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U is for Understanding

From Quaker.org.uk/wardens:

Many Quaker meetings appoint wardens, resident Friends, caretakers, managers, other employees or volunteers to manage, or work in  meeting house premises and grounds. The nature of these roles varies according to the circumstances of individual meetings, but essentially arises from Friends’ desire to open the doors of their meeting houses and to provide a living contact between the meeting, its members and the local community.

Wardenship should be seen as an integrated part of Quaker life and worship which can foster a friendly atmosphere in a meeting house and give caring attention to all those details which make for conditions conducive to worship and welcome. It is also a responsibility to be shared by the whole meeting.

Some see wardenship as a form of service, others regard it as a very worthwhile form of employment. The benefit of good wardenship to a meeting can be beyond measure. However, both meetings and their employees should be aware of the rights and responsibilities of employers and employees and of  importance of good, clearly structured employment practices.

Do you understand:

• What the Warden or Premises Committee members do in your meeting?
• What is the true time and skills required for the tasks you have asked them to do?
• How these role and therefore the expectations can vary from meeting to meeting and over time in the same meeting?
• How can you support both those giving service and those receiving it to understand each other’s needs and wishes?

In O is for Oversight I mentioned the responsibility on all members of a meeting to support those doing work on their behalf.

U is for Undervalued

Sadly one of the most common comments from Wardens is that members of their meeting don’t value their service. Usually as it is mostly behind the scenes and therefore often unseen.

Whilst Jane Stokes is talking about homemaking here this can also include wardening and the other caring for a meeting house that can go unseen.

23.64

There is much work to be done which is not paid, but which is vital, desperately undervalued and undertaken to a large extent by women. I refer, of course, to caring for children and/or elderly disabled relatives and homemaking. The work itself is often hard, stressful, mundane and repetitive, unseen and unacknowledged, with low status. We need a transformation of our attitudes to this work, giving it all the esteem it deserves.
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Voluntary work gives the sense of being able to give something – whether in time, money or expertise – and that is precious to the person doing the giving. The feeling of having contributed, the satisfaction of a job lovingly done, is the reward. We should not regard voluntary work as of less value because it is unpaid and the rewards intangible, nor should we exploit the goodwill of volunteers…

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Everything in the end can be distilled to relationships – our relationships with each other and the earth. Our work must benefit our relationships rather than damage them, and we must ensure that neither the earth nor other people are exploited. Caring, not exploitation, is the key.

Jane Stokes, 1992

Whilst at a Managing Our Meeting Houses course at Woodbrooke, I heard two statements which made me rethink how I think about Wardening.

The first was from Wendy Blake Rankin – an employment specialist who, whilst talking to a room full of Wardens remarked:

“Quakers exploiting Quakers is not Quakerly.”

By which she meant that oddly, many Quakers are quite happy to demand from other Quakers things that they wouldn’t from non-Quakers. There is a piece in Qf&P that says:

13.38 Wardens should not be asked to accept conditions of accommodation and work which most Friends would not tolerate personally. Casually made appointments can lead to misunderstandings and unintended exploitation. Meetings employing a warden are urged to consult with Quaker Life, to ensure that good practice is observed in their meeting.

It is hard for many Wardens to create boundaries between their own work, worship and service especially if they feel unsupported in creating those boundaries. This can lead to burn out, leaving of positions earlier than expected and many bad feelings.

While the second was from Kathleen Russell who whilst talking about employed and volunteer wardens and how to tell the difference who gave the following example which raised many a wry smile around the room.

“If your meeting could turn up on Sunday to find the building locked up tight and a note from your Warden on the front door saying, “Hi – I’ve gone to Peru!” and continue working – yes with some minor problems, but no real panic. Then your Warden is indeed a volunteer – if not, than they are probably are or should be an employee.”

Of course if you have a good Operations Manual, sensible Policy documents as reference, and there is continual liaison between all parties then it is easier for Premises and others to be the necessary back up or be able to take on the work during any time of transition.

There are ways to make Wardens feel more valued such as (gathered from conversations with Wardens over the last few years):

• a regularly reviewed job description and time expectations
• regular reviews with written summaries of the discussion or review
• support to create and maintain boundaries between work and home life
• backup to enable holidays and sick days to be time off
• awareness that leisure time is not available for work or ‘a quick chat’
• support to ensure that other members of the meeting don’t make unreasonable demands
• acceptance of them as full members of the meeting with their own spiritual journey
• appointment of specific Friends, or a group a Friends to provide specific support and a space to listen and explore their feelings related to their role
• offering training or paying for training when requested which relates to their role
• saying thank you on a regular basis
• arranging help for specific tasks and supporting working days when there is a build up of tasks for whatever reason

What other ways do you think show Wardens and similar roles that they are valued both for the service they supply and as individuals?

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This is part of the Quaker Alphabet Project – click here for more information.

R is for Recycling

Does your meeting house have recycling areas for goods accepted by the local council?

Are there other things that can be recycled?

• Postage stamps (not the standard queen’s head) QPSW Stamp Club are sold to support Quaker work.
• Furniture be collected and recycled by a local group such as Quaker Social Action?
• Composting material can be brought in by members of the meeting who aren’t able to compost at home.
• Left over building materials can be donated to local projects such as allotments.
• Old bins and recycling boxes (even if made of un-recyclable plastic) can be used as planters – as seen above!

Reusing is another way to ensure that items don’t end up in land fill – so a Quaker sale of pre-loved books and other items can bring people into the meeting house, raise money for Quaker work and help people to live more simply with less possessions.

Colchester meeting hold a highly successful sale, complete with refreshments and lunch every year.

R is for Risk Assessments

What is a Risk Assessment?

I often hear that these haven’t been done – because people don’t know what they are, or don’t know how to do them and or don’t know who to ask.

According to the Health & Safety Executive HSE

As part of managing the health and safety of your business you must control the risks in your workplace. To do this you need to think about what might cause harm to people and decide whether you are taking reasonable steps to prevent that harm. This is known as risk assessment and it is something you are required by law to carry out.

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A risk assessment is not about creating huge amounts of paperwork , but rather about identifying sensible measures to control the risks in your workplace.

Although if you have less than five employees you aren’t legally obliged to write anything down – it is still good practice, and knowing that Premises committees change members on a regular basis it ensures that the research and work done isn’t lost.

There is lots of help and advice about these issues. The HSE has sections on their website including downloadable templates and guides – and examples such as this one for a village hall, which can be adapted for Meeting Houses.

Once the risk assessment has been written it needs to be used – there should be a yearly reminder to review and renew all assessments, then work on any action points that arise.

To browse through all of the posts click on the Quaker A-Z link here or in the side bar.

This is part of the Quaker Alphabet Project – click here for more information.

P is for Premises

14.25

Meeting houses

Care of premises

A meeting house should not be regarded primarily in terms of bricks and mortar, or merely seen in relation to potential site value. Its real value derives from the worship and service of the meeting. Even so, our meeting houses no less than our own homes deserve our care, attention and imaginative thought, so that they may be attractive both to ourselves and to others whilst remaining faithful to our commitment to simplicity, care of the environment and equality. Care of our premises is an important and sometimes exacting responsibility, which should be exercised by or on behalf of the meeting to which it belongs. Area meeting trustees and local premises committees should be vigilant so that small defects do not pass unnoticed and lead in the future to extensive and costly repairs. It is recommended that premises be professionally inspected at regular intervals.

As always Premises committee members and trustees need to balance the real value of having a building, including what the worshipping community wants and is able to do with this asset, against the requirements of maintaining and investing in it for the future.

During the course of this blog series we’ve covered quite a few aspects of Premises – from recording the history to creating and maintaining both an inventory and an operations manual.

Perhaps the next question would be about the structures that help keep supporting everything.

• Have levels of standards for care and maintenance been decided for the building?
• Has some imaginative thought created plans, that are being tested and moved forward?

This core set of standards would feed into the Quinquennial (or other periodic professional survey) as well as the overall maintenance and development plans. A way of ensuring that everyone involved is working towards the same levels and expectations.

Which moves us nicely into the next P.

P is for Policies

Why have policies? Quoting again from Chapter 14:

14.27

Meeting houses

Use of premises

Area meetings are advised to permit and encourage the use of their meeting houses for educational and other suitable purposes which serve the needs of the people living in their neighbourhood. Such users should be expected to make an appropriate financial contribution to the running expenses and upkeep. It should be borne in mind that the primary purpose of the meeting house is as a place of public worship.

As premises used by the public, meeting houses must meet certain statutory requirements in respect of fire precautions, safety and hygiene. All premises must be adequately insured, including liability insurance as well as buildings and contents insurance; the Treasurers’ handbook should be consulted for more detailed advice.

In considering the proper use of their meeting houses, area meetings should be sensitive to the feelings of the worshipping community, whose members may object to the introduction of alcoholic drinks onto the premises or to other practices by other users of the meeting house. Hiring policies in respect of particular premises should be agreed between area meetings and local meetings, and conditions made clear to prospective users. The use of Quaker premises by political parties, and by other religious or secular organisations with whose principles or practices Friends might not be in sympathy, will always require careful consideration and full consultation with Friends in the meeting most closely concerned. Particular care must be taken to avoid bookings by ‘front’ organisations with undesirable aims; the bona fides of new users should be checked. In all cases it is important to ensure that any publicity given to meetings held on Quaker premises makes a clear distinction between those organised by a meeting, committee or other Quaker body as such, and those for which others are responsible, in order to avoid confusion in the public mind.

Meetings and committees involved in letting Quaker premises should always bear in mind the need to minimise disturbance to neighbours, hurt to individual Friends, division among the membership, and erosion of our distinctive Quaker identity.

Creating or confirming policies – before an emergency occurs, where you wish you had one is always a good thing.

Some policies are very short and simple; others are longer and more complicated. It can be tempting to think only the later are worth writing down – however even short and simple documents, that have been agreed by the appropriate body, can be useful guidance where people have different opinions or where conditions have become confused.

Most meeting houses which are let out to the general public will need the following policies:

• Lettings
• Maintenance/Cleaning
• Health & Safety
• Disability/Accessibility
• Finance – petty cash, dealing with rents, bad debts etc.
• Safeguarding – children and vulnerable adults

Area Meeting Trustees may need or want to add in additional policies. Quaker Stewardship Committee has a full list in their current Trustees’ Handbook.

Individual meeting houses may also want additional policies such as sustainability.

There will be overlap between what Premises and Trustees are doing and care should be taken to ensure that the policies are shared during development and circulated to all committees so they are aware of the new policies.

Policies should be living documents – updated and reviewed on a regular basis, rather than written, filed and forgotten.

Many Area Meetings already have policies and examples are available as a starting point to develop from. Thankfully, it isn’t necessary for each committee to start from scratch.

To browse through all of the posts click on the Quaker A-Z link here or in the side bar.