Monthly Meeting for Business
Minneapolis Friends Meeting
March 10, 2024

[Names and some content has been edited for publication on the web]

 In Attendance:  Stephen S. – presiding clerk, Tom W.– recording clerk,  25 people in person and 25 on Zoom

1. Silent Worship
2. Agenda APPROVED
3. Minutes of February 11, 2024 Monthly Meeting for Business—APPROVED
4. Liaison and Review (L&R) Annual Report—Rae Beth    Liaison and Review is the link between MFM and meeting staff. They conduct annual performance reviews of the Meeting Coordinator, make reports annually to Monthly Meeting and make salary recommendations to Stewardship Committee. They had regular supervisory meetings with the Meeting Coordinator and completed a performance review in January. Some accomplishments this year include using Mail Chimp for the weekly Sunday bulletin, archiving a set of monthly meeting minutes with the help of Ellen S., and updating and refreshing the design of the weekly bulletin. Goals for 2024-25 include reviewing the process for updating the member and attender directory and reviewing / cleaning up Meeting files and materials. In coordination with Stewardship, a time-card approval process has been implemented. There is a new state law that dictates that for every 30 hours a qualifying employee works they will receive one hour of ESST (Earned Sick and Safe Time). This will be retroactive to January 1, 2024. L&R has recommended to Stewardship that the Meeting Coordinator receive a 4.5% cost of living increase. They have also notified the clerks of committees that oversee additional paid staff in the Meeting that those committees should make their own recommendations regarding salary increases and forward those recommendations to Stewardship Committee. Discussion: Friend inquired how long Carolyn has been working as staff in the office. It is believed to be around 25 years, but Rae Beth will check on this so we can celebrate Carolyn’s years of service to Meeting.  Friends accepted the report.
5. Request to Approve the 2024-25 Meeting Budget—Stewardship and Finance Committee, Mike F. Before approving the proposed budget, business meeting was asked to consider some additions to the budget – three new line items proposed by Peace and Social Concerns (P&SC), a few increases recommended by Property Committee, and an increase to our donation to Friends for a Non-violent World. In addition, since presenting a preliminary budget request last month, Stewardship and Finance wants to add $4,000 in new spending and to increase line items in our current budget by $5,000.  Our building insurance has gone up a lot. Meeting should commit to paying $2,400 annually to service the loan for the solar panel project to cover the project in case the $23,000 cost is not paid down sooner. The solar panels should be installed this year, which should reduce our electricity bill for the year.This elicited considerable discussion about the budget and the new requests.  Clerk of Trustees noted that the budget did not include $1,000 for the Travel Fund, which had been approved, previously. Presiding Clerk confirmed this action by Meeting. Peace and Social Concerns detailed the three new line-item requests they were making – $1,000 each to East Phillips Community, to Buffalo Star People and to Jonathan House. These organizations were recipients of the Winter Gift, and Meeting has welcomed presentations by speakers from each organization this past year. Numerous Friends expanded on the need and worth of all three organizations. David D., clerk of property committee, explained that an additional $300 was needed to clean the carpet in the hallway and balcony – to be added to the $230 already set aside for carpet cleaning – and an additional $200 is requested to service the sewer clean-out in the FNVW storage closet downstairs.
   • General Discussion: Friend rose to say they could not approve the budget as it has been presented, today. More discussion is needed on the P&SC requests. How do we decide what items are to be included in the budget?  There needs to be a bigger discussion. We are throwing too many things into the pile. There are missing items. What about the shortfall in income? What is the projected income? Unless there are answers to these questions, the budget should not be approved …  Friend asked about our current guidelines for donations. We used to set aside 10% of the budget for donations. She is uncomfortable just adding more organizations to our donations list and would rather give to the organizations we are already affiliated with. We should not overburden ourselves with needs outside the Meeting … Another Friend remarked that we are building in a 4.5% increase to salaries and increasing our outlay for insurance. Individuals, contributing to Meeting, should increase their donations, similarly … Friend commented that Stewardship had asked for budget input back in December and now, in mid-March, we are receiving extra requests. Stewardship needs time to season budget requests. There are some expenses we must pay. How much of our budget should go to donations and how much should go to essential operations?
   • Presiding Clerk asked for Meeting’s aid in discerning a way forward. Friend stands against approving the currently proposed budget, although he supports the Property Committee’s requests. Northern Yearly Meeting has requested a 20% increase in their annual donation, which the presiding clerk wants us to postpone. Clerk believes there has been previous approval to put $1,000 toward the Trustee’s Travel Fund, but a Friend questions whether the travel fund had been discussed by monthly meeting and whether the amount had been approved. This prompted additional discussion about the process that Meeting and the Trustees had followed in managing the travel fund. There were additional remarks about how we contribute to organizations in our personal lives, and how important that is. Friend said that a decade ago P&SC was asked to review the organizations Meeting contributed to. They should be included in the review process being assigned to Stewardship and Finance.  Presiding Clerk – there is no sense of agreement on the budget, today.
   • Clerk of Stewardship said that the committee’s charge is to get the budget approved. Can this be done by April 1? Presiding Clerk asked if we could continue our current budget until next month?  Further discussion: John K., a former clerk of Stewardship, believes we need to consider our expenses in relation to our income. In addition, if we have committed to increasing salaries in April, he supports making the increases effective on April 1. Rae Beth clarified that Liaison and Review had informed the other committees overseeing meeting staff that Carolyn was receiving a 4.5% increase, but that this increase did not apply to all the other paid staff … Friend thought that additional discussion about pay increases and the budget should be referred to Stewardship and reported back in April and that any salary increases, commencing with budget approval, should be made retroactive to April 1, 2024. Presiding Clerk asked for approval to send the budget back to Stewardship and Finance and to have it presented, again, at next monthly meeting, with any salary increases being retroactive to April 1st.  Friends APPROVED.
6. Distribution of our financial contributions – Marilyn J.  Marilyn has reviewed the contributions made to Meeting last year and has created some graphics breaking down the pattern of giving. The mean yearly contribution was $1,432 –  half of the annual contributions were higher than $1,000 and half were lower than $1,000, with a range of $20 – $7,100. The nearly $89,000 received includes both regular donations and the winter gift.  8 households contributed more than $3,000. 26 households gave $1,000 -$3,000 (48% of the income). 28 households gave between $20 and $1,000. There is some concern that 42% of our income comes from just 8 households.  Discussion: could this information be shared electronically with everyone?  It will be attached to the bulletin next week and it will be sent out to the Google group.
7. Nominating Committee Update—Carolyn V.    Appreciation and thanks are given to all who served on committees this past year and to those who will serve in the coming year. Nominating committee is asking for another month to finalize assignments before seeking approval at April’s monthly meeting. There are still a number of unfilled roles and the committee is sensitive to the fact that some people have been serving in their positions for a long time, and there is a desire to have different people share in these responsibilities.   Carolyn spoke about the positive relationships that develop through committee involvement and that committee membership is a formal way to strengthen ties within the meeting community. She will be stepping down from Nominating once their work is finished for this year, which should be by next month. The presiding clerk is responsible for selecting nominees for Nominating Committee.  Those nominations are: (2025) Betsy S. and John S., (2026) Connie A. and Bill H. (clerk), (2027) Elizabeth S. and Clifford G.
8. Building Use Request from SWAE (Southwest Alliance for Equity) in Linden Hills —Roger M.  On June 23 the Southwest Alliance for Equity (SWAE) in Linden Hills is asking to use the meeting house for a fundraising event for EPNI, the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute.  Since we do not usually rent the building for fundraising, we are being asked to co-sponsor the event and to waive the rental costs. This is an afternoon event with a 2- or 3-piece live band, a planned speaker, explanation of what SWAE is doing, no food and no alcohol. Friend referenced Meeting’s policy that such a request must be made by a member, who will be present during the event and will take on all responsibilities around hosting the group. Roger M. says he is the one bringing the request, will be the responsible party and will be present. The Trustees have reviewed the request and monthly meeting does not have to approve.  Meeting is being asked to co-sponsor the event and to waive the rental fee. Friends were in Agreement with co-sponsoring the event and waiving the rental fee.
9. Communications and announcements-Clerk   None reported
10. Worship sharing for state of society report–Clerk   There was no time to consider this
    Query from Northern Yearly Meeting:  “What hopes or fears do you have for the future of your monthly meeting?”
11. Closing Silent Worship