

The next meeting is Tuesday, October 5, at 7:00 p.m. Social Action meetings will be the first Tuesday of each month, except in November when it is election day and the meeting will take place on the second Tuesday. Meeting will be listed on the church calendar.

submitted by
Liss Campbell 9/21/04

In attendance: Walter Mott, Carole Bisgrove, Pat Hurzeler, Liss Campbell

Liss reported to the committee what she reported at the Parish Council meeting last week. Still awaiting word from Tom Stites whether he is drawing up a proposal for collection for cause, which will need to be put on the next PC meeting agenda. Walt asked how it will be decided if this proposal is accepted- by the committee or by the membership? Liss did not know the answer to this. The causes selected for each month would be voted on by the membership/congregation. Liss shared ideas for goals for next year, including guidelines for mindful paper use for all committee members and an Alternative Gifts fair around the holidays, to take the next step from our Go Green for the Holidays effort.

Regarding the film "Uncovered" we looked for a new date for the event. We decided on a Sunday before church, we are hoping Nancy Herbison-Evans will allow us to show the film for a Current Events Focus, starting at 9 am instead of 9:30 because the film is :45 long and that will leave :30 for discussion afterwards. TO DO: Ask Nancy about date, put on church calendar, make a poster, put announcement in Steeple.

Recycling review was tabled until next meeting. Word from John Mercer: more blue recycling bins are needed.

Carole Bisgrove shared information about the WAND Peace Fellowship event: Douce Beaute, a night of french love songs, taking place on April 30 at the church. Carole is selling tickets for $15. We agreed it is a great cause (scholarships for young adults toward college tuition, leadership training, interships and support and mentoring in order to empower youth to work toward peace and environmental protection.) We decided unanimously that our committee will contribute $150 to the scholarship fund out of our committee budget.

Carole also reported on her NAMI walk in May. She will be at the coffee hour table again this week to collect pledges. We discussed the "sponsors" of the event and their influence in our government. ("Is nothing pure?" asked Walt!)

Regarding the Lori Heninger event: Liss presented the scheduling difficulties. Pat advised that we hold the talk in the Upper Parish Hall at 4 pm on Saturday, May 15. Liss showed a poster layout. Liss will create flyers, mini flyers (for coffee hour handouts) and flyers in PDF format to email to other churches and anyone else. We discussed paying Lori $500 honorariam plus $60 for travel expenses. Posters and flyers will cost around $150. We looked at the catering proposal from the Purple Onion and decided on 20 wraps and chips for approx. 60 people. The cost will be around $110. We will buy beverages, plates, and napkins closer to the event. We decided to reneg on doing Coffee Hour on May 16 as it will be too much to do both events. We discussed dropping in at the senior youth group meeting to invite them to come to the talk, and telling Julie Parker Amery about it so she can steer the older youth to it.

The next few Steeple entries will be about the Lori Heninger event. Carole will staff the Coffee Hour table this week (with Nami walk info and WAND scholarship concert info), Liss will do May 2 (with Lori Heninger info), Pat will do May 9 (with Lori Heninger info). We will take a break on May 16.

The next meeting will NOT be on May 17, but will be moved up a week to prepare for the Lori Heninger event. THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE ON MONDAY, MAY 10 AT 7 PM in the Lower Meetinghouse.

Topics for next meeting: Plum Island Water - Pat, Recycling Review - Liss, Final preparations for Lori Heninger event, June Calls to Action

In attendance: Carol Bisgrove, Liss Campbell, Chris Hyde, Walter Mott, Tom Stites.

Topics Discussed: Should we change the meeting time or does 7 pm work? (There was no consensus.)

In response to "who wants to be a canvasser?" there were no takers. (Liss, Chris and Tom are already signed up to canvass.)

Leadership for next year: we are following the leadership model by transitioning chair to co-chair and on. Liss agreed to be chair next year if the committee wants that, and agreed to have a co-chair next year if anyone is interested. Nobody stepped forward to co-chair.

We discussed the idea of the committee "taking sides" and endorsing different issues. The church as an entity does not usually take sides, but as a committee we can agree on a position and support and promote it. (If we do not take a position on an issue how do we recommend action on its behalf?) Given that we have never before sent an email for action on a topic to the whole congregation, we discussed how it went and how to decide what gets passed on as "important" and what does not. Whom do we endorse and why? What issues do we support/not support? Who decides? It would be ideal to discuss all topics as a committee before acting on them (ie: the email defending gay marriage) but it is not always possible to meet in person when issues are time-sensitive. At the end of the meeting we revisited this topic: the breadth of interest, the urgency, the support of other committees within the community, etc will influence future actions and may only come up occasionally. We need to be careful not to innundate the congregation (crying wolf) with urgent action emails. The gay marriage topic is of major importance both within our community and as a constitutional topic, warranting the kind of action we took.

Could we create an action-alert network within the congregation? Individuals who wish to be informed about Social Action topics would give their email address to the committee. When issues arise and information is circulated on email, these people would receive the action alert (and choose to act or not) but others who have not shared their email address would not be alerted. This would not obligate them to be on the committee but would be a way to keep people informed without "wearing out our welcome" with the whole congregation on email.(The committee and the administration are concerned about this.)

Chris Hyde presented information on election reform and the bill for the paper ballot. While Tierney is in support of the paper ballot bill many area legistlators are not, or have not signed on to support HR 2239. Other states such as Ohio, Maryland, California are not yet sponsoring this bill. More Co-sponsors are needed. How can we reach people to ask them to get in touch with their reps? We can call friends outside our district to get support within the state and in NH. Action: create a non-partisan message about this issue and email it to Mass Bay District UU churches and beyond (Clara Barton district, south shore area, Rhode Island etc) to let them know that this issue is out there, in the hopes that other UU congregations will take action to call their representatives, asking them to co-sponsor this bill. Chris will draft an email, and Liss will pass it on to John to pass on to other UU districts.

Voter Registration: Walt is working at NECC getting voter reg. forms out. Liss dropped off forms at Pregnancy Care Center and Womens' Crisis Center in Amesbury. Forms cannot be picked up from these two facilities because of confidentiality issues, so we do not know if people are actually registering. The best we can do is give them the forms. The rest is up to them. Many forms were handed out at coffee hour.

We need to choose topics for the upcoming Steeple Bi-Weeklys. Since the constitutional convention meets again on March 11, equal marriage should be the topic for the next two issues. Liss will contact Todd Herrmann to find out what new information we have and how to act on it. We will think about how to encourage people to thank Mike Costello for standing up for gay marriage against Finneran. For late March and April, Carol will write a blurb about NAMI (National Association for the Mentally Ill) to create awareness and present an opportunity to support their fundraising walk in Boston on May 22.

Coffee Hours: We need to have a presence at coffee hours to promote our causes. This means one member of the committee is present with literature about whatever the current topic is (the same as in the Steeple Call to Action) . Tom will staff the table on Feb. 29 with information on equal marriage. (Liss will get this info from Todd.) Carol will promote NAMI in late March/early April.

The source of the opening words is the UU hymnal, reading 502 (as read by Harold at the Parish Council meeting last week.)

Respectfully submitted,
Liss Campbell

In attendance: Walt Mott, Liss Campbell

Discussed:
Voter resistration. How to get to unregistered voters, how to get addresses of unregistered citizens. According to a friend of Walt's there is a document in City Hall which lists the unregistered by address/neighborhood. Walt will look into this. Liss will look into finding resources (websites) for nonpartisan information about the political parties (if we are trying to get people registered to vote they should know who/what they are voting for.) Perhaps MASSPIRG has some information.

Coffee hour table. We need to staff it each Sunday to promote causes. We'll start with the voting stuff because it is timely. Deadline for submitting registration forms is Feb. 11 if they are to be registered to vote in the presidential primaries. Announcement in Steeple will address this. As part of the voter registration effort we need to educate people about where to find information about the parties and what they stand for. (For example, on the voter registration form it asks you to declare your party enrollment. Someone new to the voting process might not know what the parties stand for. Walt suggested that there are documents out there that state simply What it Means to be a Democrat. There are probably others.) Pat stated recently that we need to get to the people who have the most to lose in the political system - the disenfranchised, the low-income, the mentally ill, etc. (This is a much better approach than standing in front of the supermarket on a Saturday morning!) How exactly do we get to them? Do we pick a mental health hospital and pass out forms? Do we go to the low-income housing complexes and knock on doors? We need suggestions from all committee members ASAP.

Next meeting: Monday, February 16 at 7:00 p.m.

Submitted by Liss Campbell 1/19/04

In attendance: Carol Bisgrove, Liss Campbell, Walter Mott, and Linda Tulley

Linda Tulley presented information about present-day slavery. She cited examples of slavery in foreign countries and in the U.S. Linda shared the names of two organizations which deal with slavery issues. They are Free the Slaves and UUs Against Slavery. The committee suggested that the next step to take would be to consider this topic for the Collection for Cause and for the Call to Action section of the Steeple. Creating awareness of this issue is the place to start. Linda suggested adding the book Disposable People by Kevin Bales to our church library.

Habitat for Humanity came up in discussion. There is a Lawrence chapter which does a lot of work in Haverhill. Members of our congregation are already involved in Habitat projects. We considered that we might be able to help in an administrative/office assistant capacity if there is not a need for general carpentry skills. (We discussed that they are usually looking for people with specialized skills such as electrical or plumbing experience. From what we have gleaned from people who have looked into it, Habitat usually has more than enough general helpers who can drive nails and paint.) We will revisit this at the next meeting.

With regard to Voter Registration, Walt and Liss both subscribed to the Working Assets Voter Registration Kit which included materials designed to help promote voter registration. We discussed how to go about launching a program in January/February to get unregistered citizens to register before the next election. Carol, who is a member of WAND, mentioned that WAND is very interested in working on this with us. We discussed contacting the League of Women Voters to see if they have suggestions for how to get people registered. Possibilities: setting a date for the committee to go out on the street (in front of the Post office, supermarket, etc) to ask people to register. We would have forms on hand. The question came up of how to disseminate information about candidates and the issues they support,etc in a bipartisan manner. Could this be a topic for the Current Events Forum? Could we bring in a speaker to help educate people about the candidates so that everyone feels they can make an informed choice? For the time being, we will put out a notice in the Call to Action section of the Steeple soliciting any help in starting a Voter Registration "Drive". Liss will contact Nancy Herbison-Evans about discussing candidates in the Current Events Forum. Walt wondered if there is a deadline for registering for the next election. If so, we should work backwards from that date.

Carol reported that she will have a video from the National Association for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) to show at the next meeting. She will be doing a fundraising walk in May for NAMI. We discussed making this our topic in the Call to Action for the month of March.

We briefly discussed Refugee Immigration Ministry (RIM). We need to get more information about this group. It ties in with a topic which Josie Seymour brought up with Liss recently. (Josie was slated to present information on immigration issues at this meeting but was not in attendance.) Perhaps this is an issue we can consider supporting in our "cross-pollination" efforts (see below).

About "cross-pollination": It has become apparent that there are many ways to take "action" on an issue. We discussed the idea that creating awareness (thus generating excitement) is the first step. Second is supporting the cause (financially or "physically"). So... 1. Assuming that the Collection for Cause proposal (in which a portion of the cash from the collection plate is designated for a charitable cause) is accepted by the church, one way to create awareness of a cause is to announce ("from the pulpit") the cause being contributed to. 2. The cause will have the potential to be financially supported by the generousity of the congregation. 3. Pair this with an informational blurb in the Call to Action section of the Steeple on the same topic. 4. Add the topic to the discussions in the Current Events Forum and we have ACTION! (or at least discussion and some financial support!) Certain areas of interest will warrant bringing in a speaker and some will require work (as in the voter registration idea.) We feel that this is a great start.

At the close of the meeting Liss shared the Mission of the Social Action Committee. (Our thanks to John Mercer for digging it out for us). It is as follows:

From the Constitution:

SOCIAL ACTION COMMITTEE

Section 1.It shall be the purpose of this Committee to:

* Inform themselves, the Parish and the community.
* Make recommendations for a course of action.
* Support denominational projects or initiate projects of their own, within the field of social responsibility.

From a Parish Council document of May 2002:

SOCIAL CONCERN COMMITTEE: It shall be the purpose of this Committee to inform themselves, the Parish and the community. Make recommendations for a course of action. Support denominational projects or initiate projects of their own, within the field of social responsibility.

-- Keeps itself, the Society and community at large informed of social concerns. Supports denominational projects and initiates projects of social responsibility.

In attendance:

Pat Hurzeler
Liss Campbell
Walt Mott
John Eoll

Agenda

• Peace March Oct. 25 - Pat
• Recycling Report - Liss
• Local Elections - Pat
• "The Cost of the War" speaker Rudy Perkins - Pat
• Added plate collection for social concerns -Tom
• UFENET (United for a Fair Economy) - John
• November/December Coffee Hour "Go green for the holidays" - Liss
• Other topics?

• Inkbank printer cartridge recycling
• Current Events Forum

Minutes:
Pat discussed the Peace March on Oct. 25 in Washington. Transportation details were provided. Pat offered that when we or others attend rallies or marches we should report on our experiences in the Steeple. Maybe create a "Social Action Corner" in the Steeple for such reports?

As we find pamphlets and books on Social Action topics we would like to display them for the congregation to see. Will there be such a place in the new space? For now we can set up tables at coffee hour whether or not we are hosting it. Can we create a bulletin board like Adult Ed has?

Liss gave the recycling report, sharing that, per John, the recycling of cardboard, paper and bottles/cans is being done. We need to extend that effort to the new space. The biggest problem is people mixing up the bins (i.e., cans in paper bins). Going further, purchasing recyled paper products for the church will be our next goal. Liss will meet with John and Vicki to help choose recycled-content copy paper. The office uses six to seven cartons of copy paper per year, and it is purchased based on price. One problem might be that recycled content paper costs more. The solution might be to put the Equal Exchange coffee money (from selling the take-home coffee at coffee hour) toward this added cost for paper. Could we first try asking the Parish Council for a greater allowance for office paper? Since Premier Market is closing the church will need to find a new place to purchase toilet paper, paper towels, hand soap etc. Liss shared pricing of recycled paper products and all-natural soap and cleaning products from her co-op catalog. Can we order in bulk to save money and store these items? Liss would be willing to order through her co-op to help keep this cost down. Examples of cost: recyled-content toilet paper, 1-ply 1000 sheets= $.88/roll if purchased in a carton of 48 rolls. Other prices for cleaning products were shared. Can we ask other churches how they have greened their church? Liss will ask the main office for email addresses for Andover and Portsmouth UU churches and get in touch with them. Can we pursue making a plan with the Young church program to collect the recycling?

The SA committee will be hosting a coffee hour in November or December with the theme "Go Green for the Holidays," intended to draw attention to ways of minimizing our impact on the environment during the holiday shopping season. Liss has been trading phone calls with Patrice O'Brien for dates. It looks like December 6. (Note: as of Wednesday, Oct. 22 the date looks like it will be Nov. 23 but has not yet been confirmed). Liss will design a demonstration table of potato prints on grocery bags and other creative ways of wrapping gifts without excess paper. We will discuss this in more detail at the next meeting. We will need other committee members to make and serve the coffee etc. We will need someone to sell the Equal Exchange coffee as well.

Pat reported that a man named Rudy Perkins has contacted her offering himself as a speaker on "The Cost of the War". We are not sure who he is or whether we should pursue his offer to talk to us.

John reported on an organization he is part of called United for a Fair Economy (UFENET). The organization is trying to get a website up and running on the topic of the 1% tax cut. They need people to proofread and give feedback on the website they are building. For more information contact John.

Pat made appointments with MaryAnn Clancy and Al Lavender to discuss their candidacy for Mayor. Pat will draw up questions for them and will write a report of her interviews to share with the congregation. She will be meeting with them this Thursday. Liss will try to be there too. We will plan to have a table at coffee hour on Oct. 26 to report our interview to interested parishioners.

Tabled for next time:

• Added plate collection for social concerns
• Do we participate in Habitat for Humanity? Can we get a group together to participate in this worthy cause?
• Can we start a chain of action emails to congress? Can we get a letter-writing campaign started for hot issues?
• Should we encourage more bike trails/lanes in Newburyport? Should we think about encouraging a bike rental place at the train station?

Submitted by Liss Campbell 10/26/03