January 2023 – Meeting for Worship on the Occasion of Business
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
January 8, 2023
We met in a hybrid meeting on Zoom and in person.
Present: Dean Olson, clerk; Lo Hamm, fosten wilson, Hailey Wilson, Dianne Marshall, Doug Hamm, Dorothy Henderson, Reed Hamilton, Don McCormick, Gordon Starr, Mary Starr, Amy Cooke; recording clerk, Anita McCormick, Pat Phillips, Judy Hamilton.
The Meeting opened with silent worship.
Clerks’ Remarks and Query: What drives us to participate in our business meetings? What motivates us to be here?
Friends shared from their experiences of meeting for business and their faith that informs their participation.
Action Items and Seasoning: There were no items being seasoned.
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
No report.
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)
Mary Starr gave the report, appended.
We confirmed the purchase of the computer used for Zoom and hybrid meetings, with gratitude for the work of purchasing the OWL and making the technology involved effective.
We need more people who would be willing to set up the tech system for meetings. Mary Starr is available for tutorials on setting up and putting away the OWL – just ask! She is very skilled and helpful. Please contact Mary if you can assist. You can also come at 8:45 am on any Sunday to observe the process. Thank you!!
Don McCormick’s work as librarian was acknowledged with gratitude. Don asked us to contribute small book reviews for display in the library. Dianne’s work packing up the library and then reassembling it was also celebrated. Sylvia Osman’s work was warmly remembered.
SPIRIT & WITNESS: Amy Cooke, Sharon Davisson, Reed Hamilton, Dorothy Henderson, Dean and Karen Olson (ex-officio co-clerks)
Dorothy Henderson gave the report, appended.
There was some discussion about the queries that the committee is using to guide their work in tending the “Witness” portion of the committee. The queries are being used internally by the committee, and the committee welcomes input into how we, as a meeting, attend to how we witness our faith out into the world.
Friends engaged in discernment about how the Meeting is tending to being on Nisenan land, with reading the land acknowledgment and contributing funds annually. The idea of having a sign posted at the junction of Woolman Lane and Jones Bar Road was raised. It was acknowledged that Woolman is going slowly and carefully, with sensitivity. We will be listening for how we can support this work. We were reminded of the importance of including the Nisenan, which Woolman is striving to do. We were also reminded that we are renting from Woolman, who has decision making responsibility with the land, and that there is healing needed between the CPFEA board and Quakers who have pushed for actions without good process. We were asked to hold this with mindfulness, letting right actions rise in their own time.
Friends are encouraged to write letters in support of the federal recognition of the tribe. More information can be found on their website, https://nevadacityrancheria.org/.
Reed Hamilton gave the report on Right Sharing of World Resources, appended.
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)
Judy Hamilton gave the report, appended.
CHILDREN’S PROGRAM: Dorothy Henderson (clerk), Gordon Bishop, Doug Hamm, Judy Hamilton, Dean Olson, Karen Olson, Reed Hamilton, Don McCormick, Anita McCormick
There is no report this month.
OFFICER REPORTS
- TREASURER: fosten wilson
Fosten gave the report, appended.
Several items were clarified by the Treasurer.
- SFC REPRESENTATIVE: Pat Phillips
No report.
- INTERFAITH NEVADA COUNTY: Dianne Marshall
No report.
Dianne would like to work with someone in the Meeting on a 15 minute presentation for Interfaith Nevada County on Quaker process. Anita volunteered.
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.
- On January 27-29 at Ben Lomond Quaker Center, Don McCormick will be leading a workshop on The Mystical Experience: Science, Sharing, and Vision. This highly interactive program explores Quaker mysticism, psychology, neuroscience and the philosophy of religion. Participants will be encouraged to share their own experiences and questions. The program will end with participants crafting a vision of the future of mystical experience in Quakerism.
- Amy and Chamba Cooke will be presenting on their experiences in France on January 22nd.
- Sierra Friends Center has volunteer opportunities available. See www.woolman.org.
- The College Park Quarterly Meeting (CPQM) will gather Saturday, January 14, at Berkeley Friends Meeting (and online for some activities). The theme for this quarterly meeting will be “Let us then try what love will do.” The flyer with more information is available by clicking here. To register for the event, click here.
- Pacific Yearly Meeting RepCom 2023: The next meeting of the Representative Committee (RepCom) will be held online via Zoom February 25 and March 4, 2023 (two Saturdays).
- There is a new PacYM directory online.
- PacYM Annual Session 2023 will be a hybrid event (in-person gathering with opportunities for remote or online participation) held at Mount Madonna Center July 21-26, 2023.
- The 2023 Friends General Conference Gathering, “Listen So That We May Live,” will be held at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, OR, from July 2-July 8, 2023.
- We need more people who would be willing to set up the tech system for meetings. Mary Starr is available for tutorials on setting up and putting away the OWL – just ask! She is very skilled and helpful. Please contact Mary if you can assist. You can also come at 8:45 am on any Sunday to observe the process. Thank you!!
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:
- Spirit and Witness Committee
- Right Sharing of World Resources
- Stewardship Committee
- Welcome Committee
- Treasurer’s Quarterly Report
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Spirit and Witness report
We are working as a committee to tend both the spirit of our meeting and the witness – how we live our faith into the world. We have been exploring the qualities of a healthy meeting ~ kindness, caring, vulnerability, tending to each other. We continue to hold several committees of care in the committee, and continue the practice of reaching out to members and attenders.
We reviewed the process we are using to open and close meeting, and are mindful that as we read the Nisenan Land Acknowledgement we do not want it to become rote.
We also hold the Waking Up Faithfulness Group under our care. This group has been meeting since early 2020, exploring race, nonviolence, and individual leadings. We have asked ourselves:
- How is our meeting demonstrating a commitment to the Witness portion of our faith, which in the past was held by a Peace and Social action committee?
- How are activities and witness held now? Are they corporate or individual? Does that matter for our shared sense of being an active meeting? Are they identified as coming from Quakers? Does that matter?
- How is our committee attending to the witness portion of Spirit and Witness?
- How does Wu attend to the Witness portion of our meeting? Or to Spirit and Witness?
- Does the existence of WU add or detract from the overall Witness actions of our meeting (or have no effect)?
We are inviting the Waking Up group to share more with our meeting, perhaps in a Spiritual Life program later this month.
Organization of the Month: Right Sharing of World Resources:
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.
Click here to learn more about what grounds Right Sharing’s work by reading our mission, vision, and values. Stay up to date with RSWR news and stories through their quarterly newsletter.
Stewardship Committee
Treasurer’s report. Fosten reported the donations for December were good; a total of $1,866
was received, of which $320 was earmarked for the purchase of the Owl. Expenses were
$1,789.
The question of doing a “Friendly Audit” of the books had been previously discussed. It
has been a number of years since one was done. Fosten, Mary and Reed will address this.
The Owl. Of these expenses, the total cost for the Owl was $1,417. While this was $217
over what Meeting had originally approved, it was required in order to purchase needed
additional equipment which included the up graded version (the Owl 3), a carrying case,
longer connecting cords, and a punch lock for the closet door. Fosten pointed out that, with
the $320 added in, the cost to the Meeting was still under the approved amount.
Unfortunately, once we tried to set it all up, we found that the older laptop we had been using
did not have the processing capabilities needed to run it and a new computer would be
needed. Mary tried an entry level computer ($150), but it still didn’t have adequate memory
and processor capacity to run the Owl software. So, she purchased the least expensive
laptop she could find that was powerful enough to make it all work. It cost $412.
Acknowledging that this was not in Good Quaker Process, she has agreed, that if the
purchase wasn’t approved, she would cover the cost. Fosten pointed out that there was still
$103 left from the $320 donated which could go toward the computer purchase. We agreed we would come to Meeting for Business to ask for direction.
Update: Fosten reports that with the $250 which was added to the technology fund as part
of the 2022-2023 budget, we actually have $353 in the technology fund. That leaves $59 to
be covered by Meeting.
Library. Don reported he has been trying to figure out how to shelve larger format books in
the children and youth section. Can he take out one shelf in the existing book shelf or use a
metal shelf he has? He will try to adapt the existing shelf. Also, the back of that shelf has glue
from panels being attached to it that needs to be covered. Sound proofing like the other
“boxes” on the wall in the main room? Gordon will research.
Also there are extra bookcases in the closet and other items of uncertain provenance. Can
Don address these? Gordon will follow up with SFC about the bin of yoga mats.
Newsletter. Dianne reported that the Google file of names used to send out the newsletter
was built by Dave Barnett and no one knows the password to edit it. Dianne will build the file
in consultation with Amy. It was acknowledged that this is more likely the purview of the
Welcome Committee.
Next meeting: February 2, 2023.
Welcoming Committee
We discussed making the newer members and attenders feel welcome and part of the GFVM
community. It was felt that this is happening but we could add some activities so we get to know one
another better. (See below)
Welcoming and Spirit and Witness will be planning a potluck event to welcome our newest
members (David Cowen, Cheryl Hendrickson, Olivia Cowen and Judy Hamilton). This will be sometime in the early spring so it can be held outside at the home of Fosten Wilson and Kathy McCreery.
The idea of a ‘Friendly Eight’ gathering was discussed. This would potentially meet for 6 or 8
weeks in April and May. It would rotate among different homes as well as have a Zoom group. We are
looking for the pamphlet that contains the Friendly Eight queries and will be circulating a clipboard in
February to assess interest.
We also intend to reinstate the monthly potlucks in June after Friendly Eights has been completed as part of the mission to make newcomers feel welcome. This would rotate to different homes once monthly. We talked about having a Worship Sharing time after the meal.
Don is in the process of replacing our name tags with new ones.
Treasurer’s Quarterly Report
1-8-2023
summary = mostly ok
This report covers October thru December 2022. The contributions you provided in those months ($4,029) were pretty good, thank you. Our spending ($4,775) had a couple of unplanned things – our new Owl & a Treasurer’s error.
The purchase of an Owl was approved in November and appears in the “Misc Unbudgeted
Expense” line of our General Fund. Plus the Technology Fund had Owl related donations &
Spending.
The Treasurer’s problem involved my misplacing a couple of Meetinghouse Maintenance
invoices from 2020. Luckily the vendor had been paid but I was those years late in
reimbursing the cost ($256).
The “Fund Balances” & the “Actual Spending vs Budget” reports are available in the Meeting
House and by contacting me. Our Technology fund & Sharing fund have been active & our
Placer County Worship Group fund has increased. The other Restricted Funds are unchanged.
Thank you for your help. All gifts, both in service to the Meeting & financial 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
Fosten Wilson, Treasurer,
15719 American Hill Rd
Nevada City, Calif. 95959