Five years of community

I said that I would do a soul-searching review on our five year anniversary, which just came and went. What I would ordinarily do is a lot of reflection followed by going back to how it always was. I'm trying to figure out a way to make it not same-same.

The problem we are struggling with is the same as many Quaker communities: we are getting older and are not attracting young families or anyone else for that matter. Sometimes they come and stay a while - a few weeks, or many weeks - and then they drift off. I may be the wrong kind of host for such a group. I've come to be somewhat Quakerly in my approach, taking a long time to decide anything and making sure there is consensus when in many cases consensus can't be found or won't make itself clear.

There are many possibilities for an online meeting: starting a business meeting, leaning toward social change, taking an active role in resolving national crises, making more of a community that shares music and social hours, making a First-day school online. Let's just say these are on the table for the coming year. I am paying the Zoom fee and hope to use it to its full extent.

Speaking of money, here's an annual report. The zoom fee is our only expense (I could surreptitiously slip in on another account but have chosen to have a personal account that is basically only used for the Quakers). I have published two books that advertise: All profits go to Quaker organizations. That money nowhere near covers the zoom fee but when it does I'll contribute profits to QVS or somewhere. In the meantime I am glad to pay most of the monthly fee myself. It's less than $20/mo. and I've actually forgotten how much exactly.

I would LOVE to see the whole thing grow exponentially though I imagine there would be a price to, for example, selling out to someone who had the money, had the people, but wanted us to change our stubborn Quaker beliefs just a little bit. I've often thought, it's a wonder someone like that hasn't come along. Quaker meetings nationwide have become small enough that I would consider them endangered, but, we cling tenaciously to survival, and we don't sell out. That's definitional, I guess.