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EPN ANNUAL MEETING
March 1, 2009
Location: Eric & Rita’s in Sidney
Attendees: Starcat, Eric, Rita, BlackLion, Fred, Leigh, Raven, Jenitha
Scribes: BlackLion (first half), Raven (second half)
Circle cast by Harper.
Accepted Meeting minutes from last annual meeting as written.
Treasurer’s Report:
- Fred: “plenty of money” – details to follow from Flo.
- Starcat: Common Ground Fair had a lot of money come in
- Fred: much came through the card readings by Starcat, Marilynn and Cricket
Common Ground Fair (CGF) report:
- Rita: Getting 2 booths is good – having communication issues with the CGF staff – almost lost booths last year – have to “front the money” if Flo is travelling
- Starcat: Educational outreach “Paganism in Maine” positive
- Rita: Some say not enough room for the outreach and have asked to “roll up the walls” (weather permitting)
- Eric: Probably won’t increase the size of the outreach area based on the low number of people attending some of the other talks
- Rita: perhaps next year we could connect with the Folk Arts via a presentation – can attract a whole different group of people potentially
- Fred: Can create traditional arts though the Wheel of the Year
- Rita: Leigh has arts she could display – we would put up a 2nd display in the Fine Arts area
- Jenitha: Suggests doing a second outreach talk
- Fred: Not enough slots available (since the Political Action has so many people who want to give talks) but instead do Rita’s suggestion via the Folk Arts and get a second slot that way
- Starcat: we should look into getting Fine Arts talk
- Eric: The twins (Shansa and Karen) could sponsor our talk if necessary
- Rita: Marigold wants traditional pagan filks (swipe songs/parodies)
Interfaith Coordinator (IFC):
- Starcat: Thea wants to continue to be the IFC and that she wishes to continue to have EPN on her list of organizations that she represents for her paperwork to other interfaith organizations
Beltane on the Beach at Popham (BB):
- Raven: There is a conflict with the schedule between BB and the Habitat Interfaith Walk – she and Kat are on the committee of the walk – concern there will be no pagan support for the walk
- Eric: changing the day for BB from Saturday to Sunday conflicts with other already scheduled events
- Raven: perhaps could move Maine Pagan Clergy Association (MPCA) meeting to the next week
- Rita: the date for BB was scheduled a year ago – many people schedule way ahead of time
- Fred: suggests moving the to Portland in the Park instead
- Jenitha: suggests doing a pole at Popham AND Portland
- Eric: many people have said on Ning that moving yet another event south would have a negative affect
- Raven: she and Kat may be only ones doing the walk
- Starcat: some others from MPCA have said they were going
- Rita: BB is such a huge event and to change it would be negative – others add their own rituals and events onto this one (like hand-fastings)
- Starcat: wants to keeps things how they are
- Eric: low tide is in the middle of the day
- Rita: trying to find a both-and solution – what if we do a ritual at the beach at 10am so people who want to go to Portland can do both
- Raven: 4pm is the last table open for the walk
- Rita: suggest shepherding/carpooling with folks to leave right after lunch in Popham
- Eric: suggests a pole time of 10:30am at the earliest
- Raven: suggests moving circle until after the walk – move the walk for Pagans early in Portland
- Rita: everything at Popham has to be cleaned up by 3:30pm-4pm at the latest
- Eric: call the pole at 1:30pm instead
- Raven: says there is walk planning meeting this week – discuss having earlier walk for Pagans
- TODO: Raven & Eric: Keep in communication about timing of the 2 events
- Fred: have the time known before the newsletter goes out
- Rita: likes that we can do both-and
- Starcat: announce on EarthTides list as well
- Rita: more people can attend the walk with this change of times option
- Motion: Starcat brings motion to donate $50 to Interfatih Habitat Walk from EPN – motion seconded and approved unanimously
- Voting for Officers:
- Starcat: no nominees yet for Vice President (VP) or Recording Secretary
- Starcat: suggests having Leigh continue as VP
- Rita: suggest BlackLion as recording secretary (he declines)
- Rita: suggest Raven as recording secretary
- Motion: Rita brings motion to have Leigh as VP, Raven as Recording Secretary, close nominations, and moves secretary cast 1 ballot – motion seconded and unanimously approved
- Starcat: congratulations to Leigh and Raven!
- *** (Notes now taken from the new Recording Secretary Raven)***
Correspondence Secretary Business:
- Prisoner in Michigan has asked for book donations for the prison library. Rita says that prisons will only allow new books and they must be mailed from a bookstore (this is true, at least, for Maine and New York). Kevin Emmons also works with Prison Ministries. Fred suggests creating a fund to purchase new books to send to prisons. There is concern that some prisons may not allow Pagan books. Starcat says there may be ways around this. She will talk to Kevin E and Jane R about this.
Website:
- Can’t find the revised community standards document. Plan was to find this doc then rebuild the site. Group information is not updated in the newsletter. Need to find groups that hold open circles and get updated information. Starcat calls for a volunteer to look at what standards are there and try to bring in the information discussed at the revision meeting. Eric & BlackLion will work on this.
- Starcat brings up question of adding items for sale (t-shirts and tote bags) to the website. First we need to remind people to bring their wallets to Beltane. Then let’s see what’s left for stock after that. Can add it to the site afterward, if necessary. Discussion of reducing price of remaining items again.
- Question came up about whether we can sell EPN shirts and bags at the Habitat walk. Raven can check. This might be possible if a portion of the sales went to Habitat.
- Calendar entries: webmaster needs to pull these from the MEPlist, EPN list, Witchvox, etc. to publish on the website calendar. These dates are often announced too late for the newsletter.
Newsletter:
- Starcat suggests contacting people who post events and asking them to send more group information and if they can send dates sooner for newsletter submissions. Discussion of book reviews for newsletter and brainstorming of other items for the newsletter.
- Newsletter schedule: an idea has been discussed about making the newsletter quarterly. Rita says that if it’s quarterly then the calendar is not helpful in the newsletter, just on the website. If groups submit their open event dates annually, it would be easier to include them.
- Fred feels if the newsletter is fuller/longer then maybe it’s the same value quarterly as the current newsletter 8X per year. Kim will be working with Fred on the next issue and then will take over as newsletter editor from there.
- One way to handle changing newsletter schedule is to extend subscriptions to cover the number of issues. Starcat suggests making a blanket decision like extending all current subscriptions one year but new subscriptions get the 4 quarterly newsletters. Raven questions whether the $11 per year is membership fee or for newsletter subscription. It is membership dues but states that members will receive 8 newsletters.
- Starcat suggests contacting individuals about specific projects they are working on and asking them to submit an article rather than a generic request for articles. Thea writes up Interfaith information/reports periodically. We could ask her to do this quarterly.
- Motion from Starcat that with the new edition of the newsletter, we change to a quarterly issue and all existing members will have their subscriptions extended one year. Discussion to clarify what this means. Proposed seasonal issues: Spring = Ostara/Beltane, Summer = Litha/Lammas, Fall = Mabon/Samhain, and Winter = Yule/Imbolc. Motion seconded by Eric. Voted Unanimously.
Other Old Business:
- Rita discusses the possibility of scheduling other events, like an open ritual shortly after Common Ground. Having a presence at CGCF is not enough to foster connections. Do we want to do something like this? The population center of the state is Vassalboro, so somewhere in Kennebec County would make it accessible to many areas.
- Starcat asks where we could hold such an event in that area. Fred suggests that MOFGA might be interested in hosting or allowing us to use their space. Eric says the “Rock Knockers” might al low something like this in their stone circle. Rita suggests it could be a “Putting the Earth to Bed” ritual after the harvest season. We would need to work out the timing, probably late October or early November, but not over Samhain weekend. Eric & Rita will check with MOFGA and the Rock Knockers to ask about location.
- Researching conference calling services for meetings. Someone in MPCA was working on this, too. Starcat will find out and see if we can share info.
- Starcat will take care of reminding folks of what they have promised to follow up on and do from these meeting notes.
Call for New Business:
- Starcat says we haven’t accomplished everything planned for this year, but we’ve done more than previous years. Rita asks if MOFGA wants payment for use of property for a ritual, what is reasonable. Consensus is less than $100 is worth it. We can also ask for donations from attendees. If we are charged a fee, the donations would offset that. If we use the property for free, donations would go to MOFGA as goodwill.
- Rita motions to adjourn, Eric seconds. Vote to adjourn unanimous.
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