I'm Stephen Petter, born 10 May 1937. Now retitired, I live in Bristol.
I am a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers), taking an active interest in its spiritual life and its social witness. I regard my spiritual development as the most important part of my life. I spent three months at the Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham and some weeks in an Ashram in India.
I'm a member of the Alister Hardy Society which is closely associated with the Religious Experience Research Centre. I am also a member of theBede Griffiths Sangha.
I am also a member of the Green Party, seeing this as part of my Quaker witness.
My tertiary education was in the fields of socio-technical systems, which included the study of organisations and management. In my working life, since 1961 I was a computer engineer, then a programmer and systems analyst, a job which I enjoyed greatly, to the extent that I avoided promotion to management. Though I worked mainly in multi-national corporations I have good experience of small businesses and charities.
I retired in May 2002 but am now busier (and more stressed) than when employed. I am Administrator (and a Director and the Company Secretary) of a Charity: Friends of Sangam Foundation that supports a school in India. I have completed the Facilitator's course in AVP (Alternatives to Violence Project) and hope to make this my main pro bono activity. I am also Company Secretary of AVP, Britain. Also in Quakers I'm clerk to my local meeting (Bedminster Quaker Meeting), and on Monthly Meeting committees, as well as its Public Statements Group.
Quaker (organisational)
Experience (A sort of CV)
Extensive CV - My life history in excrutiating detail:
my varied career, my memberships, and my participation in voluntary organisations.
CV - A CV concentrating on my IT career.
Travels
Sleeping under the stars in the Western Desert (Egypt) in 2000.
Our 2001-2002 round the world journey
Palestine in 2003
Sri Lanka and India for six weeks early in 2004
Sri Lanka as an International Monitor of their Presidential election, 2005
Sailing - Dreams, Plans and Qualifications.
Other sites created by me. All
my sites including my new BLOG
("Blog" = Web Log. I put most new stuff on it.)
Long Term Plans. My intention is (P.S.This was written circa 2000. I suppose I must correct it to say 'was'. The fact is I've been retired almost 10 years but have not had time to get started on these three big projects. Anyway, the dreams have not quite disappeared...) to devote much of my time to the formation and development of organisations to address some of the world's major problems - deforestation and the persecution of indigenous peoples that live in them, conflict between powerful states and minorities seeking independence, and economic injustice seen in the widening gap between nations that consume and pollute at the expense of those many of whose citizens starve.
I hope to spend more time hiking, visiting my extended family, sailing, travelling, and contemplating my navel. I plan to continue to run the India charity and to do campaigning for the Green Party. I aim also to do some serious sailing.
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This page revised: 2002-12-08, 2003-03-21 2003-04-23 2003-07-11 2003-09-02 2003-09-22 2003-11-18 2004-09-20(partial), 2006-12-31 2008-05-27