24-42 Welcome from Concord Meeting
Kathy Urie (Concord) welcomed us to Concord Friends Meeting. She told us that a nature-based preschool used to use this building. They have recently installed a geothermal heating system which they are very happy with.
24-43 Permanent Board Clerk’s welcome
Susan Davies (Vassalboro), clerk of the Permanent Board, welcomed us.
All that is true, all that is noble, all that is just and pure, all that is lovable and gracious, whatever is excellent and admirable, fill your thoughts with these things. [Philippians 4:8]
This has been a challenging 10 months since last August for the Permanent Board, for the Yearly Meeting, for our country, and for the world. All of us here, in our own ways, are trying so hard to meet this moment, this year, this decade. There is so much available for all of us to fill our thoughts from Paul’s list. There is also much that tempts us to weariness, frustration, and discouragement.
Faithfulness is like a koan. We never know when we have solved it. There is a razor's edge between faithfulness and moving from other motivations. The Ignatian spiritual discipline advises that one lives in a state of consolation when one is moving towards God’s active presence in the world. We know we are moving in this way when we sense the growth of love, faith, mercy, hope, or any of the qualities we know as gifts of the Spirit. Susan feels the many, many sources of consolation flowing through this, our spiritual community.
Susan expressed love and appreciation for the welcome from Concord Friends Meeting and gratitude for Maille Wooten and Janet Hough, who have taken on tech support duties. She expressed gratitude for her yokefellows on the Coordinating and Advisory committee. There are many signs of new life around the Yearly Meeting. There is Three Rivers Meeting in Salem Quarter, and a new evangelical Friends Church in Nashua, NH, in Dover Quarter. There are new worship groups in Dexter and Belfast, Maine.
She can also sense in her heart and body the things that lift up the Ignatian sense of desolation: a person lives in desolation when they are moving away from God’s active presence in the world. We know we are moving in this way when we sense the growth of resentment, ingratitude, selfishness, doubt, and fear.
There are many sources of desolation. Susan spoke of awareness of her own failures to lift up and offer tangible support and appreciation for the faithful work of Friends in NEYM. We who occupy privileged stations are steeped in white-supremacy culture. As such, we are susceptible to the characteristics of that culture. These features include perfectionism, a sense of urgency, defensiveness, valuing quantity over quality, worship of the written word, paternalism, either/or thinking, power hoarding, fear of open conflict, individualism, thinking “more” is better, objectivity, and a right to comfort. In our noticings today, let us try to notice these patterns in ourselves as we do our work today.
She noted that we have a busy day. There were 26 advance documents and 7 memorial minutes. We have had a busy year. In the past 10 months we have had 9 Permanent Board meetings. She thanked everyone for their service.
24-43 Roll Call
Attendees introduced themselves, first the ones on Zoom and then the ones in the room.
Bold is present in the room.
Susan Davies (PB Clerk), Willa Taber (PB Recording Clerk), Thomas Brenner, Deana Chase, Darcy Drayton, Christopher Gant, Elizabeth Hansen, Roger Jasaitis, Meg Klepack, Frances Lightsom, Leslie Manning, Carole Rein, Martha Schwope, Liesa Stamm, Eleanor Warnock, Morgan Wilson, Kathleen Wooten, Mary Zwirner.
Ex-officio members:
Marian Dalton (Treasurer), Scot Drysdale (Finance Committee clerk), Sarah Gant (clerk, Meeting Accompaniment Group), Rebecca Leuchak (Presiding Clerk), Noah Merrill (Yearly Meeting Secretary)
Regrets/Absent
Martin Forsythe, Diane Weinholtz, Donn Weinholtz, Kimberly Allen, Carolyne Lamar Jordan, Edward Mair, Anna Radocchia, Bob O’Connor, Allison Randall, John Reuthe, Newell Isbell Shinn, Jackie Stillwell (clerk of Nominating Committee), Carl Williams (clerk of Ministry and Counsel),
Visitors
Janet Hough (tech host), Fredrick Martin (Accounts Manager), Fran Brokaw, Becky Jones, Reb McKenzie, Susanna Schell, Kathy Olson, Mary Link, Sarah Allan, Elizabeth Hacala (Events Coordinator), Pamela Terrien, Maille Wooten (tech host), Jeremiah Dickenson, Sonja K. Birthisel, Rabbi Benjamin Gorelick, Michelle Wright, Polly Atwood, Honor Woodrow, Elaine Mello, Sarah Smith, Nia Thomas (Program Director).
24-44 Approval of Minutes
The clerk presented the minutes from the March 19, 2024, Permanent Board meeting, here attached.
Friends approved these minutes.
24-45 Disposition of North Fairfield Meetinghouse
Susan Davies introduced Sonja K. Birthisel and Rabbi Benjamin Gorelick from Mifneh L’Kedushah, who are seeking a home for nVolution. nVolution is an emerging collaborative project seeking to develop and support multifaith spiritual leadership and become a hub for community-led spiritual projects that is welcoming to all people in central Maine. They are seeking to acquire the North Fairfield meetinghouse. The proposal is attached. They would welcome our input on how to honor the Quaker history and would like the meeting house to be available for Quaker gatherings.
Friends raised concerns about PFAS contamination. The land is likely contaminated with PFAS and so probably has little monetary value. There may be state money available to provide a water-purification system. This is a known problem and a hold-harmless agreement can be written into the agreement.
Negotiations are continuing about whether the cemetery will be transfer with the meetinghouse or other arrangements will be made for it.
Friends approved the transfer of this property to Mifneh L’Kedushah and authorized the Yearly Meeting Secretary to negotiate the details of this conveyance. The final agreement does not have to come back for further approval.
24-46 Salem Quarter Sabbath
The period of the Permanent Board having care of the business of Salem Quarter ends in June of 2024. Those responsibilities will return to Salem Quarter as of that time. This is described in the Proposal for SQM Sabbath, here attached. Salem Quarter will be meeting on May 18 to determine their plans for the future. If after that meeting, Salem Quarter still desires some form of Permanent Board involvement in their affairs, it will bring a request to the next Permanent Board meeting.
It was noted that the difficulties that the Permanent Board encountered handling the affairs of Salem Quarter and the work of Vassalboro Quarter dealing with North Fairfield meetinghouse has shown the value and importance of the Quarters.
24-47 YM Secretary's report
Noah Merrill (Putney), the Yearly Meeting Secretary, expressed his gratitude to be back among us. This is the first public gathering since his brother’s memorial and it is a little difficult for him. His written report is attached to these minutes.
He displayed a photograph that he had taken of La Paz, Bolivia, with the mountain Illimani above it. He commented that he understands there are more Young Friends in La Paz, Bolivia, then there are Quakers in New England. Directions in La Paz are given in terms of up and down and in relation to Illimani. This is not helpful for newcomers when the mountain is covered by clouds but people who live there hold the mountain in their hearts and they always know where it is. The work of the Permanent Board and the Yearly Meeting, at its best, arises from our sense of the Divine and our ability to know where we are in relation to it, even if it appears to be shrouded by clouds.
It feels to him that the most helpful thing he can do in supporting Friends’ discernment is to keep reminding people of the context of the decisions that we are called to make. The Permanent Board and the Yearly Meeting as a whole has not always held the larger picture of where we are and what decisions we have made to bring us to this place.
The Yearly Meeting is engaged in much discernment about financial issues. Some are larger and wide-ranging and some are very granular. We cannot make them individually. We need to see how they are related. He presented a summary of what is being done to provide context for our financial decision.
We are currently developing ways to facilitate estate-giving and to promote annual giving.
Annual Sessions are a large part of our annual budget. We have begun a process of envisioning what we want Sessions to be and designing how that might be implemented. Contributions to other organizations are 5% of our budget. We are actively discerning how we want to allocate those contributions. We started an experiment with stipends for people serving as volunteers for larger roles. We are now reflecting on our experience as provided in the original decision. We are revising our personnel policies. The Legacy Gift Funds are our largest undesignated asset, almost a million dollars. We are starting a 10-year review of their use as specified when the funds were set up 10 years ago.
Then there are things that we do as a regular part of our work of financial stewardship. We help meetings wrestle with questions like: How do our financial decisions reflect our faith? How can we nurture a spirituality of stewardship? How do we steward our meetinghouses and property? How do you be a treasurer, prepare a budget, read a budget?
Ongoing, we ask what is the health of our youth ministries programs? This will need more listening and consultation, but so far not much work has gone into this. There has also been significant work and seasoning done over the past several years about establishing and investing in designated endowments to support the Yearly Meeting, including Friends Camp. Noah hopes that this can be brought to Permanent Board as soon as our agenda allows.
The Yearly Meeting had adopted a budgeting priorities process but it has been truncated for several years as we were responding to Covid and other emergencies. Noah hopes that we can return to using the full process so that we can take the burden of making priority decisions off the Finance Committee. As the Presiding Clerk mentioned in her report, he also hopes that we can become more clear and intentional about how we are influenced by white supremacy culture and how this affects the budgeting process and the rest of our work as Permanent Board.
24-48 Budget
Scot Drysdale (Hanover), clerk of the Finance Committee, presented the budget for fiscal year 2025, here attached. This budget has only had minor changes from the budget presented in February. The most major change was including the actual cost of living allowances in staff salaries. He also presented a report, also attached, that includes a proposal to make contributions to outside organizations contingent on there being a budget surplus. The Finance Committee proposes that 50% of any surplus be used to make contributions to outside organizations up to the originally budgeted amount. The remainder of the surplus would go to replenishing our reserves. If there is money to distribute in FY 2025, they will use the formula used in 2023, unless the allocation review committee has presented a proposal that has been approved by Sessions before the end of FY 2025.
There is a moral hazard with presenting a contingency budget. It allows us to feel good that we are planning to make contributions without having to admit that we do not expect to be actually able to make them.
Frederick Martin (Beacon Hill), the Yearly Meeting Accounts Manager, made a presentation about our use of reserves. The slides from this presentation are attached. Our reserves went down significantly during the pandemic and in its aftermath. Our expenses also went down because we had online-only Sessions for two years. However, Friends Camp had no income. At the start of the pandemic, we had additional income from Payroll Protection Program loans that were subsequently forgiven, and we received a refund on health insurance premiums. We used reserves as previously planned to revise our web registration system because we had already signed the contract for this work. We used some of our reserves to support Friends Camp when they had limited income. Once we returned to in-person Sessions, we used reserves to subsidize youth attendance. Overall attendance at Sessions was down and contributions decreased. The stock market went down, lowering the value of our quasi-endowment.
A friend raised a concern that staff expenses are more than 60% of our budget. Is this level of staffing consistent with our available resources? Most of our income happens in the last quarter but 60% of our expenses happen on a regular basis over the course of the year. If our projected increases in contributions do not appear, we do not have enough money in our reserves to cover our expenses. Another friend noted that we need a greater sense of urgency at Sessions to address our financial problems. We are not doing enough development work, even though, when we ask, people do come forward with generous donations. Should we announce the gap between Sessions costs and what has been received through pay-as-led so we can address the problem on the spot?
How can we change the story? How can we do a better job of integrating the graduates of our youth programs into the larger Yearly Meeting? We will not turn our financial situation around by declaring we are in a death spiral. We will do this by inviting Friends into what is important; by welcoming the people who come through the doors of our meetings and making them feel at home. We need to make clear that development work is a priority for staff time. The problem is not one of capacity. Our mailing list is full of addresses in some of the highest income zip codes in New England. We need to state clearly the concerns that we feel about the unsustainability of this budget and the precarious assumptions that it makes about contributions. We need to be clear about asking individuals and meetings to increase their contributions to the Yearly Meeting. We need to be clear in our instructions to Coordinating and Advisory Committee and to Yearly Meeting staff that development work is a priority. In the Yearly Meeting and our monthly meetings we need to provide both the experience of living in a spiritual community and the words to describe it and the faith that underlies it.
Friends approved sending the proposed 2025 budget to Yearly Meeting Sessions for approval. They also approved the following minute, prepared by Finance Committee, to be sent with the budget to Sessions for their approval:
We approve the budget as proposed with the following contingency. If at the end of FY25 there is a surplus, 50% of that surplus would be used to fund Support of Other Organizations, up to a limit of $45,495. The remainder of the surplus would increase our reserves.
The budget does not specify which organizations will receive donations if money is available. A committee is working on a way of deciding which organizations should be funded and how our funding should be divided amongst them. If this committee recommends a distribution mechanism that is approved by Sessions before the end FY25 this mechanism will be used to distribute the funds. Otherwise, they will be distributed proportionally to the same organizations that received contributions in FY23.
24-49 Noticing Patterns of Oppression and Faithfulness
A Friend noted that they were impressed by how hard we all worked to try to make the microphone work.
24-50 Presiding Clerk’s report
Rebecca Leuchak (Providence), Yearly Meeting Presiding Clerk, presented her report here attached. She hopes that we all can grasp how complicated and interconnected the Yearly Meeting community is. She also hopes we realize how much is in flux. We have a lot of urgent work to do. We have always had a lot of urgent work to do. This is sobering but it is also something to lift up with joy and appreciation that we have a lot of work to do and it is God’s work.
One of the things that is on her mind as we prepare for Sessions is the need for volunteers from all of our monthly meetings to make it happen.
Tension can lead to revelation. Holding the unease and tension we are feeling about the state of the Yearly Meeting can actually lead us to discernment of the way forward.
24-51 Coordinating & Advisory Committee Report
Rebecca Leuchak, clerk of the Coordinating and Advisory Committee (C&A), presented her written report, here attached. In that report, it says that “We are joined by the Clerk of the Accompaniment Group…”. The minute establishing the Meeting Accompaniment Group (See Sessions Minute 2022-40 and Appendix 2 of the 2022 Minute Book, pp 42-45) said that the clerk of that group would be a member of the Coordinating and Advisory Committee. The Purposes, Practices and Composition document for the Coordinating and Advisory Committee on the Yearly Meeting website will need to be corrected to reflect this.
Preparing the list of the things that the Coordinating and Advisory Committee has been involved in over the past year, here attached, was in itself very useful. The list is not prioritized, but the various levels of attention items receive are detailed in the report. Rebecca may try to prioritize that list in the future.
Rebecca apologized for dropping the ball in regard to a lack of outreach and communication with the Legacy Gift Review Committee.
24-51.01 Make-up of the Meeting Accompaniment Group.
Friends approved making the clerk of Ministry and Counsel an ex-officio member of the Meeting Accompaniment Group.
The group is looking for members. If you are interested contact Rebecca. It does not have the authority to co-opt members but, because their work is complicated, there may be opportunities for other people to travel with members of the Meeting Accompaniment Group to hold them in prayer and companionship.
Leslie Manning invited us to remember Elizabeth Reuthe, who was the Yearly Meeting Secretary Supervisor. Elizabeth and her husband John hosted the Coordinating and Advisory retreats at their home. The clerk of the Permanent Board is now serving as the interim Yearly Meeting Secretary Supervisor. She expressed her concern that the Permanent Board clerk may not have the capacity to hold this extra responsibility and would like Coordinating and Advisory to consider another solution to the problem of a vacancy in the position of Yearly Meeting Secretary Supervisor.
24-52 Proposal from the Working Group to Create the Charge for an NEYM Conflict-Response Team
Darcy Drayton presented the charge for an NEYM Conflict-Response Team, here attached. The most effective resolution of conflict requires admitting the spirit of Christ into all stages of the conflict resolution. Cases can be very different so each conflict might require a different process. There will be a different response team for each conflict.
Friends approved the charge for a NEYM Conflict Response Team. Friends laid down the Working Group to create the Charge for a NEYM Conflict Response Team.
24-53 Legacy Gift Committee
Because the recommendations for the disbursements from the Bodine-Rustin Fund did not appear in the advance documents in a timely manner, the approval of these recommendations will be held over until our July meeting.
The Legacy Gift Review Committee will be bringing their report in July. The Legacy Gift Committee was created by Yearly Meeting Sessions which is responsible for acting on those recommendations. The Legacy Gift committee will continue its current work through the end of this fiscal year.
24-54 Report on Sessions Recruitment
Nia Thomas, Program Director, apologized for the late submission of the advance document for the update on Sessions Recruitment, here attached. Phil Veatch, Sessions Planning Clerk, has coordinated deep dives into recruiting people to serve at Sessions. They are working to reduce barriers to service and to increase recruitment.
We have fewer than half of the volunteers needed to carry out Sessions, particularly in Youth Programming. We estimate that we will have to ask 400 Friends to fill the 40 roles that need to be filled. We are trying to avoid limited registrations, changing or reshaping youth programs, and changing the schedule to reflect reduced childcare.
Share this information broadly in your meeting. Encourage and suggest individuals, support overall participation, such as providing rides to Yearly Meeting. The top reason for declines in the number of people volunteering to serve is people who say that they are not attending Sessions.
24-55 Memorial Minutes
Friends approved forwarding to Sessions the memorial minutes, here attached, for Helen Cornelia Pratt Clarkson, Charlotte Anne Curtis, James Dexter, Lynne Johnson, Nancy Shippen, Margaret Wentworth, and Susan Jane McIntire Wood.
24-56 Update on Ministry and Worship
Because Carl Williams (Plainfield), clerk of Ministry and Worship, was not able to attend today’s meeting, Noah Merrill, NEYM Secretary, presented the report from Ministry and Counsel. The PDF of the slides is attached to these minutes.
When Ministry and Counsel was laid down in 2022, a group of people was charged with meeting periodically to reflect on how the experiment has been going, to listen to what was arising, and to report back with recommendations. Some suggestions they are considering are to be more intentional in holding the Yearly Meeting in prayer, appointing a small group to help meetings in supporting emerging gifts, and gathering a group of people to support the clerk of Ministry and Counsel.
24-57 Anti-racism consultation
Noah Merrill, Yearly Meeting Secretary, reported that the proposal from Melvin Brae to provide an anti-racism consultation, here attached, has come in well above our expectations as far as scope and expense. Noah is clear that he does not have the authority to approve a contract of this scope. We also do not have a polity that would allow us to hold the types of consultations envisioned, because we cannot direct the actions of local meetings. Noah does not want to continue to refine the proposals without paying a consulting fee for Melvin’s work.
Noah will contact the consultant to honor his time and to see how we might continue and how he might come to better understand our organization.
24-58 Report of the Noticing Patterns Working Group.
Polly Atwood presented the report of the Noticing Patterns Working Group, here attached.
24-59 Nominations by the Permanent Board clerk
Susan Davies, Clerk of the Permanent Board, presented her report on nominations to working groups and the Naming Committee, here attached.
- Friends approved Jay O’Hara (Portland) to serve on the Naming Committee.
- Friends approved Roger Jasaitis (Putney), Doug Armstrong (Monadnock), Eleanor Warnock (Northampton) and Bre-anne Brown (East Sandwich) to serve on the Evaluation of Volunteer Stipends Experiment Working Group.
- Friends approved Maggie Fiori (Portland) to serve on the Sessions Visioning Working Group.
24-60 Nominating Committee Report
Friends heard the report of the Nominating Committee, here attached.
- Friends approved Stefan Walker (Northampton) to begin service immediately on the Finance Committee in the class of 2027.
- Friends approved Melissa Becca (Hartford) to begin service immediately on the Youth Ministries Committee in the class of 2027.
- Friends approved Brian Drayton (Souhegan) to serve as Interim Recording Clerk for NEYM Sessions 2024.