NEW YORK YEARLY MEETING - Governance Issues

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall - 2010 Annual Sessions Costs

2010-06-09T19:21:00.000-07:00

2009 Yearly Meeting Costs

Which Quaker Yearly Meeting - is the ELITIST of them all?

Once again in 2010 -

New York Yearly Meeting (NYYM) of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) heads the list with the most expensive and longest annual sessions. The cost data below Friends, make up a very clear mirror.

What, with most New York Friends ensconced in canoeing, kayaking, swimming and kum-bah-yah moments of self-discovery at Boathouse meditations at the thinly-disguised cheap vacation at Lake George, who cares about costs - as long as someone else is paying for it? And believe me, there is also a dance at this junket - the dance around getting others to pay for the tab.

Can we guess that the same-old select small circle of New York Friends still mismanage Quakerism in a hypocritical hierarchical church government in this part of the world? Does this false top-down governance model drain the resources of time and money out of the grass roots Monthly Meetings? (Has the top-down church tax model that NYYM used during its current 35+ year membership decline, changed back to a bottom-up financing model yet?)

Possibly, paid for life and emotionally rewarded NYYM ministers feel more important amongst a dwindling more easily defined group? Isn't a certainly dwindling group easier to manage and predict than a uncertain growing group? Isn't it interesting also that this dwindling group of NYYM Friends somehow also continues to raise its budget every year and seeks other people's or dead Friends money to pay for and otherwise enable their padded budgets and lifetime paid pulpits?

The New York elite hold annual sessions (and most committee meetings) at a faraway location (Silver Bay on Lake George in the Adirondacks) where few can attend, and set or refuse to ask for fairer prices at a point that most can’t afford. The elite fix the scope of business where time, (7 days at this remote location), talent and money flow into the dying central hierarchy from the few remaining far flung New York Friends. Could one guess that these elite fail to ask for competitive prices with the management of the retreat center at Lake George?

The cost data (below) of attending these sessions bear this out compared with similar sized and located Quaker Yearly Meetings. Why of course, there are denigrating and irresponsibility enabling scholarships for those highly educated souls who can't afford this boondoggle and don't want to grow up. If poor Friends can't afford this annual shindig, we can guess they can’t either afford to give their own local congregation the 300-400 dollars a year it requests to hold together a local community?

Just like a corporate annual meeting – the agenda at the beautiful NYYM Annual Sessions is pretty much pre-approved and messages and potential criticism are tightly controlled by controlling who can attend – with high prices, with the faraway distance, with space for very few to be accommodated in the middle-of-nowhere, and with the following thinly-veiled threat/reminder on the NYYM website:

…..No one should go to the NYYM Silver Bay YMCA without an advance registration with New York Yearly Meeting and assurance from SilverBay that there is room for you.

In other words to the unconnected:

KEEP OUT !

And remember that posted prices on the registration form are subject to an additional 5% gratuity, for the gratuitous elitism and fine dining that await you.

Rest assured, though – thee will get a dose of the real world with the perennial cooking of the books in the Financial Services Committee and General Services Section - to support misappropriation to perennial, unaccountable, lifetime employees who have no time and task specific job descriptions.

The sumptuous food presentation at Silver Bay is balanced out with equally and oppositely disgusting NYYM poor governance and shady business practices. That is: for those very few Friends who forgo swimming and boating to actually go to the difficult committee and general business meetings.

Are other Yearly Meetings following New York’s lead ? Let’s hope not.

In Friendship,

Glenn R.

Summary of changes since 2009

NYYM has raised prices 2-3% over last year's far and away highest prices of all Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions. Question 1: Why has NYYM not found a more centrally located less expensive college campus for its annual sessions with higher capacity and then reduce prices so there can be more full participation? (Answer: Because elitists don't want more full participation.) Question 2: Why won't NYYM reduce the amount of business it transacts to fewer days? (Answer: Because elitists want more time focused on them, and Lake George is too expensive and too far away from 95% of NYYM Friends to go for a short time.) Go back to Question 1 and repeat, over and over.

New York YM gives a relative price break to teenagers, (compared with Baltimore and New England) no doubt to indoctrinate them into the centralized religious hierarchy and the benefits of elitism. NYYM does keep costs high for younger children (too young to be indoctrinated). NYYM also spends $25,000 of its deficit budget taken out of the hides of its Monthly Meetings to pay teenagers excessively to babysit youngsters - de facto giving them a free pass to attend Annual Sessions / vacation one week per year.

Northwest Yearly Meeting (EFI) and North Carolina (Conservative) raised prices for adults for 5 day meetings substantially, however their prices were so low that this is almost meaningless in comparison with East Coast 6 and 7 day Meetings.

New England raised prices 3-8% but still has a 5 night annual sessions which reduces cost to members (compared with 6 nights at Baltimore, New York).

Baltimore did not raise prices. Congratulations to Baltimore Friends. Can Friends make that 5 nights, then 4 then 3 then 2 nights eventually? What business do Monthly Meetings have to do in 6 nights and 7 days, Baltimore and New York?

North Pacific (Independent) (held in Missoula, MT) raised prices steeply, especially for children, however prices last year were very low, and camping or commuting is still pretty reasonable.

Seven Yearly Meetings

2010 Annual Sessions Costs per night

early registration / including meals

late registration = July 1 or later

4 Nights

5 Nights

6 Nights

NCYM©

NPYM

NWYM

PacificYM

NEYM

BaltYM

NYYM*

Additional Gratuity*

Average Registration Fee**

25.00

0.00

25.00

0.00

40.00

Adult/Double***

51.00

69.00

58.00

90.00

87.00

79.00

111.00

Child/Double****

51.00

57.00

36.00

40.00

46.00

43.00

79.00

Child/Floor/camp*****

10.00

37.00

27.00

55.00

Adult/Camp/Commute

17.00

44.00

20.00

40.00

75.00

63.00

Teen / Double

51.00

62.00

45.00

87.00

79.00

* NYYM prices include a forced 5% gratuity upon registration

** NEYM has implemented late registration ($20) in 2009

** BaltYM implemented late registration cost increase (+14%) in 2009

*** NYYM weighted average with number of rooms below

**** NEYM and BYM have a child (age 7-13) on floor/camper rate

***** NYYM closest campgrounds are +10 miles away, now added - a lean-to across and over the hill - good luck!

…..No one should go to the NYYM Silver Bay YMCA without an advance registration with New York Yearly Meeting and assurance from SilverBay that there is room for you.

Adult

Capacity

Cost per

Child

Capacity

Cost per

Dbl. Occ.

Hall

Persons

Night

Dbl. Occ.

Hall

Persons

Night

853.00

Trinity

10,236

$142.17

673.00

Trinity

$112.17

792.00

Brookside

9,504

$132.00

612.00

Brookside

$102.00

727.00

Bayview

58,887

$121.17

547.00

Bayview

$91.17

668.00

The Inn

296

197,728

$111.33

488.00

The Inn

296

$81.33

602.00

Paine

30,702

$100.33

422.00

Paine

$70.33

554.00

Hemlock

39,888

$92.33

374.00

Hemlock

$62.33

498.00

Hepbron

110

54,780

$83.00

318.00

Hepbron

110

$53.00

523.00

Hillcrest

8,891

$87.17

343.00

Hillcrest

$57.17

NYYM Avg. Cost / adult

$630.75

$105.12

NYYM Avg. Cost / child

$75.12

NYYM Total Capacity

651

NYYM Total Capacity

651

5 out of 5 of all Adult NYYM attenders

spendmore than NEYM and BaltYM attenders

3 out of 3 of all Youth NYYM attenders

spend more than NEYM and BaltYM attenders

Additional Yearly Meetings - 2009 Annual Sessions Costs

2009-06-14T17:24:00.000-07:00

Dear Friend,

An additional survey of costs of Friends (Quaker) Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions shows lower costs and shorter durations than the three Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic Yearly Meetings in the United States.

Note the four night duration and low cost of North Carolina, Northwest and North Pacific Yearly Meetings. What might be evident is the drawing of resources of time and money to 'higher' levels in the northeast and mid-Atlantic Friends Societies.

The highest priced per night and longest duration - New York Yearly Meeting - costs $ 103.00 (+5% gratuity) per night with a $ 40 program/registration fee - more than three times the least expensive per night and shortest duration - Northwest Yearly Meeting - which costs $ 31.50 per night with a $ 20 program/registration fee, based on a per person Adult Double Occupancy, full session early registration rate.

New York Yearly Meeting is obviously taking excess profit it makes at its annual sessions and funnels it into non-transparent cost centers of its operating budget. (See: What Friends Should Know about NYYM Finances..) Similarly, the other two northeast and mid-Atlantic Friends have now begun to also have more of a need for a costly central hierarchy, costly non-sojourning lifetime minister/employees and permanent assets - which seem to be ends in themselves - as if Friends Society would not go on without them? Like civil taxes, once religious taxes are levied one year, it's very hard to take them away in subsequent years, somehow. Budgets, like beasts, grow and grow. Some Friends feel this unquestioned drawing of resources out of the grass roots is simply a manifestation of the autumn season of a dying Friends Societies. Yes some Friends Societies are not drawing these resources away from the grass roots. Are these Friends Societies more vibrant and growing?

What business do the Eastern Yearly Meetings Annual Sessions have to do for six nights and seven days? Granted some travel long distances, but are these constant and distant wider meetings the best uses of the resources of time, talent and money for Friends? Why are Yearly Meetings organized over such large distances? Why do some yearly meetings think they need two or more 'interim' or 'representative' meetings? Why do some yearly meetings think they need assets like retreat centers that simply draw extensive resources for salaries and weaken what is known in Friends Society as inter-visitation between Monthly Meetings? Are resources spent at Annual Sessions better used at local levels with ONE short annual meeting once per year - to find the common ground in what all monthly meetings have expressed in that given year?

Is it more equitable and reasonable to Friends Society members to offer shorter annual sessions at lower costs per night? Could we not eliminate one more committee and or function of Yearly Meeting government - the committee that takes money from Monthly Meetings and then hands the money out in some cockamamie scheme along with monthly meetings, to those individuals who can't afford the extensive time and high prices these same Yearly Meetings charge?

In Friendship,
Glenn R.

Additional Yearly Meetings
2009 Annual Sessions Costs

North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative)
North Pacific Yearly Meeting (FGC)
Northwest Yearly Meeting (EFI)
Pacific Yearly Meeting (FGC)

Early Registration Costs / Double Occupancy
Cost per person / night for Full Session, including meals

	4 Nights	4 Nights	4 Nights	6 Nights
	NCYM©	NPYM	NWYM	PacificYM

Additional Gratuity*	-	-	-	-
Program / Registration Fee**	42.00	0.00	20.00	50.00
Adult/Double***	49.00	61.00	31.50	80- 95.00
Child/Double****	0.00	53.00	31.50	50.00
Child/Floor/camp*****	-	34.00	-	27.00

Adult/Camp/Commute	22.50	41.00	19.00	40.00
Teen / Double	0.00	58.00	-	95.00

Three Yearly Meetings - Northeastern U.S.
2009 Annual Sessions Costs

Early Registration Costs / Double Occupancy
Cost per person / night for Full Session, including meals

	5 Nights	6 Nights	6 Nights
	NEYM	BaltYM	NYYM
	$	$	$
Additional Gratuity*	-	-	5%
Average Registration Fee**	0.00	0.00	40.00
Adult/Double***	84.00	79.00	103.00
Child/Double****	44.00	43.00	74.00
Child/Floor/camp*****	25.00	25.00	50.00

Adult/Camp/Commute	75.00	75.00	77.50
Teen / Double	84.00	79.00	74.00

* NYYM has a forced 5% gratuity upon registration
** NEYM has implemented late registration ($20) in 2009
** BaltYM implemented late registration cost increase (+14%) in 2009
*** NYYM range with number of rooms below
**** NEYM and BYM have a child (age 7-13) on floor/camper rate
***** NYYM closest campgrounds are +10 miles away

Three Yearly Meetings - 2009 Annual Sessions Costs

2009-06-11T16:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

The salient points regarding the cost comparison for 2009 are:

- Baltimore Yearly Meeting has added a 14% increase in prices for late registration in 2009 but also reduced its early registration room rate by $4 per night from the 2008 rate. This shows an effort to allow those of lesser means to attend without the use of denigrating elitist scholarships. 376 people were in attendance over seven days at Annual Sessions in August 2008.
- New England Yearly Meeting has added a $10 or $20 nominal late registration fee in 2009, as well has implemented a well-designed on-line registration system which should save costs and administrative time this year and in years to come. NEYM will hopefully pass these cost savings on to its members in keeping annual sessions prices low to avoid the NYYM elitist model. However, NEYM did increase its adult rates substantially between 2007 and 2008 by $17 or a whopping 26%. 802 people were in attendance over six days at Annual Sessions in August 2008. There is an approximate capacity of 900 attenders at Annual Sessions.
- New York Yearly Meeting has increased its historically high adult prices for its far-away exclusive destination room rate by $17 per night or a whopping 18% since 2007. Now, no one may attend NYYM annual sessions in 2009, no matter what room one selects, for less than those attending NEYM or BaltYM. NYYM does not distinguish between teens and pre-teen children in terms of cost. Hence, the price for pre-teen children double-occupancy, over 5 is substantially higher (by almost double) than NEYM and BaltYM. NYYM also shows its child unfriendiness by raising its child camping / floor rate by 25% in 2009. NYYM has adult late registration fee of $80. Annual Session and Representative Meeting registration fees are have increased exponentially in the last two years acting as an alternative income center for NYYM's excessive and padded operating budget, no doubt to allow for misappropriations that have been discovered - the need for such shenanigans created by NYYM's 35+ year consistently declining membership.

Do these show New York Yearly Meeting still out of touch with its Monthly Meetings and its individual constituents? Is it an elitist policy to raise annual session prices and registration fees and then to push scholarships on those who can't afford the higher prices as well as the time and cost to attend such a far away luxury location? Has anyone asked the important questions of NYYM, even difficult questions asking for transparency about pricing negotiations between the NYYM and the Silver Bay Association at Lake George, Adirondacks, New York State, USA? Resort prices have dropped in the real world in 2009 - why hasn't Silver Bay also dropped its prices in this recession?

Approximately 600 people per year attend NYYM Annual Sessions over seven days, and there is a capacity of approximately 700 including those who camp 10+ miles away. Some of these Friends from personal experience, don't participate on committees and simply take advantage of the recreational facilities and pretty good institutionalized food service in an inexpensive family vacation at a very nice destination.

Yours in Friendship,
Glenn R.

Three Yearly Meetings - 2007 Costs
Three Yearly Meetings - 2008 Costs

Three Yearly Meetings
2009 Annual Sessions Costs

Early Registration Costs
(Late Registration begins ~July 1)
Cost per night for Full Session/ includes meals

	5 Nights	6 Nights	6 Nights
	NEYM	BaltYM	NYYM
	$	$	$
Additional Gratuity*	-	-	5%
Average Registration Fee**	0.00	0.00	40.00
Adult/Double***	84.00	79.00	103.00
Child/Double****	44.00	43.00	74.00
Child/Floor/camp*****	25.00	25.00	50.00

Adult/Camp/Commute	75.00	75.00	77.50
Teen / Double	84.00	79.00	74.00

* NYYM has a forced 5% gratuity upon registration
** NEYM has implemented late registration ($20) in 2009
** BaltYM implemented late registration cost increase (+14%) in 2009
*** NYYM range with number of rooms below
**** NEYM and BYM have a child (age 7-13) on floor/camper rate
***** NYYM closest campgrounds are +10 miles away

New York Yearly Meeting Analysis

Adult			Capacity		Cost per
Dbl. Occ.		Hall	Persons		Night

828.00		Trinity	12	9,936	$138.00
769.00		Brookside	12	9,228	$108.17
705.00		Bayview	81	57,105	$117.50
649.00		The Inn	296	227,624	$128.17
602.00		Paine	51	30,702	$100.33
554.00		Hemlock	72	39,888	$92.33
497.00		Hepbron	110	54,670	$82.83
523.00		Hillcrest	17	8,891	$87.17

	NYYM Avg. Cost / adult			$672.88	$103.05
	NYYM Total Capacity		651

Child			Capacity		Cost per
Dbl. Occ.		Hall	Persons		Night

646.00		Trinity	12	7,752	$107.67
586.00		Brookside	12	7,032	$97.67
586.00		Bayview	81	47,466	$97.67
466.00		The Inn	296	137,936	$77.67
419.00		Paine	51	21,369	$69.83
372.00		Hemlock	72	26,784	$62.00
315.00		Hepbron	110	34,650	$52.50
340.00		Hillcrest	17	5,780	$56.67

	NYYM Avg. Cost / child			$443.58	$73.93
	NYYM Total Capacity		651

Three Yearly Meetings - 2007 Costs
Three Yearly Meetings - 2008 Costs

NY Attorney General to Investigate NYYM

2009-03-14T06:11:00.000-07:00

Corruption/Hypocrisy/Public Piety/Partisan Politics/NY Attorney General to Investigate NYYM/Albany Times Tribune/Albany/NY/USA/1-Apr-09/….

April 1, 2009

Albany, New York, USA - Many already know that New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, in line for Governor of New York and possibly even President of the United States, has recently sued companies like Bank of America and A.I.G. to expose corrupt financial practices in the banking and insurance industries. Mr. Cuomo, the chief law enforcement officer of the Empire State, has now pledged to investigate corruption in religion. He said, "Many think business and civil government are the only forums for financial shenanigans to occur. One shouldn't be surprised to find out that religious institutions .... do the same things !"

Religious institutions, as many know, do not have to share their financial statements, including the salaries of the highest paid employees, with the public.

Cuomo was also quoted to say, "The business and political model of religion, which the Quakers at one time changed, has done an about face to manifest in modern times to once again combine public piety with partisan politics and shady business practices. I'm very concerned that paid ministers, such as those in New York Yearly Meeting (NYYM) of the Religious Society of Friends, who are remunerated by a church hierarchy, are once again taking the State of New York back to the 'bad old days' where the Church and State were one and the same non-transparent, self-serving oppressive feudal bureaucracy. We have a tax code to abide in this state (notwithstanding the federal tax code) and it says that religion can't overstep its bounds and at the same time keep its financial secrecy and its tax exempt, not-for-profit status."

Cuomo pledged to investigate a religious institution in New York State which hypocritically has made public mockery of the founder of the Religious Society of Friends - George Fox (d. 1690). Fox said most famously, which early Friends heeded - "Let your lives speak". Cuomo said, "Making examples out of people who are supposed to quietly be examples, should help New York Friends live up to their Testimony of Integrity and forget about their protest signs, amateur YouTube videos and position papers." Cuomo said succinctly that he will make transparent, "the efforts of New York Yearly Meeting (NYYM), a regional elitist political hierarchy, to hide behind the veil of religion, in some sort of ruse, and instead engage in the thinly veiled no-show job maintenance and vacation planning as well as the naked political action operations in the name of religion, while leveraging the historic integrity of dead Friends."

Specifically, Cuomo intends to look at three areas of concern among a growing number of honest, Church taxpaying Friends, who feel that in order for the public to trust the Religious Society of Friends, individual Friends in NYYM must first be personally honest and require true financial openness within their own ranks.

The obvious perennial organized falsification of the operating budget and Treasurer's report which when closely compared, have shown manipulations to paint a picture of what the paid hierarchy would like the taxpaying Quakers to believe is actually going on. (Sure, it´s news when Enron and Worldcom do it, but who hears about it when it´s done in the name of religion?)

The long history of overpricing of the Annual Sessions at Silver Bay, Lake George, was strong evidence that elite members of NYYM, (Sessions and General Services Committees) and the management of the Silver Bay Association have colluded or engaged in some sort of structured or clandestine malfeasance to keep the Quaker Annual Meeting average prices to its members 20% higher than other similar groups charge to attend similar sized Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions. If Annual Session prices were to go down, the elitist institution of the giving of scholarships to the poor folk can also be removed, and then the high rollers will no longer have that carrot to dangle in front of those who were previously too economically cowed to speak up and help change to occur from within.

NYYM will be forced to change the false labeling of committees like 'Financial Services' when like the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the word 'service', no longer informs the public to the true mission of such business or committee. After investigation by the New York Attorney General, NYYM Financial Services Committee will be renamed "Tax Collectors". The word 'Financial Services' would normally be used, when objective members would ostensibly thoroughly evaluate expenses and sources of income on a zero-based rationale, and make critical and sometimes difficult decisions to continue or discontinue each expense, each year. Andrew Cuomo also said that he planned to contact Tom Corbett, Pennsylvania's Attorney General, to suggest Corbett investigate the AFSC to have them change its name to "American Friends Political Action Committee" or AFPAC and or have its non-profit, 501 C (3) tax exempt status revoked.

When asked to comment on the impending investigation, NYYM General Secretary, and chief paid minister, now known as - Chrissypoo - commented, "unlike the AFSC which hired high-priced Philadelphia lawyers to defend charges of corruption and misappropriation and go on operating as a business, and evolving away from the Quaker Faith, NYYM is actually going to come clean and make these changes. We may even do one better - and show the overpaid, lifetime NYYM office salaries to our Church tax paying members, and begin the honest discussion to bring NYYM back to utilize reasonably-paid sojourning positions if the grass roots, or the Monthly Meetings, determine that these paid positions continue to be needed." He went on, "The false governing structure called the Coordinating Committees will also be dropped since the open secret that these are the thinly veiled hierarchy propping up our dying institution. The world doesn't need another hierarchal religion, so why should Quakers be so lazy as to allow it? We Friends here in New York obviously have not been the best we can be for decades."

Chrissypoo went on and on as he often does when he gets going: "Like Elie Wiesel said about the recent Bernard L. Madoff fraud, some viewed me as a mythical figure (General Secretary) come to save them from themselves and that the true operations of NYYM had to be kept as a secret, within a small little clique of elitists. And like Madoff, we've cheated thousands of former good Quakers out of their money and out of what many felt once was the first true non-hierarchal Church experience, and many Quakers have left our Society over the past 40 years. Friends can't blame me, they have to blame themselves for not maintaining vigilance - doing their due diligence - like the Madoff investors also didn't do."

Quoted by Elie Wiesel, about Bernard Madoff:
“I remember that it was a myth that Madoff created around him, that everything was so special, so unique, that it had to be secret. It was like a mystical mythology that nobody could understand. He gave the impression that maybe 100 people belonged to the club. Now we know thousands of them were cheated by him.”

When asked for comment, the Clerks of the Worldwide and Regional Governing Quaker Bodies - the Friends World Committee (FWCC), Friends General Conference (FGC) and Friends United Meeting (FUM) all somehow responded almost identically - "now that overpaid NYYM personnel and the NYYM budget will be brought into line, NYYM will hopefully begin to pay a reasonable amount in bottom up support of our wider Friends governing organization."

Previous Article: Bail Out NYYM in 2009?

Bail Out NYYM in 2009?

2008-10-08T09:25:00.000-07:00

The 2007 NYYM Treasurer's Report is a Sham

Dear Friend,

There is good news and there is bad news.

The looming deficit between what the constituent Monthly Meetings will pay, and the amount New York Yearly Meeting plans to spend for 2009 was 5% in August 2008.

I’ve developed over the past two years a theme many sang under their breath for decades - NYYM is a small group of an entitled overweight few. These few have continued a tradition incongruent with the manner of Friends,with a padded expense budget. The padded budget maintains the group in an insulated, and privileged state of luxury vacation, distant and expensive retreat center, guaranteed paid positions and dishonest non-transparent governance.

How this select few became so entrenched and insulated and how other individuals in the future could simply assume the role of the current select few, is what Friends around the world might examine, and make sure NOT to emulate.

Question: What allows such an elite to rule and consolidate power and resources around itself?

Answers: Apathy of the 1500* or so total Yearly Meeting membership; Vanity and Political Correctness of a select and active few who have become inured in an annual vacation in the Adirondack mountains.

The Bad News

Now, NYYM has created a two-headed monster in assigning costs to various ‘programs’ that NYYM presents as its permanently settled, reason-to-be. The other head of the monster living under the bed NYYM Friends have made for themselves, is simply the budget broken into the four general committees how the Yearly Meeting organizes itself. Paid employees are asked to fill in a time sheet showing which ‘program’ they are serving with each 15 minute increment of their time. Well guess what? It’s not that the office staff lie: Quakers don’t lie. But in fact, like my favorite quote in my favorite movie, ‘The Blues Brothers’ the office employees have simply filled in bullshit on those timesheets.

No matter how NYYM tries to gerrymander its office salary expenses according to program, there is obvious misappropriation of funds which are actually spent (as different from funds directed to be spent according to approved budgets).

In fact, NYYM will not allow anyone on the finance committee to remain invited to committee meetings (see how it happened to one Friend who dissented) who doubts that the budget should always go up, or that NYYM should continue to draw financial and time and talent resources from dying, trust-funded, Monthly Meetings and or struggling growing Monthly Meetings which truly have the most important reason-to-be in their local communities.

What those in the Aquarian (Baby Boomer) generation in 2008, those economically entitled NYYM Friends between the ages of 53 and 70, have done, is to continue to live in the past, and figuratively dropped some acid to create this two-headed monster of a centralized overweight budget for 2009. The two heads of this ‘monster’ effectively hide the fact that the budget for 2009 has gone up sharply, again, trying to draw more resources to itself from the Monthly Meetings.

The biggest joke NYYM is trying to pull off, is the attempt to convince NYYM Friends that the job descriptions for its paid employees it released recently are in any way serious or transparent. The NYYM General Secretary costs NYYM Friends approximately $150,000 per year for the main purpose ‘to discern gifts’, and he shows up at the office less than once per week. It is pretty obvious also that this is an attempt to validate only those who feel NYYM is important, as those who are chosen and financially supported to travel to Monthly Meetings and give their testimony. Monthly Meetings in the manner of decentralized Friends traditionally have given minutes, release and financial support to their members to travel widely.

Has the NYYM office moved to a less expensive and more central location? No.
Has NYYM found a less expensive site for its annual meeting? No.
Is money going to current NYYM rent / electricity which is not reported in the treasurer’s report? Yes.
In addition to the rent/electricity, are there more misappropriations in the NYYM approved budgets, and misrepresentations in the NYYM Treasurer’s reports? Yes.
Is the annual Budget Saturday meeting still held in a place where the least number of people can attend? Yes.
Has anyone questioned the now in 2009, more expensive bookkeeping service? Not sure.
Has anyone been able to see the Financial Management Guidelines which would show transparency into how the bookkeeping gets done with the cooperation of the paid employees of NYYM office? Probably not, it’s a secret only the select few can know.
Have Friends asked the tough questions of NYYM? It doesn’t appear so.
Have the select few continued to nominate themselves into the positions of power – Personnel, Audit, Clerk of General Services, General Secretary’s Committee? Making progress, but far from home.

Going on: The Associate General Secretary does not supervise the office and it is dubious as to how often she shows up at the office and what if anything, other than organize the annual meeting on paper instead of through automation of the registration process, she does. Don’t question this however, or you’ll be shamed and called a racist, and by the way, Racism is a very, very, very important issue (to help obscure what is really going on with your money).

The Good News

The good news is that the scales of justice are slowly coming home to balance a group of the overweight few. This movement began when Friends got together in Albany for the Budget Saturday meeting in September 2004 and began what is now called ‘Covenant Donations’ or ‘Bottom-up Financing’ which is in the true decentralized manner of Friends NYYM has been in padded budget deficit for the past 3 out of 4 years due to this, but the ‘pain’ of this has shown Padded means it continues to ‘say’ it needs X amount, takes in Y amount, and actually spends Z amount. Let’s put this in a simple index format for Friends to understand what happens with your money for the past 20 years straight.

For each budget year:

NYYM says – “We need X” = $100.
Monthly Meetings eventually “Actually give Y” = $ 95.
NYYM “Actually Spends Z” = $ 90.

It was and still is a process of lies (oh, I mean bullshit) and passive aggression on the part of those in the Monthly Meetings who knew they were lies (I mean bullshit).

More continuing concern is that the new Clerk of the Financial Services Committee didn’t bring the expenses more into line with the Clerks of Coordinating Committees in June of this year. He should have done this to avoid the ‘crisis’ that looms this November when Friends can actually go to the meeting will rubber stamp whatever happens behind the scenes. The Clerk of Financial Services really has a tough, thankless job, having much responsibility (to balance the budget) but not much authority (to do so). The Financial Services Committee really has no teeth, and it has no experienced members who are fodder for the Clerk of General Services who is ostensibly still ‘running’ the show.

The hippie generation, the Aquarians, or more generally called, the Baby-Boomers, in NYYM are those who feel entitled to continue to prop up a dead horse by drawing resources to themselves are also the same generation which has gotten the United States and the world into an economic crisis. These are economically entitled, vain, selfish people with not enough going on in their personal lives to keep them out of self aggrandizing ministry and church politics.

So, the question remains. Bail Out NYYM in 2009? NAY. Monthly Meetings’ first responsibility is to fund themselves and their local activities - not to bail out the wider government (especially one which is unresponsive, insulated and self-serving). The issue involved here is to make NYYM more efficient with less resources, because real change happens locally – where the resources of time, talent and money are best spent.

Is there really CHANGE coming to NYYM? NYYM is still doing the same things, calling them something different, and expecting a different result. We’ll end on a positive note with the answer: It’s a DEFINITE MAYBE

Yours in Friendship,

Glenn R.

* NYYM is made up of about 1,500 Friends. NYYM reports (potentially on purpose distorts) membership of approximately 3,500 Friends

The 2007 NYYM Treasurer's Report is a Sham

Interest vs. Conscience

2008-07-13T21:21:00.000-07:00

Important Questions NYYM Friends Might Ask

I’ve asked Friends to consider worldly motivations and conflicts of worldly interest and their affect on the spiritual health of Friends Society. Friends tend to ignore that which is of the world - which is represented by money. Is this the Way?

How can you decide if your Yearly Meeting has outrun the Guide of its constituent Monthly Meetings? Look at these three examples and consider the state of the Society in the Northeast United States.

How to ‘package’ the reason-to-be of NYYM, for example, has evolved into providing a mountain lake vacation week with a faux-psychotherapeutic, bible camp twist for its annual sessions. Don’t forget to pay that non-disclosed 5% gratuity upon arrival. See the latest annual sessions cost comparison

Comparison of budget numbers of NYYM vs. other nearby, similar sized Yearly Meetings has been meant to bring into line one rogue Yearly Meeting. But the danger here of course is to allow that rogue Yearly Meeting to export the largesse of how it stays in business - to the others.

Short Descriptions:

New England Yearly Meeting (NEYM)

- Total Annual Budget including Youth Program, Retreat Center and Annual Session up 8% to $728,000 in 2008

- Administrative Personnel Salaries and Benefits Budget up 10% to $265,000 in 2008

o Covers

Field Secretary, F/T
Admin. Secretary, F/T
Young Friends Coord., F/T
Christian Ed. Coord., F/T
Accounts Manager, P/T
Friends Camp Director, P/T
NEYM Archivist, P/T

- Administrative Travel and Conferences up 20% to $29,000 in 2008

- $108 per Resident Member average contribution in 2008 to meet budgeted $326,000 Monthly Meeting contributions

- Retreat and Annual Sessions Budgeted Income up from $213,000 in 2007 to $244,000 in 2008

- Retreat and Annual Sessions Budgeted Expenses up from $242,000 in 2007 to $270,000 in 2008

- Individual (mostly wealthy) Friends are projected to give approximately $100,000 or 17% of the total NEYM budget aside from Monthly Meeting donations to NEYM in 2008

- Resident Membership has declined 4% since 2003 to 3,018 in 2008

- Non-Resident Membership is approximately 1,000 in 2008

- Child Membership (Resident and Non-Resident) is approximately 350 in 2008

- NEYM retains approximately $1MM in assets to help support its operations

Baltimore Yearly Meeting (Balt YM)

- Total Annual Budget including Youth Program, Camping Program and Annual Session up 4% to $1,534,000 in 2008

- Plans to hire ‘Development Director’ to solicit special donations to BYM a la ‘Philadelphia YM Annual Fund’

o Administrative Personnel Salaries and Benefits up 70% to $171,000 in 2008

Covers Gen Secretary, Office Manager
(Administrators and Property Managers of Youth and Camping Programs are paid by each program)

o Office Travel down from $10,000 to $4,000 in 2008

o Office expense up 65% to $25,000 in 2008

- Youth Secretary Salary and Benefits down from $65,000 actual in 2006 to $25,000 budget in 2008

- Camping Staff ‘Compensation’ up 10% to $234,000 in 2008

o Somehow Compensation benefits went down in same period which is irregular

- Camping (Youth) Budgeted Income up from $731,000 in 2007 to $780,000 in 2008

- Camping (Youth) Budgeted Expenses up from $730,000 in 2007 to $777,000 in 2008

- Annual Session Budgeted Income up from $132,000 in 2007 to $138,000 in 2008

- Annual Session Budgeted Expenses up from $122,000 in 2007 to $138,000 in 2008

- ~$100 per Full Adult Member average contribution in 2008 to meet budgeted $402,000 Monthly Meeting contribution

- Full Adult Membership increase from 2005 to 2006 – 1.4% to 4,014 in 2008

- Associate (Children) Membership decrease from 2005 to 2006 – 17 % to 683 in 2006

- BaltYM retains approximately $2.8 MM in assets to help support its operations

New York Yearly Meeting (NYYM)

- NYYM increased its 2008 Total Operating Budget by 3% or 14,000 to $544,000

o Staff Salaries increase 3% to $178,700

General Secretary ~$80,000
· In office less than 2x per week
Associate General Secretary ~60,000
· Undefined duties
Spark Editor, who knows what else, part time? ~$40,000
Hourly Staff - $21,000

Salary and Wage Related Expenses is projected to stay at $43,000 (additional to the 178,700 above) for 2007 and 2008. This is an irregularity and should be fully explained as a mistake or seen as a blatant line item misrepresentation (among many others).

o NYYM gerrymandered its operating expense proportions and communicated such to show how staff (should) spend its time serving witness and nurture committees.

There are no time and task specific job descriptions published by NYYM for its paid staff
The (overpaid) staff remains unaccountable to the NYYM populous and this is tolerated due to white guilt and the reason-to-be of the annual vacation at Lake George.

- NYYM under spent its budget in 2006 by 10% continuing a 20 year consistent historical dishonesty in what it says it needs

o NYYM under-contributes compared to NEYM and BaltYM to its wider bodies of FUM, FGC and FWCC while it spends money on unaccountable internal costs

- $151 per Adult Member average contribution in 2008 to meet budgeted $483,300 Monthly Meeting contributions

- Annual Session and [Youth Program / Retreat Center (Powell House)] Sharing Fund are off-budget costs for NYYM Friends

o The NYYM Sharing Fund previously equaled the NYYM Operating Budget in the 1970’s, and its annual distribution of approximately $60,000 is now 1/8 of the 2008 Operating Budget size.

o Historically, NYYM Operating budget of ~$400,000 - 500,000 contributes $70,000 in subsidy as 20% of Powell House $350,000 Operating Budget

o Powell House has 2 full time staff, part time workers cooks etc

§ Powell House fees for weekend seminars is high, many NYYM Friends cannot attend due also to distance and no public transportation access.

o Annual Sessions 500 attendees paying an average of $600 would add ~$300,000 to NYYM budget in comparison with BYM and NEYM.

o NYYM 2008 composite budget (if all were included in Operating Budget like NEYM and BaltYM) is most probably $1,200,000 – 1,400,000 including a 6 day luxury annual session,

§ serving very few youth in its Powell House Youth program. (120 children at last estimate

$ 40,000 is spent in 6 days at NYYM Annual Sessions

· ($10,000 in scholarships through the Advancement Committee) in to support those who cannot afford the luxury vacation, and

· ($30,000 to pay for room and board for teenage counselors for the Youth program, paid through Junior Yearly Meeting, where at most 150 children attend)

- NYYM should continue to cut costs, move offices to less expensive more central location, cut staff, until membership begins to rise.

o Membership has risen in urban areas, but declined in rural areas, not unlike commercial development of 3^rd world countries.

- NYYM has consistently recently manipulated and or misrepresented membership numbers reported by Monthly Meetings to make itself look better, in order to hire a general secretary at a high salary and to justify perennial increasing expenses

- NYYM membership has decreased steadily over 35 years by a factor of ½ to its current published level of 3,500 in 2008.

- NYYM published Adult Membership is approximately 3,200 in 2008. This number is highly misrepresented.

- NYYM retains approximately $250,000 in assets to help support its operations

See the recent post:
Should NEYM be nervous?

Three Yearly Meetings - 2008 Annual Sessions Costs

2008-05-20T12:22:00.000-07:00

The Special Guest at NYYM Sessions

Dear Friend,

Has New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends learned anything? Is it frozen in its tracks, unable to react to evidence that it mismanages its members' resources of time, talent and money?

The cost of attending New York Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions has again increased. Again, 520 beds out of 650 at Silver Bay, the NYYM luxury site, geographically far away from most constituents, will be much more expensive than the costs to attend both New England and Baltimore Yearly Meetings. The average cost for an adult attending NYYM sessions is more than 20% higher than the two similar sized, similarly located Yearly Meetings. This percentage is calculated without considering the cost to arrive and stay a long amount of time.

NYYM Annual sessions are also held far away from major portion of the populous, some feel purposely to restrict wider participation in decision-making. Who can travel that far at $4.00 per gallon, ruin the environment and spend 7 days of time just to do Quaker business? Who could travel so many miles for less than 7 days? Who would want to even if they could afford to?

We see the physical evidence below compared with two growing Yearly Meetings which shows one important aspect of the costs to self govern - the cost to attend Annual Sessions. Silver Bay, a resort by Lake George in the Adirondacks, is continued for those in the NYYM hierarchy. It’s a chance for those special NYYM Friends to celebrate themselves while they avoid the obvious elephant on the beach - the money it costs to operate their central religious government. NYYM like many other non-profits, is mired in inurement - in the business maintaining its ivory tower status and high paying jobs. NYYM competes with the other Quaker mouthpiece / vacation planners like FGC, to maintain a reason to be, in its own little market niche, maintaining undefined no-show jobs and its insinuated authority. Most understand NYYM has no desire to be connected to its constituent local communities, its monthly meetings. Yes, Friends, this is the sign of a dying community, so insignificant and irrelevant, that a relied-upon ministers said recently in the press that her ‘community’ is not that of the Friends. I wonder if she’ll be staying in the most expensive housing this summer at almost $800 (per person double occupancy) for the week?

And the cost to attend the annual vacation is conveniently outside the operating budget of NYYM. Have Friends asked the questions of their yearly meeting regional ‘government’ that makes Friends Society special, a non-hierarchal religion? Have Friends found that tacitly approving Yearly Meeting budgets without the needed upwelling of mandate from the constituents, is simply easier, as the Society goes down the tubes? Have Friends considered a long-term fix for their financial woes, which will by the way add vitality to their religious lives? Not mostly, I think, they dance around it, and ignore it and hope that pesky elephant goes away.

Each year, the price for Silver Bay goes up, (see last year’s cost comparison) and one might wonder who at NYYM can’t fairly come by a price and a location and govern itself in less time to achieve the true essence of the Faith ? So don’t tarry, because the gravy train is pulling away shortly. Oh, yes, if you’re wondering, the same condescending air that elite private schools offer up as their claim to righteousness - ‘financial aid’ to this vacation is available.

Yours in Friendship,

Glenn R.

-----

Three Yearly Meetings
2008 Annual Session Costs

per night / including meals

		5 Nights	6 Nights	6 Nights
		NEYM	BaltYM	NYYM
		$	$	$
Additional Gratuity*		-	-	5%
Average Registration Fee		20.00	0.00	50.00
Adult/Double**		83.00	83.00	99.75
Child/Double***		43.00	41.00	71.40
Child/Floor/Camp****		43.00	25.00	40.00

* NYYM has an unpublished forced 5% gratuity upon registration
** NYYM range with number of rooms below
*** NEYM has only child on floor/camper rate
**** NYYM closest campgrounds are +10 miles away



Adult			Capacity
Dbl. Occ.		Hall	Persons

785.00		Trinity	12	9,420
718.00		Brookside	12	8,616
655.00		Bayview	81	53,055
604.00		The Inn	296	178,784
539.00		Paine	51	27,489
510.00		Hemlock	72	36,720
460.00		Hepbron	110	50,600
390.00		Hillcrest	17	6,630

	NYYM Avg. Cost / Adult			$570.37
	NYYM Total Capacity		651

80 out of 100 of all Adult NYYM attenders
will spendmore than NEYM and BaltYM attenders

100 out of 100 of all Youth NYYM attenders
will spend more than NEYM and BaltYM attenders

WELCOME Reverend Al Sharpton !

2008-05-10T11:56:00.000-07:00

The Keynote Speaker at 2008 NYYM Annual Sessions

Our Annual Sessions Theme:

'Blessed Race equals Blessed Community'

What with the insistent and piquant theme of 'racism' in the March edition of NYYM’s Central House Organ - SPARK, the obvious choice is Al Sharpton as this year’s Keynote Speaker and guest of honor at Lake George in the Adiondacks. Attend and help us discuss why the 'politics of difference' displaces the previously held view of unity among Friends.

Hand-picked by NYYM’s elite, Sharpton will surely echo those NYYM Racism Working Group Friends (many of whom don’t personally know or live within 50 miles of an African-American) in calling for reparations for African-American Friends.

We will ask the questions:

How could white racism be solved permanently, or at least ameliorated at periodic intervals, if Friends would just set up and eternally buck up for a fund for reparations?
Can Friends find a politically-left rich donor, or a corporation seeking its ‘innocence’ to donate the money, to relieve themselves of guilty feelings?
How can Friends, with the help of our angry activist black Friends, hopefully put enough pressure on others to make ourselves, in turn, feel better?

The questions that will NOT be asked, of course will be:

What meaning or purpose would financial reparations to African-Americans serve if the money donated to this fund were our own?
Why do white-skinned Friends by default have to continuously prove they are not racists to black-skinned African-American Friends who consistently engage in angry, racist behavior?

Special: An Invitation-by-Deputation Only Workshop

Latest word is that the Rev. Al will enlighten us with his non-public secrets:

How to Organize the Finances of a Non-Profit Organization to Reflect the True Spirit of its Mission.
(Take heed all you NYYM finance people, there is a lot to be learned here).

See the latest news about Al Sharpton’s financial acumen.

The Rev. Al has also indicated he might facilitate a 5 am Boathouse meditation on why his majority ownership stake in a paycheck loan company is OK, since he is African-American. Come and sit in a rocking chair and wonder at this paradox.

Accommodations and Meals at this year’s Silver Bay

The Rev. Al and his entourage will take over the full North Wing of the air-conditioned Inn and will also have exclusive access to the South side of the fabled Silver Bay Dining Hall. So, DON’T EVEN THINK of entering at the south dining hall door unless invited to do so. Forget about the cost of this year’s annual sessions – the National Action Network, the Al Sharpton-led non-profit, with generous support from many large U.S. corporations which support the NAN, will cover all the costs.

So – come one, come all* and get hip with our elders of the hippie generation, as to why NYYM Friends are NOT being blackmailed by angry activists.

Any questions? Contact buzzybee@nyym.net

*Any Friends who feel that hard work. personal responsibility and honor in personal achievement as vitally important or possibly the only true means for African-Americans to respect themselves and gain equality with all Americans, are simply not invited to this year’s Silver Bay sessions.

News Flash

2008-02-11T12:14:00.000-08:00

See A Quaker Stimulus Package - Your Money.

-----

NYYM Teen in Residence Program (New York City Office) – New York Yearly Meeting has been criticized, some say harshly, for being too detached from its constituent Monthly Meetings.

Reported early in 2008, NYYM now has implemented a Stimulus Package to show it supports Monthly Meetings. The new initiative involves sending in angry, irresponsible, rebellious teens, who don’t know what they want out of life - to stimulate angry, irresponsible, radical old hippies who still don’t know what they want out of life.

-----

NYYM Meeting for Discernment – March 15, 2008 – (New York City Office) – NYYM also supports Monthly Meetings because it panders to Farmington-Scipio region and to give the 'feeling' it offers something ‘higher’ to Monthly Meetings. We’ll plant a tree for each member sent via Jet Blue or Bus Grey to Rochester, NY. We’ll ring a bell before we enter into the extra waste of your Monthly Meeting resources at that faraway destination for 95% of the constitutency. We hope you’ll all listen for it.

-----

NYYM Racism – (direct from the New York City Office) – Modern Quaker Friends, have mostly been dedicated to non-personal, large, faraway causes, financed by other people’s money. (Some Friends might remember the days when Friends were known for personal works of integrity.)

Now rank and file Friends must ignore blatant no show jobs, governmental malfeasance, incompetence, and endure top-down railroading by the paid ministers or ‘leaders’ in their own Society.

The Quaker ministers, paid or somehow benefited by other people’s money, will propose making some angry, incompetent activists more-equal in Friends Society for life. The ministers would like to award them more of other people’s money as 'reparations' to: 1) go away, 2) remain incompetent, 3) stop being angry, 4) gain more weight, or 5) all of the above. Follow the money in who is going to pay for this raft of dishonesty floating your way.

This initiative comes from the New York Yearly Meeting Central Office. Don’t object, or there’s no Silver Bay vacation for you and your family.

-----

See a Stimulus Package by the numbers that would remake the Society in a true manner.

The Numbers - A Five Year Plan for NYYM

2007-12-05T17:13:00.000-08:00

Five Year Budget - NYYM
		A Plan for Renewal
	Friends Re-Make the Connection - Major Cuts in 2006 - Reversal of Membership Slide

GENERAL SERVICES		2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Section expenses:
Audit	Gen Svs	3,000
General expense & travel		4,000
NYYM officers' expenses		2,500
Child Abuse/Sexual Harrassment Tng		5,000
Silver Bay capital fund contribution		0
	Section Exp	14,500	10,000	5,000	6,000	7,000	7,000

		0
		0
		26,550	14,000	14,000	10,000	12,000	14,000
		29,500	15,000	15,000	16,000	17,000	18,000
		400
		3,500	3,000	3,500	3,500	4,000	4,000
		14,500	7,000	7,000	7,000	7,000	7,000
	Committee¹	74,450	39,000	39,500	36,500	40,000	43,000

		14,000	8,000	8,000	8,000	8,000	8,000
		2,000	1,000	1,000	1,000	1,000	1,000
		3,000	3,000	3,000	3,000	3,000	3,000
		3,700	3,700	4,000	4,500	5,000	5,500
		23,800	7,000	8,000	9,000	10,000	11,000
		8,500	8,500	8,500	10,000	10,000	10,000
		26,400	26,400	26,400	1,000	1,000	1,000
	Office²	81,400	57,600	58,900	36,500	38,000	39,500

		25,000	10,000	12,000	12,000	12,000	12,000
		162,250	129,800	135,000	150,000	155,000	160,000
		42,275	33,820	34,000	36,000	37,000	40,000
		0	2,000	3,000	4,000	3,000	2,000
		2,000	2,000	2,000	2,500	3,000	3,500
		1,000	1,000	1,000	1,000	1,000	1,000
	Personnel³	232,525	178,620	187,000	205,500	211,000	218,500
TOTAL GENERAL SERVICES		402,875	285,220	290,400	284,500	296,000	308,000

TOTAL MINISTRY & COUNSEL		17,000	17,000	18,000	20,000	22,000	22,000
TOTAL WITNESS		8,250	8,500	8,500	9,000	9,000	10,000
FGC/FUM		18,000	22,000	24,000	26,000	30,000	36,000
YM appointees' expenses:		15,500	15,000	15,000	15,000	15,000	15,000
Powell House		67,000	60,000	45,000	30,000	15,000	0
Other		18,000	24,000	25,000	36,000	37,000	48,000
Total Nurture⁴		118,500	121,000	109,000	107,000	97,000	99,000

Total NYYM Operating Budget		546,625	431,720	425,900	420,500	424,000	439,000

PROJECTED NYYM ADULT Membership		3,200	3,150	3,250	3,300	3,400	3,500
per member contribution to Operating Budget		$149	$115	$110	$101	$104	$110

Deficit		34,625	0	0	0	0	0
Interest Income		5,000	6,000	5,000	6,000	7,000	5,000
Trustee Income		11,000	15,000	15,000	20,000	15,000	10,000
Registration Fees⁵		20,000	50,000	50,000	60,000	50,000	40,000
Contributions from Meetings to Operating Budget		476,000	360,720	355,900	334,500	352,000	384,000
Total Income		$ 546,625	$ 431,720	$ 425,900	$ 420,500	$ 424,000	$ 439,000

Notes
¹ Sessions cut by 1/2 to use Conferencing instead of some meetings, JYM cut by 1/2 to rearrange its business model
Communications cut by 1/2 to issue Spark 4x / year and electronic Yearbook in 2008,
² Rent cut to $7,000 / year escalating each year to move office to more central, less expensive location,
or elimination of NYYM office altogether, Administrative Expense cut by 1/2
Bookkeeping expense eliminated in 2008 with new Treasurer using accounting software, Payroll service in 2008
³ Staff Salaries cut across the board by 20% in 2006 and raised through 2010,
Extend GS Contract through 2010 -planned salary increases based on membership growth
⁴ Powell House cut by $15,000 per year until operating budget subsidy is eliminated in 2010,
increase contributions to FGC, FUM, FWCC through 2010,
Advancement increased by $10,000 in 2007, $20,000 in 2008,2009, and $30,000 in 2010
⁵ Increase Silver Bay registration to $50 on progressive scale for later registration, required $15 fee for Rep. Mtg.

Five Year Plan for NYYM

2007-09-20T09:30:00.002-07:00

The Numbers - A Five Year Budget Plan for NYYM

Back to 'The meeting they don't want you to attend - NYYM Budget Saturday'

The text - A Five Year Budget Plan for NYYM

written and circulated August 23, 2005

Dear Friend,

I've had this budget proposal in the back of my mind for months and it came clearer at Silver Bay. This hopefully is a succinct outline in which I feel NYYM and the Monthly Meetings can remake a strong connection. Unfortunately Monthly Meetings, in my view, are so far underneath being able to pay their shares, and years away from what Monthly Meeting's feel is a connection to the YM, that there might be some drastic things needed to move forward with a win-win for everyone into 2006.

The good news is that since cuts may be needed, there is a five-year budget plan conception here to show where we hopefully are going in the near term – that this would not just be a cut, without a multi-year plan to grow again. This is a flexible plan for numerical growth in membership, and growth in committee and financial participation between Monthly Meetings and Yearly Meeting. I've used a metaphor to describe the financial, transparency, and membership situation at NYYM as ' a wound ' and that if we take the band-aid off slowly it will hurt us even more and just delay the reality that the wound needs air, and the longer it takes to get that air, the longer it will take to heal.

What we might stress the most is that the Monthly Meeting should consider how its budget speaks to, or gives 'life' to that Meeting. I do feel that if Friends are attracted to the causes that the Monthly Meeting budget serves, they will give more of themselves, both financially and in other forms of participation. Many feel that Monthly Meeting budgets are mainly too small, and should be increased extensively, but that the ‘overhead’ of the Yearly Meeting contribution, should be a third or less of a Monthly Meeting's contributions from members depending on what the Yearly Meeting actually does, in order to control resentment. And the Monthly Meeting budget, is a reflection possibly, or possibly a unified plan for action which Friends have to understand and work toward. I might be preaching to the choir here, but the difficulty we face in NYYM, I think is years overdue. We ought to be glad CS is here because the stress of this budget issue will help us grow as Friends in many ways.

Its a difficult thing, that Friends (at the Monthly Meeting level) are going to have to want to grow, both in number and spiritually in order for us to maintain large budgets, especially the NYYM budget which is unfortunately 50% higher than our YM neighbors to the north and south (Balt and NEYM). Both these YM's have more employees (NEYM - 4.5, BaltYM 5.0) to our 3.

BaltYM average contribution per adult member is about $112 and their membership is growing slightly, NEYM's is about $89/adult resident member and their membership is growing slightly also. I also feel and others might also if they thought about it, that if we rely on attenders to contribute most of the Monthly Meeting contribution to NYYM, we are asking them to contribute to something that does not benefit them, since persons must be members in order to be on NYYM committees.

Yearly Meeting Expenses

And speaking of the General Secretary, his salary of $70,000 is way over NEYM's field secretary, which is about $44,000 and Baltimore's General Secretary which is about $58,000. I realize General Secretary is functioning as a 'field secretary' right now, but hopefully will be more of a General Secretary as time goes on, and the YM office is potentially moved to his area, which will hopefully be less expensive than NYC, so he can be in the office at least 3 days a week, in order to supervise it. This in mind, the budget plan to cut all office salaries by 20% will have his salary increased through 2010, possibly up to about $85,000 or $90,000 per year based on some membership goals and other goals we might have. I happen to think he's well qualified and is doing the right things so far, but we are in a financial crisis, and many of us didn't understand the long length of the decline in membership, until recently? The Meeting could negotiate with him to renew his 3-year contract through 2010 now, but explain that we have to cut salaries in order to make the YM work in a way that does not encourage Monthly Meeting's feel resentful of such ‘over taxation’ that exists now.

You can see the other reductions - Powell House subsidy gradually reduces down to 0 by 2010. Spark is cut to 4 issues per year, etc. Advancement is increased each two years by $10,000, and I hope we can rely on the committee in helping Monthly Meetings to grow.

Yearly Meeting Income

The income side is calculated using the %'s shown in the left column (from 2007 on) of the total contributions from Meetings line above it. I know personally two large Monthly Meeting budgets which are in dire need of relief from the YM, one plans to pursue earmarked funds since they feel their general fund, 57% of which goes to NYYM, is not attractive to give to. There is membership stagnation at these two large Meetings, and it’s hard for large Meetings to ‘get’ the 'growth' concept since they are having a hard time managing themselves in a large group, ostensibly without a hierarchy. It is possible that smaller meetings might have to spawn to generate the growth, but the small Meeting business model is not as able to contribute to overhead, including NYYM, as easily as a large meeting. There were 9 Meetings in NYYM with over 200 members in 1970 - there are none now.

Conclusion

This particular plan does not 'have to work now’, but in a way, it would more likely set things right and make the road ahead a lot smoother - rather than having us move excruciatingly inch by inch with lots of hand wringing and fretting, with a millstone around our ankles, toward the same end as time moves on.

Please consider the possibility that long term planning will help Friends share a unified vision, because thinking about where we're going earlier than later is less stressful and actually will allow us to work more diligently on what we planned to do, and also take late developments – which are sure to occur - more effectively in stride.

In Loving Friendship,

Carl

See the numbers in the 5 Year Plan
Back to 'The meeting they don't want you to attend - NYYM Budget Saturday'