Friends, we look forward to welcoming you to Area Quaker Meeting in Brora on the 5th May. We will meet in a spirit of worship to consider and discern responses for the following Agenda: 1. Creative use of our Area Meetings. We are asked to consider an area meeting without any required business and would it be appropriate to experiment with this at Pluscarden in August? 2. Items coming forward from Meeting for Sufferings: 2a. What is our sense of the need for discipline in relation to sustainability? How central to Quaker life and witness does sustainability need to be? 2b. Inclusion and Diversity. In order to respond by 3rd September we are asked to consider the questions: In what ways is your meeting (or committee or group) already diverse? In what ways could it be more diverse? What would help it become more diverse? What are the opportunities and barriers? 2c. To help Quaker Life discern a strategy for Quaker Week 2019 & beyond, it would be helpful to consider our experiences with outreach, why outreach is important to us and how best can we do it and support our Local Meetings with outreach 3. Report from AM Trustees & NSQT trustees – we hope that one of the Trustees will be able to present a draft of what a single Trust might look like with an opportunity for friends to seek clarification on any issues raised in this document. 4. Nominations Nominations Committee will hopefully bring names not only to bolster our clerking team, but also to represent us at Meeting for Sufferings. It would also be useful to consider representatives for “Signposts for the Soul - pathways through addiction” a conference over the weekend of 13-15 July and for the Quaker Sustainability Conference 19-21October. Timings: Our understanding is that most of you attending Area Meeting will be coming by car; sharing as much as possible, so can I suggest we meet at 11am in the Scout Hall in Brora? We can enjoy worship together, incorporating elements of the agenda as feels appropriate; pausing for lunch at 1pm and continuing our worship for business after lunch. Please bring lunch with you. If you are able to stay for supper we will have brought ingredients and would welcome a coming together of creative culinary talent to prepare a meal that we will aim to have not the table by 7pm Meeting for Worship on Sunday 6th May, 10am. venue to be confirmed.