BUF Black Lives Matter Ministry Action Team
Minutes – Business/Planning Meeting – March 7, 2022
Present: Rupert Ayton, Mike Betz, David Curley, Cat McIntyre, Stephanie Sarver
1.Anti-Racism Minutes (aka Anti-Racism Reflections)
Mar. 13 David Curley, stewardship
Mar. 27 Cat will ask Rev. Barbara “Renewing Faith”—women’s hx month
2.Program Meeting. March 14: Bellingham City Council Member Kristina Michelle Martens. Rupert will host. If the number of participants is manageable, we’ll have introductions first, per speaker’s request
3.Future program meetings: Mondays at 7. Cat will send out announcements of all the meetings.
o Second Monday of month will be a speaker. Topics of interest: voting rights, policing.
o Third Monday will be review of goals, assignments for tasks, accountability. Stephanie will coordinate on March 21, review, plan and incorporate BLM goals per assessment and goals report; Cat will email it to her.
o Fourth Monday will be book discussion. On March 28, we’ll discuss Sum of Us. Cat has two copies to give away.
4.Community Actions:
o Bellingham Community Development Advisory Board Action Plan: Thursday, March 10 at 6 pm
o Bellingham Police semi-finalists 5:30 pm March 17
5.In person meetings. We discussed meeting in person, while continuing to incorporate Zoom for those who wish to participate remotely. Question: Can we use the Owl in the flex room, where air circulation would be better than the conference room? Some discussion of whether a table is important psychologically.
Reflection: February Training. Two particularly effective items from Kimberley Harris’s training will be written up for the BUF Midweek Update. David will describe Taeku Lee’s discussion of ideological, racial and epistemic polarization, along with some of the remedies that Dr. Lee outlines. Cat will describe Ms. Harris's suggested steps toward opening discussion of unintentionally offensive comments. Links to both of these are in Harris's Distinctive Voices Consulting blog.
6.Covenant of Beloved Community Meeting 3/8 at 7 pm.
Next Program Meeting on Zoom: Mar. 14, 6 p.m
Next Business Planning Meeting on zoom: Apr. 4, 6 pm
Respectfully submitted
Cat McIntyre, co-facilitator
