At January’s council meeting, council members reflected on the “Joint Council Experiment”, the new format in which all three councils meet together with a single agenda. The councils have now met three times in this new format and Friends have begun to elucidate, in various ways, how the new format works & how they feel about it.
January Minutes and Reports Joint Council Experiment
Friends are finding that their council work has greater depth when there is input from a larger, more diverse group of backgrounds & experiences. They observed that members of all three councils contributed to all agenda items. There was agreement that having reports reviewed in one Joint Council meeting is more efficient and effective than having separate councils each look at the same reports in separate meetings, sometimes even in separate months. It was noted that the various clerk’s reports were presented with careful attention to time and scheduling constraints and the meetings have been ending at or close to on time. Nominating Council members noted that for the first time they understand the work of the other two councils which greatly enhances their capacity for identifying Friends to serve. Overall, the mood on the new format & current iteration of Joint Council was very positive.
The three hour meeting length can be a challenge. Councils previously met for similar lengths of time in total but in different segments so it didn’t feel as long. Given the length of the meeting, members have found it helpful to take short breaks approximately once an hour; these are an opportunity for everyone to stretch, decompress a little, and also give the Recording Clerks time to review the minutes. The increased meeting size has caused some issues with audio quality on Zoom, which still needs improvement for the hybrid Joint Council experience. And while the meetings end on time, it can also feel like the meeting agendas are too full to engage in deeper spiritual discernment when necessary.
Clerk Jeanne Elberfeld noted that the new practices of having support from Elders during the meeting and approving minutes ‘in the face of the meeting’ contributed to a positive experience. A few friends commented that the meeting experience was richer overall for the combined efforts of everyone on the Joint Council.
The councils will continue meeting in this format through July. Their next meeting is on Saturday, February 8th.
