FRIENDS UNITED MEETING (2012)

101 Quaker Hill Drive, Richmond IN 47374
317-962-7573
www.fum.org

Friends United Meeting (FUM) is an umbrella organization, consisting as of 2008, of thirty yearly meetings, twelve in North America (including New York Yearly Meeting), plus eighteen in Jamaica, Cuba, and East Africa. These are joined in a covenant of cooperation to carry out minis- tries both to their own constituencies and to the world.

FUM’s activities and concerns include:

  • Staff and volunteers who provide support for Friends’ work in Uganda, Kenya, the Middle East, Belize, Cuba, and Jamaica.
  • Publication of Quaker Life magazine, issued six times a year.
  • Selling books published by Friends United Meeting Press by mail and Web site orders.

FUM is governed through its triennial sessions (2011, 2014, 2017, etc.) and through its General Board. Triennial sessions are held, usually in early July and usually in the United States, but FUM is increasingly holding meetings and gatherings elsewhere, often in Kenya. The General Board meets for three or four days, usually on the second weekend in February, June, and October, and usually in Richmond, Indiana. But in an effort to foster intervisitation board meetings are often hosted by constituent yearly meetings, for example, at Woolman Hill in New England Yearly Meeting, Quaker Lake in North Carolina Yearly Meeting (FUM), and Powell House.

Functions of Representatives

Representatives to the General Board carry New York Yearly Meeting concerns to FUM, provide reports of the work of FUM to the Yearly Meeting, and take other opportunities to open channels of communication between the two bodies.

Organization & Method of Appointment

Representation to the board is related to the size of the yearly meeting. New York Yearly Meeting is entitled to one General Board member for every 1,000 adult yearly meeting members. Therefore we currently send:

    Three—General Board
    Nine—Triennial Sessions

Appointments to the General Board are for three years. The representatives to the triennial sessions serve only for the four or five days of the triennial.

Since the General Board often meets during triennial sessions in early July, the Yearly Meeting should include among its representatives to the triennial sessions those who are being named to the board for the next triennium. Thus, appointments are made at the New York Yearly Meeting annual sessions in the year preceding the next FUM triennial sessions (i.e., 2010, 2013, 2016, etc.). New York Yearly Meeting names an equal number of alternates in case some named representatives are unable to attend.

The New York Yearly Meeting representatives choose a clerk or convener and a representative to the Nurture Coordinating Committee.

Meeting Times & Places

In addition to the FUM general board meetings, the New York Yearly Meeting representatives may meet during Yearly Meeting sessions and, occasionally, at Representative Meeting sessions.

Finances

The Operating Budget provides an annual contribution to FUM. Other contributions received from Yearly Meeting trust funds are administered by the Committee on World Ministries.

The Operating Budget also includes a sum for an accumulating travel pool, which helps to pay the costs of representatives to triennial sessions and an allowance for expenses (travel, room, and board) of representatives serving on the General Board.