Meeting for Sufferings: Trustees’ report
‘Racism exists within the Religious Society of Friends in Britain and we must tackle it.'
The first main item of business was the report from Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) trustees. Caroline Nursey, clerk to trustees, told the meeting that trustees spent quite a bit of time on racism, minuting, ‘Racism exists within the Religious Society of Friends in Britain and we must tackle it. This is a hard thing to admit, but recognising the problem is an important step in addressing it.’ Caroline said, ‘We realise that’s a shocking way to start a minute, and it was intentional,’ adding that a lot of work still needs to be done on the issue within BYM. ‘I expect that we are all aware of examples of racism, but those of us who are white often simply don’t realise that things we say, or structures and processes, can inadvertently cause pain’.
Turning to the issue of simplifying and clarifying BYM’s central structures, Caroline said, ‘The relationship between the many charities within the Yearly Meeting is one of the areas of ambiguity’. Safeguarding is a particular area of concern. She asked MfS to consider whether memorandums of understanding (MOU) between BYM trustees and other trustee bodies might be a way forward. Trustees are suggesting setting up a working group to include Area Meeting (AM)trustees to explore this idea. Representatives welcomed this, hoping it would lead to ‘increased communication’. One representative said that MOUs need to be written in ordinary language, and another pointed out that London Meetings already have an MOU with London Quakers Property Trust, which is ‘very helpful’. MfS asked to be kept informed of progress.
Caroline told the meeting that Friends House has closed again until the middle of January at least. Staff who can work from home aredoing so, with the rest on furlough. There have been thirty-one redundancies so far.
Treasurer Linda Batten reported that BYM ended 2019 with a surplus £8.5million ‘and we’ve been very glad of that this year’. In 2020, expenditure is expected to be around £12 million, £2 million less than 2019 but still resulting in a deficit of around £3 million, reducing unrestricted reserves to around £11.5 million. ‘Part of this deficit was planned, but a significant part of it is due to the lack of income from the Quiet company because of the pandemic,’ Linda said. Savings of around thirty per cent will need to be made in order to balance the budget by 2023. The 2021 budget estimates £6.5 million in income, with much less income from the Quiet company and lower donations from Friends and Meetings. Expenditure for 2021 will be £8.5 million, also a sharp decrease but still £2 million more than income. Much of the lower expenditure is due to decreased staffing and travel costs.
Surrey and Hampshire Borders Area Meeting has asked for a review of the relationships and terms of reference of the different ‘central’ bodies including BYM trustees and Meeting for Sufferings, and South London AM sent a minute about ‘transparency of process between central committees and Area Meetings’. A Friend from South London AM said that ‘It sounded today that this is already being taken into account by trustees and by the move to find out how structures interrelate and how members of BYM can feel involved in the important decisions and also in setting priorities’. MfS agreed to send South London’s minute to BYM trustees for consideration.
