Twenty-eight Quaker publishers, book sellers and authors from the US, Australia and England gathered for business and the investigation of cooperative ventures as QUIP (Quakers United in Publishing)- held their 20th annual session at Powell House in Old Chatham New York April 27-30.

Keynote speaker, Catherine Whitmire, author of Plain Living: A Quaker Path to Simplicity and the forthcoming Practicing Peace, called on Friends to be faithful to our leadings in writing and publishing � "planning our visions deep in the furrows of the world�s pain".

Guest speaker, Chris Faatz, religion book buyer for Powell�s Books urged Friends not to underestimate the audience for Quaker titles in the fast growing religious books category, noting that progressive titles are especially under-represented and strongly recommended getting our books into the independent bookstore market.

T. L. Hill, formerly of New Society Press and now professor of Business Administration at Temple University came back to QUIP to lead members through strategies for analyzing one�s audience, and marketing to them successfully.

Our Saturday excusion visited Hancock Shaker Village, where we were impressed by the thoughtful provisions for lightening work as much as possible, especially for the women.

A major initiative, building on the success of the book Whispers of Faith, is to begin a three-year project, with young Friends from around the world, on a new book of young Friends writings with a tentative budget of $50,000.

Despite the discouraging news of cutbacks in publishing at Pendle Hill and Friends United Meeting, new energy was evidenced in the reorginization at Britain YM and the growth of smaller publishers. QUIP will reach out to new entities to broaden its base.

Chris Faatz, Susan Corson Finnerty of the Friends Journal, Peter Daniels of Britain Yearly Meeting, Lucy Duncan of Quaker Books of FGC, and self publisher Chris Skidmore of Sowle Press (England) spoke of meeting the deep spiritual hunger of readers in one of the fastest growing book segments (religion) where Quaker titles are vastly underrepresented. All recognized that ministry rather than profit was the bottom line and recognized the importance of marketing as a tool of outreach.

Future initiatives include sponsoring a writing conference for Quakers writing on Quaker subjects, experimenting with representing Quaker titles directly to independent bookstores and developing the QUIP website to include extensive book reviews.

The 2007 Annual Meeting will be at Glenthorne in the Lake District of England with the theme "Writing and Publishing as Ministry".