Minutes, PYM Young Friends Planning Meeting, 6/16/02

Present: Kate Newlin (M&O Clerk), Stephen Myers (PYM Co-Clerk), Darcy Stanley (PYM Co-Clerk), Paul Boling (M&O), Alyssa Nelson (At-Large), Melina Larkin (Worship only)

After enjoying a delicious lunch and opening the meeting with worshipful silence, we created our agenda.

We discussed what the roles were last year, what went well, and what could be improved, creating the following draft job descriptions.

-Help the group deal effectively with the inevitable changes created by our change of meeting location from Mt. Madonna to USD

-Welcome and include newcomers (and oldcomers), but in an inobtrusive manner. Having a clear, corporate strategy might be more effective than last year's “just be mindful” approach.

-Create visibility of M&O for PYM attenders. Who is M&O and what are their roles?

-Organize worship sharing at PYM, including assigning groups and writing queries (we would prefer to have queries written, copied, and available before worship sharing begins to avoid last year's scribbling).

-Greater visibility of M&O (perhaps a skit during Welcoming that describes roles) [Paul and M&O]

-Have queries printed out before-hand for Worship Sharing [Kate and M&O]

-Respect Worship Sharing time/don't reschedule [Planning Committee, M&O]

Friends expressed desire to associate with JYM, but mostly individually rather than scheduled. YF will organize “All Ages Fun” on Wednesday afternoon, and we will invite JYM to our beach trip but not offer to be responsible for them.

Stephen articulated that, although we have an important relationship with GPYM, YF goal is to build our own community and that we need not feel guilty about having our own events.

-PYM Committees: More and more, GPYM committees would like YF participation, but they are not always familiar with individuals YF or their abilities. YF ought make themselves knows to Nom Com. Job descriptions will be available. [Alyssa]

At our new PYM site, YF will have separate meeting and sleeping spaces. The Planning Committee hopes that this will facilitate better sleep habits during PYM. USD has clearly stated that no more than 2 adults should share a room. M&O will take care to pay attention to potential issues such as cliques and isolation. Doorknockers may be necessary to wake Friends up in the morning. We are unsure about the exact nature of the “YF Coffee House” as listed on the main schedule.

A number of suggestions were made for a scheduled YF service project during PYM, including: feeding homeless, cleaning up a beach, volunteering at San Diego and/or La Jolla meetinghouses, and something in Mexico. Paul will contact Jim Summers (La Jolla) about homeless and meetinghouse projects. We are hoping to leave after breakfast on Thursday, bring bag lunches, and return in time for Memorial Plenary.

-Financial Aid forms and specific instructions for YF's have been made available online and at meetings. Stephen has also posted this information to the YF e-list and sent it to all past attenders for whom he had an email address.

-July 1^st is the deadline. It is important that people respect this; we probably will not be able to grant Friends' requests if they just show up at PYM and request aid at the last minute.

-We have at least $2,000 available for scholarships, and the understanding that PYM is willing to help in almost any way to ensure that all YF's who want to attend can.

-The PYM Registrar has information about ride coordination. This information was with the registration materials.

-Friend Ethan has been sentenced to time in jail for his involvement in protests over logging. He would appreciate mail. Stephen will post this information to the YF e-list.

-YF existence beyond PYM: Currently, this includes the e-list and Spirit and Light Gathering.

*How can YF be active together the rest of the year other than Yearly Meeting week?

[Agenda Item: Social Justice Activities, more-organized Spirit and Light]

*Currently, membership in the Society of Friends entails commitment to a Monthly Meeting, but many YF's are not members because of high geographic mobility (as well as other reasons). [Agenda Item: Would YF's be interested in creating a Yearly Meeting membership process? What might the process be like? How would we work with GPYM M&O? A Threshing Session and Ad Hoc committee may be needed.]

-Worship Sharing is an important time for YF's to build community and to explore both individual and corporate spiritual issues. In the past, disorganization of groups and queries and a lack of priority in the schedule have made worship sharing unfulfilling for some Friends. M&O intends to make worship sharing a priority this year by giving it a prominent place in the schedule, respecting that schedule, organizing the groups, devoting energy to developing appropriate queries, and having copies of the queries available for each group.

-The Planning Committee recognizes that taking a group trip to an off-site location and exploring our new host-city are both fun and important to building a sense of YF community. We also recognize that there may be concerns about appropriate activities and financial needs.

*We united in scheduling a trip to the beach for Tuesday after dinner, to include a campfire and s'mores/snacks. [Agenda Item: Where/Transportation]

-We had considered organizing a tour of downtown or a meal out, but decided that might be better left to group spontaneity.

-One Friend had suggested visiting Tijuana, but the committee decided that trip might be more appropriate as an after-PYM activity.

-We hope that the Service Project will also give Friends an opportunity to see other aspects of the San Diego area.

We would like to keep the YF schedule as parallel to the GPYM schedule as possible in order to allow Friends to participate in either program as needed and to reinforce the connection between YF and GPYM. The main deviations are as follows:

-We will have a table at registration specifically to welcome YF's after they have registered [Paul, Darcy]

-We will leave Plenary I after Roll Call to conduct our own Welcoming activities [Lexi?, Jack?] and Skit “Who is M&O and what do they do?” [Paul and M&O]

-YF will organize its own Worship Sharing groups and write its own queries. [M&O]

*We will have a beach trip Tuesday evening after dinner. We will inform JYM that we invite them to join us, but that we are not offering to be responsible for them. [Agenda Item: Where/Transportation]

-We hope to have a Service Project Thursday morning: leave after breakfast, bring a sack lunch, return for Meeting for Memorials [Paul]

*YF will facilitate the All Ages Fun on Wednesday evening [Agenda Item: Volunteers to organize]

-We highly encourage every Friend to participate in Meeting for Memorials on Thursday afternoon. This is an important time to connect with the greater community, learn about Friends who have died, and ponder our own lives.

-Space concerns—How do we develop community with our new sleeping arrangements that split up the group? How do we avoid cliques?

-YF existence beyond PYM: Social Justice Activities, Spirit and Light

-Membership: Threshing Session/Ad-hoc Committee/Meeting for Business