The American Friends Service Committee is seeking a new presiding clerk of the Corporation and the Board of Directors to begin service in April 2023 on approval of the AFSC Corporation. We are asking everyone in the Quaker and AFSC communities to help identify potential nominees who can serve in this important leadership role in AFSC during a challenging and exciting period in the organization’s history.
Please refer to the AFSC Clerk position description for detailed expectations and desired qualifications. We seek a clerk who is spirit-led, and who can unite people of very diverse backgrounds and experiences, including governance volunteers, staff, members of communities with which AFSC has worked or is working, and other stakeholders. Our clerk will need excellent clerking skills and experience. They must be an active member of the Religious Society of Friends and have familiarity with Friends organizations. We seek candidates who reflect and embrace AFSC’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Familiarity with the AFSC and prior experience serving within the organization’s governance structures or staff is advantageous for nominees.
If you have suggestions for someone who might meet these criteria, or if you are interested in serving as AFSC clerk, please review the position description carefully and complete for each nominee the AFSC Clerk Nomination Form by October 31, 2022.
You will see from the position description that the work of the clerk is demanding and time-consuming to an extent that it excludes people whose life circumstances do not permit them to serve, such as the lack of freedom to devote the many hours to consultation that are suggested or to undertake the travel described. In seeking to identify a clerk with a call to serve and with the spiritual gifts and the wisdom that are desirable, the AFSC asks that you not refrain from proposing individuals because you believe they would be unavailable given the scope of the tasks described, or because they are located outside of the United States. While seeking a single Presiding Clerk in the traditional fashion, the AFSC is also open to making adjustments, such as redistributing the workload among a Clerk and an Assistant Clerk, or appointing Co-clerks, so as to widen the circle of Friends who can answer this call to service. We ask especially that you keep the AFSC’s goals of diversity, equity and inclusion in mind when thinking about possible nominees.
Any questions can be directed to Elizabeth Corse (ecorse@afsc.org), AFSC staff member supporting the Clerk Search Committee, or Dan Seeger (dseeger8000@gmail.com), who is clerking the Clerk Search Committee.
We encourage you to share this call with others you believe might be interested.
With thanks,
The AFSC Clerk Search Committee – Actress Bartlett, Brenda Chung, Alison Duncan, Dan Seeger (clerk), Nora Vera-Godwin
