Frederick Friends Meeting

Meeting for Worship for the Conduct of Business

Tenth Month, Fourteenth Day, 2018

 

Opening Worship

In attendance were

Nick Funkhouser, Annette Breiling, Helen Tasker, Karen Lockett, Michele Hartley, Julie Odland, Carlotta Joyner, Julie Kuntz, David Kuntz, Greg Tobin, Karen White, Ethan Bliss

  

2018-10-01  Peace and Social Concerns – FFM Corporate Giving– Annette Breiling

Acceptedreport is attached

 

Many people believe we should increase our corporate giving. Several other people believe we should zero-out our budget item for corporate giving, believing that individuals should donate to other organizations as they are led.

The feeling arose that P&SC might hold a threshing session regarding FFM’s charitable giving.

Meeting minutes its appreciation for the care Peace and Social Concerns Committee puts into discerning where we send our corporate gifts.

 

2018-10-02  Nominating Committee Annual Report– Helen Tasker

Acceptedreport attached

 

Through their work, Nominating Committee realized that Meeting needed to revision our view of the role of serving the Meeting. Nominating organized two facilitated discussions to begin this revisioning process.

 

Clarification regarding Roster of Service (ROS):  As our by-laws state, we need to have Clerk and Trustees approved by the Meeting. We approved those positions in June. The rest of the ROS is a working document. The current ROS is posted in the kitchen.

 

Clarification question:  Does Nominating have a plan for next steps? Nominating, the Clerking Team and M&C are working towards planning the next steps.

 

Nominating also brought suggestions regarding Chain of Communication and suggestions for ways to become involved with Meeting Life. This document is attached.

 

There needs to be communication between committees, committees with Nominating and committees with committee members/potential members. We have learned that miscommunication can cause hurt feelings.

 

The phrase “divide up labor/choose tasks” arose.

 

Nominating requests that each committee have a designated contact person even if there is not a clerk of the committee.

 

Meeting minutes its appreciation for the depth of Spirit Nominating Committee brings to their work.

  

2018-10-03  Treasurers Update– Greg Tobin

Accepted report is attached

 

Our checking account was low as a result of paying for the mini-split system. An “all call” was put out requesting donations. Three people donated a total of $2,500. We also transferred $3,000 from our long-term savings.

 

 

2018-10-04  Threshing Session

 

As a result of the discussions regarding Corporate Giving and larger budget concerns we decided to hold a Threshing Session on the October 21, 2018 during potluck, at the Rise of Meeting.

 

Our next Meeting for Worship for the Conduct of Business will be held November 11, 2018 at 9:00am.

  

Queries to ponder. Time did not permit worship sharing on these.

What about Meeting brings you joy?

What helps our Meeting build trust in one another?

 

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

 

Nominating Committee:  2018 Annual Report to Frederick Friends Meeting

 

2017 and 2018 has been a challenging year for our meeting and for Nominating Committee as it has become clear that we have huge hopes and dreams, expectations for ourselves and others as meeting/ community members. (Tori Bolton, Ethan Bliss, And Helen Tasker are the members of the committee.)

 

Our two large tasks and responsibilities for the meeting have been finding the people to fill the slots for the offices and committees of the meeting, and revising the Guidance document each fall. As we came to the task of considering who we could tap for clerk of meeting, it became clear that we had very few people who met the requirements to take on the work of clerk.  In informal discussions with Friends about our general committee/office structure of the meeting, it became clear we needed to re-vision the role of committees and clerking within the meeting. We reached out to Ministry and Counsel and other seasoned Friends within our meeting, and it became clear we needed to have some meeting-wide discussions about how to move forward.  The clerk of Ministry and Counsel had shared a document about clerking which we decided to us as a springboard for a facilitated discussion around the role of clerk. We called on Katie Bliss to use her gift of facilitating conversations with large groups, and as we shared our concerns she developed queries that we addressed last Spring at the meetinghouse. It became clear that ideas of clerking were varied, and we began to see that many of the duties that we expect of the clerk, could be done by other members of the community.  After our Spring retreat where we looked into this even more, the idea of a clerking team became a much more palatable way to approach the dilemma of who could clerk. In that light, Kathy Funkhouser and Betsy Tobin have stepped up as the clerking team, and Julie Odland took on other administrative tasks with which our previous clerk gifted us: announcements and regular communication about events in the meeting. However, we see the need for and are trying to arrange for ways to clarify the way in which we move forward with committees. We see this as a discussion that the entire meeting needs to have; it cannot be left to one committee or several people.

 

We presented  roster of service in June, but only the officers were approved as there was some discussion about who should or should not be on committees etc.  As far as our by-laws go we only MUST have a clerk of meeting and trustees. That was approved in June. 

 

As we convened our committee again this month, we clarified several of our understandings about our responsibilities:

• Guidance Document:  
• This document was first created about 10 years ago, and gives helpful guidance about roles and expectations for committees and officers. Generally we asked committees to review it and suggest revisions each fall.  We have decided to forego that this year, as we hope to really re-vision our structure this year.
• It is meant to serve as guidance, not a set of rules and restrictions.  Each committee, in discerning its work, needs to mind the Spirit as this is our ultimate Guide.
• Roster of Service
• It is a list of names of people who are associated with a committee, or who serve in a particular position or office for the meeting.
• We will post the current roster (approved in 2017 and updated through now) as it is the working document.

 

• However, this question remains: 

• Do we see the names listed as a reflection of service, a hope of service, or simply support for a committee?
• As we discussed this it became clear that we need to clarify the relationship of committee clerks and members of committees and will present our clarification for that (see separate document) because different Friends have different ideas about what the roster serves as.

 

• We look forward to working with the meeting community to re-vision our path forward as we are challenged with the tension between the many hopes of what we want to be as a meeting and our limits of time, energy, and people. We will continue to work closely with the Clerking team, committees and individuals to clarify net steps.  If you have questions or concerns, please voice them to our committee.

 

After several conversations within business meeting and among individuals Nominating Committee feels that it is necessary to clarify 

 

• Committee members and committee clerks need to be clear with each other about expectations for involvement.
• Clerks: Discuss the level of commitment that your committee expects/needs from its members. Some possible considerations
• Are there different capacities/skills that you need?  
• What is the time commitment?
• Can the responsibilities be broken down and delineated? (Some people may feel a strong desire to be listed as a committee member, but may not be in a season of their life to commit the energy and time normally expected)
• Invite Friends to participate in the work of the committee before “joining.”
• Potential Members/Members:  Be clear with yourself, the clerk, other members about your availability and commitment
• What is the energy, passion, gift, time that I am willing to commit to this work?
• Has anything in my life changed that necessitates my change in commitment?  Are there new constraints that make it difficult?  
• Am I willing to communicate with the clerk of the committee (receive and respond to communications via various methods) so they are aware of my needs/abilities? 

  

Attachment 3

 

Ways to become involved in Meeting Life:

People who have been a part of the meeting community and are seeking to become involved in different aspects of the meeting life would most likely find it helpful to communicate with the clerk of the committee.

 

Nominating Committeecan answer questions, help with conversations, seek new members if needed. 

 

However, we have noted that there are times person wants to be “try-out” a committee, but has not been fully welcomed onto a committee for various reasons.  Sometimes a person new to the meeting community or committee has had expectations for what can be done that may not align with the committee as it is.

 

Attachment 4

 

Frederick Friend Meeting – Financial report 10/14/18

1. We had a low bank balance due to paying the final $6000 for the mini-split system. We have pulled $3,000 from our long-term savings and a few Friends have responded with generous donations.  We are now in good shape through the end of the year with a much smaller deficit. We continue to encourage Friends to make contributions so that we can finish the year with a balanced budget. If our income is greater than the expenses and our bank account enables it, we would then transfer some money back to our long-term savings account.
2. On October 17, 2013, we obtained a 15-year mortgage at 5% interest for about $130,000 from FCB. Because this is a commercial loan, it matures Oct 17, 2018. We have discussed the renewal with the loan officer at the bank with similar terms for a 10-year mortgage.  There are no fees. Trustees will sign the note with FCB for the balance of about $67,000 and we anticipate that the rate will be reduced to 4.75%. If we continue to pay down the mortgage at the current rate of $1600 per month, we will pay it off around May 2022.