Jan
18
Notes from 16 January 2008 DRUUMM Steering Cmte Conference Call
Present: Manish Mishra, Mel Hoover, Hope Johnson, Adam Robersmith, Robette Dias (taking notes), PaKou Her from Crossroads.
Proposed Agenda
Mtg with the UUA Board on Friday
General Assembly Security Issues
Interweave Requests for Letters of Support
DRUUMM Consultancy Process
Leadership Vacancies — no Treasurer at present
DRUUMM’s participation on the UUA Diversity on Ministry Team
Board Meeting–(VP1) Danielle DiBona may not be able to attend the Board meeting on Friday because of an illness in the family. We should still ask Adam to go on his own to represent us (Adam joined the call after this discussion took place and is planning to go the meeting). Manish will talk to Adam on Thursday to prep him for the Board meeting. We’d like him to say DRUUMM desires a deeper ongoing relationship with the Board and to propose some kind of social interaction at GA with more than just two of us. Manish will also ask him to raise the financial issues around the Capital Campaign we talked talked about on the last conference call. The notes for that were sent out earlier this evening to the Steering Cmte list serve. (Sorry for getting them to you all so belatedly).
GA Security Issues–GA this year is being held inside the US port security zone in Fort Lauderdale. This means you will need to have a government issued ID in order to get in to GA. This also means any undocumented folks who are part of the UU community will not be able to get in. Some young folks may not be able to get in either. The Planning Cmte is supposed to be working on that, meeting with groups that may be impacted by this. One thing they have devised so far is to have Chaplains present at each entrance to support folks and work through problems that may arise. The Planning Cmte also will address in plenary the painful reality of the high levels of security and the current situation in our country that makes it a reality. Some folks are proposing a second GA site where ID is not required to hold non-business events and worship. Adam has sent a letter to the UUA board outlining his concerns about the security issues and saying he will not attend GA because of them. (After we had this discussion Adam and Hope joined the call, Hope asked Adam if he would mind circulating his letter among us and he has agreed to do that. I think Hope will be sending it to the Steering Cmte list) .
DRUUMM’s official position on the security at Ga is that we see it as a problem and we (DRUUMM) need to be prepared to deal with it as a problem, but that we as an organization will not boycott GA because of it. When Manish talks to Adam on Thursday he will ask him not to let the Board engage him around this issue while he is there to represent DRUUMM’s concerns. But to invite the Board to engage him separately if they are interested in doing so during a time that is not DRUUMM’s time with the Board.
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Oct
15
DRUUMM is in the process of selecting a consultant. After reviewing numerous unsatisfactory proposals, the DRUUMM Steering Committee is considering utilizing the services of Crossroads. Following are the notes from the September 24 phone interview with a Crossroads Ministry consultant.
(Some background of this interview is provided in the minutes from September 17 Steering Committee teleconference.)
A brief comment from Robette Dias, Recording Secretary:
Attached are the notes I took during the conference call with PaKou Her from Crossroads last week. In re-reading them I realize how much of the conversation I wasn’t able to actually capture. Its hard to do verbatim notes on an hour long conversation! I realize a lot of nuance has been lost. I just hope there is enough left here to give you a sense of the conversation. Manish represented us well, asked good, probing questions. And PaKou gave thoughtful, knowledgeable answers. So hopefully these notes are of some value.
Phone Interview with Crossroads Ministry
On the call for DRUUMM: Rev. Manish Mishra (President) Rev. Mel Hoover (Acting 2nd Vice President), Robette Dias (Acting Recording Secretary)
On the call for Crossroads: Pakou Her
Questions and remarks from DRUUMM SC are italicized.
Manish began by asking about the other groups Crossroads works with.
PaKou’s response: Crossroads started as faith based organization but has been changing in recent years. Working with a wider variety of institutions as the antiracism movement becomes increasingly secularized. Currently Crossroads works with faith institutions, city and county governments, educational institutions, non-profit organization, and social service institutions. So, although Crossroads foundations are in religious organizations, it has a growing capacity to work with other groups. In addition Crossroads continues to develop its capacity to engage in conversations about the inherent privilege of Christianity and the relationship between Christianity and racism.
What does Crossroads do?
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