1. Meeting began with open worship.

2. The minutes of M4W4B, February 2, 2003 were read and accepted with the following additions and corrections:
* Andy Muller was also present
* 5.2 the correct name of the committee is Quaker Committee on Jails and Justice

3.1.1 Potluck dates:

Thursday, March 13 - Quakers' Faith and Families - Ian Graham
Friday, April 25 - Susan Lee Barton, Friends World Committee for Consultation - topic: Differences and Common Ground I Have Found Among Friends
Friday, May 23 - Discussing our concerns re Meeting/the world
Thursday, June 19 -Quakers on the Web: Multimedia presentation - Ian Graham & Tom Edge

3.1.2 Potlucks open to the public? We agreed that our potlucks are, in general, open to visitors, and may be posted on the website. The Outreach Committee will advertise certain community potlucks widely, at the request of M4W4B. If a community potluck draws a larger crowd than expected, the organizers should feel free to order additional take-out food as necessary.

3.2 Painting bee: The date for the painting bee is changed to Saturday, March 29, 10 am - 4/5 pm. The goal is to paint the kitchen, the stairway up stairs and the front door. We empower the organizers to choose colours, in line with what they presented to this meeting. The telephone tree will be used, as well as email and a sign up sheet to alert F/friends and encourage a healthy participation. Money for the paint is available from the maintenance budget line. We thank Dawn and Betty for their preparations.

4.1 Nominations Committee

4.1.1 Nominating Committee Report (see attached) We accept with thanks, the Nominating Committee's report nominating individuals to Monthly Meeting positions, for the year starting September, 2003. Some names have yet to be confirmed at this point, and there are a few additions, (see below). We ask that the explanation of the number in brackets after some names be clarified, with an example. We also ask NC to consider whether to include the year of term in each position, or just those where rotating out of a position is required.

Additions to the Report include:
First Day School Martha Stevens
Library Committee Ben Shepard
Coffee & Housekeeping Susan Wortman
Premises Committee clerks of Coffee & Housekeeping, Gardening and Maintenance Committees

4.1.2 Nominations to Other Quaker Bodies (see attached) We received this list of Hamilton Quakers who are serving on other Quaker bodies. We also accepted six nominations to other Quaker bodies:
Beverly Shepard Camp Neekaunis
Carol Leigh Wehking Continuing Meeting of Ministry and Council of Canadian Yearly Meeting
Peter Cross Finance Committee of Canadian Yearly Meeting
Dawn Lepard Yonge Street Half-Yearly Meeting Coordinating Committee
Rick McCutcheon Assistant Clerk of Canadian Yearly Meeting
Beverly Shepard Recording Clerk, Canadian Yearly Meeting

Once again, we thank Nominating Committee for the tremendous amount of work that goes into preparing the yearly nominations.

4.2 Trustee's Bank Report, 2002 (see attached) A yearly deposit from the general account is generally made to the Trustee's account to save for capital expenditures. A question was raised concerning the 2002 transfer. We ask the treasurer if the budgeted $2,000 for 2003 includes the 2002 transfer. We thank Betty Preston for this report.

4.3 Ministry and Council

4.3.1 Hamilton Monthly Meeting Draft State of Society Report (see attached) The State of Society Report is a summary of where the Meeting stands spiritually. It is shared with the Yonge Street Half-Yearly Meeting and then is published in "Documents in Advance" for Canadian Yearly Meeting. This draft will be posted on the bulletin board and a small amount of copies will be made available at the meeting house. It will also be published in the newsletter. Friends are asked to make comments to a member of Ministry and Council (Don Woodside, Jean Johnson, Rick McCutcheon, Carol Leigh Wehking and Betty Preston) by March 23. We thank M&C for such a remarkably complete and beautifully written report.

4.3.2 Meeting Spiritual Retreat In January, M&C were asked by M4W4B to organize a spiritual retreat. They had considered delaying a weekend retreat until autumn, due to difficulties in planning location and theme. However they feel there is a need in the meeting for a spiritual retreat at this time. They are organizing a meeting retreat on Saturday April 5 at the Meeting House, from 10 am to 3 pm. They encourage us to read the Advices and Queries which M&C gave us and to choose one which speaks to us.. There will be an opportunity to talk about it in the worship sharing groups. However, they also encourage us to come even if we have not done this. We thank M&C for the planning done to date, and look forward to the retreat.

5.1 Circulating the M4W4B agenda by email The email list reaches approximately three quarters of our Meeting's participants. We have previously minuted a desire to circulate the agenda for upcoming M4W4B in order to help the clerk prioritize its items. The agenda is currently posted on the bulletin board in advance of the meeting. We agreed that even though email reaches only three quarters of the meeting, that it would be a beneficial action nonetheless. We encourage those without email access and who have difficulty getting to the bulletin board, to connect with an email 'buddy' if they wish to preview the agenda.

5.2 Isolated Friends Home Mission and Advancement Committee of Canadian Yearly Meeting has had the responsibility of keeping contact with isolated Friends (those Friends not affiliated with a Meeting or Worship Group). HMAC wishes to lay down this concern, and is asking Monthly Meetings to pick it up. If you are aware of isolated Friends, please speak to a member of M&C (see members in 4.3.1)

5.3 Swapfest/Plant Sale The date for this year's swap and plant sale is Saturday, May 10. We entrust the committee to decide whether funds should be raised, and how to disburse them.

5.4 HMM Banner at demonstrations We have a Quaker banner, suitable for carrying at demonstrations, rallies etc, that reads, 'Quakers for Peace'. We had a thoughtful beginning discussion on the uses of this banner that we could envision, and the degree of comfort or discomfort we might have about different uses. Some of us felt that a Quaker banner for peace would always be a positive influence at any demonstration. Others felt there would be a division in the Meeting concerning the banner being at certain demonstrations We will revisit this discussion at a M4W4B in the near future for further threshing.

We received notice of an upcoming worship conference entitled Unleashing Christ's Light to be held at Central Gospel Temple, 240 Scott Street, St. Catherines, March 28 & 29, 2003. For more information, call 905-938-9446 or write to .

8. Meeting closed with open worship.