May 20, 2007, 8:30 AM
Westtown Meeting House

Lifting up of Names.

Announcements:

Announcements and Newsletters in the black loose-leaf notebook are also listed on the bulletin board outside the kitchen in the Meeting House basement. Several newsletters would be useful to committees be sure to check them out.

Announcements of Special Note

• Committees meet Sunday, 6/3/2007
• Hickman Yard Sale 6/9/2007
• Westtown School Commencement is 6/9/2007
• Meeting for Worship of the Glen and Recognition of First Day School, Suncday, 6/10/2007
• Residential Yearly Meeting is in July at Rowan University in NJ. PYM is looking for help with the children's program.
  

Correspondence:

• Opportunities for contributions: Quaker Information Center, Friends International Center in Ramallah,
• Barton-Glover Meeting schoolbook "Peace Covers" are available for purchase, T. Wistar Brown Teachers' Fund (grants for post graduate and continuing training, can help to fund a master's degree), Friends Hospice (volunteers and professional staff sought), and Catholic Social Services (looking for adults interested in becoming foster parents).
• Pete Lane is looking for a volunteer to help him with PYM fund phon-a-thon.
  

Old Business:

Report of Clearness Committee for Marriage of Rose Alken and John Koenig. 5/6/07

This committee recommends that Rose and John be married under the care of this Meeting on August 25th, 2007, and that an oversight committee be appointed as soon as possible to help them plan the Meeting for Worship for Marriage. A place is yet to be determined for sure, but the couple and the Clerk of the Meeting will be in contact with Willistown Meeting.

Committee members Paula Kline, Alan Wright and Kevin and Karen Gallagher met with the couple on the evening Wednesday, 5/2/07 at the Gallaghers’ home.

After dinner and conversation, we had a delightful discussion with Rose and John, exploring the history of their relationship, their thoughts on the commitment that marriage entails, their extended families, their careers as secondary school teachers and how deeply they feel called to teach, the nature of a Quaker marriage and their relationship with this Meeting, their thoughts about children and how they hope to raise them, the strengths that each of the two brings to the relationship and the places in that relationship where they can continue to learn about and help one another. Paula left the couple with a list of very practical questions about marriage relationships that they can ask themselves and one another and, if they wish, can discuss with those in this Meeting with whom they grow closest.

Throughout the discussion we came to know this couple as a loving pair of kind and honest people who are open to sharing joys and listening to and addressing differences on matters small and large, and who are open to all kinds of growth. They also welcome the role that this community can play as a home for them and a support for them in the coming years. They love this place and look forward to coming to know more members of the Meeting community just as they already know many in the School community.

It is with joy that this committee envisions Rose’s and John’s deepening relationship with us, and asks that the Meeting take them under its care as they marry.

Respectfully submitted to the Meeting by

Paula Kline, Alan Wright and Karen and Kevin Gallagher

The Meeting approved with gratitude for the work of the Clearness Committee. Rose and John have requested that Paula Kline and Alan Wright serve, they will join with Margaret and Tom Haviland to help with the planning of the wedding on August 25th, 2007. The Meeting will provide Rose with a letter when she goes to apply for a Quaker marriage license asserting that she is a member of the Meeting and will be married under its care. Kevin will check with PYM about new guidelines for standardization for this process.

Pastoral Care and Concerns:

• On the Audio system, this will be a topic that should be taken up with the Meeting House Committee that will be meeting with Phil Genther and Bob Connolly. The American's with Disabilities Act requires schools to provide hearing accommodations in public spaces. Stony Run Meeting in Maryland was designed upon the plans of this meeting house. This meeting had a sound system installed with some problems. We should contact them to learn for their challenges.
• Will send letters to students graduating from high school and college
• Discussed success of new committee structure and First Day School program.
  

Worship and Ministry:

• Does Pastoral Care and Concern want to have a joint Meeting with Worship and Ministry? How is that different from Monthly Meeting for Business? The agenda would be different. The Two committees will meet

Peace and Social Justice:

• Focused week to week on first day school.
• This Thursday, some of the members will be delivering letters to Target, asking them to stop selling poison plastic in the form of PVC.
• Paula Kline and Lee Reinert are forming a group called the Sustainability Circle.
  

The Discussion of Meeting giving of corporate gifts will be held over to the June Meeting.

New Business:

• Report on the planning for the July CQM Meeting: Pete Lane
  • The meeting is here, the business meeting will start at 8:30, with singing at 10:00, Meeting for Worship at 10:30. Then folks will adjourn to Mary Clendenning’s Farm for a picnic and tubing on the Brandywine. Westtown Monthly Meeting will provide coffee and nosh/combustibles/bagels.
    “State of the Meeting” report from Kevin Gallagher to CQM, for revision and/or approval. The Meeting approved the following letter and asked that it be sent on to the Quarterly Meeting (click here to see the letter.)
    

Evaluation of our restructuring and its impact on the First Day School: review of questionnaires by Rebecca Mays.

• Two evaluations: One for Families with Children and one for members and attenders.
• Rebecca will send report to me. For inclusion.
• Meeting Discussion:
  • What we need to keep?
    • Discrete times of responsibilities for First Day School.
    • Keep simple and logistical supports: Calendars for each committee, notebook for recording lessons covered and folders for each child .
    • Like that there are two people for each class .
    • Like to continue with three committee structure with addition of Nominating Committee and audit committee. The Meeting approved continuing with this structure.
    • Brought in a few new participants to work of all committees and working with our children.
• What we need to add, tweak, adjust:
  • Form to fill out then and there after class to record what we had actually done that Sunday in class and what the attendance was.
  • Having ad hoc committee purchase curricula for the year for us to use with one member from each committee. PYM can help provide us, give Christy Duncan-Tessmen a call for advice. Identify what we have, consult committees for themes. Themes will arise from the work of each committee rather than a year long theme.
  • How to plan the sequence? This requires the creation of time. SO that each committee has given thought to its time.
  • Three times a year Monthly Meeting time to pass the baton and decide on themes.
  • How do we help the member who has real problems with the structure. That person could be helped with having it reiterated that we are based on the idea of "no guilt, no shame". This experiment has worked because of willing volunteers. It is an opportunity, we don't require it. If we are attending meeting for worship we are serving the meeting.
  • Need to lean into one room school house model and release ourselves from a sense of needed professionalism related to teaching. The families are all happy with their children's experience this year regardless of which adults have worked with their children.
    • Even the most seasoned teachers still feel nervous in approaching the class
  • The student teacher ratio affects our ability to relate to the kids. From Sunday to Sunday we vary from 3-17 kids. We should think in terms of partners and dividing the class. Ginny and Linda taught every fourth Sunday. Ginny would do a lesson for 20 minutes and Linda would cook with half the kids then they would switch.
  • One member shared that it is wonderful we have done this sea change and we are now all ministering to our children.
  • One parent shared that they think that is wonderful that our children learn there are other adults who think and believe as their parents do.
  • Thriving First Day School's pay attention to what they do in advance and what they want their children to learn. Sharing responsibilities across a wide spectrum of the adult community. Teaching children in First Day School is just one bit of what and how children learn what it means to be a member of a meeting.
  • Hold up coffee and greeting as something we all need to do.
  • Average attendance during Worship and Ministry, 17 children. No consistent records for middle third. Attendance has dropped off a bit this spring.

We ended with silent worship.

Respectfully,

Margaret Haviland
Recording Clerk