Organization
Board of Directors:
 
    Margaret Clerkin
    Joanna Hoyt              
    Lorraine Hoyt          
    Melinda Kurowski
    Joseph Morton
    Andrew Nelson
Core Members (Officers):
 
    Lorraine Hoyt
    Joanna Hoyt
    Zachary Hoyt
 
St. Francis Farm Community is a non-profit corporation with tax-exempt status. The process of forming a corporation to hold title to the land and continue work already begun was bewildering and often frustrating.  We are grateful to the members of other Catholic Worker communities who answered our questions about their ways of organizing and holding title to property and hope that our experience may be helpful to others who are struggling with questions of organization and tax exemption.  We are also grateful to Quaker organizations that shared their experience and the wordings they had used to preserve the structure and decision making processes they valued through the process of incorporating. We have been able to preserve the simple and non-hierarchical nature of this place.  Instead of designating a president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer, we have decided that our officers will be Core Members, who must have lived and worked here for at least one year, and who will carry out the mission of St. Francis Farm and make decisions as needed. We continue to live by gifts given and received, taking no salaries.  The board of directors meets once a year to review the work of the Core Members, provide suggestions, and renew their terms. In between meetings individuals on the board advise and support us in various ways. Decisions are not made by voting, but by Spirit-based discernment.
BY-LAWS of ST. FRANCIS FARM COMMUNITY, INC.
 
Article 1 - Offices
 
    1.1 The name of this not-for-profit corporation is St. Francis Farm Community, Inc. Its principal office and place of business is located at St. Francis Community, Inc., 136 Wart Road, Lacona, New York 13083.
 
Article 2 - Purpose
 
    2.1 The purpose of St. Francis Farm Community, Inc. is to live a neighborly life based on the Gospels and on Catholic Worker principles as an alternative to the consumer culture.  The work of St. Francis Farm Community is to build community by offering a prayerful presence and providing people of diverse circumstances the opportunity to do meaningful work, to stop and think about their lives and to explore and enjoy the natural world.  Food is grown to sustain the people who live on St. Francis Farm Community, Inc. and to share with members of the larger community in need of food. The land is understood as a sustainable resource providing not only food but also fuel, lumber, wildlife habitat and public access.
 
Article 3 - Organization
 
    3.1 St. Francis Farm Community, Inc. shall consist of a Board of Directors who shall appoint Officers to carry out the work of the corporation.
 
Article 4 - Meetings
 
    4.1 Annual meetings of the Board of Directors shall be held at St. Francis Farm Community, Inc. at a time appointed by the Board. The Board will be notified by phone or email two weeks in advance. Notice in writing shall not be required.
 
    4.2 A quorum of 2/3 of the Board members shall be required at annual meetings.
 
    4.3 The Officers may call special advisory meetings of the Board as needed. Special meetings of the Board shall be held upon notice to the Directors.
 
    4.4 A teleconference may be considered an official meeting.
 
    4.5 The decisions of St. Francis Farm Community, Inc. shall not be made by voting. The directors are convinced that the Spirit speaks to the group when its members are gathered together, listening to the Spirit and to each other. The Board shall meet to discern the Spirit, exploring the differences and seeking consensus.
 
    4.6   The persons named in the Certificate of Incorporation shall act as the Board of Directors during the period between the organizational meeting and the first annual meeting of the Board of Directors.
 
Article 5 - Board of Directors
 
    5.1 The Board shall be comprised of no fewer than 3 members and no more than 12 members.
 
    5.2 Board members shall be appointed initially by the persons named in the Certificate of Incorporation, thereafter by the Board. They must be over 18 years of age and interested in furthering the mission of St. Francis Farm Community, Inc.
 
    5.3 The term of office for Board members shall be at least two years, which may be renewed at the annual meeting.
 
    5.4 The Board shall fill vacancies at its discretion.
 
    5.5 A Board member may resign by submitting his/her resignation in writing to the Officers.
 
    5.6 A Director may be removed for cause by agreement of the rest of the directors then in office if the Board determines that the Director has either not acted in good faith or has acted against the best interests of the Corporation, and the Corporation has been harmed thereby. Such action shall be taken at a meeting after notice of at least two weeks to all Directors. A majority of the Directors must be present. The Director whose removal is sought shall have the right to be present at the meeting and to present evidence on his/her behalf, but he/she will not participate in making the decision.
 
Article 6 - Officers
 
    6.1  The Officers shall be known as Core Members and may or may not be Directors.  To be eligible to be Officers they must be community members who live and work at St. Francis Farm Community.  Core Members and members of the Board of Directors are expected to participate in ongoing discussion of the work of SFFC in relation to its basic purpose.  At its Annual Meeting the Board of Directors shall review the work of the Core Members, provide suggestions, and renew their terms.  The Board may appoint new Core Members at any duly called meeting.
 
    6.2 The Core Members shall carry out the missions of St. Francis Farm Community, Inc. and make all necessary decisions, calling special meetings as needed to seek advice and support from the Board of Directors.
 
    6.3 Officers shall serve without salaries.
 
    6.4 Officers may resign by submitting written notice of resignation to the Board.
 
    6.5  Any Officer elected or appointed by the Board may be removed by the Board with or without cause.
 
    6.6  If no Core Members remain in residence the Board shall have the authority to appoint provisional Officers or to assume the responsibilities of Officers until the next Board meeting.
 
Article 7 - Committees
 
    7.1 The Board is authorized to create advisory committees only.
 
Article 8 - Administrative and Financial Considerations
 
    8.1 The Officers will have authority to sign financial documents.
 
Article 9 - Amendment of By-Laws
 
    9.1  The Bylaws of St. Francis Farm Community, Inc. may be amended at a duly called meeting of the Board.
HISTORY
      Saint Francis Farm was purchased in 1976 by Father Ray McVey, a radical priest from Syracuse. He had already founded Unity Acres, a home for formerly homeless men, on land abutting the farm. (Click here to visit the Unity Acres website.)  His early ideas for the farm included growing food for the Acres and housing overflow men or families who did not mix well with the larger population at the Acres.
        Over the following years the farm was used for a series of community service projects:  a safe house for battered women, a free medical clinic for low-income families, a home for unwed mothers, and a knitting cooperative.  In 1983 Fr. McVey sold the farm for one dollar to Time of Jubilee, a then newly formed non-profit doing community development and housing work in Syracuse.  Nothing really changed at the farm, but it was a way to have an official organization hold the title.  During the 1980's several trailers were purchased and placed on the farm to provide affordable housing.  In 1992 Fr. McVey invited a couple who had been working at Nazareth Farm to live at SFF and host service/learning weeks for high school and college students.  The barn was converted into living space for these groups. The visiting students participated in prayer, education, and community service.  The number of such groups peaked in 1996-7 and then declined slowly.
       The current core community arrived in 2001 as the last of the previous residents departed.  The farm continued hosting groups, but the emphasis shifted to living an alternative way of life and inviting visitors to share that way of life.  (see Mission Statement on our home page)  Since Fr. McVey's death in 1995 there have been changes at Unity Acres also, but the two places remain neighbors and the connections continue.  Time of Jubilee had also been growing and changing and by 2002 no longer wanted to hold this rural property which was outside their urban mission.  In 2003 the farm was incorporated as St. Francis Farm Community. In 2004 the new corporation received federal tax exempt status and  Time of Jubilee sold the property back to SFFC for one dollar.
    There has been an increasing focus on growing food to share as well as growing all we can of what we need.  In 2006 the farm began regularly supplying vegetables, eggs and cheese to a local soup kitchen (see ‘Sharing the Bounty’ in the 12-07 newsletter).  In 2007 a connection was made with Hope Wallis who works with refugees  in Syracuse.   The farm sends produce in summer and makes wooden toys for the refugee families year round (see “Homemade Toys Please Refugee Children’ in the 3-08 newsletter).
    In 2007  the farm made a timber sale with the help of a consulting forester.  We also bought a sawmill so we could produce lumber for farm use and for sale.  From 2006 to 2011 the farm hosted a Summer Program to which children were bused from a local elementary school. Since 2009 the farm has been listed as a host site through Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF).