Pages tagged "Meeting for Business"

A Flawed Process

• Authored by:
• Margaret Fruth

Dear Friends: I believe that the decision to hold PYM at Mount Madonna this year was not made in good order. That haste has been rewarded with a larger price.

On Consumption (May 2013)

Breathing New A-I-R into Business Meeting

Deep Listening for Unity in Business Meeting - Quotations

In a Quaker Minute

• Authored by:
• Donna Williams

Most people know several different ways for drawing a large group of people to a decision. I’ve experienced many: Robert’s Rules, the Lakota talking circle, the old-fashioned town-hall meeting, the top-down company-wide memo, a method I’ll call “spokes and wheels,” as well as Quaker meeting for business. These give us “outward forms” for grappling with messy social processes. None of them are sacred, although the sacred may work through them. Do I think some methods excel above others? Yes. Do I think we should change Quaker process? No! However, if I could change one thing in the Quaker mind it would be the errant belief that, in order to be good process, it must proceed at a glacial pace.

On Relevance (March 2021)

New in the Western Friend Library, January 2015

• Authored by:
• Quaker Earthcare Witness,
• Quaker United Nations Office,
• Friends Committee on National Legislation,
• Bob Morse

 

On Reconciliation (January 2015)

Quaker Culture: Meeting for Worship for Business

• Authored by:
• Rebecca Henderson

We are the inheritors of a particular way of making group decisions. This way needs to be practiced, over and over, to be learned and understood. One can not learn it simply by reading or observation: one learns through experience, trial and error. . . The business focuses upon how we make our Light visible and creative. Our focus is upon the practical details of our work in the world and how we deepen and strengthen our spiritual lives.

On Production (May 2014)

Quaker Culture: Speaking in Meeting

• Authored by:
• Diana Forsythe

Friends worship in silence; it is not necessary to speak in Meeting for Worship. If we are led to speak, it is our custom not to speak more than once during an hour-long Meeting. Business Meeting is also a form of Meeting for Worship. If you have already spoken to a particular item of business, please give those who have not done so a chance to speak. When considering whether to speak a second time during a Meeting for Business, please do not repeat yourself: it is appropriate to rise and speak again only if you have something new to add.  

On Consumption (May 2013)

Quaker Culture: Unity

• Authored by:
• Diana Forsythe

When reaching decisions in a Meeting for Business, Friends shun consensus (a secular decision, usually comprising the common acceptable part of the opinions brought by those present). Rather, Friends seek the unity which is the result of spiritual discernment of God’s leading for the group, often an unexpected decision transcending the opinions brought by those present.

On Power (March 2013)

Quaker Disrespect

• Authored by:
• Andrea English

Dear Western Friend: Thank you for publishing Rob Pierson’s article in the last issue of your magazine. The article is substantial, but does not cover what I experience as some Quakers’ suspicion of any companies, even small ones, including non-profits – ones that practice prudent business processes and employ management, ones that may ask their Boards to use Robert’s Rules rather than “consensus.”

On Pride (July 2014)

Regional Quaker Gatherings