FMW Newsletter - December 2021

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Published monthly – Issue #91–12

TABLE OF CONTENTS

MEETINGS FOR WORSHIP
12th Query: The Environment
News
-In Memoriam: Rebecca del Carmen-Wiggins
-FMW’s November 7 Community Celebration & Open House
-How to View & Order Photos from Nov 7 Open House
-Climate Report out from COP26
-New Book: How Agent Provocateurs Harm Our Movements
-WIN doubles down on Affordable, Green Housing
-In Memoriam: Ricky Didisheim
-Scattergood Quaker Motto Calendars
Events
Thinking about Race
FMW’s Community Directory
Minutes, FMW November 2021 Meeting for Business
Clerk’s Report, November 2021
Major Business
-Nominating Committee
-Hunger & Homelessness Taskforce
-Capital budget item
-Proposal to Reassign Child Safety functions
Other Business
-Native Land acknowledgement proposal
ADDENDA
-FMW Rental Report
-Hunger and Homelessness Taskforce Report (FY22 to date)

DECEMBER 2021
MEETINGS FOR WORSHIP ~ ALL ARE WELCOME

- Sundays:  9:00 - 10:00 am;  10:30-11:30 am;  6:00-7:00 pm
- Tuesdays:  6:00 - 7:00 pm
- Monthly Meeting for Business:  12:15 pm December 12 (2nd Sunday)
- Special Christmas Eve worship & caroling:  3:00 pm December 24

Sunday 10:30 Meeting for Worship has resumed in-person, now indoors.  
Please register here.  Masks required and vaccination lovingly expected.
Meetings for worship are being held via Zoom.  Join here.For more information, email admin@QuakersDC.org.

12th Query:  The Environment 

Are you concerned for responsible use of natural resources and their nurture for future generations? Do you try to avoid wasteful consumption and pollution? Do you seek to preserve the beauty and balance of God's world?  (See: Humankind and the Environment; Civic Responsibility)  Source:  BYM Faith & Practice, Part II The Queries

News

In Memoriam:  Rebecca del Carmen-Wiggins

FMW’s beloved member, Rebecca Wiggins, died suddenly on the evening of Thursday, December 2. All are invited to her memorial service this Saturday, December 11, at 4:00 pm at the Meeting House or via zoom.  The internment will take place earlier that day at Parklawn Memorial Park in Rockville. Cars must be lined up there by 1:00 pm. Join on Zoom. By phone dial: (301) 715-8592.  Enter Meeting ID 8389 8800 356#.  (Passcode: 060853) 
For more info contact Dan Dozier: Dozier.Dan@gmail.com, cell: (301) 922-2704
Rebecca's Wix Site-for sharing memories & photos

FMW’s Community Celebration & Open House - November 7

Jenifer Morris took beautiful family portraits and Basil Kwan took great event photos.  Thanks so much to both of you!  Friends can download photos free or order prints at a discount from Jenifer’s site here.  (Password: 2111)  Friends: Please update FMW’s photo wall!

A few highlights:

Our Hospitality Committee and collaborators put out an amazing spread with enough delicious sweets to sink a ship (and some healthy stuff too).

Ministry & Worship members were on hand to answer questions about Quaker Spirituality....and FMW’s Property Property Committee, historian and rentals manager offered tours of FMW’s campus indoors and out--for guests interested in learning more about our Meeting’s history, the renovation and/or renting space for an event.

FMW’s Library Committee and associated book lovers collected and sold an amazing number of books.  Some folks culled their personal libraries.  Others got their holiday shopping done.  And the Library Committee cleared over $500 to improve FMW’s collection.

The kids enjoyed Giant Jenga, Giant Cornhole Beanbag Toss (the littlest preferred putting themselves in the hole) and especially the extra-Giant Soccer Dart games in the upper courtyard--plus Playdough and their own snacks.

The afternoon was also a great chance to show off our work, talk about it and invite others to join in various FMW efforts including Hunger & Homelessness Taskforce’s Shoebox Project (Dec 4-5), Alternatives to Violence Project (AFP), Peace & Social Concerns climate work and Polar Plunge fundraiser (Feb 12), FMW’s partnership with Washington Interfaith Network (WIN)

Climate Report out from COP26: Closer to avoiding Climate Disaster, Still a long way to go

On Sunday, November 21, FMW member and climate scientist Allen Fawcett gave an update on the just concluded Conference of Parties (COP26) negotiations and the status of international efforts to avert catastrophic climate disruption.  In a nutshell:  Climate change-related heat, drought, sea-level rise and weather events are already devastating ecosystems, wiping out animal species and putting human communities in peril.  Climate disruption will become more extreme for at least the next 20 years.  But emissions reductions the world has made since the Paris agreement in 2016 have moved the needle!  Before, the world was headed for a mean temperature rise of over 4 degrees Celsius.  We are now on track for average warming of just over 2 degrees C --not yet the goal of keeping temperatures to below 2 degrees or (much safer) closer to 1.5 degrees C.  But international emissions reduction efforts have made a difference, and every fraction of a degree counts!  Every tiny bit of emissions reduction and warming averted means ecosystems that may survive, land mass not flooded, and species saved from extinction.   The November 21 update was organized by FMW’s Committee on Peace & Social Concerns.

Allen is Chief of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Economics Branch, which is responsible for developing and applying EPA’s economic models for domestic and international climate change policy analyses.  Allen has done extensive work on international climate negotiations, including collaborations with the U.S. State Department and White House ahead of the Paris negotiations leading to the influential paper, “Can Paris pledges avert severe climate change?”, serving on the U.S. delegation to the 48th Session of the IPCC for the approval of the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5oC, and publishing a follow up to his 2015 Science paper ahead of COP-26 in Glasgow “Can updated climate pledges limit warming well below 2°C?”.

New Book:  How Agent Provocateurs Harm Our Movements

From Abolition to the Civil Rights movement, anti-Vietnam (and every other war), women’s rights, gay rights, immigrant rights, Black Lives Matter, campaigns for corporate accountability and to protect the planet, Quakers have contributed many practitioners and scholars to nonviolent social movements for justice.  Now, FMW member Steve Chase has made a new contribution.  How Agent Provocateurs Harm Our Movements summarizes important studies showing that movements are more likely to suc­ceed when they maintain non­violent discipline, and that movement opponents use agent provocateurs—fake activists work­ing undercover—to behave in counterproductive ways that undermine the unity, strategic planning, discipline and broad participation that are key to movement success.  Chase draws lessons from the U.S. Black liberation movement and international case examples to explore concretely how agent provocateurs (and sometimes agent provoca­teur-like behavior) make movements smaller, weaker, and easier to de­feat. The book also offers some ideas for how activists can inoculate their movements against these harms and increase their chances of success.  How Agent Provocateurs Harm Our Movements (45 pages) is published by ICNC press. It is available for free download.  Paper copies and e-book format can be ordered here.  

Washington Interfaith Network doubles down on Affordable, Green Housing

WIN is in the process of developing a new campaign to build Black Equity Through Home Ownership.  On November 16, the “BETH” campaign brought together over 90 WIN leaders and faith-based activists to discuss the importance of integrating green energy into WIN plans for increasing Black home ownership and affordable housing in the District.  FMW member Barbara Briggs helped to present the case:  We know that in order to meet our climate commitments, DC must stop burning fossil fuels.  We also know that using gas-burning appliances inside our homes results in worse indoor air quality, as gas burned emits nitrogen dioxide (a pulmonary irritant) along with fine particulate matter (soot) and other pollutants that aggravate asthma, COPD and a host of other illnesses (many of which are more prevalent in low income communities.)  So as we demand support for Black home ownership and more affordable housing, it is critical that we make sure that these are good homes, homes that will support the health of families--as well as being energy efficient, climate resilient and constructed in alignment with what the District will have to do to meet our climate goals. That is, we must assure that new homes include highly efficient electric appliances that are, increasingly, run using renewable energy sources.  

In a final call to action, Reverence William Lamar IV of Metropolitan AME church summed things up like this: “Those of us who worship in congregations turn out our worshiping congregation almost every week for the work of mercy that is the work of corporate worship.  We need to turn our congregation out at least two or three times per year for the work of justice.  ..The last thing I want anyone to do, leaving here tonight, is to believe that the way the world is constructed, the way DC is constructed is the way it has to be.  It is most certainly not what God wills, and it should not be what we will for one another.  So I want to announce tonight that the Building Black Equity Through Wealth and Home Ownership campaign is committed to building green housing.  We are committed to helping Black families and marginalized communities here in Washington gain access to safe, efficient and affordable green housing.  That is the vision.  But to make it happen, it will take power.”

FMW’s WIN Team looks forward to helping Friends Meeting of Washington make a strong contribution to WIN’s campaigns for affordable green housing and Black Equity through Home Ownership in 2022.  For more information and to join these efforts, contact Beth Cogswell, Elaine Wilson or any of the WIN Core team. (BethCogswell8@gmail.com, ElaineSWils@gmail.com )

In Memoriam: Ricky Didisheim

Ricarda Didisheim died peacefully in her home on November 4, 2021. She was surrounded by family in her last days. Ricarda was born in Munich, Germany in 1929. She escaped Nazi Germany for Baltimore, MD with her parents and sister, Sibylle Barlow, in 1936. She received a BA from Goucher College and her MD from Johns Hopkins University. During medical school, she met and married her classmate, Paul Didisheim. She was one of only four women in her medical school class of almost 100. Ricarda and Paul pursued their medical careers in Durham, NC; Pittsburgh, PA; Salt Lake City, UT; Rochester, MN; and Maryland. She specialized in Pediatrics and Adult Psychiatry. She was a role model as a woman physician and a life-long Quaker. She was also a role model in life, with tremendous resilience, determination, generosity, and joy in everything that she did. She will be missed dearly and lives on in our hearts. She leaves behind her loving husband, Paul Didisheim; three children, Melinda Jawadekar, Pete Didisheim, and Andrea Didisheim; sons-in-law, Mak Jawadekar and Evan Yassky; daughter-in-law, Leslie Hunt; six grandchildren, Emily Jawadekar, Neal Jawadekar (wife, Kerri Jawadekar), Matthew Didisheim, Evan Didisheim, Isaac Yassky, and Leah Yassky; and great-granddaughter, Olivia Jawadekar. A memorial will be held in the Spring.

Published by The Washington Post from Nov. 14 to Nov. 15, 2021.

Events

Shoebox (now Backpack!) Project, December 4 & 5 at FMW
This year we will assemble over 1,400 Christmas gifts--backpacks with warm hats, gloves, socks, practical items (and kids’ books) for our neighbors who find themselves homeless this holiday season. Please sign up here for time slots on Saturday afternoon and Sunday.  Lots of hands are needed, and team captains too.  Drivers will also be needed to take the gifts to area shelters next week. 

 Kenyan Crafts Sale, December 5, Rise of Meeting at FMW
Every year Friend Jean Smith brings beautiful crafts from the cooperative of Kenyan women artisans she supports.  Proceeds from Kuwesa crafts provide an income for the women and are used to support projects like clean water and schools in their communities.

Quaker Spiritual Development Programs - Full schedule for December 2021.

Pendle Hill lecture: Holiness of Darkness, Dec 6, 2021 -7:30pm via Zoom
A first Monday lecture, with song and meditation led by Reverend Rhetta Morgan, singing healer, spiritual activist, and interfaith minister.  On the eve of the season of solstice, a creative exploration of the dark as a home of awe and wonder, how language of darkness can become imbued with bias and limitation, and how we can move toward holding the dark as holy.  Free. More info and Registration (required).

BYM Advance Info Session, Dec 4 9am and Called Interim Meeting, December 11, 10am
These meetings are to discuss revisions to Baltimore Yearly Meeting’s 2022 Camping Program budget and several one-time, special expenditures.  Register here.  Agendas will be sent out on Nov 29. 

Christmas Eve Caroling, Worship and Celebration, December 24, 3:00 pm
Because of Covid, we again cannot hold our traditional Christmas Eve Potluck “as always”...That's the bad news. The good news is that we can and will come together in person. Here's the plan for Friday, December 24:
     - 3:00 pm - Christmas Carol Sing in the West Garden
     - 3:30 to 4:30 pm - Meeting for Worship in the Meeting Room
     - 4:30 to 5:00 - hot chocolate downstairs in the West Garden
Cookie donations will be much appreciated, as you are led.
Masks and vaccinations are lovingly expected.     Merry Christmas!

BYM Women’s Retreat, February 5, 2022
The Baltimore Yearly Meeting Women’s Retreat is an annual event for Quakers in this area. This year it will be online via Zoom from 10:00 am to noon on Saturday, February 5. Its purpose is to provide refreshment and spiritual insight to BYM women so that they may grow in the Spirit. In recent years, more than 100 women have attended each year. Learn more and to register here.

SAVE DATE:  WIN Affordable Housing Rally, Fort Reno, January 23, 3:00 pm
Washington Interfaith Network is building a campaign that Ward 3 (the Districts’s wealthiest, and whitest Ward) provide its fair share of affordable housing rally to demand affordable housing, in particular for those who work in Ward 3 but are unable to afford to live there. One possible location for new affordable housing construction would be Fort Reno, once the site of a thriving African-American community which was displaced in the 1930 to make way for a park and school for white families moving into the area. 

Thinking about Race, December 2021
My Grandmother’s Hands

The 2017 book My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem is being widely read in Quaker circles.  Its subtitle is “Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Minds.”  Each of its 24 chapters contains exercises to help with the mending.  These passages are from chapter 20, “Cultural Healing for African Americans.”

“Practice and teach the art of disruptive healing.  Genuine healing is a temporarily disruptive process.  This is true not only for individual bodies, but for the collective Black body—and the collective American body—as well.  Just as the human body creates inflammation to health, wise social activism creates the social and cultural disruptions needed to help a culture heal and grow up.  These disruptions might also be called compassionate agitation.

….“It’s often said that Americans care little about history.  ‘That’s in the past,’ white Americans often say.  ‘Let’s focus on the here and now—or, better yet, on the future.’  This is just another dodge created by white-body supremacy.  It is yet another attempt to avoid growing up and healing from racialized trauma. History matters, and an awareness of it puts our lives into a context.  A disdain for history sets us adrift, and makes us victims of ignorance and denial.  History lives in and through our bodies right now, and in every moment.”

This column is prepared by the BYM Working Group on Racism (WGR) and sent to the designated liaison at each local Meeting.  The BYM WGR meets most months on the first Saturday, 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, currently via Zoom.  If you would like to attend, contact the clerk at david.etheridge@verizon.net. 

Resources on FMW’s Website www.QuakersDC.org 

FMW’s Community Directory is a listing of our members, attenders and families.  It can be accessed by clicking the “Meeting Directory” quick link in the left column of the home page and using the password “Discern”.  This is a great way to contact folks you met on Sunday and want to follow up with.  If you are not in the directory, please send your contact info (name, email, phone, street address, family members and their birthdays (which is how the system knows if someone if 6 or 66) to admin@QuakersDC.org.  Questions?--call: 202-483-3310.

Minutes, FMW November Meeting for Business

Friends Meeting of Washington
Monthly Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business
Minutes, November 14, 2021

The meeting began around 12:20 with 21 Friends in attendance.

Query for Worship Sharing: What does it mean to welcome those who come through our doors?

Clerk’s Report, November 2021

In Memoriam

• Richarda (Ricky) Didisheim died peacefully at home on the morning of Thursday, November 4.
• Molly Tully died peacefully on Wednesday night, November 3. Grant Thompson will write the memorial minute.

Upcoming Events

• Building Black Equity through Home Ownership: Why Green Policy Matters
  November 16, 7:00 pm.  Washington Interfaith Network’s important new campaign aims to support home ownership for Black families (who have been dispossessed and prevented from accumulating family wealth for generations).  How can this effort be strengthened by assuring that these homes are powered by clean, renewable energy sources, and healthy for the families that live in them?   Moderators: Rev Andre Green (Varick Memorial AME) and William Lamar (Metropolitan AME) Presenters: Barbara Briggs (FMW), Sidra Siddiqui (WIN).  Register here.
• FMW Climate Event: Report back on COP 26, Sunday, Nov 21, 12:15 (in Quaker House or join on Zoom.  By phone dial:  (301) 715-8592.  Enter Meeting ID: 8195 4504 207#   FMW member Allen Fawcett, director of EPA’s Climate Economics division, will report on climate and the UN’s COP 26 international climate policy negotiations. 
• Meeting for Worship, Thanksgiving Day A worship meeting will be held at noon in the Library. All are welcome.
• Shoebox Project at FMW, December 4-5:  Preparing gifts for 1,000 DC neighbors who are homeless this Christmas. Stay tuned for details.
• Kenyan Crafts Sale, December 5:  An FMW holiday tradition brought to us by Friend Jean Smith, working with a cooperative of women artisans who use income from their beautiful creations to support their families and village development projects.

    From Pendle Hill:

• Jesus at Christmas: Story, Stone, Evolution, Nov 18, Dec 2, 9 & 16, 2021
  A 4-week Pendle Hill virtual lecture series with John Dominic Crossan. For more info and to register.
• Friends Decision-Making and Clerking: Participating in Meetings for Business with Joy and Confidence, Nov 19-21, 2021 via Zoom.  This weekend workshop led by Steve Mohlke is an opportunity for new and experienced clerks to think together about the role of presiding clerk. Expect to leave the weekend with new energy, and better-grounded in the theoretical and practical aspects of clerking. More info & Register.

FMW Community Highlights & Kudos

• Last Sunday’s Open House felt particularly joyous after nearly 2 years of pandemic isolation.  Over 200 attended between FMW community members and many guests.  FMW’s spirituality, social justice projects and building got great visibility.  Book sale-$500 for Library.  Honey sale-$200 for the Meeting.  Coat Drive: 58 coats for our vulnerable neighbors.  Jenifer Morris and Basic Kwan’s event photos and family portraits will be available soon.  

Tenant Updates- Activities at our Meeting House

• See attached report. We have already earned $103,909.60 in just the first four months of FY22. We have already exceeded the income from event rentals that we had budgeted for in FY22 ($100,000). 

Major Business

Nominating Committee - Virginia Avanesyan

• Grant Thompson, Assistant Treasurer, to June 30, 2022.  Friends approve this nomination.
• Greg Robb, Clerk, Hospitality, to June 30, 2022. Friends approve this nomination.
• Bill Parker resigning both as clerk and member of Hospitality. Friends accept this resignation.
• Joe D’Antonio is resigning from Ministry & Worship. Friends accept this resignation.
• Chris Kearns McCoy resigning from Personnel. Friends accept this resignation.

Hunger & Homelessness Taskforce - C.J. Lewis 

The Hunger & Homelessness Taskforce has specific programs and is looking for additional members to be involved.  The Taskforce does not formally meet, aside from meeting for specific programs serving the poor. 

One Friend noted that the younger members are interested and would benefit from being more involved in these programs.  

One Friend noted that Grate Patrol is a great opportunity for children as young as five.  The Friend also noted that middle and high-school students in DC Public Schools are required to do community service.  This could be a valuable way to engage these students.

One Friend noted that a young man named Carter attended Meeting recently and was interested in service to the poor and would provide his contact information after MfB.

Friends approved this Report.

Capital budget item from Property Committee - presented by Finance & Stewardship - Grant Thompson

The capital budget is for additions to our real property outside of the recent Meeting-House renovation and is not paid for by the mortgage.  The responsibility for the capital budget starts with the Property Committee and moves to Finance.  Work related to the capital budget has been overwhelmed by the recent Meeting House renovations.  

Finance & Stewardship is asking the Meeting to approve ongoing and future capital expenditures for the North Room renovations.  The Clerk apologized for the delayed request to Meeting for approval of these expenditures.  The renovations include a new storage space and new duct work, and the range of proposed and ongoing work is $15,000 to $30,000.  The construction is being done in-house, led by Ken Orvis.  The North Room doesn’t have two forms of egress, and cannot be rented as a standalone space, but could be rented out as an additional break-out room for meetings in the Assembly Room.  The renovations would increase the rental value marginally.   

The Committee could do a minimal job for less money ($15,000), the work for which has already been or is nearly completed.  Alternatively, the Committee could refinish the flooring and make the space generally more attractive for an additional $15,000 ($30,000 in total).  Property Committee prefers to have Meeting approve the additional $15,000 (total $30,000).  

One Friend noted that from an accounting perspective, there is a separate budget for this capital project (and other capital projects) because the capital improvements enhance the property’s value, as opposed to regular expenses.  The Friend also noted that renovations are easier to complete now given the COVID-pandemic and less foot traffic in the Meeting House.  

There are two requests before the Meeting: (1) retroactively approve the $15,000 from the property reserve for funds already spent to renovate the North Room; (2) and approve an additional $15,000 ($30,000 total) from the property reserves to further renovate the room.

Friends approve these requests.

Child Safety functions: proposal to reassign them to designees within Trustees, Personnel, and RE and lay down the separate committee 

Ensuring the safety of children is paramount.  Child safety has traditionally been focused on having adults supervise children and having additional supervision of those adults.  The Child Safety Committee produced a document (in consultation with insurers) for child safety operations, training, and oversight.  An ongoing provision of child safety is to ensure that our adult volunteers are appropriately vetted with background checks.  The current proposal is for Trustees to designate a person on Trustees, who will be given the official responsibility to periodically review how well the Meeting is complying with the Child Safety protocols.  The designee from Trustees is also responsible to update the protocols in consultation with our insurer.  Religious Education will also designate a Member of that Committee to be the expert of the protocols.  Personnel will also have a designee to make sure that we have a database for who our background checked volunteers are.  

One Friend noted that we should update the Child Safety Policy to be a reference on how the three designees in the three committees should act and make decisions.  The Meeting for Business needs to decide if the Committee should be laid down before the official Policy is updated.  The Policy currently states that decisions are made by the Child Safety Committee and that needs to be updated.

One Friend noted that it would be appropriate for the Meeting to approve the laying down of the Committee subject to revision of the Policy.  The approval of the Policy revisions would then come later.  At some time before the Committee is laid down, they would also need to revise the Handbook (separate from the Child Safety Policy).  

One Friend noted that Religious Education is very happy with what has been proposed.  Religious Education and Trustees will work together to update the list of background-checked volunteers, as well as make formal revisions to the Child Safety Policy and Handbook, and will make those changes by the first Trustees meeting in January 2022 (ordinarily, the first or second Sunday of January). 

Friends approve replacing the current standalone Child Safety Committee with designees from Trustees, RE, and Personnel, subject to updates in the Child Safety Policy and the Handbook.

Various annual reports postponed, including Peace & Social Concerns, Marriage & Family, and the State of the Staff report.

Other Business

Native Land acknowledgement proposal - Steve Chase et al., Peace & Social Concerns   

Peace & Social Concerns attended a workshop relating to the difficult and painful history of colonialism and its impact on Native Americans in this area.  Peace & Social Concerns developed land acknowledgement language below and propose that the Meeting adopt this language.  The proposal is to place the language on FMW’s website and to perhaps place a banner on the property.

- Peace and Social Concerns proposes that we adopt the following…

Friends Meeting of Washington acknowledges with humility that the land where our Meeting House sits and where we worship together, is on the territory of the Nacotchtank people, for whom the Anacostia River is named. The Nacotchtank lived in a thriving, fortified settlement, based on agriculture, hunting, and trade. As white colonists moved in, bringing with them violence and European diseases, the Nacotchtank people moved briefly to Anacostine Island, now called Theodore Roosevelt Island. As conditions worsened, many Nacotchtank people died or migrated to Canada, and a few joined the Piscataway tribe in Maryland.

One Friend suggested that a plaque (with just the first sentence) may work better than a banner outside.  Peace & Social concerns agreed that the plaque could be a good idea.  

One Friend asked whether the term “Anocostine Island” is accurate.  P&SC said they will verify all the historical facts and terms before finalizing and publishing the language.

Religious Education noted that First Day School will soon be discussing the history of indigious people and specifically indiginous people that lived on FMW’s current location.

At this point, the Committee is asking for Friends to agree that our Meeting should adopt this language and make it publicly available.  

Friends approved this language.

ADDENDA: ATTACHED COMMITTEE REPORTS

FMW Rental Report

Prepared by Brian Lutenegger, Event and Rental Manager
eventspace@quakersdc.org or 202-483-3310 / 734-255-6829

October 2021

Financials – FY22 Bookings

Here is a breakdown of where we are in terms of event rental bookings for recent past and future fiscal years as of October 31, 2021.

 

 

In October 2021, we booked $16,922 in events and $151,190 so far this fiscal year.

Also, as noted above we have already booked more than $9,400 in events for FY23 that will begin next year on July 1st.

Our fiscal year runs from July 1 to the following June 30th.

Financials – FY22 Earned

In October, we earned $23,783.74 for events successfully completed. We have already earned $103,909.60 in just the first four months of FY22. We have already exceeded the income from event rentals that we had budgeted for in FY22 ($100,000).

Other Events

Social and other events in October 2021 included:

• Two Jewish communities holding regular services in our gardens
• Two wedding welcome dinners
• Multiple baby and bridal showers as well as other parties
• Office retreats, workshops and staff meetings
• Small weddings
• Memorial services
• Business and nonprofit meetings / staff retreats
• Eight days of film shoots

Office Space Rentals

No changes in office tenants this month.

Opportunities for the FMW community to help with rentals

Please think about whether your employer, an organization whose board you sit on – or even yourself for a special event – might be able to make use of our event rental spaces. Of course, at least for now, these events would need to be kept small and happen safely.

If you have ideas for content that we can post on Facebook and Instagram that might be of interest to a wide (not necessarily Quaker) audience, I am happy to consider.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fmw.event.venue/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/friendsmeetingofwashington/

Hunger and Homelessness Taskforce Report (FY22 to date)

Fiscal year 2021 ended in June of 2021. I am reporting on FY 2022.

The Hunger and Homelessness Task Force's participation in the Grate Patrol and Christ House programs have been on hiatus for the last year and a half.

FMW's donation to So Others Might Eat continues quarterly, and will total $6,175 by the end of FY22.

If and when S.O.M.E. decides to allow volunteers to resume cooking, we need a new lead organizer for this meal program. Tim Schlesinger has decided to step aside. We have found it difficult to continually refresh our supply of new recruits because it requires that volunteers show up at 6:15 AM on a Saturday morning.

Patricia Murphy continues to single-handedly support the Church of the Pilgrim's lunch program the first Sunday of each month. The yearly budget of $480 covers soup and rolls from Zorba's restaurant. Patricia's time is of course, free. She needs help serving the food but during the Covid-19 pandemic Church of the Pilgrim will permit only one person to aid her and for only one hour. If anyone would like to assist, we need a person from 12:30pm to 1:30 pm the first Sunday of every month to serve soup through a dutch door at Church of the Pilgrim.

When Christ House resumes allowing volunteers to cook, Gray Handley and his family could use new recruits to cook in the Christ House kitchen and serve the approximately 50 patients in the lunchroom on the fourth Sunday of each month from about 3:30 to 7:00 PM. He has been representing FMW at Christ House for decades.