Please join us January 11, 2026 at 12:30pm for the Annual Meeting of IMMRSF, Inc. – the legal corporate entity of Ithaca Monthly Meeting – and, immediately following that, January Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business which will be held in a hybrid format in person at the Third Street Meetinghouse and online via Zoom.
An annual meeting of the corporation is required by the bylaws of Ithaca Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends Incorporated. It consists of four very short, formal reports from the officers of the corporation (who bear a striking resemblance to Ithaca Monthly Meeting’s Trustees). At least ten percent of our active members and attenders are required to be present at the meeting, so please come if you are able.
Ithaca Quakers communicate via email frequently. We use Groups.io listservs as an easy way to get information to a large group of people quickly and consistently. The listservs allow anyone who is a subscribed member of the listserv to send an email to one specific email address and that message then shows up in the email inbox of everyone else who is subscribed to the listserv.
Our Announcements listserv is the core or main group in our Groups.io listserv account. It’s where we share messages about official events, news, or activities of Ithaca Quaker Meeting or the wider Quaker world.
We have two other Groups.io listservs, or subgroups, for sharing other types of information:
Witness is for messages related to Quaker testimonies or witness. This is where we can share information about social justice, work toward peace, or Earthcare events, activities, or information. Here is a link to join this: Witness
Community list is for sharing more general information, appeals, and happenings we want to share with our Meeting community. Posts that might be shared here might include requests for pet sitting, sharing of information about music recitals or art shows, notices about local events or fundraisers an Ithaca Friend is involved with. Here is a link to join this: Community
Why do We Have Three Listservs?
Several years ago, Ithaca Meeting recognized that some Friends only want to receive the bare minimum of email about the Meeting (just official events please!) while others want to share much more. To balance the need for information with not overwhelming people, the Communications Committee set up three different lists in our groups.io account. You can choose whether or not to receive email from each of the sub-lists.
Which Listserv to Use
Not sure which listserv to use to share information with others in Meeting? Think about the content of the message. Use the Announcements list if the message is:
an announcement about an event hosted by or for Ithaca Monthly Meeting or one of our committees
something for or from a wider Quaker organization
There are also a few emails about organizations that Ithaca Meeting is officially a member of, such as Area Congregations Together (ACT) or Kitchen Cupboard, that are sent to the Announcements listserv.
If it’s not immediately obvious that the content of your message is about Ithaca Meeting or Quakers, send it to either the Community or Witness listserv.
If the message is related to one of our Quaker testimonies or areas of concern (such as non-violence, racial justice, anti-racism, or social justice), the Witness list is probably the best choice.
All other emails can be sent to the Community listserv.
As a general rule: if in doubt, send it to the Community listserv!
If you’re tempted to send an email to both the Witness and Community listservs, please reconsider. The majority of people on the Witness list are also on the Community list.
Who Can Join the Listserv?
Any individual who wants to stay in regular contact with Ithaca Quakers or know what’s going on in our Meeting is welcome to join the listserv. The majority of people in our Announcements listserv regularly attend or are active in Ithaca Meeting. There are some people who used to be part of our Meeting but have moved out of the area. There are a few people who are involved with other Quaker Meetings or faith communities in the area, or who are involved with other Quaker organizations.
Getting too much email?
One of the nice things about the groups.io service is that it is easy to control the frequency of email delivery. Most people in our listserv either receive each message as it’s sent or receive several messages at a time in a digest or summary. You could even opt to receive no email and instead visit the groups.io website to read messages.
All the messages sent to our groups.io listservs are available to be read on a website, so there’s an easily accessible archive of what’s been sent and you can go back and search for a topic or message. To read messages on the groups.io website, you’ll need to create a login and password for that site.
For at least 5 decades, the beginning of summer saw Ithaca Monthly Meeting move its Meeting for Worship from Cornell’s Campus to our Hector Meetinghouse on Perry City Road in Jacksonville. For many years, our first day of summer worship at Hector was the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, no doubt to get away from campus during Cornell’s graduation!
As we begin this summer of 2025 with Meeting for Worship followed by a dish-to-pass meal at Hector on Sunday, May 25, it’s a nice time to reflect on Hector Meetinghouse and the role it has played in Ithaca Meeting. In addition to decades of meetings for worship, Hector Meetinghouse has been host to weddings, memorial meetings, Thanksgiving Day meetings, and other events Friends hold dear.
Last fall, the Hector Meetinghouse Committee investigated a soft spot in the floor at Hector Meetinghouse and determined there was significant deterioration caused by excessive moisture in the crawlspace. Earlier capital projects had used up Hector’s building repair fund, and Friends approved an additional $12,500 to address the newly discovered rot and moisture issues at the Hector Meetinghouse. Additional repairs to Hector are still needed.
As we’ve shared information about raising funds for our Meetinghouse Renewal Project, we’ve talked about the failing stucco at our Third Street Meetinghouse (which will be significantly more expensive than repairs to Hector). It’s easier to stand outside Third Street and see the damaged stucco; it’s harder to visualize what’s happening at Hector. Lynn Truame – stalwart member of Hector Meetinghouse committee – crawled under the building to take photos showing the damage. The following are her photos and description.
The main beam is cracked (the splice joint itself, as a type of connection, is not a problem, but the crack in the beam and lack of appropriate support of the beam, is a problem).
At some point the original floor joists rotted out badly enough that Meeting attached new pressure-treated joists to the originals (that’s called “sistering”) — the conditions that lead to the rot were not adequately addressed, though, so most of the original joists have now completed disappeared due to rot and insect damage (the little holes are from powder post beetles).
Even though the subfloor doesn’t look completely rotten, it is. I was able to easily push the screwdriver in completely through the subfloor – only the bottom of the finish floor stopped the penetration.
This last photo shows the rotten subfloor, but what’s not visible here is that the sill beam at the left of the photo is completely hollowed out. You can reach your hand up inside this corner from the outside of the building and you will encounter a large hole and lots of crumbling wood, as well as walnuts that squirrels have imported into the walls.
Meeting is anticipating some expensive repairs to both of the Meetinghouses that we lovingly steward, including repairing/replacing the stucco siding at Third Street and addressing a rotting subfloor at Hector Meetinghouse.
Third Street Meetinghouse wall awaiting repair
As the estimated costs for these repairs far exceed the existing funds for meetinghouse repairs, Meeting approved the creation of a Fundraising Working Group back in November and charged it to create and execute a fundraising plan.
Friends, we are happy to announce that fundraising has now begun! The Fundraising Working Group has set a “Phase One” goal of $100,000, and we are thrilled to say that we are already making progress. As of January 30, 2025, we have raised $21,841; that is 21% of our goal.
Our fundraising total as of 1/30/2025
In addition to inviting Friends to consider making [additional] gifts towards Meetinghouse renewal, we’d like to encourage Friends to share news of our fundraising efforts with others where appropriate. We see that community members outside of and beyond Ithaca Monthly Meeting find value in our Meetinghouses. The Fundraising Committee will be actively reaching out to the users of the Third Street Meetinghouse, for example, but we expect there are others who feel connected to these spaces and feel led to make a gift.
Anyone may make a gift online using this link, or by sending a check directly to the Meeting’s Treasurer, Pat Sewell (see address below). We expect to have a donation box in the Meetinghouse soon. All donations to the Meeting are tax deductible. Any size of donation is greatly appreciated, as are your efforts to spread the word about our fundraising efforts.
Make checks payable to IMMRSF and write Meetinghouse Renewal in the memo line. Mail donation to:
Each year the budget for Ithaca Monthly Meeting (IMM) allocates sums of money to be used by the Peace & Social Justice and Earthcare committees to contribute to causes, projects, or organizations that align with the committee’s charge and Quaker testimonies. The Friends on these committees carefully consider where to donate their witness funds.
Perhaps you would like to take advantage of the discernment done by these committees and also contribute to these projects and organizations! This page lists where these donations went in 2024.
Ithaca Catholic Worker: Peter DeMott Peace Trot 411 Plain St. Ithaca, NY 14850 The Peace Trot occurs on Fathers’ Day each year, with fundraising happening in the weeks leading up to it.
Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC): Robin Fund 301 W Court St. Ithaca, NY 14850
Ithaca Monthly Meeting: Project Abundance To donate online, click Donatein the menu at the top of this page, then select the button for “Donate to the Ithaca Monthly Meeting General Fund”. Add “Project Abundance” to the section to write a note. Read more about Project Abundance here.
On Sunday March 17, eleven Friends from our Meeting gathered and discerned priorities they would like to see Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) address in the 2025-2027 Congress. Below is the list we have sent to FCNL. The four sections of the FCNL legislative policy statement are in bold italics; our priorities are capitalized, with specific issues listed under them.
We seek a world free of war and the threat of war.
1. Cut Military Spending
Sign the Non-proliferation Treaty.
End military support for Israel.
End the Korean war.
End production and upgrading of nuclear weapons.
Analyze effects of US military on the climate crisis.
We seek a society with equity and justice for all.
2. FUND NEEDS OF OPPRESSED PEOPLE
Reinstate guaranteed income. (Research shows it’s used for basics – food, housing – and better future.)
Legislate maximum income. (e.g., limit ratio of worker to CEO salary.)
Federal support for low-income areas, rural and urban, especially health care.
Lower the age of edibility for Medicare.
Federal funds for education at all levels.
3. CHANGE ECONOMIC POLICY
Tax the rich.
Prohibit privatization of health care by insurance companies.
End Citizens United.
Mandate public identification of candidates’ income sources.
Cut out loopholes in corporate tax evasion.
We seek a community where every person’s potential may be fulfilled.
4. FEDERAL/LEGISLATIVE SUPPORT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Pass the ERA; uproot patriarchy.
Push for national reproductive rights.
Prohibit book bans.
Provide citizenship for Dreamers.
Support the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
Prohibit privatized prisons.
Replace mass imprisonment with restorative justice.
Protect freedom of religion and speech.
Legislate humane border policies.
We seek an earth restored.
5. FEDERAL WATER PROTECTION BECAUSE WATER IS LIFE.
Prevent crypto mining, fracking and other over-use of water.
Ensure equitable water access and quality. Prohibit all water pollution.
IMM Earthcare spent the first half of last year reading and discerning on the food sections of “Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation” by Paul Hawken. It informed us that 35% of the world’s carbon emissions come from food production and processing and that “today’s food system has become the single greatest cause of global warming, soil loss, chemical poisoning, chronic disease, rainforest destruction and dying oceans.”
There are multiple ways of understanding these words, “mindful eating.” It encompasses a wide range of things, such as paying attention to the sensory experiences of taste, touch, and smell that are the pleasures of eating; paying attention to food as the nutrition that builds our bodies and health; paying attention to where and how our food is coming from.
Quakers, I think, also tend to connect mindful eating with our outsized human effect on this planet. Mindful Eating was the theme of New York Yearly Meeting’s January 2023 issue of their Spark newsletter* and the editors defined mindful eating as “Nourishing All Life While Nourishing Ourselves.”
To me when we look for the spirit in mindful eating, we are looking for connections like Thich Nhat Hahn’s conception of “interbeing,” or Donella Meadow’s “system thinking,” or Robin Kimmerer’s description of “indigenous wisdom.” Mindful eating is not just a set of rules to eat less meat or avoid processed food. For better or for worse, we are all crowded, more closely connected on this planet, and we can no longer act without consequences. We share them.
Mindful eating is, for me, the understanding that we are part of the slow unfolding that is the miracle of growth and decay. We are not outside looking in, but participate in this planetary ecosystem, in a deeply organic way. I call this “spirit” or “sacred” because what can be more sacred than the intricate interrelationships –which we cannot begin to understand– of life, time, and space on this planet. If we think of how billions and trillions of beings co-exist with us, big and small, short-lived and long-lived, each experiencing time and space from the vantage point of their own scale and life span, what does that do to our own human-centered sense of reality? We are all living side by side with vastly different experiential perceptions of what the world is like, each encapsulated in our own bubble of sensory filters. Yet we are interdependent and overlapping in ways that are incredibly complex. How do we even comprehend this?
The food chain is part of this amazing logic that inexorably connects us all. We humans have brought ourselves to the top of the food chain, but we have yet to understand how truly interdependent we are on others that need a place at the table. Let us open our eyes to the spirit and find a love and gratitude that nourishes all life, even as we are nourishing ourselves.
Ithaca Monthly Meeting’s Earthcare Committee invites you to a presentation on Heat Pumps, on Thursday, February 8 at 7:00pm via Zoom. The speakers will be Anne Rhodes and Leigh Miller from Cornell Cooperative Extension
During our October listening session on Earthcare, some people shared that they love their heat pumps. Others asked questions and expressed concerns about them. Are they appropriate for everyone? What are the advantages? What are the problems? Now we can offer you some answers!
New York is on the cutting edge of using energy-efficient heat pumps to change the ways that we heat and cool our buildings and that we heat our water. In NYS, millions of dollars of incentives to install heat pumps are currently available.
This presentation will talk about the range of heat pump options, their pros and cons, and introduce ways to navigate the incentives. Let us know what YOUR questions are, and Anne and Leigh, both knowledgeable Community Energy Educators, will be ready to answer them.
Depending on your building and the surrounding land, a heat pump can be geothermal (using the ground or a body of water) or air-source. You can install a “stand-alone” hot water heater, or have it be part of your whole house heating system. If “right-sized” and properly installed in an energy-efficient building, heat pumps use small amounts of electricity. And yes, there are now “cold weather” heat pumps” that can even handle an Arctic blast!
As our planet warms, the ability to cool our buildings (one of heat pumps’ big advantages over traditional heating systems) will become ever more important. More importantly, intergenerational justice — our love for the people and other beings who will be living in the world of the future — calls us to limit future warming as much as possible (AMAP) by reducing our use of fossil fuels as soon as possible (ASAP). Installing heat pumps in buildings we own and/or help make decisions about is a key way we can substantially reduce our use of fossil fuels AMAP ASAP.
Please join us January 14, 2024 at 12:30pm for the Annual Meeting of IMMRSF, Inc. – the legal corporate entity of Ithaca Monthly Meeting – and, immediately following that, January Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business which will be held in a hybrid format in person at the Third Street Meetinghouse and online via Zoom.
An annual meeting of the corporation is required by the bylaws of Ithaca Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends Incorporated. It consists of four very short, formal reports from the officers of the corporation (who bear a striking resemblance to Ithaca Monthly Meeting’s Trustees). At least ten percent of our active members and attenders are required to be present at the meeting, so please come if you are able.
Simplicity may be one of our Quaker testimonies, but sharing or finding information about Ithaca Monthly Meeting (IMM) is complicated! As a Meeting, we use numerous communication methods in an effort to provide information and create community among F/friends. Some of the ways we share information include:
A detailed announcement or explanation shared in a blog post on our website (Such as what you’re currently reading.)
Phone calls from a designated person in Meeting to F/friends
A notice is posted in the Meetinghouse (generally only used for the annual meeting of the IMMRSF Corporation)
A letter or note mailed to Friends’ homes (This is increasingly less common, though the Finance Committee usually mails a letter near the end of the year asking Friends to consider donating to the Meeting.)
If there are documents or files to review (such as agenda, minutes, and reports for Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business), they may be stored in a shared online drive and a link sent via the listserv and included in the newsletter. Sometimes documents are sent as attachments via the listserv.
As we said, many ways to share information! Which methods we use depend on various factors, including how complex the information is, who needs to know, and when they need to know. We tend to use multiple methods to share the same information because we want to be sure everyone has an opportunity to see it. This is helpful because people have different preferences or options for receiving information. It can also be problematic because we risk not being consistent in the information we share (e.g., an email may list the start time of a discussion as 9am, but the calendar says 9:15am). Sharing the same information multiple ways can also add to confusion about how and where to share and receive information.
The first two items in the list of methods – the newsletter and the listserv – may be the most confusing to Friends, mainly because more than one email list is involved and there are additional options within the method.
Newsletter. Our newsletter can be found a few ways: it arrives in your email inbox; a few printed copies are available at the meetinghouses; and online versions are available on the Newsletter page of our IMM website (including an archive of previous newsletters dating back to 2006!) To make sure the IMM newsletter arrives in your email inbox, you need to be subscribed to the IMM Newsletter list (which is separate from the IMM listserv). If you’re subscribed and still don’t receive the newsletter, check your spam folder. You may need to add immcommcomm@gmail.com to your contacts list so your email recognizes our newsletter.
Listserv. We communicate via email frequently, and use Groups.io listservs as an easy way to get information to a large group of people. The groups.io listserv allows anyone who is a subscribed member of the listserv to send an email to one specific email address and that message then shows up in the email inbox of everyone else who is subscribed to the listserv. Because some Friends only want to receive the bare minimum of email about the Meeting (just official events please!) while others want to share much more, we have set up three different lists in our groups.io account. Each person can choose whether or not to receive email from each of the sub-lists.
The main, foundational list is Announcements (announcements@IMMRSF.groups.io). This list is used to communicate about the official events of Ithaca Monthly Meeting and associated Quaker bodies (e.g. FSRM, NYYM, and FGC). Then there are two sub-groups: Witness (witness@IMMRSF.groups.io) and Community (community@IMMRSF.groups.io). Everyone who joins any of the IMMRSF.groups.io lists is automatically a member of the Announcements list; it is the core or main group.
How are the three lists to be used?
Announcements is only for news and events of Ithaca Monthly Meeting or wider Quaker bodies. Since this is the core list, we want to keep the focus narrow and specific. Some of the recent messages sent to the Announcements list include:
A reminder from the Clerk about Meeting for Worship and our monthly potluck lunch
Reminders about Talent Night
Announcements about our Peace & Social Justice or Earthcare committee meetings, including the links to join the meeting via Zoom
Notices of workshops being offered at Powell House (a retreat center associated with New York Yearly Meeting (NYYM).
Witnessis for messages related to Quaker testimonies or witness. This is where we can share information about social justice, peace witness, or Earthcare events, activities, or information. Messages recently sent to the Witness list include:
A plea to tell Ithaca Common Council not to pull funding from Southside Community Center
An announcement about a panel discussion on fracking (featuring Ithaca Friend Sandra Steingraber)
Information about the conflict in Israel and Gaza, including pleas to contact elected officials about specific actions.
Communityis for sharing more general information, notices, questions, and happenings we want to share with our Meeting community. The purpose of the Community list is to build social connections among the members and attenders of IMM. Recent messages shared to the Community list include:
An invitation to a fundraiser
An announcement about author Robin Wall Kimmerer speaking at Cornell (this was also shared to the Witness list)
An offer of dining room furniture
A request for information about potential housing from Quakers who will be moving to Ithaca.
Getting too much email?
One of the nice things about the groups.io service is that it is easy to control the frequency of email delivery. Most people in our listserv either receive each message as it’s sent or receive several messages at a time in a digest or summary. You could even opt to receive no email and instead visit the groups.io website to read messages.
All the messages sent to our groups.io listservs are available to be read on a website, so there’s an easily accessible archive of what’s been sent and you can go back and search for a topic or message. To read messages on the groups.io website, you’ll need to create a login and password for that site.
How to decide which communication method to use?
Still not sure how or where to share information with others in Meeting? The easiest and quickest way is to send an email to one of the listservs. Which listserv you use depends on the content of the message. If it’s an announcement about an event hosted by or for Ithaca Monthly Meeting or one of our committees, use the Announcements list. Same guideline applies if it’s for or from a wider Quaker organization. There are also a few emails about organizations that Ithaca Meeting is officially a member of, such as Area Congregations Together (ACT) or Kitchen Cupboard, that are sent to the Announcements listserv.
If it’s not immediately obvious that the content of your message is about Ithaca Meeting or Quakers, send it to either the Community or Witness listserv. If the message is related to one of our Quaker testimonies or areas of concern (such as non-violence, racial justice, anti-racism, or social justice), the Witness list is probably the best choice. All other emails can be sent to the Community listserv. If you’re tempted to send an email to both the Witness and Community listservs, please reconsider. The majority of people on the Witness list are also on the Community list.
My general rule: if in doubt, send it to the Community listserv!
You may also be able to share your information via one of the other communication methods listed at the beginning of this article, especially if it’s about an IMM or Quaker event. Talk to the Clerk of meeting to have something included in announcements at the Rise of Meeting. If you’d like something included in the monthly newsletter or on the website, talk to the Communications Committee.
