CMM 2011-07-10

Minutes of Meeting for Worship for Business

Concord (NH) Monthly Meeting

Religious Society of Friends

7th Month 10, 2011

Concord (NH) Monthly Meeting gathered in Meeting for Worship for Business at the meetinghouse in Canterbury, NH.  Friends present were:  8

The meeting began with a period of silent worship.

7.1  Sixth Month Minutes:  Minutes from 6th Month were approved with minor changes to spellings and grammar.

7.2  Housing Committee Report:  The Housing Committee requested clarification on the amount of money they can spend.  The sign estimate is about $150 more than expected and landscaping items were not included in the costs presented 6th Month.  (Reference Minute 2011.6.2)  The Meeting authorized the Housing Committee to expend approximately $920 from the fiscal year 2010-2011 General Operating Fund surplus to complete the following items:  Mirrors, Clerk's table, Bulletin Board in Fellowship Hall and new lighting fixture over it; 48 bowls; bookshelves for children's rooms; refrigerator (to cover transport of a donated one probably); play yard picnic table/benches; repairs to donated swing set; sign at Meeting House and intersection.  It further authorized the Landscaping Committee to use any remaining surplus from the 2010-2011 General Operating Fund surplus after those items are taken care of.

7.3  Rental Policies:  Because the Property committee’s draft on rental policies was not available today, we will review this at the next Meeting for Business.  Mark Barker offered to post the draft on the web in a format that allows members to comment and raise questions.  The clerks will send a reminder email about the draft and ask members to read it and comment on it before the next Meeting for Business.  We reaffirmed that in the interim, the Property Committee is authorized to continue to arrange short term rentals using the procedures it has been using up to this point.

7.4  Health Care Worker Scholarship Fund:  We reviewed the request from a member currently sojourning in Kaimosi, Kenya, that the Meeting create a scholarship fund for African Health Care Workers (which was first discussed at 6th Month Meeting for Business).  Our Friend is committed to helping a health worker who needs funds to get a nursing degree, and hopes this fund would assist them.  There is some urgency to the request, although we are not sure how urgent nor the size of monetary need.  We understand that this would be a revolving fund to which recipients would contribute or repay funds at some point in the future in order to benefit others.

There was general agreement that this is a cause worthy of attention and support.  We noted that the Meeting has collected funds for targeted giving in the past (e.g., in 2003, $2,200 was donated and passed along to the Quaker school in the Nairobi slums).  The concern however remains that the person bringing the concern to the Meeting also plans to donate a fair amount and intends that it will go to a specific individual he has identified.  Having the major donor also decide the recipient made some Friends uneasy.  However, it was noted that the donor is in no way related or closely connected to the recipient, and that creating the fund which can accept tax deductible donations will likely encourage other people to more generously donate than if it were not tax deductible.  It was further noted that tax exemption is intended to be granted to organizations who have identified charitable needs and have in place a process for deciding on disbursement.  We do not have that yet in this request.

For the Meeting to set up such a fund, we would need a detailed proposal that

  1. stated the purpose of the fund and who is eligible;
  2. an application form;
  3. a suggested procedure for choosing recipients which would include a committee process; and
  4. plans for publicity to attract applicants.

This would allow the process of granting funds to be separated from the major donor and pass the ‘squeaky clean’ test that avoids having any qualms or uneasiness about the process.  We fear and regret that this process may not be able to be completed in a timely manner that would assist the person in need.  We also deeply regretted that circumstances did not allow our sojourning member to be with us to shed and receive further Light on the matter.

Therefore, other suggestions were made regarding ways to help, such as finding a Nurses’ organization in the United States that might already have a fund to which this person could apply.  Furthermore a smaller working group might be a way for the Meeting, with God’s help, to find a mechanism that may already exist to assist this individual.

The clerks will communicate as much as possible of this deliberation to sojourning member along with our loving support and prayers.

Meeting closed with a brief period of silence.

Minutes accepted when signed,

Greg Heath, Co-Clerk

Ruth Heath, Acting Recording Clerk

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