From Jone Lewis – How you can contribute to platforms

Lots going on right now at BSEC, and we’re at the edge of making our platforms even better!  Here are some ways you can contribute:

1) MUSIC: The Sunday Committee voted to form a Music Subcommittee to help bring live music including community singing to more platform meetings.  We’ll schedule a first meeting soon, but want to make sure we include everyone who is interested — from performing to leading songs to joining (maybe!) a chorus to helping keep this effort organized.  If you’d like to be included in the planning meetings or just like to be involved in some way, click here to respond or send an email to me at jone.bsec@gmail.com with MUSIC in the title.

2) RECORDING PLATFORM TALKS: BSEC would love to move into the 21st century and have audio and/or video of our great platform talks online so we can see them again and so that people who weren’t there can see them.  That will take a few volunteers willing to learn to use a fairly simple video camera that the Society would provide to “film” platforms, and/or manage an audio recorder to be sure that it’s present and turned on during the platform talk. Then, and this could be a different person, take the recorded video or audio, and edit it slightly to begin and end smoothly, and then upload to a designated location on the internet where our website can link to it. We can train you to do that, if you’ve got a desktop or laptop computer with sufficient power. Ideally, we’d find four or more people willing to do this for most talks (not colloquys which are more personal).  We can draw on the experience of other Societies to make this successful and not too difficult. — most of them use volunteers for this task. Are you interested? Need more information? Please click here to respond or email me at jone.bsec@gmail.com and put RECORD PLATFORMS in the subject line, please.

3) MANAGING THE SOUND BOARD: Wouldn’t it be great on a Sunday if we had an assigned person of 5 or 6 people who are knowledgeable and skillful about how to work our sound system, so there are fewer glitches and some ease in handling the glitches that do arise? Here‘s a job that usually takes just a few minutes on a Sunday, and with training is pretty simple.  It does mean being there when you’re scheduled and being in the room to handle the changes in volume required for different parts of the program.  Or you could volunteer to the be the person to keep this organized, scheduling and reminding volunteers.  Training in using the sound board and sound system will be provided, and you’ll learn about how to handle any upgrades and changes that are made later. Platform presiders are urged to take this training, too.  Please click here to respond or email me at jone.bsec@gmail.com and put BSEC SOUND in the subject line, please.

Thanks for thinking about whether you can help make our platforms better and more available!

Building Rentals

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For More Information: Damal Edmond

EFC Update Sept 23, 2016

Hello parents and friends!

We are getting excited about this last Sunday of the month before we open registration and delve more deeply into our group classes and projects in October!

DUPREE VISITS LIVING/EVOLVING ETHICS THIS WEEK!
This week our Living Ethics (8-12) and Evolving Ethics (12-14) groups will be led in song -and other activities around the theme of music and activism- by our own DuPree. If you have not yet heard DuPree sing, she starts off the platform on the first Sunday of each month. Her voice is a treasure and her partnership with our children’s program this year is very exciting. If you child is joining our Living or Evolving Ethics groups this week, they are welcome to bring a song that is meaningful to them or to their parents or grandparents, particularly songs that speak to social justice or environment issues. If the song is available online, they can come with the title and I’ll pull it up.

TAG SALE OCT. 2
Also, a reminder that our tag sale is on Oct 2nd after platform, so please continue to set aside all that great stuff you are planning to get rid of and we hope some of you can stay after platform to help with it! I’ll send another update about it next week.

9-18-16 CLASS SNAPSHOTS!

Simba Yangala
Exploring Ethics (3-7year olds)
Celebrating the elders in our community was our theme this week. This Sunday after the funny laughter yoga with Phyllis, the children made a collaborative birthday card for BSEC member Anne-Marie who turned 94 years old! We went together to present it to her and sing her happy birthday. Also, taking turns in our circle, the children talked about their own grandparents and what they love and remember about them.

Lea Bender
Living Ethics (8-12 year olds)/Evolving Ethics (12-14 year olds)
We began with all ages joining together in a circle on the playground on a beautiful warm morning. Although I am a 20-year yoga practitioner, I’d never done “Laughter Yoga” before so it was fun to experience it with our guest Phyllis and our big circle of friends. Afterwards, our group headed to the Poly Prep library to join a discussion with BSEC members Cat Miller and Vandra Thorburn. This was the first in a series of adult member visits that we are trying out this year. What started as a chance for the adults to share what Ethical Culture means to them, turned into a discussion of what it means to be ethical in general. Other interesting topics around the circle included how to engage with people who have different belief systems with respect and curiosity, and the ways in which our own beliefs can change and evolve.

Looking forward to seeing you on Sunday!

Best,
Lea