YOUNG FRIENDS GENERAL MEETING (YFGM) Liverpool Friends Meeting House, 30th April – 3rd May 2004 Minutes Present:

Co-Clerks: Nessa Williams & Nick Sturge

Treasurer: Jenny Moy

Co-Convenors of Overseers: Hannah Leavett & Guy Milner

Convenor of Nominations Committee: Ellie Colyer

Coordinator: Simon Best

 
Monthly Meeting Representatives:

Bristol & Frenchay: Amanda Headley-White Cambridge & Peterborough: Lucy Baines

Andrew Rendle Guisborough: Tom Lightowler

Kingston & Wandsworth: Annabella Kroll Luton & Leighton: Claire Morris

Notts & Derby: Marie Drouin Purley & Sutton: Luke Waterfield

Reading: Naveed Moeed Southwark, Lewisham & Bromley: John Bacon

Leon Spence Thaxted: Ben Parker

Warwickshire: Anna Dicker Westminster: Ellen Marshall

West Devon: Hannah Jones Worcestershire & Shrophire: Dawn Flitness

Australia Yearly Meeting: Francisco Gonzalez

Ashwyn Falkingham

North Carolina Yearly Meeting (FUM): Betsy Blake

Adam Boardman, Adam Lee, Aidan McCartney, Ben Maher, Darrel Spence, Dzifa Afoau, Emily Maddison, Eudora Pascall, Fran Lane, Heather Rowlands, Helena Wren, Hugh Williams, Huw Still, Hugo Finley, James Doering, James Barnard, Jennifer Brett, Jennifer Batten, Jessica Fishenden, Jonathan Doering, John Fitzgerald, Joe Coffin, Juliette Stoller, Lucy Mason, Marion Penn, Mike Stokes, Nick Rendle, Paul Levy, Paul Sladen, Peggy Brett, Pip Marshall, Rachel Arnold, Rachel Barker, Robin Bloomfield, Rowan Burrough, Ruth Wood, Sally Nicholls, Sarah Donaldson, Simon Gray, Simon Shepherd, Stan Juin Yih, Thomas Rowlands. TOTAL: 68

04/12 Opening Minute We are pleased to be here with one another for our May YFGM in Liverpool. We particularly welcome Ashwyn Falkingham and Francisco Gonzalez from Australia Yearly Meeting. We are looking forward to finding out how our new method for planning YFGMs will affect our meeting this weekend. 04/13 Planning Weekend Rachel Barker and Huw Still have reported back to us on a very positive note about the Planning Weekend which took place in March. This is still a very new way for us to plan YFGMs so we have heard about changes which will be made for the next Planning Weekend, but on the whole it worked very well. We adopt the minute from the March 2004 Young Friends Planning Weekend as minute of YFGM. They are appended to the main YFGM minutes.

04/14 Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. We have heard from Christine Cannon about her experiences as an accompanier in Israeli occupied Palestine. We have heard, through Christine, the voices of people she met, People dreaming of normal lives, of being able to sing about and celebrate living in Palestine, of living peacefully with their neighbours. She also talked of the debilitating fear prevalent in both sides of the conflict. We must hope and pray that the physical and emotional barriers that are standing can be brought down, through a co-operative response from both sides, a response which will involve a great deal of courage and risk taking. We split into small groups to share our thoughts and feelings about what is happening. Christine has left us with information about practical things which we can do to work for peace in the region.

04/15 Representation, Communication & Accountability in our Structures (RECAST) Jenny Moy, our representative on the Recast Group, and Eudora Pascall have led us in an interactive exercise demonstrating the current structures of Britain Yearly Meeting. We have appreciated this lively activity and have noted how it has demonstrated many real issues BYM faces today. We have also heard about the Recast process and the current “Emerging Proposals”.

04/16 Peace Tax Dawn Filtness and Nick Sturge have explained the different approach that the Inland Revenue took last tax year (2002-2003) in seeking to recover the percentage of our employee’s income tax which would be used for military purposes. Before that tax year, we made the money available in the office for collection, and the Inland Revenue chose either to collect or not to collect that money. In 2002-2003 they refused to collect the money and threatened court action if we did not send them the money. We have discussed the options open to us if they should proceed in this manner in 2003- 2004. Whilst many members of YFGM feel that they would be prepared to go to court in order to witness to the Peace Testimony, and would be willing to have a criminal record as a result of this action, there is also a strong feeling that it would not be right to force any trustee to do this if they did not feel that this was the right course of action for them. If we are to consider asking our trustees to do this in future, as a corporate witness, we must go into this process with our eyes open, knowing the risks each individual involved will take, and the effect it will have on our charitable status and possible future funding. If a court action is threatened in this tax year (2003-2004) we ask the employment treasurer to pay the employee’s outstanding tax. Since no request has been made to withhold tax for 2004 –2005, we will not withhold any tax for this tax year unless a request is made by our future employee. If this is the case we will reconsider our position in light of our consideration today.

04/17 Young Friends Appeal Amanda Headley-White and Juliette Stoller have summed up the work done by the Mental Health Appeal Group. They have raised £13, 544.35 which will go towards producing a video about mental health issues, and will support the work of the charity ‘The Association for Pastoral Care in Mental Health’. They have also worked hard raising awareness of mental health issues in YFGM and the Society of Friends as a whole. We are now laying the Mental Health Appeal down. We are grateful for all the hard work that the group have put into this appeal and are optimistic that we will be able to continue to raise awareness of the issues it has highlighted. We have heard from Aidan McCartney, John Fitzgerald and simon gray about the exciting opportunity for YFGM to support the World Gathering of Young Friends through our new appeal. In order for the gathering to be representative of the theologically and culturally diverse nature if the worldwide Religious Society of Friends, the gathering needs to raise £125,000 to allow 2 representatives from each Yearly Meeting in Latin America, Africa and Asia to attend. We agree that our appeal for this year will help raise money towards this goal, as well as involving YFGM in practical support of the Gathering, such as arranging pre- or post- gathering events. We ask our Nominations Committee to find names which will form a group to take the appeal forward. We ask this group to publicise the new appeal which will begin on the 1st June 2004. We will review this appeal at our May 2005 gathering.

04/18 Volunteers We thank the following people for volunteering to help in the following ways at the next YFGM in Brighton 15th – 17th October 2004:

Marion Penn Caterers

Jennifer Brett

Ben Maher Pan transport

Ben Maher Off-floor Accommodation

04/19 Report from The Leaveners We have heard from Paul Levy from The Leaveners, the Quaker organisation which runs projects based on Drama, Music and the Arts in Britain. The Leaveners are keen to connect more with the age group of YFGM members and ask if we would like to appoint someone to their Management Committee. We are enthusiastic about this opportunity for closer cooperation between YFGM and The Leaveners. We will aim to appoint someone at our next meeting in October. We are keen to have this representation as long as it feels right for YFGM so we would like to review this post at the end of the first holder’s period of service.

04/20 Peace Testimony Eudora Pascall, Mike Stokes, John Fitzgerald and Robin Bloomfield have shared with us their experience of living out the peace testimony.

Peace begins inside us, resolving our own inner conflicts. Through silence, thinking and sharing, we can become grounded and connected with the reality of conflicts around us. We can accept the challenge to open up to the transforming power of God through our testimony to peace, before during and after a conflict situation, listening humbly to what we are called to do differently to bring real resolution.

04/21 Nominations We appoint the following people to serve in the following posts for the periods mentioned. We release from service those mentioned, warmly thanking them for their work on our behalf.

Position Period Released from service Person Appointed

Meeting for Sufferings 3 years Simon Best

Representative

Fundraiser 3 years John Fitzgerald

British Youth Council 3 years James Barnard Ellen Marshall

Representative

Management Officer 3 years Heather Rowlands Naveed Moeed

Northern Friends Peace Board 3 years Joe Anderson Jonathan Riddell

Representative

Financial Oversight Person Until October Amanda Headley-White

for Retreat Event YFGM

Appeal Group 1 year Rachel Arnold Aidan McCartney

(also as Financial Oversight Person)

Anna Jones Nick Rendle

Paddy Uglow Leon Spence

Amanda Headley-White Naveed Moeed

Sally Knowles Marie Drouin

Juliette Stoller

Planning Weekend Until October YFGM Darrel Spence Emily Maddison

‘Newcomer’ Until October YFGM Jenny Pacey Helena Wren

Until October YFGM Huw Still Sally Nicholls

Nominations Committee 2 years Sally Nicholls

Coordinator’s 2 years Nick Perks

Support Group

04/22 Membership We have heard from Rachel Barker about the process the Membership Procedures Group is going through in rethinking how we belong to Britain Yearly Meeting, specifically the suggestion that membership could be held centrally. We broke into small groups to discuss membership issues further and then fed back into the main group. Rachel will take the thoughts from the small groups back to the Membership Procedures Group to help them in their discernment.

04/23 Friends Africa Interest Group Roland and Teresa Watts and Nigel Worth from the Friends Africa Interest Group have come to speak to us about British Quaker involvement in Africa and in particular about

the huge problem of HIV/AIDS. Kenya has an especially large Quaker population, with 14 Yearly Meetings. Tuberculosis goes hand-in-hand with AIDS in much of Africa. We also heard how in Swaziland a whole generation has been decimated by this virus and of course this has a dramatic impact on all aspects of day-to-day life in that country. We thank the speakers for an informative session.

04/24 Minute of Record – New Trustee Further to Minute

04/21 we have appointed Naveed Moeed as an Officer and Trustee of YFGM for a period of 3 years.

04/25 Closing Minute We thank each other for a relaxing and thought-provoking gathering we have shared in together here in Liverpool. We have made full use of the additional time Bank Holiday Monday has allowed us to have together, in particular with a much larger number and variety of Special Interest Groups. We have enjoyed the sun, with several activities and discussions taking place outdoors. We have appreciated the session time freed up by our radically restructured Planning Weekend, and look forward to the greater impact this will have for a two-day YFGM. Our sessions on Israel/Palestine and Peace Tax were particularly lively, and we also look forward to this kind of community engagement becoming more commonplace at our gatherings in future. The long weekend does also take its toll and many of us will be heading home this afternoon very tired, however we have all been invigorated by each others’ fellowship. We wish each other safe travels, and peaceful and enjoyable summers. We will meet again in Brighton in October when we hope to renew the friendships we have been building this weekend. Signed in and on behalf of Young Friends General Meeting Nick Sturge & Nessa Williams Co-Clerks