Minutes: Staff

RantWoman is reviewing draft minutes. This item is from only one section.

2017-11-4: Facilities Manager

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-- Friends Center is more than light lunch. What is needed to support its work? To help answer, "who are we in this new community?" To serve not only ourselves as Quakers, but also the wider community

(RantWoman believes this item is intended to summarize RantWoman’s comments. RantWoman made reference to many changes happening around our Meeting, to need to pay attention to these changes, to discern how we might participate in public processes accompanying these changes, to look for opportunities, to consider how our Meeting might be a community resource. In other words, RantWoman spoke specifically in reference to matters that in RantWoman’s mind should absolutely be part of the property discernment process. RantWoman also referenced another Friend’s suggestion to restructure other positions and suggested some activities related to her comments above that might quite appropriately go into someone’s job description, maybe not right away but on the horizon. RantWoman is not sure which points made it out of her mouth last month and recognizes that minutes should reflect what was said. RantWoman is clear that this draft can be improved. Hopefully light about HOW to improve it will emerge in Business Meeting.)

-- There is a problem with our organizational culture: we put hard issues last on our agenda, discouraging discussion or questions. Friends may hold contradictory opinions regarding the spiritual importance of buildings, per se. When we are worried, we don't want to let new ideas surface. As this last message continued, various Friends began to stand to hold silence, and eventually the Clerk called for meeting-wide silence.

(HOLY SHHHH…! RantWoman missed the Friends rising. Rantwoman could not think of a better way to illustrate this speaker’s point than people rising to hold silence. RantWoman deeply appreciates the point that she is not the only Friend evoking the stand up so people will shut up response.

See https://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2017/07/diligence.html  Not for this month’s minutes: RantWoman in July was speaking of an accessibility issue for a new tenant’s services. The topic has received much attention in email, partly BECAUSE so many people told RantWoman that her perspective was irrelevant, unnecessary, beside the point.  RantWoman should probably post excerpts from the email discussion.  RantWoman is also receiving feedback that she should not try to communicate by email, but the topical email exchange surfaced important information that RantWoman would not easily have found out trying to meander through committee channels. HOLY Shhhhh…!)

Not screaming. Pomegranates

Kid appreciation #1

RantWoman was at the most wonderful holiday party. There were many small kids there. A few of them were doing some kind of well-contained bouncy thing on a couch. All of them were cheerful. None of them were screaming. It was BEAUTIFUL, and Rantwoman was delighted to realize she has already met some of the parents.

RantWoman was offered a ride home before the kids started getting tired.

(insert big smilie emojis)

Kid appreciation #2: Pomegranates

Irrepressible Nephew turned 17 this week.

Auntie RantWoman supplied the customary pomegranate for the occasion.

Long ago when Irrepressible Nephew was considerably smaller than his gurren 6'4" Auntie RantWoman rebelled against the mountains of plastic toys piling up at Little Sister's house after gift-giving occasions. RantWoman wanted to supply experience. RantWoman chose...peeling a pomegranate.

Irrepressible Nephew thought this was great fun. So did Auntie RantWoman. Bad Auntie! Think pomegranate juice drips. Think carpet in rental apartment. Little Sister did not think this was fun.

Oops.

Came round another gift-giving occasion. RantWoman bought another pomegranate. Little sister raced for some newspaper to catch the pomegranate drips. The household lived in that apartment long enough that the pomegranate drips fell under "normal wear and tear."

This year, family gathered at Little Sister's. Little Sister was out procuring food when RantWoman arrived. RantMom did not understand the point of giving the gift early for "appetizer."  Irrepressible Nephew received his gift with great gratitude, peeled it over the sink and shared with RantWoman! Yeah Kid.

Sorry News Sorry happening

Sorry is all over the news these days. Close to the RantWoman message manglement service:

1. I'm sorry (but I cannot apologize for things I cannot help like bieing blind or being sensitized to ...) / I am sorry that is happening  > has happened to you. RantWoman is hearing the latter with appreciation, but that alone is insufficient. Please hold problem in the Light for now.

2. RantWoman read something in email very sloppily and misstated an issue. RantWoman found it very easy to apologize partly because she had the offending email right in front of her without having to dig it out of email archives with screen reader. RantWoman supposes here it would also be topical to go off at great lenghth about all the ocular and software / computer interface issues that impede reading comprehension.  RantWoman is meditating about that point, some need to meet in person issues, and RantWoman being true to her Light when the problem is not ONLY sloppy reading. Hold that point in the Light.

3. I'm sorry and excuse me. The equivalents in Russian are confusing because the concepts slice and add up differently. Example from RantWoman's experience decades ago: the street currency exchange, cough, entrepreneurs who would approach foreigners with "I'm sorry. Do you want to shange dollars into rubbles?" (Thought bubbles: as soon as I stop laughing we can talk; RANTWOMAN save the #trumpRussia #followthemoney meditations for another thread PLEASE...)

Louis the BlindChristmas Elf

RantWoman is mixing various holiday moments into her usual rambles about transit, endless usability testing...




Christmas Cactus 12 4

A sweet item about Louis the Blind Christmas Elf
http://mosen.org/louis/

Faith Responses to Homelessness, Via Faith Action Netowrk and events TOMORROW

Faith Responses to Homelessness

We are deeply troubled by the news last week that the City of Seattle budget will result in the loss of 300 shelter beds, transitional housing, and support services, even as we enter year two of the declared homeless state of emergency—see news articles from Crosscut and KUOW for some of the story. We honor faith communities who for decades have opened their doors, their parking lots and their hearts to provide survival services for those impacted by homelessness, often in conjunction with SHARE/WHEEL, Catholic Community Services, Compass Housing, and other community partners. We want to make sure your voices are included in response to this crisis.

The Church Council of Greater Seattle, in coordination with social services agencies across Seattle, is organizing a meeting on Wednesday, December 6 at 10 AM at Plymouth United Church of Christ, 1217 6^th Avenue. This meeting will be an opportunity for faith communities, impacted folks, and service providers to come together and strategically coordinate a united response. While FAN staff will be at the Budget and Policy Center conference that morning, FAN Governing Board chair Rabbi Aaron Meyer of Temple de Hirsch Sinai, which has hosted a shelter for decades, will join the meeting. Please email Erica West at ewest@thechurchcouncil.org with any questions about the meeting. Budgets at the local, state and federal levels all have moral implications.

After the meeting, attendees are encouraged to join the Women in Black vigil at 12 noon at the Seattle Justice Center (5^th & Cherry). Women in Black (men are welcome) will stand silent vigil for the nine outdoor/violent homeless deaths in our community in November alone. With these deaths, the 2017 outdoor/violent death count—at 87—far outstrips the number of deaths during any other calendar year. We encourage you to reach out to the mayor and your city council members in support of shelter.

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Stand Together against Muslim Ban

Also this Wednesday, Dec 6, we encourage you to join a rally outside the U.S. Courthouse (1010 5th Ave, Seattle) beginning at 1 PM, as the Muslim Ban continues to work its way through our court system. The State of Hawaii filed for another temporary restraining order against the third version of The Muslim Ban, and the case will be heard on Wednesday at 2:00 PM at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, William K. Nakamura Courthouse. This is particularly important given yesterday's news of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to lift the injunctions and let the travel ban take effect (see NY Times article).

Please join us to hear testimonials of those impacted by the ban. Faith leaders are especially welcome to wear their clerical garb and stand in unity and support. A group reading of portions of the constitution is also planned. Show your support for the Muslim community and a vibrant, diverse America where all are welcome!

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Protect Hotel Workers from Harassment

With our friends at Unite Here Local 8:
As the current moment sheds light on the pervasiveness of sexual harassment and assault throughout countless professions, we join together in solidarity and with shared experience to support the women of Seattle’s hospitality industry.

Hotel housekeepers are predominantly immigrant women and women of color who work for low wages at great risk: in Seattle, 53 percent have reported experiencing sexual harassment or assault on the job. Through their leadership, voters passed an initiative in November 2016 to combat through law exactly the types of behavior now garnering national attention and outcry. The Seattle Hotel Employees Health and Safety Ordinance shows that it is possible to craft public policies that support women, embrace our values, and offer workers genuine recourse to respond to harassment and assault.

Unfortunately, these policies are disputed, and employers have attacked Seattle’s law. The Seattle hotel industry has publicly taken the side of those accused of harassment, arguing on their behalf in court and asserting that the stakes for the accused are greater and more important than those of victims. It has been a year since Seattle made history with the passage of Initiative 124. We cannot go backwards.

Please take action and sign Unite Here Local 8's petition: #MeToo: I Stand with Hotel Housekeepers.

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Support I-940 to De-Escalate Washington!

FAN has supported I-940 from the beginning, and we want to help De-Escalate Washington to reach the finish line! Contact fan@fanwa.org and we’ll send you petitions to collect signatures at your holiday events and in your faith communities. Here are a few updates from the campaign:

• The I-940 Campaign has now collected over 261,000 signatures, surpassing the amount needed to submit to the Secretary of State. In order to assure qualification, we need about 89,000 more—now under 21,000 signatures needed from volunteers. Keep up the good work! Make sure all your friends, neighbors, family, and co-workers have signed it, and return your filled petition as soon as you can.
• Initiative 940 is very much needed in our state. The total amount of Washingtonians killed by law enforcement this year is 36 — Washington now rates the 6th highest in the country of loved-ones killed by police in 2017. By comparison, Massachusetts—the state closest to ours in population—has had five deaths this year through violent interactions with police.
• U.S. Senator Patty Murray recently endorsed I-940! She also sent an email to her supporters requesting I-940 assistance—the first time this has been done for an initiative campaign! Leaders throughout our state have endorsed De-Escalate Washington's common-sense policy change.

Financial donations are also needed to reach the finish line. You can support De-Escalate Washington with a contribution here.  

You are appreciated! Together, we will change the law to make everyone safer in Washington.

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FAN is honored to be listed by Seattle Met Magazine as one of 20 Great Nonprofits to Give to in 2017 and Beyond. Help FAN the Flames for justice year-round; support FAN with a donation:

Experiment: Community Discernment

RantWoman is absolutely clear publicly to post the following item and the comments / questions as an experiment.  Is anyone else besides RantWoman interested in seeing comments from other Friends, not just routing everyone's comments to the Campus discernment Committee?

If interested, please post comments. RantWoman moderates comments but very minimally and aims to publish comments as quickly as possible.

RantWoman will also send the blog link to the campus discernment committee email address.

First the text of the intro email.

I’m sharing this message on behalf of the UFM Committee on Campus Discernment. The link shown below leads to a website with a 16 minute video about Gethsemane Lutheran Church’s decision to develop their downtown Seattle property. This is one story about one faith community’s decision to redevelop. We are sharing this video with the UFM community because we think it is a well-presented depiction of the decision-making and development process for Gethsemane Lutheran.

As we continue our research we look forward to finding and sharing stories about the property stewardship decisions of other faith communities and non-profits.

http://www.sacredlandcommonground.org/

Sacred Land | Common Ground: Interfaith Housing Forum<http://www.sacredlandcommonground.org/>
www.sacredlandcommonground.org
Bringing together people of faith and nonprofit housing providers to meet our community's needs for more affordable housing
(...)
Thank you,
Nancy Helm

[RantWoman: if you would like to share comments or questions with the whole community, please leave a comment. RantWoman moderates comments but will aim to post as soon as possible.]

RantWoman notes:

--The video about Gethsemane talks about how the church worked with different issues, deciding to work with a partner, having to regroup when one of their financing options did not pan out.

What stands out to Friends about the video?

Question: RantWoman is wondering how management of the parts of the structure where ownership is shared is working out.

--There is also a downloadable PDF which lists all the projects mentioned on the website, their organizational structure, financing, target populations, and other info. The PDF is well worth the read just to get some ideas, though there is also a mountain of possibly unfamiliar terminology.

Technical note: RantWoman has successfully downloaded the guide and read it with interest.
However, the download link behaves weirdly for RantWoman. RantWoman somehow suspects her assistive technology and advises readers just to look on the page above near the bottom for the download link.

Questions for after reading:
                      
--What more would Friends like to know about any of these projects?

--Do Friends understand the significance of building different sizes of apartments?

--RantWoman suspects that contact info for some of the churches / projects may be out of date.

--RantWoman wonders about the current funding capacity of some of the financing options mentioned.

--RantWoman is not posting thoughts which came up at a retreat about financing

--The website is kind of half-done, like the developers ran out of resources. Lots of links do not work. One link that does work is the downloadable resource guide. RantWoman is being careful not to make assumptions about whether the umbrella group that  created the website is or is not functional.

In Light and Faithfulness

Zany questions for UFM Campus Discernment process

RantWoman is QUITE well aware that more zany questions from RantWoman may or may not be the least bit helpful to the campus discernment process. RantWoman offers the questions here in humble hope that they will spark other questions and that out of these questions increased clarity about how to work at our different paths and current problems might emerge.

RantWoman is also flipping well interested in comparing notes about the questions other people pose. RantWoman can live with the possibility that some of her questions have absolutely no resonance with others. However, RantWoman has specific experience with more than one member of the campus Discernment committee dismissing RantWoman's perspective where RantWoman turned out to have important insight. RantWoman is being faithful to that Light and inviting shared discussion

RantWoman acknowledges but does not apologize for flinging around a whole bunch of jargon. RantWoman and, she imagines others, can explain the jargon and / or suggest resources to explain it more fully. RantWoman thinks a certain amount of wading into jargon is going to be absolutely necessary for centered discernment. RantWoman also thinks drawing together resources to help people deal with jargon is a task that could be accomplished by drawing in people who might only want to commit to that and not to more or not to more right now. But then RantWoman is a language nerd and is prone to the same problem lots of other people have: if one has one set of tools all problems look like something where that set of tools is needed.

RantWoman also deeply appreciates a couple phone conversations where project manager brain insights have at least been heard.

That said, the last retreat dealt with some interesting numbers ranges. Are there circumstances that could blow those projections? Amazon going belly up? The current regime annoying the world badly enough that foreign investors stop investing in Seattle?

What do we think higher education or at least the UW might look like in 20, 50, 100 years. Hint: reviewing the UW master plan could be a shared educational experience but answering that question probably requires more thought.

Are there opportunities for our Meeting in connection with the community resources supposedly generated in the upzone / BIA process? What options are there for researching / monitoring this. Hint: the U district partnership has a monthly email list. Anyone can sign up; if people read the emails, conversations can probably help information and ideas flow in our community.

Is there anything we can do to influence what happens in our immiediate vicinity or to make our neighbors aware of us as a faith community or other resource?

Lots of Friends have expressed interest in affordable housing development. Would we have the same or less interest in affordable housing on our own property if we were able to use our voice to help ensure that more affordable housing gets created in the U district and in the city as a whole? Should we honor friends led both to work directly about our property and about the region as a whole?

What circumstances within our community or changes in our immediate vicinity  could make it absolutely necessary to move?

What changes in pedestrian (and vehicle) traffic can we expect as the new Light rail station opens?

What is our commitment to staying in the University District, particularly if escalating real estate prices make it unaffordable for many in our community to continue to live in Seattle?

How many different threads can be researched at once?

There. More than enough for now.

In Light and Faithfulness.

RantWoman