CMM 2007-09-09

Minutes of Meeting for Worship for Business

Concord (NH) Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends

9th Month 9, 2007

(As approved 10/14/2007)

Concord (NH) Monthly Meeting gathered in a regularly called Meeting for Worship for Business at the Merrimack Valley Day Care Center in Concord, NH.  Friends present were Alisa Barnard, Don Booth, Lois Booth, Graham P. Chynoweth, Kate Daniels, David Freeman-Woolpert, Greg Heath, Ruth Heath, Rich Kleinschmidt (recording clerk), Linda Chynoweth Peters, Jay Smith, Sara Smith (clerk), Kathy Urie.

The meeting was opened by the clerk with a period of worshipful silence

9.1  Minutes.  The minutes of 6/10 and 7/8 were approved.  (As planned, there was no 8th Month meeting.)

9.2  Housing Committee.  Initial estimates for the meeting house project were more than expected: $500,000 - $600,000. The design costs estimates are also greater than we approved:  $1,500 for a contour map, $10,000 for the architect, and $5,400 for the contractor to work with the architect.  We have still not had a response from AMTP to our draft letter of intent but expect news soon.

After considering the prospect of escalating costs, we decided to rethink the best way to proceed.  Perhaps we can reduce architectural costs by being more specific with our design ideas.  We also want to remember that frugality and simplicity are long-held Friends values.  We are not abandoning this project but we are not opening our checkbooks to proceed down the first and easiest path.  The Housing Committee will continue to explore.

At our meeting two months ago we authorized the housing committee to commit up to $14,000 for initial design work (minute 2007.7.5).  At this meeting, we reaffirmed that amount but decided to remove references to a specific architect and construction firm.  We kept the requirement for a letter of intent from AMTP.

9.3  Care of the Meeting Committee.  The committee met 8/29.  They report:

  • The fall party will be a Merrimack River canoe trip followed by a Meeting gathering on 9/15.
  • Concord will host Dover Quarterly Meeting on 9/30.
  • Clearness committees have been appointed to meet with Madison Daniels and Kate Daniels in response to their request for membership.
  • The high school group will work on designing a web site for our Meeting.
  • The committee recommends that subscriptions not be sent to “our home” at the day care center, but rather to the homes of individuals who will peruse them and bring pertinent articles to the attention of others.  Jay Smith volunteered to receive Quaker Life while Kate Daniels volunteered to receive Friends Journal.  The Pendle Hill Pamphlets will be routed to Kathy Urie.
  • Sara Smith will experiment with reading and or circulating excerpts from the revised New England Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice chapter on worship (given preliminary approval in 2007 and available online at www.neym.org/fandp).

Our meeting ended with a period of worshipful, grateful silence, purposing to meet again on the second First Day of Tenth Month or at the call of the clerk.

Respectfully submitted,

/s/ Richard Kleinschmidt, Recording Clerk

Accepted as the approved record when signed,

/s/ Sara Smith, Clerk

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