Baltimore Yearly Meeting welcomes its new General Secretary, Robert H. (Riley) Robinson. Riley is a member of Friends Meeting of Washington, and has served as its Administrative Secretary for fourteen years, attending to the needs of a Meeting with 460 members, hundreds of attenders and visitors, and two "vintage" buildings.

Riley's background with BYM goes back a long way, with regular attendance at Yearly Meeting sessions going back to the 1980s, during the development of its Faith and Practice. "There was no way to miss the sense of how deeply Friends were willing to labor with each other and truly abide with each other," said Riley. "These were people willing to be open to change through their worship experience while deeply respecting Friends' traditions. And amidst all the effort, there was joy."

Riley served for many years as his Monthly Meeting's representative to what is now called BYM Interim Meeting, and for an extended term on the Yearly Meeting's Program Committee. Service came in other capacities as well: on the Publications Committee and its web subcommittee, on the Ad Hoc Gender and Sexual Diversity Concerns Committee, and as BYM's representative to the American Friends Service Committee's Middle Atlantic Region. "Being asked to facilitate the morning family worship sharing at the BYM annual session for many years has been a great gift," Riley reflected. "We found messages from within that could be shared with everyone, no matter what our ages - be it through spoken word or through crayons and paper on the floor, in the middle of the circle. It's like starting each day waking from a nurturing dream."

Riley was raised Episcopalian in eastern Connecticut. "I have good memories of the church, but, even as an altar boy, the ritual didn't engage me," he said. "However, it was a really important experience. There were black, Hispanic and middle eastern people in our church - it was just normal. For me, Mrs. Haddad's baklava was an annual Christmas treat. Mrs. Hatcher, my fourth grade Sunday School teacher, was black, and she was very calm and very strong. The Alonsos were a Cuban family who left when Castro came to power and settled in with us. This was not an array of experience that was easy to find in mostly white, small-town New England. But then in high school, in Putney, Vermont, I started going to Quaker Meeting. They didn't have a Meeting House then, but I found that a deeper experience could happen for me in worship with people gathered silently in a circle of chairs. It felt both freeing and centering at the same time. Then, when my draft number came up as a low one, there was only one group of people who would talk to me about it."

Riley's Quaker experience has extended to other organizations as well. He has served for two terms as Clerk of the Executive Committee of the American Friends Service Committee's Middle Atlantic Region, which put him on the national board as well. He has served on the board Executive Committee and as Clerk of the board Human Resources Committee. He served for many years on the Planning Committee for Friends Conference on Religion and Psychology, including as an interim clerk. He is currently on the Planning Committee for the annual meeting of the Friends Committee on National Legislation. For years, he has been a regular attender at Friends General Conference Annual Gathering and at gatherings of Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Concerns.

So what about going to all of those meetings? "Be open to worship at all times. Sit quietly. Listen well. You might try to let the discussion form a complete picture in your mind. See if the main course of the discussion creates a focused, balanced, wholeness. If not, ask yourself why and consider how to respond. If your sense of the group's process does seem to show real integrity, then try and listen for what questions are not yet being asked. Now or later, you may find your avenue for service that way."