Clerk: Holly Baldwin
Recording Clerk: Becky Steele
15-66 Opening Worship: Permanent Board Friends met in worship at Castleton State College after the close of 2015 Sessions.
15-67 Roll Call: Present: Outgoing Clerk Holly Baldwin, Incoming Clerk Sarah Gant, Recording Clerks Bruce Neumann (outgoing) and Becky Steele (incoming), Virginia Bainbridge, Travis Belcher, Deana Chase, Susan Davies, Jeremiah Dickinson, Justice Erikson, Hannah Zwirner Forsyth, Christopher Gant, Ben Guaraldi, Ian Harrington, Nancy Isaacs, Sandy Isaacs, Tom Jackson, Leanna Kantt, Allan Kohrman, Jean McCandless, Elias Sanchez-Eppler, Karen Sanchez-Eppler, Suzanna Schell, Sara Smith, Carolyn Stone, Philip Stone, Bill Walkauskas, Fritz Weiss, Rosemary Zimmerman
Ex Officio: Edward Baker (Supervisor of YM Secretary), Noah Baker-Merrill (YM Secretary), Jackie Stillwell (outgoing Presiding Clerk), Shearman Taber (Incoming Treasurer)
Regrets: Galen Hamman, Rocky Malin, Anna Radocchia, Carole Rein, Elizabeth Szatkowski, Donn Weinholtz
Guests: Douglas McCown (Portland), Bob Murray (Clerk, Personnel Committee), Francis O’Hara (Finger Lakes Monthly Meeting, New York Yearly Meeting), Sarah Spencer (Beacon Hill)
16-68 Minutes: We considered the minutes from our August 1, 2015 meeting, made corrections, and approved them.
16-69 Comings and Goings: Permanent Board welcomed new members and assigned mentors for them as follows: Tom Jackson (Dover New Hampshire MM — mentor Travis Belcher), Anna Radocchia (Bennington — Fritz Weiss agreed to find a mentor), Carole Rein (North Shore — Nancy Isaacs. Permanent Board held outgoing Friends Aimee Belanger, Jan Hoffman, Rebecca Leuchak, and Patsy Shotwell in gratitude for their service.
Leanna Kantt announced that she has been selected for the Guildford Quaker Leadership Scholars Program at Guilford College starting this fall, and will have difficulty attending Permanent Board meetings during the academic year. She will hold us in the light during the school year, and will see us at Sessions. Friends congratulated her, thanked her for forthrightly facing multiple calls on her time, and wished her well.
16-70 Friends Camp legal bill: Ben Guaraldi gave an update about the legal bill for obtaining tax-exempt status on the Friends Camp lakefront property acquired in 2012. During the time of Sessions, Ben and Elias Sanchez-Eppler talked to the Friends Camp Director and some members of the Friends Camp Committee. Ben and Elias heard that the Camp representatives were not clear about the degree of the Yearly Meeting’s support for the Camp.
Members of Permanent Board discussed the need for good financial practices regarding the costs of operating the Friends Camp. Some members thought the legal bill should properly be treated as a Camp expense, either as an operational expense or as an expense incident to purchasing the lakefront property. In the interest of maintaining the right relationship with Camp, however, Permanent Board was willing to offer to split the bill equally between the Camp and the Yearly Meeting. Members discussed the importance of the Friends Camp, the close relationship between the Camp and the Yearly Meeting, and the need for further clarity about the relationship between the Camp and NEYM. Jeremiah Dickinson, clerk of the ad hoc committee on the Good Governance of Friends Camp (GGFC), said that the GGFC is already well on its way to making several recommendations about governance of Friends Camp and relationship with NEYM. We ask them specifically to look at the relationship between the Friends Camp Director and the Yearly Meeting Secretary, especially in advance of the hiring of the new Friends Camp director.
After further discussion, the Permanent Board heard and approved the following minute:
NEYM loves our camp, and cares for it both spiritually and financially, as shown by the approval of an immediate $100,000 grant to the Camp from our Legacy Fund in Sessions 2014. In the interest of maintaining the close relationship between NEYM and the Friends Camp, Permanent Board approves splitting equally the allocation of the cost of the legal bill. We authorize the Friends Camp to pay its share of the legal bill from its unused remainder of the Legacy Fund grant. We further authorize the NEYM Treasurer to make a recommendation about how to allocate the NEYM portion of the legal bill at the next Permanent Board meeting. We authorize the Clerk of Permanent Board and the Treasurer to send a letter to the Friends Camp Director and Committee, explaining our decision about how to account for the legal bill, affirming our care for the camp, and stating that we intend to send Permanent Board representatives to the next Friends Camp Committee meeting to show our care. We also approve sending Jeremiah Dickinson and Sarah Gant, as representatives of the Permanent Board, to the next Friends Camp Committee meeting.
15-71 Friends Camp Director Search Committee: Edward Baker reported that the committee recommends adding the following ex officio members to the search committee: the Yearly Meeting Secretary, the Clerk of Permanent Board, and the Clerk of the Friends Camp Committee. In addition, a former camper and camp counselor, Meredith Noseworthy, has volunteered to serve on the committee. Permanent Board approved adding Meredith Noseworthy and the above-listed ex-officio members to the Friends Camp Director Search Committee. We also approved Edward Baker as convener of the committee.
15-72 Internal Nominating: Carolyn Stone noted additional names nominated to committees this week:
- Clerks Nominating: Donn Weinholtz (class of 2017), Marion Athearn (class of 2018), and Leslie Manning (class of 2018)
- Yearly Meeting Nominating at Large: Marian Baker (class of 2018)
- Personnel: Karen Sanchez-Eppler (class of 2018)
Permanent Board approved appointing the above committee members.
After discussion about the need to nominate subcommittee members to disburse the grants approved by Sessions from the former student loan fund, we approved that Internal Nominating nominate three to five members for the Student Grant Disbursement Committee. The current members of the Student Loan Subcommittee are willing to serve on the grant committee. Permanent Board noted the need for NEYM to develop good policies to handle any potential conflicts of interest, both with respect to student grants and for NEYM as a whole.
Regarding nominations of members to the Friends Camp Committee, which is nominated in part by the Friends Camp committee, and in part by Internal Nominating, Carolyn reported that they have only nominated two representatives to the Friends Camp Committee and are looking for Friends to serve. Recognizing that this is a new process, somewhat confused and yet vital, Internal Nominating agreed to report back on progress in September.
15-73 Puente de Amigos: Permanent Board approved sending a delegation to the November 2015, celebrations of the 15th anniversary of Havana Meeting and the 115th anniversary of Cuba Yearly Meeting. The delegation includes Frances Brokaw, Leonard Keyes Cadwallader, Shawn Donovan, Charles Grant, Cathy Miles Grant, and Frederick Charles Weiss.
15-74 Sessions Celebrations and Next Steps: The Clerk led us through a discussion of matters approved by Sessions, and any next steps for Permanent Board as follows:
- Sessions approved a procedure for NEYM to respond to time-sensitive matters when a public statement from New England Friends might be valuable. Celebration ensued.
- Permanent Board also celebrated Sessions’ approval of a plan to recover pending debts owed to the former student loan fund, and to disburse remaining funds as grants to eligible students. Next steps: Internal Nominating will nominate committee members, as described in minute 15-72.
- Long-Term Financial Planning: After Sessions’ approval of a foundational purpose statement and priorities, Chris Gant will continue to clerk the committee as it works on a long-term financial plan. Sarah Gant, as Permanent Board Clerk, will replace Holly Baldwin on the committee. Chris will see if current committee members wish to continue the work, and will consider the value of adding members with expertise in specific areas.
- Structural Review: Permanent Board approved laying down the Structural Review Committee, with deep gratitude for its valiant and useful labors. We took time to acknowledge the sorrow of laying down the Committee, holding in worship the Committee and its work. Sarah Gant, Holly Baldwin, and Susan Davies will contact the clerk of Ministry and Counsel about reaching out to members of Structural Review to thank them for their service, apologize for not tending better to their committee, and listen to their experience so that we may learn from our mistakes. We discussed Permanent Board’s need to improve our communication and coordination. Coordinating and Advisory may tackle this need in its September conference call. The new Permanent Board Clerk will consider ways to follow up on the Committee’s proposals and will suggest next steps for Permanent Board arising from the Structural Review Committee’s work. We also found clerk Lisa Graustein’s oral report to our August 1st meeting so valuable that it may be good to invite her to share the gist of it more widely, perhaps in the New England Friend.
- Archives: We celebrated Sessions’ approval of moving our archives to UMass-Amherst and holding proceeds from the sale of The Bloody Tenent to cover costs associated with the move. Permanent Board authorized Noah Baker Merrill and Karen Sanchez-Eppler to coordinate with the Archives Committee and UMass-Amherst to negotiate an agreement to bring back to Permanent Board for final approval.
15-75 Nominating Committee Recommendation: We approved the Nominating Committee’s recommendation to appoint Eppchez Sanchez-Eppler to serve as a 2015 representative to the FGC Central Committee.
15-76 Rufus Jones Property: Rufus Jones’s childhood home in South China is up for sale. Individuals from China Meeting and the Vassalboro Quarter have approached some NEYM Friends about the opportunity. Friends noted that currently this is an interest of individuals, not the Quarter or China Meeting, but that support from the Permanent Board may be helpful to these Friends and meetings. We approved asking Sarah Gant and Susan Davies to confer with Ralph Green, Joann Clark Austin, and others in Vassalboro Quarter to help them explore the possibilities afforded by the sale.
15-77 Finalizing minutes from Sessions and transition to the new Clerk of Permanent Board. Presiding Clerk Jackie Stillwell brought us minutes from Sessions, which we approved. Holly Baldwin read a list of our ongoing initiatives: Structural Review, Good Governance of Friends Camp, Student Loan grant, MM relationship care, PB Policies review, Personnel, Internal Nominating, Clerks Nominating, Delegation visiting Mattapoisset Friends regarding their municipal grant, By-laws revision. She then handed the meeting over to the new Permanent Board clerk, Sarah Gant, who led the Permanent Board outside for a lively exercise on the lovely grounds of Castleton.