Advancement & Outreach welcomes newcomers and visitors and helps them join and share Meeting activities. We promote Meeting activities and seek to build community both internally and externally. Through our Publications subcommittee, we publish print and online communications.

Welcoming Newcomers & Visitors . Much of our welcoming work is behind the scenes, including: Preparing newcomer packets, answering voicemail messages, making name tags, sending welcoming letters to those who sign our guest book, and encouraging participation in Friendly Eights, Adult Religious Education programs, and committee work. In 2007, we sent 36 welcome notes (down from 52 in 2006; 40 in 2005). Thirteen newcomers have taken next steps in terms of participation (down from 17 in 2006; 20 in 2005). We believe this decline in newcomers has been due in part to the ongoing construction. Current and planned efforts to address this decline include simplifying what we now call “Welcome” packets; directing people to the website for more specific information; hosting special “welcome” tables at potluck; improving signage on the building, including a banner celebrating our upcoming 45th anniversary as a meeting.

We remain appreciative of the many ways others in Meeting help us with welcoming and educating about Quakerism: Ministry & Worship as greeters, Pastoral Care's Friendly Ears, Adult Religious Education, Friendly Eights, and Religious Education.

Building Community - Internally. Our major set of activities each year centers around raising scholarship funds for Ramallah Friends School. In 2007, we raised $5,787 (up from $5,125 in 2006).

As a committee, we reflected on the current query on Outreach ( “Do you, as the way opens, share Friends' principles with non-Friends? Do you make non-Friends welcome in your meetings for worship? Do you find ways to encourage their continued attendance?”) and recommend instead: “As the way opens, how do I share Friends' principles with others? In what ways do I make everyone, including newcomers, feel welcome in meeting for worship? How can I find ways to encourage a sense of community within the meeting?” We believe this proposed language better reflects the spirit of what and how we do what we do.

Building Community - Externally . We also seek to build relationships with communities close to our meeting by inviting Edgemoor neighbors to participate in the book and plant sale (April) and the mini walkathon for the homeless (October); by participating in both the parent and faculty Quaker Life Committees of the Sidwell Friends Lower School; by representing BFM for Lucy Foster/Mary Wolcott scholarships; by presenting three Lee Stern Peace Awards to graduating seniors at B-CC, Walter Johnson, and Whitman High Schools; and by serving as liaison to a multi-faith monthly meeting at American University.

We are greatly assisted in our efforts by Peace & Social Justice activities and donations and by our liaisons to many other organizations. We are especially grateful to the group of 30 or more who prepare meals for the Bethesda House, a men's shelter. They make a major contribution to our presence in the community.

Publications. Publications, a subcommittee of A&O since 2006, continues smoothly. Jane Coe continues as editor of the meeting's print publications, with Elaine Sullivan as a backup to Jane, including posting the monthly calendar on our web site. Our thanks to Elaine Sullivan for her several years of service.

We have renewed previous efforts to document what we do and how we do it. We are humbled by the challenge to use and update these materials regularly. We hope our effort might be a model for other committees, leading to a procedures manual that documents the various activities of our Meeting community and assists us all in continuing the fine work of the Meeting.

BFM Web Site . Incorporating responsibility for the Web site (www.bethesdafriends.org) into A&O is turning out to be a good choice. We are now more pro-active about placing content on the Web site, including monthly updates to the home page, highlighting the work and reports of committees, and generally improving the “welcomeness” of the site. We have seen slow but steady increase in usage over the year (almost 20,000 page views and 13,000 user sessions). Based on which pages are used most frequently, we believe that the site has been used predomi-nantly by people outside of our meeting.

We are also seeing increased interest in using the web site by others at meeting, such as the Childcare Committee re online volunteer signups; Friendly 8s signups; and Stewardship & Finance, re online donations to the meeting.

In response to the suggestion that Meeting for Business place its minutes online, A&O concurs that this is a good idea, but invites Meeting for Business to spend a bit more time thinking this through before jumping into action. Does Meeting for Business wish the entire minutes, including the financial statement, on the web site, or just the descriptive portion? Are we comfortable having our minutes available to anyone who visits our web site? How might the nature of our discussions be affected?

With this increased activity, A&O is exploring how to obtain additional assistance to maintain the site, which is currently managed on a monthly basis by Jillaine Smith.