MFM Monthly Meeting for Business Minutes

March 12, 2017

9:00 am           Meeting for Worship

9:45 am           Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business

Attendance: David Woolley—presiding clerk, Thomas Ward—recording clerk, Pat Jones—Director of Ministry

1. Gathering Worship
2. Minutes from February 12, 2017 were APPROVED
3. Reports
   1. Director of Ministry—Pat Jones   Pat began her remarks with a quote from Mary Pennington. Pat identified a membership task that would benefit from some volunteer help – updating the meeting’s membership records. Membership record sheets were distributed for people to complete if they have not done so previously. On March 26, at 12:30 PM David Woolley will lead a clerks’ meeting, for all new and continuing clerks of committees.    Online, FGC has posted information and a sign-up for the 2017 Gathering workshops. A lot of members / attenders from Minneapolis Meeting attended the Gathering last summer in St Joseph, MN.  Discussion: Where are the Meeting’s membership records kept?   They are kept in three notebooks.  One, for active members. Another, for inactive members.  And a third, for released Friends (by death, transfer, or termination of membership).  There may be a different system for record keeping in the future, but for now, we are retaining the paper records.  The membership information in the notebooks goes back to the 1950s. The records are turned over to the Minnesota Historical Society when it is no longer practical to store our own records  …  Friend asked us to consider changing the time of the clerk’s meeting on March 26, remarking it is problematic for those who only attend early worship and suggesting it might work to meet during the mid-morning program.   Presiding Clerk will give this some consideration, but there is already a grief workshop planned for that 10:15 AM time on the 26^th.
   2. Ministry and Counsel (M&C) report  –  Carolyn VandenDolder   Two Mid-Morning Sessions that are focused on grief and loss have been scheduled for March 26 and May 7.  They will be led by Ted Bowman, who specializes in grief and loss at University of St Thomas.  M&C encourages as many people as possible to attend these sessions and to hold one another in the Light and to be kind and tender as we go through this process. Discussion:  Friend applauded the choice of Ted Bowman to guide us during the sessions on grief.      The dates for the grief sessions have been confirmed.
   3. Stewardship Committee –  Final Budget Report—Roland Barrett   There has been only one change since he presented the 2017-18 Budget Report last month – a request to increase mid-morning program budget from $30 to $200.  Discussion: Question was asked regarding funding of Quaker Voluntary Service.  Roland affirmed that this in not in the current budget.  Funding for the program was approved during last month’s monthly meeting for business, but it has not yet been determined how the Meeting will fund our portion. He noted that this needs to be resolved by January 2018 …  It was noted that copies of the proposed 2017-18 budget were distributed at last month’s meeting for business.  Copies of the revised budget, showing the increase in funding to the mid-morning program, were not made for today’s meeting. [See attachments for the final version of the budget.]   Friends APPROVED the budget for 2017-18.        Roland reported on our current financial year, which ends March 31, 2017. As of week 49, we have collected $98,036 of our total budget of $111,519 – leaving us short $13,473. While we have a shortfall, the amount is similar to previous years at this point in time, and we will not be sure of our actual spending until we get to the end of the fiscal year.  Friend observed that there seems to be a lot of positive energy and a sense of engagement in the Meeting right now. Suggestion was made to include this observation in the State of Society Report.
   4. Nominating Committee – Final Report – Gayle McJunkin presented for the Clerk, Mary Snyder –     There is still some work to do.  A few clerks have not been determined yet, and some slots still need to be filled. Nominating wants clerks to discuss with them the need for additional people on their committees, if they are still short. Gayle reported that the Trustees serve 5 year terms. She reviewed some of the designators on the report that indicate whether a clerk has been newly appointed to the position of clerk or if they are continuing on for another year in that role –  (*) if they are continuing as a clerk, (*) if they are newly assigned as clerk.    Two additions were announced for clerk: Elizabeth S. for clerk of Mid-Morning Program Committee and Rae Beth C. for clerk of Social Committee. Names of new committee members were read.  They are still looking for a clerk for Peace and Social Concerns. Liaison and Review will continue to operate, in the near term, as long we still have a director of ministry.  Also, there is no information, right now, on how the Meeting will assign people to work with Quaker Voluntary Service. That information will be forth coming. At this time, new assignments to openings on the Nominating Committee have not been made.  Those individuals are selected by the presiding clerk, not by the committee itself, and selections will be brought before Monthly Meeting by the presiding clerk once the general nominating process has been completed. Discussion:  What is happening to the Four River Planning Group?  Keitha H. reported that Cynthia B., from Twin Cities Friends, said the committee would no longer meet and that it will be replaced by the Quaker Voluntary Service  …   Sandy O reports that Sarah M. has agreed to be on Welcoming Committee.  Sandy asked if Welcoming was now a separate stand-alone committee as the report indicates.   Gayle said she would investigate  …   Friend expressed thanks to the committee for all the hard work they do.  She wanted to draw attention to a concern regarding assignments to nursery committee and whether those selected for the nursery committee, while obvious choices due to their family circumstances, are the very individuals Meeting needs to be supportive of and should not be leaning on to fill child care roles. Ed S. said nursery committee members provide oversight and are not the ones who provide care in the nursery. The same concerns can be made for First Day School teachers.  The Meeting is asked to be mindful of any expectations we may inadvertently place on parents who are asked to be involved in service to our youth and our youngest attenders  …  Sandy O. asks us to explore establishing a liaison between Ministry and Counsel and the Mid-Morning Program  …  Question was raised about why we record the names of the gardeners in the Structure of Service and Ministry report, since those positions are not filled by Nominating and they do not function as a formal committee, nor do they provide yearly reports to Monthly Meeting.   Ed S. said they are included for informational purposes only, so we know who to contact if we have a question.  Friends APPROVED the Structure of Service and Ministry Report for 2017-2018.
4. New Business —
   1. Northern Yearly Meeting (NYM) Representative Pat Jones asked whether the Meeting was clear on how we wanted to select the representative to NYM – does Nominating recommend a nominee to Monthly Meeting or do we just ask for volunteers, as has been done, sometimes, in the past.  Friend questioned the need to revisit the issue since Meeting just approved the list, including the position of NYM representative.  Pat still asked for clarification that Monthly Meeting wants Nominating to be involved in the selection process of NYM representative.  Meeting APPROVED having the process managed by Nominating Committee, and Meeting APPROVED having Bill Hendricks as our representative to NYM.
   2. State of Society Report: Presiding Clerk requested Friends put forth ideas for inclusion in the State of Society Report.  Suggestions included:  Preparation for resignation of director of ministry.  Quaker Voluntary Service.    The Meeting has experienced an influx of new attenders and young people.    First Day School has grown and we have added a junior high middler class.  Underscore our role as sponsor of the Holiday Fair.    Concern with Black Lives matter – and how we mourned the loss of Philado Castile and how his death affected our community.    Also consider other descriptors for the Meeting, reflecting the atmosphere and tenor of the Meeting – descriptive words showing how the spirit moves within our Meeting.    We have had many visitors to Meeting and others becoming active in our community.    Spirit has been reeling in the face of present political realities – social action vs spiritual nurture.  This has been a topic for discussion in M&C.    Include the introduction of the experiment with the light groups and experience with early Friends – 3 groups have been meeting.  This has been an organic process that began with Rex Ambler’s presentation at FGC – need for spiritual grounding.    The Meeting is beginning to grieve over Pat’s impending retirement and, at the same time, there is excitement in the process of finding our way forward.
   3. Presiding Clerk asked for volunteers to help draft the State of Society report, suggesting it would be helpful to have three people to work on the draft and one to edit.  Sandy O. and Barbara Z. agreed to work on the draft and David Woolley will edit it.
   4. Suggestions for Voluntary Carbon Tax donations: Presiding Clerk asked for suggestions as to how the Meeting might allocate the $1450 in our budget that is designated for Voluntary Carbon Donations.  These ideas will go to Peace and Social Concerns for discernment, along with the ideas they already have.  Suggestions:  Address the issue of global warming.  Reach out to others in the community -such as participating in a community solar array.  It needs to be something with a long term impact.  Connect with other organizations that are neighborhood based. Roland B said last year we had $1200 and it was distributed between Interfaith Power and Light, Terry Hokenson’s Earthcare Witness program at the FGC Gathering, a meeting rain garden, Northside Common Gardens, and Honor the Earth. Last year the money went both to internal meeting projects and external community initiatives.  Friend reported that, last year, the meeting gardeners investigated the feasibility of a rain garden and they felt there was no practical way it could be done, so there was no need for the money; and $400 of last year’s carbon tax was not used. Pat suggested that the building doors leak air and need to be fixed.  Also, as we consider replacing the carpeting, we should make responsible choices about the products used.  Since environmentally friendly floor products often cost more, the difference could be covered by the Carbon Tax Fund. Carpet can create an environmental air quality hazard and safe carpeting can be very expensive.  Friend asked us to consider reducing the costs of powering individual homes by supporting single home projects such as windmills, solar power and solar roofs.  Support shared community gardens that have a positive environmental impact and grow goods for those in need. Other ideas: consider reusing materials rather than buying new; consider adding additional insulation in the meeting house attic.  While this is not exactly a carbon tax item, Welcoming and Outreach recognizes there needs to be a better handicap accessible door entrance off of York Ave S.
5. Follow­up Decisions – None  
6. Communications Guidelines for Google Group – Keitha Herron Keitha lead a discussion on the guidelines and instructions for the Meeting Google Group that were presented last month. There is a broad appeal for the opportunities provided by this communication tool. There is a spiritual component.  If you have a leading when you are away from meeting you can tell us about it in a timely fashion. With our two separate meetings for worship, we could more easily reach everyone in the whole Meeting.  There is a business component.  Minutes and agendas might reach more people.  A good example of that is the discussion this morning about the voluntary carbon tax. The discussion might have elicited more ideas and participation from a greater number of Friends if the topic had been discussed beforehand within the Google Group.  The social component would benefit from invitations getting out to everyone in a timely manner. The process is more spontaneous.  The bulletin is issued at the end of the week and is a more complex process. The Google Group is more free-wheeling. It is a two-way street. There is a core group of ~ 20 people right now.  The more people who use it, the better it works. Google Groups can give more complete information than can be sent in the bulletin.  It is easy to use, with guidelines and instructions on the Meeting’s website and in the bulletin.  When you first sign-up with Roland Barrett you can select how you want to manage the reception of messages.  If you don’t want to get messages throughout the day, you can select an abridged daily update or select to receive one email each day with all the notices for that day.  There are other options, such as choosing a time to access your messages.  Friend expressed concern that he is swamped with emails (150-200 a day) and doesn’t want the additional obligation of having to read more notices about committee requests, etc. which would happen if Google Groups becomes the standard for communications between committees and members. Keitha replied that if we are careful indicating in the caption that the communication is “Meeting related”, it is easier to sort through the notifications.  Friend asked for assurance that this is not intended to become the standard for Meeting communications – the only way to access the Meeting. Presiding Clerk replied that it states in the guidelines that participation is voluntary- do it if it appeals to you, or do not. Another Friend replied that there are applications one can use to manage the flood of emails for easier processing and viewing, such as “inbox for Gmail”.  The Office is asking for guidance about how it should manage the bulletin as the Meeting becomes more comfortable using Google Group.  Another concern was raised cautioning us not to establish a divide in the Meeting between an in-crowd of Google Group users and everyone else. It was pointed out that a specific request for assistance made at the close of worship this morning could easily have gone out to everyone via Google Group.  Also, Google Group could become a very effective interim method to communicate pressing issues between members of our community in the absence of the director of ministry when she retires.

In the silence at the close of meeting for business we were asked to hold in the Light the transition process our Meeting is undergoing.

The transition committee is meeting for the first time this week.

7.  Transition to 11:15 Meeting for Worship

Attachments: