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Burlington Quarterly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
Steering Committee Meeting
Seventh Month 15 th 2006
Woolman Memorial Mount Holly New Jersey

Friends of the Burlington Quarter Steering Committee gathered for fellowship at half past nine in the morning of Seventh Month 15 th 2006, at the Woolman Memorial in Mount Holly, New Jersey.

Present were Fran Campbell ( Mount Holly and Quarter Coordinator), Pat Fowler ( Mount Holly , clerk of Steering Committee and presiding), Jada Jackson ( Trenton ), Jean Jordan (Rancocas), Joe Jordan (Rancocas), Margery Larrabee ( Mount Holly ), Louis LeFevre ( Trenton ), Gary Nisley (Little Egg Harbor), Jack Walz ( Mount Holly ), Allan White (Princeton), Susan White ( Princeton and recording).

Minute No. 1. Opening Minute and Agenda . Burlington Quarter Steering Committee gathered at Woolman Memorial, Seventh Month 15 th , 2006, near the stated hour of ten in the morning and settled into opening worship with eleven Friends present.

The proposed agenda was considered and amended. H.J. was not able to be present, and had asked that items 7 and 8 of the Agenda which deal with the Coordinator's program be put off to next Steering Committee meeting, which will be in October, God willing. Several Friends offered that it is unfair to keep postponing this discussion. Clerk retained these items for today's meeting.

Minute No. 2. Minutes of Previous Meeting . Minutes of Fifth Month Meeting, approved at that time, were distributed. It was noted that at Steering Committee Meetings, Minutes of the Meeting will now be read back and approved at the time of the Meeting, which the recording clerk has advocated for some time.

Friends approved minutes up to this point.

Minute No. 3. Treasurer's Report . No report.

Minute No. 4. Mansfield Meetinghouse Project Update . Friends reported visiting Mansfield Meetinghouse informally, and seeing excellent progress. Fran Campbell noted that she is looking for information and photographs on the history of Mansfield Meeting so that she can mount a display about the Mansfield Meetinghouse restoration project .at Residential Yearly Meeting later this month. Friends offered suggestions to help in gathering this information.

Friends approved minutes up to this point.

Minute No. 5. Concerns about Coordinator's Work and Job Description. This was item 7 of the Draft Agenda.

Allan White, clerk of Coordinator's Oversight and Support Committee, reported that committee has gathered information from Friends and clerks of Monthly Meetings, and submitted this year's evaluation on Fran's work to Mark Myers, Interim General Secretary of our Yearly Meeting. Members of committee are Pat Fowler, Jada Jackson, Jack Walz, and Allan White, clerk. A Friend on the committee reminded us that this means that the Coordinator's evaluation has been done for this year and was positive. It is not being undone. The next evaluation will be in the spring of 2007. It was further noted that Fran is being asked by the committee as a special project for the next year to promote the use and support for Mansfield Meetinghouse project.

A Friend asked about the effect on Fran of continuing postponing discussion of her work. She noted that it is difficult to prepare for discussion and then have it put off again. She counts this as the third recent postponement She further reported that her job description now requires her to document in minute detail how she uses her time. To do so, she uses up a lot of her time in documenting how she uses her time, and will continue to do so until we direct her to do otherwise.

A Friend asked what the issues are about the Coordinator's performance. No one present knew. Jean Jordon referred to letter sent out to Monthly Meetings by Clerk of Quarter in June 2005 asking for a new vision for the Coordinator's work among us. This was done independently by the Clerk of Quarter without reference to or contact with the Coordinator's Oversight and Support Committee. Allan White as clerk of Oversight and Support Committee suggested that without input coming to that committee, the committee cannot address any issues which might arise.

A Friend who is familiar with the Coordinator's program at the Yearly Meeting level reported that the Burlington Coordinator stacks up well in relation to others in the Yearly Meeting. Another Friend reminded us of a workshop held at a gathering about Regional Coordinators by the Support and Outreach Standing Committee about two years ago. Visioning for what a Coordinator's program could be was suggested there.

Another Friend raised up a point of process. If any concern or question about the Coordinator's work is going to be raised, then it should come to the Oversight Committee, and that committee should report back to Steering Committee. The Friend offered that if someone has a problem, should not that person do research to document other possibilities?

A Friend noted a drain of energy in her Meeting about the continuing questions about the Coordinator's position without any resolution. She offered that it does not seem rightly ordered to put this off until October. Giving time to serve on the Oversight Committee is a waste if we are not going to trust them to do the job we are assigning them to do.

A Friend from another Meeting offered that her Meeting considered what the program might do, and that her Meeting does not really understand what the Coordinator does. They want Coordinator to know them, come to their meetings, and known what they need and want.

A Friend from yet another Meeting discussed how her Meeting had planned to discuss the vision of Coordinator in response to the letter from clerk of Quarter, but the meeting to do this was snowed out.

A Friend offered that it is important to be honest. In June 2005 we as a collective should not have approved the letter which asked for input on the Coordinator's program going out from anyone other than Oversight Committee. A Friend asked if the work done by his Meeting to respond to this letter was a waste of time? Other Friends present offered that getting a minute from a Meeting is difficult and very important, not a waste of time, and that minute can now be considered by the proper body, and any concerns taken forward.

Another Friend offered that we need not to chew on old matters, but to move forward in a positive way. Could we get some documentation on the work of the Coordinator's Oversight and Support Committee which we could share with our Monthly Meeting?

Clerk reminded us that the /Coordinator's Oversight and Support Committee was formed by the Steering Committee, and reports directly to the Steering Committee.

Friends then united in the following three minutes.

Clerk asked if Friends were ready for the Steering Committee to ask the Coordinator's Support and Outsight Committee to continue the work that they have begun, and to ask their clerk to report back to the Steering Committee at our October meeting. Friends approved.

A Friend suggested that we minute a guideline for Burlington Quarterly Meeting that all positive, negative, and related matters concerning the Coordinator go directly to the Coordinator's Oversight and Support Committee, and that Committee will then bring to the Steering Committee any matters which are appropriate for Steering Committee to be made aware of, or to take action on. Friends Approved.

Clerk of Coordinator's Oversight and Support Committee asked that a general report for information, which might be very brief, could be a regular agenda item for Quarterly Meeting. The purpose of this report would be to make the presence of the Coordinator's Oversight and Support Committee better known, and to solicit input. Friends Approved.

Friends approved Minutes to this point.

Minute No. 6. Oversight and Support Committee evaluation.

A Friend noted that a general discussion has been held today about the work of the Oversight and Support Committee, which was Agenda Item 8 for today's meeting. Could we acknowledge that we have had some helpful information from the Oversight Committee today, and will look forward to a report from that Committee in October? A suggestion was made that the Oversight and Support Committee prepare a job description for their work as a item for the October meeting. At that time, the Steering Committee can further consider the work of the Oversight Committee. Friends approved this action, and also approved this minute as written.

Minute No. 8. Coordinator's Report.

Fran Campbell distributed a written Coordinator's Report, and then highlighted the following in her recent work:

Minute No. 9. Concern About Signage for our Meetings. A Friend lifted up a concern that our Meetings would be well served with better signage. Trenton Meeting has applied and received a grant from Yearly Meeting to have better signs. It can be hard to find some Meetings.

Clerk suggested that we might want to form an ad hoc committee to work on issues of outreach including signage, in our Quarter. We can consider further matters of outreach at our October Meeting.

Minute No. 10. Rancocas Meeting Minute on Coordinator . Clerk asked Jean Jordan, clerk of Rancocas, to read the minute which Rancocas brought forward on Coordinator's program. Minute was then passed to clerk of Coordinator's Oversight and Support Committee.

Minute No. 11. Request for Executive Session on Coordinator and Oversight Committee. Our Friend H.J. had asked for such a session. Clerks of Steering Committee and of Oversight Committee each asked for clarification about this request, and did not receive an answer. A Friend suggested that we minute that such a session is no longer appropriate given today's discussion. Friends approved.

Minute No. 12. Announcements and Closing.

Friends present noted concern about our Friend H.J. who missed today's meeting for health reasons. We will hold him in the Light in the coming weeks.

Friends settled into closing worship, and meeting rose just before the hour of one o'clock in the afternoon with ten Friends present, to meet again, in Quarterly Meeting Ninth Month 2006, and Steering Committee Tenth Month 2006, according to Divine will.

Friends approved minutes.

Susan White, recording clerk