March 23 at the rise of worship. Hybrid meeting

Why a Listening Session?

Recent years have brought many changes, both internal and external, to the context and circumstances surrounding NEYM Annual Sessions. These include increasing costs, diminished capacity to pay on the part of many Friends and families, reduced and shifting patterns of attendance, increased demand for supportive services and capacities, reductions in volunteer availability, and growing awareness of the need to focus and prioritize limited attention and resources.

In light of all of these changes, the Yearly Meeting’s model of programming, logistics, services, and funding for the event of Annual Sessions is in need of review and reimagining. 

Starting in the fall of 2024, we will embark on a months-long process to engage many Friends across New England in meaningful consultation and discernment regarding future offerings of NEYM’s Annual Sessions. For more details on this process, see the full proposal and slide presentation in the downloads section below.

For this broad and deep consultation and discernment to be possible, we will need many Friends serving as facilitators, notetakers, conversation partners (engaging with focus groups) and more.

Background materials are available here: https://neym.org/sessions-visioning