MINUTES
Minneapolis Friends Meeting
Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, February 13, 2011
Attending: [Names redacted for online version]
1. Approve November and January Minutes
January 2011 minutes were APPROVED.
2. Monthly Reports
Director of Ministry – Pat Jones. +Pat spoke of people who represent the meeting in different ways. Recently Sharon Lane Getaz spoke at a St. Olaf college worship service and talked a lot about this Meeting. She sent a video. Pat felt it would be nice to have this on our Web site. +One member has been unable to attend meeting due to the lift being out of service. +A new attender session was held January 26. Linda Coffin spoke. Twelve people attended the new attenders session. Three were new attenders/visitors, four were longer-time attenders, and six were members. +Margery Post Abbott’s visit here was sponsored by a local effort called Quaker Resources. Liz Oppenheimer of TCFM is working on this. +Metro Friends Gathering was held at TCFM recently. Few Friends from MFM attended. +David Woolley has been contracted with to develop the meeting’s Web site.
Ministry & Counsel – David Woolley. A written report was submitted. Please see attached.
3. Updates
FNVW Holiday Fair – Rae Cornelius. A written report was submitted. Please see attached.
Property Committee – Jim Haefemeyer. Jim reported on estimates on lift repair and Terry Hokenson gave an update. Jim said that Standard Heating does not recommend replacing the furnaces at this time. A couple of furnaces are being repaired. Needed roof work is estimated in the upper 20 thousands. Storm damage occurred last summer. The janitor job is requiring about 4 hours per week, slightly more than budgeted for. Repainting is needed in hallways, stairways, and elsewhere. This may run as much as $3,000. Terry Hokenson has been contracted to do some needed tasks.
Clerk thanked property committee for its efforts. The larger repairs and painting probably can be covered by trustees funds that have been saved for this purpose. Trustees and property committee need to look at the building replacement schedule and determine whether we need to set aside more money to support this schedule and/or whether doing a capital fundraising effort at this time may be needed.
A written report of the most recent meeting of the Property Committee, which was the basis for this report, was submitted and is attached.
4. Budget
2010-2011 Third Quarter Report – John Kraft. A written report was submitted. Please see attached. We are behind our income goal. We are also behind in expenses with a projected variance of $6,636 less than budgeted.
First Presentation of Budget for 2011-2012 — John Kraft. John also presented the proposed budget for FY 2011-2012. A written report was submitted; please see attached. Feedback to any of the Stewardship Committee members is requested before next month’s meeting for business. Committee members include John Kraft, Marilyn Johnson, Gayle McJunkin, Suzanne Ferguson, Allen Gibas and Jeff Naylor. It was noted that building insurance costs have been reduced by changing insurance companies.
Point of information – Letter from Northern Yearly Meeting – NYM suggests that our contribution be based on $54 per member. John shared that the increase in the suggested contribution came about when the Yearly Meeting decided to support a part time youth coordinator position. This person (and committee) coordinates the junior high and senior high youth gatherings. Minneapolis Meeting has hosted a number of these gatherings and our youth have participated.
We reported 104 adult members; thus our contribution would be at least $5500, considerably more than we have been giving. Please see attached.
5. Annual Reports
FGC Report – Nancy Peterson. Nancy referred to the Friends General Conference Web site at www.fgcquaker.org . She pointed out that FGC does much more than present the annual Gathering. FGC is attempting to become more social media savvy. Quaker Quest is going strong. Faith and Play is a new curriculum for children available through FGC. QuakerBooks is considering offering publishing services to Friends who wish to self-publish. This year’s Gathering will be held at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. FGC has a new general secretary, Barry Crossno. See attached letter.
Approval will be sought for use of list-serv to send out information about the Gathering to the meeting list.
Nominating Committee – Marilyn Johnson. A written report was submitted. See attached. Members of Nominating Committee are Tom Ward, Susan Hoch, Jim Bruener, Zach White and Marilyn.
The committee requests that Diane Barrett be approved as a member of Social Committee. APPROVED.
Welcoming Committee will be laid down at the end of March.
The nominating committee is facing challenges in recruiting enough people to create robust and functioning committees. They asked the meeting to consider the following situations.
Youth Committee is continuing with only one existing member. It addresses youth involvement within the wider Quaker community. It conducts sleepovers, NYM activities, and facilitates involvement in the outside community. How should the Youth Committee function, asked an involved Friend. Historically there have been at least three people on the committee. Should this continue to be a stand-alone committee? be served by a coordinator? or should it move under the Religious Education Committee?
A Friend referred to the situation of Nursery Committee, which has people but the meeting has few nursery aged children. Adult Program works on adult program hour, but only one person is continuing on the committee. What other ways can its work be done?
Nominating Committee seeks guidance on how to proceed.
Another Friend observed that there is a difference between what the meeting says it wants to do and what it wants to do, and that the meeting needs to decide what it wants to do and commit to it. Clerk observed that there appears to be a need for an overall consideration and reorganization of the meetings committees. She can take a lead on this after the Winds of Change workshop process wraps up and Quaker quest is launched. She asked for people that might be interested in assisting with this process.
The meeting asked nominating committee to recruit for these committees this year and that we would aim to examine our meetings needs and the committees that serve these needs by December 2011.
6. Decision Items
Meeting Policy on Family and Medical Leave – Gayle McJunkin. This item will be taken up in March.
Child Welfare Policies – Ranae Hanson. This item will be taken up in March.
7. Communications and Announcements
A letter thanking us for our contribution was received from the Division of Indian Work. See attached.
White Privilege conference: Liz Oppenheimer is looking for 60 Friends from around the country to attend. The question was raised whether our meetinghouse could be used for people to spend the night during the conference. The dates are April 13-16. Location is at the Bloomington-Sheraton near the Mall of America.
Friends closed meeting for worship with attention to business with a brief period of silent worship.
ATTACHMENTS (Not included in online version)
Ministry and Counsel report for February
FNVW Holiday Fair report
Property Committee report
2010-2011 Third Quarter Report
First Presentation of Budget for 2011-2012
Letter from Northern Yearly Meeting
Letter from FGC
Nominating Committee report
Letter from Division of Indian Work