November 2022 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
11/13/2022
We met in a hybrid meeting on Zoom and in person.
Present:
The Meeting opened with silent worship.
Clerks’ Remarks and Query:
Action Items and Seasoning:
-None-
COMMITTEE REPORTS (see reports appended, committee clerk is noted in bold)
NOMINATING: (terms as noted) Dorothy Henderson (fulfilling Pat Phillips term): 2022-2023, Sharon Davisson, continuing: 2021-2023, Judy Hamilton: 2022-2024, Gordon Starr: 2022-2024
Gordon Starr is now the convener.
STEWARDSHIP: Mary Starr (clerk), Pat Phillips, Reed Hamilton, Gordon Starr, Doug Hamm. Dianne Marshall (ex-officio, Newsletter editor), Fosten Wilson (ex-officio, Treasurer), Don McCormick (ex-officio, Librarian).
SPIRIT & WITNESS: Amy Cooke, Gordon Bishop, Sharon Davisson, Reed Hamilton, Dorothy Henderson, Dean and Karen Olson (ex-officio Co Clerks)
WELCOME: Kathy McCreery (clerk), Don McCormick, Pat Phillips, Karen Olson. Hailey Wilson (ex-officio, zoom coordinator), Amy Cooke (ex-officio, Website and Facebook coordinator), Judy Hamilton (ex-officio, email coordinator),
CHILDREN’S PROGRAM: Dorothy Henderson (clerk), Gordon Bishop, Doug Hamm, Judy Hamilton, Dean Olson, Karen Olson, Reed Hamilton, Don McCormick, Anita McCormick.
OFFICER REPORTS
- TREASURER: fosten wilson.
- SFC REPRESENTATIVE: Pat Phillips.
- INTERFAITH NEVADA COUNTY: Dianne Marshall.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- 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 is 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. Please note: Tithely now allows the user to change the dollar of their gift without making a new donation request.
- Sierra Friends Center has volunteer opportunities available. See www.woolman.org.
ACTION ITEMS & ITEMS SEASONING
READING OF THE RECORD AND MINUTES
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:
- October Minutes from Meeting for Business
- Spirit and Witness Committee
- Welcome Committee
- Children’s Program Report
- Stewardship
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GRASS VALLEY FRIENDS MEETING
DRAFT MINUTE & RECORD
Meeting for Worship on the Occasion of Business
10/9/2022
We met as an in-person Meeting, since an electric outage made Zoom unavailable.
Present: Dean Olson (co-clerk), Dianne Marshall, Dorothy Henderson, Doug Hamm, Judy Hamilton, Lo Hamm,
Don McCormick, & fosten wilson.
The Meeting opened with silent worship.
Action Items and Seasoning for November:
● Correct & approve the Draft Minute & Record from 10-9-2022.
● Hear the Spirit & Witness committee report for October, which was prepared, but unavailable given the area-wide electric outage.
Query: Dean asked what previous experiences help us appreciate attending Meeting for Business. Everyonevpresent reported such experiences.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
CHILDREN: Dorothy described the programs for each week. She also pointed out that (effective today) we have returned to our practice of inviting the children to join the adults for the first 15 minutes of silent worship.
WELCOME: Judy noted that potlucks before Meeting for Business have returned. And we are again placing an invitation to worship with us, on the Grass Valley Union’s religious page. For the next six weeks, people have volunteered to be Greeter. Coffee & tea availability is pending, we need to locate the equipment & supplies.
OFFICERS REPORTS:
Treasurer’s Report: Fosten read the attached report. The summary for last fiscal year used two words: Good financially. We ended the fiscal year with more money than at the beginning.
Proposed Budget: After seasoning, no alterations to the proposed budget (as printed in our September 2022 newsletter) have been made and Minute 2022.10.1 was approved.
MINUTE 2022.10.1: Grass Valley Friends Meeting approves the budget for our 2022 – 2023 fiscal year as it was presented by the Stewardship Committee last month.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
>> Western Friend — This magazine is available at reduced cost if we cooperate and use a group
subscription to start or extend our subscriptions. Contact Judy if interested.
>> Fall Quarterly Meeting – College Park Quarterly Meeting gathers here at Sierra Friends Center, next
weekend, October 14th thru 16th. This is a hybrid gathering with people on site & some activities available via Zoom. The Quarterly Meeting joins with Grass Valley Friends at 10 a.m. Sunday for silent worship. For information go to https://collegeparkquarterlymeeting.org/
>> GVFM Retreat – In two weeks, from Friday, October 21 st until Sunday, the 23rd we will gather at Mary & Gordon’s home for food, fellowship, fun, news of France, & worship too.
>> Voting – Recommendations from FCL of California are at: https://fclca.org/
Meeting closed with silent worship.
Respectfully submitted, fosten wilson, acting recording clerk.
APPENDICES:
Treasurer’s Report–
Grass Valley Friends Meeting
Treasurer’s Report for all of fy 2021- 2022
10-7-2022
summary = Good financially.
An interesting year, transitioning from only paying rent on the storage container to our return to
use of our Meeting House again. The contributions received ($14,479) slightly exceeded our
budget for the year. And our outbound donations have been paid in full. THANK YOU all for
your contributions.
Our income also exceeded our spending ($12,511). Altogether we ended the fiscal year with
more in the bank than we had on October first of last year. This yields your Treasurer’s smile of
gratitude.
The proposed budget for fiscal year 2022-2023 reflects our financial rebound from Covid-19
related problems. The Stewardship Committee meets each month and is watching the balance
between our spending & income.
All contributions to Grass Valley Friends Meeting — whether money, service, or prayer – are
deeply appreciated.
Money contributions to GVFM can be in-person, mailed to my address below, or online by using
the “give” button at “gvfriends.org”.
Thank you, fosten
Fosten Wilson, Treasurer
15719 American Hill Rd
Nevada City, Calif. 95959
Spirit and Witness Report
Land Acknowledgement
After many months of this committee and our meeting holding this issue very tenderly, continuing to educate ourselves, reaching out to the wider community, and attending Nisenan activities, we believe that Grass Valley Friends Meeting is ready to take the following step:
Spirit and Witness recommends that Grass Valley Friends Meeting begin the practice of reading the Nisenan Land Acknowledgement at the beginning of Meeting for Worship each week. We further recommend that the designated closer for meeting will now open the meeting as well, rising at the beginning of meeting, asking for a moment of silence before reading, then reading the acknowledgement, and asking for a moment of silence following the reading, then return the meeting to worship.
We see this action as a continuation of our education and witnessing of what it means to our meeting to acknowledge the Nisenan. We expect to continue opening to the history of Quakers and indigenous peoples in general and the Nisenan among us. We further expect to expand our efforts to learn ways in which the Nisenan lived on this land and the ways in which they continue to practice care for the earth and its inhabitants. In this way, the land acknowledgment becomes a living reminder each week instead of a performative, or rote repetition.
Proposed minute: Grass Valley Friends Meeting shall practice reading the Nisenan Land Acknowledgement at the beginning of Meeting for Worship each week.
OWL: Spirit and Witness supports the purchase of an Owl to improve the experience of meeting participants both in the Meetinghouse and on zoom.
Waking Up Anchor/Faithfulness Group: Standing members meeting monthly to hold each other accountable to what each individual has indicated is their spirit and action work in the world.
Membership committees
- David Cowen & Cheryl Hendrickson: We are joyful bringing this proposed minute forward:
The Spirit and Witness Committee has received the transfer request for David Cowen and Cheryl Hendrickson. After meeting with them we recommend them both for membership in Grass Valley Friends Meeting.
Grass Valley Friends Meeting approves the transfer of membership for David Cowen and welcomes him to Grass Valley Friends Meeting.
Grass Valley Friends Meeting approves the transfer of membership for Cheryl Hendrickson and welcomes her to Grass Valley Friends Meeting.
Crystal Scanlon: Crystal is canceling her membership request. She hopes to find a way to establish a Worship group when she lives that would be under the care of Inland Valley Meeting so she can worship with others in person.
- The Spirit and Witness Committee and Welcome Committee will be organizing a welcome celebration for Cheryl, David, and Judy Hamilton in the coming months.
Spiritual Life Programs
- November 20: Dean, Karen, and Reed: Braiding Sweetgrass
- December 25: Gordon Starr: Birthing the Christ within
- January 22: In discernment. If Friends have an inspiration for offering a Spiritual Life program, please reach out to a member of the committee.
Amy read the full list of members and attenders. We have work to do to contact people who have moved away and/or are no longer attending.
Quaker organization report
Spirit and Witness holds the “Faith and Practice” organizations (Sept, Nov, Jan, March, May, July)
■ Interfaith of Nevada County (11th Month) Dianne
Welcome Committee Report
We have started up the coffee hour after meeting on Nov. 4th.
We will be passing around a clipboard for it.
Our Christmas party will be Dec. 4th after the rise of meeting at Doug and Dorothy’s house up the hill. It is a potluck.
We are going to be printing new nametags for everybody.
Our next meeting will be Dec. 1 at 8:30 am.
November 22 Children’s Program Committee Report
Children’s Program Report
Children’s Program Report
This is just a small update on what is happening with the Children’s Program. This month we are excited to be working on a play that will be presented by the children to the gathering at our Christmas potluck at Doug and Dorothy’s Rocky Knoll. The Christmas event is on Sunday December 4th at the rise of meeting. The children will be presenting “Two Old Women” by Velma Wallis. It is based on an Athabascan legend about two old women that are left by their tribe to die in a time of hardship. They survive and the story encompasses the themes of redemption, forgiveness, aging and how hunger and fear can lead us to make not the best or kindest decisions..Karen and Judy took the story and condensed it into a play.
Kirk, Emma, Hailey and Olivia will all have parts in the play or will be helping with the production. Rehearsals are taking place the month of November. Gretchen and Kamden may be able to join us for part of the time and we are always hopeful that other families may return.
In addition to our exciting Christmas event, we are talking about adopting an idea from PYM’s youth programs, and offering four field trips, one each season. These would take place on a Saturday and would involve having fun together combined with learning more about how the Nisenan lived on the land year round. These trips are just in the planning stage, but there is already some excitement as we consider ways we could blend learning and fun!
We hope we have a full turnout of families for our Christmas party and stay tuned for more plans in the coming months.
Respectfully submitted,
Dorothy Hendersoon,
Clerk, Children’s Program Committee
Stewardship Committee Report
From meeting on November 5,2022
Dorothy Henderson came to the meeting to strongly encourage the committee to agree to
purchase an Owl for Grass Valley Meeting. An Owl is a combination video camera,
microphone and speaker that, when placed in the center of a meeting, responds to a person’s
speech or movement. She has experienced the Owl both in a meeting and on Zoom and as a
person with hearing difficulties she found it greatly improved her being able to hear and follow
discussion. The cost is approximately $1,100 which she felt was well worth it, noting it could
help others in Meeting who also have hearing difficulties. She has commitments from people
who are willing to contribute $200 toward its purchase.
Fosten Wilson explained the money could come from the “miscellaneous unbudgeted” line in
the budget. Also there is a line in the buget, new this year, for Tech purchases that has $250
in it. Anyone wishing to contribute to its purchase could donate directly to the Tech fund. The
committee agreed to bring this as a recommendation to Meeting for Business.
Fosten reporting as treasurer said income for October was $1,592. Expenses were $1,474
which included rent and a yearly insurance payment.
We also discussed how to replace the 12 year old laptop Fosten has been using as the
Meeting’s computer. It has been giving notices that it is having serious problems. Gordon had
priced a new computer at Best Buy which, with software would cost, $600 – $700, well under
the $1,000 Meeting for Business had previously approved. However, it was noted that Mary
has her sister's computer, monitor and a spare printer. After discussion it was decided Fosten
would take everything and see if he could load the Quick Books program he already had.
As an after note it seems he has successfully cleared the computer of old persona files,
loaded the Quick Books software and the files from the old computer and gotten the printer
connected. So far, everything seems to be working.
Next meeting: December 1, 2022