21-17: Opening Worship
Friends opened with a period of worship.
21-18: Roll Call
The recording clerk called the roll.
Present: Leslie Manning, Clerk; Hannah Zwirner Forsythe, Recording Clerk; Travis Belcher, Peter Bishop, Deana Chase, Darcy Drayton, Martin Zwirner Forsythe, Chris Gant, Beth Hansen, Ian Harrington, Rebecca Leuchak, Ed Mair, Christopher McCandless, Jean McCandless, Gina Nortonsmith, Bob O’Connor, John Reuthe, Martha Schwope, Sara Smith, Elizabeth Szatkowski, Will Taber, Bill Walkauskas, Diane Weinholtz, Donn Weinholtz, Morgan Wilson, Kathleen Wooten, Tom Vargo, Mary Zwirner
Ex-Officio: Scot Drysdale (Finance Clerk); Noah Merrill (Secretary); Bruce Neumann (Presiding Clerk); Elizabeth Reuthe (Secretary’s Supervisor)
Visitors: Polly Attwood, Melody Brazo, Marian Dalton, Jeremiah Dickinson, Sarah Gant, Janet Hough, Becky Jones, Anna Lindo, LouAnne McDonald, LVM Shelton, Jackie Stillwell, Nia Thomas, Diana White, Judy Williams, Honor Woodrow
Regrets: Bob Murray (Treasurer); Kim Allen, Fran Lightsom, Anna Raddochia, Carole Rein
21-19: Approval of January Minutes
The minutes from the Permanent Board’s January meeting were distributed for review. Friends approved the January minutes.
21-20: Noticing Patterns
Members of the Noticing Patterns working group (NPWG), now a working group of the Permanent Board (PB), were present for our meeting. Polly Attwood, clerk of the NPWG, shared the shifting role of that group as part of PB taking the group under our care. Members of the group will continue to be present to help the Board to notice the patterns of faithfulness and oppression that run through our work, but instead of sharing their noticings during as discreet agenda items in the meeting they will be encouraging members of the Board to share those patterns as they appear. The practice of noticing patterns is part of growing into more compassionate conversation and relationships. We hope that each member of the Board will take on this work.
The NPWG will facilitate debriefing sessions after PB meetings to share patterns that their group noticed during our meetings.
21-21: Challenging White Supremacy Working Group
Judy Williams, a member of the Challenging White Supremacy working group (CWS), reviewed the group’s written report which is appended. CWS was created in 2017 with the goal of furthering the work of interrupting white supremacy within our Yearly Meeting (YM), our Monthly Meetings (MM), and ourselves. Over the last four years the group has met with many Friends and meetings, held trainings and offered resources.
In 2019 representatives of CWS met with representatives from the Racial, Social, and Economic Justice committee, the Noticing Patterns of Oppression and Faithfulness working group, and Coordinating and Advisory to envision how these committees and working groups, in their current forms or in different forms, might best aid the YM, MMs, and individuals as we continue to grapple with the antiracism work to which we are committed. Coming out of that conversation CWS has discerned that their working group no longer serves the purpose for which it was created. Members of CWS remain committed to the work of antiracism and many will continue to participate in the YM’s next steps in this journey.
CWS recommends writing a minute declaring NEYM’s aspiration and intention to become an antiracist faith community. CWS suggests that once written and preliminarily approved this minute would be circulated throughout the YM. This would hopefully invite more Friends into antiracism work, encouraging meetings and individuals to evaluate and imagine the many different ways to best create the antiracist kingdom of God on earth that our YM desires.
Friends had a long conversation after the presentation of the proposed plan from CWS. In this conversation, as in all others, similar patterns of racism and white supremacy surfaced that also appear in our conversations outside the Quaker sphere. There is tension between the desire to be faithful and fear. Many white Friends fear change, fear the relinquishing of power, and fear the pain of acknowledging the harms that we have caused in the past. Our willingness to be vulnerable with each other in discussions of race and racism has increased in the past several years. Yet we still find Friends whose internal work has not yet brought them to a place where they understand the power of their words and the harm that comes from a lack of awareness of, or a denial of, their internal racism and white-centeredness. We deeply hope that everyone desires an antiracist, just, equitable, welcoming, and inclusive community. But many of us are also hurt by those who haven’t taken on enough internal antiracism work to be able to converse in ways that are not harmful to our Black and brown Friends and their family members.
The YM is embarking on transformative work. Transformation is scary. We were reminded that we must surrender to that fear. We must acknowledge that the fear our white Friends have at the shifting ground underneath them, while real, is not comparable to the fear of our Black and brown Friends whose lives are endangered by the white supremacy that dictates so much of the world around us and so many of the behaviors within us. We seek to hold the individual truth that many Friends are wary of antiracism work while upholding our corporate Truth that in order to truly value that of God in everyone we must do antiracism work.
We were reminded of the 2003 Minute on Racism that the YM approved and asked to consider whether the writing of another minute was necessary. We are cautioned not to write an aspirational minute that suggests that we are further along in this journey than we truly are. As we struggled with the proposal of writing another minute we found ourselves in a familiar pattern of concern about language and our differing understandings of the definitions of racism and antiracism. In this conversation we experienced a similar pattern of worrying about whether the work would be done properly; this pattern can keep us from trying to do the work at all.
We are being asked to commit ourselves to seek divine guidance to change ourselves so that we can transform the world. Our hearts must become antiracist in order for our communities to be antiracist. When we commit to antiracism work we are centering God, and the more we center God the more we find the courage and clarity to act in new ways.
Friends were not ready to approve the writing of a new minute expressing our desire to become an antiracist faith community. CWS was asked to meet again with the feedback from this meeting and return to the May meeting with proposed next steps. Scot Drysdale, Hannah Zwirner Forsythe, Martin Zwirner Forsythe, Tom Vargo, Morgan Wilson, and Kathleen Wooten will join CWS for this process.
21-22: Ministry & Spiritual Life Update
Jeremiah Dickinson, interim clerk of Ministry & Counsel, updated Friends on plans for the first Ministry and Spiritual Life gathering. This virtual gathering will occur on May 8th and all Friends with a concern for ministry in their meetings, communities, and the Yearly Meeting are invited to attend.
21-23: Nominating Report and Nominations
Jackie Stillwell, clerk of the Nominating Committee, reflected on the goal of that committee: to enliven the spirit in ourselves and our Yearly Meeting committees. The committee is reaching for a vision of nominating work that is about raising up gifts and mentoring and nurturing them.
They ask: how are our committees serving our vision for our community and society, and how is spirit moving through all of this?
Jackie brought three nominations for approval: Becky Steele (Portland) as American Friends Service Committee Representative, class of 2024; Tom Corindia (Hanover) to Finance Committee, class of 2021; and Joe Garren (Middlebury) as Friends United Meeting Representative, class of 2024
Friends approved these nominations.
Jackie also informed the Permanent Board of the resignation of Dawn Tripp as representative for Friends United Meeting.
21-24: Clerk’s Table Nomination
The Clerks’ Table Nominating Committee brought the name of Adam Kohrman as Reading Clerk, Class of 2023.
Friends approved this nomination.
21-25: Secretary’s Report
Noah Merrill, YM Secretary, updated Friends on his work since the last Permanent Board meeting. Noah highlighted that there is lots of work going on to share, coordinate, and integrate the actions and discernment occurring throughout the Yearly Meeting. There is much activity going on in our monthly meetings and the staff and volunteer leaders are working hard to share this work and encourage meetings to integrate similar interests and concerns.
Noah updated Friends on conversations about the proposed stipends for volunteer leaders. A more detailed recommendation on the experiment will come to the May meeting for review.
21-26: Staff Appreciation
Members of the Permanent Board spent a period of time lifting up the many ways that the staff of NEYM have supported meetings and individuals throughout the pandemic. We are grateful for their hard work adapting existing structures and practices and creating new supports for the work of the Yearly Meeting (YM). Throughout the last year the staff have helped with logistics for meeting online, produced content-rich newsletters that have encouraged connections during our year of physical separation, facilitated regular support meetings for leaders throughout the YM, and provided consistent programming for YM youth.
In this time of uncertainty, loneliness, and grief we are so thankful for our faithful staff and their dedication to us all.
21-27: Memorial Minutes
Throughout the meeting we heard excerpts from the memorial minutes for Harry “Ted” Colwell III, David Llewellyn Davis, Annette Donavan, and Dody Waring. These memorial minutes will be forwarded to Sessions.
21-28: Closing Worship
Friends closed with a period of worship. We will meet again on May 15th via Zoom.