Dear Ceals and Tasha
Thank you for raising such a huge and frightening question. The answer flummoxes me as much as it did your police force.
I wonder if Quaker Life might hold one of monthly on line meetings to discuss the matter and propose solutions.
Should each Quaker local meeting have a security policy written by Quaker Britian Yearly Meeting in the same way that we have
a Child Safeguarding Meeting- A national policy individualised to every local Quaker meeting. Something including locking the doors at all times. Policing the entry during lettings.
Its such an unexpected problem ... but it worries me that your meeting have been found to be breach able by someone in a needy community who will tell everybody else in their community.
You may have to expect further attempts to lock into a toilet. When i first read your words i thought you must have been one of our rich Quaker buildings and had a serious burglery.
At Coventry Quaker Meeting one summer, two reasonable rough sleepers camped in our garden bushes. This was frightening and challengiing - how should a caring Quaker meeting respond.
When carelessly discarded needles appeared we asked the sleepers to leave. We felt we had to cut down the bushes too and Coventry now has a fruit and flower planted large area of garden insted
that cannot hide campers.
Wishing you both a lot of sympathy and all the best david (rugby local quaker meeting)
David Fish
33 Magnolia Drive
Lutterworth LE17 4RS
Hi Ceals
I can't help as we have pretty much the same as you in terms of lack of helpful policy and open access without the staff presence. I'm responding because it is a very live issue for us, having recently had
someone lock themselves into one of our toilets and then refuse to leave and a very lackluster response from the police call handler saying 'well they obviously just need to use the toilet, what's the problem, they're behind a locked door'. This was half
an hour after we had closed; I found a 2 1/2 ltr empty cider bottle hidden in a cupboard in the toilet cubicle after they eventually left. The police did come half an hour after I called them, and we would not have got him out without their help. I left the
building and waited outside as I had no idea what I would be greeted with when he did eventually leave the toilet - size, weight, physical strength or control - but kept watching through the windows to make sure he didn't escalate things inside. This is just
the latest of several incidents, and although the local committee and Area Meeting Trustees are working on a Lone Worker policy, I very much doubt it will address this issue in any meaningful way. I'd be very interested to hear if any Meetings have something
that is helpful and workable in place - other than having 'reception' staff watching the door whenever the building is open.
Thanks for asking the questions Ceals.
Tasha
Natasha Heny
Meeting House Manager (Warden)
Lancaster Quaker Meeting House
(I work flexible hours over 5 days and have two days off each week)
Hello all you lovely people,
Do any of you have a policy on what to do if you get an unwanted intruder in the building? We have a very brief one but it pretty much amounts to hide and phone the cops. There are very few rooms within the building that anyone could lock themselves in.
Also, with the best will in the world, without having someone in the foyer from 8am to 10pm daily checking who is coming in, it is impossible to prevent anyone from coming in who shouldn't be here.
Any help is gratefully appreciated.
All the best,
Ceals
Pronouns: her, she
Building Manager
Walthamstow Quaker Meeting House
1a Jewel Road
London E17 4QU
Tel 020 8521 2363
Account name: Walthamstow Quaker Meeting (Premises)
Account number: 00010329
Sort code: 40-52-40
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