Draft Job Description for P&SC distibuted with Finalized Minutes (January 2015)
List Owner
Multnomah Monthly Meeting Peace & Social Concerns Committee
Membership:
The Peace & Social Concerns Committee comprises at least four members and/or attenders of the meeting. They should have a special concern for issues of social justice, the environment and peace. The committee and its clerk are chosen by the business meeting after recommendation by the nominating committee. Members should be Friends with knowledge of how to effect social change, particularly by working with Quaker organizations. AFSC and FCNL liaisons are ex-officio members of the committee. Members of the committee serve staggered three-year terms.
Meetings:
Committee meetings are open and held monthly or as needed. Anyone is welcome to attend either to bring a concern, or to give spiritual and active support to an on-going project or concern. Decisions will be made using Quaker process that arrives at the “sense of the committee.”
Purpose: To support and assist Friends’ leadings to take action in the larger community regarding matters of peace, justice and sustainability, among others.
Support is offered in several ways including some or all of the following:
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Helping individuals and groups find clarity about their leading. Often this takes place as Friends prepare to bring leadings forward to the business meeting simply to inform or to seek formal endorsement by the Meeting of action events using the Meeting’s name
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Serving as a discerning, recommending link to the business meeting for requests for financial aid beyond P&SC’s available budget, for formal meeting minutes, for meeting endorsements, and for requests on behalf of related organizations for help such as meeting space.
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Working with individual Friends and the Program Committee and other committees to coordinate educational events and called meetings for worship.
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Providing financial support for Friends’ work (e.g. travel subsidies for FCNL and AFSC liaisons if they have to travel as part of their responsibilities.)
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Helping youth in the Meeting become more involved with Friends’ peace and social concerns.
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Bringing to the Meeting for Worship for Business any items requiring approval by that body (e.g. using
the Meeting’s name in sponsorship of community events such as the annual Hiroshima-Nagasaki Day
commemoration sponsored by Physicians for Social Responsibility.)
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Advising Friends on where support outside the meeting might be found.
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Maintaining communication to parallel committees regionally, nationally, and at yearly and quarterly
meetings.
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Serving as a link between members of the meeting community who have similar or related leadings.
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Identifying Meeting members & attenders with specific concerns, backgrounds, skills, or interests in
peace & social concerns issues.
Other specific routine duties may include
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Organizing and keeping the committee’s section of the bulletin board up to date.
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Sorting mail in the committee’s cubby box and passing it on to interested parties.
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Making regular reports to Meeting for Business.
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Keeping regular minutes and archiving on a regular basis.
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Providing an annual report to the Peace and Social Concerns Committee of NPYM as requested.
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Consulting with the Clerk of the Meeting before bringing items to Meeting for Business.
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Clearly identifying when action is needed by the Meeting, and when items are only for information.
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Anticipating potential Meeting needs and desires so that decisions and actions may be taken in a timely
fashion.
Queries for Friends Considering Service on P&SC Committee:
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How do I best help, encourage, and serve others? What are my motives in serving on this committee?
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How can I best understand people who come to the committee for help, regardless of how I feel about
them or their cause?
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Is my objective to find spiritual unity in my service on this committee?
Approved by Meeting for Worship for Business, Multnomah Monthly Meeting, 1-18-2015.
List Owner
FROM DRAFT MINUTES JANUARY 2015:
15-01-07 – Ad Hoc committee regarding Peace & Social Concerns (P&SC)
The committee presented a further revised P&SC committee job description, noting that the ad hoc committee is not entirely in unity on the matter but they believe this is a step forward and the best that they can currently produce.
Of particular note, this latest proposal explicitly includes mention of the need for the P&SC Committee to keep minutes. It was noted that other committee job descriptions do not mention minutes – it is considered implicit – however several Friends described their past experiences with the consequences of P&SC committees not having kept and/or archived minutes and it was agreed that the P&SC Committee job description should have an explicit suggestion to not only record minutes, but archive them as well.
One Friend described the job of P&SC Committee Clerk as possibly the most difficult committee clerking job in the meeting, due to the fluidity of P&SC issues and the tendency for concerns to arise with great urgency on short notice, and suggested that this job might warrant a support committee such as that currently provided for the Clerks of the Meeting. The Assistant Clerk noted that the Clerks of the Meeting are available to act as resources and mentors for committee clerks when requested (for any committee, not just P&SC).
Another Friend suggested, based on a method used by Friends Committee on Washington Public Policy, that the P&SC Committee attempt to identify no more than two or three areas of particular concern to focus on in a given year. This suggestion was questioned in the case of a monthly meeting P&SC Committee such as ours, which often deals with emergent, or urgent, response to events in the community, nation, or world.
It was also pointed out that a number of Friends, not present today, have in the past made known their belief that the P&SC Committee should be involved in doing P&SC work, not just bringing opportunities to the meeting’s attention. In response, a member of the ad hoc committee reported that they had considered the matter, and felt that the P&SC Committee should not be tasked with “being the conscience of the meeting.” This does not mean that P&SC Committee members are precluded from working on P&SC issues, only that the P&SC Committee as a whole is not mandated to do so.
With the addition of archiving minutes as noted above, and two other changes – correction of a typographical error, and removal of a phrase which had been noted for removal last month but was inadvertently reinserted – the ad hoc committee’s latest version was approved and will be circulated with the minutes. In light of the lack of unity among the ad hoc committee members, John Wish asked to be minuted as concerned that the job description is not yet ready for Business Meeting action – the goals are OK, but it is not clear how we get there – however he does not intend to stand in the way of its approval.
It is expected that, now having an approved job description to work with, Nominating Committee will begin bringing nominations for P&SC Committee to Business Meeting – as usual, anyone interested in being nominated to P&SC Committee should contact Nominating Committee – and it is also expected that the members of P&SC Committee have the same opportunity as any other committee to propose such changes to the committee job description as may seem appropriate. The meeting hopes for an initial report in the spring.
Default Identity
<< SNIP >>
> One Friend described the job of P&SC Committee Clerk as possibly the
> most
> difficult committee clerking job in the meeting, due to the fluidity of
> P&SC issues and the tendency for concerns to arise with great urgency
> on
> short notice, and suggested that this job might warrant a support
> committee
> such as that currently provided for the Clerks of the Meeting. The
> Assistant Clerk noted that the Clerks of the Meeting are available to
> act
> as resources and mentors for committee clerks when requested (for any
> committee, not just P&SC).
inexperienced
person (I recommended the QVS intern if Debbie was tired of doing it) is
able to facilitate a meeting among experienced activists who already
know
how to behave in a meeting situation.
At the May Day planning meetings, for example, we rotate both the clerk
and
recording clerk and it works fine. We could do that for P&SC if we
wanted,
even per the new job description (which doesn't stipulate the clerk's
role
is always performed by the same person).
Remember co-clerk and acting clerk (when the clerk needs a break or
can't
attend on a Tuesday) both have precedent in our Meeting (Kirby here,
using
my RiseUp account -- been with this meeting since 1960s).
There's no reason for melodrama associated with P&SC Committee Clerk
role,
unless the job description is miss-wired to make it unnecessarily
stressful.
The job description of Clerk and Assistant Clerk of the Meeting needs to
be looked at as well, given these jobs apparently are so stressful a CAC
is required.
Probably the clerks are taking on too much, beyond their back office
role
as Business Meeting facilitators and generic ombudsmen?
I've heard a theory that clerks "represent the meeting to the public".
Nothing could be further from the truth. We all do that, as members of
said public, and as people in the meeting.
Clerks have other roles too of course, but the duties are not so onerous
that they need special therapy to do the job, IMO. I've always
considered
the emergence of the CAC as a strong sign we're off track as a meeting.
The move to shelve P&SC was confirmation of that fact.
Kirby
List Owner
Queries for Friends Considering Service on P&SC Committee:
How do I best help, encourage, and serve others? What are my motives in serving on this committee?
Nominating Committee needs this query as well. That committee tried to shut ours down, without permission from those on it still.
I was ex oficio, but if you check Wikipedia that does not mean extraneous or a footnote. I was simply shoved aside, separated from my committee.
I complained bitterly to AFSC at the time: "what do these Quakers think they're doing?"
How can I best understand people who come to the committee for help, regardless of how I feel about
them or their cause?
This is what we're calling the Seifert Format at AFSC: designing PSCC as if it were an Oversight Committee designed to provide clearness and support groups.
People petition PSCC for "help" as if needing therapy.
Educating the meeting is never a concern (David Chandler's role per first note taking).
Inviting guests we don't need help, is not suggested as a possibility.
Is my objective to find spiritual unity in my service on this committee?
If one answers "no" is that OK? A query with "one right answer" especially in Yes / No format is not really a query at all.
Whoever wrote this is not an experienced Quaker in my view, reinforcing my viewpoint that Multnomah was letting amateurs "hack" our committee's code of conduct.
Approved by Meeting for Worship for Business, Multnomah Monthly Meeting, 1-18-2015.
I've very sorry that Business Meeting is being misled in this way. Those who try to follow what's going on through the minutes have a hopeless task. They don't know how close we came to destroying the meeting on June 22. They're relieved to have their committee back, but do not know at what cost.