|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
The Making New Friends Working Group offers two services to Monthly Meetings and individuals:
- A web site with literature on outreach that anyone can access and download.
- Longer term "coaching" arrangements with a few Meetings that have applied to have extensive outreach programs supported by this working group and PYM.
Web Site
We maintain space on the PYM website with information and literature about Outreach that anyone, a member or attender, can access. While we would prefer to be able to also have these materials in printed form, we do not have funds for this purpose. Our research has shown that many Friends in our Meetings are very well educated and have excellent access to the Internet. If you would like these materials and do not have access, please ask for help from someone in your Monthly Meeting. If there is no one in the Meeting to help you, we can arrange for a member of the Working Group to download and print materials and send them to you.
The web site includes:
- Our full presentation to Yearly Meeting from March 2002
- Application forms and copies of handouts
- Reference and reading lists of sources
- List of relevant sources within PYM, such as Spiritual Formation Groups, etc.
- Copies of some articles on outreach (all we need are approvals from FJ etc, and we could scan and post in pdf format)
- Relevant sections from the 1986 Outreach Idea Book (if we scan it and post it)
- A review paper on outreach and church growth covering some academic and practical literature
- Any materials that we develop over the course of time.
Long Term Coaching/Consulting Arrangements
Our role with each Meeting in the pilot project is a bit like a coach or personal trainer. We help the Meeting decide where it wants to go and what kind of outreach program it wants. We help to train the Meeting, and to provide guidance both from ourselves and by referring the Meeting to other Yearly Meeting programs and to the PYM Support and Outreach Standing Committee. We are also "cheerleaders," encouraging the Meeting in its efforts. But, like a coach or personal trainer, we do not lift the weights or make the changes; that is for the Meeting to accomplish.
We expect that the coaching will follow these steps, more or less, depending on the Meeting:
- 1. Assessment and Planning
The first step is to find out who the Meeting is and where it wants to go. Meetings are different and unique, just like individuals. Different Meetings will want outreach programs that focus on different things. For example, one Meeting might want to emphasize their social activism and traditional social testimonies, drawing others with a strong interest in activism. Another might want to focus more on traditional Quakerism with greater emphasis on building the ministry in Meeting for Worship, perhaps even deciding not to operate a First Day School. Another Meeting that operates a school may have outreach revolve more around the school and the issues of instilling Quaker values in youth. There are many outreach activities that a Meeting can do, but it cannot do them all. The first step is assessment and planning.
To do this we will first survey the Meeting about the backgrounds and beliefs of the members and attenders. We will administer a revised survey previously administered by this group in three PYM meetings. Its purpose is to help the Meeting get a quick sense of the entire meeting related to outreach foci. We will tally the results and feed back the results to the Meeting.
Then, we will conduct a few planning sessions to assist the Meeting to identify the themes and choose among the alternatives. The Meeting, under the guidance of the Spirit, will make its own decisions about directions.
- 2. Work the Plan
Once we have a plan in place, we will help the Meeting "do the plan." Doing the plan may involve any of a number of resources, and will depend on the Meeting's plan.
These resources might include strategies about:
- how to improve the Meeting’s committee structure, so as to support Outreach activities more fully
- how to improve Meeting for Worship
- how best to reach out into the community to attract new attenders
- how to, systematically, welcome new attenders and then fully incorporate them into the life of the Meeting
- how to speak appropriately with attenders to support them to become members
This listing is just a sampling of possibilities, and others abound. For example, a Meeting might want to make a strong effort for diversity and bring in local Hispanics (Quakerism is quite strong in places in Latin America according to Friends World Committee). In order to be welcoming, the Meeting might decide to have all messages translated into Spanish and all Spanish messages translated back into English during Meeting, as is done in some FWCC gatherings. If a Meeting wanted help in doing this, we would arrange for them to talk to the right people.
We do have a point of view of how outreach works best that is based both on our research and other research. The readings and web site express this view. However, these approaches need to be modified to specific Meetings, which is the purpose of the up-front planning and assessment.
- 3. Evaluate and Track
The coaching team would meet with the Meeting at regular intervals to find out how they are doing, provide suggestions, moderate discussions, solves problems, and provide encouragement. How often is to be determined by the Meeting, but we would expect it to be at least monthly at first.
Who would be on the coaching team? We are hoping to have a two-person team assigned to each Meeting; one person to be the Staff Person for MNF and the other person to be a volunteer from the Working Group.
Evaluation and tracking will include celebrations as the Meeting makes progress in becoming stronger and moving in the chosen direction. We will also help each Meeting determine how it will measure success. One method supported by this working group is that membership will increase by 5% each year of the two-year pilot project.
Working Group Clerk: Bonalyn Mosteller · bonalynmost@worldnet.att.net
Last modified: Thursday, March 18, 2004 at 05:37 AM