Quaker Center has experienced another year of growth and change, as we continue realizing those dreams laid out in our Long Range Plan. Throughout this process we remain open to guidance by the Spirit and by the mission and vision we articulated in that plan.

With enthusiasm and competence they entered into the life and work of Quaker Center in August and have since been contributing their own unique skills, talents, and perspectives to this place and all whom it serves. They have learned and grown, and we have learned from them. The staff have been challenged and stretched as they have integrated the interns and the new intern program into the day-to-day life of the Center. We look forward to welcoming future interns, but know that Carrie and Kathy will always hold a special place in our hearts as they paved the way for those who will come after.

With the interns came other changes. The increase in on-site staff here at the Center inspired the addition of a midweek Meeting for Worship, a time for strengthening spiritual practice and deepening a sense of community. Another change which was welcomed by the Board and the Staff, was a real vacation (four weeks long) in Africa for the Sullivans, leaving the Center in the capable hands of David Forbes, Maintenance Manager, and the interns.

We have continued to hold programs which nurture and bless us and most have been well-attended. We have looked at Healing from Life's Wounds, Quakerism for the Long Haul, and offered again a clerking workshop and a silent retreat. Our multi generational retreat over the Easter weekend was well attended and our Year-End Retreat was full as usual. The popular singing retreat last year with Peter Blood and Annie Patterson was followed by a sing-along concert which was enjoyed by over 100 attenders.

We are looking forward to our second presentation of Quaker Center On the Road in the fall of this year with Jan Hoffman and Kenneth Sutton going to Multnomah Meeting, in Portland, Oregon, and Southern California Quarterly with the program on the Minister/Elder relationship. We will also be repeating our youth service camp and the children's camp. We look forward to celebrating the 50th anniversary of the donation of this property to Friends. Save the date of Sunday, August 29. Details will soon be forthcoming.

In moving out from the Center in outreach to the wider community we have two new projects: A Leadership and Resource Directory has been completed and distributed to monthly meetings. And we are now on the web with our own Quaker Center homepage, at www.quakercenter.org.

As planned, the programs are being supported by enhancements in the physical surroundings. The Manley House was remodeled, creating the intern living quarters and a much-welcomed office space. Technologically speaking, we've increased our computer capability. We now have a resident copier in our office, refurbished and donated by a friend of Quaker Center. In keeping with our plan to make more of Quaker Center available to all who come here, the entryways to the intern's living quarters and the Maintenance Manager's house are now both wheelchair accessible. We've added a porch and railings to the library/office entrance of the Manley House and a covered entryway to the intern living quarters. The John Woolman School Workcamp recently worked on the steps to the directors? house, added landscaping, and planted a garden. We've also made needed replacements to the couches in the Orchard Lodge and the carpeting in the Maintenance Manager's House. In addition, we've had major road repairs and repaving done which should serve us well over the coming years.

During our Board Retreat this January, we took time to honor someone who has worked hard to schedule, oversee and actually do the work of many of the improvements included in the Long Range Plan. We held a surprise celebration for David Forbes on Friday evening to salute David's many accomplishments and to offer ideas with tongue-in-cheek for some future projects.

During the Retreat we also reviewed our long range plan and the status of fundraising to date. We reaffirmed our mission statement and began the detailed planning for the next phase of the plan. To date the capital campaign has received $165,000 of our $250,000 goal. All building projects completed to date have been fully paid for by cash already received through the capital campaign, foundation grants, and timber proceeds.

The next phase of capital projects will directly impact the experience of groups using Quaker Center facilities. An expanded main building for the Redwood Lodge will provide, for the first time, appropriate dining and meeting accommodations for groups of 25 or 30 in our most affordable facility. This renovation would greatly improve the space we use for our summer camping programs as well as provide a larger indoor movement space than is currently available at Quaker Center. In the Casa de Luz, direct indoor access to expanded bathroom facilities will make program breaks shorter and more convenient, freeing leaders to focus more directly on the movement of the Spirit among the group.

We have decided to defer moving ahead with these projects, though, until we have identified the funds to support them. We continue to explore additional forms of fundraising, including grant applications and the development of a planned giving program, possibly in cooperation with John Woolman School and Friends House.

One change this year we did not welcome. For the first time at Quaker Center we have experienced some thefts of property from Center guests. Even though the thefts have subsided, we are encouraging guests to lock valuables away or leave them at home, and we have begun offering keys so that doors to guest rooms may be locked.

In January, after a period of seasoning, the Board approved a policy governing the medical use of marijuana at Quaker Center.

The Board itself has undergone change this year. Several members' terms have ended, and their presence will be missed. One of the rewards of board service is the friendships which blossom and grow in the seedbed of this place. Continuing Board members look forward to getting to know new members in the special way that is nurtured in our meetings.

We are particularly saddened to say goodbye to Eve Forrest who is completing her second six-year term on the Board and whose inspired and inspiring clerking has provided the leadership so necessary through this time of change and growth. We'll miss her strength, her thoughtfulness, and her meaningful queries with which she?s started our worship each time we've met.

Quaker Center continues to grow in strength and vitality, as a place where many gifts of the Spirit are shared by those who are served and by those who serve.

Respectfully submitted,
Karin Nilsson, Clerk
Ben Lomond Quaker Center Association