Saturday began with the usual: a few hardy souls gathering at dawn to swim in the river, early morning worship, breakfast (with some joining in Bible study over their coffee and toast), then singing to begin the morning plenary.
Friends heard brief reports from the many active committees in NPYM; highlights included an update from the Youth Committee, which has worked hard this year to locate and reach out to families with children and youth throughout the yearly meeting. They will continue this work in the coming year, and are planning a youth summit, t-shirts and more. Coordinating Committee reported on its first full year of service (CC replaced Steering Committee as the body which gathers between Annual Sessions), and shared that they are looking forward to strengthening the connections between meetings and worships groups in NPYM in this upcoming year.
Friends were reminded that NPYM will send three delegates to the Friends World Committee on Consultation’s 6th World Conference, to be held in Africa in 2012. You must apply to be a delegate, and applications are now available from NPYM.
Though it was not noted with particular celebration at the time, your editor did celebrate that a well-seasoned and clearly-explained budget, which has seasoned since a Thursday morning plenary, was approved in less than five minutes, with no further discussion. Friends also approved the slate of names brought forward during an earlier plenary.
Registrar Margaret Coahran made use of Powerpoint slides to share the attendance demographics with Friends. 236 Friends were in attendance; 27 were first-timers. NPYM’s first year of offering online registration was remarkably popular: there were only 22 paper registrations! Also notable was an increase in Junior Friends in attendance, with a significant jump from last year bringing them to 24 participants.
Friends also heard from Quaker Earthcare Witness—NPYM is currently considering formally affiliating with QEW—and American Friends Service Committee.
The afternoon brought time for worship groups, time for rich reflection on the lives of those who passed away this year during the Meeting for Memorials, and then free time. Junior Friends went on a float trip down the river, inciting envy in the hearts of many overheated adults.
In the evening, Friends gathered for the ever-popular Community Night. This years’ skits featured a number of wonderfully clever rewrites of well-known songs and hymns; look for lyrics in upcoming issues of the magazine! Community Night was followed by the Junior Friends/Young Friends dance; many brave adults and the Central Friends joined in the first hour of fun, and several Central Friends showed off their break dancing prowess. My midnight, the Junior and Young Friends were engaged in a Feast of Love, wherein participants were only allowed to feed each other. As the photos show, cans of whipped cream were especially popular this year.