BUF Black Lives Matter Ministry Action Team
Minutes – August 2, 2021 Business/Planning Meeting
Present: David Curley, Barbara Gilday, Amoret Heise,Tom Kirchner, Cat McIntyre, Henry Ohana and Rupert Thayer
Anti-Racism Minutes:
August 8 Cat will give Program update & Anti-racism training at Flower Communion
August 15 Cat will recruit Naomi Gary -- Rod Haynes will be leading the service
August 22 David will talk about Dr. Spratlen – service leader not yet announced
August 29 Henry will do an update on Covenant and 8th principle – Barbara TenHove leads
Sept. 5 Henry will ask Pat Conover – the service is Animal Blessings with Rev. Paul
Each speaker should remember to alert the person running the summer services on or before the Wednesday before the service that they will give the anti-racism minute at the service. Also, send the script of their minute after the service to Lauralee Carbone and Deb Cruz to publish in Midweek Update and on blog.
Program Planning: Upcoming segments of “Amend” on:
August 9, “Control” Women’s movement – Cat lead discussion
Sept. 13, “Love” LGBTQ+ - Henry lead discussion
All programs begin at 7 pm and end at 8:30.
For October, we need to test whether we can share RadioLab podcast, “The Vanishing of Harry Pace,” on Zoom
Anti-Racism Training Update – Cat announced that we have augmented the $1,000 in BUF budget by $ 12,000 with a grant and a donation. We interviewed and are in the process of contracting with Courtney Wooten of Suburbia Rising and Kim Harris of Distinctive Voice Consulting to give two-three week trainings this fall. We are still short about $1,500 to pay for these trainings so we’ll approach both SEJC and individuals/participants to make up the difference. Deb Cruz, Naomi Gary and Tom Kirchner collaborated to get the grant. We were joined in the grant application by UU congregations in Blaine and Skagit County – their participation was very important in getting the grant. The trainings are planned to be held at BUF with necessary safety precautions, with a limited number of participants.
Scholarship at USF. The ABC subcommittee is close to having sufficient funds to support three scholarships for black men pursuing education degrees at University of South Florida. They will apply for this program to get BUF SEJC support.
Book box - Lauralee got the books! The Sum of Us and is establishing a book group box at the Bellingham Public Library.
Retreat. We want to have a retreat, outside, to review where we’ve been, where we want to go, and how we want to coordinate with others. Tentative dates are Sunday afternoon on Sept 12 or Sept 19. David will work on format and agenda; Cat will send out doodle poll to BLM list or those who have attended this year’s meetings on regular basis to participate. Again, we are planning safety precautions regarding COVID.
Next Program Meetings on Zoom: August 19 and Sept. 13, 7 pm.
Next Business Planning Meeting on zoom: Sept. 6, 6 pm
Respectfully submitted
Cat McIntyre, co-facilitator
BUF Black Lives Matter Ministry Action Team
