Survey about the Pacific NW Quaker Women's Theology Conference. Please respond by 2/20/2021

RantWoman has great affection for the Pacific NW Quaker Women's theology conference. Partly this is because of stumbling onto planning committees more than once in the past. Partly this is because of RantWoman's concern to pray across differences, in this case different strands of Quaker tradition. For more than two decades women, people who identify as female mainly from North Pacific Yearly Meeting and Northwest Yearly Meeting, as well now as the Sierra Cascade Yearly Meeting have met to worship and share lives. 

RantWoman is happy to say more or to encourage Friends to check out the conference Facebook group. In particular, RantWoman promises to look up the statement about gender inclusivity, people who identify as female or non-binary. Every planning committee RantWoman has been a part of has considered the question specifically of including men. RantWoman is glad for men who finally had leadings to organize events for Friends who identify as male.

Here RantWoman posts a slightly edited version of an email seeking Friends' Light about timing, an in-person conference and interest in joining the planning committee for the next gathering. There are several questions with open-ended comment blocks, so RantWoman posed questions about a virtual gathering rather than an in-person one.

From the current planning committee

In these times of hope and uncertainty, we know that the Pacific NW Quaker Women’s Theology Conference will be a meaningful way to re-connect, learn, and enjoy nature and each other's company after the covid-19 crisis is over. The conference theme “Cultivating Faith and Hope in Troubled Times” is ever more relevant.

But when will that be? The answer is not yet clear. 

So we want to hear from you!  We would like to know your thoughts, plans, and insights for this great conference. Please click on this link to respond to a survey: PNWQWTC survey It will help us tremendously as we plan when to hold the conference. Please respond by February 20, 2021.  

If you’d prefer to respond by paper, please leave a comment with an email or a mailing address and permission for RantWoman to pass along to the planning committee. (Comments are moderated and private information is not posted.)

Last spring we postponed the 2020 Quaker Women’s Conference, originally scheduled for June, 2020 at Cascades Camp in Yelm, Washington. At that time we rescheduled for June 9-13, 2021.

As we move into 2021, great uncertainty remains. We have discussed options such as 

• keeping the date of June 9 to 13, 2021

• rescheduling the conference for later in the summer or fall, 2021

• postponing the conference until June, 2022. 

Some of the meeting spaces, amenities and accessible facilities at Cascades Camp may not be available if we meet later in the summer or in the fall of 2021. This will probably affect our ability to serve everyone who might be interested in attending later in the summer or fall of 2021. 

However, every group who reserved space at the camp this summer is facing the same challenges, so many answers about our options are not yet clear. In addition, we do not know what we do not know about the pandemic’s easing off.

It would help us immensely to hear from you. 

We started this journey as a planning committee with a specific end goal in mind, an event we would make happen. But another beautiful thing has come out of our time together: the opportunity to form relationships, hold the uncomfortable uncertainty and love each other in the midst of difficulty. Our task has been different than we expected, but we are grateful. We remain committed to the purpose of the Pacific NW Quaker Women’s Theology Conference.

We are also asking more volunteers to come forward to help continue this important conference that has built so much understanding and connection within our Northwest Quaker world. We’re looking for women with all kinds of skills and abilities, including computer skills.

Please consider if you can join the planning committee, or can help in some of the tasks of putting on the conference with the most relevant theme, ever: “Cultivating Faith and Hope in Troubled Times.”

Blessings,

(The Planning Committee)