North Pacific Yearly Meeting Coordinating Committee
Wednesday, July 23, 2014, 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Pacific University, Forest Grove, OR
CC 7/23.0 Introductions and request for suggestions of queries—Chris Willard
Chris Willard, Coordinating Committee Clerk, Tacoma
Angie Alexander, Coordinating Committee Recording Clerk (pro-tem), Tacoma
Melody Ashworth, Coordinating Committee Associate Clerk, South Mountain
Jonathan Brown, Rising Treasurer, South Seattle
Paul Christiansen, North Pacific Yearly Meeting Young Adult Friends, Eastside
Ann Stever, University Friends Meeting
Kate Hunter, Peace and Social Concerns Committee Clerk, Vashon/University
Kathryn Willard, Site Committee Clerk, Tacoma
Janet Jump, Nominating Committee Clerk, Bridge City
Lucretia Humphrey, Ad hoc Communication Committee, Great Falls
Jo Ann Kidder, Missoula
Don Goldstein, Bellingham
Carl Abbott, Finance and Legal Committee, Multnomah
Hallie Oines, Montana Gathering of Friends
Esther Schiedel, Corvallis
Linda Kocourek, NPYM Secretary
Rose Lewis, Peace and Social Concerns Committee Member, Salem
Theo Mace, Committee on the Discipline Member,
Debbie Townsend, Committee on the Discipline, Co-Clerk
Tom Rawson, Annual Session Presiding Clerk
Ron Metcalf, Lopez Island
Georgiana Foster, Ministry and Oversight Clerk, Sheridan Community of Wyoming Friends
Cynthia Black, Youth Committee, Clerk
Sean Downing, Junior Friends Co-Clerk and Representative
Carol Uhte, Multnomah
Pearl Thompson, Junior Friends
John Etter, Annual Session General Arrangements Clerk
Elee Hadley, Outreach and Visitation Clerk
CC 7/23.1 Worship
We gathered into worship. Friends spoke to the query below or shared about their home meetings.
Query: In the hurry of annual session how do we find time to stop and listen to the still, small voice?
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South Seattle and University Meetings have been holding joint pot-luck dinners for parents and children, including worship sharing with the parents. Outreach to other Seattle area meetings is beginning.
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One Friend spoke of annual session as a break from the hurry of daily life.
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Listening during annual session includes listening for how truth is being handled by self and others during the session.
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Arrival at annual session means any planning left undone can now not be done. Another small voice helps find one’s own.
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Balance of meetings, timing, responsibilities can lead to choosing what to let go, but there is only one responsibility—listen to the will of the Spirit and do what it tells you. The rest are details. A to-do list with only one item.
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Lopez Island Preparative Meeting is still struggling about whether to become a monthly meeting. Attendance has been growing because of four new young families that are attending; this changes the issues.
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Annual session means suspending being judgmental—intellectually and emotionally—with benefit to both mind and body.
CC 7/23.2 Consideration of April Minutes
Friends approved the minutes from the April 5, 2014, Coordinating Committee (CC) meeting.
CC 7/23.3 Executive Committee Activity—Chris Willard
The executive committee met (by phone) several times concerning the proposal for a travel fund for Friends to attend meetings sponsored by other Friends groups. A revised policy has been approved by Executive Committee and posted on the NPYM website. A full report will be kept with these minutes.
CC 7/23.4 Annual Session Planning Committee--John Etter
Adjustments were necessary for the current annual session, primarily in room availability on campus as well as with some volunteer personnel who found that they could not attend this year. They also will be working on registration processes to deal with several important flaws. Several comments and positive responses (e. g. for the program design and the plenary meeting room) were received. Request was made to coordinate the registration database with the directory database in the future. The committee was thanked for its work.
CC 7/23.5 Ad hoc Communications Committee—Lucretia Humphrey
In their written report, the committee presents many recommendations but not specific proposals for action. The committee members wish that the committee be laid down at the end of this annual session. A written report will be kept with these minutes.
CC 7/23.6 Junior Friends Activities—Sean Downing
For two years, Junior Friends have been planning for a service trip to Guatemala, where they will work to teach English and at a food coop. Twenty-five people are leaving for Guatemala on August 8 for the 14-day trip. Much money has been raised, but the group needs about $5000 more. They intend that finances will not be a barrier against youth participation. It is not clear how much opportunity they will have to visit with other Friends in Guatemala.
CC 7/23.7 Site Committee—Kathryn Willard
For 2017 and 2018, possible sites are University of Puget Sound, Evergreen State College, and Western Washington University in Bellingham. The committee would like to be able to schedule for at least two subsequent years as well.
CC 7/23.8 Peace and Social Concerns Committee—Kate Hunter
They have gathered and organized information about PSC outreach from monthly meetings and worship groups and plan to keep updating that information. This report was available in April and will be attached to the approved version of those CC minutes. It will also be published with those minutes on the NPYM website.
They have prepared a statement for presentation at plenary sessions concerning the government’s use of drones.
Members of the committee have been enthusiastic about seeing their work expand.
In general, they gather information from monthly meetings and worship groups in a somewhat informal way; members of the committee keep in contact with those whom they interviewed during their survey. The committee would be delighted to have their own page on the NPYM website, as suggested by Chris Willard. There is currently not a fund to support travel by individuals to meetings to share a PSC concern.
CC 7/23.9 Ministry and Oversight Committee—Georgiana Foster
The committee members just completed their 2-day retreat. Rooms at annual session for spontaneous small –group meetings have been arranged. Nancy Irving is the NPYM representative at the annual session of Northwest Yearly Meeting.
CC 7/23.10 Youth Committee—Cynthia Black
A pleasurable task for the committee has been working with the new children’s coordinator, Jay Thatcher. They will be doing a formal evaluation of the children’s coordinator’s work at his one-year anniversary.
They have scheduled a special meeting with the youth during this annual session about what it has been like growing up—with different adult age groups represented.
The committee is asking for specific financial support for the Youth Opportunity Fund in order to replace funds being spent from the endowment. A copy of the appeal is attached to these minutes.
CC 7/23.11 Rising Treasurer/Finance and Legal Committee—Carl Abbott
No surprises as yet with respect to this fiscal year’s transactions. The one major unknown is the final total for annual session. Committee expenses for this fiscal year and last will be available to committee clerks on Thursday, July 24, during annual session.
CC 7/23.12 Faith and Practice Committee (Committee on the Discipline)—Debbie Townsend
The Practice chapters have been completed. This section is available in print form, on CD, and on the NPYM website. Meetings should especially be aware of practices regarding marriages and membership requests and adopt the new practices. The committee invites feedback about how well the detailed procedures work.
Work starts on the Faith section at an interest group session during this annual session.
CC 7/23.13 Outreach and Visitation Committee—Elee Hadley
A proposal to create a visitation project of individuals to Monthly Meetings, Worship Groups, and isolated Friends will be presented during this Annual Session. The committee also is offering an interest group session during annual session. Outreach between monthly meetings and worship groups matters as much as outreach from yearly meeting to smaller meetings. Outreach and Visitation Committee needs more people working on these activities.
A document, “Thoughts for the Visitors and Visited,” is available for monthly meetings to take home; it will also be posted on the NPYM website.
New and renewed worship groups are forming in Spokane and in the Washington Tri-Cities area (Lower Columbia Basin), respectively.
Outreach and Visitation Committee and the Communications Committee have natural affinities.
CC 7/23.14 Date for Autumn Coordinating Committee Meeting
The 2014 autumn meeting of this committee will be held at Multnomah Friends Meetinghouse on November 8, 2014. A request was made to consider setting a regular annual calendar for CC meetings. This will be on the agenda for the November meeting of the committee.
CC 7/23.14 Other Business
Question: To whom to raise the question about the sizes of standing committees and lengths of terms of members on committees? The clerk of Nominating Committee explained that they often nominate someone for a second term on a given committee but usually not longer than that. The reasons are to promote diverse input on a committee as well as to encourage younger Friends to serve. Rising concerns about size, term lengths, and job descriptions should come to Coordinating Committee, which can consider the policy perspectives. If a member of a committee does not actually participate in the committee’s work and meetings, the clerk of the given committee should take the first steps in contacting the person. It is not clear what else can be done in this sort of case. In these cases, both the individual and the committee should receive care.
CC 7/23.15
Friends thanked Melody Ashworth for her service as Associate Clerk of Coordinating Committee. This is her last meeting in that role.