Permanent Board of New England Yearly Meeting (NEYM) publishes these guidelines for preparation of memorial minutes, hoping that a description of the process of forwarding a memorial minute (Nuts and Bolts) and some thoughts on what a memorial minute may contain (Writing a Memorial Minute) may be useful, since writing memorial minutes is not something most meetings do often.
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From Meeting to Quarter
(Do you need to allow time for QM M&C?) |
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From Quarter to Permanent Board
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From Permanent Board to the Editing committee
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Editing
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NEYM |
Your monthly meeting needs time to season a memorial minute. Circulate it widely. You may want to read it at two consecutive meetings for business before you consider whether to forward it to your quarterly meeting. (Remember Quarterly Meeting Ministry & Counsel (M&C).)
Minutes to be forwarded to Permanent Board by its May or June meeting need to be heard by the quarterly meeting first. Consult your quarter’s calendar. If there is a quarterly meeting Ministry & Counsel committee, it should review the memorial minute. Quarterly Meeting M&C may meet up to a month before quarterly meeting. Include this in your planning.
Minutes which are forwarded to Yearly Meeting Sessions need to be approved by Permanent Board so they can be forwarded to the editing committee at or before the Permanent Board meeting in May or June. Permanent Board can consider memorial minutes at its earlier meetings: October or November, January, March.
Two queries should be answered truthfully at each level, before a memorial minute is forwarded:
Also it’s helpful to be reminded that some Friends, worthy as they may have been, had no connection to NEYM, but a primary connection with larger Quaker organizations. In that case it might be appropriate to send an obituary to Friends Journal and the Quaker organization, instead.
Well, somebody does have to say whether a particular minute should be forwarded. Having members from all the M&C committees in the quarter hear the minute should be a good test. And while Friends’ longevity is a blessing, it can mean that a meeting may memorialize the last 20 years of a long and spirit filled life. QM M&C may want to suggest adding an endorsement that reflects more of the whole. Of course your meeting has consulted with any other meetings this Friend held earlier membership in.
Memorial minutes read at sessions are usually cut and sometimes expanded to emphasize yearly meeting (YM) work. This is part of the process of review by Permanent Board. Permanent Board chooses several Friends to do this work. They complete it in late July so that the YM office can have the memorial minutes ready for sessions.
The process of writing a memorial minute starts in your meeting’s Ministry & Counsel committee. The committee may choose other members of the meeting to do the writing, but M&C should read the minute before it is presented to meeting for business.
Work as led. Spirit will move you in the right direction – to know what to include or omit – to know how to present facts so that truth is served.
Allow time for your meeting’s Ministry & Counsel to season the work.
Expect changes. Your monthly meeting is likely to ask for changes. Try to be grateful for their interest.
Downloadable NEYM-MemorialMinutesGuidelines.doc [1]
Links:
[1] https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/sites/all/files/documents/NEYM-MemorialMinutesGuidelines.doc