26 April 2012
Liaisons, Clerks, and Representatives: please distribute and consider reading aloud at Meeting for Business and including in your newsletter. Thanks!
Dear Pacific Yearly Meeting Friends,
Spring has been full of communal tilling, fertilizing, sowing, watering, and even some harvesting. Since I last wrote you, I’ve visited with Redwood Forest, Redding, Chico, Sacramento, San Diego, and Palo Alto Meetings, and I’ve been collaborating with the planning committees for both Quarterly Meetings, Junior Yearly Meeting (JYM), and the Palo Alto teen retreat group. The attached calendar lists many upcoming opportunities. Please support teens in your area to attend events by helping them register, figure out payment and/or scholarships, and organize transportation. The El Salvador service learning trip can take a few more registrants in the next couple weeks. The new Peace Action Camp and the Teen Leadership Camp already have some youth signed up who’d love to welcome more of their f/Friends. (See website links in the calendar.)
I’m writing you this epistle between two outreach trips, returning from the Quaker Center workshop put on by PYM’s subcommittee on Racial Justice, and now preparing for three weeks of visitation, events, and meetings in Southern California. Over 20 adult Friends participated in the “Partners in Healing: Racial Dynamics among Friends” workshop at Quaker Center. In March, I had helped arrange for Carl Magruder (Strawberry Creek), a member of the PYM Subcommittee on Racial Justice (which organized the workshop) to give a session on this same topic at the teen retreat held in Palo Alto. In these spaces Friends have been considering the ways that we exclude others, and what it means to be an ally. These dynamics play out in race, age, and other demographics and ‘cultures.’ What are you and your Meeting doing to better include teens and young adults, people of color, newcomers, and others who may not see themselves strongly represented? Junior Yearly Meeting has been working on this issue in recent years, and we expect to continue at Walker Creek Ranch this August 13-18th. Eight adults interested in becoming stronger allies to youth gathered with me for a workshop on the topic in March, which will be repeated in Southern California on May 12th as described below.
My Southern California trip starts with the SCQM gathering and teen overnight this weekend (4/28). The following weekend (5/6) I’ll be visiting La Jolla Meeting and attending a fundraiser for one of PYM’s participants on this year’s FWCC Quaker Youth Pilgrimage. And the third weekend (5/12-13) I’ll be in Santa Monica to lead the Southern California session of our Youth Program workshop, “Being an Ally to Youth as a Friendly Adult Presence and Beyond” (have you registered yet??), and to visit with Santa Monica Meeting. The workshop is followed by an intergenerational potluck dinner and games open to all. Please contact me if you or your Meeting or Worship Group would like to meet with me on a weekday during those three weeks or to set something up for the future.
The epistle is only one way to learn about many activities throughout PYM. My committee and I have been doing a whole lot of writing to inform Friends as well as to document the movement of the Spirit within PYM’s Youth Program.
• Did you see our article in Friends Journal’s theme issue on “Membership and the Generation Gap”? (It’s called “Crossing the Monkey Bridge Together,” April 2012, pp. 17-19, by Mary Klein with the Youth Program Coordinator & Committee and nine other PYM teens and adults).
• We publish regularly in Western Friend: March’s article was about being an ally to youth and planning effective intergenerational events; the upcoming April/May article focuses on sexuality education within faith community and intended improvements to the “Respectful Relationships” module at Junior Yearly Meeting.
• Our report to Representative Committee in March summarized our recent work and included a proposal about the timeline of the YPC Pilot Period. RepCom recommended the proposal and referred it to be considered at the Annual Session. https://www.pacificyearlymeeting.org/2012/uncategorized/ypc-report-to-representative-committee-march-2012-2/
The Supervisory Committee is conducting a program evaluation via interviews as well as queries sent to each Meeting and Worship Group in CA and NV. Please make sure your Meeting replies by May 16th so that it can be included in our report to PYM. Contact Mary Klein (Palo Alto), marycklein [at] yahoo [dot] com, if you have any questions.
https://www.pacificyearlymeeting.org/2012/pym-docs/ypc/ypc-program-eval-2012/
Speaking of the Supervisory Committee, we’re glad to welcome two new members, Clare Griese (La Jolla) and Marie Vastola (Monterey Peninsula). Both of these Friends have been active in Quarterly and Yearly Meeting for many years. Marie is a high school senior preparing to head to college; she attended the Woolman Semester during her junior year. Clare is a high school sophomore and one of two PYM teens chosen to attend this summer’s FWCC Quaker Youth Pilgrimage in the Netherlands, Belgium, and the UK. Please join us in thanking Marie and Clare for their service!
Friends able to give financial support to PYM’s two FWCC Youth Pilgrims 2012, Jayden Navarro (Santa Cruz) and Clare Griese (La Jolla), please contact me so I can refer you to them. They each need to raise $3,500 plus airfare and incidentals.
There’s a lot going on, yet Friends long for more. More events. More access. More participants. More communication. As one step, my Supervisory Committee and I are envisioning hosting a consortium in the late summer to bring together teens and adults from all the various teen programs (committees, centers, etc.) to coordinate the offerings for upcoming seasons and see where we have room to grow. If this speaks to you, please let me know. A calendar of events is included on the next page.
Light and sunshine,
~ Alyssa
Alyssa Nelson, Youth Program Coordinator
Pacific Yearly Meeting
(530) 563-6369 (cell)
pym.youthcoordinator@gmail.com
Join our Facebook Page: “Pacific Yearly Meeting Youth Programs”
2012 Calendar of Events: upcoming intergenerational and youth-focused activities.
Please email Alyssa Nelson to have youth events included on the PYM calendar https://www.pacificyearlymeeting.org/events/
● April 28 (plus teen overnight on Saturday): Southern California Quarterly Meeting in Riverside (Inland Valley Meeting). https://scqm.org/
● May 6: Fundraiser for Quaker Youth Pilgrimage. (Luncheon after Meeting for Worship at La Jolla Meeting. Supports teen Pilgrim, Clare Griese.)
● May 12: Adult Ally / FAP Workshop in Santa Monica, facilitated by the Youth Program Coordinator. Please register by May 7th. Followed by intergenerational dinner potluck and games. https://www.pacificyearlymeeting.org/2012/pym-docs/ypc/workshop-fap-adultally-santamonica-may12/
● May 18-20: College Park Quarterly Meeting (at Quaker Center): “Beyond Membership: Growing as Friends” https://collegepark.quaker.org/
● May 26: Woolman Semester Graduation. Now also accepting applications for 2012 & 2013. https://semester.woolman.org/
● Camp Woolman online registration for Summer 2012 is open for Teen Leadership Camp (ages 15-16) and Sierra Friends Camp (ages 9-14) https://camp.woolman.org/
● Quaker Center Youth Summer Camps: In addition to the beloved Quaker Camp and Service Camp for children and pre-teens, check out the new Peace Action Camp for rising 10th through 12th graders to be held in La Jolla, CA, July 22-28: Outdoor adventure and nonviolent direct action activities empower high-school age teens to strengthen spirit-led community, teamwork, and leadership skills.
○ Quaker Center’s annual passes can be applied to camp! Has your Meeting purchased a pass yet?
● Spring/Summer/Fall: Quaker Center Workshops are open to Friends of all ages –a great opportunity for intergenerational learning in community– and childcare is available. Annual passes (for individuals and Meetings) are good for a full year from date of purchase. Buy two and send a teen-adult pair to each workshop! See website for information about upcoming topics, such as Clerking, Quaker Life, Healing Energy, Music & Dance…. https://www.quakercenter.org/
● July 21 – August 5: El Salvador Service Learning Trip for ages 14 and up. https://www.pafmelsalvadorprojects.org/2012%20Service%20learning.htm
● August 10-12: Seeking Spirit All Together: Intergenerational Faith, Fun & Fellowship, a Quaker Center workshop by the Youth Program Coordinator & Committee. https://www.quakercenter.org/programs/program-schedule/
● August 13-18: PYM Annual Session: https://www.pacificyearlymeeting.org/
See you there?