10-59 Opening Worship: We opened in waiting worship.
10-60 Roll Call: The Recording Clerk called the roll.
Present: Edward Baker, Holly Baldwin, Jeremiah Dickinson, Eric Edwards, Judy Goldberger, Jan Hoffman, John Humphries, Rebecca Leuchak, Christopher McCandless, Suzanna Schell, Patricia Shotwell, Philip Stone, Ruah Swennerfelt, Jane Van Landingham, Donn Weinholtz, Carl Williams
Regrets: Debbie Block, Susan Davies, Sarah Gant, Beth Gorton, Andrew Grannell, Dorothy Grannell, Mary Knowlton, Allan Kohrman, Donald Mick, Sara Sue Pennell, Karen Sanchez-Eppler, Judith Shea (Personnel Committee Clerk), Rosemary Zimmermann
Ex-Officio: Travis Belcher (Finance Committee Clerk), Linda Jenkins (YM Presiding Clerk), Ed Mair (Treasurer), Jonathan Vogel-Borne (YM Secretary)
Guests: Marcia Mason
10-61 Minutes of 8/7/2010 were approved with corrections.
10-62 Finance Committee Report: Travis Belcher, Clerk of the Finance Committee, reported for the Committee, which met three times during Sessions.
The Committee has approved a $43,000 loan to Friends Camp for the purchase of the lakefront property. The terms of the loan are 15 months at 4% interest. PB accepts the Finance Committee’s and Friends Camp Committee’s recommendation for the terms of the bridge loan. Concerns were raised about the decision to charge ourselves interest; nevertheless, we acknowledge and honor the Camp Committee’s desire to cover the potential interest this money might have earned were it not being used by the camp.
The Finance Committee has provided formal approval for the YM to move to electronic banking, concurrent with a move to TD Bank from Bank of America. Before implementing the move, however, Travis needs to check on the bank’s liability for a potential hacking incident, and he wants to be certain the YM has insurance to protect us in such a situation if our account balance were to get zeroed out. Finally, the Committee and YM staff need to formalize a new set of procedures for authorizing online payments.
The Committee accepted Peter Swaszcek’s review of the books for the previous year. Based on his recommendations and with Betsy Muench’s help, they are now preparing for a more formal outside review of the books—either next year or two years from now. One Friend encouraged the Committee to explore the possibility for securing pro bono services for this review.
The Committee asked Treasurer Ed Mair to research past decisions regarding three current issues. Based on a review of past Treasurer’s manuals, Ed found approved procedures for the following situations:
- Borrowing money for the purchase of land;
- Reallocating surplus from a budget item in the current fiscal year; and
- Carrying over surpluses from one year to next.
The Committee is updating the language and collecting these procedures in one place. They will be made available on the NEYM website.
The Committee researched the formula used to calculate the allocation of the Benevolences among the three Quaker organizations (FGC, FUM and FWCC) and discovered that different people have different memories of how the formula works and when it was revised. The Committee will clarify the formula and use it in the coming year’s Priorities Budget process.
The Treasurer reported that few donations were received during Sessions. Both Travis and Ed made appeals for PB members to be ambassadors to people in our MMs, encouraging them to consider making a contribution to the YM.
10-63 YM Secretary Report: Reflecting on this first experience at Sessions as YM Secretary, Jonathan Vogel-Borne noted that Sessions really involves two different jobs: YM Secretary and Conference Coordinator. The latter responsibilities draw his time and energy away from attending to the spiritual needs of the community and to administrative tasks required of the executive for the Yearly Meeting. Friends affirmed the need to explore possibilities for allocating conference coordination tasks to someone else, perhaps a temporary staffer.
10-64 YM Presiding Clerk Report: YM Presiding Clerk Linda Jenkins confessed her exhaustion but shared the sentiment expressed by one Friend who spoke during the morning session: she is in love with this community. Linda echoed the concern that Jonathan’s responsibilities prevented him from being present for many of the Meetings to Hear God’s Call, and she expressed appreciation for all of his work.
10-65 Report of YM Nominating Committee: Christopher McCandless reported that the Committee does not yet have a Clerk. Christopher and Patricia Higgins will attempt to serve as co-Conveners, but this is unlikely to be an adequate substitute.
Christopher presented the up-to-date list of nominations for all committees, incorporating names that had been added since the approval of the list included in the Unity Agenda on Sunday evening.
Friends approved the complete slate of recommendations, thanking the Committee for its diligent efforts. This complete slate will be included in the minutes of Yearly Meeting Sessions.
10-66 Report of Internal Nominating Committee: Donn Weinholtz has agreed to serve as Clerk of Internal Nominating Committee, and he reported for the Committee, presenting the following recommendations:
- YM Nominating Committee (At Large): Jim Lyons (Mt. Toby), class of 2013; and Bonnie Norton (Wellesley), class of 2013
- Memorial Minutes: Patsy Shotwell (Wellesley), class of 2013
Friends approved these recommendations.
10-67 New Members of Permanent Board: The Clerk identified four newly appointed members of PB, approved as part of the Nominating Committee report: Rosemary Zimmermann (Putney), Aimee Belanger (Westport), Carolyn Stone (Wellesley) and Galen Hamann (Cambridge). The Clerk identified the following continuing members to serve as mentors to these new members during this first year of their service: Judy Goldberger for Aimee Belanger; Holly Baldwin for Galen Hamann; Allan Kohrman and Patsy Shotwell for Carolyn Stone; and Christopher McCandless for Rosemary Zimmermann.
10-68 Authorization for Clerks to Finalize Wording of Sessions' Final Minutes: YM Presiding Clerk Linda Jenkins reviewed the items from the end of the morning session for which minutes were not approved by Sessions due to time constraints. Friends approved authorizing the Presiding Clerk and the Recording Clerks to finalize these minutes, which will be made available to Permanent Board for review prior to our November meeting.
10-69 Authorization for Clerks to Edit the Sessions Minutes: Friends approved authorizing the Presiding Clerk of Yearly Meeting and the Recording Clerks to edit the reports and minutes for consistency, grammar and spelling, as needed.
10-70 Procedural Review Recommendation: The Clerk reported that one Friend has raised the question of revisiting the Procedural Review Committee’s report from 2006 (PB Minute 06-47). A working group created by PB in August 2006 (PB Minute 06-81) had presented a process for further discernment of the Committee’s recommendations (PB Minute 06-93) but later recommended setting aside the work until after a decision had been made about the proposal to create the position of YM General Secretary (PB Minute 07-07). Now that the YM staffing restructure has been completed, the Clerk will ask Coordinating and Advising Committee to consider this proposal to revisit the Procedural Review Committee’s recommendations. He will report back to PB at a future meeting.
10-71 Closing Worship: We closed in waiting worship, planning to meet again on Saturday, November 20 at 9:30 AM at a location still to be determined.
Edward Baker, Clerk
John Humphries, Recording Clerk