Europe and Middle East Young Friends (EMEYF) Annual Meeting held at Quaker House, Bad Pymont, Germany 21st-23rd November 2003.
Present: Mike Eccles (Clerk), Hannah Pennock (Recording Clerk), Anne Biermann, Owen Espley, Leonie Glahn, Kathryn Lum, Aidan McCartney, Jonathan Riddell, Helen Rowlands, Paul Sladen, Maarten Spreij, Anneke Spriej, Philip Weir, Hanna Zimmerma, Jason Schweiger, Petra Mauersber, Rachel Bryers, Grover Yamaca, simon gray, Marielke Nieuwerth, Karl Seume, Ali Ghanem.
We warmly welcome all to Annual Meeting at Quaker house in Bad Pymont, Germany. We welcome the EMEYF Secretary Owen Espley and Helen Rowlands from the Woodbrooke study centre. We have also received greetings from Jude Kirton-Darling, Heather Rowlands and Marie Drouin. We look forward to the weekend ahead.
We remind ourselves that although our meetings are conducted in English this is not the first language for many. Therefore we remind ourselves to speak clearly and simply. We have been introduced to the Quaker business method.
We appoint the following Friends to serve on nominations committee for the duration of annual meeting 2003
We have enjoyed hearing of the experiences of our young Friends from Ireland, Germany, Spain, Britain, the Netherlands and Bolivia. We thank our national contact people (simon gray from Britain, Kathryn Lum from Spain, Philip Weir from Ireland and Anneke Spriej from the Netherlands) for their work and their written reports, which are attached to these minutes. We were also fortunate to hear from Grover Yamaca from Bolivia and Karl Seume from Germany of the experiences of young Friends in their countries.
Anneke Spriej has presented the epistle of Spring Gathering 2003 which was held in Hungary between the 11th and 18th of April. The theme wa "Norms and Values: who we are and what we live by". Participants of EMEYF Spring Gathering appreciated the opportunity of meeting EMES Friends who had their meeting the weekend after. During the week the Gathering did a variety of activities including reflecting on the testimonies both silently and in discussion, gazing at the moon and practicing meditation and massage. The Gathering also discussed how spirituality could be sought through music and the development of Quaker communities in Budapest. The Gathering was enjoyed by all and people are warmly invited to attend next year.
We are reminded that Spring Gathering will be held in Brittany in France between the 4th and 10th of April. The event is entitled, "peeling and onion to form a community". All are invited to attend and people can apply via the EMEYF web site or by contacting Jude Kirton-Darling.
Anneke Spriej reported on developments regarding the World Gathering of Young Friends in 2005. We were excited to hear that a location has be found and booked - the location will be Lancaster University in the UK, and the dates will be 16th to 24th August. We heard how there would be around 350 participants from many different countries meaning it will be an amazing opportunity to learn from Friends of different backgrounds. Currently there are North American and European based planning committees, and an enthusiastic group in Australia. It is also hoped to have a planning group in Africa and involvement from Latin America and other countries where there is a young Quaker presence.
Fundraising is going well for the European planning group; they have currently raised £40,000 and are still applying to other trusts and funds. It is anticipated that money raised will help participants who require financial assistance to attend the event.
EMEYF is excited by the development of the World Gathering of Young Friends and it was decided that we wish to have an EMEYF representative from continental Europe to the Europe based committee. We ask nominations committee to find a suitable name.
We have heard that the North American Young Friends planning committee is meeting this weekend and we send them our prayers. Interested people can contact the Europe based committee of the World Gathering of Young Friends via the YFGM office or visit the World Gathering web page (www.wgyf.org)
We considered where to hold Spring Gathering 2005. It was agreed to hold the Spring Gathering 2005 in the Netherlands or in the North of Germany. We felt a desire to have a future Spring Gathering in Southern Europe, as this is an area where we have not previously had a Spring Gathering. We support Young Friends in exploring these new possibilities. We ask Nominations Committee to find two Friends to serve on the planning group for this event.
Ali Ghanem and Rachel Bryers both reflected on their 3 years as elders. Ali Ghanem talked of a growing understanding of Quakerism during his time as an elder. Himself having experienced being prevented from attending events due to visa requirements, we are reminded to empathise with friends in similar situations and hold them in our prayers. Rachel Bryers talked of gaining joy from getting to know people, attending events and considering how we worship. We thank them both for their work.
Marielke Nieuwerth has presented the accounts for 2002 and we approve them subject to the examiner's report which will be attached to the minutes when received.
Our treasurer has presented an update on the 2003 account. We are pleased to see that YFGM has paid us their grant owed to date. We thank YFGM.
Our treasurer presented the budget for 2004. Marielke Nieuwerth talked of the importance of making our budgets realistic. Following this we have added lines for accommodation for annual meeting and communication committee recognising that we can not rely on receiving free accommodation. We approved the budget of 2004 subject to change by the communication committee when it meets in the spring.
We ask our treasurer to contact EMES to investigate whether we can get an increase of our EMES grant. We ask simon gray to investigate whether we can get an increase of the YFGM grant. We encourage young friends eligible to receive travel expenses to attend EMEYF annual meeting to seek alternative funding through yearly meetings or local meetings.
We are also reminded that the John Warden fund exists to help young European friends to attend Quaker events. We strongly encourage young friends to make use of this. People should contact the treasurer if they wish to make use of this underutilized fund to attend EMEYF events and are reminded to make contact more than 4 weeks of the events.
Further to minute CC03/07, it has been noted that the amount we have been paying for the work by the EMEYF secretary at QCEA is small and has not increased in recent time. Currently we have been paying €200 where the actual cost is nearer €1100. QCEA has said how much they value the link with EMEYF and are not asking for such a large sum. We agree with the communication committee decision to increase the amount we pay QCEA to €400 a year going up with inflation and value the links with QCEA. We ask the treasurers to look for possible sources to fund the EMEYF secretary time.
We thank Helen Rowlands of Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre for an enlightening workshop on advices and queries through the ages.
Marielke Nieuwerth showed us the EMEYF outreach leaflet, which has now been written in 6 languages. We encourage Friends to take leaflets away and spread the word about EMEYF. We thank everyone who has helped producing these leaflets.
Owen Espley reported about a European interfaith youth dialogue group. EMEYF as a European faith group has been asked if we wish to send a representative. It is anticipated that there will be three meetings a year. We warmly support the idea of the initiative though are lacking in much detail of the group at present. We have agreed that the Secretary attends the first meeting in January along with Ali Ghanem and that they report back to the communication committee on the value of our future participation.
Three paragraphs of the EMES representative's report were read to the meeting. The entire report is attached to the minutes for people to read at their leisure. We thank Jan Caspers for sending us this report.
We have noted that the Willy and Penn newsletter has not been produced in recent years. A decision was reached to cease producing Willy and Penn and put it into hibernation for the time being. We wish to leave avenues open for our publication to be restarted when new inspiration arises. We release the current editor, Kirsten Hills, and thank her for her service and we ask the outgoing Clerk to inform Kirsten of the change in situation.
We wish to take advantage of Bronwyn Harwood's offer for EMEYF to have a news column in Among Friends, the EMES newsletter. We ask the Gatherings Coordinator to be responsible for ensuring the EMEYF news column gets filled and ask communications committee to consider our communications strategy more generally.
Young Friends are encouraged to write articles for the EMES publication in addition to the column. Young Friends are asked to channel these articles through the Gatherings Coordinator. We ask the Gatherings Coordinator to monitor the quantity of articles and keep EMEYF informed if there would be enough to restart our own publication.
We appoint the following people to the following positions.
Spring Gathering 2005 Planning Group:
Recording Clerk Annual Meeting 2004:
Elders (3 years)
Representative for Quaker Council of European Affairs (3 years)
Gatherings Coordinator (3 years)
For the appointment of World Gathering of Young Friends planning group names have been passed directly to the World Gathering of Young Friends Planning Group.
We thank the nominations committee for their hard work this weekend.
We agree to hold our next annual meeting at Quaker House Brussels between 22nd and 24th October 2004. We ask our secretary to book Quaker House for that weekend. We valued the change of venue this year and wish to alternate our venue between Quaker House in Brussels and another location in future years.
We are grateful for the warm welcome we have received at Quaker House, Bad Pymont, Germany. We thank Heather Rowlands for her service as Gatherings Coordinator and Ali Ghanen for their service as elders. We also thank Mike Eccles for his hard work as Clerk this year and Owen Espley for his hard work as EMEYF Secretary. We have appointed many new people to new roles this year and we thank them for their willingness to serve, wishing them the best in coming years. We have enjoyed the chance to spend time together this weekend in a place of much beauty and send Friends on their way with warm greetings.
Signed on behalf of EMEYF
Mike Eccles (Clerk) Hannah Pennock (Recording Clerk)