April 2021 Meeting Minutes
GRASS VALLEY FRIENDS MEETING
Of the Religious Society of Friends of the Truth
College Park Quarterly Meeting, Pacific Yearly Meeting
MINUTES & RECORD
Meeting for Worship on the Occasion of Business
04/11/2021
We met virtually.
Present: Don McCormick (co-clerk), Amy Cooke (recording clerk), Chamba Cooke, Dorothy Henderson, Doug Hamm, Judy Hamilton, Dianne Marshall, Reed Hamilton, Bhakti Banning, Sandy Kewman, Pat Phillips.
The Meeting opened with silent worship.
CLERK’S REMARKS
- The purpose of our meetings for business is to seek the Spirit’s will for us as a community. We are here to worship and not to get through an agenda.
- If you want to suggest that we take some time for worship or take more time between speakers, please say, “Clerk, can we have some time for silence” or use the Time Out sign.
- Being a clerk is a role assigned to one or two people, but clerking is a bunch of behaviors that we all can engage in, and I hope we all will.
- We leave room for Spirit to come through, releasing our thoughts, judgements, opinions and becoming silent inside and out. We can hand our issues to Spirit/God/Jesus, and then settle into any sensations or messages coming through.
QUERY
- Can you share a moment that you found spiritually meaningful in a Meeting for Business or a committee meeting?
Friends spoke out of worship.
LAST MONTH’S ACTION ITEMS
PROPOSED MINUTE (seasoning): Grass Valley Friends Meeting approves changing all terms for officers and committee members to one year terms, with the exception of Nominating
Committee, which will remain on staggered two-year terms, with no term limits.
MINUTE 2021.04.01: Grass Valley Friends Meeting approves changing all terms for officers and committee members to one year terms, with the exception of Nominating
Committee, which will remain on staggered two-year terms, with no term limits.
The minute was approved with one member standing aside.
REPRESENTATIVE and OFFICER REPORTS
- Treasurer’s Report: Fosten Wilson, treasurer, gave the report, attached.
- Interfaith Nevada County: Today is the Interfaith Solidarity Virtual March. Reverend Lani Howard will be speaking on behalf of Interfaith Nevada County.
- Right Sharing for World Resources: Judy Hamilton gave the report. She has submitted stamps to RSWR, and reports that all stamps can be used. Please cut them out with a good border (not too close to the stamp) and send to Judy. She also reported that Jackie Stillwell will be giving a workshop this Summer at FGC called The Power of Enough. Registration opens April 15th.
- Email coordinator: Amy requested that all requests for the email tree and meeting reports be sent to grassvalleyfriends@gmail.com. Starting this month, committee clerks and officers will be transferring their files to the GVFM Google Drive (training on Tuesday 4/13 at 4 pm).
COMMITTEE REPORTS (see reports appended, committee clerk is noted in bold)
NOMINATING COMMITTEE: Doug Hamm, Patricia Phillips, Karen Olson
Pat Phillips gave the report. She read the Nominating slate for 2021-22, appended. The Meeting clarified that the co-clerks of meeting are ex-officio members of Spirit and Witness. It has not been our practice to have the clerk or co-clerks as ex-officio of all committees, although they are welcome at all committee meetings.
It was noted that if Amy is approved Recording Clerk she will need to participate virtually.
The slate will be published in the newsletter and is now being seasoned until the May meeting.
CHILDREN’S PROGRAM: Dorothy Henderson, Gordon Bishop, Karen Olson, Judy Hamiliton, Doug Hamm, Don McCormick.
No report this month.
SPIRIT/WITNESS: Gordon Starr, Judy Hamilton, Gordon Bishop, Don McCormick, Anita McCormick, Amy Cooke, Dorothy Henderson.
Judy Hamilton gave the report, appended. The Fifth Sunday closing will be held by Karen Olson.
- Application for Membership: Judy Hamilton’s letter applying for membership was read in the Meeting. Her letter will now go to Spirit and Witness. It was noted that, since she is clerk of that committee, she will recuse herself during the discussion of her membership and the formation of her clearness committee for membership.
- State of the Meeting Report: The State of the Meeting Report was read in the meeting and is appended. This will now be seasoned until the May Meeting for Business.
- A request was made to include the Library in the Stewardship Committee.
- Regarding the Nisenan: indicate that this is the tribe bative to our area.
- Note that the Zoom meetings allowed former and non-local members of the meeting to begin attending again as well as those who have physical issues that prevent attendance at the in-person worship.
- Clarification should be given regarding the location of the Interfaith Meeting and that the session was on Clearness Committees.
The process of drafting the State of the Meeting report was powerful for those who worked on it, and deep appreciation was expressed for the work and the process that held it.
Don McCormick will make the changes as noted and it will be published in the newsletter and put out on the email tree.
STEWARDSHIP: Mary Starr, Gordon Starr, Reed Hamilton, Pat Phillips, Doug Hamm, Fosten Wilson (Treasurer, Ex-officio), Dianne Marshall (Librarian), Hailey Wilson
There was no report.
WELCOME: Amy Cooke, Don McCormick, Kathy McCreery
Amy Cooke gave the report.
- Logo: Don shared the proposed logo with Meeting in 3rd Month. The logo has been developed to represent a welcome and inclusive spirit. The logo has been shared on the Email Tree and in the newsletter for seasoning until this month. Feedback has been received that the logo should have a black and white version and a color version. Also, one Friend expressed a preference for a rounder version, like a circle or mobius strip. It was also requested that the rainbow have the blue at the top and the green at the bottom. There was discussion about the use of the rainbow as a symbol that has been used for inclusion as well as a biblical covenant with God. A Friend made the suggestion to have the rainbow encircle the triangle.
This will now go back to the Welcome Committee for further development and discernment.
- Roles in the Welcome Committee: It is proposed that the Website/Social Media Coordinator, the Email Coordinator, and the Zoom Coordinator be added as ex officio members to the Welcome Committee.
Proposed Minute: Grass Valley Friends Meeting approves adding the roles of Website/Social Media Coordinator, the Email Coordinator, and the Zoom Coordinator as ex officio members to the Welcome Committee, effective with the 2021-22 slate.
NAMING COMMITTEE: Judy Hamilton, Dorothy Henderson, Amy Cooke, Mary Starr
Judy Hamilton brought forward the names for the Nominating Committee, to season until May.
Doug Hamm: 2020-22 term
Pat Phillips: 2020-22 term
Karen Olson: 2021-23 term
Sharon Davisson: 2021-23 term
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Spiritual Life: Listening Session on Race 4.25.2021 after Meeting
- Third Tuesday in April: The Interfaith Nevada County group will meet and discussing having a peer sharing component, which Don McCormick has brought forward that group.
- The Friends General Conference 2021 Gathering will be held virtually, from June 27 – July 3, 2021. Registration opens April 15.
- Google Drive: There is an orientation at 4 pm on Tuesday, April 13 for all committee clerks and officers. Email Amy for the Zoom link.
- If you use Facebook, follow the Grass Valley Friends Meeting page, or join the Facebook Grass Valley Friends Meeting group.. If you share a post from the page, your friends will see it!. It helps our visibility. Follow this link.
- It’s easy to give to Grass Valley Friends Meeting! Go to gvfriends.org and click on the Give button. This takes you to a secure site for donations. Please consider making your contribution monthly. Your contribution covers our Pacific Yearly Meeting dues and ensures that our activities as a Meeting are sustained. Thank you.
- The dates for Pacific Yearly Meeting Annual Session 2021 have been set: July 23-28, 2021. See the Clerk’s Call to Annual Session 2021 and the AS 2021 Information Page for more information.
- Online Worship: every Wednesday evening, 7:00-7:30 pm sponsored by PYM Eldering subcommittee of the Ministry Committee. Consider also the many other opportunities for online Quaker worship listed at westernfriend.org.
FEEDBACK
- There is a balancing act between coming to consensus and seeking the will of God – this is a continuing struggle. We can come to the place where everyone agrees but we need to be aware of how Spirit is working among us.
- The encouragement of the Clerk for all participants to engage in the clerking was appreciated.
- The way that the Clerk demonstrated correcting himself was a powerful illustration of clerking in action.
ACTION ITEMS & ITEMS SEASONING
- Nominating Slate 2021-22
- State of the Meeting report
- The logo will be further developed and brought back to meeting
- Proposed Minute: Grass Valley Friends Meeting approves adding the roles of Website/Social Media Coordinator, the Email Coordinator, and the Zoom Coordinator as ex officio members to the Welcome Committee, effective with the 2021-22 slate.
- Naming Committee slate for Nominating Committee
READING OF THE RECORD AND MINUTES
Note: The record and the minutes were read, corrected and approved.
If you are giving a report to GVFM, please send the actual report to the recording clerk at grassvalleyfriends@gmail.com THE FRIDAY BEFORE MEETING FOR BUSINESS.
GVFM Newsletter Reminder: Please have items into Diane Marshall by Tuesday at 10 am.
The Meeting closed with silent worship.
Respectfully recorded by Amy Cooke, recording clerk.
APPENDICES:
- Nominating Committee
- Spirit and Witness committee
- Treasurer’s Report
- State of the Meeting Draft Report
—————————————————————————
Nominating Committee
GVFM PROPOSED SLATE COMMITTEES, REPS, OFFICERS 2021-2022
COMMITTEES:
Stewardship:
Mary Starr, Gordon Starr, Reed Hamilton, Pat Phillips, Doug Hamm, Fosten Wilson (Treasurer,
Ex-officio) Dianne Marshall, Hailey Wilson
Spirit/Witness:
Gordon Starr, Judy Hamilton, Gordon Bishop, Dorothy Henderson, Anita and Don McCormick (ex-officio Co Clerks), Amy Cooke, Judy Hamilton
Welcome:
Karen Olson, Kathy McCreery
Children’s Program:
Karen Olson, Judy Hamilton, Dorothy Henderson, Gordon Bishop, Anita McCormick, Doug Hamm, Don McCormick
OFFICERS:
Co-Clerks: Don and Anita McCormick
Communication Coordinator: Judy Hamilton
Directory Coordinator: Nancy Anderson
Librarian: Dianne Marshall
Mail Clerk: Dean Olson
Newsletter Editor: Dianne Marshall
Newsletter Distribution: Pat Phillips
Newsletter Reader: Karen Olson
Placer County Worship Group: Stuart Smith
Recorder: Nancy Anderson
Recording Clerk: Amy Cooke
Treasurer: Fosten Wilson
Website Maintenance: Amy Cooke
Zoom Coordinator: Hailey Wilson, Stuart Smith
REPRESENTATIVES:
AFSC:
College Park Quarterly:
FASE:
FCNL:
FCLCA:
FGC Liaison:
PYM: Don McCormick
Quaker Center:
QUNP:
Right Sharing of World Resources: Judy Hamilton
Sierra Friends Center: Pat Phillips
Interfaith Nevada County: Dianne Marshall
Spirit and Witness Report
Our committee will be meeting on the 4th or 1stSaturday for the next few months. We also
changed up the way we schedule the closing of Meeting as many of our Sand W members are involved in teaching First Day School so cannot commit to any entire month of closing. Judy will close the first
Sunday, Anita or Don the second, Gordon Starr the third and Amy the fourth. We do have fifth Sunday
occasionally and we are not sure yet who will do that.
We also will be bringing back the Monthly Queries, which have been absent for the last months.
These will be read the first Sunday.
We are still working on consolidating and discussing the committee reps. We anticipate this
work will be done by our next Spirit and Witness Meeting. If approved by Spirit and Witness, we will be
bringing it to Meeting for Business in May
We are also still working on how best to acknowledge the Nisenan and the land upon which
Meeting worships. I hesitate to say we will bring a completed idea to Meeting for Business as I don’t
want to rush though this process and we all have different ideas and opinions. Gordon Starr is still
working with Sierra Friends Center and the Nisenan representatives on signage at the entrance of
Woolman Lane.
We continue to meet with members who have requested Committees of Care.
PYM has asked us about membership of some of our members who have not been at Meeting for
quite awhile. We are in the process of contacting these folks to see how they feel about their
membership.
Dorothy gave the WUTR (Waking Up To Race) report. WUTR would like to hold a listening
session in which we explore how living in a society in which both subtle and overt oppression and racism affects both us and the BIPOC people among us. This would be held on the fourth Sunday of this month. Don, Dorothy and Gordon Starr will be finalizing the State of the Meeting report. This is being
brought today to Meeting for Business
Spiritual Life programs are scheduled through May. As stated above, this month we will hold a
listening session exploring race in our society. In May, Dorothy will present a Bible Study.
Treasurer’s Quarterly Report
4-10-2021
summary = pleasant surprise
THANK YOU for your contributions. The contributions received were good while our expenses are down.
More money than expected was received. We were able to pay our Pacific Yearly Meeting dues in full for the year ($3,136). We also paid College Park Quarterly Meeting for the year ($64). That is a big relief. And our expenses are reduced. With the renovation of our Meeting House by Sierra Friends Center, we are paying less for the temporary storage container than we expected to pay renting the Meeting House.
In our General Fund, over the last six months, we spent $4,877 while we received $8,096 in contributions. All our other funds, our Restricted Funds, are unchanged.since December 31st.
Thank you for your help. All gifts, both in service to the Meeting & financial are deeply appreciated.
Fosten Wilson
Treasurer,
Grass Valley Friends Meeting
2021 Grass Valley Friends Meeting State of the Meeting Report DRAFT
The year 2020-2021 will certainly go down as one of the most challenging years in recent
memory, affecting us all in so many ways. Long-standing social habits and traditions were upended
with the need to physically distance from each other in the face of a worldwide pandemic. Through
the technology of Zoom we found we could indeed experience virtually some of the spiritual
connection we so desperately needed. We met with each other in our homes, with our kids, our pets
and partners. And it allowed new people living at a distance to join us regularly. Also, it has made
finding workable times for committee meetings much easier.
New Committee Structure
We reduced the number of our committees to five: Spirit & Witness (combining M&O, Adult Education, and Peace & Justice), Stewardship (Buildings & Grounds, Finance, Newsletter), Welcome (Hospitality, Fellowship, Outreach), Nominating, and Children’s Education. It’s brought energy to the Meeting, people enjoy the work, and it’s streamlined our Meeting for Business. At the listening session for this report, one person said, “I’ve attended this meeting for 20 years and this is
the first State of the Meeting session I’ve attended where no one has said anything about there
being too much work for too few people.”
Shrinking and Growing
Over the past several years, Meeting attendance has declined—in part because of the passing of
elders and the loss of some of our most valued members who moved away. We’ve lost more than a
third of our members since 2012 (from 48 to 28), and 12% (from 32 to 28) in the last year alone.
Unfortunately, discomfort or unfamiliarity with Zoom led some long-term members to dropped
away—disinclined to attend virtually. However, during the time of our virtual meetings, attendance
has remained fairly steady at 15 – 20 people. We continue to lose members as they age. We have
very few young families. However, the ones we have are very faithful about coming to Meeting.
We welcome new people in part by contacting them right after they visit.—sending them a
personalized greeting and info about Quakerism by email and postal mail. We changed our website
to make it more dynamic and aesthetically pleasing. Three new adults have started attending; two of
them live far away. all the new people who joined us found us through the internet. One new
attender who lives at a distance chose our meeting because she was looking for a meeting with a
children’s program.
Our Sense of Community and Zoom
As are many other meetings at this time, we are exploring the possibility of a hybrid meeting
when we are able to gather again in person. We have meeting attenders who do not live in the area,
or who live at a distance, for whom zoom has been a way to attend our meeting. At the same time,
some long-time members and attenders have not been here for the past year because of discomfort
with the virtual meeting. We hope to find a way to continue on zoom and meeting in person.
While missing our worship in person, many find our current meetings for worship to be sustaining.
The ministry comes from a deep well and nourishes our spiritual life. In addition, our ministry of
music, every Sunday before meeting is greatly appreciated and each week attracts members of
other meetings that join us just for singing.
Our meeting house, located at Sierra Friends Center, is being renovated as part of the general
renewal of the Center after the fire last summer. We are welcome to return there when it is done,
and there is conversation among us about the possibility of meeting in a different location during the
renovation and perhaps after. At this time we are continuing to meet on zoom.
We endeavored to have two faithfulness groups and one provided a way for the participants to
connect with each other on a deep, spiritual level. The other one got started but for some reason did
not take hold leading us to conclude that it wasn’t the right time. Some members of our meeting are
active in Interfaith Nevada County, and recently the co-clerks led a session on Clearness
Committees that was well-received.
Race
We have continued our antiracist book group, Waking Up to Race. Many people in our meeting
have taken part in it, with a consistent core group of eight. Following the recommendations of
PacYM, the group began with Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility, followed by Resmaa Menakem’s My
Grandmother’s Hands, and is now working through Ibram X. Kendi’s How to be an Antiracist. Each
week the group responds in worship sharing to queries based on the reading. Recently we have
begun using a discussion technique called barnraising, that is based on an article by a meeting
member and that allows a robust and thoughtful exchange of views to further our exploration of the
issues. Overall this has been a deeply sobering experience of self and community discovery about
the grave inequities in our society, and the historical roots to those inequities in our body politic as
well as in our Quaker religion. And our participation in those inequities.
As a community we are also examining our relations with the Nisenan, and discussing
acknowledging their land which is currently occupied by Sierra Friends Center, and thus our meeting
house as well as much of the area surrounding it. We continuing to labor with how to best to do this.
Our meeting has also been involved in action to address systemic racism in our
community—action that goes beyond individual work and work at the level of our meeting. We
worked with the county Black, Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) Council and other groups to
sponsor and help organize a march against racism that made specific demands of local government.
It drew hundreds of participants, and increased awareness in our tiny, rural community in one of the
whitest counties in California.
Children’s Program
We have maintained a steady children’s program with a consistent group of teachers, each one
(or two) taking a regular week of the month. The curriculum is diverse and the teachers have
managed to adapt to Zoom with some difficulty but with determination to go forward. Unfortunately,
many of the children (and parents) have not adapted to Zoom for Sundays after a week of Zoom with
school and work during the week. We have made efforts to reach out including sending the bilingual
children’s book Quaker Meeting and Me as well as cards to children in meeting. We have also made
phone contacts with parents. Currently, however, we have two children and one parent who attend
faithfully, with an increase of two or three on occasion. We hope to see a return of more families
when we are able to meet with a hybrid meeting or in person.
Caring for People in Need
The requirement to meeting on zoom with the pandemic has also made it difficult to stay
connected to some of our members who are housebound, or in retirement and assisted living
facilities. We were no longer able to visit and hold meeting for worship with them and that has been a
loss. Another loss came about when a meeting member and an attender were unable to continue
living at Sierra Friends Center and did not feel supported by the meeting as they found other places
to reside. This has been a painful experience not only for these two individuals but for others in the
meeting and for the meeting community as a whole. Individual members reached out in various ways
and that has helped on a personal level, but they remain distant from the meeting at this time.
In looking for ways we can more fully care for those in our meeting, we are considering instituting
a buddy system where all of the members and attenders of the meeting community would be
accounted for and each member of the Spirit and Witness Committee would have a certain number
to stay in touch with. We are grateful to Orange Grove Meeting for the inspiration.
Conclusion
The pandemic probably had a greater effect on our Meeting than anything else. Our gatherings
are now virtual (which has its pluses and minuses), but we continue to hold meeting for worship,
First Day School, spiritual life (adult ed) sessions, and meeting for business. There have been many
changes this year. Even so, our Meeting community has found ways to persevere, to support each
other, and to stay connected.