Before the meeting started Sarah circulated the latest information from Google analytics's to show how our website is being used. It was noted that we have had 1,053 visits over the past year, with a bounce rate of 48% and 64.01% new visits. These came from 36 countries of which 829 came from the United Kingdom and 107 United Stated. Significantly (in the context of the World Cup), the next highest visitor was Spain. Over the past month there were 133 visits,of which 49% were new and a bounce rate of 39.1%.
Minutes Silence
Update on the committee
We welcomed Father John O'Shea, Roman Catholic Priest at St James and Esme Weithers, a former committee member from the Brahma Kumaris.
Apologies were given by Paul, Zvi, Ambika, and Jane. We noted with appreciation the contributions Zvi and Mustafa are able to give the group through their involvement in SACRE.
Although Kaleem was not able to make this meeting or the Pilgrimage event due to prior commitments, he has agreed to become a member of this committee.
Minutes of Last Committee Meeting – These can be found on the website if you click the navigation button on the left hand side called “Resources” along with lots of other useful things such as leaflets and posters to distribute.
We asked Bruce if he would be able to provide us with an easier way of contacting all members of the committee by e mail.
Item 1 : Membership
Bruce
has done a considerable amount of work on the website. Following our
recent letter to members we had comparatively few replies. Last
year we had 72 members
We
currently have 30 paid members plus 3 hon members
Income
this year has been £291
Expenditure
estimated at a similar amount (£205 owed to Bruce for the
leaflets
+ £30 owed to interfaith Uk membership and postage for Swami's
last
mailing) Bruce has not paid any of the debts at this time.
We
have plenty of reserves but the year position will be a "loss"
from a
financial
perspective at this time (although the walk could result in a
flurry
of memberships although they could technically be considered part
of
"next years" income).
It was made clear that any subscriptions paid now would carry over into next year.
We agreed to ensure that membership forms would be distributed at all future events and noted that the next leaflet advertising the Friendship Walk would have a membership form included on it.
We noted that our bank balance is sufficient to proceed with publicity for the Friendship Walk.
Item 2 : Pilgrimage event- Thursday 29th July
This event coincides with a Christian pilgrimage to Compostella involving St James Church. We agreed to work in partnership with this event and to invite those taking part in the Pilgrimage to come and join us.
We stressed the importance of getting our posters out. These have already been sent to committee members as an attachment and are available to download from our website through the resources section.
Press releases have been issued. Sarah has written a “First person” for the Reading Post and will contact radio 4 u. David has been in touch with Reading University.
Mark will take responsibility for RCRE who have their AGM on Thursday so as to update them on both the Pilgrimage event and Friendship Walk.
AOB 1-Hugh (who had to leave early) updated us about an event being organised by the Oxford Diocesan Group, Churches Together in Berkshire, Reading Faith Forum and the Reading Interfaith Group to coincide with National Interfaith Week. This will take place on Thursday 25th November beginning at 5.30 pm at the Friends Meeting House. Food will be served between 5.30 pm and 6 pm. Eleanor Nesbit, professor of religious education at Warwick University, will talk on the subject of “Who am I? Religious Identity and Young people.” There will be contributions from an invited group of young people representing many different faith traditions followed by group discussions. This event is open to all. The meal will cost £6 for adults. Bookings should be made through Churches Together. Details of this event will be advertised on our website.
Item 3 : Friendship Walk
We went through the 7th edition of the job list (see attached)
The highest priority is getting e mail contacts to Bruce so that he can give a lot of people a reminder just before the event. We will ask the faith forum if they would like to arrange different display tables at the Hindu temple if the community there are in agreement. We agreed to ask the mayor if he would like to speak at Christ Church besides Zvi. Chris will liaise with Bruce on the wording of our next leaflet. This will be distributed when we have heard back from Reading Borough Council on how well the first print run went.
Sarah will do press releases for the Friendship Walk. Every committee member is asked to contribute 50 words on why they see this event as being important. These should be e mailed to Sarah in good time by mid August for sending to the newspaper
It was noted that now is a very good time to start displaying our posters. At present there are no arrangements for posters to distribute and attach themselves to convenient locations by themselves!
We noted with appreciation an offer to visit St James at a future walk.
Item 4 : Contact with external organisations
National Interfaith network conference-Chris attended this event on behalf of the group. He found this interesting and a good opportunity to get to know the work of other groups. Reading Interfaith Group thanked Chris for attending this event.
Item 5: After the Friendship Walk!
We agreed it would be helpful to advertise our next event well in advance so as to give prospective members some idea of continuity. It was thought this could be incorporated into our AGM, scheduled to take place on November 8th (subject to booking) We decided a theme “keeping the spirit of the dead alive” would be appropriate. Sarah has already been in touch with someone willing to contribute from the Mexican Inca and Catholic tradition.
Item 6 -Any other business
Fr John told us about his work with Interfaith at Southampton and how this appreciation for other faiths is a reflection of priorities in the Catholic Church. Esme told us about the philosophy of Brahma Kumaris and their regular talks in Reading. (These are advertised on our website)
David invited all committee members to a Humanist barbecue at his home at noon 8th August with bring protein and salad to share.
Date of our next meeting- Tuesday 31st August .
Unfortunately Father John is unable to make this meeting.
We ended the meeting with a few moments of silence then some watermelon provided by David.
