presenters Posts

My F/f Thomas T emailed me about the Blogphiladelphia "unconference" happening next month in downtown Philly. It sounds like it could be silly and interesting at the same time so I've signed up.

Personal stalkers making summer plans should keep mid-August open. It looks like my blog/IM/Twitter/Facebook buddy C Wess Daniels and I are going to add yet another social media to our repertoire and actually meet face to face as co-presenters for an evening event at Ohio Yearly Meeting Conservative. Along with Ohio's David Male we'll be banging on that ever-popular "Convergent Friends" drum. I'm not sure I've ever actually given my two cents on the term and the phenom. I'll probably post about it in the lead up to the August event as a kind of preparation. Anyone within road-trip distance of Barnesville is invited to come over Friday evening the 17th to hear the talk.

And speaking of Conservative Friends, everyone should check out the great newish website called The Conservative Friend, an unofficial outreach initiative of Ohio Yearly Meeting. It's simple but attractive, walks that fine line between truth telling and humility with grace and has a wonderful sense of humor and self-awareness that sneaks up on you as you read through. Now who knew Ohio Conservatives had a sense of humor? Seriously, it's really nice work.

I'll be missing the Conservative Gathering of Friends being held in the Lancaster, PA, area next weekend. I'd like to claim that money and time is keeping me from attending but it's hard to argue that when I drove by its meeting sites only a few days ago just to look at trains. Well, let's just say at this moment of life my spirit needed family time more than Quaker gathering time. I hope it goes well; if any QuakerRanter readers do attend I'd love to hear their impressions.

Quakers Uniting in Publications, better known as "QUIP", is a collection of 50 Quaker publishers, booksellers and authors committed to the "ministry of the written word." I often think of QUIP as a support group of sorts for those of us who really believe that publishing can make a difference. It's also one of those places where different branches of Friends come together to work and tell stories. QUIP sessions strike a nice balance between work and unstructured time, it's has its own nice culture of friendliness and cooperation that are the real reason many of us go every year.