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Agate Passage Meeting for Business January 15, 2006
The Business Meeting opened with a few moments of silence and a reading, a series of queries from the Australian Friends’, Book of Discipline about meetings for business by our Clerk, Judy Brown, at 11:35 a.m.
PRESENT: Bob Major, Wendy McClure, Eric Hoyte, Virginia Hoyte, Jessie Page, Lucy Johnson, Roberta Wilson, Ed Sheridan, Diana Sheridan, Dorothy Rana-Meadows, Jim Rana-Meadows, Wil Hamm, Judy Brown, Barbara Wolf
THE MINUTES OF THE NOV. 20TH, ’05 MEETING were approved as summarized by our Clerk.
TREASURER’S REPORT. Wil Hamm, our Treasurer, raised a number of concerns about our present Meeting and its future. One of them was, “What do we envision might be happening in 30 years?” Because we have almost no younger folks under 55 years of age now, he pointed out, can we imagine Agate Passage Meeting surviving into the 2020s or 2030s? This issue also brings up the question of advertising now for the purpose of drawing in enthusiastic members in their forties and fifties. “This is the least known church on the Island,” Wil said. He also threw out questions regarding greater teamwork and what he perceived as problems with our consensus decision-making. He also pointed out that in the last 1½ years, one third of the attenders/members, many of them younger people, have left. Wil also thinks we need an active church school to draw in younger families, though he agreed that Seabold Hall does not lend itself to that happening because of space.
Our Clerk pointed out that before we deal with the bigger, underlying issues that our Treasurer raised, there are some smaller decisions we must make at this Business Meeting: telephone advertising in the yellow pages for one. The Meeting agreed to a Minute that stated, “The Treasurer, in consultation with our lawyer, Dorothy Foster, will pay the basic amount owing now to Q West for the ad now running in the yellow pages, but cancel future advertising for the rest of this year and the next.
The second decision agreed upon by the Meeting was to approve of Michael Moore’s request for permission to experiment with the use of his toll-free 866 number for advertising as an additional Quaker phone number. The group agreed to try this out for an indefinite time, and in some months to evaluate the usage and results, and if we find it worthwhile, to pay our share of the cost of this line.
The Meeting further agreed to form a small committee to help our Treasurer consider what kind and how much advertising we should be putting out onto Bainbridge Island and greater Kitsap County. Jessie Page and Bob Major agreed to be on this committee.
Ed Sheridan reminded us that we first need to consider the larger picture and goals in order to make appropriate decisions. Are we basically a smaller “Circle of Friends” or do we see ourselves as, or becoming. a larger Quaker Meeting? The Business Meeting agreed that we need more and relaxed time to come to an agreement on our over-all vision. The Group approved of the idea to invite all members and attenders to gather for a Retreat on Saturday, March 11th at Judy Brown’s home or Camp Indianola, (if we can book their lodge.) We agreed to come together from 10:00 to 3:00 that day for the purpose of discussing our present and envisioning our future, while hopefully finding consensus on a new “Mission Statement.”
FIRST DAY SCHOOL, We agreed to have the Meeting experiment with the concept of a variety of activities that would welcome children on the last Sunday of the month, and would include some place or period of traditional worship.
PROPOSAL TO ASK Rev. Sandra Bochonok. Author of Living as the Beloved, to come to the pre-Meeting discussion group on Sunday January 22 to share her expertise on Labyrinths and other wisdom.
The meeting closed with silence at 1:15 p.m.
Virginia Hoyte, Recording Clerk |
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