MINUTES OF STREET BUSINESS MEETING, 7th DECEMBER 2014
1. Quaker Faith and Practice 3.06 was read to us.
2. Present: Sheila James, Caroline Gould, Jane Wilson, Hazel Eldridge, Richard Clark, Sally Askins, Petronella Clark, Maia Hood, Margaret Chapman, Kevin Redpath, Tyna Redpath, Sandi Kirk, Janet Morland
3. Nominations for the Triennium 2015-2017
i) Report of AM appointments for Street
Elders: Caroline Gould, Jane Wilson, Kevin Redpath, Petronella Clark, Judith Badman
Overseers: Sandra Kirk, Margaret Chapman, Richard Clark, Celia Green, Janet Morland, Matthew Willis
ii) Nominations for local meeting
Childrens Committee Lindsay Bond
Childrens Committee Tony Habgood
Childrens Committee Jane Habgood
Childrens Committee Elaine Allen
Childrens Committee Helen Bree
Outreach Kevin Redpath
Outreach Tyna Redpath
Outreach Sandi Kirk
Outreach Helen Lunt
Outreach Lindsay Bond
Website Kevin Redpath
These names being acceptable our Friends are duly appointed. This completes the triennial nominations. We thank our Nominations committee for their work, and all our appointees for their service. A revised appointments list will be available shortly.
4. Charney Manor update
There has been some discussion about the way in which financial support for those attending Charney Manor is to be funded.
Previous Minutes from BM have been clear on 2 points
The CM planning group, with input from Overseers and the treasurer has considered the best way of doing it, and written the following Minutes:
1 Those who have to withdraw for health or family reasons
If anyone who has booked needs to withdraw before January 31st they will forfeit only the £15 deposit. After this the full amount will need to be paid. if a Friend does need to withdraw within the last 14 days, Overseers will consider any instances where this would cause financial hardship.
2. Meeting the cost of bursaries
If any Friends apply for bursaries, this will need to be met out of Meeting funds. The total cost of Charney Manor to the meeting is therefore likely to be greater than the amount paid in by participants. This extra cost will be reduced from £150 per place to £75 for any places we book above a total of 20.. As most, if not all, of these extra places will need to be fully or partially supported by bursaries, we do not expect there to be a surplus to be distributed. We encourage any who would find it difficult to pay the full £150 to apply for bursary assistance for a proportion of the amount (the application form already make provision for this) We will not have any exact figures until after the event.
We encourage anyone who would like to do so to apply. The final application date for bursaries has been revised to January 11th to allow for this information to be circulated. The final date for payment will be January 18th.
20 adults and 3 children are currently booked, including the two facilitators, Mavis and Roger Iredale. They will be sending out information ahead of time. The programme has been amended to take account of comments at the meeting on November 9th
5. Being Friends together website
Jane Wilson and Sheila James have looked at this website, which contains a great many resources for Meetings to use in different ways. For a subscription of £35 it can be made available to the whole Meeting. We agree to Sheila James subscribing on our behalf and being reimbursed the subscription fee
6. Resident Friends
In October 2014 members of the Premises Committee received a letter from Emily informing them that she and Damean had agreed to separate, and that Damean had moved to alternative accommodation. The separation actually dates from August.
Emily told the Premises Committee that she wished to continue living in the cottage and to take on the role of Resident Friend as her sole responsibility.
At this point she did not wish the Business Meeting to be informed until the Premises committee felt able to make a recommendation about how to proceed.
The Premises Committee (minus Emily and Bernard) met on 11th November, having informed themselves further on the nature of the legal position.
Emily and Damean have a Voluntary Worker agreement with AM Trustees; so it is the Trustees who have the ultimate decision-making power. However, Richard Porter, the Clerk of Trustees, is content to be guided by the wishes of Street Meeting.
Two members of the Premises Committee (Sheila James and Caroline Gould) met with Emily to hear her views on how the role might work if she took it on as her sole responsibility.
They and Emily agreed that it would be sensible to take advice on best practice from Quaker Life in relation to any new agreement. The report was circulated to the Premises Committee, who met to consider it on Thursday December 4th, together with a report from Caroline on her telephone conversation with Damean.
The following Minute was then agreed:
We are advised that the existing form of agreement is no longer recommended by Friends House. We wish to inform ourselves further on the options open to the Meeting, and to give the matter further thought. We see this as an opportunity to revisit expectations; and we invite Friends who wish to contribute to this process to get in touch with Richard Clark, Caroline Gould, Sheila James or Mike Kellaway.
We feel that advice and assistance should be sought from Quaker Life and other resources.
We wish to revisit the role of Resident Friends including line management, support from Overseers, Communications, and the importance of a welcoming presence.
7. Nurturing our meeting room proposal
At our last BM we heard a proposal from Kevin Redpath which was circulated with the Minutes
This has now been considered by the Premises Committee and we have also received responses from a number of individual Friends.
Summary of responses:
i Having a day when we clean and refurbish the Meeting room – general approval
ii Nourishing the floor and benches
Concerns expressed by Premises which can be summarised by Matthew Willis’s response
“Old Friends Meeting Houses have their own atmosphere –
A special feature is their construction in untreated wood, frequently pine (and, in the case of Long Sutton, Elm as well).
The seats and the Wainscoting (at Street) are in wood as left by the woodworker’s plane. This is remarkable and sets it apart from a domestic interior.
I am sure that we should not feel free to feed, oil or wax that wood which has undergone its own aging process in Street for 130 years or, in the case of Long Sutton, for 300 years.
My work has been the conserving of antique clocks since 1968 and, so many times the least understood aspect of conservation is understanding when it is best to leave things alone
Matthew “
iii. Replacing cushion covers in a warmer shade – some approval, but the Premises Committee pointed out that the cushions (including covers) originally cost £600, and that the covers were chosen to be removable and washable - we have tried this on one of the cushions
iv Refurbishing kneelers – some approval but also at least one response to keep some as they are
v Re-arranging seating – Some reservations expressed
We wish to proceed with the idea of devoting some time together to nurturing our meeting room. We ask our premises committee, after consultation, to make suggestions as to what tasks we should undertake on the designated day.
8. Memorial to Judith Keenlyside
We have heard a memorial to Judith Keenlyside which will be filed with our records
9. Rhiannon Redpath QUNO Programme Assistant for Peace and Disarmament will be speaking about her placement to Quaker Meetings in March and April 2015. We ask Kevin Redpath to arrange a visit to Street on a Sunday after Meeting for Worship.
1. Quaker Faith and Practice 3.06 was read to us.
2. Present: Sheila James, Caroline Gould, Jane Wilson, Hazel Eldridge, Richard Clark, Sally Askins, Petronella Clark, Maia Hood, Margaret Chapman, Kevin Redpath, Tyna Redpath, Sandi Kirk, Janet Morland
3. Nominations for the Triennium 2015-2017
i) Report of AM appointments for Street
Elders: Caroline Gould, Jane Wilson, Kevin Redpath, Petronella Clark, Judith Badman
Overseers: Sandra Kirk, Margaret Chapman, Richard Clark, Celia Green, Janet Morland, Matthew Willis
ii) Nominations for local meeting
Childrens Committee Lindsay Bond
Childrens Committee Tony Habgood
Childrens Committee Jane Habgood
Childrens Committee Elaine Allen
Childrens Committee Helen Bree
Outreach Kevin Redpath
Outreach Tyna Redpath
Outreach Sandi Kirk
Outreach Helen Lunt
Outreach Lindsay Bond
Website Kevin Redpath
These names being acceptable our Friends are duly appointed. This completes the triennial nominations. We thank our Nominations committee for their work, and all our appointees for their service. A revised appointments list will be available shortly.
4. Charney Manor update
There has been some discussion about the way in which financial support for those attending Charney Manor is to be funded.
Previous Minutes from BM have been clear on 2 points
- We wish as many as possible to attend
- We wish all who need financial assistance from the Meeting in order to go to receive it.
The CM planning group, with input from Overseers and the treasurer has considered the best way of doing it, and written the following Minutes:
1 Those who have to withdraw for health or family reasons
If anyone who has booked needs to withdraw before January 31st they will forfeit only the £15 deposit. After this the full amount will need to be paid. if a Friend does need to withdraw within the last 14 days, Overseers will consider any instances where this would cause financial hardship.
2. Meeting the cost of bursaries
If any Friends apply for bursaries, this will need to be met out of Meeting funds. The total cost of Charney Manor to the meeting is therefore likely to be greater than the amount paid in by participants. This extra cost will be reduced from £150 per place to £75 for any places we book above a total of 20.. As most, if not all, of these extra places will need to be fully or partially supported by bursaries, we do not expect there to be a surplus to be distributed. We encourage any who would find it difficult to pay the full £150 to apply for bursary assistance for a proportion of the amount (the application form already make provision for this) We will not have any exact figures until after the event.
We encourage anyone who would like to do so to apply. The final application date for bursaries has been revised to January 11th to allow for this information to be circulated. The final date for payment will be January 18th.
20 adults and 3 children are currently booked, including the two facilitators, Mavis and Roger Iredale. They will be sending out information ahead of time. The programme has been amended to take account of comments at the meeting on November 9th
5. Being Friends together website
Jane Wilson and Sheila James have looked at this website, which contains a great many resources for Meetings to use in different ways. For a subscription of £35 it can be made available to the whole Meeting. We agree to Sheila James subscribing on our behalf and being reimbursed the subscription fee
6. Resident Friends
In October 2014 members of the Premises Committee received a letter from Emily informing them that she and Damean had agreed to separate, and that Damean had moved to alternative accommodation. The separation actually dates from August.
Emily told the Premises Committee that she wished to continue living in the cottage and to take on the role of Resident Friend as her sole responsibility.
At this point she did not wish the Business Meeting to be informed until the Premises committee felt able to make a recommendation about how to proceed.
The Premises Committee (minus Emily and Bernard) met on 11th November, having informed themselves further on the nature of the legal position.
Emily and Damean have a Voluntary Worker agreement with AM Trustees; so it is the Trustees who have the ultimate decision-making power. However, Richard Porter, the Clerk of Trustees, is content to be guided by the wishes of Street Meeting.
Two members of the Premises Committee (Sheila James and Caroline Gould) met with Emily to hear her views on how the role might work if she took it on as her sole responsibility.
They and Emily agreed that it would be sensible to take advice on best practice from Quaker Life in relation to any new agreement. The report was circulated to the Premises Committee, who met to consider it on Thursday December 4th, together with a report from Caroline on her telephone conversation with Damean.
The following Minute was then agreed:
We are advised that the existing form of agreement is no longer recommended by Friends House. We wish to inform ourselves further on the options open to the Meeting, and to give the matter further thought. We see this as an opportunity to revisit expectations; and we invite Friends who wish to contribute to this process to get in touch with Richard Clark, Caroline Gould, Sheila James or Mike Kellaway.
We feel that advice and assistance should be sought from Quaker Life and other resources.
We wish to revisit the role of Resident Friends including line management, support from Overseers, Communications, and the importance of a welcoming presence.
7. Nurturing our meeting room proposal
At our last BM we heard a proposal from Kevin Redpath which was circulated with the Minutes
This has now been considered by the Premises Committee and we have also received responses from a number of individual Friends.
Summary of responses:
i Having a day when we clean and refurbish the Meeting room – general approval
ii Nourishing the floor and benches
Concerns expressed by Premises which can be summarised by Matthew Willis’s response
“Old Friends Meeting Houses have their own atmosphere –
A special feature is their construction in untreated wood, frequently pine (and, in the case of Long Sutton, Elm as well).
The seats and the Wainscoting (at Street) are in wood as left by the woodworker’s plane. This is remarkable and sets it apart from a domestic interior.
I am sure that we should not feel free to feed, oil or wax that wood which has undergone its own aging process in Street for 130 years or, in the case of Long Sutton, for 300 years.
My work has been the conserving of antique clocks since 1968 and, so many times the least understood aspect of conservation is understanding when it is best to leave things alone
Matthew “
iii. Replacing cushion covers in a warmer shade – some approval, but the Premises Committee pointed out that the cushions (including covers) originally cost £600, and that the covers were chosen to be removable and washable - we have tried this on one of the cushions
iv Refurbishing kneelers – some approval but also at least one response to keep some as they are
v Re-arranging seating – Some reservations expressed
We wish to proceed with the idea of devoting some time together to nurturing our meeting room. We ask our premises committee, after consultation, to make suggestions as to what tasks we should undertake on the designated day.
8. Memorial to Judith Keenlyside
We have heard a memorial to Judith Keenlyside which will be filed with our records
9. Rhiannon Redpath QUNO Programme Assistant for Peace and Disarmament will be speaking about her placement to Quaker Meetings in March and April 2015. We ask Kevin Redpath to arrange a visit to Street on a Sunday after Meeting for Worship.
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