CMM 2024-07-14

Minutes of Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business

Concord (NH) Monthly Meeting of

the Religious Society of Friends

14^th of Seventh Month 2024 [1]

Fourteen Friends gathered for meeting for worship to attend to business, in person and by Zoom.  We opened with a period of quiet worship.

^4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say,  Rejoice.  ^4:5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone.  The Lord is near.  ^4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  ^4:7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

~ Philippians 4:4-7 (NRSVue)

The Minutes of Sixth month 2024 [2] were approved as posted on our website.

07.01  Finance Reports:  Dave W, Clerk of Finance Committee, reported on operations for the first month of the fiscal year [FY2025], June 2024.  Income was $1,260 and expenses were $1,010.70 for a net gain of $249.30.

The final accounting from FY 2024 that ended in May, includes the capital fund contributions properly reflected as income and adjustments to our debt service expense line removing mortgage principal payments and applying them to reduce the mortgage liability on the Balance Sheet.

This large amount of net income is accounted for by the increase to our building and equipment asset on the Balance Sheet for the fire safety and geothermal system.  At the start of the fiscal year the building and equipment fixed asset was $466,455.  At the end of the fiscal year it was $513,630, an increase of approximately $47,000.

The Meeting is applying for a federal geothermal energy subsidy.  The application need not be submitted by an officer, but the individual submitting the application must be specifically authorized to do so.  Concord Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (the Meeting) duly authorizes Gregory B Heath, as bookkeeper and member of Finance Committee, to submit an application on behalf of the Meeting to receive an authorization number for inclusion in the Meeting’s IRS Form 990 to obtain a direct pay rebate for the Meeting’s geothermal heating installation.

07.02  Property Committee:  Susan L, Clerk of the Committee announced the Committee’s detailed report will appear in the newsletter next week.  Acoustic panels in the worship room will be coming soon.  The Committee appreciates suggestions of work needed for our every other month Third Sunday work periods.  Closing procedures have been streamlined, and we are making plans for a 4th Sunday discussion regarding the closing process.  The Committee also hopes that the landscaping project will be completed in somewhat cooler weather.

07.03  Pathfinders Child Care Program:  Elaine B, who along with Rich K, serves as liaison to the program, reported that at the end of the first year the program was very happy with how things went.  Lori Blaine is the new owner of the program and Deb Follansbee the former owner will be her continuing partner as a teacher.  They are on hiatus for the summer and will start again in the fall.  The new lease for one year has been signed by Lori and the Meeting’s Clerk will sign on our behalf.

The Meeting no longer feels the need for a Child Care ad hoc committee and lays it down.  The Meeting wishes to express our gratitude to Dave W., Greg H., Ruth H., and Elaine B. for their tireless service on the ad hoc committee in shepherding the Meeting through the process of bringing our Meetinghouse into fire code compliance and coordinating with the Pathfinders childcare program which operated in our building this past school year.

07.04  Canterbury Cemetery Trustees and Green Burial:  Rich K reported on a meeting with the Canterbury Cemetery Trustees.  The town is entertaining whether it may be possible for members of the Meeting who are not residents of Canterbury to be buried in the town’s cemetery with a green burial.  The Canterbury Cemetery Trustees would like to know the level of interest there may be in the Meeting membership.  This was referred to Ministry and Council for oversight.

07.05  Website Committee:  Jonah S-M reported on the work of the Website Committee and has been named Clerk.  The Committee has defined its purpose with a variety of responsibilities.  The Meeting would like to formally adopt a committee description for the Website Committee, including its purpose or mission, and Friends asked that the committee description be brought back to a future monthly meeting.  The Committee would like to upgrade to the current version of Drupal and to migrate to a new host.  From that point it intends to work with the Outreach Committee to determine what sort of face lift would be helpful.

07.06  Peace Pole.  The Meeting empowers the PSECC Committee to decide on the 8 languages to be on the pole and asks Property Committee to work with them to select the placement and coordinate its installation.

07.07  August Meeting for Business. Friends concluded that we may skip our regularly scheduled August Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business.

Following our closing worship Friends adjourned purposing to meet again on Ninth Month 8, 2024 as way opens.

* “A budget is a moral document” ~ often attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 – 1968)

NB. The Income & Expenses Sheet was created with two decimal points, which were removed for readability, the cents being unimportant to the overall understanding.  This can have the effect of throwing off any given sum by a dollar due to compounded rounding.  —  Prepared by Greg Heath and Chris Haigh.

* “A budget is a moral document” ~ often attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 – 1968)

NB. The Income & Expenses Sheet was created with two decimal points, which were removed for readability, the cents being unimportant to the overall understanding.  This can have the effect of throwing off any given sum by a dollar due to compounded rounding.  —  Prepared by Greg Heath and Chris Haigh.

Website Committee report for this Sunday’s Business Meeting

Best,

Jonah