Manual of Procedure Committee
The Manual of Procedure Committee, composed of not fewer than
three persons nominated by the Nominating Committee and appointed
by the Yearly Meeting, is responsible for continually updating
the Manual by incorporating all changes in procedure adopted by
the Yearly Meeting. The Committee may recommend changes in procedure
deemed useful to the Yearly Meeting. Such changes are to be recommended
in writing to the Interim Meeting for consideration and forwarded
to the Yearly Meeting if approved.
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Manual of Procedure, July 2004, p25
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Advance Report - 2005
Our Committee met once face-to-face, preceded by email and written exchanges of ideas. The Manual of Procedure Committee reports to Interim Meeting as part of the process of changing the Manual of Procedure; much of the information that would normally be in an Advance Report is in the minutes of the Spring and Summer Interim Meetings and Yearly Meeting. [See
I2004-8,
I2004-20,
Y2004-31,
and
I2005-9.]
At the end of last year's Yearly Meeting, Trudy Rogers, Winifred Walker-Jones, and Rebecca Rawls left the Committee. Trudy is now a member of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting; Winifred is a former Yearly Meeting Clerk. Rebecca is now Yearly Meeting Registrar. For the half year preceding the Yearly Meeting Sessions, our attention was on proposed changes forwarded by committees and individuals, as well as our own ideas about change. For the three months after the Yearly Meeting Sessions, our attention is on the assembly and printing of the Manual. We rest for three months.
The Committee expects to bring a much shorter report to the Yearly Meeting Sessions this year. We have sought for several years to make changing the Manual less time-consuming at Yearly Meeting. An approach to doing this was presented to Interim Meeting last year. This year, the Committee divided the proposed changes into three parts: I. policy changes that if approved by Interim Meeting would be presented to the Yearly Meeting in Session for consideration; II. modest changes that if approved by Interim Meeting, would not need to be presented at Yearly Meeting; and III. minor changes that were not even brought to Interim Meeting. This year, two committees proposed changes to their description; they were presented to Interim Meeting as a policy change.
Changes to the Manual of Procedure may be initiated by any committee or by any member of the Yearly Meeting. Such changes should be presented in writing to Interim Meeting. The Manual of Procedure Committee is thus not intended to be a gatekeeper to the Manual. However, those proposing changes may find it helpful to work with the Committee.
Annual Report 2004
The activities of the Manual of Procedure Committee may be seen
in their reports in the Spring and Summer Interim Meeting minutes.
The Committee met twice, once at Yearly Meeting to select a Clerk
and to co-op Trudy Rogers (then Sandy Spring, now Chester River)
for a year.
The Committee worked with the Ministry and Pastoral Care Committee
to clarify its description. We also prepared a more extensive
description of FWCC and realized that we should do the same for
AFSC and FCNL. We would like to make the process of changing the
Manual of Procedure less cumbersome so that less time is spent
doing this at the Yearly Meeting Sessions.
We would also like to develop a description of Working Groups.
We already have one, the Torreon-Starlake Working Group.
At the end of this Yearly Meeting, three members leave the Committee
after having served on the Committee more than once and after
having served the Yearly Meeting in a variety of responsible ways.
Howard Fullerton, Clerk
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