QEW Mini-Grants offered again in 2012

To encourage environmental projects initiated by Quaker meetings, schools, and other groups, QEW offers matching Mini-Grants for environmental projects. Matching grants help to fund projects such as bicycle usage/promotion, educational projects, and gardens of all varieties: nibble gardens, butterfly gardens, native plant gardens, rain gardens, and roof gardens. In past years projects included Energy Star refrigerators, low-flush toilets, cost-efficient lighting, and Meeting House solar panels. We have also seen a school symposium on vision and energy conservation, a joint spring-reclamation project, an educational trip down the Mississippi, and a bike trip across Pennsylvania to the FGC Yearly Meeting.

2011 Mini-Grant projects included LED lighting in the West Virginia Quaker Wilderness Center, an educational garden joint project completed by Miami Monthly Meeting, a rain garden in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and a tree-planting project in El Alto, Bolivia. We invite Friends groups anywhere to apply for matching funds. We encourage multi-generational involvement, as well as partnerships with local non-Quaker community groups.

For 2012 our maximum matching Mini-Grant amount will be $350. However, we ask applicants to plan their projects carefully and apply only for the amount they need. Past projects have shown that much can be done with small sums. In 2011 the Victoria (British Columbia) Monthly Meeting completed a drip irrigation project for less than $130. Successful Mini-Grant projects can accomplish much with many hands, ingenuity, and modest budgets.

We use both modern and traditional methods to do our work. Since we restrict our travel due to budget and carbon considerations, our Mini-Grants Working Group depends heavily on the Internet and electronic documentation to make funding decisions and track projects. We use technology and old-fashioned word of mouth to promote and document the work of projects ranging from local to global and the mundane to the creative and ground-breaking.

The deadline for 2012 Mini-Grant applications is May 2, 2012. These grants are available to Friends meetings, churches, and groups. The form can be accessed at <www.quakerearthcare.org>. Look for details on Mini-Grants under "Outreach." For more information, contact:

—Bill Holcombe, Clerk
QEW Mini-Grants Working Group
<bholc7@hotmail.com>
203/313-4438

Growth Dilemma Project seeks to impact FCNL Policy Statement

The Growth Dilemma Project (GDP) of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting will ask Friends Committee on National Legislation to call for "a paradigm shift in perspective and framing policy issues" about the economic system when its Policy Statement is revised in 2013. To prepare for that, GDP is asking Friends to add an element to their participation in the upcoming process for setting Legislative Priorities.

In January 2012, FCNL's Policy Committee will send to all the meetings and churches in member yearly meetings a mailing asking for participation in developing its Legislative Priorities for the 113th Congress. It will ask Friends to respond as a body, a committee, a smaller group, or as individuals about the issues that most concern them.

The growth dilemma in a nutshell

The economies of virtually all nations require growth to function. Those with plenty are induced to acquire more, and those in debt are induced to borrow more to help the economy grow. Yet human economies are already larger than Earth's commonwealth of life can continue to support, while unemployment and poverty are widespread, and more growth mainly adds to the wealth of those who are already very wealthy.

We urge meetings and churches to participate in the Legislative Priorities Process. We also invite Friends to consider some of the ways our current economic system is in fundamental conflict with our testimonies and our society's well-being; and, if they are so led, to ask the Policy Committee that concerns about our economic system be on FCNL's agenda for 2013.

Please be sure your meeting or church receives the Policy Committee's invitation, and ask Friends to respond to it. Our January report will provide more details on communicating with the Policy Committee about putting economics on FCNL's agenda for 2013.

The success of much that we will do will depend on expanding our network of GDP contacts. If your meeting or church doesn't have a GDP contact and would like to, please e-mail me at <eddreby@ gmail.com>. Also, if you know of Friends in other monthly meetings or churches who might be interested in the Growth Dilemma Project, please send me their e-mail addresses and their meeting or church affiliations. I'll only e-mail them once, unless they are willing to receive our monthly reports.

—Ed Dreby
Mount Holly (N.J.) Friends Meeting