Vital Friends: Schedule for FGC’s Monthly eNewsletter Announced for Fiscal Year 2020
To encourage submissions from Friends and Quaker meetings, and to further our commitment to transparency, FGC is publishing the themes and release dates of its Vital Friends eNewsletter on our website for Fiscal Year 2020, which spans from October 2019 to September 2020.
In addition to a primary article related to the theme, each issue will feature an update from the Anti-Racism Implementation Group as well as information about FGC program opportunities for fellowship and learning.
We are most interested in receiving submissions about strategies for welcoming newcomers, virtual event invitations, announcements and epistles from Monthly Meeting and Yearly Meetings*, articles about how individual Friends and Quaker meetings and churches are putting their faith into action, and reflections about participating in FGC-organized and sponsored events (including the annual FGC Gathering, the White Privilege Conference, the Fall Retreat for Friends of Color, and Spiritual Deepening eRetreats).
For virtual events, we encourage Friends to include the title, the name of the presenting organization, a brief one to two-sentence description, the starting time in multiple time zones, accessibility details (captions, sign language interpretation, Spanish interpretation, etc), and a registration link.
Look below to view each month’s theme, send date, and submission deadline. Submissions can be sent to Communications Manager Marta Rusek with the subject line Vital Friends Submission: [Month] [Year] via ecommunications@fgcquaker.org.
*We are unable to accept submissions for local in-person event listings (with the exception of virtual events), fundraising appeals, or job opportunities.
October 2019 – Outreach and welcoming
Send Date: Friday, October 4th, 2019
Submissions Due: Tuesday, September 17th, 2019
November 2019 – Quaker Publishing
Send Date: Friday, November 1st, 2019
Submissions Due: Tuesday, October 15th, 2019
December 2019 – The Gathering issue
Send Date: Friday, December 6th, 2019
Submissions Due: Tuesday, November 19th, 2019
January/February 2020 – Spirit-Led Activism
Send Date: Friday, January 3rd, 2020
Submissions Due: Friday, December 13th, 2019
March 2020 – Youth-focused issue
Send Date: Friday, March 6th, 2020 March 13th, 2020 (rescheduled)
Submissions Due: Tuesday, February 18th, 2020
April 2020 – Environmentalism/Sustainability
Send Date: Friday, April 3rd, 2020
Submissions Due: Tuesday, March 17th, 2020
May 2020 – Addressing Tough Topics Among Friends
Send Date: Friday, May 1st, 2020
Submissions Due: Tuesday, April 21st, 2020
June/July 2020 – Quakers and Technology
Send Date: Friday, June 5th, 2020
Submissions Due: Tuesday, May 19th, 2020
August – Interfaith issue
Send Date: Friday, August 7th, 2020
Submissions Due: Tuesday, July 24th, 2020
September – Quaker Spirituality in Virtual Spaces
Send Date: Friday, September 4th, 2020
Submissions Due: Tuesday, August 18th, 2020
Note: The theme was originally due to be Quakers and Meetinghouses. Since many Quaker communities are now holding Meeting for Worship and organizing Meeting for Business virtually, we decided to update the issue theme to reflect the current situation.