Advice to former General Meetings

October 2009 updates

3 new documents have been added to this section:

• Email from Alex Young 8 August 2009: Alex is handling all Quaker applications and queries at the Charity Commission
• Quaker Regional Gatherings/General Meetings – charitable status
• Advice from Quaker Stewardship Committee: October 2009

Advice to General Meetings following Yearly Meeting 2007 

Chapter 5 of Quaker faith & practice deals with “General meetings and other gatherings” and new working text for this chapter was approved by Yearly Meeting in 2007.

§5.02 The name general meeting is now used for several different kinds of organisation, usually based on a geographical grouping of several monthly meetings. The General Meeting for Scotland and Meeting of Friends in Wales have certain delegated powers from Yearly Meeting. Yearly Meeting in 2005 recognised that some geographical general meetings wished to be laid down and with effect from Yearly Meeting in 2007 the eighteen regional general meetings in England and Wales were removed from the administrative structure. 

In September 2006 QSC issued a sheet of guidance for the assistance of general meetings in England and Wales covering issues concerned with charitable registration. This guidance is available at Charitable Registration 

Charitable status 

Those general meetings that wish to continue in existence will continue to be charities, since their objects are the furtherance of religion. This applies whether or not they are registered with the Charity Commission or with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator. (The process of registration with the Charity Commission depends on the current procedures for registering the “excepted” charities. While at present the Commission is not registering the excepted charities, it will start this process in 2008, but only for charities with an annual income in excess of £100,000). 

There should be no difficulty about area meetings passing funds on for the use of the general meeting. Participating in a Quaker Gathering or supporting other functions of the general meeting will clearly be within the area meeting’s charitable objects. In any case there is no reason why an area meeting should not support any body which is not a charity, provided that the expenditure furthers the area meeting’s objects. 

From this perspective it does not matter whether or not the general meetings are within the formal structures of BYM. In either case they will be considered to be “formerly-excepted charities” that may or may not be required to register at some point in the future (probably not, in view of the small size of most of them). 

The organisation of Quaker gatherings 

Simply holding a Quaker gathering involving participants from a number of area meetings will not necessarily require the meetings to keep the general meeting in formal existence. Individual gatherings could be managed on an ad hoc basis, or they could come under the oversight of one of the area meetings. However, as soon as funds are accumulated within the general meeting (for example, for a bursary scheme) it would be wise to establish the general meeting as a separate entity and to define an organising committee for it, for example, with area meeting representatives. Such a committee would effectively become its trustees and they should draw up a governing document which sets out how they should work. 

The changes agreed to the text of Quaker faith & practice permit the regional general meetings in England and Wales to continue in various ways if that is the wish of Friends. However §5.07 of Quaker faith & practice says that: 

If a newly formed gathering is intended to have an ongoing structure and regular meetings, it must inform Meeting for Sufferings and the Yearly Meeting of its existence and proposed mode of operation. All gatherings (including those that continue from pre-existing general meetings) must inform Meeting for Sufferings and the Yearly Meeting of any substantial changes in their mode of operation or constituent meetings. 

Area meetings that are establishing new ongoing gatherings should ensure that the Recording Clerk is informed of their plans. The Recording Clerk ensures that Meeting for Sufferings and Yearly Meeting are duly informed. 

Laying down general meetings 

Some general meetings have been “in suspense” for a number of years and in other cases there may be a desire to lay down a general meeting. The clerk of such a meeting or the clerks of participating area meetings should make contact with the Recording Clerk who will help the meeting to bring an appropriate minute to Meeting for Sufferings and Yearly Meeting notifying them of their intention (see Qfp §5.07). Finally, the minute that records the laying down of the meeting should be sent to the Recording Clerk. 

It is particularly important that attention is paid to: 

• the future ownership of any property or other assets of the General Meeting;
• preservation of the archives and records of the General Meeting. 

Some general meetings may be unaware that they are the beneficial owners of property. It would be helpful if any clerk proposing to lay down a general meeting would contact Chris Gregory at Friends Trusts Limited (chrisg@quaker.org.uk) at an early stage to check. 

On archives and records the monthly / area meeting custodian of records should be consulted in the first instance. Guidance on the preservation and archiving of Quaker records is given in “Your Meeting’s Records: a Handbook for clerks and custodians of records” (2^nd ed, 2004), produced by the Library Committee of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain. Copies are available from the Bookshop, price £8.00. 

If there are queries the Library can be contacted at library@quaker.org.uk 

Quaker Stewardship Committee 

June 2007