CMM 2021-03-14

Minutes of Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business

Concord (NH) Monthly Meeting of

the Religious Society of Friends

Third Month 14^th, 2021

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

We opened with a brief period of Worship.

03.1  Nominating Committee:  We heard a brief report from the clerk of Nominating Committee.  They began their work of finding committee members and filling leadership roles.  They will present a full report next month.  The committee has been considering the topics of kindness and gratitude and would like to present a program on a future 4^th Sunday, however the format requires more thought.  Their written report is attached.

03.2  Finance Committee:  The Treasurer shared that we are 75% through our fiscal year and we’re finding that donations are slightly down but it’s not a matter of concern.  We have made a few reinvestments into the Community Loan Fund.  Our Bookkeeper asks all committees to submit their budget requests for next year; they have already received a few.  They are hoping to provide the meeting with some detailed reports soon.

03.3  Ministry & Counsel: The clerk of that committee reported that they’re working on putting together a few Fourth Sunday programs. A detailed written report is attached.

03.4  Woolman Hill Capital Campaign:  Heidi, as a member of the Woolman Hill Board, shared a PowerPoint about their current $1.2 million Capital Campaign, which is funding a renovation of the main building to make it more accessible, increase the sleeping accommodations, increase small group space, and improve bathrooms; it will also establish a fund to make Woolman Hill more financially accessible.  Woolman Hill has been an important resource to the spiritual life of New England and our own Meeting. Many members of our Meeting have either served on the Board, presented there, attended workshops, or attended gatherings of other groups.  We considered a request to donate $5,000 to this campaign.  The bookkeeper advised that this is probably available outside of our reserved funds.  It was suggested the Meeting could also receive earmarked funds to add to these available funds.  We noted that the public phase of the campaign has not begun yet and individuals in the Meeting will begin soon hearing directly from Woolman Hill.

The sense of the meeting is that we would like to give $5,000, with the understanding that Finance Committee will meet and report back to us if they feel this amount is feasible and prudent.  We are clear to begin accepting earmarked donations from individuals to order to increase this contribution beyond $5,000.

03.5  Friendly Assistance Fund:  We were reminded that this fund was set up to assist individuals associated in some way with our meeting.  It is for direct payment to individuals.  We will take e time consider more closely at a future date.

03.6  Asylum Seekers Support Fund: In keeping with the Meeting’s long history of Spirit-led activity in support of immigrant rights, the Meeting agrees to create an Asylum Seekers Support Fund.  We empower the Finance Committee to oversee the Fund, including receiving donations, disbursing money, and establishing such procedures as may be necessary.  While we are aware of one asylum seeker who may be seeking assistance from the Fund at this time, the Fund is not being established for the benefit of any particular individual.  Money will be disbursed from the Fund for the support of asylum seekers according to the discernment of the Finance Committee.

After a brief time of quiet worship, Meeting adjourned, purposing to meet again on the Second Sunday of the Third 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 = $3,730

Nominating Committee Report [13] to

Concord Friends Meeting Business Meeting

Third Month 2021

CFM Nominating Committee is continuing its work of discernment in the selection of nominees for leadership roles and committee needs.  Nom com also has suggested a fourth Sunday program, which will be further developed by the committee to be presented to Ministry and Counsel.

Kathy Urie, clerk

Report and Announcements from Ministry & Counsel [14]

March 13, 2021

Fourth Sunday Programs:

1. March: During the work of Nominating this year, the committee was impressed with the many gifts our members and attenders have.  Yet many are unaware of their own gifts.  Nom Com would like to lead a Fourth Sunday program of showing gratitude for our gifts.
2. April: Mindful mortality – Writing our spiritual journey/ celebration of life (First Draft) – we are developing a program around making a draft of a summary of your life’s journey.  Details to follow, but as we discussed what was in our membership records and the suddenness of loss that can happen, we realized we would love to know more about each other’s lives.
3. May: Apology to Native Americans – by Ad Hoc group will present a program on this topic.  More TBA
4. June: FUM (Friends United Meeting) personnel policy coming up in NEYM.  Difficult conversations.  How do we talk to those we disagree with?  We are developing a program to take the next step in this long conversation.  We have been in disagreement over FUM’s personnel policy of excluding non-celibate LGBTQ individuals from service in the organization.  We also celebrate the good work they do in the wider world.  How do we resolve this tension?

Youth Religious Education Report [15]

YRE met on 3/11/2021.

The First Day School teachers shared what they had done the past few months, and we talked a little about our hopes for the future when we can meet again in person. 

We received a letter from Christine Imbiti; she told us about her family and how the pandemic has been affecting her school. We are aware that Christine will enter high school in January 2022 and the amount of money we will need to send will be greatly increased. We will find out exactly how much we will need to raise. We were grateful that we had money set aside in our fund for Christine, as we didn’t find a good opportunity for fundraising in 2020.

We are contacting the finance committee regarding next year’s budget request. We have not met as frequently as usual, so it was an added pleasure to gather in our support and care for tour meeting’s youth.

Woolman Hill Quaker Retreat Center [16]

107 Keets Road, Deerfield, MA 01342 + 413-774-3431 + info [at] woolmanhill [dot] org + www.woolmanhill.org [17]

March 12, 2021

Richard Kleinschmidt, Clerk

Concord Friends Meeting

11 Oxbow Pond Road

Canterbury NH 03224

Dear Richard, et al,

This is a request for Concord Monthly Meeting to consider a special one-time contribution of $5,000 to Woolman Hill’s Welcoming Future Campaign.

Concord Friends have had a strong connection to Woolman Hill over the years. Several of you have served (or are serving!) on the board, including Heidi Babb, Kathryn Cranford, Pat Wallace and Gini Barker. We have fond associations of Mark Barker, JJ and Sara Smith attending NEYM Ministry & Counsel retreats here on the hill. Friends from your meeting have facilitated, eldered, cooked for and participated in all kinds of programs, including Couples Enrichment, Circle of Trust, Mindful Mortality, Physician Heal Thyself, Say the Wrong Thing, Deepening Worship, SAGE, Inward Activism, knitting and singing retreats, just to name a few. You’ve brought your children to JYM and JHYM retreats on the hill, and have weeded and planted and raked at volunteer workdays. You’ve helped Woolman Hill deepen and grow, and you’ve held Woolman Hill in your hearts. Thank you!!!

Experienced by Friends as a spiritual sanctuary, Woolman Hill is often described as a grounding place—an island of calm in the midst of turbulent seas. From this seedbed many New England Friends have discovered and nurtured their calls to ministry. Paying close attention to the threads of emerging spiritual needs in the region, Woolman Hill frequently co-sponsors programs with New England Yearly Meeting, such as recent offerings on mentoring, Quaker parenting, SAGE (Support Across Generations for Elders), eldering, racial justice, and the nine-month Nurturing Faithfulness course. NEYM youth groups (JYM, JHYM, YF) and Young Adult Friends hold retreats at Woolman Hill, as do monthly meetings, Connecticut Valley Quarterly Meeting, and groups such as the Challenging White Supremacy working group, QUIP, the FUM Board, Quaker Spring, and the Climate Disobedience Center.

Woolman Hill is entering the final phase of our Welcoming Future Campaign. We are pleased to report that to date we have raised $990,000 toward our $1.2 million goal. Most of this support has come from individual Friends. In addition, we’ve received grants from the NEYM Legacy Fund and the Obadiah Brown Benevolent Fund. We have also received several generous gifts from monthly meetings in the amounts of $15,000, $5,000, and an extraordinary gift of $100,000. We are now beginning the process to approach other meetings.

Growing out of an in-depth strategic planning process, Woolman Hill had been planning to move into a major multi-year feasibility study and fundraising campaign at the beginning of March 2020. Our original campaign vision included a new building, renovations to existing

buildings, a Welcome Fund, and the establishment of an endowment. We were blessed with several large gifts inspiring us to go forward with the campaign, and had therefore retained the services of Michael Wajda, a long-time Quaker fundraiser, to serve as our consultant.

The pandemic put an abrupt halt to these original plans, but a silver lining emerged. All along in our planning for the capital campaign projects, we had been aware that construction work in the main building would be difficult to navigate while actively hosting groups in that space. Then, faced with the extremely unusual situation where programs and rental bookings were likely to be severely limited for at least a year due to COVID-19, we saw a unique opportunity to do those renovations with far less impact on visiting groups. So, in the midst of the despair and challenges of the pandemic, the Woolman Hill board made the momentous decision to move ahead with the conference center renovations as quickly as possible and to put the other campaign goals on hold.

While the 1800s farmhouse that serves as our main conference center is central to Woolman Hill’s charm, it also precludes or seriously restricts the use of Woolman Hill by many individual Quakers and groups. The building has many characteristics that make navigating it with limited mobility next to impossible. At a recent Young Adult Friends gathering on the hill, a YAF in a wheelchair wrestled with narrow doorways and inadequate ramps. During another program, an elderly participant using a walker had to weave her way through the kitchen to her bedroom and in and out of entryways with multiple steps and uneven thresholds. Groups also struggle with too few bathrooms, limited privacy and insufficient break-out spaces.

The addition will add six bedrooms to the main building, including three ground floor rooms and two accessible bathrooms. The main entrance and foyer have been redesigned (while maintaining the familiar charm) to be fully accessible, and there will be two sitting nooks in the new wing that may be used for small break-out groups. Preliminary construction has begun, with the expectation that framing will begin very soon. We hope to have the project substantially completed by late summer.

As we have been visiting with Friends and meetings to ask for their support, we have received much positive feedback about the details of our plans. Many Friends feel that these upgrades to our facilities are long overdue. All have also affirmed how these improvements will enable our services and ministries to reach more Friends and others through retreats and programs to nurture the Religious Society of Friends. Events at Woolman Hill provide critical opportunities for Friends to explore their individual and collective relationship to Quaker practice and faith.

We are profoundly grateful for all the ways Concord Friends support and love Woolman Hill. We hope that your meeting will be favorably inclined toward this important request, in light of how these improvements to our physical facility will make Woolman Hill experiences more accessible and welcoming to Friends throughout New England and beyond. Please let us know if there’s any further information that would be helpful to you in your discernment.

With hope and gratitude,

Margaret Cooley

Executive Director