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Meeting gathered at the appointed time Sixth-day morning, Third Month 28, 2003, and settled into worship. Clerk was Arlene Kelly, Alternate Clerk Dudley Heath, and Recording Clerk Susan White.
Minute 3: Clerk’s Welcome
Clerk welcomed Friends and introduced those on the facing bench. Friends welcomed Lamar Matthew, a member of York Monthly Meeting and the Presiding Clerk of Baltimore Yearly Meeting. Also welcomed was Margaret Stambaugh, a member of Gettysburg Monthly Meeting of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, who is clerk of Warrington Quarterly Meeting. Friends further welcomed April Vanlonden Degner, a member of Valley Mills Monthly Meeting in Western Yearly Meeting, representing the Earlham School of Religion. April is available throughout our sessions to answer questions Friends have about programs at Earlham and also making application there.
Minute 4: Approval Of Epistle Committee
Clerk spoke of how the Epistle Committee is named and of the role of that committee. For the first time this year the Epistle Committee is made up of names brought forward by the Meeting on Worship and Ministry. Clerk noted that the approval of these names assumes we wish to have an outgoing epistle at the close of our sessions. Friends approved having an Epistle Committee, and named to that committee the following members: Dana Kester-McCabe (Wicomico River Meeting), Thomas Swain (Middletown Meeting, Concord Quarter), Mae January Sterrett (Westtown Meeting), Stephan de la Veaux (Wilmington Meeting), and Paul Kester (Newtown Meeting).
Paul Kester read a Minute on Sustainability which accompanied an incoming epistle from Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting. The minute spoke of the web of life and each being within it being expressions of the Spirit, and affirmed the inherent worth of the natural world and all its beings, beyond their economic value to humans. Sustainability is inherent in Friends testimonies, especially those of good stewardship, simplicity and equality.
Minute 5: Nominating Committee
Clerk explained that the roster of names of Friends who have agreed to serve on various Yearly Meeting committees will be posted in the lobby and that the nominations will be acted on at our Sunday morning session. Friends united in expressing our appreciation for the work of Richard Ailes (Middletown Meeting, Concord Quarter) as clerk of the Yearly Meeting Nominating Committee, a service that is ending after these sessions. Rich introduced the members of that committee sitting on the facing bench.
Rich proposed Susan White to serve as an additional recording clerk for this Yearly Meeting in session, and Friends approved. He further reported that this Yearly Meeting will be Arlene Kelly's last as clerk. Gretchen Castle (Doylestown Meeting) has agreed to having her name put forward to serve as the new clerk of Yearly Meeting. This appointment, if approved, will begin on May 1, when she will no longer be an employee of the Yearly Meeting. Arlene has agreed to continue serving until that date. Also, Susan Makler (Abington Meeting) has agreed to clerk the Nominating Committee beginning at the end of these annual sessions.
Rich also asked Friends present to complete the Yearly Meeting Talent and Interest Survey, or to take the form back to our Meetings and ask others to complete it. This survey is an important tool for Nominating Committee to use in finding those to serve the Yearly Meeting on committees and in other ways.
Rich then presented a report on the work of Nominating over the last five years, since that is the length of his service with that committee. Rich noted that members of the Nominating Committee act as agents of God's will making calls to service that frequently come as a surprise to the nominees, and require a response that pushes them off in some direction in their lives they hadn't expected to go. The end product of this process does two things: It gives our Yearly Meeting the personnel needed to maintain our organizational health, and provides our nominees with opportunities to enlarge or enhance their gifts and deepen their relationship to their own spiritual journeys.
Rich presented various statistics to describe those Friends who are identified for Yearly Meeting service through the Nominating Committee. The Nominating Committee itself is composed of members appointed by each Quarterly Meeting. The number of appointments allotted to each Quarter is based on its total membership. Those allotments are seldom filled. Recruiting for Standing Committee positions is not an easy task, but the turnover rate, which had been high in the first few years of the structure change, has improved at a dramatic rate in the last two years. In addition, this year the Nominating Committee carried out a "Satisfaction Query" poll of Standing Committee members which found an 88% approval rate of the Friends' experience with service on Standing Committees. Rich noted that the experience of those serving on the Standing Committees is showing what he feels is a maturity of the new structure of our Yearly Meeting. He suggested that perhaps it is time for our Standing Committees to take on a more visionary role in our corporate life. He ended his talk by highlighting the extent to which older Friends take on the administrative work of the Yearly Meeting, suggesting that this was a wonderful example for Friends of the younger generations.
Minute 6: Membership Statistics
Allen R. Reeder (Abington Meeting) presented the membership statistics for the year 2002. Allen is the Publications Coordinator on the Yearly Meeting staff, and editor of the Yearbook of our Yearly Meeting. Membership figures are collected from Monthly Meetings. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting ended 2002 with 11,935 members. Membership has grown by 90 in the last year, and now includes 9,550 adults, 2,073 minors, and 312 associates, who are young people with temporary membership. Some gains in membership resulted from transfers into our Yearly Meeting from other Yearly Meetings. Ten of our thirteen Quarterly Meetings showed a net gain in membership. However, one-third of our Meetings had no new members by application last year. Thirteen Meetings had one new member by application, and others had more. Crosswicks Meeting in Burlington Quarter had the most new members by application with 15.
Minute 7: Friends Fiduciary Corporation
Connie Brookes (Haddonfield Meeting), Executive Director of Friends Fiduciary Corporation, introduced members of the Corporation sitting on the facing bench. The Friends Fiduciary Corporation provides financial services to tax-exempt Quaker organizations, including Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and many of its Monthly Meetings. These services include socially responsible investment management, planned giving and trusteeship for numerous funds.
Linell McCurry (Lansdowne Meeting), clerk of the Investment Committee of Friends Fiduciary Corporation, presented the Annual Report of the Corporation for the clerk, Lois Forrest, who was unable to attend. Linell explained that Meetings and organizations invest through the Consolidated Fund, a balanced fund with a long-term asset allocation of 65% stocks and 35% bonds. She also pointed out that many of the activities of the Friends Fiduciary Corporation are performed by the 25 members of its Quaker Board of Directors as volunteers.
Linell reported that in December of 2002, Friends Fiduciary approved the lowering of the annual payout rate from 6% to 5.5%, beginning with the June 2003 distribution. She also noted that in the first year of operation of the Quaker Planned Giving Program, the Friends Fiduciary Corporation has issued over 50 annuities and received gifts in excess of $950,000, with some 20 Meetings and Quaker organizations being the ultimate charitable beneficiaries of these gifts. Several sessions are planned for the coming year for Monthly Meetings and also sessions for organizations that have an organized development effort.
A Friend asked how Friends Fiduciary balances the goals of supporting enterprises that are good for the world and choosing investments that make money. Also, in light of the increase in the stock market at the beginning of the war last week, it was asked how Friends Fiduciary sees its investments. Linell noted that Friends Fiduciary seeks the long term perspective on investments. Investments are carefully screened to be sure that investments are in companies with progressive managements that contribute useful products to a peacetime economy.
Another Friend asked what lessons Friends Fiduciary had learned from the boom years of the 1990s, and the changes in the financial world in the last two to three years. Linell reported that Friends Fiduciary’s equity portfolio was less diversified in the early 1990's. The investments were limited to value stocks and bonds. Today, Friends Fiduciary investments are more diversified among various styles of equity investing.
Minute 8: Treasurer’s Report
Dennis O’Brien (Providence Meeting), Treasurer of Yearly Meeting, presented the Treasurer’s report for 2001-02. He reported that Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is on sound ground in its financial situation. However, for the second year we have missed our Annual Fund goal. Also, there was an unrealized loss on investments totaling $6.6 million. In all, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting investments fell in value by about 12%. The Treasurer concluded by noting that the Annual Fund performance and a worrisome stock market give cause for thoughtful attention.
A Friend asked what does this mean for the future of the Yearly Meeting? Dennis answered that the budget will give the practical realities for our future. Another Friend asked what does the Annual Fund shortfall mean? Dennis suggested that if there is a reason Friends can’t produce enough income to support the budget, then we need to adjust the budget. Otherwise, we need to communicate better the needs and work of the Yearly Meeting to our membership and others interested in our work.
The General Secretary noted that communication with the broad base of our membership would be greatly aided by all of us going home and telling the story of the needs and work of the Yearly Meeting. A Friend from Media Meeting reported that her Meeting had recently considered the financial situation of the Yearly Meeting, and is making an additional contribution beyond its covenant amount. She challenged other Meetings to do the same.
Minute 7: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Budget
Clerk explained that we will not be acting on the budget this morning. Rather, because of the budget crisis the Yearly Meeting has encountered this year, and the resultant cuts in funding which were necessary, it is the sense of the Annual Sessions Planning Group that we will be best served by having the budget presented this morning, allowing ample time for questions and clarifications, and then acting on the budget at the beginning of our afternoon session. It is the hope that this might allow for some reflection on what has been shared before acting on the budget.
Jacqueline Bowers (Falls Meeting), Clerk of the Financial Stewardship Committee, asked the members of that committee sitting on the facing bench to introduce themselves. She noted that Financial Stewardship is made up of two types of members. There are those who are named by the Nominating Committee, and also those who serve as full members as part of their service at the same time as a member of one of the Standing Committees.
Jackie asked what was different this year in the budget-making process of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting? Financial Stewardship began with a survey as is the usual practice. However, by June of 2002, it was clear that there would be a significant shortfall between budgeted activities and the income to support them. Financial Stewardship asked the Standing Committees to pare down their proposed plans of work and they did so beginning in July. Jackie also went to Interim Meeting and gave a “heads-up” for a probable shortfall in income to support programs as they had been supported in previous years. And finally, there were two more sharp reductions in investment income from losses in the financial world, and also some significant unanticipated increases in expenses.
All in all, there was a gap of $223,000 between income and activities going into the Budget Conference in November. Covenants from Monthly Meetings which were brought to that conference increased by $37,000. In previous years, that amount would have been enough to balance the budget. But it was not enough this year because the gap was too great between income and activities.
Financial Stewardship Committee, in order to balance the budget, still needed to make significant cuts. Unfortunately, since most expenditures are related to personnel, significant cuts inevitably mean cuts of staff. Staff reduction was undertaken in an effort to do the least harm in staff members’ lives. Finally, Jackie went back to Interim Meeting and asked Friends’ permission to move some income from Designated Funds over to the General Fund to cover the last shortage in the budget. There was a down side to doing this, since the money was doing some important work where it was. Interim Meeting gave permission.
Another element in planning budget cuts was consideration of the three working priorities adopted by Interim Meeting in July. These were: To create more visible and more hospitable Meeting communities; to support religious education for children and adults, and to enable community service and witness that expresses what is best in our faith.
Jackie then presented the proposed budget of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting for fiscal year 2003-2004. Income and Activities are planned to each be in the amount of $5,281,000. Sources include income from the General Fund, service fees, income from Designated Funds (those whose purpose can be designated or changed by Yearly Meeting in session, or by Interim Meeting), and income from donor-restricted funds, whose purpose is set by those making the gift to the Yearly Meeting. In order to balance the budget for the coming year, after all other cuts and economies had been made, it was still necessary to move some interest income from Designated Funds from the use of Bequests Granting Group to the general budget in the amount of $36,000.
A Friend asked about the increase in funding of 17% for Interim Meeting and the Financial Stewardship Committee. Kathy Reilly, Director of Finance for the Yearly Meeting, answered that this was an accounting change to better reflect how staff time is actually used to support the work of the Yearly Meeting, rather than a change in what work that staff is doing.
A Friend asked for clarification of the difference in Designated Funds and Restricted Funds. Designated Funds can be used for whatever purpose seems best to the Yearly Meeting, while Restricted Funds are given by the donor for a specific purpose. A Friend suggested that those giving Restricted Funds consider an end date for the restrictions, remembering the need to apply to a court to use the area behind the Arch Street Meetinghouse as a parking lot for cars when the original designation had been that it be used for horses. Another Friend spoke of the value of funds being restricted to support particular programs and purposes, and suggested that there should be a balance between Designated and Restricted Funds.
Jackie finally noted that budget-making is a dynamic process, and will need to be adjusted as funds become – or don’t become – available during the coming year. Jackie also reminded Friends that the Standing Committees are continuing to seek creative and effective ways to achieve the goals of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting while keeping within our resources.
Minutes were read, corrected and approved and announcements were given. After a brief period of worship, Meeting adjourned with an intention to reconvene in the afternoon at 1:45 p.m.
Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:19 AM