Saturday 24th Sept 2016 at the Magdalen Centre, Parish of St Mary, Eversholt St, NW1 1BN.
Notes of the 2014/1515 Appraisal Meeting with Rev Peter Challen are HERE and a PDF document with a full Notes of this Meeting are available HERE.
The meeting was organised by a group of five associates of CCMJ, John, Simon, Janos, Gian and Mary, following the cancellation of the 2016 AGM by Steve. All CCMJ members and associates were invited and it was attended by just ten associates, Simon (chair), Asha, Ellena, Janos, John, Lilias, Schlacke, Kola, Efan, Etna, and Mary (notes), apologies having been received from: Peter Challen, Gian Andreone, and Mike Black.
The background was that Peter, having resigned from CCMJ and in recent weeks no longer attending the weekly outreach “Global Table” at SES due to family circumstances, was still producing a weekly mailing called “Matters in the Air” which formed the official agenda for those meetings, and in the past two years had ceased to progress CCMJ in favour of a new initiative called Independent Constitutionalists UK.
There was some discussion about the status of CCMJ and the style of leadership which Peter had evolved, which he called the “chaplaincy” model, the fact that in recent years he had held “Annual Appraisals” rather than AGMs, and whether CCMJ had already ceased to exist, as fellow officers had resigned some two years ago, but with its conversion to a personal “network” never having been formally ratified.
When we announced our intention to hold an AGM, despite the fact that Peter had called for a group of “jobbing theologians”, his response was to write to members denigrating our efforts, and making it clear he would not attend. Later he emailed us to let us know that had closed the bank account and was holding the balance of £349.46 pending a new account being set up for a future organisation.
However, those in attendance, as well as the former Chair, felt that that as long as a Christian voice for Monetary Justice was needed, and had life-long members, CCMJ could not be folded. So the task of the meeting, was to work out how to move forward in a way that enabled CCMJ’s work to continue whilst accommodating Peter’s wish to fold CCMJ as an organisation.
Had a strong team been in evidence at the meeting, in accordance with the existing constitution, we could have formed a new committee, but with the potential Treasurer, Gian, not being in attendance, and others in the Refreshment Group feeling unable to take responsibility for keeping CCMJ going without Peter’s support, we seemed to be at an impasse.
However, Simon came up with the idea of setting up a replacement organisation called “Co-faith Council for Monetary Justice”, which was accepted as a compromise, on the basis that he would take a lead on it.
Simon was then asked to write to Peter asking him to send £100 to John as reimbursement for the AGM room booking, and the remaining £249.46. to the webmaster, towards ongoing domains and hosting costs. Later, as he had not carried out this action, Mary identified a bank account she had opened for book sales income that could be put to use for CCMJ, and wrote to Peter with the details and a paying-in slip, so she could pay out and account for any expenses properly.
It was also suggested that Mary archive CCMJ material (on to CCMJ.org.uk) so that we could move forward with CCMJ.org, evolving new ways to collaborate with members, alongside the work that Peter was continuing to do outside CCMJ. Much appreciation was expressed of the enormous amount of work done by Peter over the 18 years of his leadership from 1998 to 2016.
MF/mf_23/11/16
