Get ready to rise and lead!
People who serve as Rising Clerk can learn and grow in this way:
- You can learn a lot about the concerns of Friends and meetings and prepare for how you’ll hold it when you are presiding clerk.
Skills or experiences that are needed in a Rising Clerk include:
- An active, deep, experiential understanding of Quaker faith and practice, and a commitment to Friends’ decision-making process.
- Experience as Clerk of Monthly Meeting (preferred) or Clerk of Quarterly Meeting / other significant Quaker organization.
- Recognized leadership and the ability to command the respect of the Body.
- Broad historical perspective of PYM and an understanding of the issues which confront it.
- Experience with conflict resolution (either in a prior clerking experience or otherwise) and the ability to mediate conflict publicly and privately.
The realistic time commitment of the presiding clerk includes:
- Prepare for and attend Annual Sessions and Continuing Sessions
- About 10 hours/month collaborating with the Presiding Clerk, attending meetings, and preparing for meetings
- Attend the following meetings on a monthly basis:
- The clerks group
- Council meetings, currently the third Saturday of the month until 1:30PM
- Possibly Finance Committee and/or Governance Committee
- Speak or meet with Friends, meetings and/or PYM groups as the need arises
- Terms: The rising clerk serves one two-year term as rising clerk and one two-year term as presiding clerk.
Overview:
The rising clerk serves as an assistant clerk of the yearly meeting as needed while preparing to serve as the presiding clerk. The rising clerk collaborates with the presiding clerk and attends all council and clerks group meetings for the two years prior to stepping into the presiding clerk role.
For information about the role of Rising Clerk, contact the current Rising Clerk: Nikki Mosgrove (nmosgrove@pym.org)
