8 January 2004
Hamilton Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
(Quakers)
www.quaker.ca/hamilton
quakers@hwcn.org
Present: Rick McCutcheon, Tamara Fleming, Dick Preston, Betty Preston, Don Woodside (clerk), Harriet Woodside, Jean Johnson, Rex Barger, Ian Graham, Helen Brink, Andy Muller, Susan Wortman (recording clerk)
Regrets: Carol Leigh Wehking
We accept Section 3 of the Library Collections Policy as written (see attachment), with the added suggestion of ensuring that the donations policy is clear to Meeting as a whole, and that potential donors be reminded of the policy before donating books to the library.
We have received another draft chapter of Faith and Practice, entitled "The Meeting Community" from the Faith and Practice Development Committee, with a request for comments by March or April. We decided to include this as part of the content for the simulated M4W4B at the February potluck. Arrangements to ensure that anyone not wanting to be seen or heard on film will be made, and this will be made clear to Meeting as whole. Written contributions from those unable to attend are welcome, and will be presented at the meeting. Copies of the draft chapter will be available at M4W starting Sunday the 18th of January. A second discussion will be scheduled if required.
M&C considered whether we should try and organize a weekend retreat for the end of February, when Margaret Slavin is available. It was felt that there was not enough time to do this event justice, and that it be deferred to spring of 2005, when she was next available.
Andy distributed a preliminary 2003 budget report (actual vs year's budget) (see attached). The Finance Committee will meet, with interested others welcome. Committees are encouraged to submit budget proposals to Andy as soon as possible. The Treasurer is asked to inform the clerk when the budget is ready to be presented to M4W4B.
We have received a request from Conscience Canada for funds. Although CC is not a tax receiptable charitable organization, Meeting felt strongly that as CC is an organization consistent with our peace testimony and historical actions of non-payment of military taxes, that we wish to have this request considered with other requests for donations at budget time.
Friends are invited to save their old Christmas cards and give them to Bev (pending her consent) who will send them to a residence for abused children in the United States, where they are recycled into new cards.
We discussed various ways to welcome and support young adult friends in Meeting, including designating a certain Sunday a month as Young Adult Friends' Sunday. We thank Ian for bringing this issue to Meeting and encourage him to use the input of young adults in our Meeting, as well as others who visit from time to time, to implement a way of welcoming and involving young friends.
Friends Journal has asked for our mailing list, to offer subscriptions at a reduced rate to all in Meeting. In an effort to conserve paper and other resources, we will ask them to send us a number of forms, and sample copies of the magazine, which we will use to promote this offer.
The Annual Meeting of the FWCC, Section of the Americas will be held in Ottawa, March 18-21. Several Friends from HMM will be attending.
We have received a letter from Anthony Berg, co-clerk of the International Quaker Working Project on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict thanking us for our support of Rick McCutcheon, one of the members of this project. We hope to arrange a discussion centred on the book that will be published from this group's work.