Meeting for Sufferings: Trustees report
Britain Yearly Meeting trustees reported to Meeting for Sufferings
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) treasurer Linda Batten introduced the budget for 2020. ‘Quakers matter, and the work that Quakers do matter,’ but membership is decreasing and so income is falling. ‘There is no magic money tree,’ she said, so it is important to both manage the work that is done and look at how to raise the funds needed to do the work Friends want done.
She noted that it is a deficit budget ‘as expected’, committing £1.29 million of reserves to several projects, including additional planned expenditure on support for Quaker Meetings and communities. There will also be further capital expenditure for Swarthmoor Hall and for improving IT systems. She said that trustees feel able to lower reserves at this time as an investment in the future.
The operational budget foresees expenditures of £14.67 million, with the expected deficit being £1.29 million. Trustees minuted: ‘The current level of our reserves is adequate for this purpose and will be drawn down until they have a level equivalent to not less than three months’ expenditure.’
Linda Batten noted that the companies that BYM’s funds are invested in produce only 78 tonnes of carbon per £1 million invested compared with the FTSE 350, which produce 217 tonnes of carbon per £1 million.
Caroline Nursey, clerk of BYM trustees, said they were focused on the climate crisis, spiritual nurture and learning. Following a decision not to designate any further monies to the legacy-funded projects fund, she said that the last project it will fund is ‘Climate crisis – spiritual nurture and learning’. Trustees feel that it is better to include legacies within the main budget, but this project was approved because ‘it was already in the system but also because it is so central to our priorities. The project responds to a gap that you as MfS have discerned in our work, and that is around sustainability’.
Caroline Nursey said that Woodbrooke would be commissioned to do much of this work, which aims to ‘strengthen and deepen our understanding of why and how we are led to live up to our corporate commitment to sustainability. In other words, how can we get better at articulating the spiritual basis for our commitment to sustainability’. It will also look at how to provide greater support for Friends who are wishing to lower their carbon footprint.
One Friend noted the connection between this work and the Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) project discussed in the morning, hoping that they would be seen as mutually supportive.
Another Friend spoke about the need to be aware of what Friends around the world are doing on sustainability, and integrating that work.
A Friend urged that the project be ‘highly responsive’ given the climate emergency, and how fast things change.
MfS thanked trustees for their report.
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