Permanent Board minutes | May 15, 2021

21-29: Opening Worship

Friends opened with a period of worship.

21-30: Roll Call

The recording clerk called the roll.

Present: Leslie Manning, Clerk; Hannah Zwirner Forsythe, Recording Clerk; Kim Allen, Travis Belcher, Martin Zwirner Forsythe, Chris Gant, Beth Hansen, Ian Harrington, Rebecca Leuchak, Fran Lightsom, Ed Mair, Christopher McCandless, Jean McCandless, Bob O’Connor, Anna Raddochia, Carole Rein, John Reuthe, Sara Smith, Martha Schwope, 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); Bob Murray (Treasurer); Bruce Neumann (Presiding Clerk); Elizabeth Reuthe (Secretary’s Supervisor)

Visitors: Polly Attwood, LJ Boswell, Gail Charpentier, Marian Dalton, Susan Davies, Jeremiah Dickinson, Sarah Gant, Janet Hough, Becky Jones, Aiham Korbage, Anna Lindo, LouAnne McDonald, Jackie Stillwell, Nia Thomas, Pamela Terrien, Eleanor Warnock, Honor Woodrow

Regrets: Peter Bishop, Deana Chase, Darcy Drayton, Gina Nortonsmith, Elizabeth Szatkowski

21-31: Memorial Minute

Excerpts were read from the memorial minute for Marty Walton. The memorial minute will be forwarded to Sessions.

21-32: Recommendations on the Nominating Process

Jackie Stillwell, clerk of the Nominating Committee (NC), and Noah Merrill, Yearly Meeting Secretary, presented a proposal from Coordinating & Advisory (C&A) for a restructuring of the nominating process in the Yearly Meeting (YM). The proposal is appended.

This proposal stems from the approved Clerking Structures and Practices report from 2019 which recognized the piecemeal and uncoordinated efforts of the various nominating bodies of the YM. The restructuring proposed aims to better uplift and support the gifts and leadings of all Friends.

C&A proposes combining the YM Nominating Committee, Internal Nominating Committee, and the Clerks’ Table Nominating Committee, and proposes the creation of a Naming Committee (under the care of Permanent Board) to name the members of the Nominating Committee.

Friends had the opportunity to ask questions and voice concerns. Friends voiced a concern about the Naming Committee being sufficiently diverse in order to ensure diverse nominations. There are details of this proposal that need to be worked out, and this is an experiment that will be reviewed.

As part of approving this proposal for forwarding to Sessions, Friends were asked:

  • To approve the integration of responsibilities and persons on YM Nominating Committee, Internal Nominating Committee, and Clerks’ Table Nominating to the Nominating Committee
  • To approve the creation of the Naming Committee
  • To approve new Purposes, Procedures, and Composition for the Nominating Committee and the Naming Committee
  • To approve laying down the Internal and Clerks’ Table Nominating committees

Friends approved forwarding the proposal to Sessions, including the above actions. The Purposes, Procedures, and Composition documents for the integrated Nominating Committee and the Naming Committee are appended.

21-33: Approval of March Minutes

The minutes from the March meeting were distributed for review. Friends approved the minutes.

21-34: Purposes, Procedures, and Composition Review

Bruce Neumann, Presiding Clerk, presented the revised Purposes, Procedures, and Composition (PPC) documents for Puente de Amigos, Legacy Gift Committee, and Youth Ministries Committee. These three documents have come to the Permanent Board earlier this year and return after previously requested revisions were made.

Friends approved the PPC documents for Puente de Amigos, Legacy Gift Committee, and Youth Ministries Committee.

Bruce then presented the PPC for the Archives Committee, Faith & Practice Revision Committee, and Coordinating & Advisory Committee. These three documents are appended. Bruce noted that the Coordinating & Advisory document now has explicit language about caring for inclusive leadership.

Friends approved the PPC document for the Archives Committee with small edits.

Friends approved the PPC document for Coordinating & Advisory.

Friends approved the PPC document for the Faith & Practice Revision Committee with one Friend standing aside with concerns about how short the document is and whether further information about the committee is sufficiently accessible.

21-35: Presiding Clerk’s Report

Bruce Neumann, Presiding Clerk, submitted a written report in advance of the Permanent Board meeting with information on the planning in process for Sessions this summer. This report is appended.

21-36: Treasurer’s Report

Bob Murray, Treasurer, shared a brief update on Yearly Meeting finances after the end of quarter two. The financial reports are appended.

21-37: Proposal on Endowment Funds

Bob Murray, Treasurer, shared a proposal to amend the Funds Policy for the use of rollover of income from our endowment funds. This change would help facilitate proper use of the funds. The proposal is appended.

The Treasurer requests that the Permanent Board approve a change to the Funds Policy to remove this statement dealing with endowment funds:

“Unspent income shall be reinvested in the fund where it originated unless the fund’s governing instrument instructs otherwise,”

and replace it with:

“Any unspent income remaining in the fund at the end of the fiscal year shall remain spendable in the following fiscal year, unless the fund’s governing instrument instructs otherwise. The Treasurer will notify the designated NEYM spending authority and/or the Permanent Board if there is a pattern of unspent funds being built up in a particular fund over a period of years.”

In accordance with proper procedure, Friends preliminarily approved this and final approval will occur, if there are no objections, at the June meeting.

21-38: Secretary’s Report

Noah Merrill, Yearly Meeting Secretary, submitted a written report in advance of the Permanent Board meeting. This report is appended.

21-39: Mosher Book and Tract Fund

Noah Merrill, Yearly Meeting Secretary, shared a request for use of the Mosher Book and Tract Fund to fund the publication, in print and digitally, of Cherice Bock’s Bible Half Hours. The details of this request are appended. Publication of the Bible Half Hours, in collaboration with Barclay Press, is a new opportunity to more widely spread the work that occurs at Sessions.

Friends approved this use of the fund.

21-40: Funds for Nurturing Faithfulness Program

Noah Merrill, Yearly Meeting Secretary, brought a recommendation to further fund the Nurturing Faithfulness Program. With the approval of the Finance Committee, the Secretary requests that the Permanent Board approve the use of up to $30,000 of funding from New England Yearly Meeting of Friends to support a third offering of the Nurturing Faithfulness Program in New England. Because of the multi-year timeframe over which the funds would be spent, and because this is a one-time expenditure, funds for this purpose would be treated as a discrete expenditure from the Yearly Meeting’s reserves, rather than an expense in the operating budget. More details about the Nurturing Faithfulness Program, and its role in the spiritual life of the Yearly Meeting, are appended.

Friends raised a question about this being discussed as a one-time expense because this seems to be a popular program of much value to the Yearly Meeting. Friends are supportive of funding the Nurturing Faithfulness Program but hope we can shift to funding this in a more predictable way. One Friend posed the question: how can we better orient ourselves to spiritual infrastructure funding?

Friends approved the funding for this program.

21-41: First Reading of the Budget

Scot Drysdale, clerk of the Finance Committee, presented the draft FY2022 for first review. The budget and prepared commentary are appended.

The proposed budget will return to the June meeting for preliminary approval and forwarding to Sessions.

21-42: Request from the Finance Committee

Scot Drysdale, clerk of the Finance Committee (FC), introduced a request from that committee for a working group to examine the donations Yearly Meeting makes to other organizations. The written request is appended. FC has frequently discussed the amount of money that we give to other organizations in relation to the deficit budgets that we continue to approve. It is clear to the FC that the committee isn’t the appropriate group to evaluate who we give to, how much, and why. But as this conversation continues to arise FC hopes that a working group could help establish guidelines and a more spirit-led understanding of our intention behind the donations that we make.

Friends approved the creation of a working group to assess the Yearly Meeting’s donations to other organizations.

21-43: Funding of Honoraria for Volunteer Leadership

Noah Merrill, YM Secretary, shared the proposed Implementation Plan for funding honoraria for volunteer leadership. This Implementation Plan lays out details concerning the administration of the honoraria, how this experiment will be evaluated, and how we intend to avoid conflicts of interest. The proposal is appended.

Friends approved of the proposal.

21-44: Nominations

Clerks’ Table Nominating brought forward the nomination of Rebecca Leuchak to serve as Rising Clerk for one year before serving as Presiding Clerk.

Friends approved forwarding this nomination to Sessions. Internal Nominating brought forward 6 nominations:

  • Susan Davies to serve as Recording Clerk of Permanent Board, Class of 2024
  • Fritz Weiss and Judy Goldberger for Clerks Table Nominating Committee, Class of 2024
  • Will Taber for Internal Nominating Committee, Class of 2024
  • Conor Weiss for Yearly Meeting Nominating at Large, Class of 2024
  • Jackie Stillwell to serve as Clerk of Nominating Committee, Class of 2024

Friends approved these nominations.

During the approval of these nominations one Friend requested more guidance on how and when to raise concerns about nominations. The Nominating Committee has heard that request and is working on strengthening the process of distributing nominations earlier so that there is more opportunity for Friends to raise concerns and for the nominating committee to respond to them.

21-45: Funds for Sufferings

Leslie Manning, Clerk, reported that, after consulting with the Presiding Clerk and the NEYM Secretary, $2,500 in funds was released to Friends Ugandan Safe Transport, under the care of the Olympia, WA Meeting. These funds will be used to provide safe passage for LGBTQ+ people whose lives have been threatened and are seeking refuge, pursuant to Minute 2016-62.

21-46: Tending the Soil Gathering

Jeremiah Dickinson, Interim Clerk of Ministry & Counsel, reported on the first gathering for supporting ministry and spiritual life. The gathering was well attended and many Friends appreciated the rich programming and time together. We look forward to the next gathering.

21-47: Challenging White Supremacy Update

Susan Davies, clerk of the Challenging White Supremacy Working Group (CWS), submitted a written report which is appended. Several Friends from CWS spoke to the work that has been done and the work that remains in front of us. Other Friends spoke to a concern that we not focus on accomplishing goals but rather on the necessary continuing revelation required to make our faith community the antiracist community we desire. There is a constant tension between the desire to move forward--a smaller group doing the work that facilitates the work by the whole Yearly Meeting-- and the need to be truly present in our current condition.

21-48: Closing Worship

Friends closed with a period of worship. We will meet again on June 26 via Zoom.