QiN Magazine

A Secret Among Friends

2008-03-30T12:10:00.001-07:00

Story © 2008 by G. L. Reinhart
Photographs © 2003
by G. L. Reinhart and Conard Petersen

Quakers, sometimes known as ‘Friends’, have a 350-year history in the ‘growing sciences’ of botany and horticulture. They are also well known for ethical and successful business practices. The intersection between the business and horticultural sides of Friends’ lives is an important part of the ‘secret’ to these misunderstood people.

Just who are Quakers? Many know about the Quakers by hearing about Friends schools, famous businesses and progressive social causes. But little is known about individuals in this quiet Faith.

The founders of American Botany, John Bartram and his son, William, both Quakers, traveled over almost the entire country east of the Mississippi before 1800. They collected and cataloged tens of thousands of native species and collaborated with Linneaus, the famous Swedish Botanist.

Many have also heard of well-known businesses without knowing they were founded by Quakers. These include Macy’s, Price Waterhouse, J. Walter Thompson, Bethlehem Steel, Strawbridge and Clothier, Cadbury Chocolate, Lloyds and Barclays banks, and Wedgwood china.

The Religious Society of Friends has no affiliation with the original Quaker Oats Company or the current Quaker Food and Beverage Corporation, a subsidiary of Pepsico, Inc. The trade name ‘Quaker Oats’, was adopted by an incorporation of non-Quaker oat millers in 1901 to insinuate pure quality in the product, in the way that true Quaker businesses were historically famous.

The Hicks Nurseries, Inc. held its 150^th Anniversary Reunion
in July 2003 by inviting anyone whose current family works or worked, or whose ancestral family worked for the Hicks.

Alfred Hicks, a member of Westbury Meeting in Long Island, NY, was the patriarch of the Hicks Nurseries, Inc until he passed away in 2004. ‘Fred’ was interested in social causes in addition to his business interests. He said,

“The influence of the Quakers has always far exceeded their numbers. The work of the AFSC (American Friends Service Committee), is[was] one of the few organizations that really works[worked] to help achieve peace in the world, rather than just putting on a bandage.”

Why do so few in number have a subtle, but disproportionate influence on the world? Characteristics of Quaker horticultural businesses mirror the Quaker religious business model, and include an emphasis on decentralized small businesses, a disinterest in short-lived trends, and a reticence for individual or group self-promotion.

The Quaker Business Ethic

To begin to understand horticultural Friends in business, one must know that these humble people first set out to do ‘good’ and many times have done ‘well’ as a result. Quakers do, what is ‘right’, first and foremost, even if there are potential negative consequences to the Friend.

The phrase ‘Its just business’ doesn’t exist in Friends’ minds. Ask any Quaker businessperson what they value the most, and most times you’ll hear about the ‘Golden Rule’. “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” (Confucius) or "Do to others as you would have them do to you" (Luke 6:31). as the foundation on which they build their businesses. This concept of trust, or ‘answering that of God’ or ‘the good’, in each person carries on the tradition that Quakers have emphasized for generations. In this respect Alfred Hicks said:

“Once in awhile you get taken, but you have to have the idea that most of the people you are dealing with are good. If you treat people the way you would want to be treated, and give them the benefit of any doubt, they will reward you many times over.”

A Quaker spiritual belief is that all people are equal in the eyes of God. This is a very important belief that defines how Quakers treat others.

The Secret of Quaker Business Success

Quaker businessmen in England, like the Chocolate maker Rowntree (now part of Nestlé), were the first to ameliorate the harsh working conditions of their workers on a large scale during the Industrial Revolution.

Quakers became well-known as honest and innovative business people. In England and in the U.S., Quakers embraced a single price for an item (instead of haggling) and were able to operate banks on their impeccable integrity. Since everyone is equal in the eyes of God, everyone pays the same price.

Oh yes, the secret of Quaker business success is: its not a secret. A Quaker business plan can be outlined in three common-sense elements: Personal Service, Innovation and Integrity.

Customer Service

Louis ‘Bud’ Rockwell manages Rockwell Orchards in eastern Ohio with his brother Bob. The Rockwell's philosophy reflects most other Quaker business’ philosophy, answering ‘the good’ or ‘that of God’ in others. Bud says:

“We treat customers as fairly as we’d like to be treated ourselves, and this policy is reliable and returns us customers. We try to make right on any complaint. We never question anyone or try to decide if someone has a legitimate gripe or not.”

Alfred Hicks transformed Hicks Nurseries from a contract tree and plant service to a retail outlet in the early 1970’s as Long Island developed into a suburban community. Hicks Nurseries now has 125 employees and more customers than ever.

Hicks includes ‘personal service’ as one of the reasons for the company’s success. This reflects one of the most basic of Quaker testimonies, which reminds Friends to answer ‘that of God’ in every person. ‘That of God’, also known as the ‘Seed’, can be cultivated with the right conditions (worship and education), and grow in the ‘Light’ (as in the Gospel of John), and blossom. This ‘Friendly’ analogy with the growth of plants is a contradiction to the Calvinist belief that people are inherently bad, and must constantly suppress their sinful desires. Believing in the good in others and doing good for others is as natural for Quakers as a knowing how a flower grows from a seed.

When asked ‘if customers know about him as a Quaker’, Tom Wolfe, President of Smile Herb, an herb distributor and retail store proprietor near Washington, DC says,

“Some customers know I’m a Friend, especially the African-American customers who relate to the Quaker participation in the Underground Railroad. Others simply relate to the well-known historical Quaker peacefulness and non-violence. “

Innovation

The Friends have long been known as technical innovators of useful products. They have been tireless experimenters to achieve this success. This spirit extends to fruit producing horticulture, where Friends seek out new ways to improve on current methods. Conard Petersen, an Evangelical Friend and a pear grower in Washington State says,

“Ever since Jesse Hiatt, a horticulturist and Quaker from Illinois pruned back the Yellow Bell Flower and created the ‘Delicious’ Apple, the Friends have had an important role in the evolution of orchards”.

The horticulturist Bartrams of the 18^th Century sent many of their plant cuttings, and documentation to their Quaker correspondents in London for cataloging and pharmaceutical use. This cooperation between Friends in the colonies and Friends in England was known as the ‘Transatlantic Circle of Natural Science’.

The plant hybridization that went on in the 18^th century continued in the 19^th century with none other than the Hicks family of Long Island.

From the Hicks Nurseries website, one reads the story of the Hicks family dynasty:

“The Hicks family started farming on Long Island as early as the late 1600s, but it was in 1853 that the business currently called Hicks Nurseries, Inc., had its beginnings. …Henry (Hicks) was a premier botanist, the first college trained horticulturist in the family business.After receiving his degree from the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell, Henry Hicks, returned to Westbury where he specialized in studying the suitability of new plants from Europe and Asia for the Long Island environment. He kept up a wide correspondence with the leading horticulturists of the day.”

Another Quaker horticulturist and orchard grower was asked about his experimental orientation to increase his harvest. Louis ‘Bud’ Rockwell, of Barnesville, OH, a Pomologist, trained at Wilmington College (a Quaker College) and Cornell University (a college founded by a Quaker), says,

“The natural sciences are self evident, …The natural growing process is amazing in itself. It’s always trial and error for us to develop a tree to carry its fruit properly, and for the fruit to size and color properly. Horticulturists at the university level are continually studying maximizing the area of leaf surface available to the sun in order to shape the tree for maximum harvest of fruit.”

David Rickerman of Landesberg, PA is a Certified Arborist and a Quaker who, like Bud Rockwell of Eastern Ohio, studied horticulture at Wilmington College, in Southwestern Ohio. Regarding Quaker ingenuity, Mr. Rickerman says,

“I’m on the cutting edge of how tree work is done. I do things that nationally recognized speakers don’t know about and I hope to share most of my technology with the general public, since it won’t necessarily hurt me in my local business. I see it as beneficial to all to contribute my technology.

My tree technology, including how to scale tall trees faster and safer, allows me to serve clients better at less at expense. I can then take care of my workers better. My strongest feeling in customer service is ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’. The better I put my offering together, the fairer I can be.”

Integrity and Employee Relations

Quaker values extend to employees of Quaker businesses. Alfred Hicks was typical of many Quakers who don’t speak glibly of their inward beliefs or take Quaker proprietary credit for his success in business.

A Hicks Nurseries employee keeps a display of tulips fresh
at the 2003 Garden Show.© 2003 Glenn L. Reinhart

Hicks says, “Good management is good management. And the good personnel policies I use are coincidentally tied to Quaker beliefs.”

Bud Rockwell, of Barnesville, Ohio comments,

“We operate as a partnership as a management style and use consensus in decision-making, even including the employees in this process. Our process is not hard and fast. If someone (who works for us) has better ideas, we like to hear about them.”

In another context of employee relations, Conard Petersen, a Quaker pear grower of Entiat, WA says,

“I have a group of 10 [people] working for me. They live on my 70 acre farm. They’ve been with me for 15 years; they’re very loyal and hard working. They want to please me, the patron in their eyes, in almost a religious way. Sometimes it’s bothersome; I’m not sure if they understand what Quakers are about. (the egalitarian aspect)”

“I show no discrimination toward them. I treat them like I want to be treated, and they share their problems with me and I listen and help them.

I treat everyone the same, and I don't put the best workers in the best jobs. I try to understand their culture. They risk their lives to come here because we have a middle class. They are human beings, and they are God's children and we should deal with them with that in mind."

Back on the East Coast, Quaker Tom Wolfe, of Smile Herb in College Park, MD described his staff,

“As far as employees, we have more than Quakers who work here. We have a Catholic and a born again Christian, a practitioner of Earth religion, and one Quaker who handles our shipping and receiving. “

Religion from Experience

The direct communication between God and each person, ‘the Light which touches us all’ is known as an experience to Friends. Rather than something written down, or total reliance on ideas that came forth a long time ago, as the definitive answer, Friends also rely on the ‘Light of Christ’ sometimes simply called ‘the Light’ which reveals religious truth and allows the Seed of God to grow in each of us. What one experiences now combined with what came before, is the ultimate Truth.

This direct spiritual experience translates into the embrace of direct experimentation and observation in worldly science and the growth of a seed into a flower. What one observes in the here and now is also the most important aspect of the scientific method. The founder and gatherer of Quakerism: George Fox, went as a young man, to pray on a tall hilltop in Lancashire. When he came down, he wrote in his journal, that he knew God ‘experimentally’. One also perfects an invention or worldly knowledge by experimentation. This continuing experimentation is key to the Quaker belief in the perfectibility of our world.

What comes from this openness to perfection in our world in the here and now, is the Quaker focus on integrity and the tireless devotion and striving toward inward and outward peace. The gentle influence of ‘The Friends’ is working quietly as it has for 350 years. Better look now, that influence could be growing in your own back yard.

The Costs of the Quaker Faith
What the Quaker Faith Costs YOU
Kick the Trust Fund Habit

What the Quaker Faith Costs YOU - Part 1

2007-08-18T22:17:00.003-07:00

‘The Costs of the Quaker Faith’, in Friends Journal, July 2006.

Samuel Caldwell, said recently of the 300-year-old group of Quaker churches, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting:

“where the pursuit of a free lunch is developed to a high art.”

(read his full Pendle Hill Monday Night Lecture)

Local, regional, and wider Church financial expenditures are sometimes ‘tweaked’ year after year - where the needs and intentions of the religious community upon consultation with the Holy Spirit ostensibly hardly change. But, as Quaker membership in the centuries-old Church has fallen steadily over the last 30 to 50 years and real cost of Church governance has gone up, Friends may have slowly fallen prey to a few wealthy, or trust funds, giving almost all of the income to large Church operating budgets. The smaller donors, he implies, dance or sing, in some artistic or sophisticated way for 'free lunches' or free benefits from their Church government.

Church expenditures can also support a Quaker 'culture', especially if Friends 'tweak' the budget year after year. This instead of constantly testing what the Spirit wants from the faithful, and having us annually apply a zero-based rationale in planning each expense line, as Samuel infers very powerfully. The former General Secretary of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting goes on to hypothesize, that our Quaker culture, mostly known in very old Friends' Societies, is quite distinct from, and sometimes antithetical to the what he explains is the remarkable, living Quaker faith.

With this in mind, has your local Friends Church or Quaker Monthly Meeting, the basic unit of Friends Society, had an opportunity to consider the meaning of individual financial giving?

Can your local Friends community communicate more clearly to members, the benefit to the whole group, where members share more equally with each other in financial support of the Church ?

We'll get to how your Meeting or Church might do this. But first, let’s go back to Sam’s pithy remark about the modern evolution of his own, and potentially, your own Religious Society of Friends. Social scientists say colloquially - ‘There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”, in that a person or a society cannot get something (like large donations) for nothing.

Maybe, like social scientists, Samuel Caldwell might mean, “free things (or gifts) have hidden costs” to the whole Society?

Does your Meeting operate consistently on ‘infinite and never ending’ large financial ‘gifts’ from dead Friends, from trust funds, or from one or a few wealthy living donors, while many or the majority of others contribute, little or nothing? Do the large budgets maintained as above, not directly supported by living members of Friends Societies and Friends ‘institutions’, have a hidden cost to health, or to possibly to the Living Faith, of the Religious Society of Friends?

We might consider an analogy to illustrate how there are no free lunches. Environmental economists feel that profit-making business should not be able to use the earth’s natural resources as a free ‘gift’. Similarly, many Friends in this recent ‘climate’ of environmental awareness, feel there is a hidden, now becoming more apparent, ‘cost’ to us all. The affect on the health of the environment for commercial appropriation of ‘infinite and never ending’ natural resources - is most likely negative.

Similar to the confusion in the public today about hidden ‘costs’ to our environment, I feel that Friends many times confuse the unlimited opportunity in the spiritual realm with the limited restrictions of the physical in our religious societies and our daily lives. We believe love and the Spirit are unfathomable, infinite, and within each person. But, we deny our material restrictions as Spirit-centering when we erroneously feel that material resources, including income we use to pay our expenses, are infinite, abundant and free – from somewhere else, sometime else, or someone else.

So, I think Samuel Caldwell was warning us with his remark that his own Philadelphia Quakers, and potentially other modern Friends with the choice of maintaining large budgets and relying on large donors or trust funds, are selfishly pursuing this elusive thing that doesn’t exist. And, even if a ‘free lunch’, in the short term or short sightedness of some Friends does exist, we’re creating social repercussions for our whole Quaker Society in its pursuit. Have Friends, at some time in the last 50 years, taken up the search for something - like relying on someone else to pay for costs of the Church?- Or is this an age-old tradition – allowing 80%or more of the members to pay for 20% or less of the costs? A retired accountant, a trustee for a Presbyterian church in Northern Pennsylvania, told me his church consistently relies on 10% of the donors for 90% of the income, and felt that might be standard in many other mainline churches.

Samuel Caldwell may have keyed into the outward behavior he saw from the inward loss of integrity when Friends quietly create or perpetuate expenses which require Quakers to continuously live beyond their honest, egalitarian means. In public, this is when civil taxpayers become more likely to shirk their responsibility and try to avoid paying their fair share (of a perceived excessive amount) that a government says it needs. When a local Friends Church, Monthly Meeting, Quarterly Meeting, Yearly Meeting – or Quaker ‘institution’ – you fill in the blank - budget and actual expenses become eternally excessive, the ‘high art’ of the dance to elude church taxes begins (instead of simply reducing the amount of the budget). I believe that Friends have sometimes pursued a sophisticated course instead of simply reducing their Church taxes to allow Friends to live equitably within their means, in accord with the true and honest spirit of the Religious Society of Friends.

Friends are big on writing carefully worded epistles and pronouncements about the social and environmental costs for the free lunches in the wider world that profit-making business receive. What about the lunch check in our own religious world? How should individual Friends - how should YOU - contribute in order to live up to the remarkable faith of Friends?

How Quakers Collect Church Taxes

Let’s take the basic unit of Friends Society and look at its financial integrity of income compared with expense. When a local Friends Church or Quaker Monthly Meeting has unified on the costs that it will undertake (possibly in the manner described in The Costs of the Quaker Faith, Friends Journal, July 2006), how does that local community convey effectively and transparently the need for regular substantial financial contributions from its constituent members? The history of the first generation Friends is rife with reasons why they would not pay tithes to the church/state. They had ‘religious’ reasons, but they also obviously had no input into determining the use of the taxes either.

I knew, when writing ‘The Costs of the Quaker Faith’ that what I was embarking upon, would not stop at helping Friends consider the expenses of a Monthly Meeting. I knew that I had a limited space to fill - to make a point, and let it settle with those who could bring themselves to read about money, especially our own.

So, this concern is headed home - straight to THEE. The innate change in oneself that is required to open oneself to the Light, and possibly give more of oneself in order to possibly receive more of the Spirit, is something 'how-to' with which individuals have struggled for millennia. From my viewpoint, the spiritual and physical are interconnected in a Meeting, as much as they are in a person. If we understand that mind, body and spirit are one in a person, how can we deny that some change in our physical practice, especially in our giving of money, can affect our spiritual selves inside and outside of the Church? How one lives affects how one gives, and vice versa. And if a local or wider community decides to spend more than it can reasonably ask its members to contribute, divided somewhat equally or equitably among the group – the group is living beyond its true means. Let’s look at one way to possibly heal ourselves.

What should Monthly Meetings show?

Monthly Meetings or local Friends Churches, as the basic units in Friends Society will have to come to clearness that the community will benefit by showing transparency (to whom else potentially in addition to its members) into its:

projected budget,
actual expenses, and
actual collections.

Should a local community show these to its constituents, as well as to other communities in the Quarterly Meeting and Yearly Meeting? Why not? If Friends have integrity between faith and practice, we should have nothing to hide from each other or from anyone.

For each member to know or be familiar with what is hoped for, or expected in terms of gifts, the Meeting might consider showing a consistent trend progression of a few leading indicators.

A Simple Way to Share Financial Needs of the Meeting

My own Monthly Meeting, part of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, shares the approved budget, and simply divides the total projected expenses among the number of members on the rolls. The Trustees make an announcement that the Meeting would like each member to try to contribute $375, for the year 2007. If each member gives $375 then the expenses will be covered by the donations. Of course each member does not give $375, some give less and some give more. But this simple communication might be all your meeting needs to do to show transparently what is generally expected of each member.

Another Meeting member in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, explained to me that their Monthly Meeting communication with Friends is similar if not the same as my Monthly Meeting. The Friend states: "[Our] Meeting asks each member to contribute $425 to the Meeting for the year. Some give more, some give less and we make it clear that financial support is not necessary to worship [with us]. Of course, we need certain fincial support for the Meeting and members respond accordingly...."

If your Meeting feels like it should show more detail, or communicate more clearly about what is needed from individual members, read on.

Budget vs. Actual

A donor should know how much of a budget was approved in the current and previous year, as well as is proposed for the upcoming year. Below that should be the amount that was actually spent in those years. The difference between the two, if

maintained as a similar amount or percentage for years, as budget higher than actual, is a problem I’ve seen in most if not every Meeting I’ve attended. The actual rarely or never goes over the budget, (as you can see in ‘Previous Year’ and ‘Last Year’ in the chart below) so in effect, when a budget is approved and the Business Meeting later attempts to convince members to give this amount in a year, Friends know this amount is very, very unlikely to be needed.

(click on image to enlarge)

The way to fix this for ‘Next Year’ above is to have your local Church consider and approve a lower and more truthful budget. Have committees do some advance thought into how money will be spent in your Meeting, itemized as carefully as possible in committee, for the coming year. This is harder work than tweaking last year’s number. But this kind of forward thinking will enable your local Friends community to define more easily its mission and purpose, sooner than later. This early consideration, in my view, also helps Friends make decisions which are not stressing us at the last minute. These early decisions will help smooth the bumps in the road that occur at the more difficult points in our collective sojourn.

When budget lines are lowered, a committee or position might spend more than the amount approved by the Meeting in that year. For this possibility, ask your meeting to approve a general contingency of a certain percentage over the amount in the budget. Since the budget is only a plan, in any given year it could be under-spent or over-spent to some acceptable extent without prior approval by the Meeting. This precludes that a local community will have the right amount of savings which is not excessive, nor insufficient, in case of a year or two when donations do not meet the expenses.

Member Contributions vs. Other Income

I believe that Friends should know how much of total actual expenses are paid by their contributions over time. If this percentage (1.) is going down over time, it is signaling something which Friends might not know, or might already know, but don’t want to admit. If (1.) is going down over time, then (2.) must be going up because total actual expenses must be paid by 1. member contributions and 2. other income/savings.

Friends should also know then if the Monthly Meeting’s savings (principal) were increased or diminished due to a windfall or shortfall in contributions.

(click on image to enlarge)

In the ‘previous year’ above, Friends gave 89% of the actual costs of the Meeting, and 11% was given by interest income from savings (but no reduction in principle), and fundraisers, let’s say. We can tell this because the number is ‘0’ in line (3.) under the ‘previous year’.

In ‘last year’ Friends only contributed 82% of the total actual costs, and members also had to draw down savings principal by $3,110. Something must have happened - a large expense, a decline in members, or something significant to the Meeting - which would affect income or expense.

For the ‘next year’, we might plan to have two definite fundraisers and budget money for outreach to attract new faces. We might at the same time make plans to have threshing sessions for donations to the Meeting, try to come to show transparency as above, and answer questions from Friends and talk about giving in terms of our ability and desire to give to the Meeting.

The Super-Average Giving Individual

Can each Friend strive to be super-average in his or her giving? What is ‘super-average’, you ask? It is a concept partially inspired and partially gleaned from my experience about our Equality Testimony and what it means to me and possibly to other Friends. I’m asking Friends here to think about being ‘super-average’, and see if this concept offers Friends something to reach for - something to test, which might add a remarkable-ness to our faith.

I asked in 'The Costs of the Quaker Faith' – Can we have Peace without Integrity? I ask here: Can we have Peace without Equality? These questions suggest the obvious answers, and lead us to ask another question: Do the Friends’ Testimonies have integrity with each other? And if others can’t have peace because of the lack of business or economic integrity, or equality, can Friends also have peace in our own Society for the lack of the same?

Comparing the Mean and Median

Like the rest of society, the ‘middle class’
in Friends Society might be disappearing.
How can we tell?

Friends Business Meetings might start by agreeing to provide transparency of giving to its contributors.

Statistics use basic measures of ‘average’ in describing middle points in sets of data. I will focus on the mean and the median and their relationship to each other as descriptors of ‘super-average’ in my hypothesis.

The mean is the sum of all contributions, divided by the number of potential contributing members . The median is the middle annual member donation among all annual potential member donations. (Both measures include those potential members who give zero).

Super-Average is when the median of potential annual member contributions is equal to or greater than the mean of all potential contributions for a given year.

If Friends find they’ve evolved into a more disparate proportion than the ‘80-20 rule’ in financial contributions to their own Society, (where 80% of the members donate 20% of the contributions and vice-versa) these Friends might also consider how equal Friends in a Quaker Society actually are.

The Finance Committee or Treasurer can certainly report statistics on the size distribution of donations to Quaker Monthly Meetings. Friends might consider a consistent transparent effort, along with a multiple-year history of the Monthly Meeting income and expense statistics shown above.

(click on image to enlarge)

If the median annual member contribution is much lower than the mean of all contributions for the year – the Monthly Meeting has a problem of over reliance on one or a few wealthy donors.

This is not only a potentially unequal place for a local Church to be, but also an unstable place for the community to be. (What happens if the one or few large donor(s) go away?)

This diagram shows a hypothetical inequality in Monthly Meeting contributions.

(click on image to enlarge)

To create the occasion for peace and equality, Meetings might strive to encourage giving by each member household somewhere between the mean and slightly higher than the median. (Somewhere between $200 and $500 per year per member.)

It might be shocking for some to hear, but large individual donations to a Quaker Monthly Meeting should be discouraged.

If a Quaker Meeting finds 90% of the members giving 10% of the annual budget or less, the annual costs should somehow be decreased honestly and sensitively over time to return to a state of representative equality and spiritual vitality. A decrease in annual expenditures will allow the community to live honestly within its means – giving occasion for the true Quaker Faith to prosper.

Individual monetary contributions to any Society will never be completely uniform. However, in striving for the median, in being ‘super-average’ even when one or a few givers are wealthy, all Friends should realize that over-giving is potentially as destructive to the equality or equity within the community, as under giving or no giving. Reliance also on one or a few wealthy donors, trust funds, or bequests, as a major part of the year-to-year income to an operating budget, also encourages the Quaker Culture to dominate, rather than the Quaker Faith. (I like old meetinghouses (usually on the East Coast of the U.S.) as much as the next Quaker, however, as many trust funds are set up to maintain these quaint and historic structures, we also have to consider how much they insinuate the true Quaker Faith into our worship?)

This diagram shows an example of ‘Super-Average’ giving that Friends might strive for.

(click on image to enlarge)

If Friends really want to know themselves, where they stand, and what is expected of them - the Monthly Meeting can regularly publish the mean and the median annual contributions for members (and possibly attenders) to consider.

These two indicators will help contributors try and plan, even possibly change their own lives accordingly. For example, an individual might consider what they are doing wrong in their personal life, if they ‘cannot’ give somewhere between the average and the median donation.

We know that modern Quakers, (at least on the East Coast of the U.S.) almost exclusively, are highly educated. Consequently, there really are few reasons why these Friends ‘cannot’ pay between the average and the median contribution in most years. This unless the Monthly Meeting’s annual expenditures are simply beyond the egalitarian means of the community.

As mentioned earlier, my concern of spiritual and material integrity (between Faith and Practice) and its importance to Friends, is coming home straight to YOU. I’m moved to say that providing transparency to your Meeting’s finances will change your Meeting’s life for the better. Discuss it after a catered lunch or a pot luck supper sometime. Then record any notable expenses into your Meeting’s ‘Nurture’ expense section. Why? There just ‘aint no such thing as a free lunch.

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To receive a Monthly Meeting Contribution Sharing template, please send an email to qinfriend ’at’ gmail.com, or click here.

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'The Costs of the Quaker Faith' , how a Monthly Meeting can visualize its expenditures, originally published in Friends Journal, is now online.

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What the Quaker Faith Costs YOU - Part 2 will explore how individuals’ spiritual lives might be changed by giving to the Church

Worksheet for Financial Transparency

2007-08-18T22:17:00.001-07:00

(click on worksheeet to enlarge)

Letter to Flushing Meeting

2007-08-18T22:16:00.001-07:00

This letter asks a small Monthly Meeting to break its cycle of dependence on trust funds and other people’s money, and take 'ownership' of its life. This would be done by each member making a substantial increase in financial commitment of themselves in addition to asking members to consciously know that they have to grow in number over a period of time.

Flushing Monthly Meeting (NYYM) is housed in a historic meetinghouse (built in 1694) with relatively large operating costs spread over its 27 members. Flushing Meeting owns large trust funds. Members do not have a direct connection to the Meeting because they feel they don’t need to or ' can't ' give of themselves in a larger monetary way.

In 2007, Flushing Meeting has successfully petitioned the City and State governments to help them with their capital improvements. This process is rife with ‘red tape’ with labor and time needed by the small number of members to accommodate government bureaucracy, which will fund the necessary long-term building projects. The hypothetical financial plan noted below does not include capital items. My letter merely deals with the operating environment which up to this time, has been funded mostly by other people’s money. (Operating Budget ~ $33,000, member contributions ~ $11,000)

G.L. Reinhart

New York, NY 10011

6/11/2006

Dear Flushing Friends,

Thank you for the opportunity to worship with you today. My succinct message is that each member of Flushing Meeting is a part-owner of the Meeting. The Testimony of Equity, or Equality, as some call it, might say that we are all part owners of the physical assets, as well as the spiritual process in the manner of Friends. So then, the physical expenses of the Meeting are an outline for the expression of the Life, in your local community. The Quaker ‘Rule of Thirds’ is meant to allow any Friend, whether that person considers themselves ‘financial’ or not, to ‘see’ how costs are apportioned more easily than by looking at full pages of numbers, which no one really likes to do.

After some inability to hear my message right away– or mistakenly hear my portrayal of the Flushing budget as criticism - I think is due to disproportionate cost of maintaining the magnificent physical structure - the historic landmark – the meetinghouse. This is a large responsibility for a small group of people, and this responsibility does affect your Meeting life – there is no denying this. We sometimes admire those who take what life hands them cheerfully, as remarkable persons. For what are Friends thankful about the building? I drank in the scent of centuries of history today while hearing sounds of modern hurried life outside during the 4 hours I spent there. Value – priceless.

So, in effect, the life of your Meeting is affected by the cost of maintaining the meetinghouse. But the expression of the Life – as outlined in the size and apportionment of other expenses relative to the building, and relative to the number of members – need not be affected by this responsibility all at once. And Flushing Meeting cannot go on indefinitely in this mode of living on bequests and other people’s money. The alternative, make plans to end the cycle of dependence, and make definite plans to change it slowly,

My recommendations can be summed up in the following:

Try not to ever say, ‘we can’t do that’.

Getting ‘atop’ of our problems in this world is a Quaker suggestion to - think out of the box. There are solutions to problems, which are not always evident when one is enmeshed in the affairs of the Meeting. This is why it is good to have visitors from other Meetings come from time to time. (not necessarily me in this visit, per se, but visitors in general.)

Increase membership

Consciously announce as well as possible, in free and paid ways, the existence of your community, in non-partisan, Testimony-diverse ways, to the general public.

§ Website enhancement to help traffic direct to your site

§ Published Meeting phone number with voice mail and message (not someone’s home number)

§ Maintenance of the sidewalk in front of the building (weeds growing next to stone wall makes it look like it might be an old abandoned building)

§ Tasteful lighting in and on the building or sign at night

§ Outdoor tag sales / used book sales for extra income, also are outreach for new attenders

§ Classified display ads similar to http://DowntownMeeting.org in a local Queens newspaper

§ Hang a banner announcing the Meeting on the front of your Meetinghouse – ‘We’re the Quakers’

§ Hire an actor to dress in plain dress and stand in front waving an orange traffic flag into the parking lot on First days. (OK, that last one was a little off the wall).

Create a direct connection to the Meeting through financial giving by members and attenders that means something to the giver and to the community. Create more unity, or give occasion for more peace, through a unified vision for the mission and purpose of Flushing Meeting.

Create a unified Operating Budget plan over a 5 year period

i. Budgets are plans, they can be modified as time goes on. However, having a plan - a vision of mission and purpose of the Meeting, as outlined in the size and proportion of the costs - allows decisions to be made sooner than later, and more easily, with less pressure to make last minute decisions. Having a unified, approved plan allows week-to-week conflicts to be taken more in stride.

ii. Consider temporarily taking Caretaker and Utility costs out of the operating budget and placing these costs in the care of the Building Fund,

1. Until membership grows to a sufficient size to ask members to volunteer to take over the Caretaker’s duties, or to ask the larger number of members to contribute the full cost of the Caretaker and the utilities, temporarily place these costs off the operating budget. Friends would then reimburse the Building Fund each year in increasing quantities over this five year period (as membership grows and as more Friends feel moved to give more of themselves, to the unified Operating Budget which includes Nurture and Witness Costs – see below) . Each year Friends would be apprised by the Treasurer, the size of the deficit, the annual contribution to the Building Fund, over the actual costs incurred. The Meeting would consider increasing the donation, or self-rent back to the Building Fund each year to balance the Caretaker and Utility costs with the donations from the Meeting operating budget at some point.

2. Take some time and look over the Five Year (hypothetical) budget plan and use your imaginations as to what the Meeting will look like in 5 years with 20 new adult members and an operating budget of about $60,000 –80,000 per year – at which time the costs of Caretaker, Utilities, and other Administrative costs will be fully paid from member and attender contributions. (right now the annual operating budget, including the off budget funds of PSA and another, as well as the costs of Caretaker and Utilities is about $40,000, member and attender contributions are only $13,000).

iii. In light of advocating a unified budget:

1. I encourage Friends to integrate the two off-budget witness funds back into the operating budget, as well as to remove temporarily the maintenance costs above.

2. I discourage Friends from creating more earmarked, off budget funds for special witness or nurture needs of the Meeting.

a. This is an accounting slippery-slope, creates disunity in the Meeting, and more complexity for the Treasurer and Auditor, especially with the addition of more earmark funds as time goes on. Please do not go down this road any further. The unity of the Meeting, as portrayed by a circle, the integral whole should be just that, something that every member feels in unity with.

Thresh out during and after the expenses are re-apportioned for a five year plan, how Friends feel about giving to Flushing Meeting – the whole Meeting - building, maintenance, utilities and all – the best of their abilities – no matter what the amount given will be in relation to others. What is important – and I didn’t speak to the income side of a Meeting’s life on 6/11/06 other than to give the Clerk copies of writings from FGC on how this might be done – is that each Friend gives to the best measure of his or her ability, or the household’s ability. This might mean giving up something many times - which has profound importance in changing our community as well as us as individuals. Where the physical and spiritual worlds meet, is a remarkable faith called the Religious Society of Friends.

Again, on my visit, it was very gratifying for me to see those of you I’ve met before, and to meet those whom I haven’t.

God Bless.

G. L. Reinhart

		2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Flushing Meeting Expense Projection
	*Adult Members*	27	28	30	35	40	45	52
	*Member Contributions*	*$11,000*	*$11,500*	*$12,400*	*$20,700*	*$32,700*	*$47,500*	*$55,000*
	Avg. Member Contrib.***	$407	$411	$413	$591	$818	$1,056	$1,058
	*Attender Contributions*	*$2,000*	*$2,500*	*$3,000*	*$4,000*	*$5,000*	*$6,000*	*$7,000*
	Investment Income*	*$6,300*	*$10,000*	*$8,000*	*$7,000*	*$7,000*	*$6,000*	*$6,000*
	Other Income**	*$500*	*$500*	*$500*	*$2,500*	*$4,000*	*$4,000*	*$4,000*
	*Total Income*	*$19,800*	*$24,500*	*$23,900*	*$34,200*	*$48,700*	*$63,500*	*$72,000*

	*Total Operating Expense*	$35,750	$39,750	$23,900	$34,200	$48,700	$63,500	$72,000
		2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011

* Investment income will go down due to draw down of building fund to pay for Caretaker and Utilities Insurance, etc in the transition period when member contributions do not equal expenses. During this transition period, these costs will be removed from the operating budget. In 2012 the costs of operating the building will be integrated back into the operating budget and the investment income will go up again.

** Book Sales, Bake Sales, Tag Sales, Event Sales

*** Average Member Annual Contribution will go from $407 in 2005 to $1,056 in 2011. Each member will have more reason to give to the Meeting due to the more integral proportion of expense in the operating budget. This concept of member equity participation, or ownership should enhance members and attenders desire to give. By 2011, a larger number of members will be able to support a self-sufficient operating budget.

Wider B.	NYYM Payment	2,500	3,500	4,000	6,000	10,000	13,000	17,000
	NYQM Payment	200	200	500	1,000	1,500	3,000	4,000
Total QM/YM		$2,700	$3,700	$4,500	$7,000	$11,500	$16,000	$21,000

Building/Admin

Operating Expenses				15,000	20,000	28,000	34,000	30,000
	Labor	17,000	18,000	0	0	0	0	0
	Utilities	14,800	16,800	0	0	0	0	0
Capital Expense
Finance Exp.
	Treasurer			200	200	200	200	200
	Insurance			200	200	200	200	200
Clerk's Exp
	Newsletter	400	400	200	200	200	400	400
	Directory
	Web Site			600	200	200	200	200


Total Building/Admin		$32,200	$35,200	$16,200	$20,800	$28,800	$35,000	$31,000
		2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011

Witness	Queens Homeless			200	500	500	1,000	1,500
	Counter Recruiting			200	500	500	1,000	1,500
	Protest March			100	200	200	1,000	1,500
	Meals on Wheels			300	500	500	500	1,000
	PSA	500	500	700	700	1,500	1,500	2,500
	AVP			200	500	1,000	1,000	2,000

Total Witness		$500	$500	$1,700	$2,900	$4,200	$6,000	$10,000


Nurture	Religious Ed.	100	100	400	800	800	1,200	2,500
	Quaker 101			100		200		500
	Advancement/Outreach	250	250	600	1000	1000	1500	1500
	Fair
	Library				400	400	800	1000
	Hospitality			400	800	800	1000	1500
	M&O				500	1000	2000	3000

Total Nurture		$350	$350	$1,500	$3,500	$4,200	$6,500	$10,000

The Costs of the Quaker Faith

2007-08-18T21:10:00.000-07:00

by G.L. Reinhart
Originally Published: July 2006
©2006 Friends Publishing Corporation.
Reprinted with permission. www.friendsjournal.org

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Rather go to bed without dinner than to rise in debt.” This [to live within our honest means] might be difficult advice for Friends to hear in 2006—exactly 300 years after the birth of our most eminent scientist, statesman, and publisher emeritus. Ben was not a Quaker, but he lived and worked comfortably with our ancestral Friends. Can his sage words also speak to the economy of our modern Quaker faith?

I was hungry during my first year in college. There was enough money for one meal a day in the cafeteria. I later found work part-time to make money to bridge the gap. During that period I was a double major, in Business and in Music, and I became aware of two different, coexisting worlds. I began each day in an old theater hanging with tie-dye shirt wearers talking jazz chord changes. Then I’d go across the street to sit in new fluorescent-lighted classrooms next to students dressed in suits and ties talking marketing plans and internal rates of return.

Similar to the misunderstood relationship between the worlds of music and [the music] business, how do religion and the costs we incur to support our Religious Society work together? Not well, one could say.

I once spoke in meeting to what I felt the economy of Mozart’s composition meant to the beauty. longevity and genius that the music expresses. (2006 is W.A. Mozart’s 250th birthday). Many great musical works, including his, were made of few thematic ingredients within a framework of harmonic restrictions. Can Friends similarly consider the economy, the endurance- the beauty of our Faith?

I travel and ask Friends to consider the ways monthly meetings spend money. Do these costs speak to the Life? I ask if the scale and proportion of expense reflects what is most important to each local community in this religious context. Can living simply within our means as a community free us to make the right decisions more easily? Do our decisions express the remarkable nature of our faith?

My first essay for FRIENDS JOURNAL (“Quakers in the News,” August 2005 ) was about Friends viewing our Religious Society from an exterior perspective: how the broader informed public sees us in the news. I wrote, “We know ourselves from the workings of our internal business affairs.” But sometimes generalizations express half-truths. In reality, I believe, most Friends know the ‘why’ but not much of the ‘what’ or the ‘how’ of our own affairs.

I’ve experienced two different worlds among Friends, too. I’ve served as Treasurer for a large monthly meeting, and on the Financial Services Committee of New York Yearly Meeting. Both jobs were mostly thankless and solitary. I’ve been to “financial Friends” support meetings in Philadelphia, and discovered that I was not alone. However, these isolated caucuses, comforting though they are, don’t really affect how the majority of Friends think about money. So, I decided to try to make Quaker finance approachable and accessible to larger numbers of Friends by using graphic illustrations to describe what I see in the numbers.

When visiting local communities, my message is that the money each monthly meeting spends is an outline for the Life in that meeting—a roadmap to the mission and purpose of that community. I’ve heard numerous monthly and yearly meeting ‘State of the Society’ reports that are worded thoughtfully. Words are fine, but what really speaks plainly and succinctly to me are the financial statements. The numbers tell a story of a meeting that Friends mostly ignore. In fact, most Friends are quite defensive in a discussion of money. Some meetings even refuse to share their financial statements.

After college, I taught myself photography and worked commercially for ten years. So when I referred in my first FRIENDS JOURNAL article to seeing ourselves from a different perspective, I was thinking as a photographer would think—as if I had taken a camera to a different height, moved or modified a light source, or used a different lens to make an image more telling or more dynamic.

Returning to the realm of Quaker finance but continuing with a photographic metaphor: After some travel, thought and inspiration, I hypothesized a “Quaker Rule of Thirds” analogous to the photographic “Rule of Thirds.” To illustrate the latter concept: in a portrait composition the main focus is usually the eyes of the subject, which are located on one of the “third” lines:

Not every photograph I make obeys the rule’ but when I break it, there is usually a good reason for doing so. But it is critical for any photographer who breaks the rule to do the hard work of thinking through why the photograph is better because of breaking it.

My hypothesis of the “Quaker Rule of Thirds” also draws on my experience in monthly meeting finances, on my readings, and on casual queries of Friends far and wide about their meetings’ expenditures.

The symbol I use to illustrate this rule is the peace sign that appeared widely during the 1960s and ‘70s. I’m hopeful that my generation, and elder Friends whose faith was heavily influenced by the social upheaval of that period, will respond positively to the symbol. And my use of the word “rule” is deliberately provocative, since our Religious Society has grown from 350-year-old antiauthoritarian roots. We tend to bristle if someone suggests that we should obey rules.

I’m not suggesting that any monthly meeting has to obey the Quaker Rule of Thirds any more than that a photographer has to follow the photographic rule of thirds. As in civil disobedience, if your meeting doesn’t conform to the rule, you might consider worshipping about why the expenses don’t conform. Once your meeting has considered its expenses deeply, and then has approved a nonconforming budget, any member will be able to articulate the reasons why. This will be quite a step beyond the practice of most meetings, which tweak their expenses each year from the previous year and do not come up with zero-based rationales for continuing or discontinuing expenses.

Let me illustrate the life of a meeting—its wholeness, its integrity—with a circle. The monthly meeting is the grass-roots unit of the Religious Society of Friends, and the circle symbolizes both the unity of the group and its total expenditures. By the Quaker Rule of Thirds, monthly meeting expenses are grouped in three major sections, with each comprising one-third of the total. The third section is further divided in half, into nurture costs (focusing inward) and witness costs (focusing outward):

Can we have peace without integrity?

I’ve seen conflict in small and large groups of Friends where there was disagreement as to whether the size and apportionment of expenses of the community was right. This is, I believe, the main reason why many of us turn our attention away upon seeing full pages of numbers. I think Friends are better at the why than at the how, and the budget is an outline for the how.

When I compare my music school experience to the ‘how’ of Quaker finance, I focus on the basics that every musician learns thoroughly. One learns to play jazz by playing scales up and down and backwards and forwards until you don’t have to think about them anymore. Then one is able to finally let go of the mechanics, move forward and play beautiful music. I don’t think that most Friends have learned the basics of our own financial affairs.

Your Monthly Meeting Expenses

Here is a valuable exercise: Take the expense lines of your meeting’s budget and group them in the above sections of the pie. The components will form a graphic where the proportions of the pie will likely vary from the proportion of the “peace pie” of the Quaker Rule of Thirds. Of course, every local community is different. Deviations give special meaning to rules. Your meeting’s expenses, and how they differ from the benchmark rule, tells a story about your monthly meeting. I think that if your meeting has done its homework—the hard work of discernment—your community will be richer spiritually for it.

Rules

Some Friends have said in discussions that there are no rules about anything, and that Friends as Children of the Light should face the world as children—seeking, naïve, trusting. Some feel that we should just ignore our material surroundings and restrictions. But just as a ballet dancer has to learn 1st and 2nd position before performing at Lincoln Center, and a musician has to learn scales before playing jazz at the Vanguard, a member of a Quaker meeting has to learn the basics of faith and finance to participate responsibly.

In his book Integrity, Stephen L. Carter explains what rules might mean in religious context: “In Islam, this notion is captured in the understanding that all rules, legal or moral, are guided by the sharia, the divine path that God directs humans to walk. In Judaism, study of the Torah and Talmud reveals the rules under which God’s people are expected to live. And Christians are called by the Gospel to be ‘pure in heart’ (Matt. 5:8), which implies an undividedness in following God’s rules.”

So my question—Can we have peace without integrity?—asks Friends to consider seriously the size and proportion of monthly meeting expenditures as critical to the underlying harmony in the community. Is your meeting budget a moral document? Does it give occasion for real peace and unity to live in your local community?

Pieces of the Pie

Witness (17 percent)

This part of the pie is where we show the outward world what we feel are the most important inward lessons we’ve learned.

We sponsor homeless shelters, we serve meals to needy community residents, we counter-recruit to military recruiting, we sponsor local economic development, and reconciliation programs—we do many things. I know of one monthly meeting that has a rule that 25 percent of its annual expenses are spent in witness activities.

Nurture (17 percent)

This part of the pie is the most neglected section in meetings I’ve seen. Consequently, over-support of other sections of the meeting’s expenditures can detract from our own self-development.

Some meetings love their newsletter so much that they feel the cost of such should go into the Nurture section. Fine. Place that cost there if Friends feel that way. This tells a meeting something about itself. Nurture costs are generally for scholarships to schools, stipends for sojourns, support for participation in yearly meeting sessions, costs of food for social hour, costs of the Ministry and Counsel Committee, costs of adult religious education, First-day school, and costs for welcoming and outreach to greet new members and attenders.

Building / Administrative / Communication (33 percent)

I’ve 'grown up'* as a Friend in monthly meetings in New York City that are not proprietors of real property. We rent or make (proportionally small) contributions to an entity that owns the buildings we use.

Having a roof over our heads is sometimes taken for granted where I live, which we owe our forbears, who have set up trusts to maintain our property. Most meetings in New York City pay much less than a third of their total budget towards their rent and administrative costs. One meeting, abiding by the Rule of Thirds, pays its rent to a large church for a room in the building. A member there told me once, “We decided long ago that we didn’t want to be trust fund babies.” Quite telling, I’d say; this is the same meeting that made the rule about the percentage of witness expenditures in their annual budget.

That most of our members worship in 150-year-old meetinghouses that are New York City landmarks is both a blessing and a curse. This especially when we have declining membership and soaring costs for maintaining these buildings. We can sometimes erroneously feel that a quaint meetinghouse in a nice neighborhood is the essence of Quaker faith. We have famous actors getting married in them, but are they sacred in conferring the Spirit upon anyone? Friends throughout history moved their place of worship when real estate got too pricey. We haven’t done that lately. Building costs, which can increase over time, can skew expenses away from Nurture and Witness costs.

Wider Quaker Bodies—33 percent

An overcommitment to wider Friends bodies is also an example of how monthly meetings can find themselves, over time, losing the responsibility for their own nurture and witness activities. I’ve also seen overcommitment to wider bodies cause neglect of meetinghouses.

Friends sometimes loose the perspective that a wider body, like a quarterly or yearly meeting, is the tail, not the dog. Many feel that a dog wags its tail, especially when all of its parts are happy. But when local congregations loose their integrity, or their wholeness, by any combination of occurrences over time, Friends sometimes come to rely on the wider bodies, like quarterly and yearly meetings, to nourish their spiritual lives. These wider bodies take on the responsibilities in paid positions that were once taken on, face-to-face, by volunteers at monthly meetings.

Some yearly meetings have reaffirmed the decentralized, grass-roots nature of faith. These organizations have created a process of finance from grass-roots up, where “covenant” contributions to wider bodies are considered and approved by monthly meetings instead of discerned at the top and sent down. The larger Friends bodies like AFSC, FCNL, and Friends schools and colleges have encouraged professional participation by non-Friends in both financial and nonfinancial ways. These larger budgets generally rely heavily on a small number of very wealthy donors instead of broader smaller-donor support. It’s important that the wider religious Friends organizations—the quarterly and yearly meetings—continue to insist on bottom-up financing. In this way, our faith will be a truly remarkable gift to the world within our self-imposed restrictions. It is important for Friends to understand that costs of a monthly meeting are not the “overhead” to spiritual life—they are integral to that life.

I hope these thoughts will provide a simple motif for each meeting to develop. At the same time, I hope the contributions to our Religious Society are spread as evenly as possible across all members. With the hard work done in preparing the right budget, each Friend can more easily give according to the measure of Light reflected back by the monthly meeting. Each Friend will then grow spiritually from the gifts that are made, no matter the total amount given—one Friend relative to another. There are books written on the transforming power of prayerful giving.

We might agree that Benjamin Franklin was trying to tell us that living beyond our means takes its toll on the life of an individual. Inversely, we might consider that spending within our means, in the right proportions, gives Life to our religious community.

- - - - -

* The author was a convinced Friend as an adult in New York City. One line of his maternal ancestors arrived from York, England, as indentured servants in Philadelphia on the Jeffrey, one of the 23 ships of William Penn's voyage in 1682.

see the continuing article which discusses:
Giving to the Church
What the Quaker Faith Costs YOU - Part 1