Having investigated our needs for classrooms, we now turn our attention to the FIR side of the equation.

Does TCFM need a Friend in Residence (FIR)?

Would a non-resident caretaker be able to perform the same functions adequately?

We will have information-sharing and discussion of the issues on

Sunday, February 22, at the Meetinghouse, from 1-2:30PM.

This meeting will be an opportunity to share information about

• Why we as a meeting originally chose to build an apartment to house a FIR
• Whether that still fits our needs
• In what ways we want our meetinghouse to be a part of the larger community and neighborhood.

This is a time for all of us in the TCFM community to share opinions, face to face.

A summary of opinions expressed at this meeting will be shared at the March 13 Meeting for Worship with attention to Business, and will also be provided to the March 22 “Threshing & Decision Session” (see below).
Here’s a summary of the two sessions we had in January that were devoted to First Day School (FDS)’s needs for better classroom space:

First Day School says it needs 8 or 9 total “classroom” spaces, depending on the year’s breakdown of age groups.
In ‘08-’09, so far, FDS has averaged 44 children per week.

We Celebrate

• That we own a building, that it gets LOTS of use, and that we share it with community. It feels good to have a building fully used, good stewardship, using resources well and often.
• Beautiful space for worship.
• The role of the FIR is important in bringing groups together to use meetinghouse.
• Felt safe & supported using space to house homeless.
• The large number of Meeting adults involved in FDS. THEY are what is important in the kid’s minds, more than what the classroom was like.
• 6th grade is where parents no longer have clout to force kids to FDS, and we have 14 teenagers!
• We have all the children in this building.
• Some people come here because we have a FDS.
• Many kids and adults LIKE the quirky, non-standard classroom spaces.

Challenges to presenting good FDS programs

• Spaces not intended or designed for classrooms are being used for classrooms
• Many (most) of the complaints were about trying to hold students’ attention without good sound & sight isolation.
• The kitchen-fellowship area is especially problematic, drawing many remarks. (The panels over counter & closing kitchen doors helps, but doesn’t happen often enough.)
• Inaccessibility of FDS library and other FDS supplies.
• The sheer size and the vitality of FDS is invisible to most TCFM adults.
• When class size in an age group drops too low we have seen the remaining kids lose interest “because no one was there.” There’s a dynamic between the building and the people. Don’t simply identify the Meeting with the meetinghouse.
• The variation of numbers of children in FDS. Back when front porch was renovated, we didn’t see any need for more classroom or office space.
• Proportionally, the ratio of children to adults is greater than in the past.
• Twenty percent of our kids are special-needs kids (including gifted).
• Lack of space for large muscle activity in FDS.
• Separation of FDS from worship meetings.
• TCFM’s lack of attention to these issues over the years has a demoralizing effect on adults involved with FDS and suggests that, as a community, we do not sufficiently value our children.
• Are we making efforts to hear what young people think about the space? I can imagine them saying that a meeting in the old basement with the furnace as being “a really cool space.”
• Being in the rut of having age-segregated groups for 45 minutes once each week.
• We have a set idea of what religious education means and have a hard time envisioning an alternative way that could be better carried out in the space we have.
• Is former FIR apartment area safe for a classroom, given that it has only a single exit?
• I like looking for better solutions but I also like compromise & figuring what will work.

Obstacles that should not be tolerated

• The attic and the grotto are only marginally safe for most children, and are dangerous for some of them because of limited egress and damp and mold.
• Some rooms not safe for or accessible to disabled children.
• Kids are being stuffed into inappropriate spaces.
• Parents have started their kids in FDS and then dropped out probably because of inadequacy of space.

Important topics, but beyond the scope of the FDS->FiR? decision

• FDS is having problems because meeting is large and has outgrown our building. We have more uses than we have space. A split is inevitable if we don’t expand the building.
• Why a few big meetings in the Twin Cities? How do we grow Quakerism without growing our building?
• Bud meetings have to be organic.
• List of alternatives seems too narrow. Consider demolishing old house & putting up new building.
• It’s too easy to forget about children when you’re not involved with FDS.
• Invisibility of children’s program is not a function of space. The “this-is-kid-space visibility-issue” could be remedied without a lot of work. The invisibility goes deeper.
• Be aware of bulges [in student age groups]
• Redesign FDS activities for larger time blocks.
• Some FDS classes meet during 8:30 worship or at 9:45, during Adult Ed?
• Furniture in classroom areas needs to be stackable or foldable, with sizes appropriate to adults & children.
• Could library be reprogrammed as classroom?
• Remodel closet in Little Room at top of old stairs.
• How many people can live in the FIR apt?

We are engaging in this decision-making process with a sense of urgency because we need to rebuild the water-and-mold-damaged space as soon as the weather warms up. The MOMSAH committee is almost ready to agree on building contracts, and is waiting for our answer.

Hopefully a final decision on this issue can be reached at a

Called Meeting for Worship with attention to Business on Sunday, March 22, 1-3PM.

There we will bring our thinking about FDS and about the FIR into the same room. We will think and pray about how to best move forward with all of the information we’ve gathered, asking, “How do we best address the needs of the entire community?” The four alternatives that can be anticipated at this point are:
1.    Rebuild the FIR apartment as a two-bedroom apartment, and continue as we have for the last seven or eight years.
2.    Rebuild the area as two classrooms/ meeting rooms, perhaps with a small food-preparation area, perhaps with a disabled-accessible bathroom.
3.    Rebuild the FIR apartment as it was constructed in 1995, as a one-bedroom unit, and turn what had been bedroom #2 back to its original use as a meeting room/classroom.
4.    Design the space (if possible) so that in any given year TCFM may choose to use it as an apartment, or as non-residential space.
The March 22nd meeting will begin with a period of “threshing.” In an atmosphere of mutual respect concerns will be raised about how to balance our needs to have a FIR with our need for some more adequate FDS space. Individuals will be encouraged to articulate differing points of view. Trade-offs will be considered in open-hearted listening.
Following a break, we will ask ourselves,
A)    ”Do we need to continue with this process of threshing the alternatives?”  or
B)    Are we ready to enter a time of worship in which we will discern “what is the will of this worshiping community for the space?” This will be a time for listening with the ears of the community rather than our own, a time to give over each of our own firm views, a time to place the outcome of our decision in the hands of Spirit.
It is our hope that way will be clear.

If there is no clarity about what to do with the space at the meeting March 22nd, we will meet in another special called meeting for worship on Sunday, April 5 at 1:00 p.m.

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