Hannah Pennock
YOUNG FRIENDS GENERAL MEETING (YFGM)
Edinburgh Friends Meeting House 31st May - 3rd June 2002
Minutes
Present:
Co-clerks: Sarah Donaldson Co-convenors of Overseers: Clare Lockwood
Nick Sturge Guy Milner
Treasurer: Jenny Moy Officer of Outreach: Ruth Wood
Convenor of Nominations Committee: Mike Stokes
Convenor of Officers: Carol Robinson Co-ordinator: Simon Best
Monthly Meeting Representatives:
Bristol & Frenchay: Marion Penn Bromley, Lewisham & Southwark: John Bacon
Bournemouth & Swanage: Ellen Marshall Colchester & Coggeshall: Hannah Leavett
Dorking & Horsham: Blair Hunwick Hannah Pennock
Darlington: Alice Elliott East of Scotland: Matthew Gee Susie Warden Hampstead: Rachel Arnold
Hardshaw West: Harry Kingham Luton & Leighton: Claire Morris
Rachel Howell Ellie Colyer
North Somerset & Wilts: Jessica Thatcher Norwich & Lynn: Richy Rushmer
Tim Hudson Notts. & Derbys: Paul Sladen
North of Scotland: Emma Salt Pontefract: Anne Pommier
Southampton & Portsmouth: Jennifer Bowman Staffordshire: Marie Drouin
Thaxted: Ben Parker Warwickshire: Sandy McClure
West Devon: Paddy Uglow York: Emily Ross Hannah Jones Hyla Campbell
Adam Boardman, Adam Boulter, Aidan McCartney, Alice Lynch, Ben Maher, Bluebell Eikonoklastes, Christine Niehoff, Daisy O'Flynn, David Sunderland, Daphne Fisher, Dawn Fowler, Ella Kingham Speirs, Emily Parr, Emma Salt, Emily Smith, Fraser Ramsey, Frances Peduzzi, Heather Rowlands, Hester Speirs, Hugh Williams, Hugo Finley, Jennifer Brett, Jenny Shellens, Juliette Stoller, Joanna Malhotra, Jo Dawson, Jonathan Riddell, Katy Turquoise, Klaus Huber, Laura Wirtz, Linda Batten, Mike Eccles, Michael Pennock, Michael Stiasny, Michael Grimes, Michelle Laine, Nessa Williams, Nick Rendle, Nick Perks, Naomi Fisher, Paul Levy, Phillip Batten, Peter Taylor, Rachel Phillips, Richard Evens, Rowan Burrough, Ruth Todhunter, Robin Vanner, Rachael Veazey, Sally Knowles, Simon Gray, Vivian Barty-Taylor, Wil Quick, TOTAL: 91
02/16 Opening Minute
We welcome each other to Edinburgh for Young Friends General Meeting. We look forward to this opportunity we have together for spending time with each other, having fun and building our Quaker community.
02/17 Young Friends National Gathering Report
Marion Penn, Wil Quick and David Sunderland have reported to us on the Young Friends National Gathering on mental health issues. They read the opening paragraphs of the report from the gathering. The whole report is appended to these minutes.
They told us something about the plenary sessions, and gave us a sense of the work they did in small groups. Financially the gathering made a loss of £20.71
The Gathering spent time considering what the next steps might be for those interested in taking forward this concern. They included ideas for individual action, action we can take as Young Friends, and action we can take as a Society of Friends. Members of the committee are happy to discuss these further, and we will be thinking more about our concern for mental health later in the weekend.
We warmly thank all those who helped to plan and organize Young Friends National Gathering.
02/18 Stephen Wolfenden
We sadly record the death of our Friend Stephen Wolfenden who died on 20th February 2002. His funeral was held on 1st March and was attended by many Young Friends. A memorial Meeting for Worship will be held this afternoon.
We would like to prepare a testimony to the Grace of God as shown in his life. We ask Nominations Committee to find 1 or 2 names to coordinate this process, and to bring back the testimony to us when it is ready.
02/19 Friends Witness to Sustainable Living
We thank our speaker, Laurie Michaelis, for encouraging us in our continued thinking about the interaction between our values and our lifestyles. The summer gathering in Pardshaw will be an opportunity to take this process further. We also hope to think more about these issues at our next meeting in October. In particular, we will consider then whether we might get involved with the Living Witness Project.
02/20 Finance Report
Our General Fund Treasurer, Jenny Moy, has presented some amendments to our budget for 2002, which we agree. The two major changes relate to the grant for Young Quaker magazine and the budget for Outreach Committee. The grant to YQ was not agreed in February. It will be £800, a figure roughly equivalent to the editors' travel expenses and the cost of complimentary copies.
The Outreach budget has been increased from £1000 to £2500 to reflect increased costs in 2002, including the production of a video and new display boards.
We thank Jenny for her work.
02/21 Peace Tax
Simon Best, our Co-ordinator, has asked YFGM as his employer to withhold the proportion of his income tax that would be used for military expenditure.
The Trustees of YFGM have told us that they are willing to support Simon in this.
We recognize this as an expression of Simon's beliefs and a form of conscientious objection, and we strongly support his request. We ask Management Group to take responsibility for the practical arrangements of this.
We encourage Simon to continue to build links with Conscience, and other organizations. We hope that this will give an opportunity to make a public declaration of our peace testimony both within and beyond the Society of Friends.
02/22 Management Group Report
Heather Rowlands and Alice Lynch have reported from Management Group. They have particularly drawn our attention to a change in the law regarding fixed term contracts. Rather than setting an arbitrary period of 1 or 2 years, the term of the Young Friends' Co-ordinator's contract will now be fixed according to the funding allocated, currently our grant from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. The current contract is due to end at the end of August 2003 and will be extended to end at the end of December 2003.
Further to minute 02/02 the Co-ordinator has now taken over the responsibility of bookkeeping. This is working well and a full report will come to October YFGM.
02/23 Young Friends Appeal
We have heard from the Little Star Appeal group on the positive process we have undertaken. Approximately £20,000 has been raised through donations from Friends and Meetings, from the sale of T- Shirts and tea towels, and from a collection following a play presented by Quaker Youth Theatre at Britain Yearly Meeting 2002.
We feel that our work on this appeal has come to a conclusion, and we agree to lay it down now. However, for the time being any money given to the Young Friends Appeal will continue to be donated to the Little Star project.
We have heard from a Special Interest Group which considered the developments of YFGM's concern with Mental Health issues. We ask Nominations Committee to bring us names for a group to take this further. We would like the group to research charities which we hope to support through a new Appeal, and ask the group to bring this back to us in October. We agree to making a grant of up to £500 from the General Fund available to this group to cover expenses.
02/24 Meeting for Sufferings Report
Adam Boulter, one of our representatives on Meeting for Sufferings, has reported to us on current issues of concern.
Further to minute 02/05, the description for inclusion in Quaker Faith and Practice has been received and returned to us. We continue to feel that the inclusion of such a paragraph is valuable. We did not feel that the new version was appropriate, and suggest the following paragraph instead:
Young Friends General Meeting is not a General Meeting as described in 5.01 It is open to Quakers between the ages of 18 and about 30 who need not be formally in membership of the Religious Society of Friends. Young Friends General Meeting meets for business on 3 residential weekends a year at which a range of other events for Young Friends are organized.
(See 7.04, 8.13b & 14.17 for its representation on other bodies, and 10.25 & 21.04)
We ask our clerks to send this paragraph, with an explanatory letter, to the Book of Discipline Revision Committee. We ask the Clerks to consult as required so that minor changes need not come back to a YFGM session.
02/25 Nominations
We appoint the following people to the following posts. We release from service those people mentioned below and thank them for all their work on our behalf.
Position Period Released from service Person Appointed
International Secretary 3 years John Myers Simon Gray
Employment Treasurer 3 years Ella Kingham Speirs
(from February YFGM 2002)
YQ Editor 3 years - Hugo Finley
Management Group 3 years Rachel Ramaker Rachael Veazey
Meeting for Sufferings 3 years Alice Morning Star Robin Vanner
Quaker Life Rep. Council 1 meeting (to attend in place of Anna Watson) Hannah Pennock
Testimonial Writing Group Rachel Phillips
Richy Rushmer
Jess Thatcher
Mental Health Concern until October YFGM Anne Pommier
Group Jess Thatcher David Sunderland
Rachel Arnold
Young Friends National Gathering Maud Grainger
David Sunderland
Phil Davies
Wil Quick
Nominations Committee 2 years Maud Grainger Matthew Gee
02/26 Volunteers
We thank the following people for volunteering to help in the following ways at the next YFGM in Norwich 11th -13th October 2002.
Hannah Pennock
Michael Pennock Janitors
Mike Eccles Caterers
Alice Lynch
Rachel Phillips
Nessa Williams Pan transport from Birmingham
Emily Parr Off-floor Accommodation
02/27 Minute of Record: New Account
We authorize the opening of a second events account to enable the Events treasurer to take out cash. The account will be with Nationwide. The signatories will be the Events Treasurer (Marion Penn) and the Co-clerks (Sarah Donaldson & Nick Sturge). The account will not contain more than £500 at any one time.
02/15 Closing Minute
We have enjoyed our weekend together in Edinburgh this weekend. We have had a chance for laughter and for fun as well as finding time for sharing our spiritual journeys. Some of us attended a memorial meeting for our Friend Stephen Wolfenden. We miss his presence among us at YFGM.
Thanks go to our caterers, Nick Perks and Adam Boulter and to our janitors, Hugo Finley, Matthew Gee, Harry Kingham and Laura Wirtz.
We look forward to being together again in October in Norwich.
Signed in and on behalf of YFGM
Sarah Donaldson & Nessa Williams
Co-clerk Acting co-Clerk
Amended 2002 Budget
General Fund Expenditure
Proposed Agreed Feb 2002
Other Committees £1500 £2000
Printing, Publicity £200 £750
YFGMs £4000 £6000
Bursaries for YFGM travel £1000 -
Outreach £2500 £1000
Young Quaker £800 -
Interchurch/faith/International £1000
YM Bursary £0
Contingency £1000
Other changes
Income from Friends & Meetings (Feb 2002) £7,000 → (May 2002) £8500
Payment to YQ for 2001 £680 = £500 + £180
Incorporates budget for Employment fund
Introduction of contingency sums.