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Section of the Americas
| October 2, 2014
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I have this cute little button on the strap of my purse. It says, "I'M A QUAKER - ASK ME WHY". It is part of Britain Yearly Meeting's campaign to raise awareness that Quakers are alive and well and living among us. Every so often, someone does ask me, and I say, "The short answer is because being a Quaker makes my life better. Do you want the long answer? How long have you got?" The long answer starts, "Because God called me to this...."
This summer, Gretchen Castle, General Secretary of the World Office for the Friends World Committee for Consultation, asked a group of Friends who were gathered for the planning of the next International Representatives Meeting, "Why are you a Quaker?" They have much better answers. Watch the video here. Ask Friends in your local group the same question. Send your answers to the World Office. And this Sunday, celebrate World Quaker Day by sharing those answers with your neighborhood! Look for more suggestions for celebrating the world family of Friends here, and put World Quaker Day on your calendar for next year: October 4, 2015.
In friendship,
Robin Mohr
Executive Secretary
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Help Wanted: Section Meeting Coordinator
The Section of the Americas Meeting will be March 11-15, just outside Mexico City.
Registration will open in November. We are hiring a part-time, temporary Section Meeting Coordinator, to serve late October 2014 through the end of March 2015. The Coordinator will ideally work in our Philadelphia office, with travel to Mexico, though we are open to other possibilities. A bilingual (English-Spanish) Quaker with event planning experience is preferred. Download the job description here, and please share it among your networks.
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QUNO representatives from the Americas
 There are Quaker United Nations Offices in New York and Geneva, and each is governed by a committee. (You can read about the QUNO staff on the website.) FWCC appoints one member from each Section to each committee. (The American Friends Service Committee appoints additional members to the New York Committee, and Britain Yearly Meeting's Quaker Peace and Social Witness appoints additional members to the Geneva Committee.) The following are short introductions from our two representatives from the Americas on those committees.
 Welling Hall (New York): I have been writing and teaching full-time about the United Nations, public international law, and global civil society since 1982 when I went to grad school following my work as a disarmament activist with the American Friends Service Committee. At Earlham I am privileged to work with a diverse group of students from more than 80 countries, many of whom intend to pursue work with the diplomatic or foreign service of their respective countries. My formal title at Earlham is Plowshares Professor of Peace Studies and Associate Academic Dean. During my last sabbatical I spent the year working for a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on ways to improve US peaceful responses to world crises. I am a member of West Richmond Friends Meeting (New Association of Friends), currently serving as Clerk of Ministry and Membership.
 Chris Allan (Geneva): I am a consultant on international environmental and development programming and fundraising. I have thirty years' experience in community development and environmental protection with a variety of NGOs. Ten of those years were in East and Southern Africa, where I discovered Quakerism and started attending Meeting for Worship. I have a Masters Degree in Social Change and Development from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC, and a Bachelors Degree in Biology and African Studies from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. My goal through all of this time has been to work for the right sharing of resources and justice for all people.
Monthly updates on QUNO's work are available by subscribing here.
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Long-time reader, first-time donor?
 How long have you been receiving this newsletter? Have you been inspired by something in it? Has your heart been made more tender? Has your head been better informed? Please consider making a donation to support this work of connecting Friends, crossing cultures and changing lives. And if you have not made a donation in the last five years, your gift will be doubled by a gift from a long-time Friend who also values this work. Don't wait until the end-of-year rush; make your gift today.
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Annual Report: Let the Living Water Flow 2013-2014
For a concise (and printable) summary of our work in the past year, including the Living Water consultations, the Quaker Youth Pilgrimage and the Wider Quaker Fellowship, you can download our annual report from our website.
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