CMM 2009-06-14

Minutes of Meeting for Worship for Business

Concord (NH) Monthly Meeting of

the Religious Society of Friends

6^th Month 14, 2009

Concord (NH) Monthly Meeting gathered in Meeting for Worship for Business at the Merrimack Valley Day Care Center in Concord, NH. Friends present were Alice Veenstra, William Veenstra, Kate Daniels, Linda Peters, Mark Barker, Kathy Urie, Jay Smith, Carol Flavin-Veenstra, Kathy Mercer, David Woolpert, Peter Chynoweth (acting recording clerk), Sara Smith (Clerk).  Meeting opened with a birthday song.

06.1   Minutes.  We reviewed and approved minutes of the 5^th month with minor word corrections and additions.

06.2   Meeting House Contract.  Clerk announced that she had signed the contract for the building of a new Meeting House at an amount of $384,351.  Then stated that people need to bring in their pledges of money. David Woolpert said that we still need to raise $15,000 for the meeting house and that we had received a grant from the Obadiah Brown fund.

06.3   Meeting house budget.  There was a report on the budget for the meeting house and copies of it were passed out.  See attached.

06.4   Operating budget.  Money received $11,660, Money spent $11,741 from June 1, 2008 to May 31, 2009 (attached).  Keeping AG Edwards account so that we can still receive stock.  David Woolpert stated that the Finance committee will be meeting before the next business meeting to make a budget for the next fiscal year.

06.5   Care of the Meeting.  Nominating Committee decided that it may be in the interest of the meeting to nominate people to the Care of the Meeting Committee.  This new committee will be doing the job of Ministry and Council, Peace and Social Concerns, and Religious Education. We then discussed what Care of the Meeting has been doing.  Then question was posed.  Do we want to change what we are already doing?  Because the old Care of the Meeting was not an nominated body it just had a convener and whoever wanted to show up, did so.  Then it was said that Care of the Meeting should be more about outreach.  The meeting came to a consensus that the actual decision would be made at a later time, but talk about it would still continue at this meeting because many people were here.  We agreed that further discussion would occur at the upcoming Care of the Meeting gathering and that the clerk would notify the meeting list of that meeting

06.6   New Clerk.  Discussion occurred about the Assistant Clerk position and after discussion it was decided that that person did not necessarily have to expect to become the next clerk

06.7   Nominations List.  The list of nominations for committees was approved with a few spelling corrections to names.

06.8   Contact List.  Mark Barker talked about the Data Protection Policy, which is a set of protocols to protect our contact information, and how the meeting should implement it.  It was asked if people who were not members, but still on the list, would have to sign a waiver.  It was then decided that a form would be made to fill out, modeled after one made by the Richmond (UK) Friends Meeting.  Most people were okay with their information being known by others but a concern was raised about the protection of children’s information.  It was then decided that parents would make the decision if they wanted to have their children’s information on it.  It was also decided that people’s birth year would be taken off the list and pictures would taken off the electronic version.

06.9   Meeting House Grant.  Alice Veenstra talked about how a grant could be given to our meeting house fund, amounting to a few thousand dollars, if we changed out heating system to geothermal powered by solar energy as opposed to wood pellets.  Clerk Sara Smith stepped aside at this point in the meeting and David Woolpert took over.  It was said that we had thirty days to decide before we had to tell the builder our heating system.  A concern was raised that the cost of this project was greatly underestimated.  Another concern was raised that if we wait to get the wood pellet system we might not be able to get it before it was needed.  The meeting approved that we should continue to seek out donations but not specifically for the geothermal/solar energy proposal.  Friends then agreed to proceed with the wood pellet system.

Minutes Approved.

Respectfully Submitted                         Accepted as the approved record when signed.

Peter Chynoweth, acting Recording Clerk                      Sara Smith, Clerk