1.Approval of Agenda—Clerk

The Clerk shared the proposed agenda. The agenda was approved.

2. Approval of Minutes of December 10, 2023

The draft minutes for the December Monthly Meeting were circulated in advance of meeting for business.

The clerk asked if there were any changes to the minutes. No changes were proposed.
The December 10th minutes were approved as distributed.

3. Ministry and Counsel Committee Report

The Ministry and Counsel Committee of Minneapolis Friends Meeting provides care, nurture and support of the meeting as a whole including the meetings for worship and the spiritual well-being of the meeting community.

• M and C will be offering two upcoming mid-morning programs, one on history of Quakers and a second on Quaker norms spoken and unspoken.
• M and C is working with the Conflict Soirée group to utilize two mid-morning program slots for sessions on how the meeting deals with conflict. When conflict is encountered, a healthy community brings things out in the open. The focus of the first session will be on the tension between social justice and contemplative needs within the Meeting. M&C acknowledges these sessions will take strong facilitation skills and believes the Conflict Soirée group has such facilitators within it.
• M and C proposed a plan to move forward on this topic and there will be a presentation this later in this meeting.
• As part of a meeting member’s work with the Buffalo Star People nonprofit, two of the group’s leaders will be coming to share their work and lived-experience with the Meeting on January 28.
• M and C has revised the planned speaker and closer instructions. As we welcome children and families into meeting for worship, there will be no announcements so that we can shorten the closing time for worship. Friends are asked to get announcements into the bulletin by ensuring they reach the office e-mail by noon on Friday.
  

  4. FNVW Holiday Fair Report

  The fair had a very good financial year. This was attributed to good weather, increased book prices, and some new donations of books.

In addition,

• The MN Friends School is getting to be known as the host of the Holiday Fair. More people from the neighborhood attended this year.
• The organizing crew made adjustments for the food production and sales.
• The impacts of COVID are waning.
• There were more crafts and fewer vendors.
• The Holiday Fair will be held again next year at the Friends School. A consequence of the change in venue has meant that less storage space is being utilized in our meeting house. There is a basement closet near the women’s restroom that is no longer dedicated to the craft fair.

 

FNVW thanked the meeting for its participation.

5. Request to use the meeting house for a twelve-step program

There has been a request to use the meeting house two mornings a month for a 12-step group. This is an opportunity for us to support a community service. The group will be held in the conference room.

Discussion: A member asked if this would put extra burden on the meeting coordinator? Will she have to open the meeting house or shovel walks? One of the group’s members can open and close the meeting house. The group will have to deal with walks on their own.

A Friend expressed some concern over liability. The meeting was reminded that we hold liability insurance.

Another Friend asked that the rental cost be reasonable. Trustees is asking the group to continue the rental rate that they paid for the previous venue – also a church.

Decision: The meeting approved this use of the meeting house.

6. Report from the Ad Hoc Accessibility committee

The Ad Hoc Accessibility committee sought approval for its charge.

Proposed Charge:
The Ad Hoc Committee on Accessibility will recommend updates to Meeting standards, procedures, and resources to encourage and support full participation in MFM activities by people with disabilities.

Specifically, the Ad Hoc Committee will:

• Draft, gain approval for, and publish an Accessibility Statement on the front of the MFM
  Website
• Draft, gain approval for, and publish Accessibility Guidelines to be used by MFM and MFM Committees in their work supporting the meeting.
• Curate and publish a group of support and training resources to be used by the Meeting in creating an Accessible experience for Meeting activities, information, and communication.
• Propose an ongoing support for Accessibility in the Meeting, which may include a standing committee, a regular review and maintenance cycle for the above items, and a standing operating budget line item.

The committee charge has very specific deliverables – and will consider the need for a standing committee. This committee will bring a recommendation as part of their work. There is precedent for committees to move from ad hoc to permanent.

It was suggested that in the future it would be good to have a charge approved before starting a new ad hoc committee.

Decision: The meeting approved the proposed charge.

7. Nominations

One responsibility of the presiding clerk is to make appointments to the nominating committee. A meeting member has agreed to start a term immediately as well as the serve on the 2024-25 panel of the nominating committee.

Decision: The meeting approved this nomination.

8. Buffalo Star People- Presentation and update

A meeting member and his support committee brought a request that the Meeting establish a designated fund where donations could be collected and then distributed to Buffalo Star People.

The rationale behind the proposal is that people are familiar with giving money to the meeting. Donations to this effort would be received as a collective gift from the meeting by Buffalo Star People.

The mission of Buffalo Star People is to provide strategic, transformational, education and other initiatives to promote healing and cultural life-ways to the Ochethi Sakowin that are physically, spiritually, emotionally and ecologically healthy. They hope to empower the people of the Lakota family by their examples and by providing training, group therapy, and other learning opportunities that help people love each other. This is a large undertaking that will require generations of effort.

• A question was raised about the designated fund – Is this time limited or ongoing? This would be time limited, although a sunset date has not been determined.
• Questions were raised about the receipt, accounting and distribution of the fund. This would put more pressure on an already stretched small group of people that handle meeting funds. It would demand that special procedures be established and followed.
• A question was raised about the wisdom of a pass-through fund, where money would be given to the meeting and then passed through to another organization. Could meeting members simply give individually?
• The organization is tax exempt – it is a 501 C 3 – this is not an attempt to get charitable donation to a for-profit venture.
• Another Friend wondered about the establishment of this proposed fund and the meetings’ efforts to be equally supportive of all concerns.

The request was withdrawn. Contributions can be done online and by mail directly to Buffalo Star People.

Further Discussion:

• The meeting was reminded that not very long ago, in response to a request from the Welcoming and Outreach committee, we supported a Quaker podcast through a designated fund.
• A Friend reflected that we are stretched to the limit of our accounting capabilities. Designated funds, short or long term, add additional accounting responsibilities.
• Can Friends note that they are a member of the meeting when making a donation to Buffalo Star People? Yes, this is possible if a check is mailed, or through leaving a comment when donating on-line.
• A member of the support team, expressed support for a designated fund. These efforts are part of Minneapolis Friends Meeting’s ministry.
• Other ideas arose: Could this group be included in the meeting’s annual peace and social concerns contributions? Could we give a short-term contribution as a meeting? What does corporate witness mean? When is something an individual witness and when is it a corporate witness? How do we discern that?

To consider these questions and possible other approaches, the Clerk reflected that Monthly Meeting needs a seasoned proposal to consider. As the request was withdrawn, there was no need for further discussion at this Monthly Meeting.

9. Conflict Soirée proposed spring program

A small group has been convened to explore how the meeting deals with conflict. People in the meeting tend to be a bit nervous about the word conflict.

The Conflict Soirée is proposing to hold initial discussions around the tension the meeting experiences around social action and contemplation. Some come to meeting to retreat from the world, others come to meeting to strengthen their witness to the world.

What the Conflict Soirée has discerned is that people are on a continuum between these two reasons for participating in a Friends meeting. The Conflict Soirée reflected in their discussion that this tension is dynamic. They are proposing a series of conversations to help make this tension specific and broaden the meeting’s understanding of this tension. It is always a great idea for the meeting to get together and to talk about challenging subjects.

All would be invited and encouraged to come.

Members spoke in support of this. There was a discomfort with the word “contemplation”. We need to be careful with how we frame issues. There was also a concern about framing these contrasting interests as a conflict. We have different ways of describing things and different words may trigger things for various people.

The Clerk reflected that it seems like there is interest in moving forward with these discussions.

10. Communications:

Meeting received a letter from a refugee who participated in the Mid-Morning Program
on problems facing refugees in Minneapolis. “To you my Friends – thank you for the gift of Friends and stillness – support for family – prayer. Hope for joy and brighter year ahead.”

The Clerk thanked for all who are participating in Monthly Meeting on this cold winter day.