Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends

General Secretary

General Secretary Report to Councils

Written on:

Mid-January Through Mid-February 2019

Business and Finances:

  • The FY 2018 audited financial statements were posted on the website.  See them at www.pym.org/finance/audits. We are finishing the annual report, an attractive, user-friendly summary of PYMs 2018 fiscal year which will be sent to donors next month.
  • PYM’s insurance policies renew in January.  The 2019 PYM Master Policy, under the Friends Insurance Group, insures 91 meetings, 8 Friends schools and 9 Quaker organizations.
  • We have posted the Granting Committee approved handbook of granting policies and procedures [PDF], covering all the individual granting groups and PYM granting information. This is a living document on the PYM Grants website, to track and share the Group’s policies and procedures.

Program and Ministry:

  • The Winter Gathering for Middle School age youth was held at Medford meeting in New Jersey.  A highlight was an exploration of race with Friends from PYM’s Social Justice Resource Friends group. This workshop helped participants become more aware of their own cultural identity and views about people from different backgrounds, and expand their consciousness of stereotypes and varying cultural norms.
  • The Winter Gathering for Young Friends (high school youth) at Greene Street meeting in Philadelphia. The young Friends explored the theme of activism, working with Just Act, a theatre-based catalyst for healing, change, and activism to build a just world.
  • Young Adult Friends have been working collaboratively to plan the action around closing the detention center for families in Berks County.  A fully developed webpage is complete and a schedule for the action is emerging. 
  • Registration for Continuing Sessions is open.  The location for the 2020 Spring Continuing Sessions is being scouted.
  • The contract with The College of New Jersey was negotiated, completed, and was kept within budget.
  • One Quilt, One Yearly Meeting is being promoted with weekly Facebook updates, stories, and pictures about each meeting’s quilt square.
  • The Outreach Thread Gathering was a strong success with 55 people in attendance.  Previous outreach events have had half that attendance.

Communications and Technology:

  • We updated the PYM Grants web pages, making the structure much clearer, and easier to navigate.
  • We sent the inaugural issue of our “Tote Bag” e-newsletter out to nearly 1200 email addresses. This provides resources for religious education and families.
  • We are planning a shift to a new ‘theme’ or framework for the website.  Our current website was developed in 2013 with a custom theme which doesn’t easily update when WordPress updates. This necessitates constant attention and repair which the move will address.
  • We began an integration of communication and event registration within the new Salesforce database. 
  • Sent print invitations to Friends for two Thread Gatherings, the winter and spring Friends in Fellowship events, Continuing Sessions and the YAF–led action at Berks Detention Center for Families.
  • Sent a Valentines mailing (with upcoming programs through Annual Sessions) to 450 young people who participated in our programs in last year. This communication also went to new contacts in our database.
  • Developed and mailed a print communication to validate individual information in the database. This will be followed up by an email campaign for the same purpose.  Most PYM information was successfully migrated to our new database, but some information is incorrect or out of date. This mailing will both alert Friends to the issue and help us get corrected information.
  • We moved our Library database to the cloud.  This was the final chunk information previously stored on servers. The accounting database, constituent relationship database, and staff files were all moved to the cloud within the past year.  The move saves money and brings us into alignment with the practices of our IT management support (provided by AFSC).

Staff and Administration:

  • Arranged to continue our contract with an HR consultant to support benefits administration and staff needs.  This supports the Director of HR and Inclusion who is part-time and is in alignment with our vision of possibilities for this position.
  • Staff Policies Handbook: Received a legal review of our revised handbook.  There were few substantive comments. The Personnel Committee is reviewing the final draft. Next steps include a final review by the staff and then giving it to the Admin Council for its review.
  • Drafted policy and procedures on staff professional development.
  • Implemented a new sick time policy that changes how sick time is granted and accrued and presented it to staff.  Effective 4/1/19 sick time will accrue for all employees working over 40 hours per year.  
  • Conducted research on staff training that for Mental Health First Aid, Mandated Reporting & Child Safety, and Food Safety.  Goals are to find cost effective trainings for these priority areas and to and provide convenient scheduling options for staff. 
  • Identified training opportunities for supervision and management skills. We seek programs focused on culturally sensitive supervisory practices. 
  • Staff formed an ad-hoc committee (including one staff member from each department) to determine the duties of the staff liaison position.  This committee forwarded a candidate who was confirmed during staff meeting and their duties were approved by staff.  Margaret Rose is to serve as the staff liaison for a period of one year.  
  • Recruitment & Onboarding:
    • Nick Gutowski, Grants Associate, was promoted to serve as Director of Grantmaking effective following the retirement of Carol Walz in March.
    • We posted and interviewed for our Gift Processing and Data Entry position. Kimani Keaton, an internal candidate, was hired and now performs dual roles as a youth staff facilitator and data entry associate.
    • Began recruitment for two part-time Event Support Staff at Arch Street Meeting House. 
    • We took on an intern to support the YAF action at Berks Detention Center and to help to plan Sessions publicity and the next YAF retreat. 
    • PYMs onboarding process has now includes a comprehensive and individualized onboarding plan for each new employee.  The focus is on welcoming the employee and ensuring they have all the tools and support needed to get started and be successful in their job.  Onboarding also serves to build an inclusive and cohesive work environment as staff members have a role in supporting the new employee.   

Inclusion and Anti-Racism:

  • A presentation was made to staff on communication & transparency, cohesion, onboarding, and lack of diversity. 
  • Used last month’s presentation to PYM staff (on themes and trends identified from staff interviews conducted by Director of HR and Inclusion) to plan for next steps.  Plans include a meeting with PYM staff, articulation of supports needed to effectively  to effectively engage in inclusion, and anti-racism work.

Visits:

  • Melinda Wenner Bradley, the Youth Engagement Coordinator, traveled to Kenya to facilitate conference for East African Sunday School teachers at Friends Theological College.  
  • Melinda met with a youth event organizer from Upper Susquehanna Quarter and with Ed Doty from YSOP to discuss new possibilities to create bridges within PYM and program possibilities. 
  • Melinda facilitated the Children’s Program for Concord Quarterly Meeting.
  • George Schaefer, Care and Aging Coordinator, lead a meeting retreat for Trenton Friends on addressing conflict in meeting.
  • George presented a program on the beginnings of Quakerism at Princeton Friends. 
  • Wendy Kane, Transition Meeting Engagement and Data Coordinator, visited Lancaster Meeting. 
  • Grace Sharples Cooke, Associate Secretary for Advancement and Relationship, visited Birmingham Meeting. 
  • Christie Duncan-Tessmer, General Secretary, met with the archivist at Haverford College to gain clarity on what the library wants from PYM, what is available (for example, all YM and MM minutes and records of births, deaths and marriages are available on ancestry.com) and to think about how to engage meetings with the historic records when the library reopens after renovations in the fall. 
  • Christie met with the newish Executive Director of Jewish Community Relations Council, Rabbi Batya Glazer. 
  • Christie met with the Haverford College Douglas and Dorothy Steere Professor of Quaker Studies, David Harrington Watt.

General Secretary Report to Councils

Written on:

Mid-December 2018 Through Mid-January 2019

Business and Finances:

  • Received donations in response to the December appeal. An informal analysis indicates most gifts that came in are similar or increased a bit from last year and lapsed donors from as long ago as the year 2000 have made gifts. Overall, though the income is down from the same quarter in previous years, largely due to the death of elderly major donors.
  • Encouraged PYM Friends to give to their monthly meeting in the final email appeal. This did lead to online gifts to meetings.
  • Sent quarterly reports and checks to monthly Meetings who use PYM’s online giving resource in record time following the close of the quarter.
  • The Administrative Council’s Governance Committee approved and named Friends to a sprint (a sprint is a short term, project-focused committee) to lay the groundwork for establishing a long-term structure for the new Development Committee and addressing short-term needs. Staff began convening the sprint.
  • Began to automate some of our internal processes with the support of Your Part Time Controller (which is acting as controller on an interim basis).

Program and Ministry:

  • Young Adult Engagement — The Young Adult Friends winter retreat was held Jan 4-6 with several new attenders, and four new people were added to its pastoral care and outreach committee.
  • One Quilt, One Yearly Meeting — With the excitement of Continuing Sessions approaching, we are checking in with monthly meetings, Friends schools, and collaboratives about their quilt square for the quilt project for the clerks’ table.
  • Resource Friends – Based on our experience in launching three practice areas we refined and documented the vision and implementation plan for this program.
  • Sessions – In keeping with the annual timeline developed by the Community Engagement team last year, we continue to plan for Spring 2019 Continuing Sessions, finalize our broad plan for Annual Sessions 2019 at The College of New Jersey, and have some prospective locations for Spring Continuing Sessions 2020. Fall 2019 Continuing Sessions will be at Arch Street Meeting House. Two new Young Adults have joined the Sessions Coordinating Committee which is adding some great flow between the action at March Continuing Sessions and the work of the larger committee.
  • Young Friends – The traditional Christmas Gathering was held at Haddonfield Meeting, and their next event is the Winter Gathering Feb. 8-10 at Green Street Meeting.
  • Children and Families (C&F) – The Winter Family Overnight was held at Camp Onas. There was twice the registration of last year’s event. Through Annual Sessions, the C&F program is focusing on the theme, “Who is my neighbor?” and looking at the experiences of immigrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers through the lens of children’s literature and age-appropriate resources and activities.
  • Thread Gatherings – the dates and topics have been set into 2020.
  • Friends in Fellowship – the dates and topics have been set into June.

Communications and Technology:

  • Began initial staff training for the transition to a different email tool which syncs with our new database and developed an implementation timeline.
  • Designed a Christmas card that matched the appeal for all staff to send to those with whom we work in the community.
  • Ongoing website maintenance focused this month on installation of Word Press 5.0 upgrades, researching and testing new calendar plugins.
  • Set up a third ‘development’ website to test features we are considering adding to our website.
  • Reduced data use on our website to comply with our current webhosting plan without affecting access to PYM resources or functionality.
  • Reestablished the Religious Education resources section of the website that meets space limitations and WordPress upgrade needs.

Staff and Administration:

  • Revised the composition and charge of the Staff Administrative Team – newly renamed the Operations Team – comprising of the General Secretary, Associate Secretaries and the Director of Human Resources and Inclusion. The purpose of the team is to:
    • ensure we each know what is happening in all departments and in the yearly meeting
    • serve as a clearing house or threshing space for staff activity
    • ensure staff are supported and moving forward on our goals and the strategic directions and to attend to staff cohesion
  • Said farewell to Young Friends co-facilitator Kody Hersh who has moved on to be the (first) Youth and Young Adult Coordinator for Southeast Yearly Meeting.
  • The Director of Grantmaking, Carol Walz, announced that she will be retiring at the end of March after more than two decades of working with PYM. We are making plans to support the transition in this department.
  • Recruitment is underway for two open positions:
    • Gifts Processing and Data Entry Associate
    • Event Support Staff for Arch Street Meeting House.
  • Completed Open Enrollment and finalized all benefits, communications and documentation with benefits providers.
  • Completed the near-final draft of a document that describes the authority, roles and responsibilities for the key stakeholders in the activity of the Arch Street Meeting House with respect to property, finance, program and communications.

Inclusion and Anti-Racism:

  • The Director of Human Resources and Inclusion presented staff with a summary of comments and themes from PYM staff interviews with respect to work and work culture. The staff discussed results of the interviews and ideas about next steps.
  • Six staff registered for Amanda Kemp’s online training title “Transform your Conversations about Racism.”
  • The General Secretary, along with other members of the yearly meeting, attended the Interfaith Philadelphia program:  A Conversation on Race and Faith. A group of Philadelphia religious leaders shared stories and engaged in conversations on the intersection of race and their experience of faith. Attenders then did the same in small groups.

Visits:

  • Melinda Wenner Bradley, Youth Engagement Coordinator, attended the Friends Theological College in Kaimosi, Kenya, where she was invited to co-lead a conference for religious educators from yearly meetings in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.
  • Christie Duncan-Tessmer met with the heads of FGC and Friends Fiduciary for regularly scheduled check in meetings.

General Secretary Report to Councils

Written on:

General Secretary Report on Staff Activity to Councils

Mid November – Mid December 2018

Business and Finances:

  • Your Part Time Controller has PYM’s accounting work in hand. Check writing and payroll have run smoothly, as have all Aging grants which are sent out at the beginning of each month.
    We received the 2018 Audit from our auditors, Kreischler Miller. It is a clean audit, without remarks, and was accepted by the Audit Committee on December 10th. It will be presented to the Administrative Council on the 15th.
  • We took first steps toward reviewing our cybersecurity systems and practices.
  • The beautiful December appeal was mailed on November 26 and our incoming mail has been pleasantly heavy. The new database automates a five-year giving report for each donor and compares income year over year. An analysis of current donors shows we are generally matching or exceeding their prior years’ giving. We will shift to reaching out to lapsed donors in January and February.
  • Weekly emails with the theme of ‘the 25 Gifts of Yearly Meeting’ are going out weekly, extending the December appeal electronically. At the close of the year PYM also reminds donors to make a gift to their monthly meeting in its final electronic appeal.
  • After Administrative Council approved the establishment of a Development Committee in its care the Admin Governance Committee took steps toward peopling it effectively. It established a Sprint to work with staff to thresh the most pressing questions and to lay the groundwork for the launching of a full-fledged, effective committee.

Program and Ministry:

  • Friends in Business hosted the Governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Wolf, at a dinner event on December 5. Enrollment was at a record high of about 90 people it a tremendously successful evening. It was a blessing to get him and he was a knowledgeable, compelling speaker. His brother went to Westtown School!
  • Youth staff and Quaker Life Council are populating the Youth Programs Advisory Committee.
  • Staff met with Quarterly Meeting Coordinators to learn about their work and explore ways of supporting them with yearly meeting resources. They also discussed PYM Youth Program events with Friends Schools.
  • Community Engagement has completed their second Zoom call with Friends of other yearly meetings –  it is wonderful to be in relationship together as we continue to develop a strategic direction for our work.
  • We have been preparing applications from members for review at the semi-annual meeting of the PYM Greenleaf Granting Group. The Greenleaf Granting Group makes grants to aging Friends of modest means in need of financial support for medical and/or residential expenses. In this granting cycle, approximately twenty applications will be reviewed.
  • We are drafting a harassment policy for use at yearly meeting events and the PYM community. The Quaker Life Council will move it forward from the draft.
  • Program & Religious Life staff are currently working with other PYM staff, Friends General Conference, Friends Journal, Pendle Hill and Friends Committee on National Legislation on several projects related to outreach:
    • Pendle Hill: PYM staff are working with the Education Coordinator at Pendle Hill to plan a Quaker Skills institute. See the Pendle Hill Website for more information. Pendle Hill also produced a series of suggested program evaluation metrics (funded by a Shoemaker grant) that we will integrate into our own program evaluation work in April.
    • Friends Committee on National Legislation: We are working with Christine Ashley at FCNL to imagine how our community might creatively and collaboratively use FCNL’s new Quaker Welcome Center.
    • Friends General Conference: FGC’s Spiritual Deepening Program has a focus related to welcoming newcomers and inclusion. PYM staff are meeting monthly with FGC staff Holly Baldwin, members of the QLC Program Committee, the PYM Membership Development Granting Group, and members from New York Yearly Meeting who are focused on outreach.
    • Friends Journal: We are working with Jon Watts of QuakerSpeak to produce four videos that can be used as resources for monthly meetings around welcoming newcomers.
    • We have invited FGC staff Holly Baldwin and Friends Journal staff Jon Watts to lead sessions at the February 9 Outreach and Communications Thread Gathering to be held at Abington Monthly Meeting. Please mark your calendars!

Communications and Technology:

  • WordPress, our website content management system released a major upgrade. Our Website Manager is in the next stage of modifying the back end of the website to ensure a seamless transition.  This is a complicated and ongoing project.
  • 2018 State of the Meeting reports have been posted to the website. Previous years’ reports are in the process of being added.
  • Positive feedback on the website gets stronger every month and Friends are expressing appreciation of the changes.
  • Staff are planning the next Faith in Practice newsletter which will focus on the religious experience within our community.
  • The third party that processes our online payments, Acceptiva, renovated their software platform. There were some significant bugs in the update which led to credit card processing errors and restricted PYM’s administration access. The CEO of Acceptiva posted an open apology to all of its customers on its website. Things seem back on track now.
  • We had already decided to move from Acceptiva to another platform, Click and Pledge, which integrates well with Salesforce and have now determined an earlier start-date for that transition.
  • We will be switching our email platform form Constant Contact to Mail Chimp and expect this change in February.  Mail Chimp will allow us to automatically integrate data from outgoing emails into the database.
  • Verification of the information in our new database, Salesforce, continues. We have removed duplicated records and deleted old contact and other peripheral information. All deleted data was archived first as a precaution.

Staff and Administration:

  • We are nearing completion of staff annual reviews and subsequently revising staff goals.
  • Legal review of the revised staff handbook is nearing completion.
  • The data entry position was posted – we have a large applicant pool and one internal candidate.
  • We successfully completed open enrollment for benefits with a combination of staff and consultant support. Distributing, completing, reviewing and processing the necessary documents and answering all questions is a big job that came at a time of some staff turnover. The team effort was led by our new Director of HR and Inclusion and included our accountant, an HR consultant, and our brokers.
  • We now have a draft of an individualized on-boarding plan, an organizational on-boarding document, and a process to support employee improvement plans.
  • A staff person has been identified to lead a selection committee for the staff liaison to the personnel committee.
  • The General Secretary and Director of HR and Inclusion have recommended to staff that we eliminate the staff voice policy, because its goals can be addressed more robustly with attention to culture and processes in staff and, additionally, because a separate policy can be restrictive and experienced as oppressive by some.  A series of meetings with staff have begun to thresh that recommendation.
  • The office was closed for two days for Thanksgiving and many staff took advantage of the slow week and took vacation.  The office will be closed for two days for Christmas and one for New Year’s in the coming month and many staff will again be out of the office for a week or more at this slow time.

Inclusion and Anti-Racism:

  • Zakia Williams is compiling information received from individual PYM staff interviews and looking for themes and trends.  This information will be reported back to staff at staff meeting and we will seek input on next steps.
  • Zachary Dutton attended, for the second time, Beyond Diversity 101 training at Pendle Hill led by Niyonu Spann. Zachary served as an intern at this training which is a step toward being a facilitator in the work.
  • Christie Duncan-Tessmer attended the training by Philadelphia Quarter titled A Friendly Response to ‘Fight, Flight or Freeze’ Feelings – An Interactive Workshop
  • Christie Duncan-Tessmer attended the annual consultation of the Conference of National Black Churches (CNBC).  This year’s them was “Unearthing the Effects of Racism: A Pathway to Hope in a Time of Hate.”  The CNBC has invited the board members of the National Council of Churches to attend and Christie was one of about 6 communions who responded.

Visits:

  • Christie Duncan-Tessmer and Zachary Dutton, Associate Secretary for Program & Religious Life, attended the FCNL annual meeting in Washington DC. There is a report in PYM’s Web News.
  • Christie Duncan-Tessmer, Grace Sharples Cooke, Associate Secretary for Advancement and Relationship, Linell McCurry, Associate Secretary for Business & Finance, and Meg Rose, Young Adult Engagement Coordinator, attended Friends in Business with Governor Wolf.
  • Grace Sharples Cooke attended worship at Centre Meeting in Delaware and met with the clerk afterwards to talk about the life and work of the meeting.
  • Wendy Kane visited Greenwich Monthly Meeting and was warmly welcomed by the community.

General Secretary Report to Councils

Written on:

General Secretary Report on Staff Activity to Councils

Mid-October Through Mid-November 2018

Business and Finance:

  • As shared in the written GenSec report to Continuing Sessions, PYM operations ended FY18 in a solid, positive position. Lower covenant and annual fund contributions year-over-year were mitigated by higher investment income and by expense reductions.  The balance sheet remained strong.  There was little change in net assets apart from investment gains, which are posted once a year at the FYE.
  • Completed audit preparations and welcomed the auditors who have been in the office all week.
  • Completed and signed an access agreement between PYM and US Construction, developer of a townhome project next door to the Arch Street Meeting House. The agreement sets out terms for scaffolding and lift access on the Arch Street property so work on the townhouse facades can be completed.  US Construction will rebuild at their expense a failing section of the non-historic brick wall closest to 3rd Street, which is currently braced.
  • Completed the process for supporting teachers’ retirement funds in small schools and for providing tuition aid for PYM students in Quaker schools.
  • Completed a compelling December appeal mailing and sent it to the printer. It will be mailed shortly after Thanksgiving. It includes a message that is personalized to the giving history of each of about 6,500 households.  We designed and sent a “no-ask” alternate version to 400 households that have requested not to be solicited. This way they still access the information included in the mailing.

Program and Ministry:

  • Continuing Sessions: 160+ Friends gathered for Continuing Sessions on Saturday November 3rd, filling the Arch Street Meeting House with children, families, and Friends coming together for business and Quaker conversations. All of the reports and meeting materials can be found on the continuing sessions webpage and the minutes are online.
  • Launched Bridge Contacts! Bridge Contacts are those identified by their meeting or other constituency to serve as a communications and relationship bridge between the activity in their meeting (or other constituency) and the activity in the yearly meeting and monthly meetings. We launched at Continuing Sessions and met our two-month goal in one day and are nearly 50% of our way to our mid-fiscal year goal.
  • Launched One Quilt One Yearly Meeting! This initiative invites every yearly meeting constituency – monthly meetings, collaboratives, any group that identifies as part of our community – to complete a fabric square which will be sewn together in a single quilt. The staff produced a video to share with meetings and others to encourage their participation.
  • Initiated a conversation of coordinated outreach and communications efforts across Quaker organizations.
  • Began the process of updating support for monthly meeting background checks with a more holistic view toward supporting child safety with meetings
  • Began developing a first draft of a harassment policy for PYM Friends.
  • At the invitation of the organizers, took part in a multi-faith news conference held at Friends Center following the shootings at the synagogue in Pittsburg and outside the church in Kentucky
  • Collaborated with the staff of Arch Street Meeting House to support the Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia in their ministry to provide safe space during an anti-Semitic rally in Philadelphia.
  • Published a summary of the State of the Meeting reports on our news feed.

Communications and Technology:

  • Began developing a communications and publicity plan for Annual and Continuing Sessions. This has been on the Wish List for so long and we now have the capacity to jump start it.
  • Communicated to all PYM Friends about what happened at Continuing Sessions at lightning speed – by the next morning it was posted as a news story and sent out by email.
  • Completed entering database backlog of updates and fiscal data so it is now functional.
  • Made huge headway on reorganizing the data migrated from the old database so it accurately reflects the household configurations.
  • Redesigned the website’s home page so it now loads in 2 seconds, includes a more robust calendar and a reconfigured and well-populated news section.
  • Completed six months of technical background work on the website so that when WordPress updates our website will still function.

Staff and Administration:

  • Finalized a draft of annual goals for staff, built upon strategic directions and staff plans for the coming year. All outcomes and objectives were reviewed and approved by responsible staff.  PYM governance leadership reviewed them, and staff has had a first opportunity to review them as well.
  • Our Controller, Cliessa Nagle resigned effective Friday, Nov. 16, the last day of the audit. We’ve made arrangements for short-term interim support for the controller responsibilities with Your Part Time Controller (YPTC) which provides nonprofits with highly skilled controller-level accountants on a temporary basis.
  • Renewed our relationship with the consultant who provided HR support to PYM for six months earlier this year to ensure that the benefits management is well supported during this time of transition.
  • Hired  an Assistant in the Young Friends Program following an extensive search process and interviews with several finalist candidates, PYM Youth Programs are delighted to welcome Aeryn Luminkith. She will begin her work with Young Friends at their Christmas Gathering.
  • The part time data entry position was posted.
  • Selected and approved staff health plan benefits for 2019.  There are minimal changes in the benefit coverage and no changes in the way in which employees contribute to the plan (2% of base salary for the employee plus 1% for each dependent to a max of 5%). The increase in cost to PYM is slightly below budget.
  • Met twice to discuss the staff voice policy and what we want to have in place to meet our needs in terms of policy, procedure and culture.
  • The Director of HR and Inclusion is wrapping up final staff interviews to understand individual roles and determine concerns and suggestions for HR.

Inclusion and Anti-Racism:

  • The Director of HR and Inclusion is reviewing the impact of past antiracism work on staff as well as planning for next steps with staff.
  • All staff were invited to register in the coming year for a multi-day anti-racism training if they haven’t yet done so.
  • Provided support for stepped-up communications for the Multicultural Audit Steering Committee.

Visits:

  • Staff were invited to attend holiday events at monthly meetings on staff time.
  • Grace Sharples Cooke, Associate Secretary for Advancement & Relationship worshiped at Woodstown meeting and met with Friends there about their fundraising.
  • Christie Duncan-Tessmer, General Secretary, attended the FGC Central Committee meeting
  • Christie and Lynne Calamia, Executive Director of Historic Arch Street Meeting House, worshiped at Chester meeting and attended an event about its history at which there were more than 50 people from many meetings and from the community.
  • Christie worshiped at Darby Meeting
  • Christie attended the Philadelphia Interfaith Leadership Council meeting
  • Christie attended Friends Historical Association Annual Meeting and Lecture

General Secretary Report to Councils

Written on:

General Secretary Report on Staff Activity to Councils

Mid-September Through Mid-October 2018

Business and Finance:

  • Our fiscal year ended September 30th! The year-end prompted a variety of tasks including communications with monthly meetings and quarters about their final covenant payments, getting out last minute grants and payments and closing the fourth quarter books.
  • The annual fund raised $311,770 This result is below our goal and our last two years’ totals of around $340,000. However, given the diversion of attention this year to the database conversion, the changes in staffing over the year and the complications with getting out the final appeal (problems and delays with the printer, and that we did this mailing during the data migration to Salesforce) we find the final number not discouraging.
  • We manually analyzed a sample set of 40 gifts. In that review we documented 65% of our donors increased what they gave over the prior year; 27.5% did not change their gifts and only 7.5% reduced their giving.
  • We are in full swing preparing for the audit which begins on November 12.
  • Finance and Development researched options for financial institutions to support planned giving.
  • We now have a draft brochure for the Legacy Annual Fund program and are testing it with target audiences prior to printing it.
  • There were several property-related matters at Arch Street, including evaluating bids from electrical contractors for the relighting of the East Room, getting approval from the Philadelphia Historical Commission for stormwater management solutions, and nearly finalizing negotiations on an access agreement between PYM and the developer of a neighboring town-home project.
  • The Arch Street Meeting House Preservation Trust met for an all-day retreat for the board, non-board committee members. Staff members Lynne Calamia, Arch Street Meeting House Executive Director and Linell McCurry, Associate Secretary for Business & Finance attended. The focus included an exploration of mission, vision, and resources, and a facilitated Resource Development Workshop.
  • For many years PYM’s has provided staff to support the distribution committee of the Tyson Fund and received a fee for doing so. After several internal discussions about the value of staff time compared to the value of receiving the fee and additional conversations with the Tyson Fund members and Friends Fiduciary, we completed a transfer of staffing responsibility from PYM to Fiduciary. At the meeting to make the transfer, there was a good deal of appreciation for Carol’s work.

Program and Ministry:

  • We held a well-attended (50+) Friends in Fellowship at Lehigh Valley Meeting on 9/13/18. It featured the founder of the Philly Bail Fund, Malik Neal. Read the opinion piece in The Inquirer about the Philly Bail Fund.
  • We held a Pop-up Friends in Fellowship event with Cordell Carter of the Socrates program at the Aspen Institute at Friends Center on a Tuesday morning. Cordell enjoyed getting to know more about Quakers and Friends loved his presentation.
  • The Quaker College Fair is an annual event co-sponsored by PYM and Friends Association for Higher Education and was held on October 6th.The Young Adult Engagement and Sessions Coordinator, Meg Rose, supported the Quaker College Fair with marketing efforts (print, email, and social media) and also served on the discussion panel.
  • The planning of fall, spring and summer sessions are under way at various levels. Fall Continuing Sessions work is focused on publicity and program refinement; we’re seeking a location for Spring Continuing Sessions and working with Young Adult Friends to plan the programming; we’re working on a three year contract with The College of New Jersey for Annual Sessions.
  • We are working with Friends Counseling Service to ensure that the Friends Counseling Service Advisory Panel (a committee under QLC) is fully populated and poised to provide policy and clinical practice stewardship for the service. The business model of the Friends Counseling Service continues at a sustainable pace.
  • Staff is supporting the logistics with respect to payments, communications, and marketing for the upcoming Spiritual Formation Collaborative retreat. • All of this years’ youth events are scheduled.
  • The Youth Engagement Coordinator, Melinda Wenner Bradley ran a retreat for youth with some of the youth staff at Newtown, providing quality programs and making space for spiritual community for the children and youth there, so people who are parents could participate in the retreat. This is an example of work that we did not previously have staff capacity to support.
  • Networking and meeting visitation has commenced within the area of Youth Engagement. We are focusing on developing relationships with the meetings that are most successful at supporting youth work and religious education. As a result, over time, we will get to know the families and youth workers with whom to network in order to build a community of practice and enhance the support we are able to give each other as a yearly meeting community across meetings.
  • We have begun recruiting Resource Friends to serve in the practice area of youth work and religious education.
  • We are also working on developing a Resource Friends practice area for young adults. As inspirational starting points, we have calls set up with FWCC to understand how they are engaging their young adults through their “Young Adult Friends Development Fund” and meeting with young adults who have received granting funds through the Travel & Witness Granting Group to run special projects.
  • We are planning the launch of the Bridge Contacts program. There will be “soft launch” at the fall continuing sessions.

Communications and Technology:

  • We published the fall edition of Faith and Practice, which should hit mailboxes this week. This is the is the 12-page Comic Book issue (featuring YAF graphic storytellers and Signe Wilkinson)
  • Salesforce data migration was seamless in terms of the financial data – but contact data needs extreme amounts of tweaking.
  • Staff have participated in a variety of training for using the database and the Transitional Meeting Engagement and Data Coordinator, Wendy Kane has been a tremendously valuable resource in our learning Salesforce.
  • We are experimenting with the regularly-scheduled email to Friends which highlights PYM activity. It has shifted from a monthly to a weekly event and we are testing which day it gets highest response rate and which kind of content is most responded to.
  • Our website is on the Word Press platform which is rolling out significant changes that will affect our website. The web manager, Malcolm McAttee, is working hard transforming the ‘invisible’ structure so that the transition will be as seamless as possible.
  • We have begun a continuous study of user experience of the website. As we learn we are renewing and re-designing parts of the website, including improving site navigation and putting a donate button on the homepage
  • Russian spammers discovered the section of our website called PYM Connect. As they seek to enter this section of the website with their fake IDs, we have been denying access and deleting each fake ID. For security reasons, and to protect the PYM community, we deactivated PYM Connect on 10/11/2018. Please note that the comments on PYM Connect were more than a year old.

Staff and Administration:

  • We are in process of transferring responsibility for benefits from the Controller’s office to HR and Cliessa is working closely with Zakia Williams on health benefits for 2019.
  • The Community Engagement Team has integrated a new member, Wendy Kane, Transition Meeting Engagement and Data Coordinator. With Wendy’s inclusion the team now includes staff from Program & Religious Life and Advancement & Relationships which helps to integrate the work of the two departments.
  • We have begun annual performance reviews. Most will be completed by Thanksgiving with the exception of the youth staff whose reviews will be conducted in December.
  • Our new HR Coordinator, Zakia Williams, has met with each staff person to hear about their position, their experience of working for PYM and their experience and thoughts about our anti-racism work.

Visits:

  • Grace Sharples Cooke, Associate Secretary for Advancement & Relationship, visited the Pennswood Village Quaker community where she was a guest speaker at their annual dinner.
  • Grace visited Gwynedd Meeting for Meeting for Worship and spoke with about 30 Friends about Fundraising and Outreach.
  • Grace spent a weekend in Southern Quarter visiting with Friends from Wicomico River, Third Haven and Chester River Meetings.
  • Olivia Brangan, Community Engagement Coordinator, attended the Bucks Quarter Peace Fair, and worked in the Bucks Quarter tent and at the “welcome table”.
  • Melinda Wenner Bradley, Youth Engagement Coordinator, and Kimani Keaton, Children’s Program Facilitator, visited Third Haven Meeting for a Family Open House.
  • Meg Rose, Young Adult Friends and Sessions Coordinator, visited West Philly Meeting about the YAF-led ministry on immigration and shutting down Berks Detention Center.
  • Christie Duncan-Tessmer, General Secretary, visited Gwynedd Meeting (on a different week from Grace) for Meeting for Worship and spoke afterwards about her 2017 participation on the National Council of Churches delegation to the Middle East.
  • Christie attended the Upper Susquehanna Quarter Family Retreat for one night and participated in all of the activities and met with many Friends.
  • Christie attended the National Council of Churches annual meeting and semi-annual board >meeting.
  • Christie attended the annual gathering and retreat for General Secretaries and General Superintendents of Quaker Yearly Meetings.
  • Christie attended a lovely “Friend-raiser” event held by Westfield Friends School

A downloadable version of this and previous reports can be found here.

Memorial Service and Obituary: Penny Colgan-Davis

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Date for Memorial–Saturday, July 21 at 10:00

A memorial service for Penny will be held Saturday, July 21 at Germantown Monthly Meeting, 47 W. Coulter Street, Philadelphia, PA 19144.

The service will begin at 10 AM. Contributions in her name can be made to the Kelly School Library Fund; c/o Germantown Monthly Meeting; 47 W. Coulter Str. Phila. PA 19144.

Contributions may also be made to the Ridgeway Scheirer Fund for Peace and Justice at Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Mail to 1515 Cherry St.; Phila. PA 19102 to the attention of the Development Office.

OBITUARY –

Educator, activist, traveler, Joan Penny Colgan-Davis, 72,  passed away on Tuesday, June 19, 2018. Diagnosed with melanoma in November of 2017, she battled the illness for 6 months, before dying at her home in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia.  Known as a leader in progressive education and active in the Philadelphia Religious Society of Friends, she brought innovative changes to a number of educational institutions and positively affected the lives of hundreds of students, parents and teachers throughout her long career. She is survived by her husband, John, her son, Evan, her brothers Tim and Tony, and her sister, Debby.

Penny was born in Wilmington, Delaware on October 21, 1945, and lived for many years in Arden, DE. Her parents were Tom and Joan Colgan. Born into a Quaker family, Penny grew up in a house and community that believed in social action. She was taken to Civil Rights Marches as a child, and that started her life-long concern with social justice.  When she graduated from Guilford College in 1967, she became an elementary school teacher at Philadelphia’s Miller Elementary School and taught for there for 6 years. Following the protracted teacher’s strike of 1973, she left the school district, saying, “We struck for weeks, and when it was over I was still 1 teacher in a classroom with 33 students. That was not good for the students or for me.” She also had some different educational ideas she wanted to try out, so she joined a parent-run cooperative school in West Philadelphia-the University City New School.

At the New School she helped develop curriculum that featured research projects powered by student questions, plenty of outdoor play and study time, hands-on learning, student designed art projects, and consciously working on building and maintaining a supportive community. These ideas were important ones to her, and they became hallmarks of her later work at other schools. For Penny, education had to be active, involving students in questioning, making knowledge, discovery, and community building.  Wherever she went she brought that vision into the lives of countless families.

Following the New School she was a lower school teacher at Friends Select School for3 years, eventually becoming the Director of Lower School for another 3 years. She also served as the principal of the Miquon School in Miquon, Pa for 11 years. From there she became the first head of the Russell Byers Charter School. Finally, she was Head of Frankford Friends School, from which she retired in 2015. At each place she worked she brought the vision and values she believed in and helped change each school in meaningful ways. Her influence was profound, and many of the programs and approaches she introduced can still be found in each of the institutions she led.

Retirement did not mean she was no longer involved with schools. At the time of her death Penny was organizer and leader of a group of volunteers who made the once closed library at the Kelly public elementary school in Philadelphia a vital part of the school. That project continues to grow and thrive. She was also an esteemed mentor in the University of Pennsylvania’s Aspiring Principals Program, helping to train future public and private school principals.

Penny was very active in Philadelphia’s Quaker Community. A member of Germantown Monthly Meeting, she took an active role in that meeting and eventually became clerk for the meeting. She later became clerk for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, the organization representing Quaker meetings in the tri-state area. She took a role in the re-organization of the Yearly Meeting and was active in it until her illness made that impossible.

Penny was not just an educator and Quaker activist. She was an active person for whom the world offered opportunities to explore. She was a tent camper, a birdwatcher, a quilter, a lover of literature, and a gardener. She visited spots in Pennsylvania, in Canada, New Mexico and Arizona and more on birding trips with her husband.  She and John camped regularly in upstate New York, Maryland, and yearly outside of Kingston, Ontario. Her garden is a wildlife friendly habitat and a stopover for hummingbirds, butterflies, finches, wrens and more. She grew herbs and vegetables that found their way to her kitchen and eventually to her table. She was a member of both a cookbook club and a literary book club. She was also a member of the Mt. Airy Quilters and loved to visit quilt shows and shops whenever she traveled. And she was an active participant in the movement to connect kids with gardening, starting an outdoor garden at Frankford Friends.

Penny Colgan-Davis led a full and joyous life that directly affected many people in many ways. Her giving spirit, sense of purpose, and love of life touched people of all ages.  She will be well remembered and missed by many who were fortunate enough to know her. Her light shines brightly and casts a radiant glow.

A memorial service for Penny will be held Saturday, July 21 at Germantown Monthly Meeting, 47 W. Coulter Street, Philadelphia, PA 19144 from 10 AM until 1 PM. Contributions in her name can be made to the Kelly School Library Fund; c/o Germantown Monthly Meeting; 47 W. Coulter Str. Phila. PA 19144. Contributions can also be made to Ridgeway Scheirer Fund for Peace and Justice; Philadelphia Yearly Meeting; 1515 Cherry St.; Phila. PA 19102

Update July 7, 2108  — An additional obituary has been published in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

50 years after Dr. King’s death, local Quakers are on the move and in the news.

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“Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Letter from Birmingham

Dr. King with Norval Reece, 1967
Dr. King with Norval Reece, 1967

Washington, DC – Live stream Quaker Volunteer Service’s Director of Equity and Inclusion, Oscar Castro, and PYM’s General Secretary, Christie Duncan-Tessmer as they make their remarks on the mall at 10:30 today. They are being featured at the National Council of Church’s (NCC)—Act to End Racism—a day-long event. The gospel singer/actress Yolanda Adams, the Dakota tribal leader, Louie Blue Coat, and actor Danny Glover will be speaking, along with faith leaders, the health professional, Dr. Mary I. O’Connor and the civil rights activist, DeRay McKesson. This event is a kick-off for a longer-term, national, undertaking that will tap into NCC’s network of 100,000 churches to work to bring about an end to racism.

Philadelphia, PA – A Quaker from Newtown Meeting, Norval Reece, who worked and marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, will be featured on CBS between 5:00 and 6:00 PM. A video of that feature has been posted below. He will be talking about his activism with Dr. King, and about the jobs creation/economic justice planning they did several months before King was killed.

PYM Staff Join National Walk Out Day

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Quakers in our region have a long history of concern about gun violence. Individual monthly meetings and the yearly meeting have approved minutes and spoken with lawmakers about it. A campaign that grew out of PYM peace work successfully closed a Philadelphia gun shop with a tremendous reputation and record for straw purchases.  At this time when the youth of our nation are taking leadership on addressing gun violence we have opportunities for joining them and for learning and action.

Today, the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting staff who were moved to do so joined youth across the country in a national walk out. At 10 AM, PYM staff stood with students from Friends Select School and others in front of City Hall. The students read aloud the names of those who were killed at the Parkland, FL high school shooting and called on our leaders to take action.  More information about the walk out is on the web here.

You can follow live updates on walk outs happening all over the country on the New York Times website.

General Secretary’s Report of Staff Activity, January 2018

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In January for the first time, the three governing councils held their meetings concurrently and in the same space.  This allowed them to begin their separate meetings with shared worship.  Additionally, I gave the monthly General Secretary’s report to the combined group rather than first to one council and then to another. The opportunity for the three councils to be together, worship, learn and ask questions together was a meaningful experience that they look forward to repeating.  They plan also to share highlights of what each one is working on beginning next month.

My oral report focused on the guiding values and goals in staffing the yearly meeting in response to questions at one of last month’s meetings.  The highlights of that report are below, followed by the written report of the staff activities for the month.

Some of the values and goals that guide my staffing choices include:

  • Increase staff capacity to address the Strategic Directions
  • Maintain a steady FTE count
  • Treat staff well: solid benefits that are meaningful for families, fair hourly rates, and salaries, have minimal to no positions without health insurance (kicks in at 60%)
  • To the extent possible, welcome and deliberately make space for employees to be active in threshing ideas that affect them and to ensure they know the basics of what is happening within PYM and on staff so that they can voice their opinions and experiences.

Some examples of how this is manifested include:

  • More dedicated administrative support is available to all staff
  • Two positions have fewer direct reports
  • When we are staffed up we will have increased communications support
  • Our FTE count has decreased slightly; the number of part-time positions on staff has remained steady.
  • Six children of staff members are now covered by health insurance because the PYM subsidy has shifted to cover family members
  • For the last two years, we’ve been able to scale the employee contribution to insurance with the employee’s annual wages. So those who earn more pay more and those who earn less pay less.
  • No hourly wage is lower than the minimum wage advocated by POWER ($15/hr).
  • A standing weekly meeting holds space for the General Secretary to share the work that is happening in the governance structure as well as space for staff to thresh issues and decisions before us – such as the staff handbook or the supports and expectations for staff posting news of the yearly meeting.

As always, questions, thoughts, etc are welcome!  Contact me at cduncan-tessmer@pym.org or 215-241-7210.

General Secretary Report on Staff Activity to Councils
Mid-December 2017 through Mid-January 2018

Business, Finance & Development

  • Received the Audit which is unqualified – which is as good as it gets!
  • The rest of the Theodore H. Nitsche Fund came in from the banks and it is now complete at Fiduciary and totals just over $3.1 M.
  • Firmed up draft policy for unrestricted bequests to ready it for Finance Committee
  • The response to the December mailed appeal is steadily coming in the door.
  • The response to email appeals was much higher than its ever been in the past, possibly because we sent out more than we have in the past. We also got one communication asking us to not send so many.  That person was happy to be placed on the once-a-year solicitation list.
  • We do not have tools actively in place to be able to do much analysis as our database staff hours are all going to data clean-up so it can be migrated to a new database. The data cleanup and migration must be our priority so that we can begin to use a new database but it is handicapping our development efforts.

Program & Community Engagement

  • The first Friends in Fellowship event – on education – had to be postponed due to snow. The second – on the law – had a low attendance but met all of the goals of drawing in people who we don’t frequently see at YM events and non-Friends. A third of the attenders had never been at a single YM event before. And the speaker was absolutely fabulous.  We are looking into posting the audio recording.
  • The Winter Young Adult Friends Gathering was held at Swarthmore Meeting. The theme was “Empowering our Inner Leaders.” There is a trend toward increasing first-time attenders with five coming to the fall retreat and another five attending this one.
  • The Winter Family Overnight was held at Camp Onas with 28 Friends exploring variations of what it means to be present – in worship, with our friends, when we work, play and eat s’mores. A camp-fire, walks in the woods and grown-up time for parents are all standards of this beloved program.
  • Set in place the administrative support for re-activating the State of the Meeting reports under the Quaker Life Council. An email went to all MM clerks from the QLC clerk, a news story is posted online and a form is set up on the website to receive submitted reports.
  • The next stage of the training for Social Justice Resource Friends is a weekend retreat that is scheduled this weekend.
  • Collaborated with the Program Committee to develop criteria for evaluating collaboratives and checking in with them on a regular basis.

Communications & Technology

  • Sent copies of Faith In Practice to Quaker Schools to share the work of our meetings with them.
  • Sent individually signed and hand addressed Holiday Greetings to nearly 300 households and organizations. Sent an email to all PYM Friends on Christmas day.
  • Completed one massive part of the data cleanup of our old database to prepare it for the new one. With that complete we’re able to get a grip on the timeline for the rest of the work.  We’re giving ourselves plenty of room for something disruptive to crop up and with that we believe we’ll be fully operational going into next fall.
  • Worked with staff to develop draft of guidelines and expectations for our posting stories to the PYM newsfeed with more frequency.

Staffing and Administration

  • Youth Program Staffing is complete. All positions are filled and the program facilitators who run the family, middle school and high school programs are reporting to the new Youth Engagement Coordinator position
  • The Community Engagement Coordinator, Tricia Coscia, ended her many-year tenure with PYM at the beginning of January and moved on to a new position. Tricia has been at PYM long enough that her personality and fingerprints can be seen in many of the things we take for granted, such as the smooth functioning of our Sessions. We will miss her!
  • Eric Berdis has served as the Sessions Assistant for a couple of years and worked closely with Tricia. He has agreed to immediately step into the role of Sessions Coordinator as the need for support for continuing and annual sessions is everpresent.
  • Annual Reviews are complete with the exception of two positions (one being the General Secretary) that are on a different time-table.
  • Our employment lawyer has reviewed the fast-tracked policies (Staff Voice, grievance and social media) and they are now in effect. They will be reviewed again in the context of the entire handbook.
  • The Staff Handbook draft is in the hands of the Personnel Committee and the staff for review.
  • Completed our first month of using a time tracking tool for all staff. It was an unusual month because of all the holiday and vacation time.  However, broadly it can be seen that a) the categories in which nearly everyone spends some time are the categories that have the most cumulative time – Paid Time off (for December anyway) and Routine Administration. After that, the categories with the most hours put in are Engagement (program, relationships, supporting the PYM community, Sessions & Grants) and Communications (web and print communications, writing, publicity, and database). This is a preliminary view while we are still learning to use the tool.
  • Two high-level positions remain open: Associate Secretary for Advancement & Relationship and Director of Staffing and Inclusion. The first round of applications yielded a small pool and I am reposting the positions with a different strategy for making them known.

Anti-Racism

  • Completed and posted the position of Director of Staffing and Inclusion
  • Continued to work with the National Council of Churches on their initiative to end racism launching with a rally on April 4. I’ve been seeking ways of supporting communications and logistics for people in this region to attend.
  • Took first steps in beginning to work with a coach on antiracism from the Mennonite Community.
  • The Associate Secretary for Program & Religious Life attended Beyond Diversity 101 with Niyonu Spann

General Secretary Report on Staff Activity to Councils Mid-November through Mid-December 2017

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Business & Finances

  • Worked with the executive committee of the Arch Street Meetinghouse Preservation Trust to confirm the steps needed to transition authority for the direction and goals of the Arch Street Meeting House staff from the PYM office to the Trust. This includes approving the job description for Executive Director rather than Director, identifying a transition team, setting up a timeline and revising slightly the draft Memorandum of Understanding that will support the transition.
  • Completed the first third of a written document defining the roles and responsibilities for the property, business processes, communications and other areas of decision-making for the Arch Street Meeting House. The next section on business and finance practices will be completed next then the document will be reviewed again by Executive Committee.
  • Completed the December appeal and sent it to the printer. Each one of the 6000+ appeals had a personalized note regarding giving history which was done by hand since we are between databases.
  • The second half of the Nietche bequest has begun coming in and is expected to be completely in our account by the end of the month

Program

  • Solidified the Friends in Fellowship program. This is a series of seven events that brings friends together for conversation and talks by fascinating people, each one focused on a different career path. Event topics include education, law, environment, quaker farming, art and media, holistic health and medicine. One to three speakers have been identified for each topic and invitational
    postcards are going to all households soon.
  • A plan for transitioning the leadership and the capacity for supporting religious life and programming for youth was concluded in advance of the Youth Engagement Coordinator’s hire.
  • Chris Crass

Communications & Technology

  • The content and the design for the Fall issue of Faith IN Practice was completed and it landed in mailboxes. This issue is four pages longer than our most recent issues for a total of 12 pages. The issue focused on the extensive and amazing work that is happening in our meetings and with the support of our meetings and provides a glimpse into our ministries. The issue is a representation of what the yearly meeting is – a container and connector for the meetings and Friends across our geography and 100+ meetings. Only the Yearly Meeting exists to bring us all together.
  • We subscribed to Zoom, a service that supports user-friendly video and phone conferencing at a reasonable price. It has been put into use immediately by staff, committees and collaboratives. We are looking into purchasing screens for the offices that will allow us to hold meetings that are attended in person and by video on a regular basis.
  • The database project is continuing. After a pause in the data transfer process due to illness we are moving back on track and mapping out realistic timelines to convert our convoluted data so it will be accessible in the new database.

Staffing and Administration

  • Two positions were hired and onboarded:
    • Melinda Wenner Bradley began on December 4th as the Youth Engagement Coordinator. Melinda has been active in work with and for youth in our yearly meeting as well as in other yearly meetings. In fact through her leadership in Faith & Play she has travelled to countries to support the spiritual lives of Quaker youth.
    • Ashanta Washington also began on December 4th. Ashanta is the Office Administrator and supports the daily administrative needs of the office as well as supporting collaboratives and committees and councils with their administrative needs She comes to us with a history of dedication, broad experience and an enormous amount of enthusiasm.
  •  Two more positions were posted:
    • Associate Secretary for Advancement and Relationship. This new position will unite a Meeting Engagement Coordinator (position to be posted once this one is filled) and the development and communications functions into a single team that focuses on connections between the yearly meeting and meetings and individuals
    • Executive Assistant. Cierra Saunders is moving on to a different career path at the end of this month. Cierra’s flexibility and her care for detail as well as her quiet, steady presence will be missed.
  • Tricia Coscia, Community Engagement Coordinator, after many years of service and several different roles is moving on to a new career path as well. Tricia has done a tremendous job of helping our yearly meeting pivot in a new direction of engagement, guided by our strategic directions. She has set us up to be able to support the yearly meeting community well and has been a gift to us in so many ways. For the immediate needs of continuing to plan the logistics for continuing and annual sessions the Sessions Assistant, Eric Berdis, will step up to keep us moving along.
  • We completed three personnel policies that need approval in advance of the timeline required for revising the Staff Handbook: the Grievance Policy, the Social Media Policy and the Staff Voice Policy. Each of these were drafted by a different staff person who researched best practices and the policies of similar organizations. They were reviewed and commented on by staff and revised. The Staff Voice Policy was also reviewed and commented on by the Quaker Life and Administrative Councils and then revised. They were given to an employment lawyer for review and approved by the Personnel Committee.
  • Final reviews of the job description for the new position Director of Staffing and Inclusion were received from Quaker and non-Quaker people with experience in human resources and in antiracism and inclusion work. The Administrative Council reviewed the process and the reviewers. The position has been sent out to be posted.
  • We began the process of annual reviews which will soon be completed
  • The staff began using a web-based time tracking system. Each individual can use it to the degree of detail that serves them but everyone is using it at a high level to track the amount of time given to the basic roles of staff such as Program, Communications, Fundraising and Granting. We’ll use the system for three months then review the learnings from it.
  • The Staff Handbook is in good enough shape that it could be shared with the Personnel Committee. The revision comes with a transition document that explains where each section from the original document can be found in the revised handbook. It will also be reviewed by staff for their feedback. A revision that takes into account the feedback will then be reviewed one more time and given to Personnel Committee for approval. Our expectation is that this revision is a solid and acceptable work that will be revised over time as the new position of Director of Staffing & Inclusion comes on board and our anti-racism work deepens.

Anti-Racism

  • I spoke with a variety of people with expertise and experience in the fields of HR and/or antiracism and inclusion about the job description for Director of Staffing and Inclusion to ensure that it meets our goals and is a doable job. Minor, but meaningful, revisions were added and it will be posted any minute.
  • The National Council of Churches Task Force on Truth Telling and Racial Justice, of which I’m a member, met for two days to  confirm its title and direction. The ACT Now, End Racism initiative will launch with a prayer service at the Lincoln Memorial on April 4th, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. That will be followed by an event on the mall with an
    expected 20-100k attenders and then an evening event in the Museum of African American History and Culture. The initiative will continue with a clarion call to the member churches of NCC to end racism within their own bodies and in the country.
  • I attended the Conference of National Black Churches. The governing board members of NCC have been invited to attend for the last three years. I was one of three white “heads of communion” to attend. The theme was “Overcoming the Burden of Bias” and the plenaries focused on education, economics, civic organizations, health care and truth telling. The Chairman of CNBC thanked the NCC in particular for attending and remarked that the work NCC is doing on racial justice (see previous point) is tremendous and likely in part inspired by our participation in CNBC, a statement with which NCC’s General Secretary and Chairman both
    agreed.

Visits and Meetings

  • Video call with General Secretaries of the yearly meetings in the northeast
  • Worship with Wilmington Meeting Dec 3
  • Worship with Ujima Friends Peace Center Dec 3
  • Friends Center Board Meeting, Dec 8
  • Friends Fiduciary Board Meeting, Dec 12
  • Conference for National Black Churches Consultation, Dec 12-14
  • NCC retreat for heads of communion, Dec 14-16

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