Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends

General Secretary

General Secretary’s Report of Staff Activity, January 2018

Written on:

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

Written on:

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

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

Written on:

 Business & Finances

  • Mapped out the December appeal
  • Reviewed and edited minutes from Annual Sessions and forwarded them for the next step on their
    journey.
  • Corresponded with Friends Fiduciary regarding administrative fees on funds for which they are both  the trustee and have the beneficial interest. Continued exploration of the impact of the admin fee on all other restricted funds with the Finance Committee.

Program

  • Continuing Sessions! Much of the staff work pause leading up to Continuing Sessions. This Fall Sessions was held at Arch Street and the logistics were the smoothest and most-well-supported by staff yet.
  • Faith & Racial Justice, A Public Forum with Chris Crass and Jude-Laure Denis co-sponsored by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, American Friends Service Committee, POWER Northeast and Philly SURJ. This event is followed the next day by two more PYM-sponsored events: the East Coast Quaker Action Group hosting an organizing meeting and Chris Crass offering a workshop focused on organizing for racial justice.
  • Friends in Business was a significant success. There were so many people in attendance that the dinner had to be held in the East room rather than the Penn room.
  • Many PYM Friends of Color attended the FGC Retreat for Friends of Color for which PYM provided financial support and publicity.
  • Attended FGC’s Central Committee in Maryland. At FGC’s invitation, I served on a panel of clerks and GenSecs reflecting on the place of FGC in our yearly meetings. I spoke about the need for leadership in the directions our yearly and monthly meetings want to go and the need for Friends to be willing to follow. I shared three interconnected areas that I hear Friends refer to frequently and that FGC is poised for taking leadership on: anti-racism, religious education and outreach.
  • Gathered monthly meeting clerks together with a primary focus of facilitating their continuing the anti-racism work of Continuing Sessions.

Communications & Technology

  • Began the new practice of posting the monthly GenSec report in the public newsfeed.
  • Completed the text and layout for the next edition of Faith In Practice. It focuses primarily on the work and ministry of monthly meetings. It is our largest issue so far due to the fabulous amount of activity in our community.
  • Formatted and edited the General Secretary’s report on NCC delegation to Middle East for distribution in print format.
  • Arch Street Meeting House staff emails changed from being “@pym.org” to “@HistoricASMH.org” to more effectively brand the meeting house and the work of the Trust.

Staffing and Administration

  • Revised the first section of the Annual Review to focus more concretely on expectations of collaboration, taking initiative and strong communications rather than the previous focus on values within the Quaker community.
  • Completed job description draft for Director of Staffing and Inclusion. It has been reviewed by the Personnel Committee and has been sent for external review to a number of Friends who are experienced in the fields of human resources and anti-racism.
  • Completed final interviews for the Office Assistant position and offered the position to Aurora Denson who accepted. She’ll begin December 2.
  • Completed final interviews for Youth Engagement Coordinator and hired Melinda Wenner Bradley. She will begin December 4th part-time while she finishes up her work with New York Yearly Meeting (NYYM). Coordinated announcements with NYYM to ensure our staff and their staff knew in advance and that members of NYYM and PYM heard the news at the same time.
  • Completed job description for Associate Secretary for Advancement and Relationship and submitted it for posting.
  • Received the resignation of the Executive Assistant who is moving into a new professional field. Took beginning steps to cover the role for the interim as well as steps to post the position.
  • Made final decisions on health care benefits options. Began open enrollment for benefits.

Anti-Racism

  • Attended the online training with Amanda Kemp “How to have Difficult Conversations”
  • Consultation with Kathy Obear on antiracism and organizational development.
  • National Council of Churches approved moving forward with a “clarion call” to churches to end racism. I continued my active involvement with this work through attending multiple phone and live Steering Committee Meetings to drive the launch and ongoing work on this initiative

Visits and Meetings

  • FGC Central Committee of FGC, October 27-28
  • Worshiped at Green Street Meeting and attended Adult RE discussion, October 29
  • Worshiped at Radnor Meeting and spoke at forum afterward, November 5
  • Attended the governing board meeting and the annual conference of the National Council of Churches, November 7-10
  • Pension Board meeting
  • Arch Street Meeting House Preservation Trust donor event
  • Friends Fiduciary Corporation Finance Committee meeting
  • Friends Fiduciary Investment Committee meeting
  • Meeting with new FWCC Treasurer

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