Budget Process For Financial Support Of Attendance At Quaker And Other Spiritually Nurturing Events (9/2006)

From the minutes of the meeting for worship with a concern for business, 9/3/2006:

In the spirit of spiritual hospitality, our meeting provides funds to help pay for attendance by active participants of our meeting at a variety of events that would nurture their spiritual growth and enrich the life of the meeting.

Nurturing the life of the meeting is the responsibility of all participants in the meeting and particularly members of committees. Promoting attendance at spiritually enriching events is one way to do that. We ask Friends to be alert to events that could be especially enriching and to identify people who could be enriched by them. The more we anticipate these opportunities the more we can be sure to budget sufficient funds and encourage participation.

Our annual budget process is one opportunity to think about and plan for how many Friends we would like to sponsor for which events. Anticipating such opportunities through our budget process would help us to sustain our awareness of these opportunities and our desire to encourage attendance. Using the budget process in this way is not intended to set absolute limits on funds the meeting will provide; the meeting can modify the budget at any time during the year.

Examples of such events include:

a. BYM summer camps;
b. BYM Annual Sessions (including youth programs);
c. Other BYM-sponsored events, such as the Women’s Retreat and conferences for Young Friends (high school), Junior Young Friends (junior high school), or Young Adult Friends (roughly 18-35);
d. The Annual Gathering of Friends General Conference (FGC);
e. The mid-winter gathering of Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Concerns (FLGBTQC);
f. Pendle Hill and other Quaker retreats and workshops;
g. Board Meetings of Quaker Organizations.

Budget Process for Scholarships

1. Each committee will identify events at which it would like to encourage attendance and how many people it would like to support for each. Committees are encouraged to consider which individuals to sponsor for each event, though no commitment is expected at this time.
2. Each committee will itemize in its budget request an estimate of the amount required for those events and include a list of those events.
3. The treasurer will pull together these estimates in determining the proposed budget item for scholarships. The treasurer will also provide a list of the events proposed by the committees.