The Gathering's workshop selection process

"The purpose of the FGC Gathering is to help Friends know and deepen their relationship with the Spirit and with each other; to strengthen their identification as Friends among other Friends; and to testify to the continued presence of unprogrammed Friends as a vital and unique faith community."

--FGC Long Range Conference Planning Committee, 2002

Being behind the scenes for a massive project like helping pull off the annual summer Gathering for Friends General Conference is an eye-opening experience.

The phrase "Ignorance is bliss" comes to mind.

Many readers know that I served as clerk of the Workshops Committee for the 2007 Gathering Committee. Now that preparation for the 2008 Gathering is underway, this is a good time to put a call out to readers to encourage one another to submit a workshop proposal.

The deadline is October 29, 2007!*

This is also as good a time as any to explain a bit about the workshop selection process, even though the selection process probably differs slightly from year to year. Making the process more transparent might help us understand how to navigate the system, especially as we come into new leadings and openings, corporately and individually.

What guides the work?

First of all, as future Gathering Committees and their subcommittees consider the approved statement about the Purpose of the Gathering (above), more committees will be able to connect their own piece of the work to the overall work and vision of FGC as it relates to the Gathering.

Beyond that, and until FGC's Long Term Plan becomes more visible to FGC-affiliated meetings, there doesn't appear to be any tried-and-true way to sort through the proposals. The recent introduction of a handbook to be passed along from year to year might help Workshops Committees engage in their selection process, though.

Some of what we did for the 2007 Gathering included having the committee discern out of the silence a list of items or attributes that would be given weight when considering workshop proposals. The list included things like a workshop's sense of ministry and the capacity to transform participants and/or Quakerism in general. Lifting up that list ahead of time seemed to help us stay grounded when narrowing the selections got dicey.

Other factors might be popularity and past success of the workshop leader; interweaving of the Gathering theme, plenary speakers' focus, and workshop activities; or a workshop that seems to fill a gap in some way--whether it's about our faith, current events, or a potentially marginalized subset of Friends.

How big is the workshop pool?

Towards the start of my service as clerk of the Workshops Committee, I found out that in a typical year, there are usually not many more proposals turned in than there are actual slots for workshops to be offered.

(The exception is when Gathering was held in Tacoma, Washington: there were twice as many proposals as there were slots.)

That fact alone has helped me understand how it is that such a wide variety of offerings (e.g. from the seemingly recreational to the scholarly), and a high number of "repeat" workshops, occur during the Gathering.

How might the workshop offerings change?

Here are some of the questions I have been holding now that I've gone through this process as part of the Gathering Committee:

Would the nature of proposals change if Friends knew more widely what the purpose of FGC's Gathering is?

Would the nature of proposals change if experienced Gathering workshop leaders stepped back and provided eldering to less experienced Friends who clearly have a ministry to share?

Would the submissions and workshop offerings change if the Nominating Committees and Committees of Ministry & Counsel from all FGC-affiliated monthly meetings--and other monthly meeting "cousins"--received a request that THEY identify 1-4 Friends from their meeting who may have a ministry that should be brought forward through the Gathering? Certainly the Workshops Committee would see some fresh names and new topics reach their notebooks as a result.

What might be next?

I'm sure there are other ways to increase the pool of workshop proposals and shift the overall direction or scope of what the workshops, as a whole, would present.

I'm also sure that a large number of Friends who are accustomed to seeing a wide variety of workshop topics would rebel and be upset to see that scope and variety narrowed, especially if that variety were narrowed too quickly.

What I'm less sure about is if a more focused scope of workshops (i.e. more workshops that are explicitly Quaker) would appeal to a different set of Friends who have been staying away, because they perhaps have been feeling as though the Gathering hasn't been "strengthening their identification as Friends," or "helping them know and deepen their relationship with the Spirit."

So, blog readers and blog writers:

If you know of someone who has been given a ministry from which other Friends might benefit in a setting like FGC's Gathering, I hope you'll encourage them to test if Way is open for them to submit a proposal by the end of the month.

Or, if you feel that push or pull yourself, please consider submitting a proposal.

Our faith remains vibrant and sustainable as long as we live into and bring forward the new Life we ourselves are experiencing.

Blessings,
Liz

*The link to the proposal form will likely be invalid after that deadline, fyi.

...But who is my family?

This post is based on a message I had been carrying for a number of days leading up to the FGC Gathering. I felt an opening and offered it during Meeting for Worship held under the care of Friends for LGBTQ Concerns on Friday that week. -Liz

Y'know how sometimes you are given a message and it stays with you for awhile before Way opens and you feel the nudge to speak it during Meeting for Worship...?

For about a year now, I have been serving on the Gathering Committee to help prepare the Gathering this year. And the theme has been, "...But who is my neighbor?"

Ever since the committee came under the weight of that theme last year, it has been working on me and changing me. As the Gathering has approached, I found myself living into a different question. It changed from "...But who is my neighbor?" to "...But who is my family?"

I think of my own "little-f" family. It's not that mine is a perfect family or a family that has been easy to love. But in the sense that we are all part of the "big-F" Family, we are all called to love one another, as part of God's family.

. . . . . . . .

Sometimes my partner and I get into these little discussions about just which one of us is the Center of the Universe. And recently as we were having at it one more time, I joked that clearly the word "universe" is wrong: that it really should be the ME-niverse, because the U-niverse is all about YOU, but the ME-niverse is all about ME.

We had been joking back and forth about that for some time, but earlier this week during Gathering, I found out something new about the YOU-niverse and the ME-niverse.

After a very long and tiring day, I was rewarded by coming across a table in the dining room filled with people I love who I didn't know knew each other. I joined them and we started talking excitedly about how we each knew one another and what was going on for each of us.

Soon I was telling them of course I had stumbled across this wonderful table because after all, I was the center of all things, and that in fact the word "universe" was a misnomer: The correct word should be the ME-niverse, not the YOU-niverse, because the YOU-niverse is all about you and the ME-niverse is all about me.

We laughed about that, and then suddenly, we hit on a new word, recognizing that all of us had something to do with having found each other that evening at just that moment:

The WE-niverse.

Blessings,
Liz

An unexpected meet-up at Gathering

FGC's Gathering is sometimes talked about as being a sort of greenhouse or hothouse, where you are opened by the Spirit, where you feel things more deeply. You get close with folks you normally wouldn't have time for, and you are exposed to intense ideas and conversations that can either light you up or burn you out.

In one case in particular, I would say I was lit up.

A long time ago, at my first and second Gatherings (1995 - Kalamazoo, Michigan; 1996 - Hamilton, Ontario if you're keeping track), I spent a lot of my free time playing volleyball with Friends I met while there. We so loved playing with one another: we called each other out into our best selves, both as recreational volleyball players and as members of a small spiritual fellowship. Some of us thought of it as Meeting for Worship for Volleyball.

Among the Friends on the volleyball court was BaM. Her smile was infectious and her care for each person there was deep and genuine. When BaM stopped coming to Gathering, I missed her sorely. My volleyball playing stopped a year or two later, for different reasons.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

About seven years ago, I resisted the nudge to attend yearly meeting for the first time. But God pushed me out of bed early on a Saturday morning and directed me to the site. I stood around wondering why God had brought me here--to River Falls, Wisconsin of all places!--and then I spotted a young girl, about five or six years old, standing alone and sullen in the midst of a room full of buzz and activity.

I approached her, gave her my name, and asked if she would play with me. She did, and soon she was telling me about how sad she was that her family had moved and now she would be in a different school and she'd miss her friends.

I listened carefully and soon enough we went back to playing. Then it was time to come together as a big group again, and I worried about what the girl's parents might think of their daughter playing with a stranger. It was, after all, my first yearly meeting experience and I didn't know what to expect. So I was relieved when the father smiled at me and asked his daughter, MC, if she had had a good time.

She eventually told her dad what she had told me, and I offered to be in touch over the summer, which delighted MC to no end. That was the beginning of a dear friendship, one which still goes on today, even if we see each other only at yearly meeting sessions and at Gatherings.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Serving as clerk of the Workshops Committee this year for Gathering, the first few days and nights of were hectic and tiring.

After a particularly long and tense Monday, the next day was also busy and with 40 minutes to spare for dinner and preparation for Tuesday night's interest group, I made my way into the quietest part of the big dining hall with my tray. "If I tuck myself way in the corner, I might be able to have a quiet dinner and calm down a bit," I thought to myself.

God had other plans, of course.

I saw a table that had familiar faces at it, but something was out of place: Why were BaM and MC sitting together, looking so happy and chummy?

Wait, what??? BaM and MC!?!

Now, I had already seen BaM earlier in the week, which was just a great delight; and I had also already seen MC and her family, which was very tender and sweet too.

But this, this was a combination that would not have occurred to me, and yet there they were, BaM and MC, now thirteen, smiling and laughing with each other, clearly friends. MC's older sister and BaM's mother were also there, as joyfully connected as MC and BaM.

And there was an empty seat at the table, with my name on it.

I joined BaM and MC with a rather loud and obnoxious, "Now how is THIS possible, that you two--two of my most favorite people who I've seen at this Gathering--know each other?!?"

And they replied in equal astonishment and exuberance, "How do YOU know each other?!?"

All of us immediately fell into a round of hearty hugs and excited explanations, and we were full-up with the Joy of the Great Giver.

Blessings,
Liz

The meetinghouse with two doors

During the week of FGC's Gathering in River Falls, it was rare for me to be able to attend any afternoon event, especially early in the week when there were a number of workshop-related campfires to put out. I say "campfires" because they were very manageable and contained, but should not have been left burning for too long.

On Monday of the Gathering, I attended a brief presentation by Michael Wajda ("WHY-dah") and Deborah Fisch, both of whom I consider dear personal friends. Michael is the author of the Pendle Hill pamphlet, Expectant Waiting: Finding God's Thread of Guidance; and Deborah's talk, given for the 2006 Weed Lecture, was recorded, transcribed, and printed as the pamphlet, Being Faithful as Friends: Individually and Corporately.

Both Deborah and Michael are very good storytellers. That is, they have many experiences and personal stories that they lift up to illustrate their lives and struggles as Friends. And they tell a good story well. Plus, their delight in God and their joy in sharing their delight was in turn a delight for me to witness.

After the hour, though, and now more than a week later, there has been one image and one question that still lingers with me from that afternoon.

Michael had placed a large piece of paper behind him, and on it was a very simple but large drawing of a house--the kind of house a child might draw: a roof line, the outer walls, a few squares for windows, a rectangle for a door.

But in Michael's drawing--a typical meetinghouse, he explained--there are two doors, with a sign over each. Over the first door is a sign that says "Meeting for Worship." Over the second door is a sign that says "Meeting for Good Ideas."

The question Michael asked is,

Which meetinghouse door do we usually walk through in our meetings?

Blessings,
Liz

Workshop Evaluation:Being A Servant

NOTE: My long blog silence is attributed to the service I was doing for the Workshops Committee in preparation for FGC's 2007 Gathering in River Falls, Wisconsin.

What follows below is the evaluation of the quote-unquote "workshop" I seemed to have been given by the Spirit as the week of Gathering played out. What I came to know as "my workshop" was, it turned out, a series of assignments that God was giving me--to support Friends through unexpected events, to be faithful despite my own tiredness, etc.

I hope to write other posts about specific events and topics--the interest group with Robin M and myself; God's reward after a long day of faithful service; the YOUniverse, the MEniverse, and more--as time goes on. -Liz

Workshop Evaluation - Gathering of Friends 2007

Participant's Name . . . Liz Opp
Workshop # . . . ALL... and none at all
Title . . . Being a Servant*
Workshop Leader . . . God

*not offered among the general listings of workshops.

For numbers 1-8, please answer YES or NO.

1. Did the workshop cover the topics that you expected?
NO
comment: The topics were very unpredictable!

2. Did the workshop stick to the subject?
NO
comment: It changed every day.

3. Was the workshop a safe place for you to share?
YES

4. Was the workshop spiritually nurturing?
YES and NO
comment: "Nurturing" is not the word I would use!

5. Was the workshop fun and/or interesting?
YES and NO
comment: FUN? unsure ...INTERESTING? YES

6. Was the Advance Program description accurate?
(left blank)
comment: What Advance Program description?!?

7. Did you use the information posted on the website in making a workshop selection?
(left blank)
comment: God doesn't seem to give long descriptions.

8. If you used the website, was the information helpful?
N/A

---

For questions #9-13, please answer using ALWAYS, SOMETIMES, or NOT AT ALL.

9. Was the quality of worship within the workshop appropriate?
ALWAYS

10. Was the leader prepared and knowledgeable?
ALWAYS

11. Was the leader appropriately flexible?
SOMETIMES

12. Did the leader interact well with the group?
WHAT GROUP?! If you mean "participant," the answer is SOMETIMES

13. Did the material speak to your condition?
ALWAYS, but I usually understood that too late to appreciate it in the moment.

---

Questions 14-17 are multiple choice.

14. To what extent was the amount of worship and/or worship-sharing in the workshop appropriate for you?
__ Not enough
XX About right
__ Too much

15. How much daily worship and/or worship-sharing do you expect in a workshop?
__ Less than 20 minutes
__ 20-40 minutes
__ More than 40 minutes
What?!? With this sort of workshop, when am I NOT in worship?!?

16. Would you recommend this workshop to a Friend if it was offered again at a future Gathering?
__ Yes
__ No
Only with a strong caution about what the Friend might be getting into!

17. Is this leader skilled enough so that you would take another workshop offered by him/her, if the topic were of interest?
XX Yes but I think what this question really is asking is if I would take another ASSIGNMENT from this leader!
__ No

---

For questions #19-27, please answer with a short comment.

19. Comment on the workshop leader.
Good assignments, but I could have used more direction!

20. What was the best thing that happened during the workshop?
Seeing the fruits of my faithfulness.

21. What, if anything, troubled you about the workshop?
Some group members were not cooperative in the assignments.

22. Were there ways that the workshop did not meet your expectations?
I'm learning to let go of my expectations with this leader.

23. If there was a guest speaker, field trip, video, or some other "special event," please comment on it.
The "listening session assignment" was particularly powerful--but only because it seemed to have turned out satisfactorily for everyone.

24. What new skill, knowledge, or understanding will you take home from this workshop?
That when I yield to the call and be of service, the workshop leader takes advantage of me and knows how to put me to work!

25. How has this workshop affected you as a Friend?
I have been given a strong reminder that being of service can bring unforeseen joy and energy.

26. What other comments do you have for the workshop leader?
Thanks for the helpers you sent my way, for speaking clearly, and for giving me just enough sleep!

Blessings,
Liz

A fragrance-free Gathering?

This past First Day morning, I attended a discussion about how to make the meetinghouse accessible to people who have asthma, allergies, multiple chemical sensitivity, or an otherwise compromised immune system as a result of disease or chemotherapy. Even people with migraines have symptoms that point to these same concerns, about certain environmental triggers that can provoke a physical, physiological, or even neurological reaction.

It was one of the most interesting discussion groups I've attended among Friends!

The Friends who presented the topic and helped facilitate the discussion participate in a support committee for a Friend who has moderate to severe chemical sensitivities. They are severe enough that if certain cleaning agents are used--say, to wipe down tables as potluck is wrapping up--the Friend has only a few seconds to clear out of the building or risk getting something akin to hand tremors as a result of neurological damage.

In many ways, it's been an uphill journey to educate the meeting and so success is measured in small-but-significant accomplishments, like changing out the whiteboard and dry-erase markers for flipchart paper and non-toxic markers; and converting the run-of-the-mill cleaning products in the kitchen and bathrooms from heavily fragranced (due to chemicals) to fragrance-free. Even items with ingredients such as "natural fragrances" and "essential oils" have to be avoided... for reasons I didn't quite grasp at the time.

It's a steep learning curve for many of us because our lives are unknowingly intertwined with chemical products and because those who experience reactions to environmental triggers are often invisible to us: they stay away from places and events that they know will be problematic.

It's a big task for a meeting with 200 households to go fragrance-free. It's even a bigger task for FGC to go fragrance-free. And this year, FGC's 2007 Gathering intends to take significant steps towards just that.

For more than 1,500 Quakers.

It's a big task. Understatement. But some big strides have been undertaken too.

For example:

For years, a very small handful of Friends have been doing a lot of behind-the-scenes advocacy and education. The result? This year, there is a housing cluster that is designated as fragrance free.

Also, a statement about avoiding scents and fragrances is likely to go out, either in a pre-Gathering correspondence or in the onsite registration packets. And free samples of fragrance-free toiletries are likely to be available to attenders, at least in some significant amount. What that "amount" is remains to be seen.

Another thing that I've heard is that the cleaning staff of the university where the Gathering will take place is being instructed to use certain cleaning agents in the fragrance-free housing. It's unclear to me if FGC is providing those products or if the university is. In the meantime, the university staff will be learning about these concerns, too.

Here are some resources and tips that I found worthwhile that came out of the discussion session:

Website for the Toxics Information Project, which is directed by a Friend.

Downloadable handout about the myths of chemical sensitivity.

FACTOID: Products marked as "unscented" may in fact have a "masking fragrance" that causes difficulties for people with chemical sensitivites.

FACTOID: Chemicals that are banned in the U.S. by OSHA for use in the industrial field are found in certain perfumes and other products--because those same chemicals aren't banned in the U.S. in cosmetics.

FACTOID: Dry-erase markers and Sharpies are terrible for folks with environmental triggers! And chalk dust is bad for people with asthma.

FACTOID: Crayola makes a set of non-toxic (fragrance free?) markers, which seem to be informally endorsed by a few Friends who are facing these concerns.

FACTOID: Good ventilation and open spaces can help alleviate or minimize some of the toxins in the air.

FACTOID: A pinch of baking soda for some people is a fine replacement for store-bought deodorant. I like this product myself; Arm & Hammer doesn't quite cut it for me.

One last thing I should mention:

I think FGC staff and the Friends who have been doing this education and advocacy seem to have realistic expectations. I don't think there's anyone who expects ALL 1,500 Friends to change their habits and their awareness overnight. Some might not even receive or look at the statement that goes out about using fragrance-free products.

As for me... Am I going to remember to seek out a new shampoo or get new sunscreen before Gathering? Will I avoid using bug spray if the mosquitos are particularly bad? Will I remember that "unscented" doesn't necessarily mean fragrance-free???

I may not remember everything I learned in a one-hour session, but I might remember--and put into practice--one or two new ideas... And tending to the small things will help with tending to the big things over time.

Blessings,
Liz