Minutes of August 20, 2023 Meeting for Business
Posted: under Minutes from Meeting for Business.
Bennington Friends Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business
August 20, 2023
Present: Timmy Bullock, clerk, Auberta Galusha, Gabrille Isenbrand, Priscilla Tracy, Juliet Wright, Ed Cady, and Alison Levie.
We gathered in the Senior Center for meeting for worship with attention to business.
The meeting opened with a period of worship during which the clerk read the following quote by Pieter Byhouwer:
Let us listen more carefully to each other –certainly without interrupting each other. I suspect that some of us tend to formulate our own thoughts while others are speaking. We would do better to listen more deeply, considering the exact message made explicit: the emotional content in the context of the speaker’s life and commitments: the sources, rational and emotional, of our own acceptance or rejection of the message; and the source in the divine love of the message and of our response to it.
To do this kind of listening is hard work, and we need a brief silence after each person speaks to hear the echo of the message in our own soul and to judge if a response is needed. Such a brief silence is also a guard against interruption…
“The Conduct of Business” by Pieter Byhouwer, Friends Journal, May, 1971,
cited from Daily Readings From Quaker Writings, Ancient and Modern
Linda Hill Renfer, editor
Alison, serving as interim recording clerk for Michael Wajda, read the minutes from both the June and July meeting for business.
2023-19. Priscilla read the minutes of the August 13 meeting of ministry and counsel. Juliet Wright circulated an article entitled “Standing at the Crossroads” as consideration for meeting for learning. Meeting agreed to use the article for its meeting for learning on September 24th.
2023-20. As agreed at our July meeting for business, the meeting would like to make a contribution to support the efforts of Bolivian Friend, Emma Condori-Mamani. Emma is raising funds to purchase seed potatoes for approximately 150 families in Bolivia. She hopes to raise about $7,500, which would provide $50 to each family.
The meeting agreed to contribute $500 and our treasurer will send a check once it’s determined who to list as payee and where to mail it. Timmy will follow up with Beth Collea to obtain the information.
2023-21. The meeting returned to our discussion of supporting the young people in our meeting. Meeting decided it would schedule a short meeting for business after the potluck on September 10th to address issues related to the children, with a specific emphasis on hearing from each child with their concrete suggestions for worship and projects. The plan is intended to address the needs of the Newbold family and perhaps other children of similar ages. The meeting recognizes that if we get interest in attending meeting from families with younger children, we are committed to providing programming suitable for them.
2023-22. Michael Wajda has an interest in having the meeting revamp its website. Since Michael couldn’t be here this Sunday, because he is working on peaches, we postponed this consideration until a future month’s meeting for business.
2023-23 A concern was raised about our practice of distributing documents. Sometimes people are not able to open and read materials that are being sent. Meeting agreed to ask people to use the PDF format for sending documents. Paper copies should also be made available. Gabrielle is willing to help anyone who needs technical support to create a PDF. It was also suggested that we include an archive of shared documents on our website.
The meeting closed with a period of worship.
Alison Levie
Recording Clerk, pro tem
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Aug 22 2023