Frederick Friends Meeting

Meeting for Worship for the Conduct of Business

Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, 2018

 

Opening Worship

In attendance were Deborah McCoy, Julie Odland, Carlotta Joyner, Annette Breiling, Greg Tobin, Karen Lockett, Kathy Funkhouser and Betsy Tobin

 

2018-11-01  Peace and Social Concerns – FFM Corporate Giving– Approve Proposed Spending

Approved

While we accepted the report last month, we neglected to approve the spending. 

 

 

2018-10-02  Quarterly Financial Report– Greg Tobin, Treasurer & Stewardship and Finance Committee

Acceptedreport is attached

 

Looking at the expenses to date it is noted that we may incur more expenses for Property Committee. The carpets might get cleaned before the end of the year and there might be a 1 month vacancy for Office 1.

 

 

2018-11-03  First reading of the Budget– Greg Tobin, Treasurer

Accepted report is attached

 

Noted changes from 2018 budget:

• Our apportionment to Baltimore Yearly Meeting is based on the dollar contributions of the previous year. Our apportionment decreased as a result of our decreased contributions in 2017.
• Our insurance premiums decreased as a result of upgrading our fire alarm system.
• Peace and Social Concerns requested an increase to $2,000 for charitable giving. Feelings among folks at FFM range from wanting to increase this amount, to wanting it to remain the same, to zeroing it out. Stewardship and Finance requested it remain at $1,500.
• A thought about adding a Quaker School Scholarship was offered. This was sent back to Stewardship and Finance Committee.

 

Meeting minutes its appreciation to the Treasurer and Stewardship and Finance for their dedication to this task.

 

 

2018-11-04  Report on New Mortgage – Greg Tobin 

Acceptedreport is attached

Meeting Minutes its appreciation to Ethan Bliss, JoAnn Coates-Hunter and Greg Tobin for attending to this.

 

There was some discussion about the details of the attached breakdown of payoff possibilities. It was decided to continue with the current payment plan.

 

 

Worship Sharing

Business concluded with 40 minutes to spare. We entered into a time of worship sharing on the query, “What brought you to Quakers?”

 

Our next Meeting for Worship for the Conduct of Business will be held December 9, 2018 at noon.

 

Kathy Funkhouser, Presiding Clerk

Betsy Tobin, Recording Clerk

 

Attachment 1

Charitable Giving Recommendations

From Peace & Social Concerns Committee

October 14, 2018

 

Peace & Social Concerns committee consulted Meeting members and attenders for their preferences on how to distribute the $1500 in our budget for charitable giving. Based on suggestions, two categories were added to those of last year and two were dropped. A form was then distributed inviting people to indicate how they would distribute $1500 among the listed categories.

 

We averaged the responses on the 10 completed forms,* rounded the results to the nearest $5 amount and came up with the following recommendations:

 

295 Able & Willing

280 Friends Meeting School

175 FCNL

170 Friends House

150 AFSC

125 Religious Coalition

110 ACLU MD

100 Environmental Stewardship 

50 for Interfaith Power and Light; 

50 for Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake

95  Faith House      

 

-------------------------

*One person responded 0 to all the listed charities feeling that individuals should make their own charitable contributions independent of Meeting. Another Meeting member has expressed a similar view. In the meantime, Peace & Social Concerns is requesting an increase in Meeting’s budget for charities to $2,000. These differing thoughts might be further explored in a future threshing session.

 

 

Attachment 2

Financial report (Stewardship and Finance/Treasurer)

The financial report through the third quarter of 2018 is summarized in the table at the end of this report.  We are currently approximately $4,591 in deficit. However, this figure does not take into account the $2335 raised in our recent service auction nor the $1500 destined for charitable giving to other organizations (a net of $835). The most remarkable contributing line items include a shortage of about $5500 (year to date) in contributions and $3,721 paid for the mini-split system that was not drawn from our reserves.  Other notable lines include #9 (Yard sale raised $1603 instead $1200), #18 (no rental vacancy allowance used), #35 (Adult scholarships of $1900 not used), #51 (underspending by property committee for upkeep and repairs), #55 (reduction in insurance premium due to fire alarm system), and #61 ($475 not spent for camper scholarships).

 

We encourage Friends to continue their financial support, especially those who make year-end contributions.

 

Attachment 3

Mortgage renewal (Trustees/Treasurer)

In October of 2013, Trustees refinanced our unsecured loan for the property with a 15-year mortgage at Frederick County Bank. The mortgage matures every five years.  Last week, Trustees renewed the mortgage at a slightly reduced rate of 4.75%. It is a 10 year mortgage.  If we continue to pay $1600 per month, we will pay off the $61,426 mortgage in March of 2022.  If we reduce our payments to $1344 per month, the payoff date is later the same year and we will budget $3,072 less per year for this line item.  Other options for reduced payments, including paying no extra, are shown in the table.

 

 

Attachment 4

2019 Budget (Stewardship and Finance/Treasurer)

We recently held a second hour discussion on the 2019 budget with additional discussions regarding contributions to other charitable organizations.  The table containing the financial report data also shows the draft of the 2019 budget. We call attention to several line items that need additional discernment:

            #3 Contributions

            #27 Reduction in apportionment to BYM for 2019

            #35 Adult scholarships

            #43 Interim Meeting Day (not needed for 2019)

            #51 Property spending on repairs and improvements