 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2003 (XXXXI 1) |
What comes to mind when we think of Quaker service? Do we think of those Friends who went to Germany after World War II and helped a defeated people rebuild their country? Do we think of Quakers marching in the South during the 1960s risking their lives trying to bring simple equality into the lives of African Americans? Do we think of the hundreds of Quaker therapists, teachers and social workers who try to fulfill their Quaker testimonies in their daily jobs?
How about this kind of service: A Friend who gives up 10 hours of his or her free time every month to participate in the oversight processes that support our Yearly Meeting. Every month there are about 75 Friends (among the hundreds who do our volunteer work) who do special service which helps keep our Yearly Meeting running. They do not get paid for this work. They do not get the immediate rewards that come from direct involvement. They are Friends who have chosen to work for us at a different level. They are Standing Committee members, quietly serving in the background, watching over many of the services and activities which we have come to rely upon in our day-to-day Quaker experience.
Examples of these "processes" are the following: Budget deliberations (Financial Stewardship Committee), building and information systems maintenance (General Services Standing Committee), publications like the PYM News and website (Support and Outreach SC), Religious Education and funds for Quaker kids to attend Friends schools (Education SC), support for Meeting pastoral caregivers and Worship and Ministry (Worship and Care SC), resources for Meeting teenagers approaching the possibility of military service (Peace and Concerns SC). Each one of these processes has a PYM working group or service group associated with it, which provides the people power to make sure the work gets done. But each process also requires an oversight component, a PYM Standing Committee that provides guidance, tests leadings, opens resources, determines budget priorities, approves goals and coordinates actions.
How do Standing Committee members do these things? Much is done at a meeting held monthly where committee members receive and review reports from staff, working group clerks and other Standing Committee members. Those reports might reflect the health of a working group, a new need in the Yearly Meeting, or the effect of staffing cuts for a particular program. The committee may also need to wrestle with a difficult concern from Interim Meeting or the possibility of laying down a non-functioning or unsupportable working group. On the other hand it is just as possible that the Standing Committee will be involved in bringing to life a new working group that has recently gathered significant Monthly Meeting support. Appointing Friends to granting groups that disburse PYM's endowment funds is frequently part of a Standing Committee's business. Aside from the committee meetings, there is attendance at working group meetings, acting as a liaison, transmitting expectations and resources to working group members and returning with feedback for the Standing Committee.
Is it important for Standing Committee members to do this work? Consider this: There are over 100 working groups, granting groups, service groups, and representatives to outside organizations under the care of our Standing Committees, according to the PYM Nominating Committee handbook. The working groups require funding and connection to the different PYM resources to operate in any meaningful way. PYM appointees to external organizations, such as Friends Committee on National Legislation, have to meet certain expectations for participation. And all of the Friends involved with these entities need to follow the traditional Quaker standard of "right order." Consider what would happen if no Friends were available to provide critical Standing Committee oversight to these groups which carry out our important Quaker business.
So let's lift up these Friends who serve on Standing Committees. But let's also aspire to be like them. Be open to the call to service for our Yearly Meeting from the PYM Nominating Committee. Be open to the call to do unglamorous yet satisfying work, to work doing agendas and taking minutes and visiting working groups and hammering out budgets and putting up with long meetings and rolling up shirtsleeves with like-minded Quakers. Consider becoming a Standing Committee member. Consider service that is not beyond the call of duty but in line with the call of the Holy Spirit which is prompting us to show our love for our Quaker family by doing ordinary work in ordinary time.
For a full list of services which the Standing Committees oversee go to this URL on PYM's website: www.pym.org/nominating/handbook.htm and scroll to the section on Standing Committees.
Rich Ailes
Middletown Meeting (Concord Quarter, PA)
Clerk of PYM Nominating Committee
Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:18 AM