PYM Nominating Committee Report • 9th Month 2000 to 6th Month 2001

submitted by Richard Ailes - Clerk

Nominating Committee gathered under the Spirit seven times for this reporting period. In that time the committee made 142 queries of Friends to serve on Standing Committees or Yearly Meeting external and affiliated organizations. 39 Friends who were asked to serve, accepted. For the same time period in 1999/2000, 125 queries to serve were made to Friends, of which 32 accepted.

Since the committee is primarily concerned with providing for Friend’s service to the 6 Standing Committees that are the oversight bodies for the Yearly Meeting, statistics regarding Standing Committee turnover are considered significant. Since the new structure was implemented in the summer or 1997, 81 Friends have resigned from Standing Committee service or declined reappointment. For the period covering this report, 19 Friends fell into this category. For the same time period in 1999/2000, 29 Friends resigned from or declined reappointment to Standing Committee service.

The committee continued work on a number of different concerns and processes throughout the year including the following:

1- The nominating process was revised and refined in the hopes of adapting it to the needs of the Standing Committee structure. It was approved to offer some nominees a choice of Standing Committee assignments with the understanding that their skill sets would apply to any Standing Committee. Prospective nominees were also sent information packets on their Standing Committee of interest and were offered an opportunity to attend a Standing Committee meeting before they were asked to make a decision. Upon acceptance and approval the new appointees received a standard orientation to service which had been approved by the Administrative Group.

2- The Nominating Committee Handbook was revised and revisions were sent out to those who had received the handbook in the past. The updated version was posted on the PYM website. The Talent and Interest Database was updated and put to good use by the Nominating Committee as well as Standing Committees and Working Groups. A Database Access Policy was revised, presented to Interim Meeting, and approved. The roster of current Standing Committee members was posted on the PYM website. A formal process for the nominations of Friends to the Friends Education Fund was established.

3- The process for reappointment to Standing Committees was revised upon advice of the Administrative Group. Names of those Friends whose terms of service will end in the upcoming Yearly Meeting session will now be sent to Standing Committee clerks about 9 months in advance. This gives the committees time to work with members who are having a difficult time doing the committee’s work. Upon getting feedback from Standing Committee clerks, the Nominating Committee would then review, in first month, those Friends up for reappointment and determine who to ask to return. If a Friend who was not asked to be reappointed wished to appeal that decision, an ad hoc review committee made up of members of the Administrative Group, Nominating Committee, and the Evaluation Group of Interim Meeting would handle the appeal

4- An interest was pursued in supporting the need for more Recording Clerks at the Yearly Meeting level. A new Recording Clerk was appointed and a Recording Clerks’ workshop was developed and successfully implemented for the residential Yearly Meeting session at Allentown in 7th Month. A meeting was held between the clerk and alternate clerk of Nominating Committee and the clerk of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting to discuss the roles and functions of the alternate clerks of Yearly Meeting. That meeting resulted in a better understanding of the job description of the alternate clerks.

5- A dialog was established with the clerk of Nominating Committee for the George School Board about the needs of the board for a more flexible approach regarding PYM appointees. Out of that dialog it is hoped that the board will seek to revise its quota of PYM and non-PYM appointees. This dialog was prompted by a concern of the PYM Nominating Committee over a suggested nominee who was unknown to members of the committee and upon inquiry, unknown to the current clerk of the nominee’s home Meeting.

6- Nominating Committee began to handle increasing requests coming from Standing Committees regarding unfilled positions on critical Working Groups. There is a concern that the new PYM structure is not providing adequate means for these critical Working Groups to acquire new volunteers.

PYM Nominating Committee continues to function well in spite of its membership levels being at less than half of its full compliment. There is currently no representation from Burlington, Philadelphia, and Upper Susquehanna Quarters and several other Quarters are grossly under represented. The clerk assumes this is a reflection of the current weakness of many of our Quarterly Meetings. Nominating Committee members are appointed only by the Quarterly Meetings. Nominating Committee service is supported when the Quarters choose representatives who are knowledgeable about their Quarterly Meeting constituents or at least willing to attend their own Quarterly Meetings to familiarize themselves with that constituency.

PYM Nominating Committee report - 9/2000 to 6/2001