Agate Passage Preparative Meeting

MEETING FOR BUSINESS

May 19, 2002

Present:  Lorena Bruff, Barb Morrison, Bob Major, Elizabeth Zwick, Anne Laird, Barbara Wolf, Michael Moore, Mary Lou Kenny, George Kenny, Ed Sheridan, Norman Down, Millie Royce, Judy Brown, Sada Ross, Lisa Down..

1. Silent Inquiry:  Which Friends in service to the Society, in their respective regions, departed this life since the last Yearly Meeting?  (Ed pointed out that this was the first of the traditional queries posed historically to Meeting groups yearly).
   

2. Minutes of the last meeting were read and approved.
   

3. Calendar:  5/26/02, Bob Major’s house; 6/21/02 (Friday at 6:00 p.m.), Bi-monthly discussion potluck at the Down’s will be attended by the visiting committee established by the Pacific NW Quarterly to guide us through our passage to Monthly Meeting status. 6/23/02, Sada Ross’ house (bring a chair if you would be uncomfortable sitting on floor cushions); 6/30/02, Barbara Wolf’s house (this has subsequently been changed to the Dodson’s in Hansville as it will be their last opportunity to host the meeting before their move to Olympia).  7/17/02, Ministry and Oversight Committee meets to plan agenda for next Meeting for Business.  This will be at Bob Major’s house at 4:00 p.m. and is a potluck open to any who would like to attend.  7/21/02, Meeting for Business at Seabold Hall; 7/28/02, Ed and Diana Sheridan’s house.
   

4. Sign-up sheet for people to supervise the young people’s meeting was circulated.  This will be posted to the web site.
   

5. Finance report was unavailable as Nancy Dodson was unable to attend as they are in the process of planning a move to Olympia. 
   

6. Additional agenda items were solicited and added to the schedule (see 13 & 14).
   

7. Volunteers were requested to fill the finance and recording clerk positions.  Nancy Dodson will be moving to Olympia and Lorena Bruff will be completing the year’s assignment she had agreed to with the July 21 Meeting for Business.  Barbara Dodson agreed to assume the responsibility of finance clerk.  There were no volunteers for the recording clerk position.
   

8. Ed Sheridan gave a summary of the progress toward becoming a Monthly Meeting.  University Friends Meeting had forwarded our request to the quarterly Meeting and we had received a favorable response to this request.  A visiting committee from the Quarterly Meeting was appointed to assure that we understood the responsibilities and to guide us through this process.  Committee members are: Ann Stever, UFM., Della Walker of Port Townsend Monthly Meeting, Leni Skarin of Yakima, Alan Mountjoy-Venning of Olympia, and George Kenny of Tacoma.  A potluck/meeting on June 21 will introduce us to the committee and will give us a chance to present and receive queries.  A list of our queries for this committee is being assembled by Judy Brown.  The meeting will be at Norman and Lisa Down’s house and the meeting portion will be facilitated by Michael Moore.  The visiting committee may also attend our silent worship and the meeting for business on July 21. Eight people present at the meeting for business indicated their intention to attend.
   

9. Norman Down reviewed briefly the role of North Pacific Yearly Meeting as a collection of Monthly Meetings which meets yearly (this year in Corvallis, next year in Missoula). It is described as a ‘bottom up’ organization—taking its full direction from the member Meetings.  The group assigns representatives to Quaker organizations such as American Friends Service Committee, provides support for Quaker youth activities (many member Monthly Meetings are too small to have many young people and the Yearly Meeting provides a valuable exposure to other young Friends and Quaker values).  It also supports the Friends Bulletin and other networks for Quaker communication.  Norm participates as a member of the steering committee that met last weekend.  It has been recommended that the contribution of $30 per member be raised to $40 next year.  This has been paid for our members by the University Friends Meeting but will become our own responsibility when we assume monthly meeting status.  We will also be able to appoint two representatives from our meeting to the steering committee.
   

10. Craig Jacobrown reported that the Social Concerns committee’s Council of All Beings was held in Kingston on 5/18/02 and was received well by those attending.
    

11. The meeting approved asking Lisa Down to secure Quaker books for the graduating seniors Jonah Jacobrown and Maija Anderson.
    

12. Meeting approved requesting Andy Cross of the Portland area Multnomah Meeting to provide a presentation sometime in August on the work of Peace Teams.
    

13. There was a request that the refreshment table be moved out of the doorway where it causes a traffic jam for those attempting to put away chairs.  It was decided to place it on the other side of the doorway adjoining the coffee table.
    

14. It was suggested that the end-of-meeting sequence of 1) request for further comments, 2) announcements, 
    3) introductions, takes away from the spiritual depth achieved by the worship itself and is not easy to gracefully elude by people who may feel this way.  Several suggestions were made such as posting announcements on a bulletin board and referring to that for detail, letting what is said within the meeting itself stand and other unspoken messages ‘season’ for a later day.

The meeting closed with a few moments of silence.

Lorena Bruff, Recording Clerk