Summer Sessions 2015, Information

 

Registration is now open.

• Note: to the left is a Table of Contents for the Summer Sessions section of the website.

Quicklinks

• Steps to Summer Sessions, including registration forms and instructions.
• Program Information:
  • Bible Study: Mary Kay Glazer
  • Plenary Message: Don Badgley
  • Helpful People at Summer Sessions
  • Participant Expectations & NYYM Agreements
  • Interest Group Proposals
  • Meetings for Discernment
  • Worship Sharing at Summer Sessions
  • Financial Assistant Available
  • Business Agenda Items

Steps to Summer Sessions—Registration Instructions and Forms

If this is your first time to Summer Sessions, find a seasoned Summer Sessions attender as a mentor!

1. Early registration deadline: July 15. Click the following for Registration Fees.
2. Dates: Decide your arrival and departure dates.
3. Housing: Choose your housing preferences—click the following for:
   
   • Table of room rates at Silver Bay.
   • Silver Bay's descriptions of their housing options
4. Equalization Fund: We want everyone to be able to attend Summer Sessions. If you need financial assistance, follow the steps outlined here and/or call Helen Garay Toppins in the office at 212-673-5750.
5. Registration is now open. Register online or use the forms included in the May Spark.
   To register electronically: Click the links below to download the registration forms, (these are Word documents), fill them out using your Tab key to move from one table cell to the next, then email them to the office.
   • On-campus Adult Registration Form
   • On-campus JYM Registration Form
   • Off-campus Adult Registration Form
   • Off-campus JYM Registration Form
   • Registration Form for Campers
6. Registration fee: Send your registration fee to the NYYM office along with your registration form if registering by mail, or pay using a credit card, entering "Summer Sessions 2015 Registration" in the field labeled "This payment is for," which is under the "Calculate Total" button.
   
   • Download the Registration Fees Table—a pdf file.

 

Program Information

Bible Study: Mary Kay Glazer

Conflict, Shadow, and Unity

The Bible is filled with stories of conflict, stories of struggle, resistance, and opposition. In those stories, we find the consistent, persistent, ubiquitous presence of our Divine Creator, calling us into union with our Creator and with each other. In this Bible study, we will explore some of the stories and see what they say about conflict and unity in the Spirit. We will also reflect on the shadow parts of the stories. What do these stories tell us about conflict, shadow, and unity in our own community today? We will read the stories together, so please bring your Bible with you.

Mary Kay Glazer has been a Quaker since 1989. She has been active with Middlebury Meeting, VT, since moving to Ticonderoga, NY nearly 12 years ago. She is a spiritual director, retreat leader, and writer who takes great joy in sharing with others opportunities in which they can know God’s sacred invitation, new life, and the joy of relationship. You can learn more at www.mkglazer.com.

Plenary Message: Don Badgley

Publishing the Truth about Experiential Faith

Don Badgley will address the body about Publishing the Truth about Experiential Faith on Tuesday evening beginning at 7:15 pm.

Don Badgley is a member of Poughkeepsie Meeting and serves the Yearly Meeting on the Advancement Committee. He was born to Quaker parents and has been attending Sessions at Silver Bay since 1950. After a period in his 20s during which he dropped away from Friends, he returned in the early 1980s and became a member of Bulls Head-Oswego Meeting, now as a convinced Friend. Some years later Don transferred his membership to New Paltz Meeting and then later to Poughkeepsie Meeting, the meeting he had been born into. He has served both as clerk and as recording clerk at Poughkeepsie Meeting.

Over the last ten years Don has offered ministry to monthly meetings and also to other faith communities with a message concerning the peace testimony, experiential faith, and the miracles that bless humanity.

In the world Don is a Life, Disability and Long Term Care Insurance Specialist with the Northwestern Mutual and also leads teaching seminars around the country for Northwestern regional offices, for the Home Office in Milwaukee, and for other financial services companies.

His July 20, 2015 message to the Yearly Meeting will reflect upon this year’s theme: 320 Years, One Faith. 60 Years, One Meeting. Today, One Vision. from the perspectives of:

• Experiential Worship – As the primary Source of Truth
• Friends as Publishers of Truth – An active ministry in and to the world.
• Unity within our Diversity – A Yearly Meeting gathered by the experience of Divine Love.

Don is married to Tracy Lehrer Badgley and they will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary this October. His daughters Marissa, 27 and Alanna, 24 have also be attending Yearly Meeting Sessions nearly every year since they were born.

Helpful People at Summer Sessions

• Display Requests: Karen Snare
• Financial assistance: Helen Garay Toppins
• Food-service coordinator: Martha Gurvich
• General scheduling: Roseann Press
• Golf cart coordinator: Angel Ramos
• Greetings to absent Friends: Dawn Pozzi
• Interest group coordinator: Sara Templin
• JYM program: Rebecca Wolf  & Dawn Pozzi
• Minute editor: Steven Davison
• Silver Bay liaison & audiovisual arrangements: Martha Gurvich
• Special needs: Martha Gurvich
• Worship sharing groups: Kate Lawson & Claire Simon

All registration questions: Helen Garay Toppins, office@nyym.org; 212-673-5750; NYYM 15 Rutherford Pl., New York NY 10003.

Participant Expectations & NYYM Agreements

Our gathering at New York Yearly Meeting Summer Sessions is an opportunity to live the experiment of creating the blessed community. Like any community, we have agreements that guide our behavior toward each other and towards the whole body, ensuring safety and comfort for all of us. By registering for Summer Sessions, Friends are endorsing these agreements and we are all, younger and older, expected to abide by them. Parents and guardians are asked to speak with their youngsters about their behavior, and adults are asked to take the agreements seriously.

Given these agreements and Silver Bay's rules, Friends must smoke only in those areas designated by Silver Bay (smoking is not allowed in guest rooms), and must refrain from using alcohol and illegal substances. If you engage in these activities, you (and possibly your family or guardian) may be asked to leave Summer Sessions. So let's be conscious of behavior that promotes community, and conduct ourselves as responsible guests of Silver Bay.

1. All attenders are expected to observe safety precautions, such as maintaining contact between children and parents, guardians, or sponsors at regular intervals.
2. Attenders under 18 years old are expected to:
   • register with Junior Yearly Meeting in the company of their parent, legal guardian, or sponsor;
   • cluster with (sleep in a room near to) their parent(s), guardian, or sponsor;
   • have a valid medical consent form signed by a parent or guardian (medical forms will be mailed to JYM registrants);
   • attend the activities of the JYM group to which they have been assigned.
3. Parent(s), guardians, or sponsors for children under 18 years old assume responsibility for the safety and well-being of that person.
4. If responsible for a child or to an adult, agree and commit to a specific bedtime and check in at least twice a day.
5. If 18 years or older, register yourself and dependents with New York Yearly Meeting.

Interest Group Proposals

Deadline for submitting proposals to coordinating clerks: June 24.
Deadline for entering proposals in the online form: June 28.

Interest group times: Wednesday, 1:45–3:45 pm and Thursday, 3:30–5:15 pm.

Interest groups are educational opportunities about a topic or activity of importance to Friends. Those interested in facilitating an interest group should send their proposals to the appropriate coordinating committee clerk by June 28. This year we will be using an electronic form to aid in coordinating interest group proposals. Please use the following link to find the form http://tinyurl.com/q3bhe25. 

Interest groups require approval of a coordinating committee clerk to be put into the final schedule. Please keep this in mind when considering the deadline date of Wednesday, June 24. Coordinating Committee clerk information is in the Yearbook.

Martha Gurvich and Sara Templin will be glad to help anyone who doesn't have access to a computer or is having trouble with the form. Don’t hesitate to contact them—our goal is to support your presentation.

Meetings for Discernment

Monday, July 20, 10 am  •  Wednesday, July 22, 1:45 pm

Queries. Query for Monday: What can you say about the Truth you have found through your practice as a Friend?
    Wednesday afternoon's query will be available at lunchtime on Wednesday.

The Meetings for Discernment will be held over two days at Summer Sessions this year. The first session is scheduled for Monday morning, July 20th. The second session is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, July 22nd.

Meetings for Discernment are times of extended worship focused around queries. Friends are asked to wait to be recognized by the clerk before speaking so that we may hear each message clearly.

All are welcome. Please join us for what is likely to be an amazing experience of worship.

Worship Sharing at Summer Sessions

Kate Lawson & Claire Simon, Worship Sharing coordinators

Worship sharing times: every morning from 8:45–9:45 am and Monday, Tuesday, and Friday from 1:30–2:30 pm.

General worship sharing will be offered as in the past. In addition, there will be a number of special groups: Adults with young children; Caregivers; Conflict Transformation; Earthcare; Aging; Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender; Women; Men; Racial Healing; 12-Step; Afternoon.

Worship sharing provides an opportunity to worship together and create the community that supports us, and it sets the tone for the rest of Summer Sessions. Sharing insights, experiences, and prayer together refreshes the spirit. Each group has at least one facilitator.

Worship Sharing facilitators offer an invaluable contribution—helping participants to be a channel for the Holy Spirit. For this reason, please consider facilitating a worship-sharing group this summer!

We would like to have two leaders for some worship groups. This helps share the responsibility for planning and conducting the sessions. If you are an experienced leader, you may be willing to mentor someone who is less seasoned. If you have not had the opportunity to lead others in worship in this way, working with someone may help you feel more comfortable in the role. We welcome suggestions for someone you would like to work with. If you prefer to work alone, that is fine as well. Also, if you know someone who might be interested, please let us know.

All leaders are scheduled to meet on July 19, Sunday afternoon, at 5:00 p.m., in the Silver Bay Inn, to receive group lists and locations, ask any questions, and share concerns. We are working to make locations appropriate for special needs, such as a place for children where noise will not bother others, accessibility concerns, etc.

Please reply as soon as possible via email to Claire Simon, quakerartist@verizon.net, and to Kate Lawson, quakerkate@aol.com.

We hope you will feel led to contribute to Yearly Meeting in this way. If you let us know that you would like to be a leader, we will send suggestions about the format and topics in advance.

Financial Assistance Available

Deadline for application: June 28.

We want everyone to be able to attend the Yearly Meeting's sessions and we do have some financial assistance available in the Equalization Fund. You can contribute to the Equalization Fund using the registration form in Spark and writing a check along with your registration fee, or using the online donation/payment page.

If you want to request assistance, please first ask your monthly meeting, quarterly, and regional meetings for support. No request for funds will be processed and no funds will be disbursed without this communication from your meeting. Friends will be asked to send confirmation from their meeting about the amount that has been asked for and granted—even if it is zero. This process can be as simple as an email or note from your meeting’s clerk, or a more formal letter. Please see nyym.org for additional information on financial assistance and our Equalization Fund.

Fill out the Financial Assistance section at the bottom of your registration form stating the amount you expect or hope to receive from your meeting. Then write in the amount you need from the Equalization Fund. Scholarships typically provide adults and children up to one-third the cost of lowest-priced housing, but may provide more, depending on the needs of the individual or family. If you have a physical condition that limits your mobility and your access to the lower-priced housing units, please give us that information on your form.

Business Agenda Items

If you have items for the business agenda, please contact the appropriate coordinating committee clerk: John Cooley, General Services; Irma Guthrie, Ministry; Deborah Wood, Nurture; Mary Eagleson, Witness; or Jeffrey Hitchcock, clerk of NYYM, clerk@nyym.org; or the NYYM office, office@nyym.org. Contact information for the coordinating committee clerks is in the Yearbook, which should be available at your meeting.