{"id":7772,"date":"2025-05-03T17:30:47","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T21:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/?p=7772"},"modified":"2025-05-08T10:32:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T14:32:58","slug":"falmouth-quarterly-special-called-meeting-may-7-2025-7pm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/?p=7772","title":{"rendered":"Falmouth Quarterly &#8212; Special Called Meeting, May 6, 2025, 7pm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Dear Falmouth Quarter Friends<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>You are invited to a zoom call on\u00a0<strong>5\/6\/25\u00a0at 7PM<\/strong> to discuss two specific concerns that have recently been forwarded to Falmouth Quarter.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The zoom link is here:&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/us02web.zoom.us\/j\/84370714278?pwd%3DmBfQ97SdWZM40f27N839au065FLrcj.1&amp;sa=D&amp;source=calendar&amp;usd=2&amp;usg=AOvVaw3RcG-BtZUYCSJuZGhKLC8d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">zoom link<\/a><em>&nbsp;&nbsp;. We have attached two letters we received.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u00a0<strong>The first from Susan Davies, Clerk of Permanent Board<\/strong>, invites us to attend a Permanent Board Meeting on\u00a0May 10\u00a0in person or on zoom to continue the discernment about how we are called to gather as a yearly meeting &#8211; the current form is becoming difficult to sustain. We are also invited to attend a yet to be scheduled gathering this summer before sessions.\u00a0 What do we want to bring to the 5\/10 Permanent Board meeting?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>The second is a letter sent to us on\u00a0April 12\u00a0from NorthEast Kingdom Monthly Meeting<\/strong> sharing a concern about the decision to have the 2025 sessions at UMass campus in Amherst.\u00a0 The letter was originally sent to the Yearly Meeting in January.\u00a0 How does Falmouth Quarter respond to concerns raised by NE Kingdom?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>With Love,&nbsp;Fritz&nbsp;Weiss, Wendy Schlotterbeck, Mimi Marstaller, Falmouth Quarter<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Letter from the Permanent Board Clerk regarding Sessions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also: Additional materials on Annual Sessions <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/drive\/folders\/1IlE4_M3tCZG4x2Via3hLkLTx1vx_du8I?usp=sharing\">available HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2025-4-24-Dear-Quarterly-Meeting-Leaders.docx.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of 2025-4-24 Dear Quarterly Meeting Leaders.docx.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-edca1911-897f-4c5d-8a99-274d5d46fd70\" href=\"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2025-4-24-Dear-Quarterly-Meeting-Leaders.docx.pdf\">2025-4-24 Dear Quarterly Meeting Leaders.docx<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2025-4-24-Dear-Quarterly-Meeting-Leaders.docx.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-edca1911-897f-4c5d-8a99-274d5d46fd70\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Letter from Northeast Kingdom MM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Letter-from-NEK-MM-to-NE-MMs-1-1.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of Letter from NEK MM to NE MMs.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-1bb96b5a-8c56-4022-8772-856cc7c8a9d8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Letter-from-NEK-MM-to-NE-MMs-1-1.pdf\">Letter from NEK MM to NE MMs<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Letter-from-NEK-MM-to-NE-MMs-1-1.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-1bb96b5a-8c56-4022-8772-856cc7c8a9d8\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Additional Material Provided Via E-Mail Prior to the Called Meeting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Doug Bennett<\/span>, 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.\u00a0  Link:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.umass.edu\/news\/key-issues\/war-gaza\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.umass.edu\/news\/key-issues\/war-gaza<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Kathleen Wooten<\/span>, Lawrence MM:   Dear Friends:  Phil Veatch (rising clerk of NEYM) shared these thoughts in Fresh Pond\u2019s\u00a0public 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.\u00a0 I\u2019m 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)\u00a0\u00a0and it is very tricky.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDear Friends,<br>If I may add some context to the Midcoast letter. After the Yearly Meeting<br>staff had done an extensive search for sites that could host our annual<br>Sessions and found that the Amherst campus of the University of<br>Massachusetts was the only site this year that could meet the many needs of the gathering<br>including much improved handicap access, a group of people from Northeast<br>Kingdom raised the concerns about the treatment of demonstrators the year<br>before. Noah Merrill, the Yearly Meeting Secretary, took these concerns<br>seriously and met with Northeast Kingdom. He desired to work with their<br>concerns and offered many ways to address this problem including: holding<br>education workshops during Sessions, meeting with the University President<br>to work on preventing future such actions, meeting with the campus police,<br>and using the University&#8217;s actions as part of our decision making for<br>future events. What he did not offer was to cancel in-person Sessions for<br>2025- there was no other viable alternate site at that point. The<br>Northeast Kingdom was unable to see the benefit of engaging with the<br>University and working for change. All institutions will, at some point,<br>do harm &#8211; as we Quakers are well aware of from our own history. I do not<br>believe that disengagement from the world is the only, or often the best,<br>way to bring about the peaceable kingdom. As you form your understanding<br>and beliefs about the letter from the Midcoast Friends, I urge you to<br>consider the power of working together with those we most disagree with.<br>The University of Massachusetts is not a monolithic entity. There is much<br>room for engagement to create a better future.<br>Yours in peace,<br>Phil\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Falmouth Quarter Friends You are invited to a zoom call on\u00a05\/6\/25\u00a0at 7PM to discuss two specific concerns that have recently been forwarded to Falmouth Quarter. The zoom link is here:&nbsp;zoom link&nbsp;&nbsp;. We have attached two letters we received.&nbsp; \u00a0The &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/?p=7772\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quarterly-meeting"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9rLvf-21m","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7772"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7799,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7772\/revisions\/7799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}