Western Quarterly Meeting Annual Report 2014
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It is a privilege to serve during a time when our organization seeks to bring more meaningful opportunities for volunteers, grow programming within important areas of focus, and improve means of communication. These elements demonstrate both our desire for and our progress toward a more vital neighborhood of Monthly Meetings.
Over the coming year, our newly constituted Support Committee will endeavor to implement the approved consolidation of our decision-making structure. The Support Committee will help focus our attention primarily upon the growth and vitality of our Monthly Meetings and worship groups. This is the first phase of a strategic planning process aimed at streamlining our work to make it easier and more meaningful to serve the Quarterly Meeting community. Secondly, we have hired an accounting firm to assist in the management of our finances by relieving it of burdensome operational duties. We hope this will broaden the pool of candidates who might be interested in serving as Treasurer.
In November of 2012, we hired a Coordinator, Zachary Dutton. Zachary has helped us begin building a foundation of good governance and professionalism upon which we may initiate sustainable programs for youth and adults. He has sought to promote the idea that the Quarterly Meeting is inseparable from the life of our Monthly Meetings. He has also helped us to create new spaces for our spiritual lives to converge. In the last year, we have seen three “wisdom sharing sessions” that have brought Friends together in certain areas of interest for support and collective action. A fourth session on finances is in the works. Our Quarterly Meetings are organized with increasing efficiency, as we develop better ways to support smaller, host Monthly Meetings. We have seen many more young people at Quarterly Meetings. Our youth programs have involved enough diversity in ages that we hope to reinvigorate a youth meeting for High-School age Friends. We are working with Concord Quarterly Meeting to offer a host of activities for Middle-Schoolers and High-Schoolers through the Spring of 2015.
We have also upgraded the website to convey information more clearly about our neighborhood of Monthly Meetings. We’ve laid the foundations for new outreach efforts. The website is prepared to integrate with social media, and our new blog feature allows Friends access to stories in the life of our neighborhood without having to wait for the next newsletter. An e-newsletter is released monthly, and it is linked to our blog and our new events page. We have added a “resources” page that offers volunteers administrative support. We are streamlining our data management using software that allows us to segment our database.
These efforts reflect our determination to chart a course toward a more Monthly-Meeting-centered mission. I am overjoyed to be able to invite all Friends in every corner of our Quarter to join us in this effort!
Sincerely,
Pamela Leland, Clerk
Western Quarterly Meeting
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