Permanent Board minutes | August 7, 2010

10-47 Opening Worship: We opened in waiting worship.

10-48 Roll Call: The Recording Clerk called the roll.

Present: Edward Baker, Holly Baldwin, Jeremiah Dickinson, Eric Edwards, Judy Goldberger, Andrew Grannell, Dorothy Grannell, Jan Hoffman, John Humphries, Allan Kohrman, Rebecca Leuchak, Dwight Lopes, Christopher McCandless, Sara Sue Pennell, Susan Reilly, Karen Sanchez-Eppler, Suzanna Schell, Patricia Shotwell, Philip Stone, Ruah Swennerfelt, William Upholt, Jane Van Landingham, Donn Weinholtz, Carl Williams

Regrets: Travis Belcher (Finance Committee Clerk), Susan Davies, Sarah Gant, Beth Gorton, Carolyn Hilles-Pilant, Mary Knowlton, Donald Mick, Judith Shea (Personnel Committee Clerk)

Ex-Officio: Linda Jenkins (YM Presiding Clerk), Ed Mair (Treasurer), Jonathan Vogel-Borne (YM Secretary)

Guests: Gerald Sazama, Jeffrey Hipp, Marcia Mason, Elizabeth Muench, Thomas Swain (Middletown MM, Philadelphia YM)

We discovered that a miscommunication had resulted in Sara Sue Pennell being recorded as resigning from PB in January (Minute 10-02). We are pleased to have her resume her service.

10-49 Minutes of May 8, 2010 were considered. Friends approved the minutes.

10-50 Memorial Minutes: Memorial minutes for Heather Moir (North Sandwich) and Eleanor Butler Perry (Westerly) were read during the opening worship.

Friends approved forwarding these memorial minutes to Sessions.

10-51 Coordinating and Advising Committee Report: Presiding Clerk Linda Jenkins reported for the Committee. She thanked Friends for holding her and the other YM clerks in prayer during these days leading up to Sessions.

Continuation of Employment for YM Secretary - The Committee has completed their performance appraisal of the Yearly Meeting Secretary and is pleased to recommend continuing employment for Jonathan Vogel-Borne as the YM Secretary. The Committee is grateful for Jonathan’s versatility and faithfulness during this year of transition. Friends expressed unity with that recommendation and approved bringing that recommendation to Sessions for approval.

Friends spoke of their gratitude for Jonathan’s service, noting the challenges of the past year and expressing their sense that the Inward Light has been present with him and with the YM during this process.

Linda noted that this is a new process, with the C&A Committee, rather than the Personnel Committee, conducting Jonathan’s performance appraisal and reporting to Permanent Board.

Unity Agenda - Linda urged Friends to become very familiar with the information provided in the Advance Documents concerning the various items in the Unity Agenda. One of the radical experimental aspects of this year’s Sessions is to bundle most of our “usual” business together in the Unity Agenda, which will be described during the opening session on Saturday evening. PB members are asked to take time to talk with people and listen for concerns, helping to connect anyone with concerns to the resource people identified in the Advance Documents prior to the consideration of the Unity Agenda on Sunday evening.

Some Friends expressed concern about including the budget within the Unity Agenda. Linda responded that if one or more items within the Unity Agenda emerge as needing separate discernment, they will be separated out and time allotted for that discernment during the Sessions.

Implementation of MBS Incorporation - NEYM has received a packet of final documents. However, one question remains about the minute prepared for the MBS Board regarding their commitment to meeting obligations of the original deed to NEYM: we need to clarify that the document received is indeed the final, approved version. But she is pleased to report that the MBS leadership and attorneys have worked very hard to attend to all concerns and details, and she is easy with outcome.

10-52 Yearly Meeting Secretary Report: YM Secretary Jonathan Vogel-Borne shared that the organizing and preparations for this year’s Sessions have been the most challenging ever for him and others involved. Our numbers are about the same as in previous years, including about 70 new people. More people are coming for the whole time—possibly connected with the new schedule that doesn’t have a smorgasbord of workshops to pick-and-choose from. The equalization fund has been sufficiently funded to support a number of people this year. The YM offered full scholarships to certain MMs to encourage representation, and five MMs will be represented for the first time in at least two years.

Addressing the staff transition, Jonathan expressed gratitude for the work of the two interim staff hired to carry us through Sessions—Aimee Belanger (Young Friends Coordinator) and Delia Windwalker (Office Manager).

He informed PB that Nia Dwynwen Koch has been hired as YF/YAF Coordinator, with the hiring process completed earlier this summer. As a former YF and current YAF, she is familiar with these programs, but she is now actively preparing for providing the strong leadership the programs need. A significant aspect of her job is to help high school age youth find their way into active participation and leadership in the YAF community.

Offering thanks to Jerry Sazama and God, Jonathan reported that a Search Committee interviewed five candidates for the Communications Director position last week, with two of the interviews being conducted via online videoconferencing. The position was offered to and accepted by Jeffrey Hipp. Jeff spoke briefly about his profound gratitude to have this opportunity to serve the YM, after previously serving another nonprofit as Communications Director.

In response to a question, Jonathan noted that the YM is in an experimental phase of trying to figure out how to staff the YM. The ideal arrangement would probably be to have a Communications Director and an Office Manager/Bookkeeper, but we are not there, yet. The YM Secretary now has authority to make some of these decisions, within budget constraints, but we are also still feeling our way into these new procedures and what aspects need approval – given budgetary implications of hiring decisions.

10-53 Treasurer’s Report: Treasurer Ed Mair discussed the report, as printed in the Sessions Advance Documents, but also shared some information that will be presented to Sessions on Sunday evening. As of July 30, 2010, there is a $40,000 surplus, largely due to Sessions registration income.

The Treasurer and Finance Committee have agreed, with PB’s endorsement as part of the of Priorities Budget process, that it is better to present a budget that reflects a deficit, based on the projected numbers, rather than one that is artificially balanced. The deficit figure reflects, at least in part, an intention to use the surplus from this budget year resulting from reduced expenses due to staffing changes and other savings. He believes that we will likely discover a year from now that we are not ending the year with a deficit and that we will cover the projected deficit through a combination of increased contributions and reduced expenses.

Ed noted that Jerry Sazama, outgoing Clerk of the Development Committee, has a concern that MM contributions will not meet the budget projections. But Ed pointed out that if we anticipate additional MM contributions after Sessions, at a level similar to last year, then we may even have a surplus.

A recent informal check of the financial records by an outside volunteer found our books to be in good shape. Ed strongly recommends, however, that we need to budget for a full audit in near future—something that would likely cost $5,000–$10,000.

We accepted the report, as outlined in the Sessions Advance Documents.

​​​​​​​10-54 Finance Committee Report: Treasurer Ed Mair reported for the Committee. He reviewed the decision reached by Finance Committee, through the Priorities Budget process, to partially fund the YM Secretary salary increase recommended by Personnel Committee and to restore benevolences to 2009 levels. This decision is the source of the projected $30,000 deficit.

We were reminded that PB has approved the Priorities Budget process, provided input and approved including the budget within the Unity Agenda for consideration at Sessions, but the Finance Committee finalizes and presents the budget to Sessions for approval.

A lengthy discussion of the ethics of presenting a deficit budget ensued, with some Friends expressing a desire to make any assumptions about lower expenses and higher income explicit in the budget. Other Friends raised concerns about insufficient financial information being provided to Sessions prior to consideration of the budget as part of the Unity Agenda, and suggestions were made for making budget information available in the form of a programmatic pie chart or similar format.

The PB Clerk expressed the hope that the discussion had helped the Treasurer become better prepared to address concerns likely to be raised during consideration of the Unity Agenda on Sunday evening. Friends expressed gratitude for the work of the Treasurer and Finance Committee.

​​​​​​​10-55 Development Committee Report: Gerald Sazama, outgoing Clerk, reported for the Committee. He reviewed the history of the Committee, and noted that he has served as Clerk since it was established as a standing committee five years ago.

This past year, however, he was the only active member. Nancy Haines has now agreed to serve as Clerk.

He circulated copies of the Development Committee report that was included in Sessions Advance Documents. He noted that individual donations in 2009 were about one-third of the total income from contributions (i.e. nearly half the total of MM contributions). He suggested the possibility of establishing an explicit limit on that proportion and wondered whether we might have reached the limit (no discussion of this idea took place).

For the current fiscal year, the YM budgeted $130,000 in contributions from individuals. He anticipates that we will reach $90,000 by the end of Sessions. Part of the shortfall is explained by insufficient outreach to large donors this past year. He noted that PB members know potential major donors in their meetings better than he does and requested help in identifying such people.

Jerry encouraged PB to be part of development process by wearing stickers with the message “Support Quaker Community!” and talking with potential donors and volunteers here at YM. It can happen, but God has to be working through us.

Finally, Jerry reported on a planned collaboration with Finance Committee to organize a joint inter-visitation of MMs to learn what MMs want from the YM and how they might financially support those efforts. Friends expressed gratitude for this work and look forward to hearing further reports as the collaborative effort unfolds.

​​​​​​​10-56 Friends Camp Report: Theresa Oleksiw reported for the Committee about the proposed waterfront property purchase. The property owner has accepted the Camp’s offer of $160,000, and the Camp has provided $5,000 in earnest money. Following discussion of the detailed proposal outlined in the advance document, Friends took the following steps:

10-56 Friends approved the purchase of a waterfront lot (164ft x 171ft) and a 5-room cottage (1,152 sq ft), valued at $210,000, for the price of $160,000. The YM will provide a tax donation letter to the owner, recognizing an in-kind donation of $50,000.

• Friends approved the sale of two acres of wooded Camp property to Joann Clark Austin for the price of $40,000.
• Friends approved the Camp’s accepting a private loan of $60,000 from Dwight Lopes to help purchase this waterfront property. (The terms will be 15 years with 4 percent interest.)
• Friends approved waiving the restrictions on $22,000 in unspent donations designated for Cardinal Hall allowing those funds to be used instead for this purchase.