DQM 2016-10-30

DOVER QUARTERLY MEETING of FRIENDS

Attending at Dover Monthly Meeting – 901 Pleasant Street, Dover, NH

30th October, 2016

Friends present from: 3-Concord; 5-Dover; 2-Gonic; 2-Weare Henniker; no one from North Sandwich, Souhegan, West Epping

After worship with Dover Friends in a meetinghouse and a bountiful lunch, we all enjoyed a program of games that was led by Jill Taylor and Irene Cruickshank.

Then we held a business meeting at the request of a few Friends present

10.1  Temporary clerks  Mark Barker was asked to serve as Clerk for the day.  Marian Baker was asked to serve as recording clerk for the day.

10.2  Previous minutes. The minutes were read.  They were approved with the correction of recording clerk, not recorder.  There was no treasurer's report as she had sent regrets due to illness.

10.3  Nominations Committee.  A report was received from the nominations committee that had been sent out to clerks of all meetings in the quarter plus to ministry and counsel clerks.  Weare had discussed it in their business meeting and approved the proposal. Epping had discussed it and were eager to host the quarter in April.  Gonic had approved it and Dover discussed it in both the business meeting and in ministry and counsel and had approved it.  Concord had reservations about it serving as a steering committee.  North Sandwich was planning to discuss it both in their monthly business meeting as well as in their Ministry and counsel.

After long discussion, we approved letting them function as a steering committee this year as long as they continue to work on nominations and add a representative from each of the meetings not represented on the steering committee and bring the name of a clerk to one of our meetings as soon as possible within this year.

10.4  Functions of a Quarterly Meeting

We realized that one of the most important functions of a Quarterly meeting is for socialization, getting to know each other, having fellowship and learning from each other. Other things we need a Quarter for include:

  1. Recording of Friends in ministry
  2. Supporting and endorsing travel minutes
  3. Helping each other with writing of memorial minutes
  4. Helping season any issues brought forward by a local meeting that they want forwarded to the yearly meeting.
  5. Hearing State of Society Reports and making sure they get sent to NEYM. (although recently most meetings are now just sending them direct to the YM)
  6. Appointing a Representative to NH Council of Churches and Beacon Hill House Board.

10.5  Sister relationship with Cuba.  We are the only Quarter that has a sister relationship with a monthly meeting in Cuba.  (It was set up when members from three of our local meetings had travelled in Cuba and desired a sister meeting.)  We have not been an active sister and wonder about the viability of this relationship.

10.6  Request to NEYM Ministry and Counsel, Permanent Board, and Coordinating and Advisory Committee

We continue to discuss our future.  We are the smallest quarterly meeting with only 160 members, we are wondering if NEYM could look into restructuring the quarterly meetings to be more viable. When we meet as All NH gathering there is good attendance and desire to attend.  Should we be combined with Falmouth or other meetings in NH?  How can you help us?  Our recording clerk for the day was asked to send this minute to the clerks of each NH meeting plus the leaders of New England YM.

10.7  Thanks   We give thanks for the fun we had as Gonic shared the passion of its meeting.  More Friends stayed for the program and left when we had a business meeting.  We also gave thanks to Dover Friends for their warm welcome, even though they had no heat in the building.

Meeting adjourned at 3 p.m. purposing to meet at Concord the last Sunday in January with Weare Meeting providing the program.

Respectfully submitted,

Marian Baker, Recording Clerk for the Day.

Notes of Dover Quarterly Meeting held at Concord Meeting held on 29th January, 2017 We held no business meeting.

Present for worship and program-

Concord-10; Dover-0; Gonic-1; N. Sandwich- 3; Souhegan-1; Weare-9

Weare Meeting led a program that shared about the joy they have in a monthly inter-generational round table discussion that is led by their young Friend and young adult friend.  This time they asked “How can we reach out and communicate with people who think and believe very differently from us?”  A lively discussion followed.

Respectfully submitted,

Marian Baker, recording clerk for the day.

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