Minneapolis Friends Meeting

Minutes of Monthly Meeting for Business

May 12, 2019

[ names and some content have been edited for publishing on the web]

Presiding clerk- John K, Recording clerk – Tom W

1. Silent Worship
2. Approve Agenda – APPROVED with additions
3. April 14, 2019 Minutes – APPROVED with corrections
4.  Ministry and Counsel (M&C) Report – Heidi F:  M&C reviewed the May 4^th Listening Session and will present a more detailed report at next month’s meeting for business.  M&C has prepared a handout, attached to today’s bulletin, suggesting some of the ways meeting members and attenders can reach out to one another in care and in ministry.  A digital copy of this handout will be made available.  Since today is Mother’s Day, they want to extend a message of support to all mothers.  M&C received a request from Child Welfare Committee to discuss how Meeting can provide a safe environment for all children from outside intruders.  This will be brought to Monthly Meeting for consideration. In a related safety concern, Presiding Clerk mentioned that MFM, in collaboration with Mayim Rabim, is considering an ad hoc committee to review overall risks and hazards to the building and our worship communities and to improve our safety awareness. One example, which has been suggested for consideration, is to keep one of the two doors into the building locked during services. Clerk asked for some volunteers who would be interested in participating in the process.  Discussion:  Friend asked if this concern is partly due to our relationship with Mayim Rabim and some of the recent religious violence in synagogues in our country and the world.  Presiding Clerk: Child Welfare Committee is updating their procedures and plans and they are requesting Monthly Meeting involvement.  Our insurance providers want our plans to be up-to-date on this and other issues, such as fire safety, etc. Friends shared some security concerns they have experienced while at the meeting house – mostly involving outside doors not being closed or secured. Another Friend suggested an additional bullet point on M&C’s list for pastoral care – reaching out to individuals who have been involved with meeting but have stopped attending.  Jim L. volunteered to be on the ad hoc committee.
5. Reports
   1. Liaison and Review (L&R) – Jeanette R.:   In March, L&R did a performance review of the Interim Meeting Coordinator.  Also, L&R provided guidance to the nursery committee as they developed a job description for paid staff in the nursery.    These were just two of the tasks the committee completed this year. [See Attachment 2 for the full report] Liaison and Review brought forward a concern to monthly meeting.  This comes out of conversations with the interim meeting coordinator over the course of the year and from other Friends who are doing the work of the meeting.  Frequently it is hard to know if phone or email requests to committee contacts are responded to.  For example, the Interim Meeting coordinator does not know if a forwarded request have gotten a response from the Meeting.  Jeannette suggested that the meeting should have a discussion on the root cause of this before trying to resolve it.  The Presiding Clerk reflected that this had been discussed at the committee clerk’s meeting. He encouraged people to send him their ideas to improve communications and to ensure we close the loop when responding to requests for service.  He stated the importance of clerks notifying Carolyn when they have addressed concerns forwarded to their committee.  Discussion:  Presiding Clerk: At the special meeting last Saturday there was discussion about dropping the “interim” title and making the meeting coordinator position permanent.  A Friend questioned if just dropping “interim” from the position title would adequately address concerns that the Meeting or L&R still have.  Presiding Clerk: there is still need for additional input on the meeting coordinator position.  Friends APPROVED dropping the term “interim” from the Meeting Coordinator position title.
   2. Child Welfare Update – Rae B C:     The committee is undergoing a process to update its forms.  Our insurance provider, Mutual Insurance Company and Friends General Conference are concerned with our process of clearing people to work with children.  Presently, candidates meet with a clearness committee and, after being screened by the Bureau of Criminal Affairs, they are cleared to work with children.  However, there are many individuals who received clearance in the 1990’s and have not worked with children, at all; and there are individuals appearing on lists saying they have been cleared, but there is no documentation. And there are some who are working with children, but for whom there is no documentation or listing of being cleared.  The committee will be sending out a letter to many in Meeting asking about their interest in working, or continuing to work, with children; and everyone will have to undergo child welfare training – which is supposed to occur every year. The last training was quite a while ago. Those with incomplete documentation will be asked to complete whatever steps are missing, including redoing a background check. The committee will be following-up with everyone involved with our children.  Discussion: Friend spoke in favor of Meeting having an abundance of individuals cleared to work with children, even if they are not active or interested in teaching. People are needed to help in the nursery, do childcare, chaperone teenagers, and help out in youth programs for both Northern Yearly Meeting and for Friends General Conference.  Another Friend asked us to raise our concern to more than just the physical safety of children – to consider safety in broader terms – involving culture, race and class diversity. They would like a question added to the clearness process that addresses a candidate’s background and their exposure to cultural and diversity concerns.
   3. Social Committee – Volunteers for Summer Schedule Snacks – Rae B C:   Meeting begins the summer schedule for worship on May 26. There are twenty-four slots we need people to sign up to provide simple treats for the social time following worship – three per each social time.  In the past we have outdone ourselves. It does not have to be a big deal.  It is nice to have coffee and a couple treats – with one of them being gluten-free. Nancy H. will call to remind people when it is their turn.  Discussion:  How many people do we serve each Sunday? Plan on enough servings for 50-60 people, divided by three.  Three people cover each Sunday. There will be compostable coffee cups and napkins for minimal cleanup – no plates. Question was raised about social or cultural insensitivity when we ask people to contribute who might be unable or cannot afford to contribute.  Could the Meeting provide funds to purchase the food items?  Presiding Clerk asked if this discussion could be continued at another time, since today’s agenda is full.
   4. Quaker Volunteer Service (QVS) Fundraiser – Tom W:    QVS wants to celebrate the completion of their first year in the Twin Cities with a fundraising contra dance on Saturday June 1, 7-9 PM, here at the meeting house with music by R Fox’s Band.  Since a dance does cause some wear and tear on the floor, monthly meeting approval is needed.  Friends APPROVED having the QVS contra dance here on June 1, 2019.
   5. Nursery Committee – Nursery Staff Job Description – Stefanie S: The committee is drafting a job description and is asking for the Meetings input. The description is similar to ones used in previous years with the addition of identifying an age range (0-5), but possibly increasing the range during the summer.  One of the paid staff has to be over 18 years of age and they need CPR training that includes children and infants. The hours cover worship on Sundays with the possibility of additional times in the week, for special coverage when needed.  Discussion: Since one of the two adults has to be over 18 years of age, could the paid positon be the one who is less than 18?  That is possible.  Some of the older teenagers are very mature.  There would need to be a volunteer older than 18 if that were the case.  Is there something about working with diverse populations in the job description?  Yes.   Will someone from Nursery Committee directly oversee the first few times the new person works?  Yes, they will oversee the first few shifts.  The committee provides supervision of the nursery staff with the committee members dividing up the year.  Are we in compliance with Minneapolis livable wage requirements?  Yes, although we are not bound by minimum requirements.  L&R agrees that the hourly wage needs to be at least $15/hour but the position should work less than 20 hours/month.  The next step is to finish writing the position description and to post it.  They are working with the appropriate resources in Meeting to finalize the description.  Friends APPROVED the Paid Nursery Staff Job Description – as described.
   6. Religious Education – Lara M:   At the listening session a request was made to move First Day school from 11:15, which coincides with semi-programmed worship, to 10:15, during the mid-morning program time.  There are many benefits to this and it was the main issue discussed during the listening session.  Discussion: What is the timeline for doing this?  Ideally, next year.  That would give us time over the summer to discuss it further.  Presiding Clerk: this will have to be approved by monthly meeting for business.  Friend: would child care be considered as part of the proposal?  It could be. Presiding Clerk: the report from the Nursery Committee included such possibilities. Religious Education Committee and Nursery should work this out.
6. Old Business 
   1. State of Society of the Meeting Report –    Clerk read report. [See Attachments for final version with today’s edits]  Northern Yearly Meeting has asked us to present the report with a song.  There seems to be agreement that the “Garden Song”  (“inch by inch…”)  would well represent us.  Clerk asked for edits and comments to be emailed to him.  Discussion:  Suggestions were made to include remarks on the good attendance at worship and at monthly meeting for business. Another request was to mention our strong relationship with Mayim Rabim and other faith communities.  Friend suggested dropping the final sentence referencing “bumping into our limitations” – which does not add to the report. Friend asked for a rephrasing of the wording “style of worship”. Worship is not a style. It was suggested that “manner” or “mode” would be more appropriate.  There was a request to include something about the G Watson book group and the movies that Peace and Social Concerns has been sponsoring.  Friends APPROVED the State of Society Report with the additions from today.
7. New Business
   1. Visioning Session Proposal – Judith J:   Judith referenced the transition period MFM has experienced in the last couple years and believes all organizations experience transition.  Transitions are a positive experience, not negative.  Her view has been strongly influenced by a book by Edgar Villeneuve that views native medicine as creating transition – that transition is medicine.  Let’s see the changes we have experienced in our recent transition as medicine for us.  Judith asks us to consider having a visioning session in the fall that focuses on the possibility of designing an exercise to explore not what is, but to grow something new. What would it be like if we felt inspired to come to meeting every week?  Not what “IS”, but what “IF”! An example of this “what if” thinking would be deciding to give M&C a phone to be carried by someone on-call.  Let’s see what we have for a vision of the Meeting.  Let imagination run wild.  We could use visual representations, creative drawings, to help the process along.  No restraints.  People could do this in teams.  What could Meeting look like? What could excite us? Engage new attendees – not just the old timers.  It is not about dwelling on the past.  We need everyone’s input.  Discussion:  Friend said they like the idea.  The Meeting is more stable now and this would be a good time to consider moving the Meeting forward. This could re-energize us and help us know where we really want to go. We have a mission statement but not the structure to bring it about.  Another Friend asked that the Meeting’s children be part of the process.   Clerk asked if the Meeting wanted to move forward on this idea.  Meeting APPROVED having a visioning session such as Judith has proposed.  
   2. Peace and Social Concerns Committee: Recipients for voluntary carbon tax – Roland:   P&SC is suggesting two candidates to receive the Meeting’s voluntary carbon tax contribution:  (1) the Land Stewardship Project and (2) the Pipe Line 3 Project.  Each project would receive $500.  The Land Stewardship Project supports sustainable farming, has been around since the 80’s, and they work with organizations to provide sustainable agriculture while maximizing soil carbon sequestration.  Discussion: Friend spoke in support of the Land Stewardship Project, saying they have been a long-time member of the project and the project does much to bridge the urban/rural divide on sustainable agriculture.  Another Friend proposed all the funds be allotted to Pipe Line 3, but withdrew their objection when a Friend suggested the importance of Monthly Meeting being in support of the committee’s recommendation.  Meeting APPROVED having the Land Stewardship Project and the Pipe Line 3 Project receive this year’s voluntary carbon tax contribution.
8. Correspondence: 
   1. Thank you letters were received, acknowledging our contributions, from Friends Committee on National Legislation, Friends World Committee for Consultation, American Friends Service Committee, and the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition
   2. Notice was received from Cannon Valley Friends Meeting in Northfield of the membership transfer of Sharon and Betsy L G
9. Meeting brought to a close at 11:15
10. 11:15 AM Worship

 

ATTACHMENT 1:

Minneapolis Friends Monthly Meeting

State of Society

2018 – 2019

Minneapolis Friends Meeting continues to be in transition since the retirement of our Director of Ministry after over 39 years of service to the Meeting. We are working hard together to discern our ongoing structure and process. However, during this time many members and our committees have stepped in to fill the considerable gap left by the change. We have been focusing on strengthening and maintaining consistent and spirit led pastoral care for our community, ongoing religious education for our children and for adults, and a vibrant and deep worship environment. We are nourished and feel the joy of working together to support each other and our Meeting.

As a community we have had to endure and support each other through the loss of some of our longest standing Elders due to death or reduced capacity.

However, we have also been blessed with several new attenders and members, many who come from other meetings, who have contributed new spiritual energy and fresh ideas to our community. Newer families have also blessed us with a vibrant and well attended First Day school after several years of lower numbers of young people. We are grateful to the dedicated Friends who work with our young people every week. Our religious education program also includes a very well attended Mid-Morning program on most First Days where we’ve learned about each other, Quaker history and practice, and Quaker activities in the wider world.

We are very excited and enriched by the new Quaker Voluntary Service house recently opened in the Twin Cities. The development and initiation of the program has offered an opportunity for our area meetings to work together in building something wonderful for our community and for the young people who come to live in community do good work.

Earlier this year we hosted Paul Buckley who spent the weekend ministering to us and sharing about his book Primitive Quakerism Revived and his translation of William Penn’s Primitive Christianity Revived. Over a weekend Friends from our area and even as far away as Milwaukee spent time learning together and sharing deeply about our own faith and experiences in Quaker meeting. This was an opportunity to grow and deepen as a faith community. We are very thankful to Paul and to the folks who planned and realized the weekend.

Several Experiment with Light groups have been meeting regularly over the past couple of years. This practice has been growing in our Meeting and has served to deepen the sense of the Light for our whole meeting, not just those who are participating directly. This, along with our Mid-Morning Programs covering discernment, vocal ministry, the “Four Doors to Meeting for Worship” and other topics have served to strengthen our individual spirits and our worship community.

Our Meetings for Worship and Meetings for Worship With Attention To Business have been well attended and nourishing. We continue to hold both Unprogrammed and Semi Programmed (with music and a planned speaker from our community) meetings. During the summer we hold one meeting each First Day alternating between the manners of worship. It is good to have us all together during these months. We are continuing to strengthen the ties of our community through our monthly potlucks, Friendly Meals, book groups, Peace and Social Concerns movie nights, our fall get together, and other community events.

We continue to bring the Light of the loving God into the world as a community and as individuals through our service to the earth, our focus on peace and justice, involvement in Quaker and other service organizations, partnerships with Mayim Rabim and other faith communities, and through our loving care of each other and those we come in contact with.

Looking forward, many of the challenges we face remain the same as if we glance back: welcoming new-comers, particularly young adults and young families; integrating new attenders into the life of the Meeting; nurturing and encouraging spiritual growth and understanding of Quaker faith and practice; cultivating a new generation of leadership; supporting and maintaining a vital program for youth; responsible stewardship and care of the meetinghouse.

 

ATTACHMENT 2:

2019 Annual Report from Liaison and Review 

1. Charge  Liaison and Review serves as liaison between MFM and meeting staff, conducts annual performance reviews of the Interim Meeting Coordinator, reports annually to monthly meeting and makes salary recommendations to Stewardship Committee. This committee also provides oversight of general personnel. The Presiding Clerk is an ex officio member. In the past, the Clerk of Ministry and Council served as an additional ex officio member.  This was discontinued (with the approval of MM) as L and R currently does not work with a ministry staff.
2. Main Points of Work
   1. Supervision of Interim Meeting Coordinator
      1. Regular supervision meetings with Interim Meeting Coordinator (MC)
      2. MC and L & R Committee have worked to clarify, refine and address differing expectations of the role of the Interim Meeting Coordinator.  These discussions have been in response to questions from meeting members, the Clerk and from MC.
      3. Identified on-call building openers and closers for Sunday mornings when MC needs to be away or becomes ill.
      4. Facilitated communications as needed.
   2. In March 2019, we conducted a performance review.
   3. Administration L & R
      1. Updated the interim coordinator position description
      2. Provided offer letters with dates and rates of pay
      3. Coordinated with Stewardship and Finance Committee to ensure approved pay rates
      4. Completed the W-9 form
      5. Consolidated committee records and destroyed performance reviews
      6. Provided past nursey worker position description to the nursery committee
   4. Oversight of Sabbatical Funds to Support Transition for former Director of Ministry
      1. In August, monthly meeting approved an L & R proposal to extend the use of these funds through March 30, 2020
      2. This fund started with $10,000
      3. L and R identified three phases of the transition
         1. Separating from the meeting (June 2017 – October 2017)
         2. Being away from the meeting (October 2017- August 2018)
         3. Reengaging with the meeting. (In process)
      4. G M is serving as the point of communication for requests for use of the funds To date $1395.17  have been spent.
   5. Upcoming points of attention
      1. The Interim meeting coordinator position is extended through September 2019.  L and R is waiting for direction from Monthly Meeting to determine the future of the position and the position description.  This will include clarifying the extent of the coordination role.
      2. Wrap up administration of sabbatical/transition funds.
   6. Concerns elevated Liaison and Review would like to bring a concern about a pattern with communications in the Meeting that came up numerous times over the course of the year.  Often, there is little or no response to phone or e-mail requests. And it can be hard to know if committees are following-up on meeting communications that are forwarded to them. Before jumping to solutions, we believe it would be good to have a discussion on the root causes of this pattern.
   7.   Experience of Spirit Led Decision Making Liaison and Review at most times opens and closes our meetings with a short period of silent worship.  We strive to seek solutions that arise with guidance from the Spirit.  We practice deep listening and appreciative inquiry to identify the issues that underlie day-to-day experiences. Our approach reflects our Quaker values of equality, integrity and community.  We operate with a commitment to candor with kindness. We hope to provide fair and integrity-filled supervision by coaching and guiding rather than dictating solutions.

 

All this emerges from the belief that the Spirit is among us and can provide guidance to anything coming towards us.