CMM 2024-05-19

We strive to create a beloved community which shows loving concern and actions toward all attenders of the Meeting and all with whom we interact in the wider world.  We demonstrate this care and love by being vaccinated, because vaccination protects the person vaccinated and others with whom they come in contact.  We encourage all attenders to be vaccinated and keep their vaccinations up to date.  We believe this will make our meetinghouse a safer space for attenders whose own network includes people who are at greater risk of death or disability should they get the COVID-19 virus.

We request that you attend via Zoom if any of the following apply:

1. You have a fever, cough, or other viral symptoms.  (This is because you can have COVID and spread it before testing positive.)
2. If you have had COVID recently, please don't attend in person until after the 5^th day after you tested positive; and please wear a mask until the 10^th day (or longer if your doctor recommends).
3. If you know you have been exposed to COVID, please do not attend in person until after testing negative on the 5^th day after exposure.  Then please continue to wear a mask until the 10^th day after exposure.

Otherwise, masks are currently optional in the Meetinghouse unless the CDC reports hospital admissions for COVID as “red” in any county of New Hampshire on the following map: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#maps_new-admissions-rate-county.  For further clarification or questions, please contact Clerk [at] ConcordFriendsMeeting [dot] org (subject: COVID%20Policy) .

Ministry and Counsel was also asked to recommend how and where the policy be displayed.  We approved these ideas:

• The policy will be framed and hung on the wall prominently by where name tags are located.
• We will not have COVID signage on the doors.
• There will be another drop down on the About menu of the web site titled “COVID Policy” where the approved policy will live.
• The Newsletter banner will point to this new COVID policy page and reference to masking will be removed.
• On the Meeting’s home page change this wording:

We meet for worship every Sunday morning in our meetinghouse at 11 Oxbow Pond Road in Canterbury, NH.   For directions, go to the Finding us page.  For more information, go to the FAQ page that drops down beneath the About tab.  Please come and visit.

To:

We meet for worship every Sunday morning in our meetinghouse at 11 Oxbow Pond Road in Canterbury, NH.   For directions, click here.  For more information, go to the  FAQ page.  For our COVID Policy click here.  Please come and visit.

We are suggesting that the Spring Party be held at Heidi Babb's new home on June 2^nd at the rise of Meeting for Worship.  There will be a potluck there.  We will have Spring Baskets for all, so please let us know whether you will be attending so a basket can be made for you!  And let us know if you can contribute something to the baskets and what it will be.  We generally have about 20-25 people attend; if you are bringing small items that you want to put into every basket, bring that many items.

Heidi has just purchased this home at 25 Concord Dr, Webster NH with lake frontage on Pillsbury Lake!  Since she has just moved into the house this week and has a bit to do on it, we invite those able to stay and work on projects inside to help her get settled.  More details on this later.

PSECC believes this would be a good time to get a Peace Pole for the Meetinghouse.  We believe a cedar pole with the words “May Peace Prevail On Earth” engraved on the four sides in English, Abenaki, Hebrew, and Arabic would be a good statement for the Meeting.  Here is a picture of what that would look like (second row, middle picture): https://peacepoles.com/collections/4-sided-cedar.

The exact placement has not been determined but would be somewhere in the front of the building.

We ask the Meeting's concurrence with this item.

Concord Friends Meeting is a spiritual home, where we feel the divine presence.  Some of us are lifelong Friends and longtime members of the Meeting who remember meeting in a childcare center before the building of our Meetinghouse (2010).  Others of us have come more recently to either the Meeting or to Quakers.  We feel drawn to gather in person or over Zoom for weekly worship, to participate in “Meeting for Eating” on second and fourth Sundays, and to join many of the other customs of our Meeting, while making some new ones.

One of the most noticeable changes of the past year is equally a story of divine presence and physical logistics.  It has been a longtime dream of many members that our Meetinghouse be used during the week by other groups, such as a childcare center.  In 2023, that possibility presented itself.  However, during inspections of the building, we learned that our building, heated by a wood-pellet boiler, did not meet fire standards.  In a remarkably short time we secured the bridge loans, grants, contributions, and professional expertise needed to remove the boiler and install a new geothermal heating system; along with the solar panels on the roof, we are now net carbon neutral.  This and other safety changes brought our building up to fire code and enabled us to use our space for larger public gatherings and an outdoor-based program which provides much-needed childcare to about 20 families.  This was possible through the work of ad hoc committees that worked quickly to accomplish the needed steps, faithfully reporting their progress during our regular Meetings for Worship with Attention to Business, where the gathered body gratefully approved their work and affirmed the presence of Spirit in guiding these changes.

We have felt enthusiasm and new sparks of Spirit elsewhere.  Our practice of singing hymns before Meeting continues.  Many of our Fourth Sunday programs have been well attended, and our Peace, Social, and Earth Care Concerns Committee put on two very successful fundraising concerts for AFSC and our Asylum Seekers Support Fund in May and December.  Youth Religious Education Committee traditionally holds a fundraiser around Christmastime to support a student at the Kenya Rising Family Care Center, but last year, an ad hoc Yard Sale Committee organized a successful summer yard sale for Center.  This was an intergenerational Meeting-wide effort that was highly successful in both fundraising and in raising the Meeting’s visibility in the area.  We are grateful to feel new movement of the spirit in these efforts.

Our Meeting demographics remain a concern.  Our First Day School is small, though we are grateful for the faithful attendance and ministry of the children who come.  New Friends are joining, and some are leaving, but we sense the truth of the words one Friend shared that we are an aging community.  We are a community blessed with wise elders, firm finances, and an awareness of Divine presence.  We are a community that has been transformed before, and we are open to further transformation.  We gather each week in faithful, waiting worship.

We will be installing an additional piece of carpet in the lobby in a T configuration to provide additional coverage in that space. This will reach over to the cabinets where coats and footwear are placed and will extend the current carpet further into the space.

Because of the need to have Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business on third Sunday this month, we have postponed the usual every other month after Fellowship of joint cleaning work for 20 to 30 minutes until June 2^nd.  (This date may be changed due to a request by the YRE Committee which will be reviewed at May 19^th's Meeting for Business).  Most of this will be outdoors if the weather is good though some indoor tasks will be available in any case.

The delayed project for acoustic panels in the Meeting Room will move forward soon.  Finance has put funds in the budget for next year for this project.  We will need to get volunteers and set a date for work. As we did with the Fellowship space, we will be able to borrow staging once we get ready to do the work.

The committee agrees with the Landscape Coordinator that the budget next year should include an additional $1,000 for landscaping.

Clerk      Heidi Babb

Recording Clerk Greg Heath

Treasurer    Chris Haigh

Recorder     Paula Werme

Bookkeeper   Greg Heath

Email Announcements

• Juliet Curran

Finance Committee

• Chris Haigh, Treasurer, (EO)
• David Woolpert, Clerk
• Greg Heath, Bookkeeper (EO)
• Jonah Sutton-Morse

Library Committee

• Kathy Urie, IC
• Mark Barker

Ministry and Counsel

• Chris Haigh
• Greg Heath
• Heidi Babb
• Jennifer Smith
• Ruth Heath, Clerk

Nominating Committee – (initial year) — end year

• Elaine Bello, Clerk (2021-2022) 2025
• Faith Sillars    (2024-2025) 2028
• Rich Kleinschmidt (2022-2023) 2026
• Sara Smith    (2023-2024) 2027

Outreach Committee

• Elaine Bello, IC
• Richard Kleinschmidt
• Sharon Kulik

Property Committee

• Chris Haigh
• Greg Heath
• James Farquhar
• Jennifer Smith
• Susan Lombard, Clerk

PSECC (Peace, Social & Earthcare Concerns)

Asylum Seekers Fund Responsibities

• Anne Saunders
• Sara Smith, IC
• Sharon Kulik

Solar Committee – Ad Hoc

• Chris Haigh
• Dave Woolpert
• Greg Heath
• Ruth Heath

Technology Committee – Ad Hoc

• Greg Heath, Clerk
• James Farquhar
• Richard Kleinschmidt
• Ruth Heath

Website Committee

• James Farquhar
• Jonah Sutton-Morse
• Juliet Curran
• Mark Barker

Youth Religious Ed Committee

• Elanor Toland
• Faith Sillars
• Juliet Curran
• Richard Kleinschmidt, IC
• Ruth Heath

Childcare Liaison Committee - Ad Hoc

(discerned by Clerks)

• Dave Woolpert
• Elaine Bellow
• Greg Heath
• Ruth Heath

Child Care Assistants

(Discernment by YRE & NEYM

background check)

• Chris Haigh
• David Woolpert
• Elaine Bello
• Faith Sillars
• Greg Heath
• Heidi Babb
• James Farquhar
• JJ Smith
• Jonah Sutton-Morse
• Jone LaBombard
• Juliet Curran
• Kathy Urie
• Mark Barker
• Pat Wallace
• Richard Kleinschmidt
• Rob Spencer
• Ruth Heath
• Sara Smith
• Sharon Kulik

NEYM Hospitality Hosts and Helpers

• Kathy Urie, Coordinator

Voluteer Helpers

• Faith Sillars
• Greg Heath
• Richard Kleinschmidt
• Ruth Heath
• Sara Smith

First Day School Teachers

(Discernment by YRE Committee)

• Rich Kleinschmidt
• Ruth Heath

AFSC Corporation (for NEYM)

(Discernment by NEYM Nominating Committee)

• Mark Barker, 2023-2026 (1^st term)

AFSC-NH Support Committee

(Discernment by AFSC-NH Program)

• Sara Smith, 2024-2027 (1^st term)

AFSC-Northeast Region Executive Committee (NEREC)

(Discernment by AFSC-NEREC, AFSC-SNC, AFSC Board)

• Mark Barker, 2020-2024 (2^nd term, extended)

Beacon Hill Friends House Dover Quarter Representative

(Discernment by Dover Quarterly Meeting)

• Kathy Urie, 2021-2024 (1^st term)

Greater Concord Interfaith Council Representatives (GCIC)

(Discernment by Ministry & Counsel – up to 3 reps.)

• Jennifer Smith

FCNL–NH Group

• Sara Smith