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Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) -  Religious Society of Friends

Map of all monthly meeting locations, with a link to the "live" map that allows you to zoom in for individual meeting locations and to get driving directions.

2009 Annual Sessions Program and Schedule (here...)

           The School Committee of Scattergood Friends School announces the appointment of Virginia Winsor as Interim Head for the upcoming school year, effective July 1, 2009. A member of Omaha Friends Meeting, Ginny now resides in California. Ginny brings with her a host of business and management skills that are complemented well with a familiarity of Friends ways and warm interpersonal skills.

A PERSONAL REFLECTION ON YEARLY MEETING SESSIONS

   Yearly Meeting sessions are an acquired taste.  Iowa Yearly Meeting Conservative Friends  – joined by a smattering of regular and occasional visitors – converge on Scattergood Friends School outside of West Branch for five days in the depths of summer.  I attended my first annual session in August of 1982 at Paullina Friends Meeting in northwest Iowa.  Since then, I have missed only when out of the country. 

     Depending on my private issues and state of mind during the sessions, I have been all over the emotional map with the yearly meeting.  Being a Friend has been taxing and sometimes very frustrating.  Over the years, I have been bored, enraged, energized, fatigued, transported and blessed. 

     Just a few days ago, a close friend confided her frustration with Yearly Meeting sessions.  “I don’t know what the hell is going on!” she said.  Fair enough.  Friends don’t always make it easy.  Although I have always felt on holy ground at Yearly Meeting, it has taken me a long time to “get it” – or to make substantial moves toward getting it. 

     Basically, what we do is worship together at Yearly Meeting.  (No, I don’t really know what “worship” means -- but maybe something like centering and focusing together on the presence of God in our midst.)  Doing this with Friends of long experience, faithful practice and fierce testing can be earthshaking. 

     Friends do business during this annual gathering.  Business falls under several broad categories: housekeeping, correspondence with Friends meetings around the world, and the writing of “minutes.”  A “minute” in Quakerese is a statement to ourselves and to the world of where we stand on a particular question – maybe same-sex marriage, climate change, torture, or something else that is of concern and passion to the gathered meeting. 

     Since our yearly meeting owns and operates Scattergood Friends School, a boarding high school, a considerable amount of our time and budget is spent on the school.  We keep ourselves current with what is happening and take care and ownership of the work of our beloved school. 

     Generally speaking, mornings are given over to worship and business.  It can be tedious.  Times when I get myself in a quiet, relaxed place, I start to love the hard, well-used wood of the seats and to place myself in the communion of saints.  Other times, not so much. 

     At any rate, by noon we move into more active activity.  Eating.  Then we get to choose between hearing reports of Quaker organizations, napping, looking through the Quaker books for sale, getting to know other Quakers, reading, napping, playing with the children, going to committee meetings to draft minutes, walking on the prairie, napping. . . .

     In the evening there will be a speaker or other program.  On Saturday night, there is always a Quaker variety show.  You would be surprised at what turns up when Quakers get going.   

     Quaker midnight comes about nine for many of us, but wayward Friends have been known to sing and dance into the night.            

     Being at Yearly Meeting almost every year, I only occasionally reflect on the difference these gatherings have made in my life.  I have made friends with some incredible people, some of them now passed away.  Gradually, I have taken on a sense of carrying forward the work of Quaker saints and bringing it closer to fruition.  Yearly Meeting has etched itself into my soul.                                        Deb Fink

            The True Cost of Travel - A Quaker Sustainable Travel Fund

            Peace and Social Concerns March 2009 Report

            FCNL legislative priorities for the 111th Congress, approved at 2008 Annual Meeting.

Advices and Queries  (PDF)