Advanced Documents — New England Yearly Meeting 2019

Faith and Practice Revision Committee

A chapter on Membership and a chapter on Dying, Death and Bereavement are coming to us for preliminary approval. The chapters will be available in print at Sessions; they are available online at neym.org/fp-revision/documents-discussion.

Report from the Noticing Patterns of Oppression and Faithfulness Working Group

Last year the Yearly Meeting charged Ministry and Counsel to: “Develop a practice to appoint people who will observe, name, and reflect back to us long-standing, unseen patterns and practices that result in our complicity in oppression.” (Minute 2018-53)

Formation:

Several responded to the idea presented in the charge. We held an initial Zoom call with about 10 Friends (multiracial, multigenerational, multi-gender); there was an informal, in-person brainstorming with three Friends (all white), and a working group emerged with four Friends (all cis-gendered women, white and queer), now joined by a fifth white woman and one African American woman (who has been unable to attend a meeting yet). Several other Friends added comments early on (again, all white). The working group has had conversations and/or met with the Yearly Meeting presiding and rising clerks and the clerk of Ministry and Counsel. The current working group consists of Lisa Graustein, Lorena Boswell, Polly Attwood, Becky Jones, Pamela Terrien, and LVM Shelton.

Discernment:

We recognize a pattern of oppression in the language of the charge itself: “unseen patterns” in the original charge ignores the Friends, mostly of color, who over the years have observed, named, and reflected back patterns of oppression to the body. This is deep and nuanced work; we are excited to do it.
We have heard from Friends that our practice needs to be welcoming, invitational, educational, and about all of us growing together.
We know that there is much wisdom within the body of Yearly Meeting and want to cultivate a corporate sense of ownership of the job of noticing, rather than having “experts” do it. We are clear this needs to be a practice and process involving the wisdom and perspectives of many.
We have heard concerns that our practice not mirror “calling out” or replicate shaming behaviors that will not help us grow. Instead we are developing practices that remind us all of what it means to be faithful by inviting us more deeply into the work.
We hear a clear call for a practice that will help us recognize patterns of oppression, a practice that will likely evolve over time, a practice that will be needed for a long time. Additionally, we see the need to name patterns of faithfulness as they emerge.
We have named ourselves the Noticing Patterns of Oppression and Faithfulness Working Group and see the value of having the name said in full so that we remember the breadth of what we are noticing. We are all called to faithfully do the work of noticing patterns of oppression so that we can be more faithful in changing them. We feel the need to name where our actions are justice-oriented so this noticing patterns of oppression and faithfulness has space for naming not only areas for change but also areas of strength to build upon.

Proposal for NEYM Sessions 2019

We have clarity about some interconnected ways we can do this work:

Learning and Training: In order to notice patterns of oppression and take new actions towards justice and healing, we have to know what patterns of oppression are and learn how to interrupt them in ways that are positive, healing, and justice-oriented.
- This spring 2019 the working group led two successful and well-attended workshops, March 9 at Wellesley Friends Meeting and April 6 at Living Faith.
- The goal of these workshops has been to empower Friends to deepen their skill and our shared capacity to observe, name, and reflect on patterns of oppression and faithfulness in ways that promote growth. Through experiential activities, sharing of our wisdom, teaching, role-playing, and physical stretching and awareness, participants in these workshops worked on developing capacity for and skills in:
  - inclusion and inviting people in
  - identifying patterns of oppression related to class, gender, gender identity, race, age, ability, sexual orientation
  - self-awareness of our emotions, physical reactions, inner knowing, witnessing, listening, and curiosity, knowledge within the group that can inform our ability to identify patterns as they are being enacted and our ability to interrupt those patterns
  - sitting with, rather than reacting in response to, criticism
  - the capacity, when one has been named as participating in or perpetuating a pattern of oppression, to apologize and correct
  - interrupting patterns as they are happening
  - naming and celebrating our faithfulness
- Lisa Graustein’s virtual plenary talks are a valuable tool to give Friends practice in seeing patterns. We have been and will continue to encourage members of our individual meetings to engage, individually or collectively, with the virtual plenary sessions.
Practice involves developing practices and specific tools that all Friends can engage in, both at Sessions and throughout the Yearly Meeting outside of Sessions. These practices will encourage us to collectively listen, name patterns of oppression, and then work to realign our actions towards justice and God’s vision for us. As we realign, we will then name them as examples of faithfulness.
- At three different events this winter/spring—a January 5th consultation with committees and working groups within NEYM working on racial justice, and at the two workshops listed above—we explored a collective and collaborative practice of pausing and noticing, inviting all Friends to name what they are experiencing by completing a simple sentence starter:
  - I feel . . .
  - I hear . . .
  - I know . . .
  - I see . . .
  - I wonder . . .
- And a second set of sentence starters to deepen our noticing and naming:
  - In this moment, I hear God inviting us . . .
  - A pattern I recognize . . .
  - The deeper call I hear . . .
  - I am confused because . . .
  - I see us using power to . . .
- These starters invite us to name what we are experiencing in a way that gives equal value to emotions, physical reactions, inner knowing, witnessing, listening, and curiosity about assumptions and messages being spoken. We intend to work with these at Yearly Meeting Sessions, possibly having them available on cards that Friends can keep with them. We hope that they will give Friends a way to pause and reflect during break times in meeting for worship with attention to business, especially when the clerks and Noticing Patterns of Oppression and Faithfulness Elders are conferring on how to proceed when complex issues arise in the body. We could also use this process in workshops and daily debriefing sessions to help Friends identify and name the different patterns they see arising in business sessions.
- The working group will introduce this practice, the Noticing Patterns of Oppression and Faithfulness Elders, and supporting resources to Friends on the Monday morning of Sessions.
- Throughout the week, the results of Friends’ use of this practice could then come to the clerks via the working group members, the Elders, and other Friends in the body.
Elders: Three Elders for Noticing Patterns of Oppression and Faithfulness were confirmed by Ministry and Counsel and Permanent Board in May. These Noticing Patterns of Oppression and Faithfulness Elders attended the Memorial Day retreat of Yearly Meeting clerks in order to discern their role during Sessions and to help shape the Sessions agenda.
- The three Noticing Patterns of Oppression and Faithfulness Elders are Eppchez Yes, Melissa Foster, and Polly Attwood (who is also a member of this working group).
- These Friends have experience and skill in eldering and in the practice of noticing patterns and dynamics of oppression. They will serve as elders in meeting for worship for the conduct of business and will be available to support the clerk’s table and the body as needed. These elders will meet with the clerks daily during Anchor Group time, and will be available during meeting for worship for the conduct of business to support the clerks as issues arise, support the clerks in reframing current agenda items, framing new agenda items, or revisiting an item previously addressed.
- Several Friends have expressed reservations about the use of the word “elder.” Some are concerned that in this context it will reinforce the faulty notion that elders are just there to tell us when we are wrong. Others believe that they are seeing these Friends as elders in the truest sense—weighty Friends able to help us navigate the areas where we need guidance and support. The working group is clear that our process and practice is not focused on what is wrong, but rather what is happening and how we can change and grow. We agree that “elder” is the appropriate term for the work we are asking these Friends to do.
Noticers: The working group will engage Noticers from the working group and other groups and organizations involved in social justice issues, whose role during Sessions will be to be available to support the process of noticing patterns of oppression and faithfulness, especially during the business meetings, and to facilitate the daily debriefing and processing sessions (see Item 5, below). The additional Noticers will also work with the working group to prepare our workshops for Sessions and/or be part of the drop-in center.
- We see a role parallel to the Noticing Patterns of Oppression and Faithfulness Elders within the body of Sessions for a group of people to support those who name or interrupt patterns: to invite and facilitate Friends within the body to talk in small groups, using the set of prompts listed in Item 2 above, about the dynamics of what has just happened. We see value in this practice in several ways: it lets the body do some work while the clerks are consulting; it increases corporate awareness of patterns and dynamics; and it gives people a chance to hear each other, be heard, and maybe help educate each other. We think spending such time will help us explore and learn through such tensions as they arise rather than become stuck in those tensions in counterproductive patterns.
Daily space and workshops at Sessions where Friends can reflect, process, and explore the patterns that we are noticing. There will be two workshop opportunities and daily facilitated drop-in times at a designated location.
- Workshops: On Monday evening, for the first hour of workshop time, we will have the opportunity to reflect with our plenary speaker Lisa Graustein and Hal Weaver for a deeper conversation on race, justice, and patterns of oppression. Those in attendance can join us for the first hour only or, for those able and wishing to make a deeper dive into this work, stay for an additional hour and a quarter. During this second section, we will give people tools for noticing, for developing an increasing capacity to hear critique, and for lovingly calling each other into greater equality and humanity. The second workshop will be crafted in response to what is happening at Yearly Meeting. We envision a hands-on look at patterns we are noticing this year at Sessions.
- Drop-in Space: Some Friends are going to want more time and space to dig into this work than meeting for worship for business allows. We will have pairs of facilitators, appointed by the working group and/or Ministry and Counsel and/or Permanent Board, to allow Friends to discuss and explore all that this new practice and commitment to noticing patterns of oppression lifts up. The facilitators, working in teams of at least two, will ensure that the processing stays productive and encourages growth and that Friends who may be triggered or upset get connected with care. This will require coordination with the Pastoral Care team at Sessions. We will provide this space as an alternative Anchor Group and for a daily drop-in time during the dinner hour.

In faith,

—the Working Group on Noticing Patterns of Oppression and Faithfulness

Treasurer’s Report

Because of the continued generosity of our membership, the Yearly Meeting continues to be in good financial health. Despite continuing to approve deficit budgets, the Yearly Meeting is operating with minimally adequate reserves. At the beginning of this fiscal year we had reserves of $212,000, which were $13,000 over that required by our policy.

Five years ago we began intentionally adopting a series of significantly deficit budgets to maintain our level of services as we started an effort to increase our income. The current budget provides for an approximate $8,000 shortfall, as does the proposed budget for next year. The 5-year plan called for us to begin running operating surpluses this year to restore our reserves to a more comfortable level. This is not a warning of impending doom, but rather should be seen as a reminder that we do need to continue to increase our contributions to the Yearly Meeting to adequately provide for the programs and expenses we consider vital.

Pay-As-Led and Equalization

One of the most frequent questions I am asked is whether it was important that meetings continue supporting the Equalization Fund. The answer is YES!!! The continued success of the pay-as-led approach to registration fees depends on the continued support of the Equalization Fund by meetings and individuals.

Participating in Sessions is a vital way for each of us to experience the wider Yearly Meeting community and develop the ties with members of other meetings which helps to strengthen and expand the web of Quakerism in New England. The meeting contributions are a way for them to support their own members participation in Sessions as well as assisting meetings with fewer resources. Contributions to the Equalization Fund are the one tangible measure of support for the pay-as-led approach, making visible the support for those of us who cannot afford the total costs and helping them to participate in the life of our Yearly Meeting.

NEYM Contribution to FUM

In 2009, and in response to Friends concern about the Friends United Meeting (FUM) personnel policy, NEYM adopted a temporary policy of allowing monthly meetings to withhold the portion of their budgeted contribution to NEYM which would go towards the NEYM contribution to FUM. At that time a number of meetings implemented that provision, which reduced our contribution to FUM by about $800 per year. In the past year two of our larger meetings have begun withholding, which I estimate will this year make our contribution to FUM $1900 less than the budgeted amount.

That 2009 minute also established a restricted fund that would receive contributions from individuals and meetings which were to be used to make up the amount being withheld. Because of the generosity of a few individuals, the “make-up” fund has had sufficient monies to cover the amount withheld. Thus each year we send two checks to FUM, along with a letter explaining the issue NEYM has with the FUM personnel policy and the reason for there being two checks. Because of the large increase in the total withholding, I expect there will not be enough in the “make-up” fund to cover the total withholding.

Funding Archives Activities

Last year I reported that Permanent Board, under the impression that the work related to moving the archives to the Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) at the University of Massachusetts had been completed, transferred the money from the sale of the Bloudy Tenent of Persecution to the General Fund. That action turned out to be a bit premature. There still were boxes with miscellaneous material which needed to have their contents inventoried. In November, Permanent Board approved making funds available to complete the work which has now been done.

Now that SCUA is ready to receive those records meetings have been holding during the transfer, we need to learn which records they are most interested in and the preferred formats. And that will be the first major task for the archivist as we reactivate that part-time position. As a regular contractor, the Archivist position will be funded through the general budget.

—Shearman Taber

FY20/21 Budget Commentary

The Finance Committee of New England Yearly Meeting is pleased to present our proposed FY2020 budget for your consideration. We also present a draft FY2021 budget for your reference, but not approval. As was the case in FY2019, the draft FY2020 budget does not differ significantly from that of the previous year. Our expenses are fairly level due to the moderate inflation our economy has had of late.

There are some modest increases from last year’s budget to align the budget with the funding priorities Permanent Board approved in November 2018 and forwarded to the Finance Committee.

Specifically:

Learning, Practice, and Leadership: Nia Thomas’ work has been shifted toward developing leadership and nurturing Quaker practice in the Yearly Meeting. This budget also includes funds to continue the work of Maggie Nelson, who is now serving in the role of Young Friends Event Organizer. In addition, while the amount for Committee Expenses has only marginally increased, changes in the use of those funds will provide additional support for this work.
Expanding Childcare at Sessions: We have included funds to support additional childcare at Sessions to enable parents to more easily participate in business sessions.
Communications: We are continuing funding for social media and graphic design to better participate in the forms of electronic communication that new Friends are mostly likely to be using.
Increased Capacity for Financial Management: 3-hour/week increase in time for the work of the Accounts Manager, in part to reduce the Treasurer’s workload

In the FY19 budget you approved in August 2018, we showed a projected temporary decrease in staff expense due to the resignation of Beth Collea from the role of religious education and outreach coordinator. We said then that we would take time in the current fiscal year to consider how to sustain important aspects of this work, while exploring how a new staffing model might better serve the current needs of Friends. Part of that new staffing model is the work of Nia Thomas, described above.

To that end, some of the money set aside in FY19 in Contracted Services has been returned to Staff Salaries in the draft FY2020 budget. With the clarification of the new staffing model these funds will again be used to support staff costs.

As the Yearly Meeting continues to alter what it is asking of our limited staffing resources, the Yearly Meeting secretary adjusts what is being asked of both of our regular staff and contractors providing additional services. To provide the needed flexibility, the policies laid out by the Finance Committee allow money to be freely moved between the Staff Salary and Contracted Services lines. The budget, as presented, shows how that money is currently expected to be divided up in FY2020 between these two lines, but is subject to change as our needs evolve.

Even with some increases and adjustments in staffing, we are sustaining an overall reduction in staff salaries over the FY18 budget.

Budgets for	FY2018	FY2019	FY2020
5000 Staff (salaries & benefits)	$417,388	$363,915	$406,231
5130 Contracted Services	26,896	60,396	31,896
Total 5000 + 5130	$444,284	$424,311	$438,127

In addition:

The amount for Legal Services was reduced from FY19 ($5,250 in FY20). Several years ago NEYM established a designated fund to serve as an emergency reserve for initial legal expenses should we need to respond quickly to a lawsuit or other legal emergency. A target of $20,000 was established and we are now approaching that point.
The proposed budget supports the Personnel Committee’s efforts to see that NEYM provides equitable salary levels for our employees.
We are showing an increase in interest income to more accurately reflect the interest received in FY18, to-date in FY19, and projected in FY20. Last year the Board of Managers of Investments and Permanent Funds altered its method of determining distributions from the Pooled Funds. The distributions had been limited to the interest and dividends from the investments, which had decreased to about 1.25% with the lowering of interest rates over the years. The new distribution formula is now set at 4% of the average value of the fund over the last three years. Thus the checks we receive from the Pooled Funds are significantly larger, resulting in the larger amount on line 4050.
It is difficult to predict monthly meeting contributions, yet they provide a significant part of the funds to support the budget. Based on work by the Development Committee and the Accounts Manager, the level shown could be reachable. That said, the challenge is that changes in monthly meeting contribution levels normally lag one to two years behind the NEYM budget due to the timing of requests and budget cycles.

We acknowledge that we are bringing to Sessions an unbalanced budget, which is contrary to our charge. Per the guidance of Sessions last year, we are not recommending reductions from the FY18 funding level for New England Yearly Meeting’s contributions to Friends General Conference, Friends United Meeting, and Friends World Committee for Consultation in this FY20 draft budget ($13,075 each). With this level of funding, we honor the commitment we have heard to sustain our support for the important work of these organizations. In the committee’s discernment this year, we were not able to find other places where we could responsibly reduce our spending by the approximately $9,000 we would need to balance the budget, so are proposing a deficit budget. We would appreciate suggestions on how we might achieve a balanced budget.

—bob murray, clerk of finance committee

Support for Ministry of Publications

Background

In August 2018 the Permanent Board recommended formally laying down the NEYM Publications and Communications Committee, which had been inactive for several years.

Friends gathered at Sessions did not approve the recommendation in the absence of clarity about how the important ministry of publications was being or would be carried forward by the Yearly Meeting. Friends at that time expressed a strong desire for the Yearly Meeting to support the ministry of publications, as well as a recognition that “publications” has evolved and includes forms, tools and media that have changed significantly, even in recent years.

There is also a clear need to address the appropriate stewardship and use of the Mosher Book and Tract Fund (MBTF), which had been officially under the care of the former Publications and Communications Committee since a previous reorganization several years before. The MBTF makes a modest amount of money available each year for the limited purpose of “printing and circulating books and tracts inculcating and developing the principles of the Christian religion as preached and promulgated by the early Friends.” The Fund has not been used since 2014.

For the purposes of clarity, a proposal for the management and oversight of the NEYM Mosher Book and Tract Fund will be separately presented and considered.

Sessions asked Coordinating and Advisory and Permanent Board to return in August 2019 with a proposal outlining in greater detail how the YM would support this ministry.

The following proposal seeks to address the concerns described above in a way that liberates and encourages the ministry of publications for many years to come.

Proposal

Supporting the publication of Friends’ testimony to the transforming power of God in our lives—both in writing and in other media—is and will continue to be a vital aspect of the ministry of New England Quakers. The document below seeks to articulate policy and process for support of publishing projects by New England Yearly Meeting of Friends.

Process for Identifying and Coordinating Support for Publications

The Yearly Meeting office manager will serve as the primary point of contact for all prospective publications projects. The office manager will receive inquiries, assess scope, and match projects with resources as appropriate. The office manager will also welcome referrals or suggestions on publications projects, including from local meetings, quarterly meetings, Yearly Meeting committees, and Friends active in public ministry. The office manager or secretary may take initiative to approach prospective authors to encourage them to consider a publishing project.

Friends who are interested in publishing relevant content (or suggesting that content created by others be published, or that content on a specific theme be created) are encouraged to contact the office manager, who will help the inquirer to determine what support is needed.
After developing a sense of the scope and nature of support the project may involve, the office manager will consult with the Yearly Meeting secretary about the proposal to determine what support the office can offer.
The Yearly Meeting secretary will coordinate and, if possible, approve NEYM support for publishing proposals in a manner consistent with the policy on grants, ensuring coordination, consistency, and consultation as appropriate, and seeking further discernment and counsel where helpful or needed.
Depending on the complexity, purpose, and needs of the project proposed, the office manager may be able to offer editorial support or may refer the caller to individuals who proofread, edit, and design; to a print house; or to Friends publishing houses such as Barclay Press, FGC, FUM, and Pendle Hill.
The office manager will be a participating member of Quakers Uniting in Publications (QUIP), maintaining that connection on behalf of NEYM.
The office manager will maintain a written guide for format and style for print and internet content publications, such as use of abbreviations and acronyms, capitalization, and language conventions.
Overall policy and standards for publications will be developed by staff, seeking expertise and input as needed, and presented to Permanent Board as needed for review, input, and approval.

Publications Resource Group

The office manager will maintain a list of Friends with expertise relevant to publications projects who have agreed to be contacted by the office manager to consider offering their skills, experience and gifts—either individually or as part of a small team—with specific projects.
Friends serving as part of this “Publications Resource Group” will serve (as called upon) as an ongoing resource for the office manager in identifying Friends to assist those seeking help with a publication, and for advising on publications-related matters as requested. The members of this group will be selected and supervised by the office manager. Though Friends serving in these roles may never meet together as a whole group, their meaningful service in this way will be publicly acknowledged. This group may include people who are not part of NEYM (such as members of QUIP).

Promotion and Education Regarding NEYM Support for Publications

Proposals or recommendations for publications will be publicized and solicited through the NEYM website, social media, and the email newsletter. In these and other ways, NEYM will encourage writers to contact the Yearly Meeting office for help with developing publications and finding ways to share the message of Friends. Invitations to propose projects and information regarding the process will also be included in training for committees and other volunteer service.

Recommendation for Stewardship and Distribution of the Mosher Book and Tract Fund

The Mosher Book and Tract Fund is a permanently restricted fund of New England Yearly Meeting. Distributions from this fund are to be used for the purpose of “printing and circulating books and tracts inculcating and developing the principles of the Christian religion as preached and promulgated by the early Friends.” As a result of growth in principal from several years in which funds were not distributed but instead returned to principal, funds available for distribution in FY2019 total $3096.30, with a principal of $85,154.34.

Currently the Mosher Book and Tract Fund (MTBF) is under the temporary oversight of the Permanent Board. This proposal recommends that Permanent Board retain this overall responsibility and oversight, delegating responsibility for proposal development and funding recommendations to the office manager and Yearly Meeting secretary.

As part of their ongoing work supporting publications, the office manager and secretary will consider prospective or ongoing publications projects of which they are aware which would substantially benefit from funds available for distribution from MBTF consistent with the Fund’s purposes.
While there will be no formal widespread solicitation of proposals, the availability of MTBF funding will also be publicized on the Yearly Meeting website and periodically in the email newsletter, so that Friends can suggest further creative uses for these funds.
At least once per fiscal year, the office manager and secretary will review potential publication projects and make a recommendation to Permanent Board regarding the use of MTBF funds available for distribution in the current fiscal year.
In reviewing potential projects and developing proposals to Permanent Board, the office manager and secretary may consult with Friends with relevant experience, and with members of Coordinating and Advisory Committee for seasoning and discernment.
Final approval from Permanent Board will be required before funds are dispersed.
News of how funds are used will be featured in the Yearly Meeting newsletter (and in other media as appropriate), and will be reflected in the minutes of the Permanent Board and in other related communications.

Friends General Conference Activities over the Past 5 Years

FGC has been busy and led by Spirit during the last 5 years, listening to the needs articulated by meetings and individual Friends to focus the work we are called to do on the needs Friends identify. Some elements of the work are ongoing, others represent a change in emphasis; all are aimed to help nurture the spiritual vitality of Friends.

The Gathering Traditionally held yearly during the first week of July with a broad range of workshops, activities and opportunities for Friends of all ages and relationships with Quakers; 800–1100 Friends from all over the world attend. (See fgcquaker.org/connect/gathering for more details.)

Institutional Assessment of Systemic Racism In response to ongoing experiences of systemic racism reported by Friends of Color over many years, FGC undertook a detailed and systematic study of systemic racism within FGC as an organization. The report details suggestions for way forward in addressing the documented concerns; a standing committee which will undertake implementation of the needed changes has been appointed and begun work. (See fgcquaker.org/news/october-report-institutional-assessment-racism-task-force-recommendations-fgc-central-committee.)

Help Your Meeting Challenge Racism Materials and suggestions are available to support Meetings undertaking work toward eradicating racism in the meeting. (See fgcquaker.org/services/help-your-meeting-challenge-racism)

Welcoming Friend This limited-term pilot project, funded in part by the Tyson Memorial Fund and designed to collect, share and encourage best practices for welcoming people new to the meeting is just coming to an end; a report is forthcoming in the fall and relevant materials will be available on the web in the Spiritual Deepening Library and as an e-retreat. The Committee for Nurturing Ministries (CNM) hopes to continue this important work.

Spiritual Deepening This program, developed and contributed to by more than 100 volunteers from across the U.S. and Canada includes two components: the Spiritual Deepening Library and e-retreats.

The Spiritual Deepening Library includes hundreds of free resources, print materials, and suggestions for their use by both meetings and individuals presented in an accessible, user-friendly format. There are materials suitable for children and adults individually and together, and many are newcomer friendly. Visit fgcquaker.org/spiritual-deepening/library to explore the available materials and to see the many ways to take advantage of this rich resource.
E-retreats on four different topic areas are now available and being facilitated on a rotating basis with several more in development for the coming year. Visit fgcquaker.org/eRetreats to see more details on the available retreats.

Religious Education The Sparklers continue to choose and design appropriate materials for use with children in First Day Schools and at home. They have provided topically focused, age-appropriate materials for the Spiritual Deepening Library.

Online Toolboxes These are collections of materials for focused use, helping individuals who want a pre-organized approach to building a new meeting or growing one that is already in existence.

New Meeting: fgcquaker.org/deepen/outreach/new-meetings-project/new-meetings-toolbox
Grow our Meeting: fgcquaker.org/grow-our-meetings-toolkit

Identification of Priorities by Central Committee Central Committee in 2017 spent considerable time in discernment of FGC’s top priorities. They are: The Gathering, the Ministry on Racism (including implementation of the Institutional Assessment), Youth, The Yearly Meeting Connector Role (which includes your Yearly Meeting Visitors), and the Spiritual Deepening Program.

Matching institutional goals and financial expenditures to balance spending and crafting a sustainable budget In pursuit of greater fiscal sustainability in the face of declining contributions, FGC has sought and implemented many ways to decrease expenditures while maintaining the integrity and value of the programs offered.

Consideration of a Feasibility Study for a major fundraising campaign Central Committee is looking carefully at FGC’s organizational priorities and how these might underpin a campaign. You can talk to your FGC Representative or Yearly Meeting Visitor to learn more.

Clerking workshop for high school and adult young Friends Each year the AYF and HS Gathering Programs clerks attend a weekend training to build the clerking team and develop their clerking skills. They are also supported during the Gathering by a Friend in Residence (HS) or Friendly Presence (AYF).

Retreats for POC and their families Each fall, this weekend-long regional gathering serves to create opportunities for fellowship and sharing among People of Color and their family members. In order to fulfill the intention to create regional communities of support which can sustain these Friends throughout the year, these gatherings, like the FGC Summer Gathering, move around the country.

Pre-Gathering retreats

POC and their Families: This event is particularly intended for People of Color and their family members who are attending the Gathering. It focuses on the creation of a community of support to sustain these Friends throughout the week of Gathering.
Quakers and Business: This event provides an opportunity for Quakers who are in business to share about the relationship between their work life and their faith.
AYF: This retreat has taken up topics particularly chosen by the AYF Community each year as speaking to their needs. This year, they will be looking at race, racism and white supremacy.

Yearly Meeting Visitors Program Part of the Connector function, the YMVP provides visitors to Yearly Meeting sessions. The role of the visitor is to learn of the YM’s particular strengths and needs as well as to look at how these attributes might be shared across Yearly Meetings.

Quaker Finder A Web-based directory of meetings. (fgcquaker.org/connect/quaker-finder)

Quaker Cloud A web-based service accessible to meetings which allows a repository for minutes, directories, etc., and a method of sharing information among meeting members (and to a lesser degree others). Visit fgcquaker.org/services/quaker-cloud)

Quaker Books of FGC (Bookstore) Quaker Books of FGC is revitalized under the able hand of a group of dedicated volunteers and a very able part-time staff member. Services such as the Gathering Bookstore, YM Book tables, and online book sale continue to be available: quakerbooks.org

FGC Publications FGC Publications continues to make books available that might not otherwise reach public view and which are of special interest to Friends.

Supporting attendance at the White Privilege Conference The White Privilege Conference provides excellent and varied workshops to deepen understanding of many aspects of white privilege, white supremacy, and institutionalized racism. It also provides Friends the opportunity to meet others who are engaged in combating racism in our society. In order to support Friends to attend, FGC negotiates a significant discount with the conference organizers each year and provides a dedicated Quaker space for worship and fellowship during the conference. Several years ago, FGC was one of the conference co-sponsors.

*Activities laid down during this time have not been listed.

Minute from Northwest Quarter

At our June 2019 meeting, Northwest Quarter considered a minute brought by Burlington Meeting concerning the struggle in Gaza. We were not clear to endorse it; rather, Northwest Quarter brings the following minute to NEYM:

Seeking God’s guidance, we have labored long and hard on this concern for Gaza. We ache for the peoples of Gaza and we acknowledge that we have not been faithful in living into the NEYM Minute 2017-46. By failing to do so, we have been negligent in acting on behalf of those we intended to support. Our unfaithfulness ignores the aggressions constantly laid upon the people of Gaza. Could we move toward faithfulness and relief of the inhumane situations in Gaza and the West Bank? Can we bring our whole selves to stand beside our brothers and sisters through prayers and asking other monthly meetings in our quarter and Yearly Meeting to re-commit to living into the NEYM 2017-46? Further, we ask each monthly minute to consider Gaza and be inspired to be faithful to that which we have already committed ourselves.

Yearly Meeting Minute 2017-46

Friends gathered at New England Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions at Castleton, Vermont, August 6–10, 2017, attest to the following:

The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) testimony on peace, justice, and nonviolence is based in our experience of the divine in all of creation and within all persons. Thus, we are deeply troubled by the suffering and injustice caused by the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and we are concerned that our government perpetuates that violence by continuing to send billions of dollars of military aid to the region.

We call upon our nation to:

Cease sending United States military aid and selling weapons to the entire Middle East
Continue diplomatic efforts with all parties and remain in dialogue even with those who have acted violently.
Join the international court system and accept its jurisdiction.

We call upon all nations to:

Work with the United Nations Security Council to end military aid and arms sales from all outside countries to all parties in this conflict.
Support the United Nations efforts to bring justice, peace, security, and reconciliation to all parties in the conflict.
Take measures to assure that international laws are applied universally.

We call upon all individuals and communities to:

Support and learn from the many organizations that bring Israelis and Palestinians together for justice and peacemaking.
Examine how anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and privilege affect our understanding of the conflict

We are deeply grateful to the Friends who have worked over many months in preparing and seasoning this minute.

We ask Friends to report back on what insights and conclusions they have in addressing this conflict.

Ministry and Counsel Minute re: NEYM Policy on Withholding

Minute 2019-05-13

Friends approved the following:

Ministry and Counsel heard a minute from the Racial, Social, and Economic Justice (RSEJ) committee (attached) on the sexual ethics portion of the FUM personnel policy, and we found it to speak powerfully. Callid Keefe-Perry (Fresh Pond, MA) reported on the work that has been done in response to the charge given at our November meeting to share information about New England Yearly Meeting’s policy on withholding financial contributions from FUM. This is intimately connected to the portion of the personnel policy, which the minute from RSEJ works to address. We take note that many monthly meetings are only now beginning to grapple with this painful topic.

We ask our Yearly Meeting clerk to write to the FUM board expressing the pain and sorrow we feel in response to this policy, and asking them to consider to changing the sexual ethics portion of the personnel policy.
We ask our FUM committee to develop a proposed replacement, if possible in consultation with representatives from other yearly meetings. Our first suggestion might be that being a member in good standing of one’s own yearly meeting be sufficient.
We are not able to affirm as a body that the Yearly Meeting’s FUM withholding policy has integrity; at best it is a compromise that has allowed us some room for conversation. Given how recently some of us have engaged with this conversation, we also feel unable to set a deadline on the withholding policy.
We are aware that, as written, if the Yearly Meeting cannot affirm the withholding policy, it will cease after Sessions of this year.

As one Friend observed, “The quest for perfection is deadly. And if we identify integrity with perfection, then the quest for integrity can become deadly.” Let us continue to hear one another in love.

Attached Minute from the Racial, Social, and Economic Justice Committee

Racial Social Economic Justice Committee asks New England Yearly Meeting to minute formally its opposition to FUM’s conditions of employment. Let us be clear, the main issue is the moral injury of the hiring policy as it stands now, not with the Yearly Meeting’s policy of withholding contributions to FUM. We value our relationship with FUM, especially the good work it has done in many countries. However, we also value the equality and inherent worth of all individuals including members of the LGBT community. LGBT people are vital to the life of our Yearly Meeting. We hold the hope that the personnel policy will evolve to include the worth of all those who seek to do God’s work in the world.

Unity Agenda

Earthcare Ministries Committee Purposes, Procedures, and Composition

Purpose

The Earthcare Ministry Committee (EMC) envisions the Beloved Community with a new world view that rejects human exceptionalism and sees humanity as a part of and living in harmony with Earth. This new world view informs our awareness of the systemic interconnections between social and environmental justice and Earth’s fragile human and natural ecosystems. Social injustice and the disruption of our natural ecosystems are diametrically opposed to Quaker beliefs and values. We believe that the Religious Society of Friends must take a Spirit-led, active stand against these injustices, inseparable from our other activities. We join with others who are led by the Spirit to support and strengthen “a vibrant and growing web of monthly meetings, quarterly meetings, and other Friends communities, helping us to do together what we cannot do alone.” In our call to justice, “we strive to obey the promptings of the Spirit to bring healing, wholeness, and transformation to ourselves and to the world.” We are all connected. (Quotations: Minute 2015-64)

Procedures

EMC, with the guidance of Spirit, will hold each other, Friends, and our communities in the Light, beckoning the Love, Wisdom, and Transforming Power of the Spirit as we:

Educate Friends and others about the causes of human-induced climate destabilization, which is a spiritual and moral crisis creating global social injustice and environmental destruction.
Challenge Friends to assess our personal and corporate lifestyles in just living, offering models of community that promote love, resilience, and sustainability.
Empower Friends to create the Beloved Community through local and regional connections based on economic, social, and ecological justice; resilience; and sustainable living practices leading to a global social movement of interdependence and peace on and with Earth.

Composition

The EMC will include Friends who are committed to the ongoing transformation to create a resilient, sustainable, inclusive, diverse, equitable, and just Society.
EMC has 15 members serving up to two 3-year terms.
The Yearly Meeting Nominating Committee in consultation with EMC brings names to the Yearly Meeting for approval.
The Yearly Meeting Nominating Committee in consultation with EMC brings the name(s) for the clerk(s) to the Yearly Meeting for approval.
We support EMC members who feel called to continue this work after their Yearly Meeting service is completed to do so, to continue building the Beloved Community for all as led.

Racial, Social, and Economic Justice Committee Purposes, Procedures, and Composition

Purpose

The Racial, Social and Economic Justice Committee’s purpose is to bring a spiritual approach to:

Serve as a think tank collecting and curating resources—over decades—for Friends throughout the Yearly Meeting who are doing the work.
- We address racism and oppression from a structural basis.
- We recognize that systemic racism is intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional, and ideological, and especially we help Friends examine the institutional aspect of racism.
- We gather information about the racial justice work that other yearly meetings and Quaker organizations are currently doing, nationally and internationally.
Offer Friends multiple opportunities to learn about systems of oppression that intersect with systemic racism— sexism, classism, heterosexism, and colonialism.
- We help individuals and monthly meetings gain awareness and take action and listen to Friends who feel they have experienced inequity or bigotry.
- We create and provide tools to promote social justice.
Provide strong presence at summer Sessions and a potential spiritual haven for Friends who may feel isolated or unsupported by their meetings when doing this work.
- We encourage spiritual engagement in witness and ministry among Friends and the world focusing primarily on racial justice, prejudicial thinking, and discriminatory behavior.
- We encourage and follow the leadership of Friends of color as we support and listen deeply to them and others afflicted by social and economic injustice.

Procedure

The Racial, Social and Economic Justice Committee organizes its work by:

Having regular face-to-face meetings: We hold in prayer all who are caught in a system of oppression and disempowerment. We strive to listen and obey the promptings of the Spirit to bring healing, wholeness, and transformation of ourselves and the world.
Taking responsibility for distribution of the following funds consistent with the financial policies of the Yearly Meeting:
- Prejudice and Poverty Fund: We organize a working party which makes recommendations for the management of the Prejudice and Poverty Fund. Ideally the majority of this working group are people of color. Monies go to organizations and sometimes individuals addressing racial and economic justice.
- Freedmen’s Fund: We currently provide scholarships to descendants of enslaved people who are preparing for careers in education. We appoint a representative to the Freedmen’s Fund committee in Atlanta to be approved by the Yearly Meeting.
Organizing resources and coordinating Yearly Meeting-wide efforts to address systemic racism: We collect, organize, and promote educational resources, and we conduct workshops related to racial, social, and economic justice. We work with the office manager to maintain information on the NEYM website.
Initiating meetings of representatives from racial-justice-related working groups and committees to plan regular gatherings of Friends who address systemic racism in our society
Supporting the LGBTQ+ community and working party

Composition

The Nominating Committee sends names to the Yearly Meeting in consultation with the committee. Friends and anti-racist activists throughout the Yearly Meeting refer names of potential members. It is helpful for committee members to be grounded in Friends tradition, be aware of the dynamics of power and racial inequality as they exist in our current society, and be gifted at modeling how transformation can happen while continuing to engage with their own ongoing internal work. We particularly invite Friends of color and people who are differently abled to join.
The committee consists of eight to twelve members who represent diversity of age, geographic location, race, class, cultural backgrounds. We are eager to welcome and engage Friends at all levels of experience and gifts that they can bring to this work.
Terms of membership are for three years which can be renewable for an additional term, after which a one-year sabbatical is required. 
The clerk is named by Nominating Committee in consultation with the committee and approved by the Yearly Meeting.
RSEJ coordinates with and communicates with the NEYM treasurer, the NEYM office manager, the YM secretary, the Faith in Action Committee, the Ministry and Counsel Committee, Permanent Board and the ad-hoc Challenging White Supremacy group, the Earthcare Ministries Committee, and Sessions Committee.

Nominating Slate

The nominating slate was not complete at the time of printing these Advance Documents.

Bank Resolutions Minute

The following resolutions are brought by the Finance
Committee:

That Shearman Taber be appointed New England Yearly Meeting treasurer for the ensuing year or until a successor is appointed and qualified.
That Kathryn Olsen be appointed New England Yearly Meeting assistant treasurer for the ensuing year or until a successor is appointed and qualified.
That Robert M. Spivey be appointed Friends Camp treasurer for the ensuing year or until a successor is appointed and qualified.
That Shearman Taber, Yearly Meeting treasurer; and Noah Merrill, Yearly Meeting secretary, be individually authorized to open and close bank accounts in the name of New England Yearly Meeting as needed.
That Robert M. Spivey, Friends Camp treasurer; and Anna Hopkins, Friends Camp director, be individually authorized to open and close bank accounts in the name of Friends Camp as needed.
That Noah Merrill, Yearly Meeting secretary; Shearman Taber, NEYM treasurer; Kathryn Olsen, NEYM assistant treasurer; and Bruce Neumann, presiding clerk, be designated as alternate signers, individually, of all bank accounts of New England Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, except those checks for greater than $10,000, which shall require the signatures of two signers from the list above.
That Anna Hopkins, Friends Camp director; Robert M. Spivey, Friends Camp treasurer; and John Reuthe, Friends Camp Committee clerk, be authorized, individually, as signers of the Friends Camp bank accounts, except those checks for greater than $10,000, which shall require the signatures of two signers from the list above.

Presiding Clerk and Clerks Table Nominations

The Permanent Board presents the following slate to begin service at the close of Sessions 2019:

Presiding Clerk: Bruce Neumann (Fresh Pond)

Recording Clerk: Peter Bishop (Northampton)

Recording Clerk: Rosemary Zimmerman (Bennington)

Reading Clerk: John Humphries (Hartford)

Reading Clerk: Gina Nortonsmith (Northampton)

Minute to Authorize Edits and Corrections

Friends authorize the presiding, recording and reading clerks to make and approve edits, clarifications and corrections to the minutes of NEYM Sessions 2018.

Time-Sensitive Statements

Listed below is the public statement issued by the presiding clerk and Yearly Meeting secretary since 2018 Sessions, in keeping with Minute 2015-57.

This was sent via e-mail to local meetings and shared on social media. It is also posted on our website.

The Love That Overcomes

November 3, 2018

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God –Romans 8:38-39

This week, Quaker communities of faith across the six New England states are mourning with our Jewish neighbors the deadliest act of violence against Jews in this country’s history. We mourn with all who are targeted by hate. We join our hearts in grief with the grieving. We search for ways to respond to the corrosive evils of anti-Semitism, white supremacy, and the persecution of those labeled as “other,” even as we acknowledge our own complicity in these sins. We yearn for justice, for healing, for refuge for those most at risk. In town squares, in places of worship, in living rooms, in legislative offices and detention centers, we unite with countless others to protect people from further violence, violence fueled by false prophets preaching fear.

Each day brings further anxiety, violence, and vitriol, while some charged to be leaders incite the worst in us as human beings. We are surrounded by stories of hatred, division, and despair. And yet, we know this: The story of Love will endure.

This week, in the face of the mass murder of Jews at prayer, Jewish doctors and nurses treated the man who opened fire in the Tree of Life Synagogue. A stranger in a parking lot cradled the 12-year-old boy whose grandfather was one of two black people shot and killed by a white man outside Louisville, Kentucky. As some deny the basic humanity of transgender people and people seeking asylum, communities respond with acts of radical love, inclusion, and sanctuary. In these and so many unnamed acts, amidst such suffering, we see the infinite Love of God.

It is the testimony of the Religious Society of Friends that God is at work healing the brokenness of the world and the brokenness within each of us. Nothing can hold back the unshakeable power of Love in this time, and throughout all time. What matters in this moment–in every moment–is how we choose to participate in this eternal story. Our lives must proclaim that this Love is stronger than all fear.

We commit to live today trusting in this Truth. The words we say and the choices we make in the coming days and weeks must bear witness to Love in concrete acts of connection and care, in our homes and neighborhoods, in our schools and workplaces, in the coming elections, as communities of faith, as people who call this country home, as those seeking refuge and those offering it. We must waste no opportunity to love.

We must seek the grace to keep free from the politics of rage, division, numbness and dehumanization, even toward those we may perceive as enemies. We must nurture in each other the courage to come together across difference, to resist hopelessness, to renounce a worldview that treats anyone as disposable, to affirm that the Spirit of God dwells in everyone. With each person, in each moment, each place—this movement grows.

This is the time for a politics of presence, of radical relationship, of mutual aid and reconciliation. It’s a time to be witnesses, storytellers of the broken-hearted Love that overcomes the powers of fear. Let the walls of separation come crashing down.

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends (Quakers)

Fritz Weiss, Presiding Clerk

Noah Merrill, Secretary

Summary of Next Steps from the Clerking Structures and Practices Working Group

Last August at Sessions, Friends identified the concern that the leadership of our Yearly Meeting does not reflect the diversity of Friends in New England. In response, Permanent Board created a working group to investigate the barriers to service within the Yearly Meeting (see the charge of the Clerking Structures and Practices Working Group at
bit.ly/2YD1544). Over the winter and spring, the working group conducted many interviews and gathered our observations and recommendations into a report, which was shared with and affirmed by Permanent Board in May. If you have not done so already, we recommend that you read the full report (see page 29).

In our report, we lifted up that significant changes are needed in structural, financial, and cultural areas and that in order for barriers to truly be eliminated, an integrated and long-term approach is essential. We identified that the “bigness” of the work that we expect from our volunteer leaders is a significant barrier to service. One of the key ways to address this “bigness challenge” is to prioritize the work that is most important and to be plain-spoken about what we are prioritizing at a given time. In addition, we named that we need to make our pathways to leadership accessible and intentional. We identified ways that our current nominating practices can create or reinforce barriers to service. In response, the Nominating Committee has already begun incorporating many of our recommendations into their practices and goals for the coming year, which involve a much more robust emphasis on growing leadership through intentional training, mentoring, and creating more short-term and project-based opportunities for service (see page 39).

To those of you who have been following “big picture” conversations over the years, our recommendations will hardly come as a shock. In fact, looking back at the report made five years ago by Structural Review (bit.ly/2S5erDv), you will see that the specificity of the recommendations before us now is possible because of the foundation that had already been laid. As these “big picture” conversations have continued across different groups and committees within the Yearly Meeting, we sense that there is momentum at this time to move forward with bold and necessary changes. Throughout the year, we have been struck by the enthusiasm and readiness to name what is no longer working, to adopt new practices, and to experiment together in order to move towards our vision. Although we are well aware that our recommendations are not a comprehensive “solution” to all the leadership challenges we face, we sense that we are ready to move these recommendations forward to the appropriate parties for implementation.

As the clerk of the Clerking Structures and Practices Working Group and in my new staff role as Quaker practice and leadership facilitator (see my full job description at bit.ly/2xABH37), I have been asked to serve as the thread-holder for these recommendations, carrying them forward to appropriate parties with sufficient context, coordinating communication between groups as needed, and maintaining the momentum by following up and gathering information for reports back to Permanent Board and to Sessions next year. In this way, I will help “keep an eye on the ball.”

In addition to approval of moving these recommendations forward for further refining and implementation, we ask Sessions to specifically minute the following:

That the Yearly Meeting has an ongoing commitment to diversity as we strive to nurture everyone’s gifts and create inclusive leadership pathways and opportunities that will foster a broad exchange of diverse ideas and perspectives. We commit to supporting the leadership development of all Friends, regardless of economic background, race, age, gender, sexuality, or disability.
That although carrying out these recommendations in full may take a number of years, a progress report should be given to Sessions next August with updates gathered by the Quaker practice and leadership facilitator (Nia).
That the overall responsibility for responding to the concerns raised in the working group’s report rests with Permanent Board, who will bring business items to the body as appropriate.
That, as possible within budgetary constraints, the Finance Committee, treasurer, and Yearly Meeting secretary shall ensure funding for the recommendations in FY2020 and incorporate these recommendations into planning for future budgets.
Because the wide breadth and unarticulated priorities of Ministry and Counsel’s work was identified as a complex and long-term barrier to effective leadership within that committee, we ask that Ministry and Counsel offer support to Permanent Board in creating a working group charged with exploring and naming how NEYM currently supports ministry and the spiritual life of Friends in New England. This working group shall identify where support for ministry and spiritual life currently happens and where gaps exist; they shall also offer recommendations for structures and manageable leadership roles that would best serve the current needs of Friends.
We affirm Coordinating and Advisory’s role in routinely examining how current structures contribute to the overall vitality and purpose of the Yearly Meeting and, additionally, their particular role in communicating structural questions, concerns, and suggestions to the body in their reports to Sessions. We ask that, during the triennial review of committee purposes and procedures, Coordinating and Advisory (who manage that process) pay careful attention to how committee structures can best facilitate effectiveness in the work of NEYM, in light of the concerns and recommendations from our report.

On its surface, these next steps may seem like they are about the far-away internal structures of the Yearly Meeting. Don’t be fooled: these next steps are really about our shared, day-to-day work of building a healthy Society that is well-equipped to faithfully draw out and share the bounty of gifts with which God has blessed us. In the Permanent Board minutes, the original report from our working group was described as “a roadmap for culture change” within the Yearly Meeting. The next steps outlined above are the detailed driving directions which will allow us to navigate tricky turns ahead.

As we give some Friends serving in leadership roles specific directions, let us remember that we each play a role: We grow in our use of gifts not from the “top” down but within all of our practices and relationships which each other. We create space for more Friends to lead when we are continually open to re-imagining structures and practices. As we affirm these next steps, let us all contribute to the leadership culture we yearn to see by honoring our priorities, noticing the contributions each Friend makes, giving honest and constructive feedback, responding creatively to perceived limitations, and experimenting boldly.

On behalf of the Clerking Structures and Practices Working Group,

—Nia Thomas

Earthcare Ministry Committee Proposed Minute for 2019 Sessions

“See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create” (Isaiah 65:17-18)

As God’s agents of the “new heavens and a new Earth,” and Friends of Jesus, we are called into bold ministry in restoring a healthy and just place for all to live.

At 2018 Sessions Friends reached unity on a minute (2018-36) calling for each of us to reduce our carbon footprints by 10% over the ensuing year. This was, as far as we know, the first time a U.S. religious denomination has set such a goal, and it was in keeping with the 2018 Sessions theme of “to be bold in God’s service.”

Earthcare Ministry Committee recognizes that the climate crisis is ongoing, and requires even more urgent action from Friends. EMC therefore proposes the following minute for 2019 Sessions:

Friends are encouraged to either begin or continue deepening the inner transition that makes it possible to fully embrace the changes required to reduce our carbon footprints.

Friends in the Yearly Meeting are called upon to reduce their carbon footprints by an additional 10% during 2020. Friends with additional means are encouraged to reduce their footprints by 15 to 20% during 2020.

Meetinghouses, where possible, should be examined for ways to reduce the carbon footprint by 10% in the coming year.

Friends are encouraged to dedicate one hour per week on their “carbon handprint,” i.e., in influencing others to take action on the climate crisis. Friends should discern how they are called to do this, but examples might include writing government officials, creating a song or art work on the climate crisis, and teaching each other and our youth about the crisis.

EMC has provided a calculator (the “Transforming Love Calculator”) at climatecalculator.org to calculate an individual’s (or meeting’s) carbon footprint. Those who participated in 2018 will be able to compare this year’s carbon footprint to last year’s. In addition, the TLC contains numerous suggested actions Friends can take to reduce their footprints.

Further information on the inner transition is on the EMC resources page: neym.org/earthcare-resources-friends-meetings

Yearly Meeting Secretary

Ye have no time but this present time, therefore prize your time, for your soul’s sake —George Fox

As we prepare for Annual Sessions this year, I’ve been reflecting on the preciousness of the moment we’ve been given, living in these times. Despite the quickening pace and “connectedness” of our world, our time, energy, and attention can seem ever more scarce. I’m feeling a sense of conviction about discernment, and about choices.

I know that we’re called to live with our whole hearts, wherever we are. Faithfulness in the small things forms the bedrock of our spiritual lives, and when we can return to our infinite belovedness as children of God, the depth of care we can offer and receive is boundless.

But without discernment, and without a disciplined practice of helping one another remember how we’ve been led to focus our energies, it’s easy to get distracted. In our efforts to respond to the many demands on us—so many of them good and urgent—we can miss what’s most essential. Our ears may be closed to the Still, Small Voice, leaving us overstretched, depleted, anxious. Without a shared practice that helps us to return again and again to Guidance, our communal life can be overtaken by other voices and we can find ourselves trapped in unexamined patterns that separate us from Love.

Every choice comes with a cost. This doesn’t have to paralyze us, but it is vital to recognize that how we steward the resources in our care—including energy, time, money, and attention—matters profoundly.

As I visit and listen with Friends across New England and elsewhere, I’m more convinced than ever that Friends are at a turning point as a spiritual movement.

How can we help each other to focus on what is most essential?

I pray we will encourage each other to:

Give as much care to supporting those led to start new Friends meetings—and to those living a vocation of ministry now—as we lovingly give to the legacy of those who’ve come before us
Celebrate our successes as much as we help one another to learn from where we’ve fallen short
Ask what the wider body of Friends needs from us, even as we give voice to our own needs and wants
Reclaim and re-imagine ways of supporting those called to particular ministry—including vocal ministry, teaching, spiritual encouragement, and other forms of leadership—even as we affirm the ways we’re all called to the universal ministry
Articulate and transmit the heart of Friends practice and perspective, even as we celebrate the flexibility and openness we extend to one another

In this moment, the choices we make about where we place our attention—individually and corporately—are more important than ever. This means risking saying “no” to many things, so that we can say “yes” to the few things that are truly ours to do.

May we find the Way together.

In faith and friendship,

—noah merrill

Accounts Manager

The most important part of my life this year was the birth of my son in November! Katherine and I were very thankful for the flexibility in NEYM’s parental leave policy, allowing me to stretch out my leave on a part-time basis over four months, which worked better for our family—and happily, also worked well for the organization, allowing stability and continuity in our financial record-keeping as I worked a few hours each week to supervise and answer questions. Most of all I’m grateful to my leave replacement, Elizabeth Hacala, who stepped in with her own seasoned bookkeeping skills from her previous jobs, reassured me (and the treasurer and secretary!) with her persnickety attention to detail, and did it all with her customary cheeriness. In return she got the distinction of being the first person outside of hospital staff and family to meet our baby, when she came to the hospital so I could hand over the filing-cabinet keys!

My annual reports have consistently noted that the basic spiritual goal of the accounts manager is Truth—but truth without love is like faith without works. So the larger spiritual goal of my work is to support and sustain the loving work of Friends. As featured in my report in last year’s Advance Documents, I have been starting to expand my work as accounts manager, extending NEYM’s services to local meetings, or supporting others as they helped Quakers reach outward. As noted in the Finance Committee report, I am also taking on more transaction work which used to be done by the treasurer. These additions are possible partly due to a few additional hours in my work-week, and partly due to simple efficiency, as performing even the more esoteric bookkeeping in our fund-accounting system has become more routine. My parental leave put these projects on hold for a while in the winter, and even in a normal year my time in August through October is entirely taken up with Sessions and then closing the books on the fiscal year. But this spring we have been making progress on several fronts.

As of this writing, we are taking the final steps preparatory to filing an application with the IRS for a Group Exemption letter. Of course, NEYM is already recognized as a 501(c)(3) organization, but while it used to be easy for monthly meetings to refer to the NEYM EIN to prove their tax-exempt status, banking regulations have changed and in this era of “big data” it helps to have your own listing in IRS databases. Simply put, a Group Exemption Number (GEN) will allow every monthly meeting to be listed individually in the larger IRS database under the heading of NEYM—which would facilitate electronic searches verifying the tax-exempt status of local meetings. We look forward to working with each meeting to make it easy for them to transition gradually to this system—get in touch if you’d like to learn more.

—frederick martin

Events Coordinator

“Community is society with a human face –

the place where we know we’re not alone.”

(Optimism to Hope, Jonathan Sacks)

Dear Friends,

With this Sessions, I will have completed my second year with NEYM. I helped manage events and gatherings before coming to NEYM and during that work learned something important. The first one is about survival, the second about learning, the third is about mastery.

Last year was the survival year. My main goal was to make sure my portion of the work of Sessions was done smoothly and effectively. Everything was new and loud; everything was a learning process. This year has been different in many ways. The comfort of working with familiar people and vendors, the clearer understanding about how to best bring my gifts to this work, my knowledge of the campus and gathering have all given me a familiar footing to set my feet upon. My understanding of Quaker process and discernment have enriched my understanding of Sessions.

We have now held three Living Faith gatherings since I joined the Yearly Meeting and plan for two more this coming year. The work now has a familiar pattern, a rhythm to help keep it moving forward. This year saw a great many changes. Lisa Graustein transitioned out of clerking the planning team after last fall and Hannah Zwirner Forsythe picked up the work of clerking for spring. The planning team doubled in size as well. It was a test of Living Faith and the model we had created. It not only held up but flourished on the foundation the past efforts had created.

This year I have come to see my work as building the scaffolding which supports others in their work. Sometimes it is a bridge, sometimes it is a tower, other times a trellis to support a tiny seedling in its growth. I have begun to see how being of service in this way is a gift of its own and I am joyful to bring it to the community.

I have continued to be in awe of the wonderful staff of NEYM; they are truly some of the best people I have ever worked with. I continue to be more comfortable and connected to my adopted Quaker community and I look forward to another year of growth and work alongside you all.

Faithfully,

—Elizabeth Hacala

Friends Camp Director

The 2019 summer at Friends Camp will see the most campers we have ever had at camp, as well as the most staff. About half of our campers are from Maine, while our staff have more widely spread backgrounds. More than half of the Friends Camp staff members are returners this summer, including the entire leadership team. For the second year, our staff orientation at camp included an overnight camping trip to Acadia National Park and a community dinner.

We are especially excited this year about our new Counselor-In-Training program for 17-year-olds, called Rising Leaders. Eight Rising Leaders joined our youngest session this summer to explore their own leadership strengths and goals, talk about Quaker leadership, and practice leading effective programming for youth. This group also had an overnight retreat at Vassalboro Friends Meeting.

Along with other areas of the Yearly Meeting, we are continuing to work on growing in inclusivity and equity at camp. Lisa Graustein and Judy Williams spent an afternoon with our entire staff, strategizing and practicing how to interrupt moments of racism or white supremacy culture at camp. Friends in Maine have been very supportive of Friends Camp joining the Level Ground project—an effort by camps in Maine to welcome New Mainers (from refugee families). Friends Camp will host at least four New Mainers as campers in 2019, with scholarships funded by Friends in Maine.

I am writing this report on the heels of visits from Maggie Nelson, Nia Thomas, and Gretchen Baker-Smith. These members of the NEYM youth staff team visited to spend time with our Rising Leaders and our youngest campers. The web that connects Friends Camp and our youth programs continues to grow stronger, especially through the large number of campers who also attend retreats and through staffing overlap. Several of this year’s counselors at camp were JHYM Junior Staffers a few years ago, and many Youth Friends RPs serve as current or recent camp counselors!

We continue to encounter growing edges at Friends Camp. Caring for our property and buildings takes more resources as our facilities age. We were grateful to receive a Legacy Grant for work on our meetinghouse, which now functions as our art space. This year we also built a new cabin for campers and made many needed replacements around camp, including roofs, floors, and appliances. Friends Camp is on solid financial footing due to robust enrollment, although as we look forward to our next several years of operation we must consider ways to invest in our property and possibly in more year-round staff.

This year the camp committee met four times, in addition to several sub-committee meetings. The committee has tackled many issues involving health and safety of campers this year, including water treatment on property and immunization requirements for the measles vaccine. Our camp committee reaffirmed our priority for mission-driven events in our short spring and fall rental seasons. We would love to host your Friends meeting, school, or group for a retreat.

Respectfully submitted,

—anna hopkins

Junior Yearly Meeting & Junior High Yearly Meeting Coordinator

How to summarize such a full year? So much unfolded. So much got lighter. So much is still to be done. There has been a shift in my thinking and leadership style, from being a fully consumed, best-ever farmer in my own greenhouse-silo to being one of a circle working on a cooperative farm. There has been some loss of focus, but in return there has been much more collaboration, shared learning, mentoring, and a widening of what is possible.

I created and led 11 retreats in 10 months; nurtured and supported the staff, youth, and families in those communities; organized and oversaw the childcare and youth programs for two Living Faith Gatherings; and am now in sprint-mode preparing to lead JHYM and support three of the other four youth programs at Sessions this coming August. I remain unsure whether this is sustainable for anyone else—but I’m more hopeful now that I’m receiving monthly B12 shots and have a bit of a life hiatus from so very much personal grief. “Good enough” has become a mantra that I spent most of my life fearing—and now embrace. Not having every single thing be completely perfect allows for more time and space for wonder, collaboration, and ministry.

I continue to learn and seek to interrupt the many other ways that white supremacy and oppression show up in myself and in the programs I lead. I am committed to this work and am grateful for the many teachers and elders within NEYM and beyond whom I have been given. I have much to learn, but we have made some progress. Nia Thomas, Maggie Nelson, Anna Hopkins and I meet monthly to share resources, questions, and struggles, and to hold each other accountable in the work of creating more welcoming, less racist and oppressive programs and communities.

Our retreat themes felt particularly meaningful this year, including The Ministry of Trees, The More I Wonder the More I Love, Justice is What Love Looks Like in Public and You Don’t Blame the Lettuce. We welcomed new staffers, including a few parents. Our crop of JYM junior staffers has been extraordinary. In JHYM, attenders took on more aspects of leadership —creating phone-use guidelines, making song lists, naming specific ways to decrease our carbon footprint, designating areas inside and outside of buildings for free-time fellowship. There is joy in trusting it’s okay to experiment, that we learn the most when things don’t work so well, that the beloved circle includes good humor, forgiveness, trust, and patience. We have a growing list of times when JHers’ clear insights and visions led to a more vital, engaged community, too!

Young people in both programs grew individually in beautiful, courageous ways. From sleeping away from home for the first time ever (a record number), to sharing fears (“logical” or not) and tender struggles with friends, family, and classmates, we have been awed by the ways our children and teens have stretched and embraced their gifts and challenges. After a 4-year hiatus, we offered a new version of our Bodyworks Retreat for 6th and 7th Graders. I am deeply grateful to Maggie for co-leading this beloved retreat. We kept much but adjusted some formats to be more affirming, safe, and empowering. I am excited at the openings created by Nia and Maggie’s new roles. We are hopeful that providing more cross-pollination will also make for smoother, more trusting, and joyous transitions from JHYM to Young Friends.

The number of retreat attendees who regularly go to meeting for worship at local monthly meetings is decreasing. I think a lot about what is lost, and I wonder what our culture’s sports programs and other organized activities provide that is more appealing or vital. Fewer young people and families feel that our youth communities and connections to local meetings are essential, life-giving sanctuaries of respite and renewal for living out their Quaker faith. Are there ways that we can tweak our programs and monthly meetings so that they are a better fit without losing the essential gifts that these intentional, joy-filled, spiritual communities seeking and finding that of God in ourselves and each other provide? Are there ways that we can lovingly encourage each other to come, stay, be heard, be nurtured, be showered in Grace?

—gretchen baker-smith

Office Manager

Dear Friends,

My work tasks are pretty much the same from year to year (although in the past year I’ve been helping to build a new website for the Yearly Meeting), but the way those tasks get done is always different and there are always opportunities for learning how not to do something the next time around.

I’ve learned some important life lessons this year:

A typographical error is not the end of the world. Even the New York Times has to print corrections.
I need to stop looking at all the work waiting to be done long enough to appreciate what has already been accomplished. (Actually I have to re-learn this one. Often.)
Life is not a competition.
I need to know when to ask for help.
I can’t know everything, and I’m not supposed to.

It’s okay not to know what I’m doing sometimes and ask questions. I truly enjoy work sessions with Noah when I can ask the questions that help me better understand the task before us. I enjoy figuring things out—how do I get this data into a report; what is a records retention policy; why is Microsoft Word giving me such a hard time.

I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable saying “I don’t know.” I don’t know where God is in my work. I don’t know if anything I do makes a difference. I don’t know what I can do to make this troubled world a better place. I like to think that what a nun told me is really true: Everyone is born with a purpose, and you don’t have to know what it is.

One of the few things I do know is that I work with wonderful people who are also friends. I’ve never had a job where I prayed with the people I work with, people I can be more authentic with. It is an unexpected blessing to be with people who teach me about compassion, vulnerability, forgiveness, and faith. I don’t mean just the other staff, but all of you. I only wish I got to know more of you better.

“God as love expresses the idea that the sacred is not found in a distant object towards which we focus our love, but rather is testified to in the act of loving itself.” (Peter Rollins, The Divine Magician)

—sara hubner

Quaker Practice & Leadership Facilitator

Over the last few years the shape of my work has gradually shifted and, as of this spring, I am formally serving in a new role as your Quaker Practice and Leadership Facilitator (see the full job description at bit.ly/2xABH37). The title may feel clunky but the words were chosen to convey that while the tasks on my plate are wide-ranging, and the role I play in various projects differs, the desired outcomes that unite it all are faithful leadership and grounded spiritual practice for Friends across New England. In this role, I aim to connect, promote, integrate, support, and co-create purposeful engagement opportunities that feed our living movement. As your collaborator, I am paying attention with you to the many questions and insights we are collectively carrying about how to strengthen our spiritual journeys, local meetings, and ministries.

This year, I look forward to working on many projects that are informed by the rich findings of our multi-year Vibrant Meetings Project, where we worked with partner meetings to better understand what makes local meetings life-giving for Friends of all ages as well as the role meetings play in faith formation. As we now step into the “integration” phase of the Vibrant Meetings Project, I am excited to share the findings of the project with Friends in useful ways, including working with blogger and traveling minister Emily Provance to bring a team-based, skill-building course on multi-age inclusion to your meeting via a winter webinar series.

Beyond that series, my focus on inclusive faith formation across the life span is strongly influenced by my awareness of our need for both multigenerational and peer spaces. Multigenerational connections allow us to foster our sense of belonging to the wider Society of Friends, yet special opportunities geared towards single-age or peer groups often allow for experience-specific or life-stage-specific spiritual formation as well as powerful peer connections. We need both types of spaces and we need to be more intentional about which is needed in a given situation. In my ongoing work with the Young Adult and Young Friends retreat programs, we are expanding our “bridging” effort (making meaningful connections with the wider Friends community) as well as our emphasis on bringing a Quaker lens to the developmental questions of these key life stages. In conversations with Friends working with youth in the their own meetings, many are re-evaluating how to best make use of youth-centered spaces as well as occasions to gather across the generations for worship and community building. As we become more skilled at recognizing the unique advantages of different ways of gathering, we are better able to achieve our goals and grow in our faith.

Bridging between life stages was also a theme in one of the biggest joys of this past year: planning and co-facilitating the “Partners in Spirit” retreat, which brought together a cohort of young adults and a cohort of aspiring mentors. A key takeaway from that powerful gathering was that the Quaker journey is not “one size fits all,” and mentorship, accompaniment, and leadership development are most fruitful when we are able to see and respond to individual needs, gifts, and leadings. In this coming year, I look forward to many opportunities to collaborate with others, including Ministry and Counsel and the Nominating Committee, to increase our intentionality around supporting individual leadership development and ministry.

As we move into the next season, I am deeply grateful to have the opportunity to pay attention with you to the living ecology of the various Quaker ministries, meetings, organizations, individuals and events that make up the Quaker Movement in New England.

—NiaDwynwen Thomas

Young Friends Events Organizer

Dear Friends,

This year in Young Friends was defined by transition and resilience. Smaller numbers and shifting staff roles found us in a state of flux in which there was a feeling of lingering uncertainty, and at the same time there was a depth of intention and care amongst all in the community. We took it one retreat at a time, bending and turning to fit each new circumstance, each time with the chance to reassert why it is that we keep doing this thing, why keep this wheel turning. It’s one of the blessings of change that with every transformation comes the opportunity to create oneself closer to the image of God.

Young Friends began this year adjusting to smaller retreat sizes, taking stock of what felt hard and what continues to be joyous. Since last year, retreat sizes have hovered around 20 Young Friends, while many remember having 40 or 50 people at retreats only three or four years ago. I’ve noticed a sense of loss amongst some Young Friends when they consider who’s no longer present and how that affects the energy of the group. It creates a challenge to Young Friends’ ability to find meaning and joy in the work of building this community when it feels as if so few decide to commit to it. As both youth and staff, it causes us to wonder, “What are we doing wrong?” but instead we’ve chosen to ask, “What are we doing right? What can we do that’s new?” Young Friends have doubled down in their efforts to be intentional with how they are together, and respond to these changes with fresh eyes that look toward the future.

We’re practicing abundance instead of scarcity. It’s scary to think there might not be enough people, enough leadership, enough love, but this year has taught us that there is always enough of those gifts. Responsibilities continue to pile higher for high schoolers, and yet Young Friends still show up at retreats ready to share their gifts in meaningful ways. With a smaller group, we’ve relished the focus with which we’re able to dive deep into hard work like unlearning white supremacy. We’ve become tighter-knit and nimble, ready to respond to our collective needs on a dime and become more involved in the wider community that surrounds us. Young Friends Ministry and Counsel made the difficult decision to propose laying down this committee for next year to instead create a new leadership structure that would involve the whole community in holding its own spiritual health. This felt like a true act of stewardship that demonstrates the transformation and vision alive in Young Friends right now.

It’s so important for us to remember that this isn’t just a Young Friends experience, but that Friends and people of faith everywhere are struggling to deal with scarcity and transformation. This is what gives me the most hope for the potential of this work, and the power of Young Friends. And all the while, we keep singing, and playing, and hugging, and shouting for joy and gratitude for all that we have.

—maggie nelson

Permanent Board

In your service, Permanent Board met six times since Sessions 2018, including our joint meeting with Ministry and Counsel in September. In worship, Permanent Board conducts the business of New England Yearly Meeting (NEYM) between Sessions. The Board responds to discernment brought forward by monthly and quarterly meetings, as well as by NEYM committees and working groups. All meetings of Permanent Board are open; all are welcome to attend and to fully join in the worship and discernment of the Board. Dates of meetings (through Sessions 2020) are available on the NEYM website, as are advance documents in the week prior to each meeting of the Board.

At each meeting of Permanent Board, those gathered hear regularly from the presiding clerk, Yearly Meeting secretary, treasurer and two of Permanent Board’s working groups: the Challenging White Supremacy Working Group and the Reparations Working Group. We regularly receive nominations, travel minutes, and memorial minutes from throughout New England.

Annually, we hear the report of the director of Friends Camp and review the upcoming fiscal year budget prior to Sessions. In May, Permanent Board Minute 18-26 outlined a “funding priorities process” to guide Finance Committee’s budget discernment, making the process both more concrete and more transparent. At our November meeting, Minute 18-95 named the Board’s guidance to prioritize funding for increasing financial management capacity, expanding childcare at Sessions, improving the reach of communications, and developing our capacity for leadership, practice, and learning.

Not incidental to NEYM’s ongoing work to examine how white supremacy culture impacts our Society, Sessions Minute 2018-53 charged Permanent Board “to perform a formal re-examination of the structures and practices of clerking in the Yearly Meeting.” The final report of the working group established by Permanent Board to address this charge provides a road map for culture change in NEYM. You will hear a presentation of the working group at Sessions, with some initial guidance on who will carry out the recommendations of the report, how, and when.

Other significant reports brought to Permanent Board this year include NEYM’s Data Privacy Policy and two documents in response to Sessions Minute 2018-34, “Support for the Ministry of Publications” and “Recommendations for Stewardship and Distribution: Mosher Book and Tract Fund of New England Yearly Meeting Friends.” Coordinating and Advisory Committee (C&A) and Permanent Board have written and reviewed the two publications documents and will bring them to Sessions to seek approval, a precursor to seeking Sessions approval to lay down the long-dormant Publications Committee. If you have any questions or concerns about the publications documents, please be in touch (pbclerk@neym.org) or find me at Sessions prior to Permanent Board’s presentation on Tuesday morning.

I am delighted to report that the remaining balance of the Released Peaceworker Fund was transferred to the Legacy Gift Committee to be spent more readily, and that the Fund for Sufferings, re-conceived and refreshed with a $25,000 grant from Legacy Gift Committee, was accessed for the first time in response to war-tax resistance.

Further, discerning that the Living Faith gatherings are no longer an “experiment,” C&A together with Permanent Board designed a structure to support the gatherings as a regular programmatic aspect of NEYM’s spiritual life. Finally, you will see in the Unity Agenda the revised purposes, procedures and composition for the Earthcare Ministry Committee and for the Racial, Social, and Economic Justice Committee for Sessions approval.

After 12 years of service to Permanent Board, the last 4 serving as clerk of the body, I will step down at rise of Sessions. Leslie Manning of Durham (ME) Monthly Meeting will be the next clerk of Permanent Board. Please hold her and the body in your prayers as we, throughout the year, seek God’s guidance in the work before the Board.

I am available. I love Permanent Board. If you have any questions, concerns or prayers for the Board, please do not hesitate to find me at Sessions to share your wisdom.

—sarah gant, clerk

Ad Hoc Working Group on Challenging White Supremacy

In the past year, the work group on Challenging White Supremacy (CWS) held Zoom meetings monthly. Following the charge to “act as a resource for the Yearly Meeting to offer encouragement, inspiration and practical support for Friends to engage in this work of loving concern and right relationship,” CWS has facilitated workshops at five New England meetings or gatherings, supported Anna Hopkins (Friends Camp director) in holding a staff training, and run programs of engagement in members’ home meetings. On January 5, 2019, CWS participated in a day-long gathering to bring together Friends’ groups holding the concern of racism in different ways: Coordinating and Advisory, RSEJ, CWS, Reconciliation Working Group, Faith in Action, and Noticing Patterns of Oppression and Faithfulness. More and welcome collaboration has ensued, including collaboration on Sessions 2019.

—Susan Davies and Fran Brokaw, co-clerks

What does respect look like in practice?

How do I know when I have been shown respect?

How do I know when I am respectful of someone else?

Do I define respect for myself?

Do I accept others’ definitions of respect?

How do I negotiate the language and signs of respect?

Respect is the warp and weave of our relationships and the grease that makes the world go round. However, respect is culture-specific. It is something we know how to do in our cultural group. White folks assume that the ways in which they interact with each other are respectful. We do not have to think about it.

Consider the supermarket … in Augusta, Maine. I get my basket and do my shopping. It is a place of studied silence with my cart, my mind on my groceries, and what I will do later. I generally do not speak to anyone unless I see someone I know. I speak to the deli clerk and perhaps to the cashier, but that is perfunctory, and it is not in any sense genuine interaction.

In African-American culture, silence and lack of greeting are regarded as signs of disrespect. It is the silence that fails to recognize another as human, to greet that other person as an equal worthy of notice and acknowledgement. The fundamental basis of respect is acknowledgement, recognition, noting the humanity of the other. While white people assume that is shown by silence, for African Americans, that very silence is disrespectful.

Again, consider the supermarket … in Montgomery, Alabama. I greet the first clerk I see, smile at a person surveying the bread next to me, and talk with the other person examining the chicken. I answer the clerk stocking vegetables when he greets me, and the same as I go round the store. I speak, smile, or nod with a smile to 20 or more people. When I check out, I exchange pleasantries with the cashier and the person bagging, perhaps speak to the person behind me, perhaps discuss the sale on yogurt and whether this brownie mix is better than another. There are smiles and thank you’s and have a good day all around as I leave. I have made eye contact with every one of these people in the store interactions.

That is what respect looks like in Montgomery, Alabama. But I am a Mainer. Do I have to adapt to a different culture? Can’t I be who I always have been? I am not trying to be disrespectful. I am being respectful in the way I always have been. It is easier to be who I always have been. Why do I have to change because I am in a different culture?

Respect is a basic principle of human relationship. It is culturally bound. We need to negotiate the language and signs of respect when dealing with others outside those with whom we share culture.

Quakers have specific respect and communication patterns which are a subset of those white ways of showing respect. Quakers greet each other in silence, sometimes, without acknowledgement, just with a gaze. That is culturally appropriate for us white Quakers. We have not expected that someone else speak to us. We have used our silence to define our personal boundaries. We have not been intrusive. We consider that respect.

Consider how that appears to someone from another culture. Do we have to change, ourselves, to be more welcoming? Why don’t new people adopt our ways? Aren’t they in our culture now?

—Diana White, Member of the Challenging White Supremacy Workgroup

Clerking Structures and Practices Working Group

Introduction

In response to the charge of our working group, we have done extensive listening. We interviewed many Friends who are currently serving or have served in key clerking and treasurer roles within the last ten years, Friends who have done the work of nominating for these roles, as well as the Yearly Meeting staff who most directly interfaced with these leaders. We have also had some conversations with Friends who declined to serve in these roles as well as partners of those who have served, and have made attempts to find where these conversations are happening in other Yearly Meetings. Throughout this process we listened for common themes and trends that tell a shared story of our current leadership structures and culture, as well as our potential for growth.

In this report, we hope to hold up a mirror that reflects current dynamics as well as offer suggestions for how to move closer towards the healthy, fully inclusive Society that we long for. We acknowledge that some of our recommendations are hardly new but are rather a strong affirmation of work we have already begun. We also recognize that not all of our recommendations are the same size. Some possibilities that we lift up are straightforward, requiring few resources, and we therefore expect that they may be implement-able in the short term; others are aspirational and may take years of sustained effort to fully fund and enact. Although we are well aware that the Yearly Meeting does not have a magic wand, we believe that in order to adequately respond to the gap between our current leadership reality and the vision that we heard our community articulate, we need to operate from a place of possibility, not an assumption of limited resources.

While some individuals may have a particular part to play in implementing new practices due to their formal role, effective change depends upon shared responsibility. Living into the vision of these changes will require sustained corporate effort with participation at many different levels of our Yearly Meeting. We exhort the body to receive these recommendations with an open heart and an eagerness to join many hands in the work of improving our structural, financial, and cultural systems for supporting leadership service.

Overall Takeaways

Things as they now are in New England Yearly Meeting (NEYM)

Our leadership demographic does not fully reflect the diversity of our membership. As many are already aware, the key volunteer leadership roles in NEYM (by which we mean presiding clerk, clerk of Permanent Board (PB), clerk of Ministry and Counsel (M&C), and treasurer) are extremely demanding. They require many gifts and skills as well as a lot of time and flexibility. The dedicated Friends who serve in these roles are motivated by deep love for NEYM and are anchored by deep faith; but, they are also aware that their service is made possible due to their individual financial, household, and work situations. The bigness of our leadership roles – compounded by the lack of support that we give our leaders – greatly limits who can say “yes” to serving in this way.

In our exploration, it became clear that there are three interconnected areas where barriers to leadership emerge:

Structure: the way we structure roles to accomplish our shared work
Finance: the way we use our financial resources to support our shared work
Culture: the way we relate to our shared work and our leaders

To truly eliminate barriers and enable more Friends to serve as leaders, we need to bring a lens that integrates the structural, financial, and cultural changes required.

Structure

Observation

One considerable reason why our leadership roles are so time consuming is that NEYM’s internal affairs are huge and complex. We have a tendency towards expanding our internal work. When we see a need or an issue to address, we add work (committees, work groups) without looking at the infrastructure support needed to accomplish this work well, or asking what should be laid down. Even when we ask what should be laid down, we often lack the structural mechanisms to approve these decisions or engage with resource prioritization questions in an efficient manner. We are afraid of change, particularly of letting go of old ministries that have outlived their context and are no longer fruitful or worth the resources they require to maintain. Maintaining outmoded structures is depleting and requires much energy that could be used elsewhere.

Recommendations

Empower leaders to focus their energy on responding to the current life within NEYM, not maintaining structures that no longer serve us.
Regularly review existing committees and ministries and only continue them if they are still life-giving.
When creating new structures and ministries, build in periodic review practices and consider what old practices/structures/ministries are no longer needed.
Embrace our priorities and celebrate the natural life cycle of ministries.

Observation

There are too many different nominating paths to important leadership positions in our Yearly Meeting (YM). This fractured set of processes sometimes results in the same individual being asked to serve in multiple roles. This structural deficiency in nominating makes it more difficult to share and maintain best practices for recognizing and nurturing gifts that could serve our community.

Recommendation

Redesign nominating processes in a cohesive, consolidated manner.

Observations

A major weakness of the nominating process is that committees tend to draw from the same pool of “known” people, who tend to be regular participants in NEYM Annual Sessions. Many, or most, of these folks are older, white, and middle or upper middle class. This results in leaders who fit the same demographic. Though the distribution of male/female cis-gender representation among leaders is not generally a problem, people of color and LGBTQ+ folk, younger adults, and those of lower socioeconomic status are under-represented.

Recommendations

Continue to seek ways to engage more Friends in the process of naming gifts and nominating, and to build skills in this important work in the body of Friends more widely
Re-examine the membership structure of Nominating Committee and barriers to participation in the nominating process
Allocate financial and administrative resources necessary for the success of the Nominating Committee consultations (these consultations which are in the planning phase have the goal of forwarding the shared conversation between Monthly Meetings and the Yearly Meeting about best practices for nominating and raising up Friends’ gifts)

Observation

Nominating processes do not consistently seek input from those outside the committee prior to asking a candidate to serve. Some people were asked to serve without the nominators knowing the individual well and later found out that the Friend did not have the appropriate gifts or skills for the role. Failure to solicit input from those who will to work closely with the Friend serving in a particular leadership role can be particularly problematic.

Recommendation

While the nominating process and conversations should be confidential, nominators should seek input from current individuals in leadership (this could include presiding clerk, clerks of M&C and PB, Yearly Meeting secretary), as well as monthly meetings, about Friends who are being considered for leadership roles. A broad view of the candidate’s gifts, skills, prior experiences, and leadings, as well as their challenges, should be obtained prior to asking someone to serve in a leadership role.

Observation

There is an art to conversations between a candidate and a nominating member. This art has not always been clearly articulated to Friends serving in nominating roles. Some people reported being told they were “the only candidate,” leading to a sense of obligation to say yes. Some people asked to serve in major clerk roles had no significant prior experience as clerks. Corporately, we are currently not consistent in clarifying the expectation that Friends considering significant leadership roles should engage in careful discernment and formal clearness processes before accepting the nomination.

Recommendations

Create a handbook of “best practices” for nominating committee members to share the wisdom and art of inviting a Friend to service for the Yearly Meeting.
Nominators should be well-informed and clear about the expectations and job descriptions for clerks and committee members, and should be able to articulate which gifts and skills that are needed.
In conversations between nominees and nominators, name the gifts seen in the individual being invited to serve, and explain how these gifts are important in the role.
Require all those considering serving in a major NEYM role to have a formal clearness process. If the Friend’s meeting is small or is unable to provide this, the nominating committee should help to identify people willing to serve on the clearness committee. Support in finding this clearness committee should be regarded as “part of the job” of nominating for these leadership roles.

Observation

We do not currently provide much formal training to Friends serving in leadership roles; instead, we depend on leaders to come already equipped with skills or to learn “on the job”. Sometimes volunteer leaders do not have technological skills and rely on YM staff or others to perform parts of their work, which requires additional coordination and communication.

Recommendations

Require participation in a clerking workshop for all new clerks, either within NEYM or a training at Powell House or Pendle Hill. NEYM funds should be fully accessible for this training.
Develop robust training materials for critical technological skill infrastructure: Google Suite, NEYM website, Zoom, Excel, Expensify, Quickbooks, etc.
Provide volunteer training in leadership and management areas such as: agenda preparation, volunteer management, project management skills, and clerking
Continue providing funds for participation in high-quality diversity training such as Beyond Diversity 101.
Create and distribute simple orientation materials about how things work: how to get reimbursement for travel, how to set up meetings, and other nuts and bolts. Where these materials already exist, offer repeated reminders of their existence. Recognizing that we often nominate leaders who have been in our community for a significant period of time, individuals stepping into leadership may have outdated understandings of “how things are done.”

Observation

The path to leadership roles is not always clear.

Recommendation

Continue to utilize the recording clerk roles as mechanisms for leadership development. Since the gifts needed for recording are distinct, this must not be the only “track” towards leadership.
Create additional roles for rising leaders such as rising clerk, assistant clerk, assistant treasurer, project leader, etc. The purpose of such roles would not be to further distribute the work of the clerk or treasurer, but to create opportunities for practical leadership development.
Provide formal mentorship for new clerks and committee members; this mentorship should include explicit solicitation of feedback

Observation

In our leadership, we typically have an “all or nothing” model of service.

Recommendation

Create more opportunities for people to meaningfully contribute at different levels of time/energy expenditure to cultivate more rising leaders. Developing a practice of soliciting participation in time-bounded projects or inviting people to lead a single workshop could be avenues for this opportunity creation.

Observation

Cultivating and maintaining a shared vision is foundational for effective interfacing between staff and volunteer leaders. When leaders are unclear on the sense of the body they struggle to prioritize. Additionally, administrative tasks (such as scheduling, venue planning, organizing childcare, YM communications) frequently require longer lead time than our volunteer committee structures anticipate, and add a significant component of managerial overhead to our volunteer leadership positions. Our volunteer leaders expressed a wish for more administrative support while recognizing that a barrier to delegating these administrative tasks is that dividing work requires additional communication, coordination, and shared understanding sense of priorities.

Recommendation

Through the minuting process at Sessions, strive to articulate the body’s on-going sense of our shared vision. This articulation of vision is a guiding framework for volunteer and staff leaders as they prioritize and collaborate.
Consider a role of “Special Assistant to the Clerk” who could manage some of the recurring administrative tasks that can be done without much additional coordination with the clerk.
Regularly re-examine administrative staff work priorities to maximize the amount of administrative support available for key leadership functions.

Observation

The interface between staff and volunteer leaders is most stressed when there is ambiguity around responsibilities and accountability structures. This is particularly apparent in the roles of the Treasurer (due to the financial operations/controller aspect of the Treasurer’s responsibility portfolio) and M&C Clerk (due to M&C being involved in programming).

Recommendation

The expectations for the role of Treasurer should more clearly define the division of labor between the Treasurer and the accounts manager. In particular, we see opportunities to clarify the division of tasks that are frequently associated with a financial controller. There may be opportunities for financial leadership development if there are concrete, project-based tasks that can be delegated to members of finance committee or permanent board. Note: Concurrently with the writing of this report, Finance Committee has approved a new job description for the Treasurer which reflects these suggestions.
The Yearly Meeting should more clearly articulate expectations for the role of the Treasurer to clarify what is expected from a communications and forecasting standpoint.
Clarify roles between staff and volunteers related to programming and event planning.
Establish timelines for major projects that allow for positive staff/volunteer collaboration.

Observation

One reason our leadership roles are so large is that there is an “accountability gap” between the expectations for the clerks/treasurer versus those for committee members and the body as a whole. The different temporal rhythms of involvement in the work of the Yearly Meeting (e.g. members of C&A meeting more frequently than at-large members of M&C or PB who in turn meet more frequently than the general body of Sessions) may reinforce this gap.

Recommendations

Clarify the gifts needed as well as expectations for contribution for committee service. Nominating Committees seek people with specific relevant experience for committee membership. The calling of the Spirit is important but is not enough if Clerks and Leaders are to be really supported.
Create accountability and feedback structures for committee members.

Observation

Another structural issue that leads to additional work for clerks is committee membership structure that does not reflect the work that needs to be done. Some Friends serving on committees do not have the necessary gifts, skills, willingness, temperament or ability to do the work of the committee.

The structure and scope of Ministry and Counsel, in particular, make the work unmanageable. Currently M&C’s charge encompasses an enormous range of responsibilities which require different gifts and skill sets (for example: programming and events, religious education, pastoral care, maintaining many ongoing big picture conversations).

Recommendations

Examine the variety of tasks currently assigned to Ministry and Counsel and explore what structures would best address those needs. Allow for the possibility of distinct and complementary structures to address specific needs (for example: “Pastoral Care Resource Team”).
Establish guidelines for the membership of and service on M&C which reflect current priorities.
- We see particular need for clarity regarding the term of service and mechanism for appointment on M&C.
- Clarify the role of recorded ministers, elders and pastors in relation to M&C.

Observation

In the recent past NEYM has sometimes been unprepared to handle unexpected legal or human resources issues, such as the disposition of the Friends Home, and it has been an extremely time consuming burden on our leadership.

Recommendations

Identify Friends who are willing to be called upon as a legal resource team for unusual circumstances. This team would serve to provide information and advice on identifying appropriate resources, with awareness of potential conflicts of interest.
Continue to provide funds to pay a retainer for a lawyer serving as general counsel in order to address legal questions when they arise.
Continue to allocate resources to the legal contingency fund.

Observation

We require a lot of travel of our leaders, particularly the Treasurer and Presiding Clerk. Some of the travel time currently perceived to be required may be unnecessary.

Recommendations

Re-examine if both the Treasurer and finance committee Clerk benefit from serving on C&A (note: as of this writing, this is being explored by the Finance Committee).
Re-examine the amount of travel time currently expected of the Treasurer (note: as of this writing, this is being done by the Finance Committee) as well as the Presiding Clerk.
Examine whether it is possible to utilize the role of Rising Clerk to decrease the number of meetings the Presiding Clerk is expected to attend.

Observation

Planning for transitions in all major clerk roles, and ensuring that information is not lost in handoffs between clerks, is important. Without intentional communication, we end up “reinventing the wheel” and lose critical information.

Recommendations

Stagger leadership transitions to ensure overlap of leaders whenever possible.
Require Friends serving as Presiding Clerk, Rising clerk, clerk of M&C, Treasurer, and Clerk of PB to have a support and accountability committee, as support for the person, but also holding them accountable to the role as service to the Yearly Meeting. Members could include someone who previously served in that role, as well as members of the Friend’s home meeting. Nominating support in crafting this committee is important to ensure that it actually happens.
Volunteer leaders and the committees that they lead should examine the possibility of naming a designated “second” or “shadow”. This position should not be a co-clerk, but rather an individual who is the go-to person for back-up in cases when the clerk needs to miss a meeting, or if there are specific tasks that can be delegated, particularly in areas of administration, follow-up/volunteer management, and coordinating with YM Staff.

Financial

Observation

Our leadership roles are only possible for individuals with other sources of income, a sufficiently flexible schedule, a reliable car, and access to the internet. We sometimes wait for people to ask for financial assistance rather than providing it up front.

Recommendations

Review and reorient all volunteers to our travel reimbursement process annually.
Continually re-examine what travel is actually meaningful (travel may be a particular barrier for people with caregiving responsibilities at home and people who live near the corners of New England).
Actively and proactively offer all financial support available. This may include providing financial assistance in obtaining transportation, reliable internet, or laptop computer access.
Examine the possibility of providing a stipend to Friends serving as Clerk of Permanent Board, Presiding Clerk, Treasurer, and Clerk of Ministry and Counsel. While we recognize that this recommendation is a large potential commitment of resources, it has the possibility to make service possible for a broader population of individuals than are currently able to bring their gifts to leadership positions for our Yearly Meeting.
Offer childcare for all committee meetings and communicate clearly about its availability

Cultural

We often commit to big work while underestimating what it will require of us in the long-term. We have a hard time pruning responsibility. We do not easily support leaders in prioritizing and saying “no.” We need these leaders to remind us that we (as NEYM) cannot do everything. Saying no, standing up to weighty Friends, and giving clear loving accountability feedback are critical skills that must be nurtured in our existing and rising leaders. In particular, we should seek to cultivate an awareness that work rises from many places to help developing leaders learn how we expect them to prioritize and prune, rather than allowing the work to continue expanding.

Recommendations

Make the process of pruning an agenda more visible so that growing leaders can learn how to do this.
Develop a culture of recognizing that it is healthy when we ask if we have the resources to do what we are proposing.
Adopt a culture of communicating priorities for the work we expect to do each year; a culture where we respect the “no” of others and don’t judge the success of our leaders by their ability to say “yes” to everything. Push against the “more is better” mentality and trust that prayerful discernment has gone into decisions that lead to a “no.”

Observation

After serving some leaders feel that their service was not recognized and some fade from relationship with NEYM. By presuming that a leader is burnt out, we have a tendency to unintentionally isolate our former leaders. This is a major loss of gifts and skills from our community.

Recommendation

Perform exit interviews with people in leadership roles. These interviews need to be done promptly and in a loving and appreciative way.
Ask people who have served how they are led to serve next.
Adopt a culture of publicly expressing our gratitude for the service of our leaders.

Observation

Leaders do not always feel the support of the body as a whole. Leaders receive “radio silence” or complaints and personal attacks more frequently than constructive feedback. Grappling with complex challenges is scary and taxing. Our leaders often feel alone in their struggles.

Recommendations

We need a more formal and regular feedback mechanism for people serving in leadership roles. Giving and receiving this feedback is critical for growth on the path of leadership development.
We need to recognize the connection between the work of undermining white supremacy culture and confronting the culture of conflict avoidance that exacerbates our leaders not feeling the support of the body.
Every person in a major leadership role should have a Care and Accountability Committee put together by NEYM. These committees should understand the importance of personal spiritual practice as well as understand enough about the role, the work, and the context of the Yearly Meeting, to support accountability. It is vital that these committees feel empowered to tell the Clerk/Treasurer when they are straying.
We need to develop a culture that leaders are grown over time—it is not just a matter of giving more tasks to those who are “natural leaders.”
We need to emphasize, model, and explicitly teach the following skills which support effective leadership:
- Discernment
- Clerking
- Servant leadership
- Incremental risk taking and experimentation
- Engaging constructively in conflict that is above and below the surface (note: this is generally not the norm in NEYM)
- Effective communication
- Giving and receiving feedback
- Project management
- Clear, compelling writing
- Clear, compelling public speaking
- Time management
- Asking for help; delegating; humility

Observations

In our interviews, we were struck by the deep faith and commitment to service from our leaders. Many leaders identified this work as a form of discipleship, requiring both humility and selflessness, that rewards faithful service with joy, unity, love, and connection. Our leaders felt most effective when they had strong personal spiritual practices as well as support and constructive feedback from other leaders (for some, C&A provided this “peer circle”, for others a lack of sufficient accountability feedback was identified). When we have this foundation in our leadership, it allows us to move forward despite struggle, conflict, and uncertainty.

Leaders sometimes feel as though they are expected to do the work of the body or the committees. This may be a root cause of much of the burden placed on our leaders. This is addressable, but it requires deep culture change, commitment from the body, and humility.

Recommendations

Normalize the expectation that committee service means doing significant “homework” between committee meetings.
Be clear with all Friends serving on committees about the expectations for service. Expectations should reflect the work that needs to be done.
Increase cultural norms that expect that people who have not prepared for business, will listen and trust others to do the discernment.
Be more clear about what we expect of leaders, what we expect of people in other named roles, and what we expect of the membership as a whole. In addition, be clear what the role of the leader is when the committee or body doesn’t do what it said it would.

Observation

We have a tendency to be suspicious of things that are not perceived to be already extant in Quaker culture. This can be a sticking point when trying to innovate on what “good management” looks like in a Quaker context.

Recommendation

Increase willingness to try, embrace and adapt to new leadership practices, including those originating from beyond the Quaker realm.

Conclusion

As Friends in New England, we seek to reduce the barriers to service that currently exist for individuals considering service in our volunteer leadership positions. We are not alone in this hope--our Quaker siblings the world over grapple with these challenges, too.

Addressing barriers to service requires a multidimensional approach. Our structural challenges impede effective leadership. Our financial challenges limit the population that is able to say yes to service. Our culture, especially the aspects of it which are reflections of White Supremacy culture, adds significant burdens to leadership roles which further limits the population able to serve. Only through an integrated approach will we see significant change.

We envision a Society in which our developing leaders are nurtured conscientiously, our current leaders are well supported, and our former leaders continue to be celebrated and involved. While this work is complex and long-term, we have faith that we have what we need to live into our vision.

While some of us have a particular part to play in this work, the changes needed are widespread and we all have something to contribute. We urge you: Do not be overwhelmed. Do not reject ideas that feel too expensive or too hard out of hand. Instead ask: What can we do now? What can we lean into going forward? What role is God asking me to play?

To our great benefit or to our detriment, we are each a living part of our ecosystem of supported leadership. The culture of the yearly meeting can and does change. Are we willing to accept continuing revelation when it comes to our way of organizing, relating to each other, and doing business?

—nia thomas, clerk

Student Scholarship Granting Subcommittee

Begun in spring of 2016, this is the fourth year of our student scholarship grant awards program. The Committee received 15 eligible applications and awarded grants to a total of $27,236.75, which has spent the balance that was available in the account. The program, as was planned at its creation (Minute 2015-30), is now at its end. This was the final award year. Awards were made to those who have connections with New England Yearly Meeting, applications coming from both young and old and for a wide variety of educational purposes. The Committee expects with its work completed that it may be laid down.

—Rebecca Leuchak, clerk

Archives & Historical Records

Since 2018 Sessions this committee worked closely with the Permanent Board, the Treasurer and the Finance Committee to resolve the committee’s concern regarding the remaining funds from the sale of the Bloudy Tenent. We are grateful for the strong sense of commitment and support for our work. The committee focused on ensuring that the backlog of unprocessed records can be processed as quickly as possible. With the approval of a one-time grant of $7500, SCUA is able to hire students and a graduate student to systematically work through the approximately 50 uncatalogued boxes. This work is underway.

We look forward to meeting the needs of monthly and quarterly meetings with a part-time outreach archivist to answer questions and to work with SCUA (Special Collections and University Archives, UMass) and meetings to ensure that all are submitting records to the Archives. We have defined the work required and are working with the Yearly Meeting secretary to be in a position to fill this role in the new fiscal year.

The committee is also drafting a section of Faith and Practice as an update to the sections previously devoted to records for Yearly Meeting and quarterly and monthly meetings. The draft will be provided to the Revision committee.

After one year of operation under the Memorandum of Understanding with SCUA, both Rob Cox, Director of SCUA, and the Committee were happy to affirm that no changes to the memorandum are currently needed.

As part of this report, we include Rob Cox’s annual report from SCUA from January 2019:

During the past calendar year, the staff completed the physical reorganization of the collection and pressed forward with verifying and reconciling the old Statler finding aid with the current collection. So far we have not found any glaring omissions or discrepancies, but as we continue with adding detail we will know more. Book cataloging was nearly complete at the time of last year’s report, with a few remaining volumes added as time has permitted.

Processing A significant portion of the more detailed processing has centered on the records of individual monthly and quarterly meetings. We have compiled a standardized vocabulary for referring to the meetings (a “name authority list,” in archive-speak) and we have developed a rough organizational scheme, in consultation with our peers at Swarthmore. Although each collection is unique in some regards, and the quantity and quality of content varies widely, we are doing our best to develop an arrangement scheme that can be simultaneously consistent, comprehensive, and flexible.

With that plan in hand we are developing finding aids for the individual meetings. At last count, we have generated 52 finding aids for monthlies, including all of the Wilburite monthlies. Reflecting the nature of these collections, finding aids vary considerably in detail and extent, but we have endeavored to include a capsule history of each meeting and hope to be able to add images of meetinghouses, members, or other significant (photogenic) features. Ideally, we would solicit and would welcome help from individual monthlies in contributing to their own histories. We chose not to complete the physical rehousing for many of these collections, although that goal is on the docket. When we have completed the finding aids, we will turn to the backlog accrued while the NEYM collection was at the Rhode Island Historical Society. The integration of this material will greatly expand the monthly collections, and only when we have a more complete picture will we want to make decisions about physical rehousing.

In addition, we have made considerable inroads into processing the separate collections swept up in the NEYM archives. We had already reprocessed the collections of Moses Brown, the Providence Society for Abolishing the Slave-Trade, and several others, issuing finding aids for each and doing some token digitization. In 2018, we added an important collection for Henry H. Perry (supervisor of the three AFSC-run Civilian Public Service Camps in Massachusetts during World War II). We also processed and digitized the papers of Caleb Foote, a Quaker-influenced war resister during World War II who was incarcerated on the west coast

Digitization The processing work noted above is an essential first step to digitization. Support from the Yearly Meeting to hire scanners and/or metadata workers for this would be gratefully received. [This processing work has been funded with the $7500 grant mentioned in the Archives Committee report. -ed.] Until we begin systematic work, we have been chipping away at smaller subprojects: digitizing two interviews (ca. 2004) with elderly members of the United Society of Friends Women, and other items as requests arrive. Henry Perry is queued up for digitization when we have staff available, and I have begun to explore digitizing records pertaining to the Quaker response to the Revolutionary War. A more systematic approach is needed and is the clear next step.

I again am grateful for a hard-working, dedicated committee.

—Carol Forsythe, Clerk

Coordinating and Advisory

The approved purpose of the Coordinating and Advisory (C&A) committee is to “shepherd the work of the Yearly Meeting.” This is a broad charge. In October we listed those tasks we knew of which we anticipated attending to over the coming year. We accomplished most of this work. This year the clerk of Nominating Committee and the rising presiding clerk joined C&A. After Sessions there will be a new clerk of Permanent Board and a new presiding clerk; Sarah Gant and Fritz Weiss are concluding their service.

Our work this year began with a weekend retreat in August where we developed advices and queries and tests for discernment for the funding priorities process. After these were accepted by Permanent Board (PB) we brought specific funding priority recommendations to PB which, after discernment, were approved and forwarded to Finance Committee to inform the budget development.

Last fall C&A scheduled Zoom conference calls with the clerks of YM committees to answer questions, support them in their service, and invite them to access the resources available from the Yearly Meeting office. During the year we responded to several committees who requested assistance in the work before them. Sessions in 2018 directed Permanent Board to examine how the structures and culture of the Yearly Meeting create obstacles to service and perpetuate a leadership which is older, whiter, and more affluent than would best serve the Yearly Meeting. Sessions also directed Ministry and Counsel to create a process to observe and name patterns of oppression and faithfulness in our work together as a Yearly Meeting as one part of beginning the transformative journey required we have committed to. C&A supported both committees in responding to these directives. A clerking workshop was offered in April and another has been scheduled for September 2019.

We continued to respond to requests for advice, assistance, and support from quarters and monthly meetings. There were three Zoom conference calls with quarterly meeting leadership. All eight of the quarters in New England are exploring how to fulfill the “Purpose of Quarters” which was received at Annual Sessions last year. A common theme is that the transition of leadership at the quarters is challenging.

In the quarterly calls, and in the engagement with monthly meetings and Yearly Meeting committees, C&A hears and shares the news of deepening faith, and persistent witness among Friends in New England.

The review of committee purposes, procedures, and compositions informed by the minuted purpose and priorities of the Yearly Meeting has been completed. The revised documents for Earthcare Ministries and the Racial, Social, and Economic Justice Committees are being brought to Sessions for approval. Permanent Board will also bring a proposal to support the ministry of publication.

The committee is charged with the supervision of the Yearly Meeting secretary and for ensuring that the annual evaluation is completed. The secretary reports monthly to C&A on his priorities, concerns, and sense of where attention might be needed.

C&A meets at least once each month. The committee consists of those serving as clerks of Permanent Board, Ministry and Counsel, Finance, Nominating, and the presiding clerk, the secretary, the treasurer and the supervisor of the secretary. At each of our meetings we pay deliberate attention to ways we express the “Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture” described by Jones and Okem. We have felt excitement about the beginnings of the culture change and joy we are witnessing in NEYM. We have worked well together in love and have served well as servants.

—Fritz Weiss, Presiding clerk

Development Committee

Our Yearly Meeting is alive and thriving. In surveying the landscape of our financial supporters, our collective record in recent years—including our current fiscal year—testifies to the new life and growth springing up each day in the Quaker faith across our region. This year, gifts from monthly meetings are up 15% compared to the same period a year ago (based on second fiscal quarter results at this writing), while household/individual contributions for the same year-on-year period have expanded 18%.

Often the future can look very different from the past. Historically a large share of contributions have come to the Yearly Meeting in the mid- to late summer (our final quarter of the fiscal year). We typically note a surge in the 8 weeks between Annual Sessions and the close of our fiscal year, September 30. We have every hope that—with your help—this pattern will repeat this year! If you or your meeting has already made a gift to the Yearly Meeting during the current fiscal year, thank you. If you are a donor who last year signed a 3-year “statement of committed intention” (some other churches say “pledge”), thank you especially for your sustained dedication to our shared ministry.

Over the past few years, we’ve made progress toward a balanced budget while sustaining vital ministries of New England Friends, and this year we’re very close! This is in part the result of robust and sustainable growth in gifts over recent years as we’ve clarified the purpose and priorities of the Yearly Meeting. We’ve been blessed with the opportunity to pause and reflect on the work we need to do and the best ways to organize, or perhaps reorganize, our resources to best advantage. The increasing clarity around our vision and the persistent call to minister to each other and to the world is improving our overall health and vitality. Our improving financial health is by no means the only indicator of this health, but it is an important one.

This year we began partnering with Everence, a Mennonite-based financial services organization. With their help, and in partnership with Finance Committee, local meetings, and other Friends, we are hosting conversations around money and faith, and gradually perhaps growing less uncomfortable thinking, talking, and praying about money and supporting the work of our faith community. An Everence team will be at Sessions to talk with individuals and families about financial planning at all stages of life, and with treasurers and finance clerks from monthly meetings and other NEYM-affiliated organizations to help manage the financial life of their community, including desires for growth, new projects, and new ministry. This will include discussion of Everence’s church loans, grant opportunities, and other topics of interest to local Friends’ meetings.

We’ve come a long way and there is much work still to do. In the past few years we have grown from a simple and dedicated volunteer fundraising effort to a more complex, ongoing Development program. In the coming year, it will be important for the Yearly Meeting in consultation with the Development Committee, staff, Coordinating and Advisory Committee, and the Permanent Board, to pause and consider how the ways we organize and coordinate our work to support financial stewardship and giving can best respond to the needs of Friends at this time, and moving forward.

—Chris Gant and deana chase, co-clerks

Earthcare Ministry

Earthcare Ministry Committee’s charge at Sessions 2018, last August:

NEYM Minute 2018-36 We have minuted that “we will … act with a focus and fearless [sic] appropriate to the urgency of the time.” We must do more than symbolic actions. As a blessed community we will act to reduce our contribution to climate dysregulation. To do this, we must be assessing our current impact and taking concrete steps to reduce this.

To assist with this transforming work, Earthcare Ministry Committee (EMC) members refined the carbon calculator mentioned in last year’s minute and called the project the Transforming Love Calculator Project (TLC Project) because this work requires an inner transition to a new way of relating to one another and to God’s creation.

To date, the response from monthly meetings to using the TLC Project is less than we had hoped; however, a Legacy Grant award to a Friend on the Committee and further actions planned by EMC and the Yearly Meeting will, we hope, sharply increase the number of Friends who participate. Monthly Meetings are encouraged to contact EMC at
scgates1@sbcglobal.net to schedule a visit to begin the work with the calculator or schedule other programs that will help their meeting to engage in addressing the climate emergency.

We also gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Quaker Earthcare Witness, which provided funding for the database and for 12 tablet computers which we use in sharing the TLC with monthly meetings.

Our annual retreat was held at a Friend’s home in May 2019 to prepare for NEYM Sessions. Other EMC meetings were held every 6 to 8 weeks via our committee’s virtual meeting (Zoom) program. At our May retreat, we worked on our 1-, 3-, and 5-year plans, which we will share at 2019 Sessions. We all returned energized by the chance to plan and worship together, and optimistic about what Friends can do to help address the climate crisis (which we decided should be our preferred term instead of “climate change”).

We gratefully acknowledge the foundational work of members of several monthly meetings to address the climate catastrophe and refer you to our website to find links to these resources.

We will continue to develop our repertoire of skills/tools for deepening the inner transition work needed to do the outer work necessary to reduce our carbon footprint and sequester carbon from our atmosphere. We are committed to connecting with other efforts in the Yearly Meeting to address racial and economic justice as integral parts of the climate emergency. We feel the power of the Spirit in this work towards creating the Blessed Community for all beings on Earth. We must not let the crisis immobilize and defeat us. Love calls us to act.

Please contact the clerks of EMC if you have any questions or would like to arrange a gathering for your meeting or a few meetings in your area to move forward with this faithful work.

—mary bennett and rebecca mckenzie, co-clerks

Ecumenical Relations

Usually we gather as a committee for a lunch meeting each year at Sessions, but this past year we were all too busy. We will plan to meet over supper on Tuesday this year.

Here is some news from our representatives:

Maine Council of Churches (MCC) is busy and growing. The Public Policy Committee is involved with over 20 pieces of legislation. “Wins” this year included the banning of gay-conversion therapy, with no exeptions, and assistance in many forms for the opioid problem.

At this year’s Advocacy Days, 77 people not only learned about various topics, from inclusion to climate change, but also learned ways to communicate effectively with legislators. Andy Burt from Midcoast Friends Meeting was on hand to teach, encourage, and support us.

Community Conversations continue, facilitating dialogue between “old Mainers and new Mainers”—with many thanks to Portland Friends for their involvement. This program is in its second year and continues to grow.

MCC recently co-sponsored a workshop on “The Faith Community’s Response to the Opioid Crisis,” attended by many denominations and service organizations. This included training in naloxone, something every meeting should have available at their meetinghouse.

—Diane Dicranian, Winthrop Friends Church

New Hampshire Council of Churches (NHCC) has been busy, thanks in part to its new, active young director, Jason Wells.

The big news is that we finally succeeded in getting rid of the death penalty! Thanks to Arnie Alpert and the many Friends from across the state who were active over the years on this issue. The NHCC helped gather broader support.

We are active in the Poor Peoples Campaign and are now in the midst of trials for those arrested during civil disobedience actions.

Last spring NHCC joined Lutherans in co-sponsoring a gathering on the opioid crisis; more than 70 people gathered in Concord at short notice. An interfaith opioid recovery organization was formed. We continue to find churches that are offering workshops and trainings, and invite others to join them.

This spring we had a person who portrays Dietrich Bonhoeffer perform in Peterborough on the anniversary of his death. Many found similarities with some issues we face today.

We have been expanding NHCC membership, reaching out to other churches. Marian Baker (Weare) serves as secretary. Dulany Bennett (Hanover) has stepped down and we are seeking a replacement from one of the N.H. meetings that is part of Northwest Quarter. Contact Marian or Dulany for further information.

The council helps spread information about church-related events throughout the state through its active website and Facebook page. Check it out.

We are looking into getting grants for a project on anti-Semitism and anti-Islamism and one to help small rural congregations find ways to be more relevant to today’s issues. Our Board retreat will be hosted at Concord Friends meetinghouse on July 18.

We will be holding a Solidarity Walk for Immigrant Justice, walking from Concord to Dover from Wednesday through Saturday, August 21–24. All Friends are invited to join this event.

—Marian Baker and Dulany Bennett

Faith & Practice Revision

Faith and Practice Revision Committee began its year by mailing to our monthly meetings and worship groups the new work we had presented at sessions in 2018. Last fall we sent out draft texts on Pastoral Care and on Dying, Death and Bereavement. We are grateful to the many meetings and individuals who responded to the documents with thoughtful comments and concerns.

We began our work in the fall with a review of the dual membership section of the Membership chapter that has been a difficult topic in the Yearly Meeting. The chapter was brought to sessions in August 2016 and 2017 for input and for preliminary approval in August 2018. During 2016 and 2017 we received input from 17 monthly meetings and from many individuals:

7 meetings made no comment on the dual membership section of the text.
2 meetings responded that they were moving away from membership. They were trying to be welcoming to all.
5 meetings liked the text
2 meetings were uneasy with the text. Their responses seemed to indicate they saw the difficulty in the topic and realized they would need to proceed carefully in such cases.
1 meeting found the discussion very divisive, but didn’t tell us in what way.

Sessions 2018 was the first time that the body reviewed the text within the business meeting. When agreement could not be reached within the time scheduled, it was noted that we were not in agreement with the text and we moved on. The Revision Committee rewrote and reorganized sections of the text in response to the discussion we heard at Sessions and responses from individuals as well. The revised Membership chapter (bit.ly/2NjIpoK) will come to Sessions 2019 again for preliminary approval.

The committee will also bring the revisions to the 2018 draft text on Dying, Death and Bereavement (bit.ly/2IYLnLj) to Sessions for preliminary approval. Before the Yearly Meeting is asked to give preliminary approval at Sessions 2019, the Revision Committee will offer opportunities for Friends who have read the documents to meet with committee members to suggest final changes. Before the Yearly Meeting is asked to give preliminary approval at Sessions 2019, the Revision Committee will offer opportunities for Friends who have read the documents to meet with committee members to suggest final changes.

This year the committee started a draft text on Marriage. The Marriage draft will go out to the monthly meetings and worship groups in late October, with a request for responses back to the committee by February.

We continue to be a committee of 10 members. Clearly, with a full committee of 16 members the work would progress more quickly and efficiently. We are grateful to the Permanent Board Nominating Committee for their efforts to bring new members to the committee.

We are looking forward to the Yearly Meeting’s new website where we will be able to update the Interim Faith and Practice with texts as they receive preliminary approval. This will make it easier for Friends to locate new texts as they are approved.

We continue in faith,

—Phebe McCosker, clerk

Finance

This was the first year of the new budget process, in which Permanent Board approved funding priorities at its November meeting and sent them to the Finance Committee to aid in the budget development process. As we developed the FY2020 budget, we connected the approved priorities with relevant line items and added or shifted budget dollars where possible and prudent to respond to those priorities.

The Committee continued our tradition of holding workshops for monthly meeting clerks, treasurers, budget-committee clerks, and other interested Friends. At this year’s workshop, titled “Money & Spirit: Integrating Faith and Finances,” held at Gonic (NH) Friends Meeting, attendees shared about their meeting’s financial practices, described challenges they are facing, and provided ideas for other attendees based in their meeting’s experiences. In the afternoon presentation, Everence Stewardship Consultant Lyle Miller spoke about the many services available to monthly meetings and individual Friends through NEYM’s partnership with Everence. Please consider whether you or someone from your meeting might join us for next year’s Money & Spirit event.

The Committee approved a new job description for the NEYM treasurer position. In consultation with the recommendations brought forward by the Clerking Practices and Structures Working Group of Permanent Board, we reduced the ex-officio committee responsibilities (and the resulting travel) required of the treasurer and shifted most of the transactional work to the NEYM accounts manager. The new treasurer role is now more focused on oversight and reporting.

This year we approached the end of a multi-year project to update the Financial Handbook, which collects the financial policies and procedures under which NEYM operates. The Handbook will be presented to Permanent Board in August or September and, if approved, will be published in the policies section on the new Yearly Meeting website. The online copy will be updated as new policies are approved.

Although the accounts manager is doing the work, the Finance Committee is excited to see progress on the Group Exemption process. When done, this will allow local meetings that have obtained an Employee Identification Number (EIN) to use the NEYM group exemption to more easily document their 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.

Now that we have accumulated sufficient funds in our Accounting Services revolving fund, we will prepare for a consultation and review of our accounts and procedures by an outside CPA in FY2020 and following years.

As part of our continuing effort to simplify the Yearly Meeting’s finances and close inactive funds, we proposed a process to Permanent Board to close the long-inactive Released Peaceworker Fund. The oversight of the Fund was transferred to the Legacy Gift Committee, which will use the remaining balance for one or more grants in accordance with the original criteria of the Fund.

The Finance Committee seeks to be a resource for all New England Friends. We are here for anyone (not only for Yearly Meeting staff and committees, but also local meetings) to provide help and guidance with financial matters. We look forward to hearing from you.

—Bob Murray, clerk

Friends United Meeting

The FUM Committee of NEYM has not met this year, but many NEYM Friends are involved in FUM-related activities. Kristina Keefe-Perry (Fresh Pond), Frederick Martin (Beacon Hill), and Ann Dodd-Collins (Portland) represented NEYM at meetings of the FUM North American and Caribbean General Board, while Rosemary Zimmerman (Bennington) continues to serve as the North American General Board’s appointed recording clerk. On the FUM staff, Eden Grace (Beacon Hill) works as the Director of Global Ministries, and Kristna Evans (Durham) worked for a time as editor of the Friends United Press.

For Friends who are unfamiliar with FUM, it may help to understand that it is a global partnership of yearly meetings, which means that at the board level, we engage with fellow Quakers from very different cultures—and while the differences in context between the United States and Kenya are real, sometimes the different cultures within the United States can be the hardest to reconcile. The FUM personnel policy still does not recognize same-sex marriage, which all of NEYM has objected to for years, but making progress on the issue is more of a question of changing minds within the member yearly meetings of FUM. Several of our fellow member yearly meetings in FUM recognized same-sex marriage around the same time as NEYM did: New York, Baltimore, and Canadian Yearly Meetings. More recently, several yearly meetings in North America have had painful schisms, and in each split, one of the resulting yearly meetings has affirmed LGBTQI+ inclusion. Within FUM, the North Carolina Fellowship of Friends and the New Association of Friends are two such newly affirming yearly meetings. Most recently, Great Plains Yearly Meeting this year adopted a minute of inclusion. So each year, more and more member yearly meetings have become open and affirming; but Quaker process does not discern the Way forward by majority rule. Kristina and Frederick, and many of us on the Committee, will be available for conversations and questions during Sessions.

Working across cultures in FUM’s global partnerships can also bring great joy. Ramallah Friends School in Palestine—founded by New England Friends—is beginning to celebrate its 150th anniversary. Marian Baker (Weare) continues her travel in the ministry, under a minute endorsed by NEYM, in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, encouraging women’s leadership and economic empowerment. Friends on the FUM East African General Board tell us of movements for reconciliation and unity among Kenyan yearly meetings. And preparations are under way for the 2020 FUM Triennial to be held in Kenya—the country with the largest number of Quakers in the world—in collaboration with the United Society of Friends Women International (USFWI) and Quaker Men International (QMI). It promises to be an exciting week of celebration and fellowship and all New England Friends are warmly invited.

—Frederick Martin, representative to FUM General Board

Friends World Committee for Consultation–New England

This past March, the Friends World Committee on Consultation (FWCC) Section of Americas met in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, on the theme of “Come and See!” based on John 1:46. Over 150 people from across the Americas attended the meeting, including 10 Friends from our Yearly Meeting. We had opportunities to share in small groups, hear about the Traveling Ministries Program, and to attend to the business of the Section. Documents from the Section Meeting can be seen at the Section website, fwccamericas.org. Also you can read reflections from NEYM attendees
(bit.ly/2LgF4E5) and Minga Claggett-Borne’s personal reflection (bit.ly/2LdEFCB).

The Traveling Ministries Program (now 3 years old) seeks to send Friends across yearly meetings and cultural divides within the Section. Three Friends from NEYM have been active with the program so far: Debbie Humphries (Hartford) served in the first cohort, Greg Woods (Cambridge) is serving in the second cohort, and Minga Claggett-Borne (Cambridge) is serving in the third cohort. Chuck Schobert, a member of the first cohort from Northern Yearly Meeting, made two visits to Friends within New England Yearly Meeting during his travels. Please consider inviting a corps member to your meeting and/or applying to serve in the fourth cohort. Applications are due September 30, 2019. More information is available at fwccamericas.org/visitation/traveling-ministry.shtml.

One of the fun things that we heard about at the Section Meeting is that FWCC has developed a Quakerese magnetic poetry kit. Robin Mohr writes:

Have you seen our new Quakerese magnetic poetry kit? We’ve been playing with it on a file cabinet in our office, and it is a lot of fun. 250 words, to compose a prayer, or a poem, or a joke, on your refrigerator.

To order, email robinm@fwccamericas.org and tell her how you will use it to promote FWCC’s mission. Or Friends can donate $25 to FWCC Section of Americas online and put “Quakerese poetry box” in the comment box of the online form.

Thanks to the work of Marian Baker and Beth Collea, four international Friends (Emma Condori and Esther Quispe Yujra from Bolivia, and Dancan Sabwa and Judy Nandikove from Kenya) will be visiting our Annual Sessions this summer. Please welcome these visitors! We hope to provide opportunities to talk about the work of FWCC in a workshop at sessions.

Sunday, October 6 will be World Quaker Day. This year the theme is “Sustainability: Planting Seeds of Renewal for the World We Love.” Our committee is eager to help meetings find ways to celebrate and we will host a time during Sessions to share ideas about celebrating the rich diversity of Friends. Ideas and examples can also be found on the World Quaker Day website (worldquakerday.org).

Lastly, our committee is always looking for younger members to serve on the committee and as Yearly Meeting representatives to the Section of the Americas. This is a great way to connect with Quakers from across the Americas and to learn about other Friends and how they worship.

—greg woods, clerk

Legacy Gift Committee

Through supporting the ministry of New England Friends, the Legacy Gift Committee has experienced Holy Abundance.

With little or no experience in grant-making or in establishing a funding program, we could not have anticipated the Holy Abundance that would arise when we began this journey.

We aimed to create a funding program not based on traditional measures of success, but on faithfulness. Our guiding light has been an openness to experience and a willingness to experiment, such as the new “Time-Sensitive Application” added this year to respond to requests for workshops or travel that arise outside of our regular deadlines.

With the spring grants we have completed four years of funding from NEYM Future Fund—which was originally expected to last three years. We also completed the second annual cycle of the Witness and Ministry Fund. Visit neym.org sfor a list of FY19 grants.

We experience Holy Abundance every time a Friend or meeting committee applies for funding. As each deadline approaches, our email overflows with the work of New England Friends in the world.

Where is the spirit moving in this work? How or when can an investment of money help nurture a leading? What gifts can emerge when a meeting takes a ministry under its care?

Holy Abundance is present in the stories from applicants and grantees.

Asking his meeting to take his ministry under their care so he could apply for a grant was the first time one applicant had to consider, “What is my ministry and why is it important to me?”

A member of the planning group for the second “At the Well” gathering told us, “I am so very proud and grateful that NEYM demonstrated the imagination and the faithfulness to support ministers to go where the leading took us.”

A small meeting in northern New Hampshire spoke of the energy they felt when a new Friend approached them with a leading, “We have been blessed to answer God’s call to join this ministry brought forward to us.”

We have felt deep connections form—as a committee, with our in-person site visits, in learning what is alive in local meetings throughout the Yearly Meeting, and with meetings working to reduce their climate footprint.

A wise Friend told us that the most important part of our work is not the money we grant, but the conversations we have about stewardship, faithfulness, ministry, Friends’ practices, leadings—and money.

We’ve chosen the subject “Funds and Faith and Fairness: the question of compensation and how it relates to equality and justice issues” for our annual workshop on September 24. What is right compensation and what guidance can we give to applicants? What is necessary to release someone to follow a leading?

This fall Legacy Committee will take a break from accepting applications to consider the remaining balance in the Future Fund (approximately $50,000) as well as some of the questions that have arisen from our work.

The next deadline for the Witness and Ministry Fund is March 1, 2020.

—suzanna schell and jean mccandless, co-clerks

Ministry & Counsel

Charged this year to “seek to be responsive to and to engage with the concerns and leadings of monthly meetings, quarterly meetings, and Annual Sessions,” Ministry and Counsel (M&C) has taken on two significant pieces of work, the fruits of which we hope are felt in local congregations throughout New England, and both of which will be presented in more detail at Annual Sessions. M&C meetings are open to all, and our minutes are available on the Yearly Meeting website.

At Sessions 2018 M&C was instructed to “develop a practice to appoint people who will observe, name and reflect back to us long-standing, unseen patterns and practices that result in our complicity in oppression.” It is clear from the minutes that the practice would begin as soon as possible, not wait until next Sessions for approval. At our first meeting, M&C held this charge in prayer and allowed names to rise of Friends grounded in our tradition and experienced in naming the patterns we are trying to address and in working with organizations to enact change. Twenty-one names were lifted up, and there are more. One of the hopes for this work was, “that we keep love, unity, and healing at the forefront of our efforts … to align ourselves more fully with the will of God.” After an initial meeting, a working group composed of Lisa Graustein (Beacon Hill), Lorena Boswell (Cambridge), Polly Attwood (Cambridge), and Beckey Jones (Northampton) worked long and hard to come up with a few practices, and ran several day-long opportunities for Friends to try them. These Friends have done their best to contact and solicit feedback from as wide a range of people as possible. In my experience, those opportunities were full of honesty, connection, and learning, and the practices these Friends have put into place have helped us step more fully into God’s call. I look forward to our time together at Sessions, so that more Friends will have a chance to try these transformative practices and to grow together in the Spirit. I am grateful for the leadership of these Friends, for gifts the God has given them—for us all—and the Fruits I see them bearing.

The second big piece of work before us this year, at the request of the presiding clerk, was to prepare a recommendation concerning the continuation—or not—of the current NEYM withholding policy, which is coming back for discernment at this year’s Sessions. A working group created a presentation explaining the issues and how the policy works, which was sent to all meetings. M&C’s recommendations will be presented during the business sessions at Yearly Meeting. If you would like more information, please contact me at
mc-clerk@neym.org.

There is so much more I would like to share with you about the condition of our Yearly Meeting as I have witnessed it during this year of service, and I hope to have more opportunities to do so.

With gratitude for the many hands who are helping to prepare for our time together at Sessions, and for those at work throughout our Yearly Meeting each day, helping us all to step more fully into God’s vision for us,

—honor woodrow, clerk

Nominating Committee

The Nominating Committee has met in person and via web conference this year. With gratitude to staff, the database in the office is now the one place that records all committee memberships and terms. This avoids errors that resulted from duplicate record-keeping in the past. There has been increased communication between NEYM Nominating, Permanent Board Internal Nominating, and Clerk’s Table Nominating. In the coming year we hope to increase these coordination efforts and collaborate on creating a manual of best practices that includes the nuts and bolts of nominating work.

In light of the concerns raised at Annual Sessions in 2018, we are considering ways of approaching the scope of our work which include defining new pathways to leadership, ways to mentor and support committee clerks, and encouraging all committees to include a new person (or several depending on the size of committee) who is growing into service. We also encourage all committees to consider ways to create opportunities for service other than full committee membership, such as serving on a working sub-committee or time-limited project. This is another pathway to service that provides rising leadership possibilities.

One clerking workshop was offered this year. We hope to increase this to two or three clerking workshops next year, to build capacity for healthy functioning of both monthly and Yearly Meeting committees and rising leadership. Additionally, we are planning a consultation of monthly and Yearly Meeting nominating committee members to share best practices for nominating committee work.

Thank you to each of you for sharing your gifts. We look forward to hearing from you and growing together during the coming year.

With gratitude and joyful anticipation,

—Jacqueline Stillwell, clerk

Committee for Nurturing Friends Education at Moses Brown School

The committee has welcomed and enjoyed working with Barbara von Salis, who joined the school as Interim Director of Friends Education.

The loss of several Quaker faculty members at the end of last year has been an area of concern and examination through out this year. Strategies to be sure that more Friends are aware of job openings and feel encouraged to apply for positions have been discussed in the following areas:

Sharing more information about job postings through local meetings, and through NEYM’s central office.

Sending job postings to Friends colleges, Guilford, Earlham
Using Friends Council as fully as possible, and sharing job openings with Quaker study centers such as Pendle Hill, Woolman Hill.

Training for new Committee Clerks and Board Clerks has incorporated members of the Committee this year with the leadership of the Interim Friends Education Director.

During the week of public school vacations in April the Lower School spent several days involved in World Peace Games. This is the second year they have participated in this empowering curriculum, and it allowed interaction with students from other schools through the scheduling.

The Spring Tea, a time for connections between Providence Meeting Friends and School friends, returned to Providence Friends meetinghouse this year so that members of the school could see the expanded facilities there. It was also a time to recognize graduating Friend Jack Tripp from Allen’s Neck Meeting.

MB looks forward to co-hosting with Lincoln School FCE’s two-day “Faculty New to Friends Education” workshop in September.

The committee is looking forward to working with the new Director of Friends Education, Jennifer McFadden, who is a member of Providence Friends Meeting.

We especially want to thank Barbara von Salis for her time with us during the past year. We wish her success in the next steps in her teaching career.

Lilly Simmers will also be leaving us as our staff liaison after many years, and Mary Lee Morrison is stepping down as her term on the Board of Trustees concludes. Their voices, and service, have been valuable to the committee and the school during their tenure.

—elizabeth zimmerman, Clerk

Moses Brown School Report

The work of Friends Education at Moses Brown School (MB) is not always explicit instruction in Friends principles and practices, but rather an approach to education that seeps into the very core of what a school experience is like for a child growing into adulthood. It is about calling people to share the love they have with the rest of the world. Much of the work on campus this year has been to study the world with the express goal to improve it through building skills, aptitude, and passion.

Meeting for worship remains at the heart of the school’s Quaker identity. Every student who attends MB participates in weekly meeting for worship, and special, programmed divisional and all-school meetings offered students a chance to reflect or share about themes or current events.

Professional development continues to be a central focus of our energies. In September, new faculty and staff took part in a Friends Education program, tailored to the experience of working in Friends schools, and more specifically MB. In March, faculty participated in a professional development workshop on implicit bias in the workplace; moreover, this summer, all MB employees will do significant reading about how gender is impacting the workplace and classroom, in preparation for a workshop in late August.

The school year commenced with the second annual trip of the entire 9th grade to Friends Camp in South China, Maine. In addition to faculty chaperones, these students were accompanied by 17 peer leaders, as part of our blossoming peer leadership program. The three-day orientation retreat included meaningful activities intended to build community, fun games to liven up the group, and a sunset meeting for worship atop the hill. For some new members of our MB community, this marked their first experience of Friends practice and worship. We hope this tradition continues long into the future.

As part of a new, developing program, MB Immersion, the school engaged with the wider Providence area and its various communities. Ninth-graders conducted meaningful, week-long service projects with several community partners, including Amos House, the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, the Refugee Dream Center, and Plan International USA, to name a few. As an annual project, fourth-graders again navigated the complex, week-long project: The World Peace Games. Fifth-graders pursued a two-month training in non-violence and how to combat teasing and bullying, in partnership with the Center for the Study and Practice of Non-Violence. Sixth-graders completed a unit in their history class on Quakerism, which included a panel of local Friends who answered several student-generated questions. In Freshmen Studies, ninth-graders were instructed about and experienced several Friends practices, and also learned about and discussed the origin story of Quakerism.

Finally, MB wishes to thank Barbara von Salis of Brooklyn Monthly Meeting for her exemplary work this year as Interim Director of Friends Education, and to welcome Jennifer McFadden of Providence Monthly Meeting, who will become the new Director on July 1.

—erik wilker, Director of Administrative & Strategic Affairs

Puente de Amigos

Puente de Amigos is pleased to report on an active year of sharing love and connection with our Cuban Friends. Despite political challenges, four groups from New England Yearly Meeting visited Cuba Yearly Meeting (CYM) this year. Our relationships with Cuban Quakers have grown in both breadth and depth.

We have seen our relationships broadened by new types of visits. A group from Hanover Monthly Meeting visited their sister meeting in Havana, then traveled eastward across the island, where they visited the monthly meetings located in Oriente, the home of most Cuban monthly meetings. Benigno Sanchez-Eppler organized a team to assist Cuban Friends with digitizing all of CYM’s minutes, a two-year task which they were able to complete this year. Two library experts from Northampton Monthly Meeting were accompanied by two Amherst College students for this trip to Havana and Oriente. A third group, from Wellesley and Framingham Monthly Meetings, traveled to Puerto Padre where they helped in the redevelopment of the Wilmington School into a community center. Cuban Friends plan to broaden their mission in the renovation of this building by teaching construction and other local employment skills to non-Quakers in their community.

The fourth delegation this year demonstrated the increasing depth of our connections with Cuban Friends. Noah Merrill had been asked by the CYM President to help encourage the younger generation to take leadership roles, especially since the emigration of several younger leaders from Cuba. He traveled with Jackie Stillwell to Cuba for a week, and together they were able to continue discussions about Friends’ ministry. They also answered Cuban Friends’ request for a representative of NEYM to attend CYM sessions, an annual commitment of our Committee.

Our relationship with Cuban Friends has also become deeper and stronger with a project to raise funds specifically to assist Cuban Friends communicate with each other and with us. Use of the internet is increasingly widespread in Cuba, but it is very expensive. Len Cadwallader initiated a successful project to raise funds for online access. Communication with Cuban Friends is now often through Facebook Messenger, allowing more frequent and informal communications, with specific tasks and documents being shared.

The Puente Committee also worked on updating our processes and procedures for intervisitation. We are exploring ways to strengthen the New England/Cuba sister meeting relationship, the foundation of our fellowship. We grieve the absence of Cuban visitors to New England over the past three years due to the U.S. government prohibitions, and a political response is under consideration. Our Cuban Friends are suffering increased economic hardship and we are considering what we can do to help.

In these times, it is heartening to experience the impact that loving relationships between Cubans and New Englanders can have. We have visits in the planning stage for next year, including another intergenerational trip, Alternatives to Violence Projects, and annual visits to CYM. Please let us know if you are interested in joining a delegation to Cuba.

—Maggie Fogarty and Em McManamy, co-clerks

Racial, Social, and Economic Justice

Both continuity and change describe RSEJ’s vitality. The committee continues to emphasize its spiritual approach in serving NEYM; at the same time we welcome the change that surrounds us. We join Friends across New England as we embrace the common direction of several working groups and committees—all in pursuit of racial justice.

Friends’ belief that there is that of God in each person nurtures our equality testimony, which is the foundation of Quakers’ peace testimony and commitment to justice. Equality means everyone: no exceptions, as FCNL reminds us. We encourage spiritual engagement, in witness and ministry among Friends and the world, focusing primarily on racial justice, prejudicial thinking, and discriminatory behavior. RSEJ asks, “Friends, are we accompanying the oppressed or the oppressors?”

One of our committee’s purposes is to help NEYM examine the institutional aspect of racism as we learn about systems of oppression that intersect with systemic racism—sexism, classism, heterosexism, and colonialism. Friends’ unwavering commitment to the equality testimony is what led RSEJ to minute the moral injury that is inherent in FUM’s hiring policy—instead of accompanying the oppressor, it is our hope to express unified opposition to a policy that discriminates against LGBTQ+ Friends. Let us shift together to accompany the oppressed. Will we, as a yearly meeting, remain committed to decolonizing our practices?

Another way to answer the question (about whom we are accompanying) is to form a book discussion group to read Angie Thomas’s young adult novel, The Hate U Give.

This summer’s Freedom & Justice Crier helps all grasp the richness of racial justice work occurring throughout NEYM. A new responsibility for RSEJ is to initiate meetings of representatives from racial-justice-related working groups and committees to plan regular gatherings of Friends who address systemic racism in our society.

As in past years, RSEJ continues to administer two funds. We welcome applications for Prejudice and Poverty grants (from a contributory fund to which Friends can donate); details are on neym.org. We also honor the scholars who are current recipients of grants from NEYM’s endowed Freedmen’s Fund.

We welcome and engage Friends at all levels of experience and with the varied gifts that they can bring to this work. We are eager for our committee’s membership to represent a greater diversity of age, race, class, and cultural backgrounds. RSEJ invites you to join the work wherever you can: with one of our allied working groups, with a book group you organize, or as a member of our committee.

—scott rhodewalt, clerk

Sessions

Let your lives preach, let your light shine, that your works might be seen (George Fox)

In preparing for this in-gathering of New England Friends, our committee is aware of the need to keep that which supports the work and worship of Friends, and to let go of those forms which no longer meet those needs. We strive as a community of faith and practice to listen together, discern together, and work together in holy obedience. We strive to include and welcome all who seek to share this undertaking and we offer hospitality to support and renew this work. And, we will fall short.

We hope to offer a place and time sufficient to do the work G-d has put before us, to support the clerks table in their discernment, and create opportunities for the Holy Spirit to work within us, as a body and as individuals. As we continue to love, challenge, and support each other, let us each remember to take the time and space we need to care for ourselves and one another. In provoking each other to love and good works, let us be clear to do that which is ours to do as faithfully as we can, trusting that others will do what they are called to do.

In our time here at Castleton, our committee will be looking at this site carefully as we put together a site selection team to consider possible new locations. We have extended our contract at Castleton for an additional two years, until 2022. If you have suggestions or recommendations, please send them to sessions@neym.org for careful consideration.

Welcome, Friends. We are blessed by your presence.

—Leslie Manning

Young Adult Friends

Last August, many young adult Friends at Sessions reported feeling more connected to the corporate discernment process due to the pre-Sessions mini-retreat that offered “YAFs” a space to connect and ask questions about business items before arriving at Castleton. These Friends were also aided in their transition into business meeting by the presence of “whisper buddies,” pre-identified Friends who were able to provide business meeting navigation assistance for individual young adults.

In October, the YAF program held its fall retreat in Providence, enjoying the additional bathrooms which were recently added. At this retreat, we explored how art and creativity relate to our spiritual practice as Friends and contributed to care packages for recent high school graduates, an annual tradition. We also said a bittersweet thank-you and goodbye to our beloved Hilary Burgin, who left her role as NEYM’s young adult engagement coordinator to serve as Quaker Voluntary Service’s new executive director.

In January, 34 young adults from 9 local meetings gathered for our annual midwinter retreat held at Woolman Hill. Guest teachers Peter Blood-Patterson, Emily Savin, and Phil Fitz helped the group understand the early Quaker movement and joined us in exploring its resonance today. We remain grateful to Maggie Nelson for stepping in to lovingly co-coordinate this retreat amid staff transitions. Our retreat was additionally supported through a small number of experienced retreat participants who held the role of “host,” providing a warm welcome and a listening ear to other participants throughout the retreat.

In April, 17 young adults from 7 monthly meetings gathered in southeastern Massachusetts for a retreat which was built around participation in the Living Faith gathering and visits to local meetings (New Bedford and Allen’s Neck). Under Briana Halliwell’s excellent leadership and aided by the helping hands of all participants, YAFs joyfully stretched their understanding of what a YAF retreat could look like and continued our ongoing conversation about how intentionally using our time in young-adult-only spaces can improve our ability to navigate multigenerational spaces, including connections with older Friends.

As NEYM’s young adult programming continues to evolve and respond to current needs, we continue to experiment with volunteer leadership roles and new models for gathering. This summer, we look forward to continuing to lean into our growing edges as individuals and as a program under the leadership of the YAF sessions coordinator, Emi Link.

—Nia Thomas, Quaker Practice and Leadership Facilitator

Young Friends

Arriving at a Young Friends retreat this year, you would be met with energy, joy, and curiosity.

Each gathering brought together about 20 Young Friends, and although numbers were smaller than past years, encompassed the usual fun-having balanced with introspection.

The dominating presence over our year has been felt in the noticeably smaller numbers of attendees, especially in the sophomore and junior classes. The challenges and joys of a smaller group and of bridging the gap between energy levels, needs, and roles of old and new Young Friends was discussed in passing, programming, and in Ministry and Council (M&C) meetings.

The smaller group brought changes in both spiritual and logistical process in our community. Counter to regular procedures of the past couple of years, Young Friends decided not to assemble a nominating committee at our mid-year retreat. This was due to the feeling of newness with each other and not knowing each other’s gifts well enough. The smaller numbers also allowed for Saturday evenings to be tailored by Young Friends and Resource Persons (RPs) together to match the group’s energy levels. Activities ranged from lively talent shows featuring poetry recitations and skits, to rounds of favorite group songs and lullabies.

These changes in process invited Young Friends to be more active than passive in our communities intentions and functions. The continuous discussion about changing leadership as a group allowed us to return every retreat to our values. Our intentions and imperatives list has been helpful for us. As outlined in the intentions, being actively inclusive and present remained a consistent model for our community through the year.

As our retreat cycle came to a close we were still exploring options for next year’s leadership structure. Our final retreat was held under the theme of community and we spent time discussing gifts and naming them in ourselves and others. As we cemented a deeper connection with each other, a question remained. Would we keep M&C or would the roles of M&C be broken down and distributed in the coming year given the small numbers? Using notes taken from a threshing session from the whole Young Friends group on the topic of leadership, the current M&C shared an informal proposal to consider ways the roles of M&C might be distributed differently than the traditional procedures for the coming year. Moving into Yearly Meeting Sessions, Young Friends continue to be curious and eager to explore options for the structure that best holds the community in the coming year.

—abby fortune, clerk

Youth Ministries

Last summer when Beth Collea decided to leave her staff role at NEYM, we all knew that her knowledge and embrace were too capacious to be simply replaced. We knew we needed to treat this change as an opportunity for listening, re-imagining, and trying new things. Beth was always reminding us that as we ask What is the work to be done, we need to think forward, not backwards. What staff and programming structures will best support the young people of NEYM and their families, now and in the future? Through many modes of listening—in the February 2018 Youth Programs gathering, around lunch tables and on cards at Sessions, through targeted phone calls and visits to monthly meetings—the Youth Ministries Committee has tried to hear the answer to that question. We recognize a threefold responsibility: to support our children’s spiritual development and provide them with a sense of belonging to the Quaker faith; to support families in Quaker parenting, helping to clarify what that entails and providing a community context for living it; and to support local meetings in carrying the responsibility for raising the next generation of Quaker membership and leadership.

NEYM youth programs have long proved powerful tools of spiritual formation, and continue to serve this function in deep ways. NEYM youth programs—retreats, Sessions, Friends Camp—all create strong peer circles for our young people. We heard the desire to augment these with new structures that provide youth-centered Quaker opportunities for families not well served by retreats and for the peer circles of parents, and of Friends who work with young people in their monthly meetings. The desire for multigenerational sharing was one of the strongest themes uncovered by our listening sessions. There is a real craving amongst us for powerful intergenerational experiences.

The networking, web-building understanding of NEYM as “helping us do together what we cannot do alone” is a crucial aspect of NEYM youth work. Youth, through their participation in NEYM youth programs, often serve to connect families and monthly meetings to the Yearly Meeting. But there is so much more we could do to share best practices, First Day school curricula, child safety knowledge, parenting supports, intergenerational ideas, and resources of all sorts.

This winter’s restructuring of youth ministry staffing is designed to maintain healthy retreat programs under the coordination of Gretchen Baker-Smith and Maggie Nelson, and to give more scope for monthly meeting outreach, intergenerational initiatives, and leadership-building to Nia Thomas in her new role. We see this change as a strong structural step towards living into a broader understanding of what Youth Ministries entails. We know too that these aspirations are not something staff can carry alone. We need a culture shift from the expectation of NEYM or NEYM staff providing services to a recognition of community responsibility. What changes if we see the organization as stewards rather than owners of the care for Quaker youth?

—karen sánchez-eppler, clerk

Decisions and Actions Concerning…	See	Friends Available for Consultation
Accepting Staff Reports	page 24	Staff
Accepting Board, Committee and Representative Reports	page 30	Report authors
Approving Earthcare Ministries Committee revised Purpose, Procedure and Composition	page 16	Fritz Weiss, presiding clerk
Approving Racial Social and Economic Justice Committee revised Purposes Procedures and Composition	page 12	Fritz Weiss, presiding clerk
Approving Nominations	--	Jackie Stillwell, Nominating clerk
Approving Bank Resolutions	page 20	Robert Murray, Finance clerk
Approving Nominations for Clerks Table for the Coming Year	page 21	Sarah Gant, Permanent Board clerk
Approving Clerks’ Authorization to Make Edits and Corrections	page 21	Fritz Weiss, presiding clerk
Accepting Memorial Minutes	booklet	Honor Woodrow, Ministry and Counsel clerk
Accepting Time-Sensitive Statements	page 21	Fritz Weiss, presiding clerk; Noah Merrill, Yearly Meeting Secretary