Morsels #10 Tuesday, November 20, 2012 Present: Sergio Mazza, Cathy Maher, Kevin Hickey, Olaf Lidums,

Charles Mabee Location: St. John Fisher Chapel Upcoming Fall Steering Committee meetings: Tuesday, Dec. 4 Tuesday, Dec. 18 Upcoming Pedagogy of Hospitality meetings: Thursday, November 29 HI calendar: Wednesday, Nov. 28 9-11am North American Interfaith Network Planning Meeting Song and Spirit Institute for Peace 2599 Harvard Berkley, MI 48072 Michigan Communicators Muslim Unity Center, West Bloomfield, MI 1830 W. Square Lake Rd., Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302 HI presentation to Troy Interfaith Group St. Lukes United Methodist Church, 9-11am

Friday, Nov. 30 9am-Noon Monday, Jan. 7 Reports:

I. Remember: all donations are to be sent to the following address, earmarked as Hospitality Project: First Presbyterian Church Birmingham 1669 West Maple Road Birmingham, MI 48009 Attn: Carl Fisher II. We welcomed our special guest who is now one of us: Sergio Mazza. Sergio is a long-time friend of those of us who work at ETS, formerly serving as chair of the ETS board for a number of years. Sergio shared a number of important key insights with the steering committee, based on his long-time experience in interfaith dialogue, especially as manifest in his role on the boards of the Dialogue Institutue

(Philadelphia), and Hartford Theological Seminary. Here, briefly, are some of the highlights of Sergios insights: A. Currently Charles is serving as a volunteer project manager for the Hospitality Initiative. However, those things that have been accomplished thus far have only been done so with the thoughtful contributions and work of a committed HI steering committee. Due to time demands, much has been accomplished, but much remains to be done before the May 5, 2013 kickoff of the Hospitality Initiative Institute. During the months ahead, the steering committee needs to look hard at this role of HI project manager. Will this become a partially paid position with heightened expectations and a firmer job description as we move forward? At what point should this happen? B. Sergio mentioned his work on the Journal of Ecumenical Studies. Cf. http://journal.jesdialogue.org/ Sergio sponsored an issue of this journal devoted to a grass-roots approach to interfaith dialogue. He promised to share it with HI. Obviously, a grass-roots approach to the problem lies at the heart of HI. It is an obvious place to shake hands and move forward together with the Dialogue Institute. This is doubtlessly a key part of the HI agenda during this stage of development. C. Sergio outlined the importance of establishing a core volunteer base for the project. Rather than diverting precious energy to fund development, our time is better spent finding interested persons who bring important skill sets to our work. A key area for this is social media. We need to augment our efforts in these key areas of social media: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Wikipedia Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Enhanced web design (with focus on above the fold)

In essence, we need to find persons who will take each of these components of electronic social media, and maintain the HI presence on a regular basis. D. All of our published work must follow the four Cs: 1. 2. 3. 4. Clear Concise Compelling Consistent

E. Sergio and the steering committee discussed in more precise terms the subject of his presentation at Summit2013. Keying off the pedagogy of hospitality discussion, we agreed to title Sergios talk Saturday morning, May 4, as follows: Hospitality as Spiritual Life-Worthiness. This broad topic, inspired by the work of Howard Gardner (introduced to us by Richard Pippan in the pedagogy of hospitality study group) will allow Sergio to address hospitality as manifest in both the business, educational, and scientific fieldsthe Saturday morning subject areas. III. Charles reported that First Congregational Church, Rochester Hills, has agreed in principle to host the Saturday evening supper theater program performed by FullImpactTheater: The Good Person of Szechwan. Charles will meet with Rev. David Wheeler, pastor of FCC, and members of FullImpactTheater on Tuesday, Nov. 27, to review the venue. IV. Charles reported that HI had informally entered into agreement with St. Dunstans Theatre to hold a fund-raising event at the end of January. More details to come from Jason Morgan, who graciously arranged the event, at our next committee meeting. More information about St. Dunstans can be found at http://www.stdunstanstheatre.com/ V. Charles reported continued progress at Oakland University in the department of media relations. We are now on track for a full media blitz and the publication of printed materials, including a save-the-date flyer for Summit2013, a brochure for the event, and business cards. The office would also help with the creation of a logo if we decide to go that route. More details forth-coming at the next meeting, Tuesday, Dec. 4.

FullImpactTheater report: It was agreed to speak with both St. John Fisher Chapel (Lisa Brown) and St. Lukes about a dinner theater production. Fund Development: Cathy led us to consider the development of two fundamental pieces 1. Flyer for the conference to be distributed approximately 3 months ahead of time. 2. Brochure to be distributed at Summit2013 itself. We can begin the solicitation of sponsors for the event at this point. The logos of the sponsoring institutions will appear on both the flyer and brochure. A cost of $200 was set to have the logo appear in these materials. A presented by category is established for a donation of $1000 or more. On the other end of the spectrum, a

category of patron was established at a figure of $20, designed primarily for private donations. Generally, the cost for Summit2013 was set: The Friday night lecture is free. The cost for Saturday will be $25, including the cost of the dinner theater production. Melissa pointed out the importance of establishing a venue for the play due to restrictions and requirements that each potential location establishes. While no detailed time-line for the project was established, a specific date was established that will be a fulcrum for the project: February 1, 2013. The key event associated with this date is the completion of the production of the flyer for the conference and the mailing of the flyer out to targeted religious, academic and business communities. Olaf presented his initial thoughts on the development of a three-hour hospitality workshop to be offered to religious communities. Submitted by: Charles Mabee