Author: Keenan Lorenzato PacYM YPC

Pacific Yearly Meeting seeks full-time Youth Programs Coordinator (12/2020)

Pacific Yearly Meeting seeks a full-time Youth Programs Coordinator, beginning in March, 2021. The role of the Youth Programs Coordinator is to enhance the spiritual development and nurture of youth and intergenerational community within the Yearly Meeting.

The Youth Programs Coordinator supports and coordinates activities that build the capacity of youth and adults to run their own programs and serves as a resource for Meetings (local/Monthly, worship groups, Quarterly, Yearly) and related Quaker organizations within PacYM. In working with individuals, groups, and committees of all ages, the Coordinator and the Youth Programs Coordinating Committee (YPCC) may act as a catalyst for new programs and activities. The work of the Youth Programs Coordinator (YPC) includes supporting young Friends and involving them in the life of the Meeting: helping them to stay connected between sessions and helping Meetings that have children, teenagers, and young adults meet these Friends’ needs. 

Applicants for this position must have a demonstrated spiritual life, including a deep grounding and experience of Quaker beliefs, practices and discernment processes.They should possess excellent communication and interpersonal relationship skills and be able to utilize contemporary forms of technology.  Applicants should have successful experience organizing activities and events with teenagers and adults.  They should be organized and self-motivated.

This is a full-time, year-round position with an initial salary ranging from $47,000 to $54,000 per year, based on applicant experience. There is a generous benefits package including paid vacation, holidays, personal days and a contribution towards a health reimbursement account. Please see additional information detailed in the full YPC Job Description and our updated YPC Roles & Responsibilities documents.


HOW TO APPLY: Individuals interested in applying for this position should send a cover letter that describes how you would approach the position (max two pages) and a resume with the names and contact information for three references. Application materials should be sent via e-mail attachment to Barbara Babin: b_babin@yahoo.com 

Applications will be accepted until the position is filled; to be certain of being considered for the position, applications should be received by January 20, 2021.

Pacific Yearly Meeting is an equal opportunity employer. Persons of color and LGBTQ individuals are strongly encouraged to apply.

In Preparation for Annual Session 2020 on Radical Inclusivity: A Letter from PacYM Ministry & Oversight to Friends

February 4, 2020

(Sent on behalf of Presiding Clerk Sandy Kewman and the Ministry and Oversight Committee by Sharon Gates, Assistant to the Clerk of PYM. Please circulate widely in your Meeting so all members and attenders have the opportunity to read it.)

“Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness, and bearing one with another, and forgiving one another, and not laying accusations one against another, but praying one for another, and helping one another up with a tender hand, if there has been a slip or fall, and waiting until the Lord gives sense and repentance, if sense and repentance in any be wanting.”

—Isaac Penington

Dear Friends,

In preparation for Pacific Yearly Meeting (PacYM) Annual Session 2020 and beyond, the PacYM Ministry & Oversight (M&O) Committee and Presiding Clerk Sandy Kewman call upon Meeting members and attenders to engage deeply in inquiry and discernment on fostering greater inclusion and love for each other, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, age, experience with Quakerism, abilities, sexual orientation and the numerous less seen differences that we may have. This is a lifelong concern, commitment, and practice, one with which every Friend must grapple in order to co-create and live into the beloved community.

As a way to deepen our discussions and work towards living into being a beloved community, we request in the next year that Friends in your Monthly Meeting read the book White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo. Understanding that Friends have already begun working on this year’s State of the Meeting reports, we ask that you respond to the queries posed below and to please include in your Meeting’s State of the Meeting report⁠—if not this year then in 2021⁠—the work your Meeting is doing to deepen the state of being a beloved community for all people, to see the unseen and acknowledge opportunities for growth.

We believe that in taking these action steps, Friends will have a common language and framework by which to identify and talk about racism, white privilege, settler colonialism, and the inherited culture of white supremacy individually, in relationship with one another, and structurally in our Meetings and the larger society. This work is critical if  Friends are to really be friends to each other and our earth.

We offer these queries for your Spirit-filled consideration:

  • In what ways did White Fragility help you understand the place of race in our lives and in our Meetings with a new or different perspective?
  • How aware and awake is your Meeting to how race, cultural differences, privilege and entitlement impact the quality of your relationships and friendships in your Meeting?
  • What new learning about how to be a more beloved community for all people within the culture of Friends has occurred in your Meeting?
  • In what ways have we been “fragile” to seeing our sometimes unconscious and unintentional role in perpetuating a culture of dominance?
  • What steps could your Meeting take to increase inclusion and the loving telling of truth among Friends in the coming year?

To support this work, we recommend that you utilize Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility reading guide, which can be accessed here. Friends may wish to approach this request like a book club, completing the whole book and gathering at the end to discuss, or may want to read the chapters together as a group over the course of several months. We hope that Meetings will have begun the book by the time Annual Session 2020 begins.

If led, we encourage your Meeting to further deepen into this concern by exploring the following works:

For additional resources, please see visit our Racial Justice webpage here.

Please reach out to PacYM M&O Committee with any questions or feedback about this request. Please contact: PacYMMO@gmail.com.

In Peace,

Pacific Yearly Meeting Ministry & Oversight Committee and Presiding Clerk Sandy Kewman

YPCC Evaluation Report to AS 2019

DOWNLOAD:

This post is linked from the YPCC web page.

 

WEB VERSION:

PYM Youth Programs Coordinating Committee
Program Evaluation Report 2019
(See also the summary of responses in appendix in linked PDF, above)

Summary

Responses to an online survey, sent to meetings and individuals in December 2018, provided clear support of the Youth Programs Coordinator (YPC)  and offered suggestions and critiques of the efforts of the YPC and the Youth Programs Coordinating Committee (YPCC). Respondents who have been active in regional events such as Annual Session and Quarterly Meetings were more knowledgeable regarding impacts on the youth programs and listed many positive changes observed since the program began. A desire for support of the children’s program and youth programs in monthly meetings was expressed. A concern that youth programs were not developing a spiritual foundation and that we address issues of racism, classism, sexism and ageism were also expressed. Respondents were divided regarding the question of hiring an administrative support person and focusing the YPC role on youth activities.  A majority of respondents support the cost of the YPC as money well spent, with some expressing concern regarding the impact of the cost on meeting budgets and limited impact seen at the monthly meeting level.

Continue reading “YPCC Evaluation Report to AS 2019”

YPC Epistle XIII – Alyssa’s Farewell – May 2019

PDF for download: ypc_Epistle013_May2019_AlyssaFarewell.pdf
See YPCC page for a list of all YPC Epistles and Announcements

May 15, 2019 – From Alyssa Nelson

Hello Pacific Yearly Meeting Friends! And farewell!!

After eleven years (!!!), the time has come to bid you a ‘see you around.’ Today is my official last day as the PYM Youth Programs Coordinator, a role I’ve been in since August 2011 and an initiative I’ve been part of in various ways since spring 2008. I’m writing to make sure everyone knows I’m leaving and to take this opportunity to share some reflections.

(For those sitting on the edge of your seats right now…, Yes, there will be a new YPC. The Youth Programs Coordinating Committee will be making an announcement about that shortly. At the end of this epistle you’ll find a list of contact people for the interim.) Continue reading “YPC Epistle XIII – Alyssa’s Farewell – May 2019”

Volunteer with JYM or Children’s Program at 2019 PYM Annual Session: DEADLINE EXTENDED

Update 6/5/19: MORE VOLUNTEERS ARE STILL NEEDED WITH THE TEEN AND CHILDREN’S PROGRAMS, as soon as possible: A fantastic way for adults to experience Annual Session and have your registration fees waived as well.  Learn  more below in the original invitation:

——-
Dear PYM Friends:

Can you think of a Friend who’d be a good fit to volunteer with children or teens at Annual Session? Please send this message to them!

Continue reading “Volunteer with JYM or Children’s Program at 2019 PYM Annual Session: DEADLINE EXTENDED”

Welcome to JYM 2019

Quick links for 2019 JYM:

  • CONSENT AND MEDICAL FORMS for Minors (PDF): must submit to complete 2019 registration. Send to Registrar with payment.
  • REGISTER online for  JYM and the 2019 PYM Annual Session, being held at Walker Creek Ranch, Petaluma, CA, USA from Friday, July 12 – Wednesday, July 17, 2019.
  • See sections below for registration, required forms, and financial assistance to attend ….. and DANCE THEME!!!!!
  • Contacts: The Adult Co-Clerks of JYM Committee are Muriel Strand <ecoengr@comcast.net> and Sarah Armstrong Jones <sajonest42ne1@yahoo.com>

Watch this page for …..

Continue reading “Welcome to JYM 2019”

Annual Session 2019 Attendance Fees

Registration for PYM’s Annual Session is now open.  To register, go to the 2019 Annual Session page and follow the link to online registration.  For information about PYM Annual Session in general, please see the Annual Session Information page.  See also Financial Assistance for PYM Annual Session.

Annual Session 2019 Attendance Fees

This page is for information only.  The online registration process also contains this information, and it will calculate your total cost based on your answers to the questions asked.

Rates are 8% lower across the board than in 2018. There is no cost to attend only Meeting for Memorials on Sunday, July 14.  Late fees or cancellation fees apply to registrations or cancellations completed after June 12.

These rates include meals.  Continue reading “Annual Session 2019 Attendance Fees”

Quaker Fund for People Affected by the Camp Fire in Northern California

Following the devastating Camp Fire in 2018 in northern California, Chico Friends Meeting established a Quaker Fund for people affected by the fire.  Funds were received from Quaker Meetings and individual Quakers throughout the US and abroad. As of 5/12/2019 all funds have been allocated and the fund is closed.  Deepest thanks to all who contributed.

See the Chico Friends Meeting website for information about the projects that were funded through this effort.

Chico Friends Meeting
1601 Hemlock Street
Chico California 95926

Posted by Sharon Gates, PYM Assistant to the Clerk
11/25/18, revised 12/8/18, 8/11/19.