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Are Committees Still the Answer?

• Authored by:
• Joyce Zerwekh

Dear Friends: Liberal unprogrammed Quaker meetings are organized or disorganized by committees. Without an identified pastor or priest, we count on the wisdom of committees.

On Needs (May 2015)

Quaker Culture: Clerks and Committees

• Authored by:
• Rebecca Henderson

For Friends . . . “A lot of work happens in Quaker committees. A lot of work is done by appointed individuals. (We hesitate to call them Officers, as that sounds quite corporate or military.) A lot of work is carried out by those who know how to do it. . . Committees are appointed for action, not for stalling or burying an issue. Quaker individuals work as best they can; they are not figure-heads and do not have honorific titles. For example, the Meeting has a Clerk. In old English that meant a secretary, a servant. The Clerk and others serve the Meeting as workers, as servants, not as high-handed administrators.”

On Bosses (July 2018)

Clearness Committees – Discernment in Community

Are Committees Still the Answer?

Quaker Corporate Experience Online

• Authored by:
• John Gotts

Likely the greatest impact of technology on Quaker corporate experience has been online technology in our meetings for worship.

On Tech (July 2024)

Sticking Out Like Sore Thumbs

• Authored by:
• Kirby Urner

Given that Quakers don’t like to use violent words like “kill,” we use euphemisms instead.  So the current trend among Quakers to euthanize our Peace and Social Concerns Committees is one that I will call the “Shelver Movement.” We have spent countless hours in recent years trying to lay these committees down, but we end up “shelving” them instead.

On Difference (July 2015)

The Right Mix of Gifts

• Authored by:
• Rob Pierson

Dear Editor: Thanks to Friend Kirby Urner for throwing light on the sometimes troubled relations between Meetings, their Nominating Committees, and their Peace and Social Concerns Committees (“Sticking Out Like Sore Thumbs,” July/August 2015). My Meeting has felt this tension, and I’ve talked to other Meetings that have as well.

On Play (September 2015)

The Flexibility of Worship Groups

• Authored by:
• Brian Smucker

On Compassion (November 2024)

AFSC 20-Year Volunteer on "Crossroads Letter"

Taking Time to Ask, “Why?”

• Authored by:
• Sarah Tarver-Wahlquist

My family does a lot at our meeting. I currently serve as clerk of our First Day School Committee, co-clerk of our Kitchen Committee, and I also sit on our half-yearly meeting’s Continuing and Nominating Committees. My husband fills the arduous and time-consuming role of clerk for our meeting’s House Committee, which cares for the physical home of our meeting, a 100-year-old house that requires near constant upkeep, and he is a regular teacher in our First Day School rotation. Many nights each week, we compete for the computer after our kids are in bed, each of us trying to coordinate committee meetings or write reports or request quotes for purchases needed by the meeting. And we spend most First Days scurrying around the meetinghouse, preparing coffee, and chatting with people about committee work.

On Time (March 2014)