Jules: Claudia and I have had several one-on-one online meetings about an MHQ website so far, and we co-clerked a meeting at Bulls Head about our web presence a couple weeks ago.

We opened with silence, followed by lunch that I picked up from Big Rock Market on the way. Turkey Reubens! It was nice to eat and talk.

It was also really nice to meet in person, and Bulls Head worked out perfectly because it's right between us geographically, turning a 40 minute drive into 20-ish minutes each. Much easier!

I hope these notes are useful. I'm experimenting with ways to share what happened in meetings. They took about 4 hours to make. (about half of this was my opinion piece and the links at the end)

Is social media evil?

Jules: We started with the evergreen conversation on the morality of using social media.

Claudia really appreciated an article by New Public which I shared over email a couple days prior. It was a great starting point for our conversation!

Claudia expressed that the ideas felt familiar, and reminded her of her work creating community through a local magazine.

The truth is our digital woes are not just because Quakers are out of the loop. It's a mess out there!

Here's an opinion piece inspired by our conversation:

Outlining the website.

Jules: This was the purpose for our meeting. The goal was to come up with what will go on the first version of the website, which we hope to have up by the end of May.

We recently both attended a squarespace tutorial (passcode 1X629@&C) hosted by Erin, who's been working with the Poughkeepsie communications group and designed their website. I was quite impressed with the flexibility of Squarespace and I think it's a good choice for us.

For now, the vision is that whatever we make should stay relevant without ongoing maintenance. This means no moving parts such as calendar or blog - we are making a static website documenting what Quakers are up to in the Mid Hudson Valley.

There's obviously stuff missing here. Part of this process will be talking to other Friends and learning about the life of our meetings. If you have something to add or would like to help, please reach out to myself: jules@greenspace.earth or Claudia: cjansorge@gmail.com and let us know!

Info/links to meetings

Current Quaker Witness in the Mid Hudson Valley

Ongoing meeting events

Quaker Art/Media

About Quakers

(This section may require deeper discernment.)

Next steps:

Jules: We're going to keep working on this outline. Filling out the content for the site will require input and conversations with many Friends.

Next up is design. I'm going to start experimenting with Squarespace, and our next meeting will probably be talking about the aesthetic direction of the website. Here's a sketch of one direction I'm considering.

We will also be continuing our conversation about how to use social media effectively: considering how use mainstream platforms with authenticity, and also what other ways of sharing things online might be possible.

Thank you Friends!!