Sample minutes for Quaker Meetings which bank with PNC

1)  Short Version

The Meeting hears the voices of the majority of the Appalachian people calling for an end to the environmentally devastating practice of mountaintop removal coal mining.

We unite with the recommendation of the Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) and empower our Treasurer, in consultation with the Clerk of Finance Committee, to identify an appropriate local bank or credit union into which we will move our Meeting’s accounts as soon as the process can be reasonably accomplished.

We ask the Clerk of Peace and Social Concerns Committee to write a letter, adapted from the sample provided by EQAT, to be sent to James E. Rohr, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PNC Financial Services Group, telling him of our action and encouraging PNC to enact a full sector exclusion on investments in any company that practices mountaintop removal coal mining.

We encourage individual members who currently bank with PNC to consider taking similar actions.

2)   Longer Version

The Monthly Meeting unites with the majority of the people of Appalachia, numerous community organizations in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, the Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT), and many individual members of the Religious Society of Friends, Friends Meetings, and other Quaker organizations in calling for an end to the environmentally devastating surface mining practice commonly called mountaintop removal coal mining.

Mountaintop removal coal mining has already destroyed over 500 of the most ancient mountains on earth, threatening one of the richest and most diverse eco-systems in North America.  Excess refuse from the blasting, called overburden, has buried over 2000 miles of rivers and streams, contaminating the headwaters that feed the entire southeastern United States.

Recent studies show that communities near mountaintop removal sites suffer increased rates of heart, lung, and kidney disease as well as multiple forms of cancer and birth defects.  Mountaintop removal requires fewer workers to extract more coal, leaving less economic wealth in the community that suffers from the direct impacts of the practice.

We understand that mountaintop removal coal mining is not consistent with Divine Purpose or with the historic Quaker testimonies and our emerging understanding of the requirement to live in harmony with creation.
We empower our Treasurer, in consultation with the Clerk of Finance Committee, to identify an appropriate local bank or credit union into which we will move our Meeting’s accounts as soon as the process can be reasonably accomplished.

We ask the Clerk of Peace and Social Order Committee to write a letter, adapted from the sample provided by EQAT, to be sent to James E. Rohr, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PNC Financial Services Group, telling him of our action and encouraging PNC to enact a full sector exclusion on investments in any company that practices mountaintop removal coal mining.

We encourage individual members who currently bank with PNC to consider taking similar actions.