Further Advices

• Advices for Clerks
• Traveling Among Friends
• Worship Sharing
• Clearness Committees
• Support Committees
• Marriages
• Memorial Meetings
• Estates & Bequests
• Healing Tender Meetings

Advices for Clerks

When you accept the appointment by your Meeting as clerk, you accept the obligation to focus time, energy and gifts in the fulfillment of that trust. Remember that you, as clerk, are the servant of the meeting, and by your attitude and arrangement of the agenda, set the pattern of worshipful listening which should characterize our Meetings for Worship with a concern for business. The meeting is likely to repose great trust in you, and you bear an important responsibility in enabling the meeting to listen and wait for God’s guidance in its deliberations.

As we approach our business we need to put aside how the world reaches decisions in temporal affairs and to recollect that we have come together to seek not equity, nor compromise, nor even the most “democratic” solution to the matter at hand but the Truth as God gives us to see the Truth. We believe that God is revealed and gives guidance to all who seek. Thus, in business meeting, we should listen to the views of all, just as we do in meeting for worship. We further believe that as Truth emerges we will have substantial unity in recognizing it, for Truth is undivided and that of God within each person responds to its presence.

Major items of business to be submitted to the Meeting should be prepared as carefully as possible by a Meeting committee or by preparatory work on the part of the Clerk so that pertinent facts and records of previous Meeting actions will be available to facilitate the discussion. Members not involved in the preparatory work should trust and value the work of preparation. Care should be taken to avoid re-working in a way that belittles the work already done.

Do not leave all your preparations to the last minute. Check beforehand all facts which may be in question, so as to avoid fruitless and time-wasting speculation. When introducing business try to provide a brief but sufficient outline of needed background to set the meeting purposefully on its course. In the subsequent deliberations you may need to advise on procedure or make an occasional suggestion. However, your main task is to discern the meeting’s leading. You may find that this very discipline of detachment leads to a new and deeper relationship with other members of the meeting. If you are deeply involved in a decision to be reached, the meeting should be invited to ask another Friend to act as clerk for the occasion.

The clerk helps the meeting move through the agenda with efficient but unhurried dispatch, keeping the members attention on the matters to be considered. The clerk listens, learns and sifts what is said, to discern the sense of the meeting. The clerk encourages those who are reluctant to speak, and in like manner restrains those who tend to speak at undue length or speak too often. When strong division of opinion seems to threaten the worshipful basis of the business meeting, a period of silent and prayerful waiting on the will of God may well have a calming and unifying effect. The clerk may also call for silence between messages, so that each Friend’s insight may be fully heard.

Do not be afraid to ask the meeting to hold the clerks’ table in the Light while a minute is being prepared. Minutes need to be specific and clear and include any necessary names and dates. Remember that the minute will be consulted in the future to understand the meeting’s leading. Therefore it is important that each minute be specific, clear, and complete. Details regarding committees and individuals named to tasks, and any dates which are germane, should be included. Each minute that records a significant decision should be written out in full and presented, revised as needed, and approved before the close of the meeting for business during which the matters were considered.

Be careful to maintain the right balance in exercising the authority that the office of clerk lays upon you. Use discretion in deciding which matters should be brought before Friends and which may be dealt with by you. When contentious difficult issues arise, take care not to take sides, but to uphold Quaker process, counseling the meeting to have patience, go back to the center, hear each other, and listen for the spirit. Beware of exceeding your authority and if in doubt confer with Friends of experience. You may find a support committee of such experienced Friends beneficial. Remember that the right exercise of the clerk’s authority is of great service to the meeting in promoting the smooth and expeditious handling of its business.

When a Friend from outside comes to your meeting to speak, by invitation or under a concern, try to ensure that the agenda is arranged to allow adequate time for the matter, before the meeting is fatigued or overwhelmed with other business. Putting an agenda together is an art. You may wish to put items that will require lots of energy early in the agenda. Don’t try to put conflict at the end. Don’t be afraid to lay over business until the next month or until a called meeting for business. When a time management issue arises, it can be referred to the meeting.

Members should exercise love and forbearance in discussion and should seek Divine guidance, realizing that Truth will often transcend the understanding of any single individual. When the discernment of the Meeting appears to be tending away from the opinion of a member, that Friend should consider whether to stand aside or to prevent the Meeting’s action. When the Meeting cannot unite upon a minute, no action is taken on the matter, which may be postponed for further consideration. Any previous action or policy of the Meeting in the same area stands in the absence of a specific Meeting decision to change it. Friends are reminded that failure to act is also a decision and are urged to consider seriously the nature of their guidance to stand opposed to a view which has clearly received the assent of most Friends in the Meeting. At the same time Friends are mindful of the many occasions when the leading of one or a few has proven to be the way of Truth.

When action appears to be blocked by one or a few Friends, the Meeting may find it useful to appoint a special committee to labor with all concerned for a resolution of the impasse.

Keep a sense of proportion and a sense of humor. Think affectionately between meetings of the needs of the community which has appointed you and how they can best be met. Ask guidance of God continually in the performance of your task. Pay attention to a regular spiritual practice that will help you remain anchored in the Spirit.

August 2009