We are a family of Quakers spread out from Key West to Charleston, S.C. Naturally we cannot gather every First Day to worship together because of the distances, but we do come together once a year to greet each other, find out what is happening in our various monthly meetings, and make some decisions about what we think is important to do. Our youth get to discover that there really are other Quaker kids in the universe. In short, the gathering, held every year from Wednesday to Sunday of Easter week, is like a family reunion. In recent years it has been held very close to us in Fruitland Park, just north of Leesburg off of 441.
This year 162 people attended, and over 30 of these were youth. Our youth fit in instantaneously. Gavin and Ethan enjoyed their groups. Nicole took a leadership role among the teens and preteens. Erin had many friends and liked swimming best. She also learned to do awesome things with ropes. Cecilia made five friends the first day she was there. Danny enjoyed setting up the Easter egg hunt for the little children. Nicole has set up a “Yahoo server thing” to keep the youth in Junior Yearly Meeting in touch with each other. Odalis Manduley has been asked by the Junior Yearly Meeting to be a “Friendly Adult Presence” at next year’s gathering.
A proposal to make the yearly meeting’s Quaker Earthcare Witness Committee a standing committee will be brought to the Fall Interim Business Meeting held in Palm Beach the first Saturday in October. A minute from the Nominating Committee saying that monthly meeting clerks of standing committees are understood to be automatically members of the corresponding yearly meeting committees will be presented at Fall Interim Business Meeting.
We approved a minute concerning our affiliation with Friends United Meeting saying that we will temporarily withhold our financial support and representation on the General Board for two years. At that time, if we cannot agree to stay affiliated, we will permanently disaffiliate. The $1200 left in the yearly meeting budget from this fiscal year designated for FUM needs to be directed to an FUM project. The Executive Committee of the yearly meeting has been taking suggestions and plans to make a decision during its meeting Saturday June 2 at our Gainesville Meetinghouse.
The Budget for Southeastern Yearly Meeting’s fiscal year 2007-2008 is $75,680. The increase is due to a rise in health care insurance for the administrative secretary. Since the SEYM registrar does not yet have updated lists of members and faithful attenders from all the monthly meetings and worship groups, our assessment has not yet been established.
The Walton Lecture by Arthur Larabee was on Quaker Leadership. I would like to share a few words:
We need to support the leaders among us. The person who can see the extra person in the meeting, which is the group as a whole, is the leader. If our leaders are going to be effective, we need to delegate authority and support them. If we honor leadership among us, new leaders will be cultivated among us.
Connie Ray, Gainesville meeting representative to SEYM