Permanent Board minutes | September 23, 2017

Christopher McCandless and Charles Simpson (Burlington Monthly Meeting Co-Clerk) welcomed Friends to Burlington Monthly Meeting.

17-56 Opening Worship. Friends gathered in worship with members of the Ministry and Counsel Committee, experiencing beautiful but warm weather shortly after the fall equinox.

Joint Session with Ministry & Counsel

17-57 Roll Call:

Present: Sarah Gant, Clerk; Becky Steele, recording Clerk; Travis Belcher, Deana Chase, Susan Davies, Jeremiah Dickinson, Darcy Drayton, Christopher Gant, Ben Guaraldi, Christopher McCandless, Jean McCandless, Gina Nortonsmith, Anna Radocchia, Sara Smith, Phil Stone, Bill Walkauskas, Donn Weinholtz

Ex Officio: Noah Merrill (YM Secretary), Jackie Stillwell (Former Presiding Clerk), Shearman Taber (Treasurer), Fritz Weiss (Presiding Clerk)

Regrets: Kimberly Allen, Hannah Zwirner Forsythe, Galen Hamann, Ian Harrington, Leanna Kantt, Rebecca Leuchak, Carole Rein, Elizabeth Reuthe (YM Secretary Supervisor), Elias Sanchez-Eppler (Clerk, Finance Committee), Rosemary Zimmerman, Mary Zwirner

Absent: Tom Jackson, Elizabeth Szatkowski

Members of Ministry and Counsel included M&C Clerk Honor Woodrow and Recording Clerk, Brian Drayton; Marian Baker, Beth Collea, Cliff Harrison, Jnana Hodson, Janet Hough, Callid Keefe-Perry, Meg Klepack, Hugh MacArthur, Jay O’Hara, Cornelia Parkes, LVM Shelton, J.J. Smith, Paul Spence, Sarah Spencer, Susan Vargo, Fritz Weiss, Carl Williams

17-58 Presiding Clerk Report: Expanding on his written report, the Clerk announced the theme for Sessions 2018, based on a quote from Penn’s Fruits of Solitude: “It is as great Presumption to send our Passions upon God’s Errands, as it is to palliate them with God’s Name.” The Presiding Clerk noted that we act with fear and trembling, bold in God’s service.

Centering around a quote from William Penn also gives Friends a chance to pay attention to our past (and ongoing) involvement in colonization.

The Presiding Clerk invited Friends to take time to stop and celebrate. He has been reading Wendell Berry’s volume of sabbath poems, This Day, realizing that the gate into the forest is narrow, so to enter it we must lay our burdens down.

Joyful news—New England Friends are engaging with the larger church. The Clerk met with the Maine Council of Churches and heard how important Friends have been to its efforts. Also, a representative to Sessions from the Massachusetts Council of Churches told the clerk that he found us to be exciting and alive in the Spirit of Christ.

17-59 YM Secretary Report: In the immediate aftermath of the white supremacy march in Charlottesville, the Secretary felt clear he needed to be in the streets, saying “no.” He prepared a letter from NEYM acknowledging how Charlottesville was a mirror to us all. He joined other clergy to be a visible presence at a Boston march called to protest the hatred in Charlottesville. The clergy used a smartphone app called “Signal” to stay in touch, naming their group “Emmanuel” (God with Us). That name was beautiful to the Secretary, because it captured the intimacy of God being present at the march. The Secretary affirmed the leadership of people of color who were leading the march. He saw his job not to tell the story, but to be present and witnessing. The Secretary extended a hope and an invitation for us to stay present to Emmanuel as we carry forth our work, in recognition of the divine in each other, and also to feel a presence among us greater than the sum of our egos.

The Secretary also noted that we have vital work to do to encouraging and supporting those who are acting on our behalf in the world. Gifts of ministry are given not for the aggrandizement of individual Friends but are necessary for us as a whole. We must engage our tradition and see how it moves forth in fresh ways. Ours is a living faith that we can carry more faithfully in the world. The Secretary encouraged us to step more fully into boldness and into leadership, working together.

Finally, the Secretary noted our greatest challenge is what we’re called to believe: that there is light of God in everyone, even white supremacists. That’s hard. Friends must be visible in demonstrating love not just to those who look and think like us, but also those who are not like us.

17-60 Ad Hoc PB/M&C Travel Minutes Working Group. Janet Hough presented the work of the group, which also includes Carl Williams, Christopher McCandless and Karen Sanchez-Eppler.

Friends expressed appreciation for the group’s hard work. Accepting the report with gratitude, Friends approved laying down the working group, and also approved the following minute:

• Responsibilities of Permanent Board:
  • Permanent Board is responsible for endorsing travel minutes on behalf of New England Yearly Meeting for travel outside the yearly meeting, when clear to do so. (Endorsement is not automatic.)
  • After endorsing a travel minute, the clerk of Permanent Board returns the signed travel minute to the traveler. Travelers should report back after completion of their travel (for a specific visit/event) or annually (for open-ended or ongoing travel). Written reports should be sent to Permanent Board, copied to Ministry and Counsel, and should include impressions and learnings from their travels, along with copies of any endorsements made by the meetings they visited. (This reporting is in addition to reports Friends make to their monthly and quarterly meeting.) Although written reports are generally sufficient, in addition, a person may feel called to request time on the agenda to report in person to Permanent Board or Ministry and Counsel, or the clerk of Permanent Board or Ministry and Counsel may request an in-person report. 
  • PB sends a copy of the endorsed travel minute to the clerk of Ministry and Counsel for tracking and follow-up.​​​​​​​
• Responsibilities of Ministry & Counsel:
  • Ministry and Counsel is responsible for tracking the endorsed travel minutes on behalf of NEYM. As part of this work, Ministry and Counsel will support monthly meetings in their care of each traveler, including, if helpful, naming someone to follow-up with and help shepherd each traveler.
  • Ministry and Counsel “shepherding” may include holding the travelers and their ministries and concerns in the light, checking in with the persons holding the travel minute, and requesting and reading reports on the traveling ministry. Shepherds should remind traveling ministers to report annually and/or at the end of the concern both to Ministry and Counsel, and to Permanent Board. Where appropriate, they may check with the monthly meeting care/support committee and/or yearly meeting committee associated with the travel. 
  • Note: The shepherding outlined above is in addition to, and supportive of, the regular, primary care provided to Friends with travel minutes by their monthly meetings and care/support committees.

Permanent Board

Following lunch, members of Permanent Board reconvened as members of Ministry and Counsel went to their separate meeting.

17-62 Minutes: Friends approved minutes from the PB meetings of August 5 and August 10, 2017.

17-63 PB Purposes, Procedures and Composition: To begin this new year of work together, the Clerk called our attention to the revised Purposes, Procedures and Composition of Permanent Board as approved at Sessions 2017.

17-64 Treasurer Report. The state of finances as we near the end of the fiscal year is uncertain. We should slightly exceed the $142,000 budgeted for income. Individual contributions appear likely to meet the “stretch” goal of $182,000. Monthly meeting contributions are down, and Finance Committee members are reaching out to meetings.

17-65 Friends Camp Budget (Revised). At the request of the Friends Camp Director, the YM Secretary presented a revised draft budget (which was approved by the Friends Camp Committee August 22, 2017. Friends approved the revised budget. The Friends Camp Director and YM Secretary, together with the treasurers for the camp and the yearly meeting, are working on streamlining the process for preparing camp budgets

17-66 Development. As we near the final week of the fiscal year, it appears we will meet the $20,000 goal of new or increased giving, triggering a matching challenge gift. The committee will follow up with “Last Year But Not This Year (LYBNT)” donors to hit the stretch goal.

For the next fiscal year, the committee will work on creating a culture of pledging, for more predictability in income. It is sending e-mail solicitations to targeted groups of Friends, such as Permanent Board members and members of yearly meeting committees, as well as Young Friends. Chris Gant, the committee clerk, shared a heartening story of a Young Friend who responded to the appeal by quadrupling her contribution, saying, “this is my faith community.”

The clerk reported that a small task force is working on outreach to monthly meetings. In addition, the YM Secretary, Development Committee clerk and Jennie Shinn attended a conference in Lancaster, PA sponsored by Everence, a Mennonite financial services firm. They examined issues and challenges surrounding money and considered other ways to encourage gifts, such as planned giving, or even NEYM credit cards.

The clerk concluded his report by saying, “If you don’t ask you don’t get.” He asked Friends, “Are you moved to give?”

17-67 Ad hoc Challenging White Supremacy Working Group: Susan Davies, clerk of the working group, reported on the group’s work. She thanked members who worked on this issue last year, and was happy that others joined the group after 2017 Sessions. The clerk expressed her sense of unworthiness, realizing this is her “growing edge.” Recognizing that we can’t see without the help of others, she felt the urgency of the call of Ruby Sales: “Are you with me, my people?” The clerk expressed how fully, humbly, desperately we need to answer that call and be present to each other.

The clerk acknowledged the need to remain mindful of the work of other Friends, including those on the Racial, Social and Economic Justice (RSEJ) Committee. She also reminded Friends that we all need to be part of this work and cannot leave it to others. The Presiding Clerk has released Lisa Graustein, with oversight, to convene RSEJ, CWS, and other groups for an October 14 gathering to further engage the racial justice work going forward throughout yearly meeting. Part of the task is to reach out to Friends of Color to learn from their experience, and to provide monthly meetings with tools, some of which are already developed, to do this work. The clerk noted that the work is tender, and not everyone comes to it from the same place.

17-68 Ad hoc Reparations Working Group: Permanent Board Clerk Sarah Gant reported on the complex nature of the group’s task, exploring possible corporate action on issues including white supremacy and reparations. The group must balance the need for education and soulful examination, while not losing track of possible concrete steps for action. There are many issues to parse out and untangle.

Leslie Manning has agreed to clerk the ad hoc working group. The plan is to identify committee members and bring a concrete charge, with actionable steps for Permanent Board’s consideration at its November meeting.

17-69 Proposal: Quaker Network to End Mass Incarceration (QNEMI): Phil Stone reported that the group met at Sessions following a movie on mass incarceration. AFSC promised the help of a staff person, but is now facing budget difficulties. There was a very successful conference at Pendle Hill with Michelle Alexander. Phil referred Friends to his written report. A website has been set up for the Network at www.qnemi.org. Phil hopes that NEYM might provide institutional support for this effort. He has reached out to the RSEJ Committee, but has not heard back.

Friends discussed the concept. Friends recognized that after Sessions laid down the Peace and Social Concerns Committee, C&A was tasked with exploring ways to support Friends’ social witness, but there is not yet an organizational structure in place to handle requests such as this. Friends noted that this is not the first time NEYM has been asked to provide support for Friends’ social witness and other Quaker concerns, especially in connection with organizations outside the yearly meeting structure. This is a worthy issue, but there are many factors to consider, such as the burden on staff and NEYM resources, as well as seasoning organizational concerns (such as why AFSC laid down its support).

Friends were united in desiring to explore further how to support Friends’ social witness. Friends interested in helping to discern a way forward were invited to give their names to the Permanent Board Clerk.

17-70 Purposes, Procedures and Composition: Clerks Nominating Committee and YM Nominating Committee. Friends approved the Purposes, Procedures and Composition for the Clerks’ Nominating Committee and the Yearly Meeting Nominating Committee, with the additional edit that the Nominating Committee is tasked with finding a support committee for the Presiding Clerk.