EMEYF Communications Committee

Friargate Friends Meeting House, York, England

3-5 March 2006

Present: Rachel Bryers, Helen Percy, Jonathan Riddell, Karl Seume, Paul Sladen, Anneke Spreij, Charlotte Wetton

CC06/01 Opening Minute

We are glad to be here in snowy York. We are happy to be in each others company again, and have used the opportunity this morning also to remember friends in distant places.

CC06/02 Spring Gathering 2006

Anneke has updated us on progress in planning Spring Gathering 2006, from 13-18 April near Barcelona in Spain. So far about 15 people are expected to attend from many parts of Europe. The theme is Cross Cultural Spirituality. The planning group have organised for two speakers. The Catchpool Fund will help to fund one of these speakers, but the gathering funds will have to cover their accommodation costs. There will be a chance to take forward some of the experiences of the World Gathering of Young Friends. The gathering is close to breaking even financially. The planning group have done a lot of work arranging practicalities including visas, and have been helped by Spanish Friends. We thank them for their work and wish them every success for a rewarding event.

CC06/03 Spring Gathering Bursaries

Anneke updated us on the requests for bursaries for Spring Gathering 2006. Six Young Friends have applied for bursary help. We agree to cover all the travel and accommodation costs required for four of these Young Friends to attend, after they have contributed what they are able to. This includes any costs (such as notaries) which are required to obtain visas. We will offer to pay the travel costs of the other two Young Friends, but suggest the possibility of YFGM funding some of these costs.

We expect the total bursaries to add up to €2000. While this is over the €1000 budgeted for Spring Gathering travel in 2006, we are excited that there is enthusiasm to attend Spring Gathering 2006, and will use some of the money budgeted for outreach travel for this purpose.

CC06/04 Imagine Peace Workshop

We have heard about a workshop entitled ‘Imagine Peace’ which was organised from 28 December 2005 – 2 January 2006 in Vienna. The workshop was organised by Austrian Friends for Young Friends from Europe, and celebrated the hundredth anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Bertha von Suttner. The aim was to explore what peace itself is, rather than to focus on the absence of war, and to use a creative, imaginative and artistic approach to explore the topic. We have heard some feedback from Friends who participated.

We have been asked to help financially support the gathering. We have agreed to offer €400 from the Dina van Dalfsen legacy to help the costs of this gathering. We ask Charlotte to contact David Gee, who is looking after the Dina van Dalfsen fund, to arrange for this transfer. We ask Jalka to provide us with a written report of the Imagine Peace project.

CC06/05 Workshop at Annual Meeting 2006

We have discussed feedback from the workshop organised at Annual Meeting 2005, which was very enjoyable and interesting. We also know that outreach is a concern to many Young Friends. We have decided to invite Steve Cappelman from Friends House London to run a workshop at Annual Meeting 2006. Rachel will coordinate this. Annual Meeting 2006 will take place from 17-19 November in Bad Pyrmont, Germany.

CC06/06 World Gathering of Young Friends

Europe and Middle East Section (EMES) will discuss feedback from the World Gathering of Young Friends at their Spring Meeting in Dunblane, Scotland, from 20-23 April 2006. Aidan McCartney, our representative on EMES Executive Committee, will be at that meeting. We will ask Emily Ross if she is available to work with Aidan to feed back to this meeting. We agree to cover the costs of travel to Dunblane and accommodation for one night if required.

CC06/07 QCEA Representation

We have discussed the role of EMEYF’s representative on the Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) Council. simon gray will be ending his appointment at Annual Meeting this year. We feel that, if we can find a suitable replacement for simon, there is a continuing potential for this to be a useful role. We would like to see Young Friends having a greater input into QCEA’s programme. A partnership between the secretary and the representative will increase the amount of outreach which can be done and we would encourage the new secretary and representative to work out a means of achieving this. Initially, we will ask simon and Matt Taylor, who will replace Charlotte as secretary, to talk about how this might best proceed, and ask them to think creatively of ways to achieve this broader input of ideas. We feel it is also important that the representative should maintain contact with EMEYF by attending Spring Gathering, Communications Committee, or Annual Meeting. We ask Paul to contact people who we think might be interested in becoming the new EMEYF representative on the QCEA Council.

CC06/08 Annual Report 2005

We have read a report of EMEYF’s activities in 2006 which will be submitted to EMES. We have also discussed the compilation of our annual report booklet. Charlotte will ask Matt to produce this and to send it out once he starts work as our secretary. Everyone who writes a section for this is asked to send it to Rachel as soon as possible.

CC06/09 Treasurer’s Report

We have heard from Jonathan, Karl and Charlotte who have been working on the accounts for 2005. These have not yet been examined. The donations from EMES and YFGM for 2005 had not been received by the end of the year. Once these have been accounted for, we expect that our deficit for the year was about €2400, of which €2000 was a one off donation to the World Gathering of Young Friends. We ask Jonathan, Charlotte and Karl to finalise these accounts and get them examined as soon as possible, and thank them for their work and for presenting us with a clear picture of our financial situation.

CC06/10 Budget 2006

We have looked again at the budget for 2006. We have agreed to increase the budget for Spring Gathering travel from €1000 to €2000. We will also budget for a speaker to travel to Annual Meeting to run a workshop, and for a Young Friend to attend EMES Spring Meeting for a day to report on the World Gathering of Young Friends. We note also that the €650 amount budgeted for Spring Gathering Planning Group meeting last year, but not used, has been allocated to this Spring Gathering as a subsidy for accommodation.

CC06/11 Outreach

We have talked about some of the outreach ideas that were discussed at Annual Meeting. In particular, at the moment we feel that an approach to Yearly Meetings is useful, to raise awareness of EMEYF amongst Quakers of all ages. Helen has offered to write an article for Among Friends, and will also try to write to Yearly Meetings in the next month. Anneke will forward Yearly Meeting addresses to Helen.

CC06/12 Under 18s Policy

We have discussed the Under 18s Policy, and the comments made to Annual Meeting about the draft presented at Annual Meeting last year. We recognise that this is an extremely emotional issue, with feelings on it ranging widely. On the one hand, we want to embrace the contribution children and young people make to our community. They should be warmly welcomed as a part of the community present at any event, and we celebrate them and recognise their presence as an asset. On the other hand, it is now widely felt that it is good practice to adopt an Under 18s Policy. Whilst recognising that accidents, abuse, misunderstandings, and disclosures of abuse in everyday life, are very unlikely to occur, we want to be ready to deal with them sensitively and appropriately.

We feel that we are not yet ready to draft an Under 18s Policy, but we have agreed that we need to put in place some temporary guidelines to ensure that EMEYF gatherings are safe in the meantime. These are:

1) Normally EMEYF events are NOT for under 18s. 17 year olds (or exceptionally 16 year olds) are only allowed to attend at the discretion of the planning group in exceptional circumstances.

2) If the planning group decides it’s too difficult to accept a 17 year old participant for logistical reasons, we should try to forward them details of British Junior Yearly Meeting and other gatherings aimed at this age group which they could attend.

3) Parents of young children are responsible for their children at all times but may by agreement delegate direct supervision to another adult of their choice.

Our suggested format for the policy is separate sections dealing with 17 year olds, and with young children whose parents are participating in gatherings. A suggested appendix would pose questions for serious consideration by all Young Friends, which we hope will encourage people to think about their own behaviour and attitudes. In order to draft a policy, we have agreed a series of steps which must be taken, and which form a strategy for taking this issue forwards. In order, these are:

1) Adopt the above temporary guidelines.

2) Draft a series of questions for serious considerations.

3) Draft a policy on young children attending with their parents.

4) Draft a policy on 17 year old participants.

Rachel and Helen have agreed to coordinate this process. We encourage a wide debate on this issue, and urge everyone to contact Rachel or Helen with comments, questions or feedback of any nature. We ask them to report back to Annual Meeting 2006.

CC06/13 Recording Clerk

We have made some progress in finding a recording clerk for Annual Meeting 2006. Paul will confirm this and let us know when one has been found.

CC06/14 Spring Gathering Planning Guidelines

Anneke has discussed some updates to the Spring Gathering planning guidelines. We hope that this will bring them up to date and make the experience of organising gatherings a smooth and enjoyable experience. We thank Anneke for her efforts in this and look forward to future gatherings.

CC06/15 Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust

We have met with Nick Perks of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. They have been making a valuable contribution to our finances by paying for our secretary and office expenses. We thank them for their support which has helped us to get EMEYF onto a steady footing over the past few years. We appreciated the opportunity to strengthen our working relationship with the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.

CC06/16 Closing Minute

This has been a hard working but enjoyable weekend. We have covered a lot of topics and generated a lot of ideas. Each year we see EMEYF progressing and developing, and we welcome this process and are excited to be a part of it. We have heard this weekend how EMEYF can touch people’s lives, and we hope that EMEYF continues to go from strength to strength. We wish everyone a safe journey home and look forward to Spring Gathering in Spain.