Friday, December 27, 2013

January (First Month) 2014 Newsletter

January 2014 Newsletter
(First Month)

Meeting for Worship
& First Day School
Sundays at 11:00 a.m.
Midweek Meeting for Worship, Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m.
 

Meeting for Worship
Advices:
The heart of the Religious Society of Friends is the Meeting for Worship. In direct communion with God, we offer ourselves for God’s will. Our daily lives are linked with the Meeting for Worship, the Meeting for Worship with our daily lives.

Come regularly to Meeting for Worship, even when you are angry, tired, or spiritually cold. Bring your joys and your hurts, and the needs of other people. Accept and support each other in the community where God dwells among us. As you do so, you may find the grace of prayer.

At times the Spirit may prompt you to speak in Meeting. Wait patiently to know that the sense and the time are right. When you are sure, have confidence that the words will be given to you. Listen to the ministry of others with an open spirit. If it is not God’s word for you, it may be for others. After a message has been given, allow time to ponder its meaning and to let the Meeting return to silent worship. In speech and in silence, each person contributes to the Meeting.

Queries:
Do I come to Meeting with heart and mind prepared for worship?

In both silent and vocal ministry, do I respond to the leadings of the Holy Spirit, without pre-arrangement and in simplicity and truth?

Am I careful not to speak at undue length or beyond personal spiritual experience?

Do we meet in expectant waiting for the promptings of the Divine Spirit?

Are we drawn together in a living silence by the power of God in our midst?


After a period of worship, Meeting for Business began at 1:04 pm with 22 people present. The clerk read a passage from a speech by Nelson Mandela in remembrance of his legacy. Additionally, the clerk read excerpts from the Pacific Yearly Meeting Advices & Queries on “The Meeting Community.” The readings were followed by silent reflection.

Approval of Previous Month’s Minutes
The November Minutes will be held for approval at our next meeting in January 2014.

2014 Budget
Amy Baker, treasurer, reported on adjustments to the proposed 2014 budget presented last month.  (Revision attached to archive copy of these minutes.)   There will be higher health insurance costs for 2014. The Yearly and Quarterly Meeting assessments will be slightly lower than anticipated in last month’s document. The meeting Gatherings and Sharing funds will be topped up to $1,500 each for 2014 rather than $2,000, reflecting actual expenditures. With these changes, the proposed budget is now in balance.

12-01: Meeting approves the revised proposed 2014 budget as presented today.

Ministry & Oversight Committee
Markley Morris, M&O co-clerk, reported on a planned Second Hour discussion about membership in the meeting, tentatively scheduled for January 26, 2014.
Markley reported that the committee heard from one of the outgoing co-clerks of Nominating Committee about some of the difficulties encountered in staffing meeting service positions, and some ideas for encouraging greater participation in meeting generally, which the committee will consider.  These include providing an opportunity for sharing joys and concerns during the last ten minutes of worship; suggesting possible merger of Welcoming and Hospitality committees, the possibility that Hospitality and Community Committee (its full name) might be asked to sponsor community-building activities; a multi-media art show (an idea from a recent women’s potluck); repeating the Spiritual Friendships workshop; holding a meeting for healing; revive ‘game nights’; and/or a centering prayer presentation. Markley asked Friends to be in communication with M&O members about these or others ideas to nurture our spiritual community.
M&O member Steve Leeds reported on his and fellow committee member Marian Chatfield-Taylor’s gleanings from the posted spiritual queries to which Friends had an opportunity to respond during October’s meeting for business and in succeeding weeks.  He distributed a summary of Friends’ comments about the importance of meeting for worship, preparation for meeting, Sabbath practices, and drawing on meeting for worship in a time of crisis. (Copy attached to the archive copy of these minutes.)  He also had copies of the full responses for interested Friends to pick up, and a web link to these will be in the next newsletter.  During a period of reflection, some Friends expressed gratitude for the exercise, and the “gentle, personal exchange” it produced.  A member of M&O recounted how the original impetus for the activity came after the city started to charge for parking a car from noon on Sundays and the committee had received a suggestion that Meeting might consider moving back the time for worship.  This had led to the committee’s considering the place of meeting on First Day in Friends’ lives, and to these queries.  The speaker had not anticipated the intimate conversation that would result.  (The questions of changing the time for meeting for worship remains unresolved.)

Nominating Committee Appointments
Stephen Matchett, clerk of meeting, reported for the Naming Committee in those members’ absence, bringing the name of Chad Stephenson for a two-year Nominating Committee term (thru 12/31/15). With this appointment, Naming Committee, with the clerk’s concurrence, proposes to expand Nominating Committee by one person for 2014 only.  Chad’s nomination will be seasoned for a month. Stephen then re-read the nominations brought last month.

12-02: Meeting approves Arthur Koch, Jan Hartsough and Ruth Sheldon each to serve on Nominating Committee for a term of 1/1/2014 through 12/31/2015, and David Ackerly and Anne Hitch Collins to co-clerk the committee in 2014.

(The other continuing member of the committee through 12/31/14 is Kate Frankel.)

Property & Finance Committee
Philip Gerrie, clerk of P&F, reported on efforts to keep the front of the building safe and clean. Philip and building manager Steve Leeds had a meeting with city officials recently regarding frequent homeless encampments in front of the building which seem to be intensifying recently. It requires extra maintenance to ask homeless individuals to move and to clean up trash each morning. Steve shared serious concerns about drug use and unruly behavior in front of our building and how this negatively affects those who use our building. He asked for Friends’ prayers as he and others confront this ongoing societal tragedy in a way that combines firmness and compassion.  Philip has been attending meetings of the recently formed Community Benefit District in the neighborhood (for which Meeting pays an annual assessment) and reported certain measures that may be taken to address this ongoing issue, including increased collaboration with the police.

Rausch Street Committee
Amy Baker reported for the Rausch St. Committee that, Meeting now having taken title to the property, they have drafted a lease that is now with the current tenants for signing. Due to problems reported earlier in obtaining a traditional bank loan for the work to be done on the building, the approximately $180,000 in outside financing the committee seeks could take up to twelve more weeks to secure.  A meeting member has offered a possible bridge loan of $30,000 to obtain architectural drawings and permits and begin initial demolition and junk removal.  In the mean time, property tax and other bills are currently due and only partially covered by the rent now being collected, and the committee seeks a loan of $3,000 from Meeting’s General Fund to allow timely payment of those obligations, to be repaid upon obtaining the full financing.

A Friend asked if money from the bequests Meeting has been notified it will be receiving from the estates of Jack and Jan DeBeers was going to be applied to the Rausch St. project, and the clerk responded that that would require a separate decision by Meeting that is not currently before us.  Amy did clarify, however, that in the case of a worst-case scenario, in which the sought-after financing proves unobtainable, Meeting would be liable for any bridge-loan amount spent; however in that circumstance there would have to be a complete rethinking of Meeting’s plans for the property, including giving serious consideration to finding a way to sell it.

12-03: Meeting approves making $3,000 available from the general fund to further the work of the Rausch Street Committee pending the securing of outside financing.

After a period of announcements and sharing of joys and concerns, Meeting closed with worship at 2:55 pm with 21 people in attendance.
Respectfully submitted,

Blake Arnall, Recording Clerk                                   
Stephen Matchett, Clerk of Meeting


Meeting News

Annual Retreat May 23-26

Please mark your calendar to reserve Memorial Day Weekend (May 23-26, 2014) for the San Francisco Friends Annual Retreat at Quaker Center in Ben Lomand.  Continuing traditions include meal preparations by a professional cook (along with attender assistance and cleanup) and full run of Quaker Center factilities.  We are planning to offer new activities at the upcoming Retreat and perhaps some more serious programs.  Your suggestions are welcome, now and in the coming months.

NVC Practice Group, Sunday, January 26, 2014

The Nonviolent Communication (NVC) Study Group will meet Sunday, January 26, 2014in the kitchen of the San Francisco Meetinghouse at 9:15AM with the goal of starting at 9:30AM. Everyone is welcome and you can jump in anytime. Childcare will be available.

We have decided to review the basics and the next reading is Chapter 2, “Communication that Blocks Compassion” in Nonviolent Communication: A Language for Life, by Marshall Rosenberg.  This will allow newcomers to catch up and it will be a good review for those who have read it. 

The pertinent Workbook section in the Nonviolent Communication Companion Workbook by Lucy Leu is Chapter 2, pages 65 - 71. Both books can be ordered directly from the Center for Nonviolent Communication  <https://www.<cnvc.org/catalog/general-nvc>.



2014 January News from Ben Lomond Quaker Center

Join Michael Birkel, Quaker Studies professor at Earlham College, and author of many books including, The Genius of the Transcendent and Mysticism and Activism from January 24-26th to explore the writings of Quakers and Other Mystics. We have already received a number of registrations for this program so go to http://www.quakercenter.org/quakers-and-other-mystics/ and register soon to join us.
Parent and grandparents of any and all ages of children are welcome to join us for Parenting Supported by Friends Beliefs, Testimonies, and Practices. We will engage with parenting at every stage with Harriet Heath, author and founder/coordinator of the Quaker Parenting Initiative (quakerparenting.org), which supports parents by raising questions that they can use as they seek the path best suited for themselves, their children and their family. Please register early so that we have plenty of time to hire enough childcare providers and so that Harriet can adjust the weekend schedule based on the ages of the children. http://www.quakercenter.org/parenting-supported-by-friends-beliefs-testimonies-and-practices/

Childcare will be available for all Quaker Center programs with at least one week advance notice.


College Park Quarterly Meeting

The upcoming College Park Quarterly Meeting will be January 18 (Saturday) at San Francisco

Pacific Yearly Meeting

The upcoming Pacific Yearly Meeting session will be July 14-19, 2014 at Walker Creek Ranch in Petaluma, CA

Pacific Yearly Meeting Youth Program Coordinator Epistle IX – December 2013

Dear Pacific Yearly Meeting Friends,

As you may have heard, PYM came to unity at Annual Session in August to continue the paid Youth Program Coordinator position along with its Supervisory Committee. PYM also agreed to accept a large gift of money from Pacific Friends Outreach Society (PFOS), which is laying itself down. This gift will be held by PYM as the Bob Vogel Endowment to support youth programs, and our Youth Program Committee will supervise the distribution of income generated by the endowment.
Since Annual Session, our committee has been discerning next steps while we also continue to provide program support to Monthly Meetings, Worship Groups, Quarterly Meetings, PYM Committees, Quaker organizations, and individual Friends. This is a visioning year for us, with three active subcommittees working on big picture questions of resource support for youth programs and activities (including distribution of endowment income), improving communications, and developing a long-term personnel structure now that the pilot period has been completed.  We hope to have a draft of our resource-support application available at Representative Committee meeting in March and to have our first funds available in summer.
In this process of visioning, we take as our starting point a sketch created during the first full day of Annual Session: in an intergenerational plenary activity conducted by our committee and our co-clerk Mary Klein, over a 100 participants envisioned PYM as a “City on a Hill.” Friends of all ages considered a giant paper mural depicting the path to this City of our hopes and dreams. We wondered and talked about, “What will it be like when we get there? What will we need to bring in our knapsacks for the journey?” We pasted notes and drawings onto the paper mural, painting a multifaceted picture of a loving, vibrant, multi-generational community of faith, fun, and service. Later that evening, about twenty of us gathered in an interest group to study and reflect on the responses. Our Youth Program and M&O committees are both now drawing on that information to strengthen our PYM community at Annual Session and throughout the year.
Although we hear statistical and anecdotal reports of declines in our Meetings’ enrolled membership, we also see stirrings of a vibrant future. Babies, seekers, and newly convinced Friends continue to arrive. Young children quickly grow into the double-digits. New teens soon become leaders of their programs, pass their roles to next year’s group, and leave high school for work, college, and adventure. Adults grow, too, supporting each other to become better allies to youth and each other. Nominating Committees look for meaningful ways to match the skills and interests of younger Friends with the needs of their Meetings and organizations. Do you know someone you could encourage to attend a local or regional Friends’ event? Or someone who has an unrecognized gift to offer? Perhaps a young Friend might be open to some gentle nudging to seek clearness about membership or a leading. How about young parents who need peer fellowship, mentoring, or rest? Any elders who would like to make new friends? The building of our City on a Hill (or eco-village, as the case may be) requires us bringing out the strength and light in one another.
While our Youth Program Committee works to bring this vision to life, as Coordinator I continue to provide support to and promote participation in existing programs and activities while encouraging new innovations. For example, a few days before Annual Session, twenty-five young adults (and a handful of older ones) converged at San Jose Meeting for a weekend of fellowship, fun, service, and worship. Together, we reflected on the theme of the pending Annual Session – Being Reached by the Life – and began to contemplate the deep meaning of “leadings.” We volunteered at Veggielution, shared meals, played games, and sat in waiting worship with San Jose Friends, who welcomed having young Friends outnumber them in the oldest meetinghouse in the Western US.
Recently, I met with the middle school aged children of Sacramento Meeting and two of their adult allies; we made skits about the Meeting, one focused at the children’s peers and one at older people. In a similar activity, adults at Humboldt Meeting created skits about the life of their Meeting “as it is now” and “as it could be.” Each group reflected on how its Meeting could become its best self, how it might appear to outsiders, and how it might attract and keep new attenders. This question of outreach and inreach was also a strong theme in visits and phone conferences this Fall with Friends in Fresno, Inland Valley, Mexico City, and Orange County. At the SCQM Fall Fellowship, an interest group on outreach and inclusion drew Friends from multiple Meetings, and a teen-led activity on “Unity” sparked much laughter and contemplation. At the CPQM Fall Gathering, teen program clerks and adult allies led activities to promote awareness about transgender inclusion.
What’s next? On the attached calendar, I draw your attention to a teen clerking workshop to be held on Friday, January 17th in San Francisco, before CPQM Winter Quarterly Meeting, led by members of the CPQM Teen Program Committee. Take note of the “Parenting Supported by Friends’ Beliefs, Testimonies and Practices” workshop offered by Quaker Center in February –a chance for your Meeting to use its Annual Pass to Quaker Center—, and remember that summer camp registration time will be here before we realize it! Stay tuned for the announcement of dates and locations for my Adult Allies to Youth workshops this spring. Also, I am working with a local planning committee to engage youth in the upcoming Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) weekend to be held in Sacramento, March 14-16, where young adult Kylin Navarro (Strawberry Creek) will be co-leading a workshop on servant leadership with a member of Sacramento Friends Church, and Jim Anderson (Chico) and Stephen Myers (Sacramento) will be collaborating with evangelical Friends to put together an evening of music and singing. Keenan Lorenzato (Davis/Guilford College) will also lead a workshop on leadership in a parallel FWCC consultation in North Carolina in April. Registration is open and more information is available on the FWCC Section of the Americas website: scholarships and childcare are available, but space is limited, so sign up soon if you’re interested!
Want to learn more about your PYM youth program and current events? Find out much more on our page on the PYM website:
http://www.pacificyearlymeeting.org/category/pym-docs/ypc/ and our Facebook page: “Pacific Yearly Meeting Youth Programs”. In particular, please notice these documents on the PYM website:
    Evaluation Report to Representative Committee 2013, and Annual Report to PYM 2013
    Previous Youth Program epistles
    Minutes from Annual Session, especially:
    Plenaries II & IV: Continuance of the paid Youth Program Coordinator position
    Plenaries V & VI: Acceptance of Bob Vogel Endowment from PFOS
    Plenary VIII: Change of composition of YPC Supervisory Committee

I send much gratitude to the Friends who served as welcoming hosts during my recent visits. Please remember my open invitation to arrange for me to consult with your Worship Group, Meeting, organization, or committee. I’m excited to see some of you at the Western Young Friends New Year’s Gathering very soon (all ages welcome and registration still open)! Best wishes to you all in the New Year.
Yours in service,
~Alyssa
Alyssa Nelson, Youth Program Coordinator, Pacific Yearly Meeting
(530) 563-6369 (cell)
pym [dot] youthcoordinator [at] gmail [dot] com
Youth Program Coordinator Supervisory Committee members are: Sophie Brinker, Jennifer Carr, Mary Klein (co-clerk), Steve Leeds, Hannah Mackinney, Thomas Rios, Sandra Schwartz, Jim Summers (co-clerk), and Nathan Walker. One spot is open.

2013-14 Ongoing Calendar of Events (updated 12/16/13)

~ Intergenerational and youth-focused activities in PYM and beyond ~
Email pym.youthcoordinator@gmail.com to have youth events included on the PYM calendar.

Please support young Friends and families in your area to attend events by helping them register, figure out payment and/or scholarships, and arrange transportation.
    January 17: Teen Clerking Workshop at San Francisco Meetinghouse– all PYM teens welcome. Sponsored by CPQM Teen Program Committee. Contact Adult Clerk, Kathy Runyan, kathyrunyan@hotmail.com.
    January 18 (plus teen overnights on Friday and Saturday): College Park Quarterly Meeting http://collegepark.quaker.org [SCQM Friends are always invited, but especially when the Joshua Tree Campout isn’t happening.]
    February 14-16: Parenting Supported by Friends’ Beliefs, Testimonies and Practices http://www.quakercenter.org/ (see website for complete list of workshops)
    February 14-17: FLGBTQC MidWinter Gathering (Seattle WA – Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns) http://flgbtqc.quaker.org/
    February 28 – March 2: PYM Representative Committee Meeting & JYM Planning Meeting (Orange Grove Meeting, Pasadena CA). Register by 2/14:  http://www.pacificyearlymeeting.org/2013/pym-docs/pym-repcom-2014/
    March 14-16: FWCC Consultation in Sacramento CA. http://fwccamericas.org/events/2014-Consultations.shtml
    March 22-25: FCNL Spring Lobby Weekend, http://fcnl.org/events/slw/
    April (dates pending): Adult Allies to Youth Workshops, one in Northern California and one in Southern California, with the PYM Youth Program Coordinator and experienced adult allies to youth.
    April 19: Woolman Spring Clean Day.
    April 26 (plus teen overnight): Southern California Quarterly Meeting, hosted by Santa Monica Meeting. http://scqm.org/
    May 16-18: College Park Quarterly Meeting (at Ben Lomond Quaker Center): http://collegepark.quaker.org/
    May 14-17, 23 & 24: Woolman Semester Wrap-Up Events: Peace Documentaries, Sustainability Project Presentations, Baccalaureate & Graduation (Sierra Friends Center, Nevada City CA): Students present their favorite pieces of work from this semester and celebrate graduation with the community. All are welcome. Woolman Semester is accepting applications. http://semester.woolman.org/
    June 15-22: Woolman Family Work Camp (at Sierra Friends Center) http://woolman.org/
    June 29-July 5: Friends General Conference (near Pittsburgh PA) “Let Love Be the First Motion” http://www.fgcquaker.org/connect/gathering
    Ben Lomond Quaker Center Youth Camps (Ben Lomond CA) http://www.quakercenter.org/ . Quaker Center’s annual passes can be applied to camp!
    Quaker Camp (4th-6th grade) & Service Camp (7th-9th grade) run concurrently, June 22-29.
    Peace Action Camp: outdoor adventure and nonviolent direct action for rising 10th through 12th graders, July 27 – August 2, field location TBD.
    Camp Woolman (Sierra Friends Center, Nevada City CA): http://camp.woolman.org/dates-rates.
    Teen Leadership Camp (ages 15-16): two 2-week sessions: 6/28-7/13 & 7/13-7/27.
    Sierra Friends Camp (ages 9-14):  four 1-week sessions, combinable into multiple week stays: 6/28-7/5, 7/6-7/13, 7/13-7/19, 7/20-7/27.
    July 11-14 (tentative): PYM Young Adult Friends Retreat: service, spirit, and fellowship for young adults and older adults of PYM. Tentatively to be held near Petaluma CA. Contact pym.youthcoordinator@gmail.com to get involved.
    July 14-19: PYM Annual Session (Walker Creek Ranch, Petaluma CA). Scholarships and transportation help available – just ask! http://www.pacificyearlymeeting.org/
    July 2014, TBD: Pine Ridge Reservation Work Camp (South Dakota), sponsored by William Penn House. http://williampennhouse.org/workcamps
    August 4-8: BLQC Family Work Camp (Ben Lomond CA) http://www.quakercenter.org/
    Year-Round: Ben Lomond Quaker Center Workshops are open to Friends of all ages–a great opportunity for intergenerational learning in community– and childcare is available. Annual passes for individuals and Meetings are good for a year from date of purchase for camps and workshops. Buy two and send a youth-adult pair to each workshop!  http://www.quakercenter.org/

CHECK IT OUT:
·     AFSC Peaceful Alternatives for Youth: http://afsc.org/program/providing-peaceful-alternatives-youth
·     Casa de los Amigos (Mexico): http://www.casadelosamigos.org/en/
·     Honolulu Meeting Guest House, and Hawai’i Peace and Justice Office:  http://www.hawaiiquaker.org/Guest.html
·     Quaker Voluntary Service: http://www.quakervoluntaryservice.org/
·     QuEST: Quaker Experiential Service and Training. http://www.quest-seattle.org/





Google Groups for SF Quakers

This is the group to send your late breaking announcements or share other news with the meeting community. You can sign up via the web: http://groups.google.com/group/sfquakers. You will need to create a free Google user ID and password, if you don’t already have one.

Visit http://groups.google.com/group/sfquakers/about to join or learn more.

A group for young adult Friends in San Francisco is at http://groups.google.com/group/youngsfmeeting

A group for parents in the San Francisco Meeting is at http://groups.google.com/group/sf-crec-parents

A Google Group for Bay Area Quakers is now available at http://groups.google.com/group/bayareaquakers. The group is for Bay Area Quaker meetings, churches, and organizations, as well as individual Friends, to share news of events and activities that would be of interest to Quakers and the general public. Events do not need to be strictly Quaker. For more information, contact Tom Yamaguchi, tomyamaguchi@mac.com
Help on using Google Groups is also available at:






Submissions to the newsletter are due by the next-to-last First Day (Sunday) of each month in the News Committee mailbox at the meetinghouse, or by e-mail to news@sfquakers.org. This newsletter is also available for reading or downloading on our website at http://www.sfquakers.org/news.html.


Members of the News Committee are Kate McCarley (clerk, editor), Eli Bishop (web servant), Catherine Fox (production), and Noel Schwerin (distribution)



(all events at 65 9th St., unless noted; *see details elsewhere in newsletter)
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
29
9am Extended Meeting for Worship
30

31



1

6p Meeting for Worship

2

12p Peace Vigil

7p Potluck & Quaker Study
3
4

10:30a-1p Food Pantry

5
9:30a Bible Study
11a Meeting for Worship, Community potluck following

6
7


7p Property & Finance Mtg
8
6 Meeting for Worship
7p Ministry & Oversight Mtg
9

12p Peace Vigil

7p Potluck & Quaker Study
10
11

10:30a-1p Food Pantry
12
11a Meeting for Worship
1p Meeting for Business

13
14
15
6p Meeting for Worship
16
12p Peace Vigil
7p Potluck & Quaker Study
17

18
10:30a-1p Food Pantry

19
9:30a Bible Study
11a Meeting for Worship

20
21
22


6p Meeting for Worship
23

12p Peace Vigil
7p Potluck & Quaker Study
24
25
10:30a-1p Food 2antry
26
9:15 Non-Violent Comm. Practice Group
11a Meeting for Worship
27

29
30


6p Meeting for Worship
31

12p Peace Vigil
7p Potluck & Quaker Study
1
5
10:30a-1p Food Pantry
‡Federal Building, Golden Gate Ave. and Larkin St. †San Francisco Friends School, 250 Valencia St.