Children’s Yearly Meeting

The Children’s Yearly Meeting is an integral part of the Intermountain Yearly Meeting annual gathering, providing children from infants up through entry into 5^th grade some opportunities to form vital friendships, and to live and learn for a brief time within a community of Friends. The Yearly Meeting gratefully encourages all Friends who are able to increase this sense of community for those whom we hope will become the leaders of the Yearly Meeting in the future.

The Coordinator provides leadership and arranges the Children’s Yearly Meeting program for the annual gathering. This involves planning and implementing activities for all children up to entry into 5th grade attending the annual gathering.

Appointment

Current practice is to appoint one person each year for a three-year term, serving as assistant the first year, coordinator the second, and advisor the third. The Coordinators are members of the Youth Working Group which is part of the Arrangements Committee charged with planning and supervising the annual gathering.

NOTE: If your Working Group has no Clerk, then direct your reports and any questions or issues that arise directly to the Clerk of Arrangements Committee. We also encourage you to read the Guide description of your Working Group and reach out to other members of that Group for help.

Responsibilities of the Coordinator of Children’s Yearly Meeting include:

Keeping the activities, interests, concerns, and needs of the Children’s Yearly Meeting before the Yearly Meeting.
Determining the division of age groups within Children’s Yearly Meeting and recruiting coordinators for these groups.
Providing the age group coordinators with the following: guidance in implementing religious education, centering, and craft activities; assistance in securing volunteers to foster and help oversee such activities; and reports of past experience to facilitate their task.
Sending information about Children’s Yearly Meeting to the Registrar by the beginning of February for inclusion in the registration material.
Contracting with paid babysitters and teachers as needed.
Ensuring that Children’s Yearly Meeting equipment will be properly stored between annual gatherings, and making certain it will be available at the next annual gathering.
Communicating in advance with the Ghost Ranch Program Office and the IMYM Coordinator of Operations about schedule, facility and equipment needs for the annual gathering. (Joint planning with the Coordinators of the Young Friends programs may sometimes be of mutual benefit.)
Coordinating last-minute changes (such as program shifts, additional needs, corrective actions, etc.) with the Ghost Ranch Program Office and college staff during the annual gathering.
Allocating the Children’s Yearly Meeting budget and making budget requests.
Working with the Registrar to schedule opportunities for worship sharing for age‑group coordinators and other Friends unable to attend regular worship sharing because of Children’s Yearly Meeting responsibilities. This would be ideal but often not able to be accomplished because of the scheduling demands.
Coordinating adult and teenage volunteers from among the annual gathering attenders to spend time with Children’s Yearly Meeting making sure there are at least two adults present at all times with each group. This includes providing the Registrar with sign-up sheets by the beginning of February to be included with the registration materials, and providing the Coordinator of Operations with the sign-up board used to advertise ongoing needs during the annual gathering.
Assisting Children’s Yearly Meeting children in formulating communications with the Yearly Meeting at large and with other groups.
Preparing an evaluation report of the last gathering to send to the Clerk of your group by the fall. This report is essential for evaluation and planning, even if your term has ended.
Communicating with the Clerk and other members of your group as needed.
Attending the winter meeting of the Arrangements Committee and, one week before that meeting, sending a preliminary report about the plans for children’s program during the upcoming gathering to the Clerk and the Web Clerk.

Financial Arrangements

The Yearly Meeting pays the expenses of the Coordinator of Children’s Yearly Meeting to the Arrangements Committee meeting. Current practice is that the Yearly Meeting pays the expenses of the Coordinator and assistant but not the advisor unless he/she is actively supervising the program. (See the Guide page Who Pays IMYM Travel.) Children’s Yearly Meeting has a budgetary allowance supplied by annual gathering fees for program materials and staffing. The Coordinator should consult with the Treasurer at an early planning stage to learn the current budgetary situation, spending procedures, and inform them of waivers that will be needed for people staffing the program such as those taking care of the infants.

Addendum

Children’s Yearly Meeting rotation

CYM will be staffed by a rotation of monthly meetings. Each meeting or group of meetings would have a 2-year responsibility to run the CYM program. One person from each group would have a 3-year responsibility. That person apprentices or shadows with the outgoing meeting in preparation for working with their own meeting for the following 2 years.

The rotation will be:

Boulder and Ft. Collins: Shadow 2018. To serve 2019 and 2020.
Mountain View (Denver) and Colorado Springs: Shadow 2020. To serve 2021 and 2022.
New Mexico Region (including Durango and volunteers from Utah): Shadow 2022. To serve 2023 and 2024.
Pima and nearby worship groups: Shadow 2024. To serve 2025 and 2026.
Tempe, Phoenix, and Flagstaff: Shadow 2026. To serve 2027 and 2028.

The Clerk of the Youth Working Group will give the selected monthly meetings a year’s advance notice of their responsibility to shadow the coordinators and explain the need for background checks.

Should a region or meeting be unable to fulfill their obligations or find a trade partner, the Youth Working Group Clerk is empowered to hire appropriate staff.

This rotation can be modified by the Youth Working Group with input from the meetings involved.