The three councils that guide Philadelphia Yearly Meeting—Quaker Life Council, Administrative Council, and Nominating Council—recently gathered for their second meeting in a newly adopted joint format. In this structure, the councils come together as one Joint Council to worship, discern, and conduct business collaboratively. in an article written about this experiment this summer, this practice ensures that the Joint Council can promptly share its minutes with the PYM community after the meeting.
December Minutes and Reports Joint Council Experiment
Each month, the Joint Council identifies one of their agenda items to highlight.
This month, the focus is on the Listen & Lobby sprint, which is nearing the end of its work. The sprint has met twice a month since June, held three listening sessions, and reported to Sessions in both the summer and the fall. They invited experts in good governance practices and nonprofit law to provide information. From this, they developed a draft document that offers guidance on lobbying for Friends.
Guidance on Lobbying for Friends Draft
The document is responsive to the needs of:
- Individual Friends for whom lobbying is a critical aspect of their Quaker faith
- The community of Friends in PYM, who hold a variety of perspectives—political and otherwise
- The nonprofit institution of PYM that supports all the work we do
The draft was shared with Council members for their comments and questions. Council members were deeply appreciative of the work done so far and encouraged regarding the next steps.
The next steps include:
- Sharing the draft document and inviting Friends to comment at one of four listening sessions, which will be held at the end of January and the beginning of February
- Bringing a final draft to Continuing Sessions in March for approval by the body
Joint Council will meet again on January 11th.
Moving forward, a story will be shared two weeks after the Joint Council meeting to allow additional time for completing the story and preparing the minutes for publication.
Friends can reach the council clerks directly with questions:
Jean-Marie Prestwidge Barch, barch@pym.org
Jeanne Elberfeld, jelberfeld@pym.org
George Schaefer, gschaefer@pym.org
