IMYM 2017 ANNUAL MEETING MINUTES AND LISTENING SESSIONS

Session 1. Wednesday, June 14, 2017 Welcome Session

7-8:30 p.m.

Eric Wright, Mountain View, led us in song while people were settling in.

Clerk Molly Wingate welcomed all, saying she was glad everyone was gathered to share the abundance of gifts and joy. She said we have the opportunity to share this time and space to enjoy fellowship, education, and to do the work of our Yearly Meeting. And to enjoy our time doing it.

People from Meetings and worship groups were asked to stand up as their Meetings and worship groups were called to introduce us to each other.

Meeting list:

Arizona Half Yearly: Tempe, Pima, Phoenix, Flagstaff, Cochise Worship Group

Utah Friends Fellowship: Moab, Logan, Salt Lake City

Colorado Regional: Boulder, Mountain View, Ft. Collins, Colorado Springs, Three Valleys Worship Group

New Mexico Regional: Socorro Worship Group; Santa Fe; Southside Santa Fe Worship Group; Las Cruces; Gila; El Paso, TX; Durango, CO; Gallup Worship Group, Clearlight Worship Group (Taos), Albuquerque, Las Vegas

Attenders were asked to stand to stand up if they had traveled more than 1,500, 1,000, 500, 250, and 100 miles. They were also asked to stand up if they had attended IMYM more than 30, 25, 20, 5, and 2-5 years. Those attending for the first time were asked to stand up and be recognized, and so others could reach out to them to answer questions and help them feel welcome.

All were warmly welcomed.

List of Visitors Bringing Gifts from Afar:

Pamela Haines, our keynote speaker from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, and her partner, Chuck Esser

Bill Brent, Friends General Council Associate Secretary for Communications, Publications, and Outreach from West Newton Friends Meeting.

Tom Martin of Friends Peace Teams

Mary Comfort, Friends Committee on National Legislation’s (FCNL‘s) planned giving coordinator

Mary Klein, editor of Western Friends, from Palo Alto Meeting

Three American Friends Service Committee representatives:

Gabriela Flores, Director of the Denver program

Sayrah Namaste, New Mexico Project Director, Albuquerque

Lucy Duncan, Director of Friends Relations, from Philadelphia office

The Clerk read a list of volunteers serving the IMYM community. Some are in positions created by the new structure. So many gifts have been generously given: organizing, schlepping, writing, asking hard questions, making up groups, keeping track of money, and showing compassion.

Presiding Clerk - Molly Wingate

Recording Clerk - Gail Hoffman

Representatives Clerk - Penny Thronweber

Arrangements Clerk - Pelican Lee

Facilities Working Group - Eric Wright

Program Working Group Clerk - Paula Palmer and Pam Gilchrist

Registrars - Lisa Toko-Ross and Sarah Feitler

Operations Coordinators - Carl Feitler and Laura Anderson

Volunteer Coordinator - Marion Newton

Interest Group Coordinator - Nancy Dolphin

Worship Sharing Coordinator - Ba Wise

Delegates Committee Clerk - Sara Keeney

Finance Committee Clerk Bob Schroeder

Treasurer - Jerry Peterson

Youth Working Group Clerk - Marc Gacy

And many others

Persons who have accepted nominated positions at IMYM were asked to stand. Around 120 nominated positions do the work of the yearly meeting.

Those who are their Monthly Meetings’ representatives to IMYM or are volunteering once they arrived at Ghost Ranch also were asked to stand.

Persons without volunteer jobs who want them were asked to contact Marion Newton, volunteer coordinator.

Debra Hepler, director of Ghost Ranch, welcomed all on behalf of Ghost Ranch, and updated attenders on Ghost Ranch’s new relationship with the Presbyterian Church, progress on recovery from the 2015 flood that destroyed structures in the arroyo, and other matters.

The Clerk read the State of Society that was based on annual reports from the Monthly Meetings. (Attachment A.)

Schedule preview:

  • Keynote, Thursday afternoon on our theme this year, “About Money: A Call to Integrity, Community, and Stewardship” with Pamela Haines.
  • In response to requests, Arrangement Committee built in more times of worship into our programming time. Please note that we will have one hour before Thursday morning Meeting for Business; the Saturday afternoon intergenerational worship from 4:15 to 5:15; and Sunday morning, 10-11.
  • Memorial minutes will be read during Meeting for Business and on Friday night in Agape Chapel starting at 6:30.
  • Please refer to the schedule for events and locations. Interest group locations are published on the bulletin boards at Ghost House and at the dining hall. Those bulletin boards are full of helpful information. We also have a Daily Bulletin available at the dining hall, campground bulletin board, and Ghost House with updated information.
  • A knitting project is in the back of room manned by various volunteers.
  • We have many large questions before us. Please check the agenda posted at Ghost House and the dining hall, and in the Daily Bulletin.
  • Pay as led discussion and Q&A will be at lunch on Thursday. The discussion will be at the last table on the patio of the dining hall. All are welcome. Look for the signs.
  • Peace & Service Committee Clerk: Thursday, 6:30 p.m., Lower Pavilion, will be a chance to learn about many groups working on various issues.
  • The all Quaker “Contraband” will play for us starting a 7 p.m. Friday in the Lower Pavilion.
  • Read Documents in Advance in the back of the bookstore. These are very helpful and really interesting to learn what our representatives and delegates have been doing on our behalf. They include the budget and reports from Nominating Committee and other groups and committees.

Announcements:

  • Newcomer Coordinator – Deb Comly
  • Bring notes to clerk’s table if you will have an announcement—we make the announcements from clerks’ table.
  • Susan Wiley is the kitchen liaison. She will make announcements during meals. Bring them to her in writing.
  • The bookstore is open.

Closing worship

Session 2. Thursday Morning, June 15, 2017

  1. We had worship from 10-10:30 AM
  2. Kathy Snow read the Memorial Minute for Mariagnes Medrud. See Attachment F for all memorial minutes.
  3. Thursday Morning Meeting for Business 10:30 – 11:45
  1. Peter Anderson read the Epistle of Lake Erie Yearly Meeting
  2. Overview of proceedings: please bring new items of business and announcements to the podium.
  3. Presented by Representatives Committee for seasoning:
  4. Minute supporting Friends General Conference’s internal audit
  5. Minute supporting Border Convergence with U.S./Mexico
  6. More than 400 organizations endorsed the Border Convergence, which opposes the militarization of borders.
  7. Minute concerning incorporation of IMYM – The articles of incorporation are missing from the notebooks containing the Documents in Advance.
  8. Minute regarding IMYM Archives
  9. Minute regarding adopting Pay as Led
  10. Question about Pay as Led/staying at Ghost Ranch – One connection between Pay as Led and remaining at Ghost Ranch is that we might see a rise in attendance that would force us from Ghost Ranch. An equalization fund would come from donations, waivers, and a $64 registration fee. IMYM could ask monthly meetings to provide funds in advance to cover scholarships. In the 1970s and early 1980s, as many as 550 people attended IMYM. Ghost Ranch has a limit of 350 for any one group.
  11. Minutes regarding moving
  12. That we stay at Ghost Ranch as we try Pay as Led
  13. That we select a first choice with our current information

g. Minute regarding staffing Children’s Yearly Meeting

h. Minute regarding Friends General Conference (FGC) assessment of practices about white privilege

One comment was that the FGC minute should be widened to include concern about class, not just race. Otherwise, the working classes (white and people of color) are divided against each other and ultimately both are disempowered. The book, Hillbilly Elegy, by J.D. Vance was recommended as a source of information about the personal experience of the writer, who was born into a poor white family.

  1. Consent Agenda Preview – These delegate reports and committees are not asking for action:
  • All of Delegates Committee reports (Attachment B)
  • Procedures Committee (Attachment C)
  • Web clerks (tentative)
  • Arrangements Committee (Attachment D)
  1. Mountain Friends Camp report

Report will be delayed until Friday so that the Senior Young Friends can be present.

  1. Charlene Weir of the Evaluation Committee

Members of the Arrangements and Representatives committees were surveyed. About 30 longtime IMYM attenders also will be interviewed during this session for 15-minute interviews. In addition, a listening session on the new structure will be 6:30 p.m. Friday in Agape Chapel.

  1. Finance Committee report from Bill Schroeder, Tempe, Finance Committee chair, and Jerry Peterson, treasurer: The approval of the budget will be held over until Friday.

Incorporation is being recommended because it limits the liability of members. If IMYM could obtain 5013c non-profit status from the Internal Revenue Service, it could also accept grants. The difficulties of not being incorporated came to light when IMYM attempted to obtain insurance, and could not because it has no legal standing.

Regarding Pay as Led, in 2017, Ghost Ranch rates were increased 7.2 percent over two years. We need to keep a higher reserve level as reserve against Pay as Led. IMYM had a $12,000 surplus last year as a result of asking IMYM attenders to donate more money if they felt able to do so.

The $64 per adult member is the assessment fee monthly meetings will be asked to pay. New software for bookkeeping purposes will be $120 a year. For the first time, the budget has a line item for Peace and Service of $50.

At the end of 2018, the treasurer hopes to have $97,000 in the bank.

The budget will come back for approval on Saturday.

Questions and Comments included:

  • Travel costs have increased a bit, but not a great deal more than they were the first year under the new structure.
  • Incorporation could affect – although it’s not certain - IMYM actions that run counter to the law of the land.
  • Regarding incorporation, it’s a big step for IMYM. It’s doubtful it would immunize the organization or its officers from liability in cases of negligence. IMYM already pays $500 a year for liability insurance for its officers.
  • The bylaws as written don’t work for Quakers in that Roberts Rules of Order don’t apply. A gathered community is different from a corporation.
  • If IMYM were to incorporate, it wouldn’t necessarily have to incorporate as a 5013c non-profit. We are protected more by the Spirit.
  • One of the benefits of incorporation is that donations to IMYM would be tax deductible.
  • No law requires groups to make decisions by voting. The articles of incorporation can outline how decisions are made.

Meeting for Business closed with worship

Session 3. Keynote Address, Thursday, June 15, 2017

Our keynote talk was given by Pamela Haines, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, on the topic: Money and the Soul

Here is a summary. For the full speech, see Attachment E.

Pamela Haines of Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting recalled that a good friend, Nadine Hoover, challenged her to write her own statement of conscience while Nadine was working with young men who were struggling with the issue of conscientious objection. To Pamela’s surprise given that this was during the Vietnam War, war did not rise to the top for her. Instead, it was economic materialism. This is part of her statement of conscience: I believe that a culture of economic materialism damages the soul and damages the fabric of society. It sets up a false god, squanders our resources, threatens our earth, distracts our attention from real issues and needs, and separates us from each other and from our higher selves. She closed her statement with this paragraph: I could not participate in war. I could not imagine killing another human being. (Both the teachings of Jesus and the tenets of Quakerism are blindingly clear on this point.) But there is something about an economic system based on greed that seems even more evil than war. That system of domination is so inhuman, so antithetical to love or life. Its internal requirement, to accumulate profit and gain power regardless of the cost to humanity or the earth, sets us on the path to total destruction. It is the greatest evil that I know, and everything in me—by brain, my heart, my conscience—cries out against it.

“Our world needs people of faith who are as outspoken about economics as they are about war and peace,” she said, urging us to occupy the economy together. We can start by seeing the economy as a human system, created by humans to promote human welfare. Using the Quaker testimonies of integrity, simplicity, equality, community, stewardship, and peace, she challenged us to call the economy back to its divine vocation of providing for human welfare on a finite earth. One way is to take on personal and community practices that tend toward greater equality: pay as led that IMYM is beginning to explore, supporting an end to preferential tax treatment, helping pull people out of oppressive debt, raising the minimum wage, investing our money locally, and similar measures. While we are entangled in our current economic system, “we are not immobilized and we need not be silenced,” she said.

Session 4. Friday Morning Business Meeting, June 16, 2017

  1. Worship 10 – 10:10
  2. Memorial minute for Janet Cameron Kilby read by Ann Marie Pois (Attachment F)

3. Meeting for Business 10:15-11:45

A. The Watching Committee Clerk read the Epistle of the Yearly Meeting of Aotearoa New Zealand Te Hāhi Tūhauwiri

B. Continued with Committee Reports

  1. Mountain Friends Camp – Participants in the camp shared their own highlights from the camp: waking up the campers with morning songs, worship sharing, the play/work sessions known as plork, telling jokes, connecting with nature. Director Ana Ebi said the camp this year will be at two New Mexico locations, one new and one old. The new one is Collins Lake Ranch near Mora and the old one is Santa Fe Tree House near Santa Fe. Contributions are always welcome to cover expenses and provide financial help to those unable to otherwise afford the $450 cost for a week of camp. The camp will be July 23-30.
  2. Finance Committee

Bob Schroeder as clerk of Finance Committee spoke about pay as led. The treasurer’s report was given

  1. Discussion on Incorporation (returned to yesterday’s discussion)
  • Incorporation would make it easier for IMYM to do business, such as accept money and donations. On the other hand, having to file reports annually could be seen as not Quakerly.
  • Pima Meeting woman said incorporation helped the Meeting push at the margins more. She offered a caution about pay as led. She said a group she belongs to came up short when it tried pay as led, and a wealthier member covered the balance.
  • The treasurer, Jerry Peterson, said Finance and Representatives committees have seasoned the possibility of incorporation, and he asked for a decision from the Yearly Meeting. “We want a document that proves we exist,” he said.
  • Criticisms of the bylaws and articles of incorporation as drafted were: if IMYM should disband, a non-profit formed under 5013c should take it over; some of the directors of the corporation are self-nominating; and the directors are not defined. One person said the directors are the clerk, recording clerk, and treasurer.
  • Incorporation will provide protection for the organization and, for the clerk, recording clerk, and treasurer, protection from being sued.
  • Another asked if there are alternatives to incorporation.
  • The director of Mountain Friends Camp, Ana Ebi, said setting up the camp would have been easier if IMYM had some legal standing.
  • Incorporation is not the same as organizing as a 5013c group.

We approved this minute:

MINUTE 20170616(1): We agree to pursue incorporation in the state of Colorado. An ad-hoc group will work on bylaws that fit with our beliefs. The group will report to Representatives Committee at its winter 2018 meeting.

d. We closed with worship.

Session 5. June 16, 2017. Listening Session: Senior Young Friends (SYF) on Identity

The session was on identity in all its forms: gender, religion, race, sexual orientation, or anything else that makes up our identity. It was conducted in a worship sharing format. The Junior Young Friends (JYF) joined the group later.

Some of the points raised by the SYF and JYF included:

  • We all need a safe place to be with allies. But there are problems when allies become really angry or oppositional, such as men putting women down for standing up for their rights, even though they profess to have the same goals.
  • Experiences help us find our sense of identity, such as when we move from speaking out in support of one group to self-identifying as a member of that group.
  • We should all be treated with respect regardless of how we identify ourselves. A good way to initiate a conversation about gender is to simply ask in a respectful manner.
  • We can’t deny the role money plays in our identity. I attended middle school and high school in a much less rich part of town. It forced me to realize that there is more to my world than my upper middle class neighborhood.

These were comments from the broader group: