Permanent Board minutes | March 10, 2010

10-15 Opening Worship: We opened in waiting worship.

10-16 Roll Call: The Recording Clerk called the roll.

Present: Edward Baker, Holly Baldwin, Jeremiah Dickinson, Sarah Gant, Judy Goldberger, Andrew Grannell, Dorothy Grannell, Jan Hoffman, Mary Knowlton, Allan Kohrman, Christopher McCandless, Donald Mick, Susan Reilly, Patricia Shotwell, Ruah Swennerfelt, William Upholt, Jane Van Landingham, Donn Weinholtz, and Carl Williams

Regrets: Thomas Ash, Debbie Block, Susan Davies, Beth Gorton, Carolyn Hilles- Pilant, John Humphries, Sandy Isaacs, Rebecca Leuchak, Dwight Lopes, Karen Sanchez-Eppler, Suzanna Schell, Judith Shea, Sarah Spencer, Philip Stone, Susan Zeichner

Ex-Officio: Travis Belcher (Finance Committee Clerk), Linda Jenkins (Presiding Clerk, YM), Ed Mair (incoming Treasurer), Jonathan Vogel-Borne (YM Secretary)

Guests: Clifford Harrison

The Clerk reported that Tom Ash, Sarah Spencer, and Susan Zeichner have resigned their positions on Permanent Board, and that Carolyn Hilles-Pilant will resign at the end of the year.

10-17 Minutes of 16 January 2010 were approved with corrections.

10-18 Report from Coordinating and Advisory Committee: Linda Jenkins, Presiding Clerk, reported that priorities for C&A have included monitoring the Moses Brown transition, the first year of our staff reorganization, and priorities budget process. Opportunities for extended worship continue to be available through each Quarter, including Salem at Wellesley, Northwest at Plainfield, and Connecticut Valley at Hartford meetings. More sessions are being planned.

A discernment group made up of the Clerk’s table and others is busy planning for business at sessions next August, with much more to be done. Joint business sessions that will include both Young Friends and Young Adult Friends are in the works, a wonderful opportunity that has been suggested by our youth.

She asks for prayers as Coordinating and Advisory goes forward, moving deeper into the paradox that jubilee creates more work for ourselves.

10-19 Yearly Meeting Secretary Report: Jonathan Vogel-Borne reported:

News from Monthly Meetings

• Of the eight meetings with paid pastoral leadership, three are in transition: Durham, Allen’s Neck, and the Friend(s) in Residence role at Cambridge is facing a year of restructure.
• Quaker Quest, an outreach program coordinated by Friends General Conference, is being considered at several meetings throughout the Yearly Meeting.
• The situation around Friends United Meeting personnel policy continues to be a focus for a few meetings. While some meetings continue to support FUM through their Yearly Meeting contributions, three meetings have decided to withhold a portion of their contribution, and still others continue to struggle.
• In November, Ministry and Counsel minuted that they would not write a Yearly Meeting State of Society report, and shared that with monthly meetings, informing them that monthly meeting State of Society reports were not being requested. Some meetings continue writing them as they find them helpful. Meetings that write them should forward them to the Yearly Meeting office.
• Cambridge Meeting, in working through their budgetary issues, has been considering a recommendation from their Finance Committee to cut $21,000 from their donation to the Yearly Meeting.

On March 6, 2010, treasurers and Finance Committee members from monthly meetings met to explore the process of meeting funding. How to ask for money—always a challenge to Quakers—and becoming clear about why you’re asking—what is exciting about your meeting—are both important. Money follows a clear vision.

Some of the staff have expressed considerable unease with the priorities budget recommendation of Personnel Committee (accepted and forwarded to Finance Committee by Permanent Board at our last meeting) that the salary for the YM Secretary should be increased to a level more comparable with the starting salaries of similar positions in the northeast, including other yearly meetings. We held most of the discussion of this issue until the report from Personnel Committee later in the agenda.

The New England Friend is out—and it is wonderful. As it will be available online, fewer copies have been made.

Beth Collea, Christian Education Coordinator, experimented with taking up residence at Woolman Hill for several days as a way to do field work in Western Massachusetts nurturing First Day School groups and small meetings.

Jonathan attended youth retreats, both Young Friends and Junior High Yearly Meeting.

Jonathan continues working with pastors in New England and New York and is planning a pastors’ retreat to be held at Powell House near Albany, NY.

The Traveling Ministries and Intervisitation Program Subcommittee of NEYM Ministry & Counsel met recently. An important part of who we are is shared in visiting other meetings.

Sale of Hope Street Property at Moses Brown School—PB approved the sale in 2007 (Minute 07-11), and we wish to record that a sale has actually happened.

Priorities Budget—Unlike last year, the new budget contains no new positions requiring substantial fundraising. It is more of a “getting your house in order” budget so we can better focus on making our witness known in the world. In our discussion we came again to the issue of pay levels – do we reward levels of responsibility or types of service? Where is the place where we discern between paid work and unpaid service? How do we recognize and accept gifts of ministry, while we ensure that the work of the Yearly Meeting is accomplished?

10-20 Report of Yearly Meeting Nominating Committee: Christopher McCandless reported for the committee. The Committee continues to wrestle with nominations and has spent some time considering ways to reduce the number of people needed to serve on committees. What is the role of the Nominating Committee? Should they decide what committees should be considered for laying down based on the difficulty of finding Friends to serve on a committee? We affirmed that the task of the Nominating Committee is to make nominations; suggesting overall changes in committee structure is not their responsibility.

Christopher presented the following nominations to fill current vacancies:

• Aging: Debbie Colgan (Cambridge), Class of 2011
• Board of Managers: Rob Spivey (Brunswick), Class of 2011; James Ellingboe (Acton), Class of 2014
• Christian Education: Jana Noyes (New London), Class of 2012
• Earthcare Ministry: Mary Gilbert (Cambridge), Class of 2010; Rod Zwirner (Monadnock), Class of 2010; Jud Lee (New Haven), Class of 2012
• Friends Camp: David Marstaller (Durham), Class of 2010
• FCNL: Kathryn Fisher (Beacon Hill), Class of 2011
• FGC: Jackie Stillwell (Monadnock), Class of 2011
• Friends Peace Teams: Jessica Hipp (Fresh Pond), Class of 2012
• Moses Brown Board: David Holdt (Hartford), Class of 2013
• New England Friends Home: John Bach (Cambridge), Class of 2012
• Peace and Social Concerns: Barbara Dakota (New London), Class of 2010; Mary Ellen Cohane (Northampton), Class of 2011; Katherine Fisher (Beacon Hill), Class of 2011; Anna Radoccia (Bennington), Class of 2010
• Racial, Social, and Economic Justice: Skip Schiel (Cambridge), Class of 2012; Kay Brown (Sandwich), Class of 2012

Friends approved these recommendations.

10-22 Report of Personnel Committee: Edward Baker reported for Clerk Judith Shea. Work continues on the revision of the personnel manual to include the new staff structure with clearly defined policies and procedures for all staff. We expect a draft will be ready for the May meeting.

Katherine Clark, Communications Secretary, and Alison Hersey, Accounts Manager, met with the Committee at its last meeting. Kate has not felt supported during the changes to the staff structure, though Allie has.

The committee received a letter from Kate, expressing a concern that during the process of changing the staff structure there has been a departure from the equal pay model for our staff. The Personnel Committee recommended a large increase this year for the YM Secretary and only a cost-of-living raise for other paid staff in the Priorities Budget process. She requested that such an increase be spread across all paid positions. After Kate left the meeting, the Committee spent considerable time in discernment, seeking an appropriate response to her request. The Committee acknowledged that the Yearly Meeting had, in their understanding, moved away from an equal pay model, but neither the ad hoc committee on staffing structure nor the Personnel Committee had properly minuted that action. The Committee intends to work on that at its upcoming meeting.

The discernment around creating the new staff structure has been good Quaker process. There was a certain expectation that in making adjustments during the implementation, some issues would arise. The Personnel Committee felt that it was too soon to make changes to the new structure to accommodate one staff member’s concern.

In the discussion that followed, we recognized the complex issues of the relationship between pay and responsibility levels, with one Friend expressing concern regarding gender equity as well.

Personnel committee will continue to make staff welcome at their meetings.

10-23 Report on Moses Brown Incorporation: Edward Baker reported that the process has been moving forward with three meetings of the Working Group on Moses Brown Incorporation since the last Permanent Board meeting. Charles White (Providence), legal counsel for the Yearly Meeting, has been working on the transfer documents, making a number of changes. The School continues to be very responsive to Friends’ concerns. Under the new structure, New England Yearly Meeting will continue to appoint Friends to constitute not less than one-third of the Board. The Working Group has identified additional sections of the by-laws that they believe should not be changed without NEYM approval. The goal continues to be ensuring that a Quaker influence at the school is maintained.

The process includes transferring the buildings to the school and leasing the grounds. The permitted activity on the property will be specifically defined by the by- laws. The transfer will be to two different corporations: the Moses Brown Facilities Corporation to take over the buildings, and the Moses Brown Corporation to run the school. This configuration is meant to further protect the property in the event of adverse legal action.

The Moses Brown School Board has been asked to minute a commitment to the education of Friends as a part of this process. The discussion has been brought forward through a minute drafted by Cliff Harrison for last year’s Sessions. The current draft of the minute that the MBS Board has been discussing recognizes the school’s historic core purpose of educating Friends and seeks to articulate a commitment to disadvantaged children and a commitment to achieve a significant increase in the number of Quaker children at the school. This discussion is ongoing, at times tense and often fruitful. It is hoped that a minute will be ready to approve at the same time as the final approval of the transfer documents and new by-laws.

Moses Brown School is looking to work with New England Yearly Meeting to find qualified children from the Yearly Meeting (this was discussed further as part of the next agenda item).

The clerk asked for some guidance on the role of the Working Group on MBS Incorporation. Sessions approved the transfer of the buildings to the new corporation and has authorized Permanent Board to implement the changes and the Presiding Clerk to execute the necessary legal documents (Minute 09-24). The YM also directed PB to appoint a working group to help guide the process by ensuring that Friends’ concerns are addressed. The Working Group is expected to make a recommendation to PB that the documents are ready to be approved. Their notes are like minutes of exercise, a record of the concerns that have been addressed and the progress being made.

​​​​​​​10-24 Report from Committee on Nurturing Friends Education at Moses Brown School: Elizabeth Zimmerman reported for the Committee. There continues to be excitement around Matt Glendenning, the new Head of School, who clearly understands Friends ways and process. He is creating an atmosphere of generous deep welcoming. Worship opportunities at the school are expanding. In the fall, Galen McNemar Hamann will become the half-time Director of Friends Education, in addition to her other responsibilities.

Betsy distributed proposed Purposes and Procedures developed by the Committee. Friends approved the purposes and procedures (attached) with the addition of the phrase “including orienting the school to Quaker practice” as one of the Committee’s responsibilities.

​​​​​​​10-25 Report from Faith and Practice Revision Committee: Jan Hoffman, Clerk, reported for the Committee. At the 2008 Sessions, each MM was given a binder containing three texts that had received preliminary approval (two chapters and the preface) and working papers for three chapters awaiting input from Friends. The Committee is now working on a chapter focused on illustrative experiences of Friends. The Committee has adopted a timeframe: two working papers will be out at Sessions 2010, and some revised chapters will be presented for preliminary approval in 2011-2012. The Committee has a 2015 finish date as a goal.

The organization chapter is being completely reconsidered. What are the spiritual elements needed to sustain a healthy meeting, and what are the disciplines that nurture it—at monthly meeting, quarterly meeting and yearly meeting levels?

​​​​​​​10-26 Role and Function of Permanent Board between Annual Sessions: At the request of the PB Clerk, Jan Hoffman has researched some other yearly meetings to focus on how they organize the body which acts as the YM between annual sessions. Baltimore, Pacific, and Southeastern Yearly Meetings offere examples of different approaches, but in all three, the continuing body is constituted by representatives appointed by constituent MMs plus some ex officio members. This contrasts with NEYM where the PB is appointed by Sessions by approving names brought forward by the YM Nominating Committee. Each of these other YMs also has a procedures manual which describes in more detail than Faith and Practice the functions of officers, committees, and staff (where present).