Dear Falmouth Quarter Friends

You are invited to a zoom call on 5/6/25 at 7PM to discuss two specific concerns that have recently been forwarded to Falmouth Quarter.

The zoom link is here: zoom link  . We have attached two letters we received. 

 The first from Susan Davies, Clerk of Permanent Board, invites us to attend a Permanent Board Meeting on May 10 in person or on zoom to continue the discernment about how we are called to gather as a yearly meeting – the current form is becoming difficult to sustain. We are also invited to attend a yet to be scheduled gathering this summer before sessions.  What do we want to bring to the 5/10 Permanent Board meeting? 

The second is a letter sent to us on April 12 from NorthEast Kingdom Monthly Meeting sharing a concern about the decision to have the 2025 sessions at UMass campus in Amherst.  The letter was originally sent to the Yearly Meeting in January.  How does Falmouth Quarter respond to concerns raised by NE Kingdom?

With Love, Fritz Weiss, Wendy Schlotterbeck, Mimi Marstaller, Falmouth Quarter

Letter from the Permanent Board Clerk regarding Sessions:

Also: Additional materials on Annual Sessions available HERE.

Letter from Northeast Kingdom MM

Additional Material Provided Via E-Mail Prior to the Called Meeting

From Doug Bennett, Durham MM: If we are to discuss the incident at U Mass Amherst, i think it would be useful to have available materials made available by the university as well, including the external review they had conducted.  Link: https://www.umass.edu/news/key-issues/war-gaza

From Kathleen Wooten, Lawrence MM: Dear Friends: Phil Veatch (rising clerk of NEYM) shared these thoughts in Fresh Pond’s public newsfeed and it seems okay to share them here (below). I have no official knowledge of anything else but I am aware of how incredibly difficult it is for us to even find any location that can accommodate our needs. I hope we can keep listening for what is called for at this time.  I’m also a graduate of UMass Amherst and have some background knowledge of their process in interacting with the community and local police, (having lived there a number of years)  and it is very tricky. 

“Dear Friends,
If I may add some context to the Midcoast letter. After the Yearly Meeting
staff had done an extensive search for sites that could host our annual
Sessions and found that the Amherst campus of the University of
Massachusetts was the only site this year that could meet the many needs of the gathering
including much improved handicap access, a group of people from Northeast
Kingdom raised the concerns about the treatment of demonstrators the year
before. Noah Merrill, the Yearly Meeting Secretary, took these concerns
seriously and met with Northeast Kingdom. He desired to work with their
concerns and offered many ways to address this problem including: holding
education workshops during Sessions, meeting with the University President
to work on preventing future such actions, meeting with the campus police,
and using the University’s actions as part of our decision making for
future events. What he did not offer was to cancel in-person Sessions for
2025- there was no other viable alternate site at that point. The
Northeast Kingdom was unable to see the benefit of engaging with the
University and working for change. All institutions will, at some point,
do harm – as we Quakers are well aware of from our own history. I do not
believe that disengagement from the world is the only, or often the best,
way to bring about the peaceable kingdom. As you form your understanding
and beliefs about the letter from the Midcoast Friends, I urge you to
consider the power of working together with those we most disagree with.
The University of Massachusetts is not a monolithic entity. There is much
room for engagement to create a better future.
Yours in peace,
Phil”