Forum: 2010 Visioning

Is this confusing? We're looking at property, thinking of Divine leadings, and we come up with a committee. There are a lot of unspoken threads here. People at the retreat were talking about retreat--both as a refuge for individuals or small groups wanting some peace for meditation and seeking, and in the programmatic sense of a retreat, an event where people retreat together to regroup, refresh, re-energize... or discern a new direction as we did in this Visioning Retreat. Of course, our Monthly Meetings are occasionally holding retreats, gatherings we plan for ourselves, and the ILYM property at McNabb could provide a perfect venue for such retreats. But Friends were also thinking of planning retreats for larger groups, across the YM, among YMs, or even for people outside Quakerism, retreats where more diverse groups might consider issues like peace, equality, environmental stewardship, and so on. This last one is advancement in the larger sense, not necessarily to gain new Quakers, but to advance the truths that we have been shown, by making them accessible to a wider world. And as we contemplated the immensity of that prospect, the idea of creating a committee to shepherd the work came up, and made it onto our vision wall.

Advancement: Nurturing Our Friends Community

Illinois Yearly Meeting needs to plan and carry out a
coordinated, consistent, year-round program for utilizing the Mills
Homestead. Events like family camps can bring families together and
attract new families. Skill-building workshops, on topics like
manifesting peace at home and at work, will strengthen our witness.
Events designed to overcome our culture of denial about death can help
us also be spiritually more whole as we deal with life. What does
Quakerism have to offer about suppressed conflicts in our meetings, or
praying for selves and others? How can we discern and nurture Friends
who have spiritual gifts? It takes a concerted effort by committed
Friends to create these and other educational programs.

We cannot depend on individuals in our small isolated meetings to
advance Quakerism alone. Individuals with vision can unite their
efforts for all our meetings. Many hands make light work. Good ideas
get better in committee, as Friends develop a concept into a
program—together.

Mariellen and Margaret have captured what I heard. In terms of the workshop experience raising the Advancement Committee theme, I notice that aside from the Kitchen/Dining theme, the two themes with the greatest number of cards (implying unity and relative "energy" for the ideas) were Retreats and Programs and Inreach and Outreach. So although Advancement Committee was just one card, it really represents a large component of the vision expressed in the workshop.

It is challenging to contemplate putting another committee on Nominating Committee's "docket." Last year FWCC undertook a major restructuring of its committees. Their list of committees had grown large and cumbersome; the positions were hard to fill and the travel was expensive. They wound up reducing the number of standing committees by maybe one half, retaining those related to keeping the Section operating, and arranging "working groups" to seek guidance on what additional work to do and how best to do it.

Considering the cross-committee work we've seen in ILYM, such as between Environmental Concerns, Maintenance & Planning, and Peace Resources, I wonder if this kind of restructuring or "big wind blows" moment would breathe fresh life into our yearly meeting.

Tell us how "working groups" work, Dawn! What's the difference between a committee and a working group? What makes a working group less cumbersome, easier to find workers for?

I urge Friends to attend, if possible, the spring meeting of our Continuing Committee, being hosted by the Columbia Meeting (March 6th) in which a lot more of this will become clear. Minutes from that will be distributed to those with e-mail who are on the Administrative Coordinator's mailing list.

Following that will be a spring meeting of our current standing committee on Ministry and Advancement, which will probably have advice about all this to the Yearly Meeting's annual sessions in June. Clerks of each of those bodies will welcome input directly with Friends with ideas and concerns about how we use our properties for consultations, training, retreats, workshops, whatever!, to advance Friends' principles. The "programmatic" emphasis — which was highlighted at the visioning workshop — is conceptually separate from the infrastructure, physical-property, questions.

A lot of nuts and bolts are yet to be worked out about management of the property, after it is stabilized and made ready for use by Friends other than Clear Creek, who are meeting there now for worship and religious education. Very little else is settled. A number of productive consultations and joint meetings are anticipated among the current committees that have an interest in that property.

Presently represented on the "Ad Hoc Committee on the Mills Property" — which runs until June when the YM will decide "what next?" — are our committees on Maintenance & Planning, Site Envisioning & Development, Finance, Environmental Concerns, the Stewards, and Clear Creek Meeting. They are pledged to stay in close touch with each other. Over the course of this next year, we can expect more to come into focus, keeping in mind the "big picture" of what we're calling a "Whole Campus Plan."

There is much momentum for being able to use the property (old and new and in combination) for "programming." Getting the specifics of managment of that is yet to be done. Let's bring our best thinking and openness together, to see what is God's Will for how we can be used as a Yearly Meeting.