CMM 2020-10-11

Minutes of Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business

Concord (NH) Monthly Meeting of

the Religious Society of Friends

Tenth Month 11^th, 2020

Fifteen Friends gathered by Zoom connection and entered into quiet worship.  We accepted the minutes of Ninth Month [1] as posted on the website.

10.1  Membership:  The clerk of Ministry & Counsel brought forward a clearness committee report asking for approval for membership for Kathi Connors.  The clearness committee was impressed with her readiness and understanding of what is involved in membership.  Several friends spoke of their experiences with Kathi and her faithfulness to our meeting since she first began attending in Second Month.  We appreciated a heartfelt poem that Kathi had written about her experience with us.  We welcome Kathi with joy and gratitude.

10.2  Hybrid/Blended Meetings:  Our clerk asked us for feedback on how the blended meetings are going, particularly regarding the number of cameras as we continue trying different arrangements.  We’ll try a single camera and continue to find a set-up that feels more inclusive of all attending.  Friends still have deep concern for the safety on in-person attenders and worry that we may be essentially sponsoring a spreading event.  The property committee clerk commented that our air-to-air heat exchanger is bringing in fresh air, although we don’t know exactly how effective that is. She believes that given our current understanding, sitting 6’ apart in the meeting room with windows open and masks on appears to be very low risk.

10.3  Finance Committee:  Our treasurer reported that we’re one third of the way through our fiscal year and we’re at 35% of our expected income and 29% of our projected expenses.

• Total Income: $9,395
• Total Expenses: $6,389
• Net Income: $3,006

10.4  Ministry and Counsel:

Fourth Sunday:  Sara reported on an upcoming fourth Sunday program on “Resiliency and Self Care” with Rob S. and Faith.

Midweek Worship:  We’re starting an in-person mid-week worship this week following our regular safety guidelines.

Fellowship Picnic:  Next Sunday we will have our second Fellowship Picnic outside the meetinghouse after worship. Dress warm, bring chairs and keep a good distance while we’re eating without our masks on.

Membership Release:  M&C asks for approval to remove Sherry Snook from membership at her request; she moved from this area 3 years ago.  We release her from membership with love.

Right Relationship with Native People:  NEYM has asked that each MM spends time over the next year considering our apology to Native Americans and becoming better acquainted with the Native people in our area in terms of their history and current situation.  We will form a working group to explore this, not only in response to NEYM’s request but to assist our meeting in coming into a right relationship with the Native Americans of our area.  As of today the working group includes Sara (convener), Mark, Jonah, and Heidi.  More members are welcome.

A full committee report is attached.

After a brief time of quiet worship, Meeting adjourned, purposing to meet again on the Second Sunday of Eleventh Month.

NB. The Income & Expenses Sheet was created with two decimal points, which were removed for readability, the cents being unimportant to the overall understanding.  This can have the effect of throwing off any given sum by a dollar due to compounded rounding.  —  Prepared by Greg Heath and Chris Haigh.

NB. The Balance Sheet was created with two decimal points, which were removed for readability, the cents being unimportant to the overall understanding.  This can have the effect of throwing off any given sum by a dollar due to compounded rounding.

Do we have the resources to support our obligations? YES

Variable Assets Less Current Liabilities and Replacement Reserve = $3,790

Finance Committee Report [13]

Finance Committee met via Zoom on the 29^th day of 9^th month, 2020.

Expenses:  We reviewed the additional expenses for the year, noting ant eradication and additional cell expenses, and noted that we are not bringing in rental income at this time, but we do not feel that either the additional expenses or decrease in income would require a change to this year’s budget.  We note that $500 from prior year funds were previously approved for blended meeting expenses, and that we have spent less than $200 from that.

Audit for 2019:  Finance Committee reviewed the FY2018 books in 2019, which was the first time this had been done in a while.  We do not feel the need to review the 2019 books, and are thinking about doing this every few years unless the Meeting wants us to be reviewing more frequently.  From a best practices standpoint, we note the bookkeeper should be informed of plans to review the books after the given period for review has been closed.

Blended Meeting Expenses:  We are waiting on a technology committee report for anticipated expenses.  Afterward, the bookkeeper noted that $1,500 from prior year reserves was authorized for the technology committee.  If the committee is concerned about this amount, that should be reviewed with the budget committee and the full meeting.

Assets:  We noted that currently we have two pools of assets to cover our replacement reserve and other liabilities.  There’s a bit over $20,000 in the Concord Community Loan fund and just under $25,000 in the bank.  In the past, we have discussed whether to use the Yearly Meeting Pooled funds as another place to allocate our assets.

Risk Assessment:  The risk of not changing our allocation is that neither the bank nor the community loan fund pays much interest, so the money is likely to lose value due to inflation over time.  The value of investing is to hedge against inflation, and potentially added engagement with the world, although putting money into stocks and bonds can also be fraught.  The Yearly Meeting Pooled Funds applies Quaker principles in their investing.  We do not see any immediate problems with keeping our current asset allocation.

Fourth Sunday Program:  We do see value in doing a 4^th Sunday program with the Meeting to talk about values around money, and doing that outside the budget process, so that we can consider how our funds should be allocated.  We are thinking we’ll plan a 4^th Sunday program for late summer or fall next year.

Best, Jonah

Report and Announcements from Ministry and Counsel Oct. 8, 2020 [14]

Announcements

Fourth Sunday October 25 Program will be on the topic of building resilience and self care in these times led by Rob Spencer and Faith Sillars.  Time to be approximately 45 minutes after the rise of Meeting at approximately 12:30 on our usual Zoom link.  If you have an idea for a topic, let Ministry and Counsel know.  Feedback on having programs discussing the Pendle Hill Pamphlet “Four Doors of Quaker Worship” would be welcome.

Midweek Worship Wednesdays at 7:30 pm.  There will be an in person (not online) Meeting for Worship at the meetinghouse.  Please try these if electronic meetings do not work for you.  Traditionally these have not been large groups, so with masks and good social distance, we feel these will meet healthy guidelines.

Fellowship Picnic Third Sunday - October 18 with hopes for decent weather we will schedule an in-person brown-bag picnic outside at the meetinghouse.  Dress warmly, bring a chair or use ours, prepare for a possible walk to the river after eating (if you choose).  Sitting/eating circles will be more defined this time, but switching circles will be encouraged.  Masks should be worn when not eating.

Blended Worship continues.  As we continue blended worship, we realize we cannot attain perfection but continue trying to improve.  We enjoy hearing from everyone at the end of worship but will have the host call on them to make it an easier process.  Since attendance is low, we no longer require a “reservation,” to allow people to make last minute decisions on attending.  We welcome suggestions on improvements.  A good time to practice letting go of perfectionism.

Action Items

Membership:  We make the following recommendations for membership in Concord Meeting:

1. Accept into membership Kathi Connors, per clearness committee and M and C recommendations.
2. Remove from membership Sherry Snook per request by Sherry and discussion by M and C. relating to the fact she moved away three years ago.

Working Group on Right Relationship with Native Americans  We ask the Meeting to establish a working group to plan how to study and respond to the request to approve the Apology to Native Americans and move toward Right Relationship.  Sara Smith and Mark Barker have agreed to join.

Next Meeting November 2 at 1:00 pm via Zoom.

Kathi Connors’ Message on her Joining

I want to tell you my literal and figurative spiritual experience of walking through the door and sitting down, not just that first day but since I started attending. My hope is that it lets you know more about me, but also somehow brings you back to your beginning.

My literal experience was to be greeted by Kathy Urie, she wrote my name on a name tag as she remarked that she and I had the same name, then I noticed everyone wore name tags...didn't they know each other's names by now? I had arrived in time to join in singing; I didn't know the songs. It happened to be a 4th Sunday so after worship I got a chance to mingle with quite a few people for a prolonged period, and had some meaningful conversations right away, including about this: Before I came I felt compelled to figure out what exactly I was seeking, because how could I find an answer to an undefined question? I used a screw as a metaphor to represent myself, because it’s something with potential that cannot be realized by itself. If I was a screw that could help build a table, then WAS there a table, was there a builder, was there a purpose for the table, would I know if I was a good screw or bad screw and could the answer to that be changed?

Thinking about this and then the ensuing months until now, something poured out of my heart this morning and found words, although I had had no intention of writing anything. It's not long. Here it is.

--------------

Today I become a Quaker

I don’t really know what that means

I’ve read the books, watched the films

Think I know the themes.

I approached the door with questions

Does the screw need to know

That it’s gonna help build a table

Can it be happy if it doesn't know?

Walked through the door with hope

The first greeting said my name

But I wore skepticism like a cloak

Was this real, or another game?

I asked my screw question

They listened and didn’t talk

They let me sing in their circle

Said it’s okay to walk YOUR walk.

They said you might be home now

Said your heart is what really knows

I found, to look, I needed both hands

So I quietly put my screw down.

Property committee report for 10^th month 2020 [15]

Meetinghouse Maintenance:  The committee has not met since last month but has been active on a couple fronts.  Greg H has organized a checklist of work to be done in the near future at the Meetinghouse.  Some of this work has been done but Friends are encouraged to go to the link he sent around and sign up to do other tasks.

Insect Problems:  The situation with our ant infestation is coming under control but it takes time.  Those who go to the Meetinghouse can clean up dead ants but best to leave live ants alone to carry poison back to the nest.

Air Exchange:  As the weather cools, we are trying to get a better idea how to keep everyone safe who attends Meeting in person.  Our system does not recirculate air but we have not yet been able to figure out what volume of air is being moved by the air-to-air exchange unit.  Once we know that figure, we can refer the information to the pandemic response team so that they can decide whether it will be safe enough to close the Meeting room windows when more than one family group is there.  Thomas H has been working on finding the information and also has found information on stand alone air purification systems that we can send along to the response group to help their decision process.

Blended Meeting Technology:  Michael E reported to us that the ad hoc technology group that has been making the arrangements for blended worship secured a gift from Southern New Hampshire University of a laptop that is now in use.

Jennifer J Smith

For CFM property committee

Peace, Social, and Earthcare Concerns Committee (PSECC) [16]

PSECC met Sept 23 and discussed the focus of the coming year,

Mass Incarceration:  We decided to continue to address mass incarceration. Rich will talk with AMI director Ken Norton, about mental illness and incarceration. Faith will talk with ACLU Joseph L, the NH Social Justice organizer.

Youth Religious Education Committee [17]

7^th of Tenth Month 2020

YRE Committee met on 10/7/2020 via Zoom.  We had two items on our agenda:

First Day School:

We met with Jonah last month to talk about how we might facilitate a “remote” First Day School experience for his children.  He felt that Zoom meetings might not work well for them, so we came up with the idea of putting together a monthly box with a story, some queries for thoughtful discussion, and a craft project.

Beth Collea has loaned 4 story boards for working with the children over Zoom.  We’re looking forward to exploring some of these lesson ideas and seeing if they will work for our class.  We own a couple of the books that she used for the story boards.

We will reach out to other parents in the meeting to see if their children would like to participate.  The 3 teachers will meet soon to put together some class ideas Thursday, October 15 at 5:30.

Fundraising for Christine:

We have $1,200 in our fund for Friends of Kakamega in support of Christine.  We have not heard from them this year to find out how much we need to contribute this year.  Christine may be starting high school this year so her costs may be higher.

We talked about the possibility of having an online meeting auction for home-made crafts and services made by the children and members.  For example, hand-knit socks made to order, home-made baked goods, flower arrangements, etc.  Wendy is going to put together a Zoom meeting for the children to talk about this further.

Outreach:

We will send cards to the children of our meeting letting them know that we’re thinking of them.

• Ruth – Reese and Clay
• Jonie – Aurora and Evelyn
• Heidi – Elanor and Rowan, Carrigain & Colvin