On Saturday, December 13, the three councils that support Philadelphia Yearly Meeting—Quaker Life Council, Administrative Council, and Nominating Council—held their meeting in the joint format. In this structure, all three councils meet together as one Joint Council to worship, discern, and conduct business collaboratively. Their practice is to share the minutes in a news story with the PYM community in the weeks following the meeting.
Each month, the council selects one item from its agenda or conversation to lift up. This month, the council lifted up two items; the Sprint on Meeting Roles and PYM business, along with sessions planning and engagement.
The sprint is discerning how yearly meeting, quarterly meeting, and monthly meeting roles function within the governance structure, and how engagement between them can increase.
For sessions planning, small groups met to discuss ways to increase Friends’ participation and to discern why Friends are not participating at the same levels as in the past.
