Minute # 1. Worship and Opening Exercises
The meeting settled into worship at the appointed hour of 6:00 p.m. at Arch Street Meetinghouse, Philadelphia, PA. The clerk introduced herself, Chris Mahon (Woodstown), and asked others at the clerk's table to introduce themselves - Chris Nicholson (Germantown), alternate clerk, and Susan White (Princeton), recording clerk.

The clerk welcomed the following new members, alternates and visitors.
New representative was: Paul Kester (Newtown) and substitute was: Janet Heist (Kennett).
Guests were Amy Brooks (Arch Street), Mario Cavallini (Mickleton and Meeting on Worship and Ministry), Alice Gilbert (London Grove), Phil Gilbert (London Grove), Carol Hey (Plumstead), Patricia Hunt (Germantown), Hollister Knowlton (Chestnut Hill), Doug Rider (Inland Valley - Riverside, California), Mary Louise Ruggierei (Kennett), Thomas Swain (Middletown - Concord Quarter), Pendleton Waggener (Falls), Claire Wilson (Chester), and Gail Woodbury (Germantown and Meeting on Worship and Ministry).

The clerk reminded Friends that all should sign in with Connie Blood at the registration desk, and be sure that she has a correct email address for Representatives and Alternates who use email. Being able to contact at least part of the members of Interim Meeting via email is especially helpful in an emergency situation. Connie is the Yearly Meeting staff member who supports our work in Interim Meeting. Friends can send their email address to her at connieb@pym.org

Minute # 2. Continuing Business

2.A. Report of Treasurer
Denny O'Brien (Providence), treasurer of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, reported on the fiscal year July 2002 through June 2003. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is in very solid financial shape. It has the accumulated wealth of many generations at its disposal. But operationally, there is a deficit for the year just closed, for the period July 2002 through June 2003. On a budget of some five million, four hundred thousand dollars, there was a deficit of about $81,000. The books are now being audited. On a continuing basis, there are two things that have now changed. The Annual Fund has not met projected amounts, and our return on investments is down due to the continuing losses in the overall financial world. The Annual Fund, which asks financial support from members directly to the Yearly Meeting, has missed its goal for two years running. This means that either the budget is too high, and Friends don't have the money to give to the Yearly Meeting, or, Friends will isn't strong enough to support our work.

We can meet these financial challenges in two ways. One is by belt tightening, probably necessary since our investment income isn't going to come back to recent levels quickly, if at all. The other way is to look at this situation strategically, as an opportunity to have a robust vision of what Philadelphia Yearly Meeting can be - and have that vision be investable. The treasurer concluded by offering that our Yearly Meeting has a beautiful endowment. But we also have a lot of responsibility to be faithful to Friends who have gone before us in the ways we use that financial base.

Another Friend reported that the Friends Fiduciary Fund has agreed to keep a 5.5 rate of return at the present which will help us with a more stable basis for planning.

2.B. Report on IRS Action
A press release entitled "Quakers Act to Defend Freedom of Religion and Conscience" was issued by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting today. It begins:

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting … filed its answer yesterday to a Justice Department lawsuit that asks a $20,000 penalty to be imposed on them and seeks to make them the collection agent for the government. The Yearly Meeting's response makes clear it intends to stand by its essential religious principles, and publicly defend the free exercise of religion on all possible grounds, including constitutional and statutory religious freedom defenses.

While PYM regrets the need to resort to legal action, it looks forward to a full airing of the issues involved in a public forum where both the sound reasons and religious principles that guide this Quaker organization's actions may be upheld. PYM's defense will rest on the constitutional right to freedom of religion generally, and particularly as upheld and restated in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1994.

$28,600 - Friends General Conference
$20,800 - Quaker Information Center
$9,480 - Friends World Committee for Consultation
$4,200 - Metropolitan Christian Council
$2,600 - National Council of Churches
$2,000 - Friends Committee on National Legislation
$1,200 - Pennsylvania Council of Churches

1. It is in right order for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting to continue to relate to these eight organizations, and Interim Meeting is best suited to represent our Yearly Meeting in our relationship with these organizations.

2. The amounts we contribute to these organizations are in line with our commitment to support them.

3. Contributions for Fiscal Year 2005, for which we are now planning and which covers the period July 1 2004 through June 30, 2005, should be the same as the amount budgeted for the current Fiscal Year 2004 covering the period July 1 2003 - June 30, 2004.

4. On an annual basis, the budgeted amounts for these organizations should be regularly authorized by the Treasurer, and checks issued and sent out by the office of the General Secretary.

5. For those groups where we have failed to send forward the budgeted amount for the last one or two years, we should request a grant of $6000 from the Bequest Committee. It would then be divided equally between them - AFSC, FCNL, and PCC; that is, $2,000 each.

Other Yearly Meetings use their annual gathering not just as a time to do business, but as a time to offer spiritual nourishment and community building to all ages. What needs would we like our annual gathering to meet for our community? How can we create experiences that meet those needs?

General Comments
One group affirmed that our Yearly Meeting annual sessions do meet our needs for nourishment and community in many ways.

At annual sessions, there is great value in just being together as a whole Faith community and finding the Divine in the ordinary. This can come through everyday activities such as sitting with a friendly crafter, buying a book from the FGC bookstore, watching a children's program, and sharing with table mates at meals.

If our goal to make more faithful Friends, we need to have something that we can focus on. Now we have an issue to rally round in the matter of the IRS suit, to see who we are and what we are called to do. What issues can we find on which to focus our annual sessions?

There should be strong encouragement for continuity in Yearly Meeting sessions.

Annual session is a great opportunity to exercise Quaker decision making

Monthly Meetings should participate in preparation for annual sessions

We should work on having better annual sessions, and then assign ourselves the task of self-reporting on our work to evaluate how effective those efforts have been.

Arch Street Meetinghouse

We should use the Arch Street Meetinghouse as much as possible.

Could we break annual session into two parts? Then have one at Arch Street for business, and a residential session elsewhere for community building and fellowship.

There is great value in our getting together in the large Yearly Meeting room at Arch Street Meetinghouse. This helps us to build identity.

Community And Small Groups

We need to develop community.

Community building should be carried out at annual sessions.

We should gather in Quarters to build community

Community Building Activities are very important. We should limit the amount of business to a few important issues of policy. Through discussion we can create community. Through building community decisions can be better. For example, budget making could be moved to a small group and Yearly Meeting could then set priorities in what has been suggested.

There should be opportunities to talk in small groups for everybody to have a say.

We should have challenging speakers, with small group discussion to follow up afterwards to enhance the experience.

Some work at annual sessions should be done in small groups

Maybe Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is too big. Maybe we need to divide into smaller parts, to have more intimate groups.

Comparison To Other Yearly Meetings

Could we find out how other Yearly Meetings do this?

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has more business to conduct than many smaller Yearly Meetings.

A Friend who was once part of New York Yearly Meeting shared her experience. NYYM is residential, where they form a chorus for singing and also put great focus on socializing. They form worship groups, and go off and worship together. They also do some business.

Another Friend spoke of the practice of Britain Yearly Meeting where Monthly Meetings present queries for consideration

We should promote exchanges with Friends from other Yearly Meetings.

How We Do Business

There should not be less business at annual sessions, but we should do our business out of disciplined worship. We could accomplish more in business matters through worship.

Doing business by spending long hours on hard seats is not always productive.

A radical suggestion would be to abandon business altogether at annual session. Annual session should be a time of spiritual nourishment.

Interim Meeting

Could we move budget consideration to Interim Meeting? [Several groups made this suggestion]

Interim Meeting should work on a few issues of business before annual sessions. Then well-seasoned business could be taken to annual session.

Business is better carried out by Interim Meeting because of continuity. Friends often come to annual sessions not well prepared on business matters, and then a lot of time is wasted.

Have the budget done by Interim Meeting.

Joy

Elements which should be added to or strengthened at annual sessions are: Social Time, Singing, Outreach, and History.

There should be more whole group singing to lighten the mood.

Could we adopt some techniques for encouraging people to get acquainted?

We should have more fun.

Sharing of joy is important.

Themes for annual session should include Celebration, Rejuvenation, and Discernment.

Spiritual Development

We should focus on spiritual discernment through workshops

We should provide spiritual inspiration.

Spiritual needs should be met at annual session.

We should search for ways to enhance our witness in the world

Youth And Intergenerational

Our faith is transcendent. Youth could show this. We should have youth with us here at annual sessions.

When we worship out of doors, the kids can run when they need to.

We should have more mixed ages and small groups.

Intergenerational worship sharing should be held to include children and all ages.

The clerk gathered the notes and reports from the recorders to send on to the Annual Sessions Planning Group.

Minute # 3. New Business

3.A. Agenda Items (5) and (6). Nominating Committee Recommendations
The clerk noted that these recommendations are huge issues, and suggested that we should consider them at a future meeting after more seasoning. Each Friend of Interim Meeting was challenged by the clerk top go home and do some research to find out how many members of our Meeting and of our Quarter now serve on the Yearly Meeting nominating committee, and how many others could be appointed.

3.B. Agenda Item (7) Place of Meeting on Worship and Ministry Within the Yearly Meeting.
Mario Cavalleti, clerk of the Meeting on Worship and Ministry, spoke for that group. They have gone through several poles on the issue of the proper place of that group within Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Their leading is to serve faithfully both God and the Friends of our Yearly Meeting. They are charged in Faith and Practice with nurturing the spiritual life of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.

Before the reorganization in 1997, the Meeting on Worship and Ministry was a separate body. Then during the last few years when they have been a working group under a Standing Committee, they have experienced a reaction from other Friends of "Who do you think you are?" "Who are you to be a member of the Meeting on Worship and Ministry?" This is a special problem since as a working group members are self-nominating by our guidelines. Those who come onto the Meeting on Worship and Ministry go through a clearness process, and this has improved the situation somewhat. Their work would be helped greatly by having their members nominated by Interim Meeting through the Nominating Committee.

A Friend asked whether the Meeting on Worship and Ministry wishes not to be under the Standing Committee on Worship and Ministry. Mario reported that the Meeting on Worship and Ministry is not at odds with the Standing Committee. However it is strange for them to be under a Standing Committee where work is rightly measured. The Meeting deals with the spiritual quality of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. This can't be quantified.

Jim Morrissey (Reading), co-clerk of the Worship and Care Standing Committee, rose to report that the Standing Committee has minuted the freedom to choose for the Meeting on Worship and Ministry as to whether it is led to be a separate body, or to be under that Standing Committee.

The issue of having the Nominating Committee choose members for the Meeting on Worship and Ministry evoked much discussion among Friends of Interim Meeting. The Nominating Committee is being asked to take on a great deal. Our Monthly Meetings need to be able to recognize and call out the gifts of those in their Monthly Meetings, and likewise Quarterly Meetings. What kind of help do we need at the Monthly Meeting level to be able to do this?

A Friend asked how we can work so that our grandchildren will have a track to run on among liberal, unprogrammed Friends? There is a question of demography. We have accepted a wave of the world's refugees. Now we need to be of service to help create a society of committed, transformed, faithful Friends. If we don't now what spiritual authority looks like, then how can we minister to a broken world? There is a paradox in asking some Monthly Meetings to help with the design where they don't have the capacity - where they themselves need the care and nurture of the Meeting on Worship and Ministry.

Some Friends have refused service on the Meeting on Worship and Ministry because their own Monthly Meetings needed them more.

Friends of Interim Meeting will consider the proper place within our Yearly Meeting of the Meeting on Worship and Ministry at a later meeting.
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Minute # 4. Business of Standing Committee - General Services Standing Committee

A. Elizabeth Foley, staff for Development, reported on the background of five generous bequests which have been left to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and which were accepted by Interim Meeting at previous times.

(1). Florence Keller was a physician in New York. In the early years of the 20^th century, she attended Brooklyn Friends School. She was not herself religious, but she held Friends values learned in those years very closely. She left a bequest of some $90,000.
(2.) Alfred Jacobs lived a life of service and commitment to Friends witness. He and his wife left two small children in England and went off to spend some ten years in Spain for the American Friends Service Committee feeding starving children. He left a bequest of some $3,000.
(3.) James Moore, who died in 1981, attended Westtown School. He left a trust to support a cousin who has now recently passed away, and then it was stipulated that it come to us. The bequest is some $105,000.
(4.) Howard Kreckmann asked his niece to give Philadelphia Yearly Meeting $4000 upon his death. He was not a Friend, but he stated that he always admired the Quakers.
(5). Edward N. Woolman was born in 1871, in West Philadelphia. His grandfather, Joel Woolman had a very successful milk business which became the Sealtest Company. Edward was the great grand nephew of John Woolman born in 1720. Edward was past director of the John Woolman Memorial Association.. He was a devoted land conservationist. who donated some 2000 acres in Chester County to the Nature Conservancy. The Great Marsh, Pennsylvania, is one of the largest freshwater marshes in Southeastern Pennsylvania and is home to an ecosystem unparalleled in the area, in terms of biological diversity. Edward directed that upon the death of his daughter his Trust was to be divided into thirds to be shared among Haverford College, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, and his brother Henry's grandson and granddaughter. Our portion of this Trust totaled approximately $550,000.

Friends of Interim Meeting approved the nominations and accepted the resignations.

Minute # 6. Financial Stewardship
Jackie Bowers, clerk of Financial Stewardship, reminded Friends of the Budget Conference which will be held at George School on Saturday, November 15, with coffee at 8:30 am and the meeting beginning at 9. The meeting will close by 1 o'clock. At this meeting Financial Stewardship will receive the covenants from the Quarterly Meetings. This will give one of the financial bases we need to firmly build our budget for the coming fiscal year 05, will cover the period July 1 2004 through June 30,m 2005.

Minute # 7. Clerk's Correspondence
The clerk reported that she had no correspondence.

Minute # 8. General Secretary's Report
In his written monthly report, Thom Jeavons introduced a new feature. At the end of the report is a new section "What's Exciting in PYM?" This is a page devoted to news from various members of the Yearly Meeting staff. Topics covered this month included news of the Spiritual Formation program, ways to Connect Quakers to the UN, ways to help treasurers better serve Monthly Meetings, Workcamps update, and news of Middle School Friends programs.

Thom also asked members of Interim Meeting to go back and ask our Monthly Meeting clerks if they got the invitation to participate in the Yearly Meeting staff visitation program being planned for February, and if they are going to respond.

Minute # 9. Minutes of 18 September and 25 September 2003
Friends approved the minutes of Interim Meeting for September 18 and 25, 2003, with the following corrections:

September 18. Minute 1, Page 1, Anne Moore (Valley) is a member of Interim Meeting, and not a guest as she is listed under Haverford Quarter at the bottom of the page.

September 25. Minute 2.A, Page 1. 2d Paragraph. Clarification statements in square brackets are inserted in the 2d paragraph as follows

Gretchen began by noting what a remarkable staff serves our Yearly Meeting, and she asked staff present to stand. She further suggested that [one important] role of Interim Meeting as the Board of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is to support the chief. [That is - to offer care and counsel to Thom as our direct employee and the chief administrative officer for the staff of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.]