National Council of Fellowship of Reconciliation October 29-31, 2011 Shadowcliff, Nyack NY
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Present: Andrea Briggs (facilitating), Laurie Childers, Greta Mickey, Michael Baxter, Ariel Vegosen, Mark Meade, Steve Jacobsen, Vishaka Smith, Sarah Schindler, Jim Murphy, Bill Northrup, Bill Scheurer; staff: Mark Johnson, Liza Smith, John Lindsay-Poland, Susana Pimiento, Shauen Pearce, Ricky Anywar, Abel Learwellie, Leila Zand, Hillary Gaston, Sr., and Linda Dunn (guest)
Council convened at 5:00pm by call of the facilitator. Opened with song and a reflection presented by Jim Murphy, and get-reacquainted exercises and introductions. Process observers volunteered. The Consent Agenda was presented and adopted as distributed. (Attachment A) The executive director presented his report and discussion was tabled until after dinner. (Attachment B)
The Council adjourned for dinner at 6:30pm and reconvened at 8:00pm
There was an extended discussion after dinner of the executive director’s report which is summarized as follows: A number of issues were raised in the report which deserve serious discussion and attention: What obstacles dampen the energy required for the Task Forces to engage effectively? What is the fiscal responsibility of the National Council and is it being met? Do we have a full understanding of the programs that are offered by FOR USA? How should we engage in discussions of theoretical foundations which guide our engagement as a National Council, e.g. what commitment do we need to make to an alternative future vision of a world without treaty organizations such as NATO and without the financial structures represented by members of the G8, G20 etc.? How to we generate empowering discussions for National Council members? What opportunities are there to collect and share testimonials for FOR work?
In response to the question of fiscal responsibility Hillary Gaston, Sr., rehearsed a number of recommendations that have been made in the past but never adopted which include (1) annual dues from all members, (2) fees from Chapters and Affiliates, (3) pledge commitments and calls by National Council members. Hillary further noted that the distribution of our assets between equities and fixed instruments, with an emphasis on cash and fixed income instruments, has preserved our assets in a way that the “normal” distribution, biased toward equities, would not; and that in managing grants and fiscal sponsorees funds we do take an administrative fee to cover some of our administrative costs.
Council adjourned for the night at 10:00 p.m.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Present: Andrea Briggs (facilitating), Laurie Childers, Greta Mickey, Michael Dunn, Tashi Rabten, Michael Baxter, Ariel Vegosen, Mark Meade, Steve Jacobsen, Lucas Johnson, Vishaka Smith, Phil Stoltzfus, Sarah Schindler, Jim Murphy, Bill Northrup, Bill Scheurer, Rick Ufford-Chase; Staff: Mark Johnson, Liza Smith, John Lindsay-Poland, Susana Pimiento, Shauen Pearce, Ricky Anywar, Abel Learwellie, Leila Zand and guest Linda Dunn
9:15am The Council convened with a morning reflection on Gordon D. Kaufman, led by Phil Stoltzfus with readings from his last work, Jesus and Creativity. Dr. Kaufman recently died and a memorial service will be held in Boston on Monday which Phil will attend.
9:30am Andrea introduced Andy Robinson, a fundraising consultant, who led the National Council and staff in a day long exploration of fundraising. Various exercises resulted in content which has been collected for use by the Organizational Advancement and Communications committee in the continued development of fund-raising capacity and engagement by the Council and staff. The attachments show the order of documents used and discussion. (Attachment C)
The afternoon session was closed with an exercise to deepen our understanding of one another through introductions, led by Greta Mickey.
The Council adjourned at 6:30 to dinner and an evening program hosted by the Hudson Valley FOR.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Present: Andrea Briggs (facilitating), Malik Nabil Abid, Laurie Childers, Greta Mickey, Michael Dunn, Tashi Rabten, Ariel Vegosen, Mark Meade, Steve Jacobsen, Lucas Johnson, Vishaka Smith, Sarah Schindler, Jim Murphy, Bill Northrup, Bill Scheurer, Rick Ufford-Chase; Staff: Mark Johnson, Liza Smith, John Lindsay-Poland, Shauen Pearce, Leila Zand, Jonette O’Kelly Miller, Hillary Gaston; and guests Linda Dunn and Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb.
The morning was opened with song and a meditation led by Greta Mickey on the portraits of FOR legacy leadership which line the Peace Room (Attachment D)
Finance Committee Report – Sarah Schindler
FY 2011 Audit shows a net loss of $187,000 which was covered by allocations from reserves. Auditors present a management letter which shows a clean audit. The Finance Committee will review and recommend to the Executive Committee for action on the Audit for FY 2011 which is available as a digital document and will be circulated with the minutes or earlier to be approved at the December Executive Committee call. (Attachment E)
FY2012 First Quarter report was distributed prior to the meeting, offered for review, and accepted by consensus. (Attachment F)
The Investment report included the recommendation from the Finance Committee that the “asset allocation of the charitable gift annuity unrestricted reserve and surplus portfolio” operate at the end of the permitted ranges for fixed income securities and equities as it has for the past two years. Approved by consensus.
Request for an easement on the Shadowcliff property from neighbor, Dr. Claude Simon, was introduced and discussion was led by Mark Johnson, executive director. (Attachment G)
There was a question of assumptions of responsibility for the possible tax liability of a change in our property use. There was a question of impact of reallocation of property to this use on the use of Shadowcliff by the FOR. There was a question of alternatives available to Dr. Simon and the related possibilities of a structure appearing on the property to the east of Shadowcliff in any event. A proposal that we communicate that the National Council has given the transaction due consideration and is not prepared to proceed at this time, with regret, was offered and then withdrawn. In testing for consensus questions, including the prospect of access and through an alternative route, it was clear that there was lack of consensus about directions at this time. The executive director will communicate a commitment to a continuing process of discernment by the National Council and a testing of consensus on a response to the query from Dr. Simon in February.
OAC Committee – Andrea Briggs
The OAC met Monday morning over breakfast and made the recommendation that NC adopt the “definitions” of essential elements of a National Council as formulated by the consultant, Andy Robinson, during the training on Sunday: (1) all NC members are expected to make what is for them a meaningful financial contribution to FOR; (2) NC members will provide names for solicitation; and (3) that all NC members will participate in the fund raising work of FOR in the cycle of engagement modeled in the training program. These recommendations were accepted by consensus.
A second recommendation was accepted, that there be additional conversations and additional significant work at the February meeting on fundraising.
Discussion included interest in seeing a work plan to engage all National Council members in the process of fund raising between this meeting and February. A menu of opportunities was distributed for commitments by National Council members between now and February. OAC was invited to refine the strategic needs more fully over the coming months and offer tactical opportunities for National Council and staff members to actively participate in fundraising work immediately.
The current National Council Commitment Form was distributed and discussion followed concerning readiness to complete the current form. The majority of those present completed and returned the form. The Chair, Andrea Briggs, committed to following up with each National Council member concerning their commitments.
Conflict of interest forms will be distributed by email. These are updated each year and kept on file by the Chief Operating Officer.
Committee meetings were cancelled due to a lack of time.
The Council adjourned to Task Force meetings at 11:00 am.
The Council reconvened at 11:45am for a closing circle of reflection on friends and members of FOR who had died between the July and October meetings of the Council and to lift up life events for celebration.
The Council adjourned at 12:30 pm.
Respectfully submitted, Mark C. Johnson Secretary to the National Council
Next Meeting of the Council will be February 25-27, 2012 in Nyack, New York FIRST FRIDAYS AT F.O.R. a monthly letter from the executive director December 2, 2011. Dateline: Shadowcliff
Some weeks seem simply emblematic of the FOR world we live and work in and such weeks can be inspiring, affirming, and uplifting. Thanksgiving week was a week to be thankful for, November a month that was promising, and, I have to say, promising for a change. Most days I think the only rational response to reality is despair – and therefore the only spiritually justified response is hope. And now, even in the face of promise, I will abide in hope.
Thanksgiving week began with a chance to tell the FOR story at Friends House in Santa Rosa, California where I was introduced by residents George and Jean Houser. I was particularly touched by a testimonial from one member of the audience that FOR is “the only organization he has supported his entire life, confident in its integrity to its mission.” Another resident made a spontaneous appeal for residents to consider FOR for a charitable gift annuity. The last visitor to Friends House from FOR staff was Susana Pimiento who called on Bill Miller, just before he died and left a $1M bequest to FOR, in 2009.
The week ended with worship and a presentation, with about 15 friends including John Lindsay-Poland, at the San Francisco Friends Meeting, a visit to Occupy San Francisco to witness an Action Council in process, and dinner with David and Jan Hartsough. The Action Council is a weekly convocation of spokespersons from 30 different community Occupy sites in Northern California, and is an emergent structure linking Occupy sites together in collective/mass action planning. (Our web site has carried a number of stories on FOR staff and volunteer engagement in OWS work over the past two months.)
Monday David also invited me to meet with the Interfaith Tent of Oakland and I was delighted, as I entered the room, to see many friends and allies including Phil Lawson, Rita Nakashima Brock, Father Louie Vitale, Sherri Maurin, Rabbi David Cooper, Sally Juarez (of the Community of Living Traditions) and Nichola Torbet. This group has been meeting for two months in support of Occupy Oakland.
Twice last month I attended meetings explicitly for the purpose of exploring “moral action” and on a number of other occasions that was the implicit intention of the meeting. The first was in Washington, D.C., and brought together more than 30 different faith-based groups to discuss Interfaith Moral Action on Climate, an exploration of how congregations, denominations, leadership and believers might all be engaged in taking public responsibility for formulating policy and inculcating habits to address the threats of climate change to the environment and human society. (One group was “Green Mosques” with a simple ethic and practice of building or transforming Mosques to more responsibility earth stewardship). November also saw President Obama taking responsibility for the permit issues related to the KeystoneXL Pipeline for moving Alberta tar-sands to Texas refineries over the Ogallala Aquifer. Though the choice to postpone a decision may be purely political pragmatism, few would doubt that political action by environmentalists and faith-based leaders, drove the choice as well.
The second meeting was convened by Religions for Peace, another interfaith coalition housed in the NGO community at the United Nations, which convened a “Multi-Religious Roundtable Discussion on Nuclear Disarmament” with an explicit agenda of launching a campaign which presents the call for the abolition of nuclear weapons as moral action led by faith leaders and communities. A good portion of the day was spent in learning more about work by abolition advocates on international humanitarian law as a thread to be woven in to multi-religious efforts to accelerate the elimination of all nuclear weapons.
The third meeting was the annual gathering of representatives of the Historic Peace Churches/FOR Consultative Committee captured in Sam Smith’s photograph above* in the Church of the Brethren headquarters in Elgin, Illinois. While we covered a lot of territory over our 24 hours together (minutes will follow), the most intriguing to me was a proposal that we explore taking on the question of R2P (Responsibility to Protect) in international humanitarian law, a requirement for moral action in the face of genocidal state violence, from a pacifist tradition. The recent use (abuse) of NATO forces in Libya and similar calls at the moment to contain state violence in Syria, makes this a timely issue (though is it ever not urgent and important?), especially as FOR participates in plans for a counter-summit in Chicago at the NATO/G8 meetings next May.
Last month also saw staff involvement in various forms of outreach including a presentation by Abel Learwellie and Ricky Anywar at Siena College; an evening with George Rishmawi from Bethlehem at Shadowcliff in a program co-sponsored with the Community of Living Traditions and Shomer Shalom; engagement with the creation of a Council to guide the work of the Community of Living Traditions where we were represented by Ethan Vesely-Flad; and the selection of a short-term staff person for organizing the Heeding God’s Call borderlands work on gun-violence issues in the US and Mexico. John Lindsay-Poland has staffed that work, Rick Ufford-Chase has served it, and funding for the short-term staffer has come from a small set of Religious Peace Fellowships.
John Lindsay-Poland represented FOR at the School of Americas Watch and provided a workshop there and he has been hosting a new series of webinars as a part of Miltiarism Watch which perhaps some of you have joined. Susana has spent the past week in Colombia as part of an international verification mission related to elections. Liza Smith and the Colombia Peace Program community has launched a tenth anniversary celebration and appeal. Other staff who have been trying to use up some vacation days as we approach year-end have also been wrestling with physical challenges from whooping cough to root canals. Pray for healing.
We (Mark Johnson, Patti Ackerman and Shauen Pearce) have now successfully negotiated the process of being credentialed at the United Nations as representatives of IFOR to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Shauen is also exploring our status as a part of the NGO-DPI relationship in terms of our work on the Durban+10 coalition (DDPA) and efforts to denote an International Decade for People of African Descent.
We have already shared with all of you in various ways, news of the death of Scott Kennedy, just a month before his 63rd birthday and just a week after returning from his 30th delegation to Israel/Palestine as part of this fall’s InterFaith PeaceBuilders (IFPB) Olive Harvest delegation. You can see a growing outpouring of testimonials to Scott’s lifelong contributions to nonviolence and social justice at the IFPB website. I will be attending a memorial service next weekend in Santa Cruz to represent both FOR, which Scott long served as a National Council member, and IFPB which Scott has this year chaired while I serve as Secretary. http://www.ifpb.org/about/scottkennedy.html
The response to the invitation to participate in a discussion of A.J. Muste’s essay on “Pacifism and Class Warfare” has been very stimulating as many of you have noted. As I make an effort to step back for a bit of reflection here at year-end, I will try to distill those contributions into an “update” of the essay for your consideration, and launch another topic early in the coming year. I am also preparing to join an IFOR delegation of 16 persons to Egypt for the first two weeks of January, so my responsiveness to email may suffer a bit over the coming six weeks. But I will continue to make every effort to be available for urgent issues and questions.
Attached is a draft copy of the minutes of the October National Council meeting. Corrections can be directed to my attention or shared on the Executive Committee call on Tuesday night at 8:15. A reminder of that call will be distributed by noon on Tuesday and a provisional agenda will come from Andrea.
I will take the occasion of this salutation to extend warmest wishes for the sacred and the secular celebrations of the next few weeks. It warms my heart to see the Solstice approaching and the promise of more daylight each day until we meet again; and I do abide in the hope that the truths and teachings of our many traditions will guide and bind us in our work for the beloved community.
Peace & Love
*pictured are, l. to r., Mark Johnson (FOR), Andre Gingrich Stoner (Mennonite Church USA), Jay Wittmeyer (COB), Dorothy Day (Friends United Conference) and Sylvia Graves (Friends General Meeting), Tim Seidel (Mennonite Central Committee) and Sam Smith (FOR). First Friday Newletter and Draft Minutes
Subject: First Friday Newletter and Draft Minutes From: "Mark Johnson"
Gentlefriends: A ached please find my First Friday newsle er for December 2011 as well as dra minutes of the October mee ng of the Na onal Council. The a achments to the minutes are contained in the official compila on of the mee ng, a three-ring notebook maintained at Shadowcliff. A achments will be distributed to those Na onal Council members who were not in a endance as well as a cd of all materials for the mee ng before the end of the year.
The Execu ve Commi ee will meet next Tuesday evening at 8:15 p.m. by conference call.
The February Mee ng of the Na onal Council is February 25th – 27th at Shadowcliff in Nyack.
The June Mee ng of the Na onal Council is June 23rd to 25th at Shadowcliff in Nyack.
Peace, Mark
Mark C. Johnson, Ph.D. Execu ve Director Fellowship of Reconcilia on 521 N. Broadway P.O. Box 271 Nyack, NY 10960 845-358-4601 ext 34 (Office) 845-405-6470 (cell) www.forusa.org (web and blog site)
Content-Type: application/pdf Draft Minute of National Council of Fellowship of Reconciliation meeting October 2011 Dec circulation.pdf Content-Encoding: base64
First Friday December 2011.pdf
Content-Type: application/pdf First Friday December 2011.pdf Content-Encoding: base64
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Subject: FW: IFOR_New_International_Coordinator_Announcement and FORUSA Greetings From: "Mark Johnson"
Gentlefriends: Holiday greetings to all. It was fun to see the Menorah along the road from Albany to Stony Point last night, to be refreshed by the Solstice event at Shadowcliff on Sunday, and to see Christmas decorations in the Johnson abode and along the same roads as well. On this, in many ways, darkest day of the year, the light of hope still shines through in our work, our relationships, our beliefs and our dreams. May you be sustained in all you seek to do to advance peace and justice in the world.
I will be the staff on call through December 31st for local and national staff and volunteer concerns. I will be available to sign checks, check the mail, and assist with deposits next week. I will be in the Greater New York Area until mid-day on January 1st and then bound for Cairo, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Bethlehem, returning to New York on January 15th.
Below please find the announcement from IFOR that Francesco Candelari has been named the new International Coordinator for IFOR. Many in Nyack will remember Francesco’s visit with us two years ago while in the US to spend time with his son, an employee of the United Nations. Those who represented FOR at the IFOR meeting in Baarlo a year ago will also be familiar with Francesco. His title reflects a return to a previous model of leadership of Coordinator rather than executive director. There is additional biographical information included in the announcement.
Peace & Love, Mark
Mark C. Johnson, Ph.D. Execu ve Director Fellowship of Reconcilia on 521 N. Broadway P.O. Box 271 Nyack, NY 10960 845-358-4601 ext 34 (Office) 845-405-6470 (cell) www.forusa.org (web and blog site)
From: Office IFOR [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2011 5:47 AM To: Office IFOR Subject: IFOR_New_International_Coordinator_Announcement Importance: High
Dear IFOR members,
Hope this message finds you well.
Please find below an official announcment of IFORs new International Coordinator, Francesco Candelari.
We wish Francesco a very warm welcome and an energetic start for this new position, guided by the principles of Nonviolence.
You may feel free to spread the message below within your network, too, publish it on your website, facebook page etc.
Happy Christmas Holidays!
Greetings,
------Meltem Basara IFOR Communications & Networking Phone: +31 72 512 3014 Spoorstraat 38 1815 BK Alkmaar The Netherlands www.ifor.org
The International Fellowship Of Reconciliation was founded in 1914 and is an inter-faith movement committed to Active Nonviolence with members in more than 40 countries. IFOR has special consultative status at the UN (ECOSOC), UN and UNESCO representation and has included six Nobel Peace Prize Laureates among its members.
IFOR NEW INTERNATIONAL COORDINATOR ANNOUNCMENT
"The International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) happily announces the appointment of Francesco Candelari, Italy, as International Coordinator, to begin duty in mid-January 2012 in the International Secretariat in Alkmaar, Netherlands. Francesco, 30, is a member of the Italian branch of IFOR and brings to the position a personal commitment and extensive international and non-profit experience.
The International Coordinator is IFOR's chief executive officer and as such responsible for the International Secretariat. This includes the facilitation of
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IFOR's network and oversight of IFOR's programmatic activities, which are the Women Peacemakers Programme (WPP) and IFOR's representatives to the UN.
IFOR as an international network exists since 1919, but the spark for its existence came from an international peace conference held in Constance, Germany, in 1914, at the eve of World War I. Its vocation is to work for peace and nonviolence and against war, for reconciliation and against injustice. IFOR's members share a commitment to respect every human being and thus to nonviolence. They believe that reconciliation is possible and that nonviolence is the way of peace. IFOR now has 80 members in 48 countries, many of whom are heavily engaged in human rights work, peace building, peace education and training.
Regarding his vision for IFOR, Francesco says: "An organization that counts among its past and current members seven Nobel peace laureates should assume a leading role in conflict resolution and interfaith dialogue at the international level."
According to IFOR President Hansuli Gerber, the appointment of a new International Coordinator comes at a time of great uncertainty and great opportunity. Anticipating its centennial in 2014, IFOR is challenged, alongside with many other initiatives, to stand for just peace, nonviolence and reconciliation, Gerber said.
Brief bio:
Francesco Candelari was born in Torino, Italy, on 10 January 1981. Since his early life, while his friends and classmates in elementary school where watching Tom and Jerry, he was educated by his father at reading Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Culturally filled with nonviolence, he understood at the age of 19 that his vocation in life would have also been knowing people all over the world, listen to their stories, write their stories and connect them."
In 2000, he went to Burkina Faso thinking he would have been a missionary and in fact he was saved by the locals leaving behind all pretentious ethnocentric approaches. Since then he travelled and lived in four continents. Paris 2003, India 2005-2006, New York 2008-2011 have been his most important steps in his recent personal and professional life.
He worked in the field level while in India and at the institutional level in New York as the United Nations Crime Research Institute (Unicri) Representative to the UN Headquarters.
Francesco is also a journalist."
2 of 2 12/21/2011 11:50 AM FW: Join FOR director Mark Johnson at the Cape Cod FOR luncheon
Subject: FW: Join FOR director Mark Johnson at the Cape Cod FOR luncheon From: "JULIET R BERNSTEIN "
Hi Wendy,
I thought you might like to have this communication from National FOR.
I will be sending you another package of materials from Cape Cod FOR some time this week.
In peace,
Juliet Bernstein
From: Fellowship of Reconciliation [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 10:45 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Join FOR director Mark Johnson at the Cape Cod FOR luncheon
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Dear Juliet R.,
On Wednesday, FOR Executive Director Mark Johnson will give a presentation at Cape Cod Fellowship of Reconciliation's annual luncheon on interfaith peacebuilding and social justice work.
Tickets are $31 and include a three‐course meal. We invite you and your community to join us for this conversation! For more information about this event and to reserve your ticket, e‐mail [email protected].
Wednesday, May 25, 12:00 PM Chatham Wayside Inn 512 Main Street, Chatham, MA View map and get directions, or view the event on Facebook
FOR Executive Director Mark Johnson’s presentation at the Cape Cod FOR’s annual luncheon will focus on the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s new campaign to Demilitarize Life and Land, as it relates to the national rallies that occurred on April 9 opposing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He will outline the work FOR does, aligning programs in Latin America and the Middle East with the roots of the “triple evils” that Martin Luther King, Jr. named ‐‐ militarism, materialism/poverty, and racism.
Also honored at the Cape Cod FOR luncheon will be Peggy and David Lilienthal, who have been peace activists on the Cape since the 1940s and will receive the Olive Branch Award in recognition of their many years devoted to supporting victims of injustice throughout the world. During the civil rights movement, the Lilienthals participated in the Freedom Rides, which earned Peggy a two‐night stay in a North Carolina. Beginning in the 1970s, they worked to stop discrimination against gays and lesbians, and made numerous trips to El Salvador and Nicaragua to escort refugees in the 1980s. In recent years, they have worked to end the occupation in Palestine and secure an independent Palestinian state with a just settlement for the Palestinian people who have lost their homes.
1 of 2 5/24/2011 2:25 PM FW: Join FOR director Mark Johnson at the Cape Cod FOR luncheon
Finally, Cape Cod FOR will honor Juliet Bernstein, retiring after 30 years as the Cape Cod FOR coordinator. Juliet will be 98 this summer, and has been an activist since the 1930s, working in the labor movement and for racial equality and women’s rights. An annual award will be established in Juliet’s name for a young person working for a just world on Cape Cod and beyond.
We hope to see you at Cape Cod FOR's annual luncheon!
Ethan Vesely‐Flad Communications Director Fellowship of Reconciliation
Fellowship of Reconciliation | P.O. Box 271, Nyack, NY 10960 [email protected] | www.forusa.org | (845) 358‐4601
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