Attending: Mark Bussolini, Eileen Oldag, Tom Neale, Reverend Sara, Cathay Sandstrom, Betty Van Gheluwe, Jim Bigelow, Cathay Carmen, Rick Groff, Linda Secretan
Agenda
Is the Social Justice Council & our BUUF SJ organization working well? Are there different needs/structures to consider?
– meeting of all justice ministries and interested people 4 times a year
- Sept,
- Dec
- Late Feb to deal with issues from the legislator
- May to pick the plate partners
SJ Teams Update & Calendaring
- Refugees & Immigrants
- Great refugee bazaar & Romel’s Birthday
- Refugee stories event
- Racial Justice
- Wed meetings (wake up coffee) good success
- Would like to have board members and Social Justice leaders drop in occasionally to see and be seen and get a sense of what’s going on and lend their support for the work
- We have had to scale back our event planning after using the $6,000 from the SJ Special Appeal for 2 years of events.
- We would like to branch out to a second meetup group for people who don’t go to the morning meet up
- We will be advertising and inviting/encouraging people to attend the Kwaza celebration by having and information table in the North foyer for 2 Sundays, 12/17 & 12/24
- Sponsored by Brown Like Me
- Dec 30, 6 pm dinner, 7 pm program, Nampa College Church, Nampa,
- Jan 13, 2024, 2024 Antiracism Learning Circles with a BUUF breakfast meetup
- Feb 17, 2024, Racially Conscious Conversation featuring Debby Irving
- 1:00 p.m. hosted by and at Hillview Methodist Church, 8525 West Ustick,
- The Seven Arrows Powwow is Saturday and Sunday, March 30-31 2024. Rick Groff is looking into ways to help
- Miram is hosting an indigenous people’s history book group
- Wed meetings (wake up coffee) good success
- Mark
- friends of the BPL books, stocking little libraries
- Winter clothing drive great success
- Needs storage
- Rick
- Book donations for Duck Valley – donated books by Native American authors and took them to the their new community center
- Reproductive Justice, Cathy & Rev Sara
- presentation on legal priorities at reproductive justice meeting Dec. 12
- Care packages for doctors, lawyers, etc. who have been active in supporting Women’s rights
- The Interfaith Reproductive Justice group is growing with members from BUUF, CABI, Hyde Park Mennonite Fellowship
- Could free up $3,000 from original $5,000 form social justice special appeal
- $1,000 to Caroline
- $2,000 to Racial Justice Ministry
- Jim B to track funds used
- Climate Action, Carbon Neutral – Jim
- Work underway to fund the replacement of greenhouse gas emitting furnaces with an all electric solution
- Planning a class on how to understand, manage and reduce your household carbon footprint. This is the first part of a long term multi-faceted project to reduce the carbon footprint of households of BUUF’s members and friends
- Outreach to other congregations started with a meeting with folks at the United Church of Christ
- After several days of work this fall the team tagged and partly measured 121 trees at BUUF and completed the measurement of 151. The 151 captures 7.13 MT/yr of CO2e. When the weather cooperates we’ll complete the tagging and measuring.
- Investigating increasing the carbon capture by planting more 20 – 40 new trees
Rework Plate Partner Nominations & Voting
What is the process for picking plate partners?
- Possible
- Social picks all the partners
- Congregation nominnates, social justice ministries decides (at the May meeting)
- Congregation nominates, congregations nominates, social justice ministries decide
- Update the on-line nomination form
- Advertise for Nominations February – April
- Criteria for acceptance:
- Removed:
They are a 501(c)(3) organization, however this may be waived. - They are local rather than national, although we do endorse and encourage continuing support for the ACLU and Planned Parenthood which have local affiliates that advocate for rights and policies in the Idaho Legislature
- They do not have a strong religious component and/or a zealous advocate for a particular creed
- They are nominated by a BUUF member or organization
- They have a BUUF member who will be a liaison between BUUF and the organization
- They have a mission that clearly falls under one or more the Seven UU principles as well as the Eight Principle.
- They do not violate any of our UU principles or previous UUA statements of conscience.
- They fall into one or more of the following categories with the understanding that other worthy initiatives can be considered at the discretion of Social Justice Council:
- racial justice & criminal justice reform
- environmental justice
- reproductive justice & health care
- gender issues
- economic justice
- refugee and immigrant justice
- child families and youth empowerment
- LGBTQ+ justice
- Removed:
- For 2024/2025 Plate Partners
- Social Justice Council decides on 8 plate partners for the program year based on nominations and past and present plate partners
- 2 plate partners will be justice ministries, selected by the social justice council
- For 2023/2024 Plate partners
- Social Justice Council decides on the slate of candidates
- 8 are selected by vote of the congregation
- Pick one per categories from possible choices
- Racial Justice
- Reproductive Justice
- Refugee & Immigrant Justice
- Climate Justice
- LBGTQ+ Justice
- Housing/Hunger Justice (flexible)
- Disability Justice & Mental Health (flexible)
- Women/Family/Youth Support (flexible)
- 2023 – 2024 Voting Form
- 2 are selected by the Social Justice Council
- Justice ministries, ex.
- 2 are reserved: Partner Church, PIFF
- Criteria for acceptance:
- Results tallied and send to Minister and Staff who announce them to congregation
The SJ Pulse of Larger Community – if/how we want to respond
Discuss at the next meeting