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196
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1 *Meeting for Sufferings*
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2
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3 6 February 2021
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4
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5 Henry S. Thompson, SE Scotland AM representative
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6
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7 All the papers for the meeting are available online at
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8
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9 https://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/mfs-2021-02-agenda--papers-package
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10
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11 The minutes and other follow-up material are available from
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12
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13 https://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/meeting-for-sufferings-minutes-follow-up-2021-02
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14
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15 *Report by the Recording Clerk on tabular statement for 2019*
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16
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17 Paul Parker gave an excellent illustrated presentation on the changes
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18 for Britain Yearly Meeting in the numbers of members, attenders, etc.
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19
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20 It's worth noting that the data reported on is all pre-pandemic...
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21
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22 He started with a graph of the whole trajectory of membership from the
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23 late 19th century onward. This showed that we are down by more than half
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24 from our peak in the mid-20th century, to 12,498 in 2019.
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25
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26 There was a net loss of 200 members for the year.
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27
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28 There are 70 Area Meetings, made up of 470 Local Meetings, so one new
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29 member net in every local meeting next year would stop the fall.
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30
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31 Since 2009:
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32 22% of Local Meetings have grown by 10% or more
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33 54% of Local Meetings have shrunk by 10% or more
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34
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35 10% of our Meetings have over 50 members, and account for about 1/3 of
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36 our membership.
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37
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38 Small meetings are more likely to be growing than large meetings.
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39
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40 More than half the meetings which are losing membership are largish,
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41 that is, with 20 or more members.
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42
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43 The national patterns are often seen within individual Area Meetings
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44 [true for SESAM, I think]
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45
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46 Paul pointed out that a simple consequence of the numbers is that
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47 approximately "One in 20 Quakers has to be a Treasurer".
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48
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49 If you're interested in reviewing the numbers yourself, they're online
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50 in the Tabular Statement summary at
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51 https://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/tabular-statement-2019-for-ym-2020,
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52 which also includes one of the graphs from the Recording Clerk's
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53 presentation to Sufferings, which is not available online (yet, it is promised).
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54 His commentary for his presentation at Yearly Meeting in December
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55 2020 _is_ available online:
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56 https://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/tabular-statement-plain-text
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57
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58 There was some comment on the likely effect of GDPR-induced culling,
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59 which our Area Meeting certainly experienced. I noted that we show
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60 _twice_ as many 'terminations' as deaths between 2009 and 2019, in big
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61 contrast to the other Scottish AMs. BYM itself shows 50% _more_
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62 deaths than terminations.
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63
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64 *Report from Trustees*
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65
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66 The financial situation is not great, but we're not in serious trouble
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67 yet. There were 35 voluntary redundancies, with the result that no
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68 non-voluntary redundancies were needed. The vast majority were from
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69 the Quiet Company, which has been hard-hit.
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70
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71 *Reflections on the past year*
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72
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73 We spent time in small groups sharing our Meetings' experiences since
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74 March, drawing some comfort in hearing that most Meetings seem to be
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75 coping, and have coped in similar kinds of successful and
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76 not-so-successful ways.
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77
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78 There's a website at FWCC that offers online Meetings for Worship
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79 around the world, mostly but not entirely from Europe and the US:
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80
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81 http://fwcc.world/kinds-of-friends/online-worship
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82
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83
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