PB 22-56: Opening Worship
Friends opened with a period of worship.
PB 22-57: Clerk’s Welcome
The PB Clerk expressed appreciation for the hospitality of Providence Friends Meeting (PFM) and for helping with technical support. Rebecca Leuchak, YM Presiding Clerk, welcomed Friends to PFM and gave a brief history of the Meetinghouse.
PB 22-58: Roll Call
The recording clerk called the roll: (Bold = present in the room)
Leslie Manning, PB Clerk, Susan Davies, PB Recording Clerk, Aaron Sakulich, Deana Chase, Beth Hansen, Bob O’Connor, Carole Rein, Carolyne Lamar Jordan, Christopher Gant, Christopher McCandless, Jean McCandless, Darcy Drayton, Donn Weinholtz, Ed Mair, Eleanor Warnock, Frances Lightsom, Ian Harrington, John Reuthe, Kathleen Wooten, Kimberly Allen, Liesa Stamm, Martha Schwope, Martin Forsythe, Meg Klepak, Newell Isbell Shinn, Peter Bishop, Roger Vincent Jasaitis, Tom Brenner.
Ex-Officio: Rebecca Leuchak (Presiding Clerk), Scot Drysdale (Finance Clerk); Noah Merrill (YM Secretary); Elizabeth Reuthe (Secretary’s Supervisor); Bruce Neuman (Past Presiding Clerk)
Regrets/absent: Anna Radocchia, Diane Weinholtz, Joyce Gibson, Mary Zwirner, Morgan Wilson, Will Taber, Robert Murray
Visitors: (Please check for the presence and correct spelling of your name if you attended as a visitor)
Anna Hopkins Buller, Kurt Hansen, Susan Cooper, LouAnn MacDonald, Jonathan Vogel-Borne, Susanna Schell, Melody Brazo, Travis Belcher, Jackie Stillwell, Nia Thomas, Minga Claggett Borne, Kim West, Sarah Gant, Ellen Nielands, Marian Dalton, Mey Hasbrook, Janet Hough, LVM Shelton, Sam Schiffman, Sarah Smith, Lisa Graustein, Andy Grant, Kim Stoner, Phil Veatch, Reb McKenzie, Kathy Olsen, Margaret Marshall, Robb Spivey, Rod Zwirner
PB 22-59: Noticing Patterns of Oppression and Faithfulness (oral introductory comments)
Melody Brazo of the Noticing Patterns of Oppression and Faithfulness working group passed around wallet cards with the sentence stems: “I feel…, I hear…, I know…, I see…, and I wonder…”. We encourage use of these sentence starters to elevate both our thinking brains, and our awareness of what’s happening in our experience in the world. Through a regular practice of this attentiveness and voicing, YM is helped to find and dismiss patterns of oppression.
PB 22-60: Approval of June 4, 2022, PB Minutes
The minutes from the June 4 meeting were distributed in the advance documents for review.
Friends approved the June minutes.
PB 22-61: Approval of Sessions Minutes, Bruce Neuman, Past Presiding Clerk, clerking (draft Sessions minutes appended)
Bruce Neuman, Past Presiding Clerk, introduced each of the minutes from Sessions 2022 requiring approval by PB. Final edited Sessions 2022 minutes, including those that PB identified as needing additional revisions, will be brought for final approval to the November 5, 2022, PB meeting.
PB 22-62: Letter from Earthcare Ministry Committee to PB (letter appended)
Kim Stoner, Earthcare Ministry Committee, presented the concerns expressed in the appended letter from the Earthcare Ministry committee (EMC). The group requests that Permanent Board formally change the name of the group to the “Earth Quaker Justice Team, lay down the existing EMC committee, and acknowledge the change in structure of the group from a “committee” to a “team” (as defined in the Forms of Service Map from New England Yearly Meeting, appended).
Friends in attendance asked for clarification about the differences in YM support, acknowledgement of the work, oversight, and relationship to the YM between a committee and a team. Noah Merrill, YM Secretary, clarified that when a committee acts, it is accountable to the YM, and its action is considered an action of the YM, but when an individual acts it is not considered an action of the YM. Similar consideration as for individuals would be given to the actions of a team. Processes and criteria are in place, for example, to consider non-committee sponsored submissions to the YM newsletter.
Jackie Stillwell, Clerk of YM Nominating Committee (YM NC), stated that “team” members are not named by the YM NC. She expressed YM NC’s enthusiasm that forms other than formal committee structures are arising to release and carry forward Spirit-led work.
The PB Clerk called for approval:
- that the new working title of the ongoing team of Friends called to this work be “Earth Quaker Justice Team”
- that PB recommend to Sessions 2023 to lay down the Earthcare Ministry Committee and to affirm and lift up the new Earth Quaker Justice Team and its work.
Friends approved.
PB 22-63: Presiding Clerk's Report (Report appended)
Rebecca Leuchak, YM Presiding Clerk, expressed gratitude for the evidence of service to YM that she sees. Beyond her written report she noted that the Letter of Apology is beginning to open doors of communication to some of the Tribes.
PB 22-64: YM Secretary's Report (report appended)
Noah Merrill, YM Secretary, spoke of the necessity for a daily discipline of prayer to arrive at the discipline of simplicity and discernment in our work. There is so much potential work to be done, but if we are unable to choose our work in prayer and faith, then we run the risk of over-busyness and an unsustainable rush to do everything at once. Coordinating and Advisory Committee is planning a retreat to discern and shepherd the work of the YM, and to clarify purposes and priorities for the coming year.
Friends responded to Noah’s report with deep appreciation for the important reminders it offered. A Friend observed that it is easier to add, rather than subtract work when we are tired, sad, or lacking in confidence. We, Friends, are the people who can counter our culture’s compulsion to over-do.
PB 22-65: Friends Camp Director's Report and Budget Approval (report, budget and proposal for sabbatical appended)
Anna Buller, Friends Camp Director, expressed gratitude for the care and love that made camp possible, following the hiatus of the COVID pandemic. It was a great joy for Camp to return again, with more than 400 campers through the season. Anna expressed thanks and appreciation to John Reuthe’s leadership during his term, now ending, as Clerk of the Camp Committee.
Friends accepted the report.
Robb Spivey invited questions on the proposed Camp budget. None were received.
Friends approved the Camp budget for FY 2023, including the full funding of a sabbatical for Anna Buller.
Friends expressed appreciation for the careful budget and reflected that Friends Camp shines as our outstanding witness to the next generation, and it is clearly still YM’s ministry to uphold.
PB 22-66: Report from Right Relationship Resource Group (report appended)
Susannah Schell and Andrew Grant reported for the Right Relationship Resource Group (RRRG). The Resource Group is requesting a reconstituted charge from PB, and a change in the name “resource group” to a “working group,” to reflect evolution of the group’s focus and activities as the work has progressed.
Following a period of clarifying questions, and reflection upon the humbling tasks before the YM to move into more faithful alignment in our relationship to Native American Tribes, Noah Merrill proposed that PB affirm this report and the faithful work of the RRRG to this point. A clear charge is needed however, for the work to move forward from here, including support to monthly meetings as they build relationships, and the need to carefully consider the conduct of research into our Quaker Indian Boarding School history.
Leslie Manning, PB Clerk, clarified that Working Groups are under the care of PB. She restated that Noah Merrill is suggesting that, while desiring not to introduce any obstacles to the work moving forward, Coordinating and Advisory (C&A) will meet, before the next PB meeting, to discern the larger context of how and where such a proposed working group fits into the whole of this work, that belongs to the entirety of YM.
Friends noted the tension between the earnest desire to move forward promptly in response to overtures of relationship building from the Tribes, when the need for administrative oversight appears to slow things down.
The PB Clerk asked that PB affirm the RRRG report, and that C&A will bring recommendations for how to structure the work going forward, to the November 5, 2022, PB meeting.
Friends affirmed the report and recommendations.
PB 22-67: Names for approval, from Nominating Committee
Jackie Stillwell, Clerk of YM Nominating Committee brought forward one name for approval, to begin immediately: Sarah Gant for clerk of the Meeting Accompaniment Group, to begin upon approval, for a term of 5 years. The trial form of the position will be reviewed in 3 years.
Friends Approved.
Jackie Stillwell further brought forward two additional names for a first reading, for the Theme and Speakers Team for Annual Sessions 2023: Eleanor Godway and Mey Hasbrook.
Due to the need to move Sessions planning work forward promptly, these nominations will be brought for approval to a Called Meeting of Permanent Board. If Friends have any concerns or affirmations of these nominations, they should be brought to the clerk of Nominating Committee prior to the November PB meeting.
PB 22-68: Noticing Patterns
The PB Clerk invited the NPWG and the Board to offer noticings about this meeting. Friends offered the following:
- “I notice that time seems to press the most when we are talking about racial justice and right relationship.”
- “I feel discouraged that no one is talking about climate change.”
- “I heard all morning about us as ‘a people of the Word’ (lots of words); we spent a lot of time getting our own words right, and mistrusting other’s words.”
PB 22-69: Priority Setting for the Board (handouts for the priority-setting exercise appended)
Note: the “priorities'' document was distributed for the purposes of the PB exercise only. It reflects an approximation of several of the tasks before the Yearly Meeting, and is not a comprehensive or definitive list of YM priorities.
The PB Clerk announced a time for small group conversations in response to queries and a list of priorities, introduced by Nia Thomas, YM Quaker Practice and Leadership Development staff.
“With all these big pieces of work, what/how do we prioritize; what would “success” look like in our service this year?”
Friends offered the following reflections following their small group conversations:
- Right relationship and anti-racism are very important; wondering where is the climate crisis in our priorities? Are groups, teams, committees actually doing the work that monthly meetings (MMs) should be doing? Quarterly meetings (QMs)?
- MMs are the lifeblood of Quakerism—YM drafted the Apology, now MMs need to step up. YM should be asking rather than telling QMs who they are.
- We need to integrate the work of: Doctrine of Discovery, antiracism, climate crisis, and right relationship, rather than seeing each as separate items.
- Would like to see more appreciation expressed. People need encouragement and praise; we should take joy in raising new leadership. Also, a reminder: to know each other we need to know each other’s names—wear name tags!
- Wondering whether there is some unidentified payoff to having an overfull plate? When we feel overwhelmed, can we have the discipline to stop, and pray? How do individuals and the community work together? How do we manage questions about perceptions of power? Perhaps PB could elevate questions about power and communication, to have more YM dialogue about it.
- What are our personal goals and responsibilities for being of service to PB? Read the advance documents, be ready to engage, encourage PB to communicate broadly to the whole YM to address confusion or mistrust.
Leslie Manning, PB Clerk, closed with the assurance that while we can’t do it all, and Chronos time has come to an end for today, we can rest assured that there is no end to Kairos time.
PB 22-70: Closing Worship
Friends closed with a period of worship.
Next scheduled PB meeting: November 5, 2022