CMM 2023-01-08

Minutes of Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business

Concord (NH) Monthly Meeting of

the Religious Society of Friends

First Month 8^th, 2023

Twenty-one Friends gathered for Meeting for Worship to attend to business, in person and by Zoom.  We opened with a brief period of Worship.

Minutes of Twelfth Month 2022 were approved as posted on the Meeting website.

01.01  Possible Land Purchase: We received a report from the ad hoc committee about the possibility of Meeting buying the parcel of land directly across the street from our Meetinghouse.  The land parcel seems to now be unavailable due to sale to another buyer.  The committee also noted that the tentative possibility of purchasing this land brought out lots of feelings from Friends about a variety of interests that Meeting could still pursue on the property we currently have in our stewardship.  The report is attached to these minutes.

01.02  Youth Religious Education (YRE) Committee reported about our support of a Kenyan family with a student through the Kenya Rising Family Care Center.  The young woman we had supported for several years has graduated out of the program.  There has been a request that we take on another student and their family for several more years.  The current request is for $880 annually to aid lifting a family out of poverty allowing the student to progress successfully in their studies.  Friends approved this and YRE will begin to lead the needed fundraising activities.  There is already planning underway to hold a large yard sale at the Meetinghouse in May of this year.

01.03  Classroom Observer: YRE also asked us to discern whether the observer called for in our Child Safety Policy could be remote.  This could be accomplished by having computers in each classroom attached to a breakout room of our Zoom worship session being monitored by someone periodically leaving Meeting for Worship and checking the classrooms on Zoom.  The YRE proposal is attached.  Discussion ensued with some Friends asking that a bit more discernment occur before this is implemented.  While some uneasiness may remain, Friends thank the YRE committee and approve their experimenting with how the proposal would be implemented.

01.04  Property Committee report is attached.  The committee would like further guidance about the acoustical panel installation project.  They also want Meeting to begin further discussions and discernment around the desire expressed last summer to build a pavilion for outdoor activities when weather is warm but some protection from the elements would make outdoor gathering more enjoyable.

01.05  Finance Committee circulated a report on the first seven months of the fiscal year.  Full financial report is attached.  Friends received it with gratitude for the committee’s work.

After a brief time of quiet worship, Meeting adjourned, purposing to meet again on the Second Sunday of the Second Month of 2023.

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.

Possible Land Purchase Report for January 8, 2023 Meeting for Business

Based on the Twelfth Month Minutes 12.02 (https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/2022-12-11_CMM_Minutes) the ad hoc committee met first on twelfth month 12^th, 2022.   Subsequent to that we formulated and distributed a survey to gauge interest from the Meeting, considered the survey responses, additional emails, and with help from others in the Meeting reached out to two local organisations to see if there was interest in any kind of partnership in land use or development.  We met again to consider these responses on first month 2^nd, 2023.

1. James reports that the family that owns the land will be selling to another buyer.  The option for the Meeting to acquire the land is not available at this time.
2. The ad hoc committee was asked to investigate “Friends becoming moved by the Spirit to do more to bring our community to the point where we feel right with this proposed purchase.”  After our survey of the Meeting and other responses the committee is in unity that there was no indication that enough Friends would be moved by the spirit to feel right with this proposed purchase.
3. There are possibilities, including Green Burial and a more inviting outdoor space, which remain open even though the additional plot of land is not available.  It’s not clear that there is now sufficient interest and capacity to support and commit to these ideas, but the committee feels possible life in these green shoots and the potential that if nurtured there might be leading of Spirit to develop additional space and use in the land we currently steward.
4. In the survey, we included the possibility of a community partnership.  With this in mind, the committee reached out to both NOFA-NH (Northeast Organic Farming Association - New Hampshire) and the local Abenaki band to inquire whether any collaboration in developing and using the land might be possible.  There is some life and spirit in the possibility of such a partnership with the local Abenaki band that might use the land the Meeting already has behind the Meetinghouse.

Youth Religious Education Report, January 8, 2023

YRE committee met twice this past month and discussed these topics.

Sponsorship of Christine Imbiti and family through Kenya Rising program (which replaced Friends of Kakamega Care Center): We have learned that Christine and her family have "graduated" from the Kenya Rising ‘Family Care’ program and will no longer need the kind of help that the Kenya Rising program offers.  Kenya Rising’s model entails supporting the an entire family as a way of ensuring that students are actually able to attain their educational goals.  The family goal is sustained, financial independence. We are so pleased to hear that Christine’s family has achieved that goal!

Kenya Rising has asked if our Meeting would consider supporting another family, the Asongas. A letter with information and pictures of both Christine’s family and the Asonga family will be available soon on the website.  The YRE Committee is asking the Meeting to commit to raising the $880 being requested, developing a relationship with the Asonga family and continuing our support of this wonderful program.

We hope to raise the funds by holding a Spring Yard Sale with the involvement of the children of Meeting.  This would have a large outreach component, especially to families.  More on this in coming months.  A Yard Sale Ad Hoc committee is forming with Greg Heath and Elaine Bello in leadership.  We anticipate a mid-May date, possibly May 13, (day before Mother’s Day).  We ask that Meeting members commit to fully engage in this effort.

Child Safety Policy:  In reviewing our child safety statement, the committee realized we should be making it available to all members annually for review, as well as having every childcare worker and teacher and parent sign it.  Find the policy here and on the website at https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/CommunitySafetyStatement  We will have some paper copies available at the Meetinghouse.

Revision of Child Safety Policy:  When the committee asked the November Meeting for Business to revise our Child Safety Policy to allow remote (Zoom) monitoring of the rooms in use for children's programming, we were asked to bring revised wording to the Meeting.  Here is pertinent part of the policy with the revised wording (in bold) which we are asking the Meeting to approve:

• If two areas of activity are in use, there will be three adults present with the children: a teacher or child care worker in each room plus a third adult floater between the rooms observing and assisting as needed.
  
  • People attending via Zoom may serve as the floater/observer by signing into each active classroom breakout room (one will be set up in each active classroom) periodically during worship.

Implementation:

We anticipate that this third ‘floater/observer’ will only be needed when both classrooms are in use.  However, a remote floater/observer could be used with only one classroom in use if no in-person helper is available.

The committee suggests that the floater/observer could observe in one of two ways. 

The first way requires only the one device they normally use for Zoom Worship. (Breakout room names are bolded):

1. Leave Worship Room
2. Enter Classroom 1 and monitor it for a period of time
3. Then leave Classroom 1 and enter Classroom 2 (if active) and monitor for a while.
4. Then leave Classroom 2 enter Worship again.

This should be done at least twice randomly between 10:15 and before end of worship.

The process for using two devices is easier.  (One device could be a laptop/desktop and the other a cell phone.) 

1. Sign one device into Worship breakout room.
2. Sign the other into Classroom 1.
3. At least twice randomly between 10:15 and end of worship,
   
   1. Shift focus from Worship room to the Classroom 1 breakout room.
   2. If there are two classrooms in use, leave Classroom 1, enter Classroom 2 and observe.
   3. Then shift focus back to Worship device.

Should anything be observed that is questionable, the observer should call the clerk’s phone (which the clerk should have with them on vibrate).  The clerk will investigate. 

NOTE:  We are investigating whether an inexpensive phone can be purchased and used for this purpose.

The entire process on reporting violations of safety are posted on the website, including documents for reporting violations.

Appreciation for Teachers, Helpers, and Observers: Thank you to all those who have been teachers and helpers this year!  It is a great gift to have children among us, which would not be possible without the help of the teachers (Rich, Wendy, and Ruth, and new teacher Elaine) and the other 17 people who have had a background check! 

Need for Helpers/Observers:  It is also a gift to have the schedule filled out in advance, so we are not scrambling to find someone who has already gone into Meeting for Worship.  There is a google doc of the schedule of teachers where helpers and floater/observers can sign up.  Note that if we have both toddlers and older youth we'll have two active rooms and need 3 people with children (teacher, helper, and floater).  So on any given Sunday we may need zero, 2, or 3 people out with children. 

If you have not had a background check and have been attending meeting six months, please contact Ruth and you can be added to the list of helpers. 

(When the Zoom observer policy change is approved, those attending on Zoom can also sign up.)

Please sign up continue to sign up on the Google Doc. 

Youth Religious Education Committee

Property Committee Report for January 2023

The committee met on January 4.

Now that the sound panels are up in fellowship, a decision needs to be made whether to move ahead with the same type of system in the worship space.  We would need to get more help to estimate the cost.  We do not currently havefunds set aside for this so we would need to plan for it in the coming year'sbudget if the meeting wishes to move ahead.  While reducing reverberation maybe less of an issue for our ordinary uses of the worship space, it may help the Pana camera to find the speaker more quickly.  We also need to decide whether we have enough panels up in the fellowship space.  If more should be added there, it would make sense to do that at the same time as the worship space.

We think it makes sense to set a 100-lb limit on the play structure.  We don'tthink that it is at all unsafe but it seems to be a reasonable precaution.  We are asking all to pay attention to this.  We don't feel signage is needed.  Renters have never had children playing outside, but it will be incorporated in our renter information.  We plan to put some seats on a few of the corners of the new sandbox using composite recycled material.

We are concerned that attendance at our every other month cleaning times has been low.  We wonder if we may need to look for different ways to address the cleaning needs.

A fair amount of interest was expressed last year in building an outdoor pavilion.  As a committee, we are unsure how seriously Meeting wants to pursue that possibility.  Meeting should consider that potential expense as the finance committee begins work on the next budget.  It would likely need ad hoc leadership to make progress on that rather than relying on property committee to do all the necessary planning.

Jennifer Smith, clerk of property committee