These minutes have been edited for posting on the web pages.  There were 31 attenders in person with 15 on Zoom. Presiding Clerk Stephen S, Recording Clerk Jeannette R.

Meeting for Worship with attention to business opened with a period of silent worship and a reading of the Land Acknowledgement.

A Friend of Dakota heritage and a member of Nashville Friends Meeting reminded us that the land that the meeting house stands on was historically Dakota land – not Anishinaabe. There was a suggestion that we change the acknowledgement to reflect this along with a reference to the Anishinaabe relatives to the north.

1.      Approval of Agenda—Clerk

The Clerk presented the proposed agenda, which was approved.

2.       Approval of Minutes of September 14, 2025- Clerk

The draft September 14, 2025, Monthly Meeting minutes were circulated in advance of meeting for business. Changes reflecting comments before this meeting have been made.

September 14, 2025, minutes were approved.

3.      Welcoming and Outreach Annual Report

The committee clerk reported on the committee’s membership including a significant departure.

Welcoming and Outreach is often the face of the meeting. Our smiles welcome each visitor and new attender in many ways, helping them find a place among us. We plan activities for the Meeting by creating opportunities for connection and fellowship. We are also the smiling face of the Meeting as we reach out to the wider community, promoting our Meeting and making connections.

Our Charge

The Welcoming and Outreach Committee creates and maintains a welcoming atmosphere on Sunday Mornings. Greeters at the 44th Street door welcome new and old attenders to every worship service. It includes acknowledging visitors and new attenders and helping them feel welcome and included in various ways.

We plan events where new and old attenders can get to know each other. Each year we plan midmorning programs that revolve around welcoming issues, including a special celebration in the spring to officially welcome new members. We strive to develop new ideas and flexible programs as we adapt to the changing needs of the Meeting.

Our goal is to plan and implement outreach efforts to reach those in the wider community by increasing the visibility of the Meeting and making it approachable.

Accomplishments

• We greeted all and welcomed new visitors at the York Avenue door for every worship service.
• We welcomed visitors who signed the guestbook with personal notes or emails. This often includes follow-up correspondence and/or face-to-face conversations to provide additional information or answer questions.
• We met several new attenders for coffee or lunch so we could get to know each other.
• We hosted a Newcomer Dinner to welcome new attenders. Delicious food and lively conversation made this a memorable evening, held at Becketwood.
• We hosted the ever-popular annual Ice Cream social.
• We prepared materials for outreach at community events
• The muffin fundraiser has become an annual event.
• We staffed information booths at community events, answering questions about the Meeting
• We organized volunteer security for Mayim Rabim during special services as needed.
• We organized refreshments for several events.
• We continue to maintain the bulletin board with photos representing This provides a lively photo documentation of many Meeting happenings. (Look for new photos soon)
• We planned three mid-morning programs, two presented, including the one we all look forward to in the spring to welcome new members.
• We planned and hosted a Stone Soup Simple Meal as a fellowship event, drawing attention to Right Sharing of World Resources.

 

The LGBTQ+ group began under the care of Welcoming and Outreach. That group has been welcoming LGBTQ+ individuals of all identities (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer). The “plus” explicitly includes those who are asexual, aromantic, agender, or intersex. The group now meets monthly, on the third Wednesday of each month. The group is currently under the care of the Peace and Social Concerns Committee, because as the group developed, it was apparent that some of their actions were political in nature.

Challenges

1. The health of many of the committee members continues to be a challenge. The physical capabilities of most committee members are limited, especially with things like setting up tables and chairs for events. One way we have dealt with this is by depending on non-committee members to help. Special thanks to were given to three individuals.
2. Contacting people to serve as greeters and welcomers and then getting them to agree to commit is certainly an ongoing challenge.
3. Our biggest challenge is wanting to do more than we can . Because of the reduced size of the committee and the health issues of our committee members, we need to be very selective about what we can do, especially when taking on new projects.

 

Upcoming Points of Attention

Our goal is welcoming that goes beyond the basics, known as deep hospitality or radical welcoming, to make our community more fully inclusive and equitable. One way we are doing this is by establishing a practice of inviting newcomers to share a meal and have informal conversation in small groups.

We are also looking toward expanding ways people can access information and connect with others in the meeting. Part of this effort that we are particularly excited about is developing a plan to update the Meeting website, so that it is more welcoming to visitors, and more user friendly for everyone.

We are currently collecting data on the costs involved. If you know someone who does web design professionally, please contact a member of the committee.

We plan to re-do photos of all members and attenders to update the ID bulletin board. This helps us identify each other and put names to faces. Many of the current photos are more than 10 years old.

For outreach, we are working to make more connections to the wider community. This includes the Linden Hills neighborhood and local\non-profits. We are looking for creative ways to let people know where we are, who we are, and what we stand for.

One fun new project this summer has been keeping the Little Library stocked with books. This has become a well-used connection to neighborhood children and adults alike.

We have been looking toward the future, identifying ways our meeting can move toward being more welcoming to more people, including people we may perceive as different from us in some way. We hope to bring some of these new ideas forward to meeting in the coming months.

How has the committee experienced movement of the Spirit in its meetings?

We have experienced movement toward a stronger, more inclusive community. The Welcoming and Outreach committee fosters the development of closer ties within the Meeting through conversation, fellowship, and other activities to ultimately improve the quality of worship, the strength of the Meeting, and the depth of our spiritual lives.

There was a suggestion that the upcoming holiday fair could be an outreach opportunity.

One greeter reflected the difficulty of quickly orienting visitors. This Friend encouraged friends to greet newcomers after meeting for worship

There was some discussion about materials that could be shared with visitors. Several materials have already been created. The committee will look at those materials.

Apparently, Twin Cities Friends Meeting gathers newcomers as they come into the building and provides a brief orientation before the group enters meeting for worship.

The meeting accepted the report.

4.      Loaves and Fishes Annual Report

Loaves and Fishes food service has been historically a shared responsibility of Minneapolis Friends Meeting and Twin Cities Friends Meeting. Both Meetings participate in the making and serving of the meal.

The activity lead from Twin Cities Friends Meeting orders all the food and has worked tirelessly to figure out how to keep our costs down and serve the highest quality well-accepted meal. This year the menu has changed from burritos to a thick chili over rice – along with a piece of fruit.

In addition to serving the community around Holy Rosary, these events provide a wonderful opportunity for our Meetings to meet and work together. And it is an opportunity for the family members and youth to participate in a service activity that is fun. All members to participate seem committed to continuing this service.

Looking forward

Our Loaves and Fishes work is an important service work that brings our community together while meeting an important need in our community.

With each event, the food cost is invoiced from the food vendor directly to Minneapolis Friends Meeting. This cost is shared between Minneapolis Friends Meeting and Twin Cities Friends Meeting. TCFM then reimburses Minneapolis Friends Meeting for their share of the cost.

Our committee will be asking to maintain the current budgeted amount to $1400 per event to make food and feed more than 450 meals per event. This amount does not include the estimated $250 fruit donations per event we have been consistently receiving from our community. This comes to about $2.00 per meal.

Most of the fruit donations come from Twin Cities Friends Meeting. Bananas and apples are most popular.

The committee anticipates food costs and packaging costs to maintain at slightly less than  $1400/ event in 2026. There are four 5th Mondays in 2026 March 30, June 28,August 31, and November 30. None of these will be holidays when the kitchen is closed. Due to our cost sharing, we anticipate the total cost in 2026 to be $1400 x 4 =$5600. Each Meeting will be responsible for half of the cost  $5600/2= $2800.

We hope to engage more youth in the coming year.

There are 8-10 people from Minneapolis Meeting that are currently volunteering.

Loaves and Fishes Totals 2025

The following table summarizes the contributions and outcomes for the Loaves and Fishes program throughout 2025. Data is presented for each quarter, including the number of volunteers, meals served, various types of donations received, and costs incurred.

 

Quarter	Number of Volunteers	Meals Served	Cost (Saints)	Cash Donation	Fruit Donations	Mississippi Market Donation	Cub Foods (Fruit/Spice)	Supply Donation (Foil – Kathie)
March 31	23	342	$689.78	$1,000.00	$50.00		$136.36	$81.00
June 30	15	452	$791.39		$40.00	$102.06	$300.85
Sept 29	20	490	$1,172.31			$128.52	$191.27
Dec 29 – Upcoming
Totals	58	1,284	$2,653.48	$1,000.00	$90.00	$230.58	$628.48	$81.00

5.      Ministry and Counsel Update

Ministry and Counsel is revisiting the possibility of changing the worship schedule with to one meeting for worship each Sunday. They are reviewing the notes  from the threshing session held two years ago on the same topic

The committee will come back with a suggestion at the November monthly meeting.

There are several concerns that were not evident at the time of the last threshing sessions. Do we have the volunteer resources to provide greeters at each meeting for worship? And there is also a concern around security.

A member reflected on the community-building aspect of worshiping as a whole meeting.

There was a suggestion that the concerns could be considered, and a variety of solutions generated – rather than starting with one solution. A suggestion was given that unprogrammed worship community could organize closers and greeters.

A member pointed out that we do not always worship together given the variety of worship opportunities that are offered each week. It was also noted that people who want unprogrammed worship may not choose to come to semi-programed worship.

All were thanked for their comments. These will be considered as the committee holds its conversations.

6. Update on Office Tech

Office Tech Updates

Thanks to the meeting for supporting the tech updates for the office. Updates should be made by the end of October.

Web Site Updates

The office manager will be sending out surveys asking for suggestions for an updated web site and the meeting bulletin. They will be working with a committee to consider website revision. It was noted that the Welcoming and Outreach Committee also has a web page update on their agenda. The committee clerk will connect with the welcoming and outreach committee members.

7.  Update from Tech Committee

In July, the meeting approved putting the Zoom  link to the worship on the web site. This is now complete. Please let the Tech committee know if you have any questions or suggestions

8.  Publication of Meeting History

A meeting member who leads the history project presented an update on the publication of the meeting’s history and a question on the ownership of the final product.

Current Progress

• The nearly final draft is now in the hands of the editor.
• Remaining editing steps include cleaning up source citations and answering a few remaining research questions.
• Then the design and layout process can begin.
• The history lead will engage a professional book designer who knows how to get the book listed on Amazon, Kindle, Barnes & Noble, audio formats, etc.

 

Publishing and Ownership Questions

The editor believes this book has a wider market than just local folks (especially non-Quaker Minnesotans and non-Minnesota Quakers). Before engaging a designer, choices need to be made about ownership of the book:

Choice 1

• If the history lead is the publisher:
  • The copyright would be hers and the length of the copyright would be determined by her lifespan.
  • The Minnesota Historical Society would charge her a usage fee for each of the two dozen photos she wants to use from their collection, because she would be considered a publisher-for-profit.
  • All income from the sale of books would come directly to the history lead.

Choice 2

• If the meeting is the publisher:
  • The copyright would belong to the meeting, and the length of the copyright would be determined by the lifespan of the meeting.
  • The Minnesota Historical Society would not charge a usage fee at all, because the meeting is a non-profit organization.
  • All income from the sale of the books would go directly to the meeting.
• In either case, the history project lead would be listed as the author.

 

The question is who would “own” the book.

Proposal

• It was proposed (strongly) that the meeting be the publisher of this book for three reasons:
  • to lengthen the lifespan of the copyright;
  • to eliminate the fees for photo usage; and
  • to receive the income from book sales.
• In return, members of the meeting would agree to do their best to help publicize the book by spreading the word to all their local circles, nearby bookstores, reading groups, social media accounts, and so on.

Questions and Discussion

Who is doing the work to complete the book? What would be the meeting’s responsibilities? How is this being funded?

• It is the responsibility of the history project lead to finish all the details and engage a designer.
• The designer is responsible for the registration.
• The meeting was reminded that a special designated donation from a meeting member has supported the development of this book. There are sufficient funds remaining in this account to cover the remaining activities and expenses.

 

A question arose about the ongoing financial administration for the meeting.

• If the meeting becomes the publisher, it will involve some extra bookkeeping. An accounting line in the bookkeeping probably will need to be established
• This book fits the mission of the meeting so sales would not be subject to income tax.
• While we would not have to deal with income tax, we may need to collect and pay sales tax.

 

When will the book be published and printed?

• This hopefully will be completed early in 2026.

 

Is there a possibility of having this be an audible book?

• The project lead will ask the designer.

 

Could we have someone else publish this book?

• There has not been interest from outside publishers. Minnesota Historical Society does not publish church histories. Other publishers have not expressed interest.

 

MINUTE

The meeting approved the publication of the book under the ownership of the meeting.

The meeting takes on the commitment of helping publicize this book through the meeting’s and meeting members’ networks.

The project lead said this is one of the most fun things she has done in her life. She thanked all of us for providing her the chance to do this.

9.  Request

The meeting considered a request to buy a member’s home or offer a home equity loan to facilitate continued occupancy of the home by another meeting member. The trustee of the home is facing a decision that needs to be resolved by the end of December 2025.

A small group in the meeting has discussed the possibility of the meeting providing a home equity loan. This is probably out of our capability as the loan would tie up all trustee funds.  This would remove all the funds from their agreed upon uses. Using funds to purchase the home would have the same effect.

Decision

The meeting approved a communication from the clerk that the meeting cannot meet this request.

This brought up a question of how we take care of our older members.

10.  Announcements—Clerk

The clerk thanked a couple of members for their outreach efforts at the Linen Hills Festival.

11. Closing Worship