Advancement and Outreach Annual Report 2009
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 to further support our Meeting community.
Committee members in 2009 included: Jillaine Smith and Jane Chalmers, co-clerks; Ann Anderson and Ruth Nielsen-Jones, co-secretaries; Bernie Benson, web editor; and Jeff Fishel, Susan Maniatis, Brendan Weiss. Jane Coe, ex-officio; Marie France, ex-officio calendar editor. We extend our appreciation and thanks to Jeff and Susan who are stepping off A&O this year.
Being a Welcoming Community
Being a Welcoming Community 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 in committee work. In 2009:
- We sent 59 welcome notes (history: 54 in 2008; 36 in 2007; 52 in 2006; 40 in 2005)
- 28 newcomers have taken next steps in terms of participation (history: 13 in 2008; 13 in 2007; 17 in 2006; 20 in 2005).
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, Religious Education and the Book table.
Helping everyone feel welcome and a part of our meeting community has been and continues to be both a major focus as well as a major challenge. We invite the entire meeting to take on a renewed effort to build community.
Building Community - Externally
A&O also seeks to build relationships with communities close to our meeting:
- We reach out to the broader community through ads in Quaker Life, Washington Post, Friends Journal and the Yellow Pages. We also continue coordinating efforts with William Penn House.
- Our web site stats imply that most people who come to the site are looking for basic information about the meeting-- where and when it meets, and the availability of child care. We continue to see a steady increase in usage of the BFM web site over the year. In a year's time, the site has seen just over 39,900 page views (up from 31,000 last year) and almost 25,000 user sessions (up from 17,000 last year). The home page, directions to the meeting, worship, schedule and childcare are the pages viewed most often. We believe the web site is an effective means for outreach to those in the community interested in BFM.
- We conduct special outreach to our physical neighbors for both the plant sale and the mini walkathon for the homeless (October). The latter is organized by First-Day school and sponsored by Peace & Social Justice and Religious Education,
- We present three Lee Stern Peace Awards ($100 each) to graduating seniors at Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Walter Johnson & Whitman High Schools.
A primary focus of A&O's annual set of activities each year center is building and strengthening our relationship with and supporting Ramallah Friends School, a Quaker school on the West Bank. As a result of our efforts, we: raised over $8,700 this year, continuing a slowly increasing rise over the last several years despite both the economic downturn and the laying down last year of the book sale:
| $3,360 | $8,920* | $4,031 | $5,525 | $5,388 | $5,126 | $5,343 | $8,275 | $8,762 |
Breakdown:
- Social Concerns Box (May): $1,901 (up from $804 last year)
- Plant Sale: $897 (down from $1,012 last year)
- White camel sale $756.25 (down from $1,026 last year)
- Spring Fling Food $786 (down from $883.25)
- Silent Auction about $3,922 (about even with the $4,187 of last year)
- Late donations from last year of $500
Publications, imbedded into A&O since late 2006, continues smoothly. Jane Coe continues as editor of the meeting's membership directory, monthly newsletter, weekly bulletin and the email services exchange. Jane has made significant improvements in the directory update process, resulting in improved response rates for updates. Although 16 asked to be removed from the directory, the BFM mailing list has 29 newcomers were added. (378 rather than 365 a year ago). We also moved to a new printer this year for both the directory and the newsletter.
Ad hoc member Marie France continues as a backup to Jane in newsletter editing and for posting the monthly calendar.
We were pleased to receive Nominating Committee's appreciation for our work on the autobiographies book and we have found a method to let Nominating know of changes.
Bernie Benson continues as our Web editor. This year we added a childcare signup section. The early feedback is positive and we are planning to improve this feature next year and perhaps expand it for use by other BFM committees. While we continue to see increased interest in using the web site by other BFM committees, we are also aware that such interest needs to be backed up by increased time commitment by those committees to use the web effectively. This capacity does not currently exist within such committees.
The ability to make online donations to the meeting began in 2008. We would welcome information from Stewardship & Finance concerning how effective this method has been as an alternative way for people to contribute financially to the Meeting.
A&O welcomes comments and suggestions. We meet on the
third Sunday of the month at 9:30 a.m., in the
Teachers’ Lounge.
