is assessing the effects of changing our annual meeting from January to July and whether future changes should be considered.
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Right Holding of Yearly Meeting Committee
Purpose
YM18 amended the terms of reference for this Committee:
Engagement
Actively seek input from Friends across Australia in a variety of ways (including workshops and surveys) about:
a. the purpose and future of Yearly Meeting gatherings
b. ideas about alternative models
c. current challenges
Data
Collate and discern the relevance of information about the practices of some other comparable Quaker gatherings Testing and further discernment
Develop alternative models which may suit Australia Yearly Meeting better than our present practices. This would include:
a. The conduct of business of the Society, including using electronic methods
b. The timing, regularity, format and location of Australia Yearly Meeting gatherings
c. The conduct of trials and pilot programs of some systems or processes.
Reporting
Report findings and progress to Standing Committee and Yearly Meeting.
The committee has been considering these questions and talking with others within our Yearly Meeting to find out more about the impact of the our change of date of our annual Yearly Meeting, and to scope other changes which Friends may wish to implement.
This is where we are now: Where are we now summary_Right holding of Yearly Meeting_Sep2019_ver3.pdf . Please read this before attending our webinar on Thursday 28 November 2019.
Our thoughts in more detail: Background paper Nov19.pdf. It would be helpful if you also read this prior to the webinar.
Consultation
- Many Friends contributed their ideas at Regional Meeting workshops in the 2018-19 Quaker year, and from YM18. All RM responses have been collated into a 'matrix', which has enabled the committee to draw out themes from Friends across Australia. Please view the matrix here Revised Matrix from Summary 16042019.pdf
- The report from the YM19 Friendly School is here: Right Holding of Yearly Meeting Friendly School 7.7.19.pdf
- Butchers paper from the YM19 Friendly Group open discussions is here: RHYM Friendly groups YM19.pdf
- Summary (read this one): all these ideas have been captured for the YM19 Preparatory Session: RHYM prep session YM19.pdf
- Final discernment from YM19 is captured in Documents in Retrospect (sign-in needed): https://www.quakersaustralia.info/documents-advance-documents-retrospect pp. 65-67
We anticipate holding more workshops to collate Friends' views on our suggestions over the coming year 2019-2020. We hope to be able to bring final recommendations to YM20.