Minutes for Ministry and Counsel
Posted: under Minutes for Ministry and Counsel.
Sunday, June 9,2024
Present were Timmy Bullock, clerk ex-officio and Juliet Wright
Pastoral concerns discussed.
Comments (0)
Jun 10 2024
Posted: under Minutes for Ministry and Counsel.
Sunday, June 9,2024
Present were Timmy Bullock, clerk ex-officio and Juliet Wright
Pastoral concerns discussed.
Comments (0)
Jun 10 2024
Posted: under General News, Minutes from Meeting for Business.
Bennington Friends Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business
May 19, 2024
Present: Timmy Bullock, Auberta Galusha, Juliet Wright, Julie Snow, Alison Levie, and Michael Wajda.
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 1980 quotation from Parker Palmer:
In a Quaker meeting, for worship or for business, there is more than waiting and silence. There is also speaking for one’s self and feeling the weight of the words of others. The quest for truth among Friends is meant to be corporate, not a private reverie. The leading of the gathered group is to be trusted, and when you or I speak we must be willing to test our truth against the truth received by others.
Parker Palmer, 1980, cited from The Spirit of the Quakers by Geoffrey Durham, p. 189
The recording clerk read the minutes from our March 17 meeting for business for information.
2024-14. Alison Levie circulated a draft State of the Meeting report that she and Timmy prepared following our meeting for learning to consider the State of Society queries sent by New England Yearly Meeting. The draft reflects well the reflections shared during our meeting for learning in April. Interestingly, it includes some concluding queries addressed to ourselves to reflect further consideration of ways we can continue to grow. It was suggested that we use these concluding queries for a future meeting for learning. The meeting approved the draft as written. Our clerk will forward the report to yearly meeting and Alison will bring it to Northwest Quarterly Meeting.
2024-15. Michael Wajda provided a brief update on our new website. He and Gabrielle have been working on the content since enrolling with the Quaker Meetings Network, the Quaker website hosting service being operated by British Friends.
Our new website was just launched publicly this month. There is content about Quaker spirituality, a welcome to newcomers, and an events calendar active. There are two embedded QuakerSpeak videos, one entitled “9 Core Quaker Beliefs” and the other entitled “My First Time at Quaker Meeting.” There is also a “Contact Us” option with two choices of topics, Discuss Quaker Beliefs and General Questions. Each topic sends an email to different persons. Currently, General Questions go to Timmy. Quaker Belief questions go to Michael. Any of this can be changed and topics can be added. Michael wondered about adding the option for questions about children in meeting, but didn’t feel we are prepared at this time to address them.
Michael and Gabrielle also are working on a “Quaker Resources” section with links to other Quaker organizations and information. Gabrielle hopes to be able to have some items posted within the next few weeks, while she is recuperating from her foot surgery.
The “intranet” or internal-facing site will take a little longer. They are working on posting the minutes of Ministry and Counsel, Meetings for Business, and financial reports for the past year. They also plan to set up an easy way to for meeting members to get into that part of the site, which will not be public.
Friends are encouraged to check out the current content of the website and to offer feedback to Gabrielle and Michael. Here is the url: https://benningtonfriends.quakermeeting.org to the new website. The meeting expressed its gratitude to Gabrielle and Michael for their work on this undertaking.
2024-16. New England Yearly Meeting has arranged for Kenyan Quaker, Getry Agizah, to visit and speak with local meetings here and in New York Yearly Meeting during this month and June. Getry will speak about her experiences of working for peace in the aftermath of the violent Kenyan elections in 2007-2008, and how they used what they learned to create more peaceful elections afterwards. Getry’s experience and guidance may prove valuable to us as we prepare for what may be a time of fraught emotions and tensions before, during, and after our upcoming presidential election.
2024-17. Marsh Hudson-Knapp has circulated a calendar requesting groups to sign up to provide one or more of the Sunday community suppers. Timmy and Michael are recommending that we work with the Peace and Justice group to handle the meal on September 29, which is a fifth Sunday. The Newbold family has already to committed to helping on fifth Sundays, so it is a good fit for our meeting. Our biggest need is to collect enough food for 100 meals and 150 desserts. The meeting approved helping on September 29.
The meeting closed with a period of worship.
Michael Wajda
Recording Clerk
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May 19 2024
Posted: under Minutes from Meeting for Business.
Bennington Friends Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business
March 17, 2024
Present: Auberta Galusha, Juliet Wright, Julie Snow, Alison Levie, and Michael Wajda.
We gathered in the Senior Center for meeting for worship with attention to business. Since our clerk could not be present, our assistant clerk, Juliet Wright, clerked today’s meeting.
The meeting opened with a period of worship during which the assistant clerk read the following 1980 quotation from Parker Palmer:
In a Quaker meeting, for worship or for business, there is more than waiting and silence. There is also speaking for one’s self and feeling the weight of the words of others. The quest for truth among Friends is meant to be corporate, not a private reverie. The leading of the gathered group is to be trusted, and when you or I speak we must be willing to test our truth against the truth received by others.
Parker Palmer, 1980, cited from The Spirit of the Quakers by Geoffrey Durham, p. 189
The recording clerk read the minutes from our February 18 meeting for business for information.
2024-11. Michael Wajda reported on the website overhaul that he and Gabrielle are investigating. Following last month’s meeting for business, Michael and Gabrielle attended a webinar with the Quaker Meetings Network, a group of British Friends who launched a centralized web service for meetings in Britain Yearly Meeting and have now opened it to meetings in the U.S. Their service provides website templates, online tutorials, and numerous bells and whistles, including a private intranet function that allows meetings to have separate password protected space for accessing sensitive materials, such as ministry and counsel and financial information. Following the webinar, Gabrielle and Michael signed on for the Network’s offer of two-free months to explore if the service might be right for our meeting. Michael and Gabrielle are testing its functionality and will report to the meeting in April. If it is deemed to be workable, the cost would be $149.00 annually, plus an extra initial cost of $20.00 for transferring data from our current site onto the new one. Julie Snow offered to explore some of the test website’s functionality. Michael will inquire about getting her that access.
2024-12. Juliet Wright reported for Ministry and Counsel. Timmy and Alison will submit the meeting’s statistical report to New England Yearly Meeting.
New England Yearly Meeting has sent us its encouragement to prepare a State of Society report. The request has gone out to all monthly meetings with a return date of May 15, 2024. The request letter suggests four possible queries in preparing the report: What is our growing edge as a spiritual community? How is the Spirit moving among us? Where have we found sustenance and nurture? How have we sought to hold up and care for our meeting communities?
Our last State of Society report was completed in the spring of 2022. Do we want to prepare a report this year? Will it serve and nurture us to prepare a report, as well as other meetings who may read it? The meeting would like to prepare a report and decided to use the NEYM queries at a meeting for learning in April. Michael will facilitate the meeting for learning and the meeting asks Timmy and Alison to take notes and bring a draft report to the May meeting for business. This will get our report to NEYM a little past the deadline, but it will be welcomed there all the same.
2024-13. Two of our members will be undergoing surgeries this summer that will prevent them from driving for a period. Juliet Wright is having a hip replacement on June 18 and Gabrielle Isenbrand may be having foot surgery earlier. Are meeting members able to help with grocery shopping and other tasks and errands, as needed. Alison and Julie have offered to be “care traffic controllers” who would receive the list of needs from either Juliet or Gabrielle and coordinate finding meeting members to provide the needed help. The meeting approved.
The meeting closed with a period of worship.
Michael Wajda
Recording Clerk
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Mar 17 2024
Posted: under Minutes for Ministry and Counsel.
Sunday, March 3,2024
Present were Priscilla Tracy, clerk of M&C, Timmy Bullock, clerk ex-officio and Juliet Wright
Pastoral concerns discussed.
24-1 Timmy, in consultation with Alison, will undertake the statistical report for NEYM.
24-2 Are we up for undertaking a State of Society Report and who would be willing to be on the committee? The report is due May 15.
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Mar 10 2024
Posted: under Minutes from Meeting for Business.
Bennington Friends Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business
February 18, 2024
Present: Timmy Bullock, Auberta Galusha, Priscilla Tracy, Gabrielle Isenbrand, Juliet Wright, Alex Miller, Julie Snow, Alison Levie, and Michael Wajda.
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 1985 quotation from Daniel Seeger:
…We will aim for transparency of heart; we will never manipulate each other’s consciences, or try to force other members of our Religious Society into our own scheme of things. No one will seek a procedural victory, or a formulation for faith and practice, or the advancement or postponement of a concern, which leaves someone else defeated.
The recording clerk read the minutes from our January 21 meeting for business for information.
2024-08. The meeting turned its attention to the 2024 budget and specifically to the list of contributions the meeting plans to make during this fiscal year.
Following up on the threshing session held last Sunday regarding our contributions, Timmy, Alison, and Gabrielle met to develop a proposed list of contributions based on their notes of what they heard during the threshing session. Their list for this year’s budget combines the regular and special contributions into one column since this is the last year of our commitment to draw down reserves. As they worked on the 2024 list, they realized it would be helpful to project a list for 2025 when we will have fewer funds to support the various organizations.
The meeting reviewed the 2024 list, which totals $7,550, and accepted it as presented. The meeting also reviewed the projected list for 2025, which totals $4,800 and is an increase of $1,000 over what we have been contributing through our regular budget (minus the extra contributions from drawing down reserves.) The meeting decided to affirm the 2025 contributions list temporarily with the possibility of amending it when we consider the full 2025 budget. Final approval for this higher figure will rest on the assumption that contributions from members and attenders of the Bennington meeting can be increased sufficiently to cover regular expenses, charitable contributions, and allow for a comfortable margin for the unexpected. The list of the 2024 and 2025 contributions is attached to these minutes.
It was noted that NEYM has been receiving an extra $300 from the special contributions. That extra amount is not included in the 2024 numbers presented. NEYM will receive the $1,700 listed in the regular budget.
The meeting then turned its attention to the full 2024 budget. We approved the budget with the new contribution amounts and the increase to the Greater Bennington Interfaith Council from $250 to $400 as stated in last month’s minutes. It was recommended that we do a more complete review of our budget before bringing a proposal for 2025. We will take this up later this year.
2023-09. We then turned our attention to considering a redo of our website. Michael has done some research about redesigning it, and Gabrielle has offered several questions regarding our website goals.
What are we trying to accomplish with this site? Who is our audience? How do we plan to engage that audience, and how will this strategy affect the design of the site? How will the design of the site powerfully convey what is “most” important to us?
Michael feels that our current website could be greatly improved. Many of the links are broken. It is limited in the information it provides. It could be much more visually appealing and welcoming. He would like to include our web address in the weekly church listing published in the Bennington Banner and feels a better website would be a strong way to welcome visitors. Our audience is both potential seekers and Quakers who may be visiting our area or live nearby. It also can provide useful resources to meeting members, with passcode protected access to our meeting directory, minutes, budgets, and fiancé reports. The website can be a dynamic way of projecting our identity and welcome.
Michael distributed a chart of website design options following his conversation with a Quaker website designer, Betsy Blake. There are three levels of possible engagement—a do it yourself through a purchased template, an assisted option, which includes help from the designer, and a full custom option, where the designer does most of the work. Michael recommends beginning with the Do-It-Yourself option, with the possibility that we move to the Assisted level if deemed it necessary. He also mentioned his interest in exploring another platform through a webinar he has registered for this week. He would value having another member to work with him in pursuing this website remake. The meeting asked that the explorations go forward before approving an expenditure, and that Michael report next month on the progress. Gabrielle has offered to work with Michael on the project. It was approved
We were surprised to learn that Bennington Meeting is not listed on QuakerFinder.org. Alison will contact FGC to make sure that the meeting gets listed.
2024-10. Michael Wajda reported on the progress with finding Friends to serve on an anchor committee for the extended worship ministry that he and Jean Rosenberg have been convening around New England Yearly Meeting since May 2022. He distributed a description of the roles of anchor committee and reported that he has approached Gabrielle and Timmy about their willingness to serve. Both have said yes.
The meeting approved having these two Friends to serve on the anchor committee. Jean and Michael have also asked Greg Moschetti, a member of Amesbury Meeting in Massachusetts, to serve as clerk of the committee and he has agreed.
The meeting closed with a period of worship.
Michael Wajda
Recording Clerk
BENNINGTON MEETING CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS | ||
Organization | 2024 | 2025 Tentative |
GBICS | $1,200 | $800 |
Peace & Justice | $400 | $250 |
McWaters | $500 | $300 |
Sunrise | $600 | $500 |
Turning Point | $200 | $150 |
Local Organizations | $2,900 | $2,000 |
AFSC | $200 | $0 |
FCNL | $1,000 | $800 |
FGC | $100 | $50 |
Friends Journal | $50 | $50 |
FUM | $100 | $100 |
FWCC | $200 | $200 |
Powell Hse. | $100 | $50 |
QEW | $800 | $250 |
QREC | $100 | $100 |
Right Sharing | $500 | $300 |
Woolman Hill | $600 | $400 |
Quaker House | $200 | $0 |
QUNO | $200 | $100 |
Quaker Organizations | $4,350 | $2,500 |
Combatants for Peace | $200 | $100 |
Children’s contributions | $300 | $300 |
Other | $500 | $400 |
GRAND TOTAL | $7,550 | $4,800 |
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Feb 19 2024