Thursday, June 05, 2008
Minutes of Meeting for Business, 21 May 08
PRESENT: Ron Rembert, Richard Coleman, Lenna Mae Gara, Ruth Stuckey, Roy Joe Stuckey, Dale Hayes, Canby Jones, Tim Jones, Bob Powell
Friends gathered with a time of centering and a query from WYM Queries.
Minutes of the April meeting
Under Old Business, the item “OVYM Executive Committee” is amended as follows: replace the paragraph beginning “Campus Friends Meeting will use the convenanting process . . .” with the text “Campus Friends Meeting considered the covenanting process. Dale Hayes will prepare a statement for consideration at the May meeting for business."
With this correction, the minutes were approved.
Treasurer’s Report – Dale Hayes – attached to these minutes
Giving is still lagging somewhat. At the present rate, we may not be able to meet all our discretionary giving goals. These decisions will be made at the July meeting for business.
The report was approved.
Ministry & Counsel – Bob Powell reporting for Roger Schroeder
Spring Retreat
The retreat was reviewed. The sense of the committee was that the retreat went well, though attendence was somewhat less than previous retreats. This was mostly due to conflicting activities in the community. Nonetheless, it was generally agreed that twice a year was probably excessive and that the autumn is a more reliable time for participation. It was decided that we would explore another retreat the weekend of 24-26 Oct 08 with a backup date of 31 Oct-1 Nov. Thereafter we would hold the retreat once a year in the fall. Patricia Thomas will check with Quaker Knoll on availability.
Fifth Sunday program
The committee reviewed plans for the next Fifth Sunday program. Patricia Thomas will speak. This will be the first program to be presented after the rise of meeting instead of before meeting. The program will be held in the Jones Meetinghouse. Coffee and cookies will be served before the program
“11th Hour” DVD
The meeting has received a DVD of the Leonardo DiCaprio CD “The 11th Hour.” The DVD is a call to action on the manifold enviromental crises looming before us. The DVD is about 90 minutes long, which is excessive for most of our activities. Bob Powell volunteered to review the DVD and make recommendations.
Health of Members was reviewed
The report was approved. Richard Coleman particularly stressed the community-building value of the retreats.
Old Business
The OVYM covenanting process
Dale Hates presented a draft minute stating our objections to the covenanting process. After minor wordsmithing, the minute was approved. The final minute is attached. Patricia Thomas will forward it to OVYM.
Miami Center Quarterly Meeting
Campus Friend Meeting will host quarterly meeting on 1 Jun from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. We need dishes, coffee and tea.
Roy Joe Stuckey cited the difficulty of finding people to serve on quarterly meeting committees. Some have even suggested laying down the meeting altogether. Roy Joe will present a plan at quarterly meeting for revamping the format of the meeting with the object of increasing interest and attendence and improving efficiency.
Dishes and flatware
Patricia Thomas and Linda Sears sought appoval for acquiring some dishes and flatware for use in meeting activities. The meeting approved and suggested that Patricia and Linda first canvass friends for donations.
Your Father’s Kitchen
Campus Friends will serve lunch at Your Father’s Kitchen on 7 Jun. Once again, Linda Sears’s family will shoulder the principal burden of providing the main dish, but she needs help with some peripheral food items, servers, and dishwashers. Contact Linda if you can help.
New Business
OVYM reports desired
Virginia Woods, clerk of OVYM, is requesting advance reports from friends who expect to report to Yearly Meeting on their activities in the wider world outside OVYM
WYM minute on gambling and lotteries
Ron Rembert presented the draft minute. The meeting approved
FCNL news
Lenna Mae Gara has posted the latest missive from FCNL on the bulletin board in the meetinghouse.
Canby Jones’s Health
Tim Jones spoke of the need to plan for contingencies with respect to Canby’s health, which has been a subject of concern to the meeting for some time, especially in the deliberations of Ministry and Counsel. The meeting assured Tim and Canby of its willingness to provide whatever support may be needed.
The meeting concluded with a period of silent worship.
NEXT MEETING FOR BUSINESS – Wednesday, 20 June -7:00PM - ELLIS ROOM
Ron Rembert, Assistant Presiding Clerk
ron_rembert@wilmington.edu
Bob Powell, Recording Clerk
rdp1710@gmail.com
Minute in Response to OVYM Budget and Finance Committee’s
Request for Covenant Assessment
Campus Friends Meeting has in the past had an opportunity to meet with a representative of the Finance Committee to discuss implementation of OVYM’s covenant financing. We also have previously voiced our grave reservations regarding its adoption. While we appreciate the hard work and efforts of the Budget and Finance Committee in its continuing efforts at finding a more spiritual method for discerning how to raise and spend money on behalf of the Yearly Meeting, our own discernment is that the increased involvement of the monthly meeting in the minutia of the yearly meeting budgeting process required under the covenanting process is more likely to detract from than to augment the spiritual life of our meeting. Holy Spirit provides us all with certain spiritual gifts. We believe that our monthly and yearly meetings are best served by discerning who among us has a gift for numbers and encouraging them to assume responsibility for our financial affairs. We as a meeting prefer to trust those we appoint to use those gifts in their discretion with only that oversight needed to ensure proper administration.
After discussion of the proposed budget and some of the financing queries sent to us, we respectfully decline to put forth a covenant assessment figure. We sense that the time required for our small meeting to engage in this process is put to better use elsewhere. We do, however, reaffirm our desire to contribute our assessed obligation of the budget as determined by proportional membership.
With respect to the proposed budget itself, Campus Friends would like to express some reservation regarding the steep proposed increase in OVYM charitable contributions. We recognize that it may be appropriate for the Yearly Meeting to make contributions to other organizations in some cases, but the sense of our meeting is that charitable contributions primarily should come from individual Friends and monthly meetings. We would greatly appreciate it if you would provide us with a list of organizations to whom the Yearly Meeting contributes and the amounts contributed so that we can take that into account in preparing the monthly meeting budget. As a substantial portion of our monthly meeting budget is allotted to charitable contributions, it would be helpful to know where our contributions overlap. ¶ 7:30 AM
Friends gathered with a time of centering and a query from WYM Queries.
Minutes of the April meeting
Under Old Business, the item “OVYM Executive Committee” is amended as follows: replace the paragraph beginning “Campus Friends Meeting will use the convenanting process . . .” with the text “Campus Friends Meeting considered the covenanting process. Dale Hayes will prepare a statement for consideration at the May meeting for business."
With this correction, the minutes were approved.
Treasurer’s Report – Dale Hayes – attached to these minutes
Giving is still lagging somewhat. At the present rate, we may not be able to meet all our discretionary giving goals. These decisions will be made at the July meeting for business.
The report was approved.
Ministry & Counsel – Bob Powell reporting for Roger Schroeder
Spring Retreat
The retreat was reviewed. The sense of the committee was that the retreat went well, though attendence was somewhat less than previous retreats. This was mostly due to conflicting activities in the community. Nonetheless, it was generally agreed that twice a year was probably excessive and that the autumn is a more reliable time for participation. It was decided that we would explore another retreat the weekend of 24-26 Oct 08 with a backup date of 31 Oct-1 Nov. Thereafter we would hold the retreat once a year in the fall. Patricia Thomas will check with Quaker Knoll on availability.
Fifth Sunday program
The committee reviewed plans for the next Fifth Sunday program. Patricia Thomas will speak. This will be the first program to be presented after the rise of meeting instead of before meeting. The program will be held in the Jones Meetinghouse. Coffee and cookies will be served before the program
“11th Hour” DVD
The meeting has received a DVD of the Leonardo DiCaprio CD “The 11th Hour.” The DVD is a call to action on the manifold enviromental crises looming before us. The DVD is about 90 minutes long, which is excessive for most of our activities. Bob Powell volunteered to review the DVD and make recommendations.
Health of Members was reviewed
The report was approved. Richard Coleman particularly stressed the community-building value of the retreats.
Old Business
The OVYM covenanting process
Dale Hates presented a draft minute stating our objections to the covenanting process. After minor wordsmithing, the minute was approved. The final minute is attached. Patricia Thomas will forward it to OVYM.
Miami Center Quarterly Meeting
Campus Friend Meeting will host quarterly meeting on 1 Jun from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. We need dishes, coffee and tea.
Roy Joe Stuckey cited the difficulty of finding people to serve on quarterly meeting committees. Some have even suggested laying down the meeting altogether. Roy Joe will present a plan at quarterly meeting for revamping the format of the meeting with the object of increasing interest and attendence and improving efficiency.
Dishes and flatware
Patricia Thomas and Linda Sears sought appoval for acquiring some dishes and flatware for use in meeting activities. The meeting approved and suggested that Patricia and Linda first canvass friends for donations.
Your Father’s Kitchen
Campus Friends will serve lunch at Your Father’s Kitchen on 7 Jun. Once again, Linda Sears’s family will shoulder the principal burden of providing the main dish, but she needs help with some peripheral food items, servers, and dishwashers. Contact Linda if you can help.
New Business
OVYM reports desired
Virginia Woods, clerk of OVYM, is requesting advance reports from friends who expect to report to Yearly Meeting on their activities in the wider world outside OVYM
WYM minute on gambling and lotteries
Ron Rembert presented the draft minute. The meeting approved
FCNL news
Lenna Mae Gara has posted the latest missive from FCNL on the bulletin board in the meetinghouse.
Canby Jones’s Health
Tim Jones spoke of the need to plan for contingencies with respect to Canby’s health, which has been a subject of concern to the meeting for some time, especially in the deliberations of Ministry and Counsel. The meeting assured Tim and Canby of its willingness to provide whatever support may be needed.
The meeting concluded with a period of silent worship.
NEXT MEETING FOR BUSINESS – Wednesday, 20 June -7:00PM - ELLIS ROOM
Ron Rembert, Assistant Presiding Clerk
ron_rembert@wilmington.edu
Bob Powell, Recording Clerk
rdp1710@gmail.com
Minute in Response to OVYM Budget and Finance Committee’s
Request for Covenant Assessment
Campus Friends Meeting has in the past had an opportunity to meet with a representative of the Finance Committee to discuss implementation of OVYM’s covenant financing. We also have previously voiced our grave reservations regarding its adoption. While we appreciate the hard work and efforts of the Budget and Finance Committee in its continuing efforts at finding a more spiritual method for discerning how to raise and spend money on behalf of the Yearly Meeting, our own discernment is that the increased involvement of the monthly meeting in the minutia of the yearly meeting budgeting process required under the covenanting process is more likely to detract from than to augment the spiritual life of our meeting. Holy Spirit provides us all with certain spiritual gifts. We believe that our monthly and yearly meetings are best served by discerning who among us has a gift for numbers and encouraging them to assume responsibility for our financial affairs. We as a meeting prefer to trust those we appoint to use those gifts in their discretion with only that oversight needed to ensure proper administration.
After discussion of the proposed budget and some of the financing queries sent to us, we respectfully decline to put forth a covenant assessment figure. We sense that the time required for our small meeting to engage in this process is put to better use elsewhere. We do, however, reaffirm our desire to contribute our assessed obligation of the budget as determined by proportional membership.
With respect to the proposed budget itself, Campus Friends would like to express some reservation regarding the steep proposed increase in OVYM charitable contributions. We recognize that it may be appropriate for the Yearly Meeting to make contributions to other organizations in some cases, but the sense of our meeting is that charitable contributions primarily should come from individual Friends and monthly meetings. We would greatly appreciate it if you would provide us with a list of organizations to whom the Yearly Meeting contributes and the amounts contributed so that we can take that into account in preparing the monthly meeting budget. As a substantial portion of our monthly meeting budget is allotted to charitable contributions, it would be helpful to know where our contributions overlap. ¶ 7:30 AM
