September 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

09/12/2021

We met on Zoom.

Present:  Don McCormick, Anita McCormick (co-clerks), fosten wilson, Kathy McCreery, Dianne Marshall, Dorothy Henderson, Doug Hamm, Reed Hamilton, Chamba Cooke, Amy Cooke, Heather Reed, Judy Hamilton, Dean Olson 

The Meeting opened with silent worship.  

COMMITTEE REPORTS (see reports appended, committee clerk is noted in bold)

STEWARDSHIP:  Mary Starr, Gordon Starr, Reed Hamilton, Pat Phillips, Doug Hamm, Fosten Wilson (Treasurer, Ex-officio) Dianne Marshall (ex officio as Librarian and Newsletter Editor), Hailey Wilson 

MINUTE 09.2021.01:  Grass Valley Friends Meeting (GVFM)  approves the expense of $225 as a one-time installation fee for the dedicated wifi at the meetinghouse at Sierra Friends Center.  GVFM approves the monthly expense of $25 for the wifi use, which we agree to periodically review.  

Budget:  fosten wilson, treasurer, brought forward a Budget vs Actual report for 2020-21 and a proposed budget for 2021-22.  The Budget is appended to these minutes.

The following comments were made:

• Should we continue to donate to Friends House given that they are no longer a Quaker run organization? It was suggested that we leave it in and consider it over the next year.
• We noted that the amount of money budgeted for the newsletter reflects a lower printing cost due to virtual meetings.  If we begin to meet in person again this amount will need to be increased.  
• Also, if we begin to meet in the meetinghouse again, will we need to pay for increased cleaning to Covid specifications?  It appears that current specifications are not as onerous. The committee expects that meeting members will be able to meet these needs through volunteering.  

The 2022 Budget will now season until the 10th Month.  

SPIRIT & WITNESS: Gordon Starr, Judy Hamilton, Gordon Bishop, Dorothy Henderson, Anita and Don McCormick (ex-officio Co Clerks), Judy Hamilton

Judy Hamilton made the report, appended.

Two proposals were brought forward to Meeting:

1. To hire a person with technological skills to set up the technology for hybrid meetings and to run the first few hybrid meetings (to be discerned in the ad hoc committee, see #2, below). 
2. We would like to form an ad hoc committee with Stewardship comprising of 2 members each from Stewardship and Spirit and Witness committees.

MINUTE 09.2021.02:  Grass Valley Friends Meeting approves the formation of an ad hoc committee on setting up a Hybrid structure for holding our meetings both in person and virtually.  Members:  Judy Hamilton, Gordon Starr, Reed Hamilton, and Dianne Marshall.  

The committee will develop a scope of their work and bring it back to Meeting in October. 

MINUTE 09.2021.03: Grass Valley Friends Meeting warmly welcomes Judy Hamilton to the Grass Valley Friends Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. 

NOMINATING:  Doug Hamm, Patrica Phillips, Karen Olson

Doug Hamm gave the report. The Nominating Committee is bringing forward the names of Dean Olson and Karen Olson as co-clerks of the Meeting. Their names will season until the 10th month.

PROPOSED MINUTE:  Dean Olson and Karen Olson will serve as co-clerks for Grass Valley Friends Meeting for the 2021-22 year.

Anita McCormick and Don McCormick gave some remarks to the Meeting, celebrating their service, the support they received, and the willingness of Dean and Karen to step into these roles.  The Meeting expressed appreciation for Don and Anita’s eagerness to learn, their humility and grace, their humor, their willingness to receive feedback, and their leadership through difficult times.  Appreciation was also expressed for Don the Bear and Benjy!

WELCOME: Karen Olson, Kathy McCreery, ex officio Website/Facebook Coordinator (Amy Cooke), ex officio Zoom coordinator (Hailey Wilson and Stuart Smith), ex officio Email Coordinator (Judy Hamilton)

There was no report.

CHILDREN’S PROGRAM:   Karen Olson, Judy Hamilton, Dorothy Henderson, Gordon Bishop, Anita McCormick, Doug Hamm, Don McCormick

Dorothy Henderson gave the report.  The committee had a brief meeting of about half of the members of the committee and agreed to meet later this month as a whole to address the following issues: 

• The small number of children in the program (usually one)
• The lack of a teacher for second Sunday every other month
• The question about what will happen when and if we return to in person meetings. 

The committee expects to make a full report in October.

REPRESENTATIVE and OFFICER  REPORTS

• Organization of the Month: Right Sharing of World Resources.  What is this organization’s Mission Statement?  Right Sharing of World Resources (RSWR) is an independent Quaker not-for-profit organization sharing the abundance of God’s love by working for equity through partnerships around the world.  RSWR gives grants to groups of marginalized women in Kenya, Sierra Leone, and India to fund individual micro-enterprise projects. Right Sharing’s work is grounded in a sense of stewardship for the world’s material, human, and spiritual resources.  

Please see https://rswr.org/ for more information.  

ANNOUNCEMENTS 

• Laura’s Law is being mandated across the State.  The Law gives judges the authority to mandate mental health treatment.  
• 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.  
• Woolman at Sierra Friends Center is seeking a new Executive Director.  Please see their website, Woolman at Sierra Friends Center, for more information.

ACTION ITEMS & ITEMS SEASONING

PROPOSED MINUTE:  Dean Olson and Karen Olson will serve as co-clerks for Grass Valley Friends Meeting for the 2021-22 year.

Budget:  fosten wilson, treasurer, brought forward a Budget vs Actual report for 2020-21 and a proposed budget for 2021-22.  The Budget is appended to these minutes.

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:

1. Budget
2. Spirit and Witness

—————————————————————————

September 2021 Spirit and Witness Report

Spirit and Witness welcomed Dean and Karen Olsen as our new presumptive Meeting clerks. We

welcome their expertise and the dedication they bring to this position. However, in honoring our Quaker

process, we decided that for the next two Meeting for Businesses, we would have a member of the Spirit

and Witness clerk the meeting until Dean and Karen are seasoned and approved.

Most of our meeting was spent discussing how best to proceed with meeting back in person (and

holding a hybrid meeting) at our Meeting House. The WiFi has been installed and used with some

success by Sierra Friends Center. We recognize that there is a group of folks that long for the personal

connection we get in meeting within the same physical space, yet many of us have health issues and

concerns about contracting or spreading COVID with an in person meeting. We did not come to

agreement about when to start the process of an in-person Meeting. However, we do have a few

proposals. In recognizing that most of us lack the technical skills and expertise to set up and run the

equipment for a Zoom hybrid meeting, we would like to hire a person with those skills to set things up

and to run the first few hybrid meetings. We would like to form an ad hoc committee with Stewardship,

comprising of 2 members from each committee. This committee would research who to hire, and

implement the start of actually holding a hybrid meeting and examine how we can meet together in the

safest possible manner. Again we have no time frame on when this would actually occur.

Our Spiritual Life programs will restart in September, being held at the rise of Meeting on the

fourth Sunday of each month. They are as follows:

September- Quaker Women- Anita McCormick

October- Bible Study- Dorothy Henderson

November- Report/worship sharing on Glasgow’s conference on climate change- Amy

Cooke

December- Birthing the Christ Within- Gordon Starr

We briefly touched on the reports we will be giving to Meeting for Business under our new

restructured representative program. This month Spirit and Witness will report on Right Sharing of

World Resources. Next month, it will be the Welcoming Committee’s turn to report on one of the

organizations under their care.

Dorothy gave a brief report on the flux the Children’s Education program is undergoing. We hold

them in the Light.

We have not given up on the idea of ‘Quaker Buddies’ but there is still more work to do on this

endeavor.

BUDGET 9.12.2021

				Current  Budget		actual		Proposed	Change
				fy 2021		Oct ’20 -9-11-21		fy 2022 Budget
Income
	400 · Contributions			9,147		11,120		13,541
Expense
	600 · Meeting Expenses
		602 · Newsletter Expenses		400		339		350	-50
>>>		603 · Rent & Cargo Container		3,150		1,245		6,000	2,850
>>		604 · Meetinghouse Maintenance		250		0		250
		605 · Reps Travel Expenses		50		0		50
		606 · Officers’ Expenses		50		40		50
		609 · Misc Unbudgeted Expense		100		878		200	100
>>		610 – Zoom fee		150		150		150
>>		611 · Internet & Meeting Webpage		25		16	see note	565	540
		613  Tithe.ly fees		50		106		130	80
>>		615 · Liability Insurance		0		0		600	600
		616 · Teen Helper – childcare		0		0		100	100
		620 · Meeting’s Memberships
			621 · PYM Dues	3,332		3,136		3,332
			622 · CPQM Dues	70		64		64	-6
	Total 600 · Meeting Expenses			7,627		5,973		11,841			4,214
				note: $25 webpage +$300 internet access + $240 installation = $565
	640 · Committee Expenses
		641- Spirit & Witness		50		0		20	-30
		642 · Nominating Comm		20		0		20
		644 · Religious Ed – children program		150		0		150
		646 · Stewardship Comm (subscr = $133)		180		80		190	10
		647 · Welcome Comm		100		0		250	150
	Total 640 · Committee Expenses			500		80		630
	660 · Donation Expense  –>>(to be paid as current income allows)
		661 · AFSC		100		100		100
		662 · FCNL		100		100		100
		666 · FCL – Calif.		100		100		100
		667 · Friends House		40		40		40
		668 · Quaker Center		100		100		100
		669 · Sierra Friends Center		300		300		250	-50
		673 · Nonviolent Peaceforce		40		40		40
		675 · Laura Wilcox Memorial at FCNL		100		100		100
		676 · Hospitality House		140		140		140
>>		new  Nisenan Nation						100	100
	Total 660 · Donation Expense			1,020		1,020		1,070
Transfers to other Funds
Scholarship Fund   (PYM, CPQM, etc.)				0		0		0
Scholarship Fund   (Quaker Center)				0		0		0
Sharing Fund								0
Total Expense & Transfers				9,147		7,073		$13,541	4,394		13,541
Net Income				0		4,046		$0