Accounts

Reports of the stewardship, 1979 onward.

One report has been issued in every year since 1979 and none has been revised after issue. Three are held in the public catalogue in full; the remainder are available on application to the archivist.

The series

1979Held — public
1982Issued — not located
1983Issued — not located
1984Issued — not located
1985Issued — not located
1986Issued — not located
1993Held — public
1998Held — public
2019Held — public
2025Held — public

The reports for 1982 to 1986 were issued and are recorded as issued. They have not been located at any house. The archivist notes that the loss is described in the minutes as regrettable and orderly.

ANN/1979Issued 14 February 1980, North House

Report of the Stewardship for the Year 1979

This is the first year in which the stewardship has thought it proper to print an account of itself. The practice of doing so was proposed by Vale in 1977 and declined by her in the same letter, on the grounds that an institution which explains itself annually will eventually arrange its year around the explanation. The stewardship has decided, respectfully, to proceed.

The figures below are given as they stand in the house books at the close of the year. Where a figure is uncertain it is marked so. Nothing has been rounded upward.

Accounts for 1979
Houses maintained	4
Members in attendance, weekly	211
First attendances recorded	63
Residential periods provided	88 (of 604 nights)
Meals served in public work	9,140
Hours given to public work	6,207
Repairs completed at the houses	31
Fellowship — entered	19
Fellowship — completed	7
Fellowship — withdrawn	11
Members deceasedNamed at the reconciliation. Their rotas were carried by others without interruption.	4
Periods of separation taken	9
ReturnsAs previously constituted.	2
Contributions received	$41,806
Contributions returned as excessive	$3,150

The stewardship records its thanks to the members of the Shore House, who spent the winter without a functioning stove and did not write to us about it until March.

No part of this report has been withheld.

T. Orrell, for the stewardship

ANN/1993Issued March 1994. Printed at River House.

Annual Report 1993

The Institute completed its nineteenth year of continuous operation. The stewardship notes, without further comment, that the founding year is given as 1972 in the River House books and 1974 in the Record; the discrepancy has been referred and is not treated as material to these accounts.

The Journal resumed in April. Members who wrote to ask why it had stopped have been answered individually.

Accounts for 1993
Houses maintained	9
Circles active	26
Members in attendance, weekly	1,344
First attendances recorded	290
Residential periods provided	417 (of 3,088 nights)
Meals served in public work	58,401
Hours given to public work	44,120
Hospice sittings	1,902
Fellowship — entered	112
Fellowship — completed	58
Fellowship — withdrawn	44
Members deceased	23
Members no longer continuous	31
Periods of separation taken	77
Continuity reviews conducted	1,401
Returns	38
Contributions received	$611,240
Contributions returned as excessive	$40,110

The line entered as Returns is carried forward from the preceding year in accordance with standing practice. Members who wish to consult the reconciliation may do so at the North House during ordinary hours.

The stewardship thanks the archivist, who has now catalogued for twenty-one years and has asked, again, not to be thanked in print.

M. Evensen and G. Sørhaug, for the stewardship

ANN/1998Issued March 1999. Printed at Shore House.

Annual Report 1998

The Institute completed its twenty-fourth year. Attendance rose slightly. Public work was unaffected in every region, which the stewardship attributes to the ordinary stubbornness of the rota rather than to any decision of its own.

Residential capacity was reduced following the loss of one property during the autumn quarter. Members displaced by the loss were accommodated at Shore House and with members of the Bangor circle; the arrangement is funded to the end of March and is entered below. The count of houses is unchanged and is printed as it stands in the Record.

Eleanor Vale died in October. The stewardship has entered her death in the Record in the ordinary form and has declined to print anything further, in accordance with her instruction that no memorial observance be held. The ordinary Thursday was kept at every house that week.

Accounts for 1998
Houses in the count	11
Houses maintaining residential or public programmesReduced by one during the autumn quarter.	10
Circles active	31
Members in attendance, weekly	1,908
First attendances recorded	371
Residential periods provided	502 (of 3,744 nights)
Residential nights lost to the autumn quarter	610
Temporary accommodation provided, member-nights	1,144
Meals served in public work	74,220
Hours given to public work	56,880
Hospice sittings	2,411
Repairs completed at the houses	212
Fellowship — entered	146
Fellowship — completed	71
Fellowship — withdrawn	52
Members deceased	29
Periods of separation taken	94
Returns	51
Contributions received	$894,610
Contributions returned as excessive	$61,205
Loss and reinstatement, net to the general fundStated in full at LED/1998/04. Reconstruction allocation, nil.	$46,065

No allocation has been made for reconstruction. The stewardship resolved in November that the property will not be rebuilt, and recorded that the resolution does not alter its standing.

The stewardship thanks the members of the Bangor circle, who took eleven people into their houses in October and sent no account of it.

M. Evensen, for the stewardship

ANN/2019Issued 28 February 2020. Reconciled with the Common Record, revision 29.7.

Annual Report 2019

The Institute maintained eleven houses and thirty-eight circles. Attendance was steady. Public work expanded in two regions and was withdrawn in one, at the request of the community it served, which the stewardship regards as a proper outcome and not a loss.

This report is issued in the ordinary form. Members will notice that the accounts have been re-ordered to place public work before the fellowship; nothing else has changed.

Accounts for 2019
Houses maintained	11
Circles active	38
Members in attendance, weekly	4,109
First attendances recorded	744
Residential periods provided	1,206 (of 9,880 nights)
Meals served in public work	212,660
Hours given to public work	188,401
Hospice sittings	6,554
Trail and building restoration, days	3,301
Fellowship — entered	318
Fellowship — completed	171
Fellowship — withdrawn	119
Members deceased	61
Members no longer continuous	88
Periods of separation taken	204
Continuity reviews conducted	4,190
Returns	216
Contributions received	$4,880,115
Contributions returned as excessive	$318,400
Held at the Western House	not stated

The stewardship records the death of eleven members whose rotas had run for more than thirty years. Each rota was continued in the following week.

This document has been reconciled with the Common Record.

For the stewardship, the eleven houses

ANN/2025Issued 12 February 2026. Reconciled with the Common Record, revision 31.6.

Annual Report 2025

The Institute counted eleven houses and maintained programmes at ten, on the basis set out in PRO/2001/03. Circles were steady at thirty-eight. Public work was unchanged in extent and rather better organised, chiefly by two people who would not wish to be named here and have been thanked elsewhere.

The accounts are in the ordinary form. One new group of figures appears below, at the archive's request: requests to correct, close or withdraw material in the Common Record. These were previously counted in the correspondence total and are now printed separately, so that they can be followed year to year.

Accounts for 2025
Houses countedHouses maintaining residential or public programmes: 10.	11
Circles active	38
Members in attendance, weekly	4,244
First attendances recorded	690
Residential periods provided	1,118 (of 9,204 nights)
Hours given to public work	191,880
Correction requests received	7
— resolved by annotation or counter-record	3
— resolved by correction of fact	1
— records temporarily closed, with a review date	2
— records reopened after reviewClosed 2021; reopened at the request of the person who asked for the closure.	1
— unresolved and carried forwardCarried to the February 2027 review.	1
Fellowship — entered	281
Returns	44
Contributions received	$1,041,300
Contributions returned as excessive	$74,900

The stewardship considered the two memoranda on publication and withdrawal (MEM/2025/04, MEM/2025/07) and adopted no general rule. The criteria at PRO/2026/01 are in use in the meantime. The matter is entered on the standing register of disputes and is carried to next February.

No part of this report has been withheld.

M. Evensen, for the stewardship

Back matter

The roll of standing

Printed at the back of each report, in the form used since 1979. The Institute prints standing and nothing else.

Roll of standing, extract
Member	First attendance	House	Standing
Aberdare, R.	1977	North House	Continuous
Okpara-Lindqvist, A.	2009	Lantern House	Continuous
Sørhaug, G.	1981	Shore House	Continuous
Halloran, P.	1984	River House	No longer continuous
Munn, H.	2021	Briar House	Continuous
Iwaya, K.	1996	Shiretoko House	In separation
Vasilj, M.	1988	Bela House	Continuous
Halloran, P.	1979	River House	Continuous
Orrell, T.	1974	North House	Withdrawn, 1983
Deane, S.	2002	Seawall House	No longer continuous
Nkemelu, C.	2011	Lantern House	Continuous
Prentice, W.	1983	—	No longer continuous
Evensen, M.	1993	North House	Continuous
Lammle, E.	not recorded	Western House	Continuous
Achterberg, J.	2016	Bela House	In separation
Reid-Fenwick, D.	1990	Shore House	Continuous

The Institute does not comment on individual standing, either to members or to enquirers, and asks that members extend the same courtesy to one another. A person's standing is a fact of the Record and not an account of their character. Corrections are made in writing to the archivist and are entered without annotation.

Literature

Members' Handbook, fourth edition

Issued to members at first attendance between 1994 and 2006. Sections 1 to 4 are reproduced; sections 9 to 11 are held under closed observance.

HAN/1994/4 · 1994

1. On arriving. Come as you are dressed. Nothing will be asked of you in the first hour, and nothing will be asked of you at all that you cannot decline in front of others without discomfort. If you are asked something you would rather not answer, say so plainly; this is not a test, and there is no record made of it.

2. On the silence. Observances contain between four and twenty minutes of silence. You may leave the room during it. You may also stay and think about your work, your errands, or nothing whatever. The silence is not an exercise and has no correct interior content.

3. On contribution. There is no fee. A member sets their own schedule with a steward and revises it annually. Contributions in excess of a member's circumstances are returned; the stewardship would rather lose the money than the person.

4. On the record. Attendance is recorded. Contribution is recorded separately and in another building. Correspondence with a steward is kept for the life of the correspondence and is not read by anyone else during it. A member may ask to see their own record at any house and should be shown it the same day.

5. On leaving. A member may take a period of separation of any length by saying so once. A member may also stop attending without saying anything, and the houses will not write to ask why. What is entered in the Record after two years without attendance is the phrase no longer continuous, which is descriptive and is not intended as a judgement.

6. On returning. Members who return are not asked where they have been. The rota they held is offered to them again if it is free, and if it is not, they are told who holds it, so that they may see it being kept.

7. On the absent chair. At every observance one place is laid and left empty. Members ask about this in their first year and are given the answer their house gives. The answers differ between houses. The stewardship has twice declined to standardise them.

8. On what we do not say. The Institute makes no claim about what happens to a person after death, no claim about the nature of mind, and no claim to knowledge unavailable to a careful reader. A member who is told otherwise by another member should regard that as the other member's opinion and is encouraged to say so.

Sections 9 to 11 (Continuity review; Closed observance; Returns) are issued to stewards only. Reconciled with the Common Record, revision 19.2.