Meeting for Worship for Business

1 May 2005

Hamilton Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
www.quaker.ca/hamilton
quakers@hwcn.org

Present:

Carol Leigh (acting clerk), Don, Harriet, John, Jean, Roberta, Mona, Glenna, Blair, Dawn, Beverly (early part of meeting only), Darlene, Ian (recording clerk)

Regrets:

Andy, Ray, Rex

1. The Meeting began with a period of worship.

2. The minutes of the April Meeting for Worship for Business were read and approved.

Agenda approval and prioritizing:
6e moved up
5e marriage report moved up
6b request for support for CYM delegate moved to before Business Arising

6e Request from Ecumenical Service Committee for Refugees
We have a request from ESCR for a family reunification from Democratic Republic of Congo. The father is in Canada; his wife and one son died very recently, and two sons are still waiting for travel to Toronto. We request that the trustees report whether the 2004 funds to ESCR last year as approved by Meeting for Business were disbursed. We approve the disbursement of Dunford Bequest interest of $557 for the Congolese family.

6b Request for Support for Canadian Yearly Meeting delegate
Carol Leigh asks for a minute of support to CYM so that she is eligible for YM financial support, since she is required to attend Yearly Meeting as a member of Continuing Meeting of Ministry and Counsel. We agree to provide $100 towards her costs, and ask the Clerk to write a minute of support.
Carol Leigh has agreed to be a delegate for HMM to Yearly Meeting, on the understanding that the Continuing Meeting of Ministry and Counsel duties have so far proven to be very demanding, and she will be a back-up delegate.

5e Marriage Clearness Committee report
Don reports that the committee met with Sean and Diana on several occasions. The committee is pleased to announce its support for the Meeting taking this marriage under our care. The date is August 6th, 2005. We approve this recommendation. We ask for names to serve on the marriage arrangements committee. We approve Betty and Harriet, and ask others to contact Betty.

3. Business arising:

Use of CYM minute on same sex marriage. We agree to:
- send a copy of the minute to all MPs
- put a public letter in the Spectator, as a letter to the editor
- encourage members of this Meeting to use this minute in other settings, such as other churches, etc.
We ask the acting clerk to write this letter. We agree to arrange a special session for labeling and stuffing the letters to the MPs. We accept John's offer to assemble addresses and Don's to arrange the work after next Meeting for Worship and to communicate with the Meeting.
Ontario Regional Friends Gathering
not discussed
Naming Committee:
Mona is proposed to join the Nominating Committee. We accept this recommendation with thanks.
Alternatives to Violence Project at Hamilton Wentworth Detention Centre
This suggestion was raised last month, but it was unclear what this meeting is being asked to do. An AVP workshop did take place, and therefore no further action is required at this time.

4. Continuing Business No business is presented at this time.

5. Reports

Nominating Committee (NC)

A final List of Nominations is presented. We approve the recommended nominations, including the issues developed below.
1. A proposal for "Clerk for the Month" was presented by NC on Friday April 29th to Ministry and Counsel, who are recommending it to Meeting for Business. NC has not been able to find a person willing to serve as Clerk in the present role. The rota of clerks was not conceived as a permanent arrangement but to develop skills of clerking within the Meeting. The Recording Clerk role is to remain unchanged but will probably provide continuity with the Presiding Clerk. NC understands its role is to keep the rota filled with appropriate volunteers for the clerk-for-the-month.
  A training workshop and a handbook are proposed as part of this innovative approach to providing clerking.
  We are in agreement to proceed with the proposal, leaving it in the hands of M&C to implement the training and handbook tasks.
2. NC considered ways to provide members for the Outreach Committee and brought their concern to M&C. Jean read the recommendation to lay down the Outreach Committee for a year, due to lack of willing members. The proposal lists certain outreach tasks to be continued under the direction of Meeting for Worship for Business. The intent of this proposal is to spread the work of outreach among a larger group of attenders and members.
  We accept the proposal. We will further consider at the June Meeting for Worship for Business ways to move the identified projects forward.
3. There will no longer be a Library Committee, only a Librarian.
We thank the outreach committee for their past efforts.
We minute our thanks to Denise for her many years of service to the Telephone Tree.
Treasurer's Report
Cheques have been sent as a first quarterly installment to CYM and to Bridge and Phoenix Place. A written financial report will be presented quarterly to Meeting for Business.
Half-Yearly Meeting
Flyers were sent out, and arrangements for staffing and logistics are completed. Jean is our delegate, and will read the HMM 2004 State of Society Report.
PSAC report
No report was presented. A potluck is proposed to explore the relevance of the Peace Testimony for today's issues. No date is proposed.

6. New Business
a) Social Events

Open Circle, a student club at Mac, May 26th (Ian to contact and host)
Social BBQ, an after-Meeting event (Jean to discuss with Helen B., will report back)
PSAC on peace testimony, June ? (John to discuss with Dick)

c) Quaker statement on tolerance.
Carol Leigh asked us to consider a Quaker statement on tolerance for the public in light of recent world events. We lay this over to a future meeting.

7. The next Meeting is scheduled for Thurs June 2nd .

8. The Meeting closed with silent worship.

"Clerk for the Month" proposal to Ministry and Counsel from Nominating Committee

April 29, 2005

Introduction

Nominating Committee has been asked by Beverly to find a new Clerk of Meeting. Our work on this has led us to bring the following proposal to Ministry and Counsel. We ask them to consider it, and if they find it of merit to bring it forward to Meeting for Worship for Business for approval.

We propose that the position of "Co-Clerk" be laid down, and that a new position, which we call "Clerk for the Month" be created. The intent of this is to share some of the work of the "Clerk of Meeting" among a pool of Meeting members / attenders for a month at a time, rather than laying it all on a single individual.

Division of tasks:

Clerk for the Month:

Clerking of Meeting for Worship for Business for the month in question, and preparation of the agenda for Meeting for Worship for Business for the following month. During the months of July and August when Meeting for Worship for Business does not occur the two Clerks for the Month would only have to build the agenda for the September Meeting.

Clerk of Meeting:

All other tasks of the Clerk as presently defined including:

Facilitating Meeting for Worship, including closing Meeting, introduction of new attenders, afterword, and announcements, with the "Clerk for the Month" to be available as "back up" for this work.
Membership in Ministry and Counsel.
The signing of documents as "The Clerk".
Dealing with incoming correspondence and phone calls addressed to "The Clerk".
Management of the "Clerk's Hardship Fund".

Under this new arrangement the Clerk of Meeting would notify the Clerk for the Month of matters he/she became aware of that need to be brought forward to Meeting for Worship for Business. It is intended that the Clerk of Meeting would be available to the Clerk for the Month for advice and assistance as required both during the month, and at Meeting for Worship for Business.

Filling the Clerk for the Month Rota:

Our proposal is that an open invitation by Nominating Committee be extended to Meeting members / attenders to volunteer to take a turn as Clerk for the Month. Our hope is that the job would change hands each month. However, we can see the same person doing the job more than once in any given year. Should the invitation not fill the rota for the year in a reasonable time, filling it would become the responsibility of Nominating Committee.

Clerk for the Month training:

We propose that a short workshop be held prior to the institution of this system, and periodically thereafter, to develop clerking skills. We would hope that former Clerks and other seasoned Friends within Meeting could facilitate this training. We also feel that a "Clerk for the Month's Handbook" should be created by the training group to assist those doing, or considering, this work.

Trial Period:

We propose that this system be introduced for an initial one year period, and then evaluated to see if we wish to continue with it.

Nominations List: Hamilton Monthly Meeting: 2005-2006

May 1, 2005

(The number after a name indicates the year of the term being served in 2005-6. This is done only for those committees where rotating out of a position is required.)

Clerk: Beverly
Clerk for the Month: List to be brought forward by Nominating Committee
Recording Clerk: Ian
Treasurer: Blair
Auditor: Grace
Trustees: Betty, Helen, Don, Beverly

Finance Committee: Blair, Andy

Ministry and Counsel: Helen B (3), Rex (2), Carol Leigh (first year of second term), Beverly

Visiting Friends: Betty, Mona, Jesse

Outreach: Laid down for one year

First Day School: Harriet, Sian, Nancy, Janis, Shirley, Martha

Nominating: Robbie M (3), John (2), Mona (1)

Coffee and Housekeeping: Christina, Nicky

Maintenance: Betty and Reuven (co-clerks), Dawn, Don

Garden: Jean, Louise

Peace and Social Action: Dick, Rex, Helen B, Ray, Jessie, Hanna, Helen P

Newsletter: Don

Librarian: Ian