September 16, 2007, 8:30 AM
Westtown Meeting House

Friends to hold in the Light:

Announcements:

• Check the black notebook and the website for ongoing updates and announcements of events
• Joe Sestak will be at Haverford Meeting on October 7th, this is an open meeting.
• The “State of the Meeting” short form report is in the CQM Newsletter, the PYM News, and on the meeting website

Correspondence:

• A letter from the clerk with schedules (hosting, greeting, and teaching), committee lists, committee charges and other information is ready. Kevin has put together the hard copy for those who don't have email. This information will be posted on the website for those who have electronic communications. The letter was read to the business meeting to check for corrections. The letter was approved.
• The clerk will send a note card to every attender family telling them how excited we are to have them and to mention the steps in becoming members if they feel led in that direction.
• The Meeting House Repairs letter which Kevin wrote to Robert Connolly and Phil Genther was read to the meeting. This letter was a follow up to a conversation a small group of members had with Bob and Phil about the Meeting House upkeep and repairs.

Old Business:

• Report on the Alken-Koenig Wedding: It was a hot and beautiful day for the wedding which was held at Williston Monthly Meeting. The ceremony was carried out in good order with great joy and reverence.
• Report of the Religious Education Curriculum working group: Margaret Haviland and Ginny Sutton have ordered the selection of the following titles for our year of first day school:
  • For Worship and Ministry to use through the first of December.
    • Opening Doors To Quaker Worship
    • Young Children And Worship
      
  • For Worship and Ministry if they run out of material and then for Pastoral Care and Concern to continue with.
    • Growing In The Light - Grades 6-8
    • Growing In The Light - Grades 2-5
    • Truth In Action: A Curriculum On The Testimonies.
      
  • For Pastoral Care and then Peace and Justice to continue with
    • Friendly Consensus - Teachers Book
    • Friendly Consensus - Student's Manual
    • The Peaceable Kingdom: Lessons For All Ages To Live By
    • Practicing Peace Curriculum
• Report: Pastoral Care and Concerns.
  • Nancy Bernhardt will be the contact person for the coffee list
  • Fellowship dinners will pick up where the lake suppers left off providing opportunities for fellowship and friendship. After the rise of the Meeting the last Sunday in September (9/30) we will dust and clean the meeting room upstairs and then gather afterwards for a meal. Discussion followed as to how to live in relationship with the school over the care and upkeep of the Meeting House. The sense of those that met with Phil and Bob was that our willingness to do what we can and what makes sense for a small membership with a large building shared with and used extensively by the school was well received. We are unique in the fact that we as a membership are not directly responsible for the care of our building. We need to be as specific as possible about what we are asking when we ask for cleaning. Kevin will speak with Marsha, the Head of Housekeeping about what does happen regularly in regards to cleaning the Meeting House and who actually does it.
  • Nancy Bernhardt passed around a list for coffee sign up
    
• Report: Worship and Ministry
  • Began by hearing where everyone is in the work the committee. We have wide differences of what nurtures each member of the group spiritually and how we supplement Meeting for Worship with outside activities and interests.
  • Worship and Ministry brought forward a request to the meeting to invite Rabbi Marsha Praeger to come for an afternoon to hold a three hour workshop to deepen our understanding of Jewish Prayer and spirituality and how Jesus, as a Jewish man, would have approached prayer. Sunday, November 11th was suggested. Rebecca Mays will check on this date with Rabbi Praeger. This event will be opened to Westtown School students.
  • The committee members have begun their work with the Meeting's children and had a moving first session with the children. We are showing them what we as adults are doing to keep our spirits fed.
    
• Report: Peace and Social Justice Committee
  • The committee is proposing the Meeting experiment with a book club. The first gathering will feature Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. We will gather at Heather Huberty's home on Saturday October 13th for a pot luck supper. Everyone is invited. Having read the book is not a requirement!
  • The film series will continue.
    • “Eyes Wide Open” will be co-hosted here the first week of November as part of Quaker Leadership Program and in conjunction with Wilmington Friends School.
  • The collection of materials from students at the end of the school year was very successful even given its last minute nature. Several suitcases of clothes were sent to Mexico and other sites and household goods were also distributed to local groups with need.
  • Nancy Hoffman and John Evans will be co-clerks for the year.
    
• Treasurer's Report:
  o The Meeting is solvent and able to meet all of its obligations for the fall.
  o The general report is on the website. For detail on how each committee spent see Branin Boyd.

New Business:

• We discussed the planning for the visit of the 2nd Presbyterian Church to Westtown Meeting, 9/23/07. Our children with their children will prepare lunch for everyone able to stay. They want to bring their choir to sing. Their choir is the guts of their worship. Their choir will share with us at the beginning of the meeting. At the rise of the meeting there will be lunch and then at 1:00 a time for adult fellowship and sharing around the theme of how does the Holy Spirit work in your life/How does salvation work in your life.
• There will be a presentation at Birmingham Monthly Meeting by E. Walmsley on 9/30/07 for Middle School Age of children, their parents and their Meetings. We need a contact person. Her topic will be the PYM Middle School Friends Program and what the program has to offer middle school age children. PYM has targeted our Quarter as one in which they hope to encourage more participation in PYM Middle School Friends. We have about a dozen middle school age children in our Meeting.
• Evaluating the Advent Garden will happen at our next Meeting for Business. We will focus on the pros & cons. Do we have 8 adults who are willing to participate in planning and execution of the garden this year?
• Upcoming business:
  • We will consider the spiritual effects of the reconstruction of the Meeting structure on us: what was last year like for us? What directions do we need to take?
  • Do we want to make financial contributions to beneficiaries/charitable organizations as a part of a collective witness of the Monthly Meeting?

After a period of Worship we adjourned until our next meeting on the third Sunday of October, 2007.

Respectfully,

Margaret Haviland
Recording Clerk