Bellingham Friends Meeting racial justice forum rescheduled
Bellingham Friends Meeting rescheduled a community-wide racial justice forum to 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 1, following technical difficulties.
Organizers encountered difficulties allowing more than 100 attendees and panelists to enter their video conference during the originally scheduled time on June 24. The rescheduled forum should allow up to 1,000 people to attend, said Virginia Herrick, the recording clerk for Bellingham Friends Meeting.
The Bellingham Friends Meeting, also known as the Bellingham Quakers, planned the virtual forum following protests related to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. They aim to nurture a “racism-free community” through the forum, according to a news release.
Organizers planned to enable up to 1,000 people to join the virtual forum on June 24 but settings for Zoom, the video conferencing service used by the organizers, capped the meeting at 100 attendees, said Herrick.
The bottleneck forced organizers to end the meeting about 20 minutes after it started because two panelists could not enter the Zoom call.
“We’re really unable to continue, there’s two panelists who can’t get on because so many people are trying to get on,” Herrick said during the attempted forum. “So, I think the positive message is ‘Wow a lot of people in Whatcom County really care a lot about this,’ and I’m really sorry that the tech is preventing us from doing what we had hoped to do.”
The forum will include five panelists: Bellingham Deputy Police Chief Flo Simon, County Executive Satpal Sidhu, Rosalinda Guillen of Community to Community, Shirley Williams of Lumni Nation and White Swan Environmental and Jonathan Randolph, a Black entrepreneur and professional vocalist who is a member of the Bellingham Friends Meeting.
The forum will be moderated by J. Lee Cook, a Quaker member, and a recording of the forum will be posted online after it ends, according to the release.
Attendees can join the forum by following this link to join the Zoom call on Wednesday, July 1, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The Zoom meeting number is 893 6850 8587, and organizers are encouraging people to join the call at 6:45 p.m.