Executive Committee of Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting
Eighth Month 26, 2023
1. Opening Worship and Words: The meeting opened with centering worship at 12:00 pm. Following worship, Barry Zalph, presiding clerk, expressed appreciation for the hosting by Yellow Springs and for the work of Friends attending the meeting.
2. Roll Call: The recording clerk called the roll of yearly meeting officers and administrators, committee clerks, quarterly and monthly meeting representatives, and yearly meeting staff.
Yearly Meeting officers:
Presiding Clerk:
Barry Zalph Assistant Presiding Clerk: Rachel Ernst Stahlhut
Recording Clerk: Cecilia Shore
Assistant Recording Clerk: Lisa Cayard
Treasurer: Wilson Palmer
Assistant Treasurer: Cathy Habschmidt
Committee Clerks:
Budget & Finance: David Garman
Children’s Committee: Susan Hyde
Earthcare: David Duvall
Nominating: Rick Boyce
Personnel: absent Religious Nurture & Education: Rex Sprouse
Yearly Meeting Planning: Martha Viehmann
Youth Services: David Hyde
Ad-Hoc Restructuring Committee: Paul Buckley
Quarterly Meeting Clerks:
Miami: vacant position
Whitewater: Christine Carver
Monthly Meeting representatives:
Bloomington: Rex Sprouse
Campus: absent
Clear Creek: Cathy Habschmidt Community: Eric Wolff
Dayton: Nikki Coffey Tousley
Eastern Hills: Wilson Palmer
Fall Creek: Daniel Day Fort Wayne: Mary Anna Feitler
Lafayette: absent
Lexington: Peter Hardy
Louisville: Cindi Goslee
Miami: Jeanette Rockwell North Meadow: Dinah Duvall
Oxford: Cecilia Shore
White Rose: absent
Yellow Springs: Annie Blanchard and Carol Simmons
Yearly Meeting staff:
Administrative Assistant: Susan Lee Barton
Youth Secretary: Adam Funck
Administrators:
Statistician: Peter Hardy
Website Administrator: Daniel Day
Records Coordinator: Susan Hyde
Quaker Quill Editor: Cecilia Shore
Publications Coordinator: absent
Registrar: Eric Wolff
3. Introductions: No additional Friends introduced themselves.
4. Agenda review: The clerk reviewed some changes in the agenda.
5. Planning Committee Report – Martha Viehmann. Martha thanked those who submitted evaluations. Evaluations included suggestions for increasing attendance, and the Youth Secretary is considering one that is relevant to youth attendance. The planning committee requests Friends to submit their stories about why they attend yearly meeting for promotional purposes. Annual Sessions will be June 12-16, 2024 at Earlham College. Gratitude is expressed to Ben Griffith and Gretchen Castle for their help in making this happen.
6. Updated Treasurer’s Report—Wilson Palmer. Wilson Palmer submitted an updated report for the past fiscal year. When asked for questions it was noted that a surprisingly large number of individuals still owe their contributions for annual sessions, and this is being followed up. Funds collected will be recorded as income when paid. Since annual sessions takes place before the end of July, it is complicated to provide a complete report, and it cannot be complete at the time of annual sessions. New expenses of $2,000 were recorded this year that are due to annual sessions. Wilson has made the $629 contribution for the Simple Meal held at yearly meeting.
7. Budget & Finance Committee report and proposals – David Garman.
- David reported that the committee proposes that the yearly meeting budget $500 for engineering plots at Spring Grove Cemetery. The donation may be adjusted following other fundraising toward the $2,700 needed. Friends approved this proposal.
- The committee discussed requests for scholarships for attending yearly meeting sessions. Friends approved an expansion in the benevolent fund’s purview for this purpose. Friends approved Budget and Finance working with other relevant committees to develop a simple process for offering scholarships up to $250 per person.
- Years ago, a capital fund was established and then repurposed as a meetinghouse fund which now holds about $10,000. The committee notes that there has not been a mechanism in place to make use of these funds and seeks input on how the yearly meeting wishes these funds be used. Is this for immediate use, or for the long term? We recognize the importance of a stable meeting place for our constituent meetings, but we do not feel led that the yearly meeting should be in the position of a loaning entity for large sums of money, but rather may make grants. It was noted that we have a meeting with dire need and a grant of $10,000 would be very helpful.
8. Update on Fall Creek Meeting. Daniel Day reported that Fall Creek meetinghouse is currently owned by another entity who bought it at a tax sale. They are willing to sell the property back to the meeting for $37,000, well below market value. They do have some funds toward this purpose (approximately $17,000), but not the entire amount. Friends APPROVED that the Treasurer liquidate the meetinghouse fund in a check written to Fall Creek meeting.
9. Nominating Committee Report – Rick Boyce. Friends approved the nomination of Rick Boyce for Epistle Summary. Several meetings do not have a representative to Nominating Committee and they are encouraged to choose someone and report that to Nominating and to Susan Lee Barton. These meetings are: Bloomington, Campus, Dayton, Miami, White Rose and Yellow Springs. We currently do not have a representative to the Friends World Committee on Consultation world plenary for next year, but the committee is working on that.
10. Ad hoc Restructuring Committee report – Paul Buckley. Paul Buckley submitted a report in advance. In the report, the committee focused on the future of quarterly meetings. They recommend several thematically organized meetings a year, organized by OVYM committees or external bodies, with particular attention to the needs of children and families. These are not thought of as being specific to a geographic region, but distributed geographically around the yearly meeting. Paul emphasized that it is important for us to not change the current quarterly meeting structure until something else is in place. Friends APPROVED this report as a work in progress, and encouraged the committee to work with others that might be involved in a new process.
11. Religious Nurture & Education Committee Report – Rex Sprouse. The committee is picking up the practice of holding quarterly Zoom meetings among monthly meeting clerks, with the first to be held 9-3-2023 at 4-5:30 pm. The committee is encouraging intervisitation of small groups from one meeting visiting another. The committee is working on a spring retreat on “Hope Springs Eternal.”
12. Report on travels in the ministry – Diann Herzog. Clerk Barry Zalph reported that Diann has visited at least 3 meetings and found it spiritually rewarding.
13. Reconvening a Task Force on Sexual Misconduct – Susan Lee Barton. Years ago, the committee produced an outline for a policy on how we can deal with accusations of sexual abuse between adults within monthly meetings and yearly meeting. It was brought to yearly meeting but was not yet in a state to be approved. In 2019 the committee was planning outreach and programming/training for meetings. The pandemic was disruptive to this work, and several members are unable to serve at this time. Friends agreed that we believe it is time to reconvene a task force on sexual misconduct. Having received the names of several volunteers, we agreed to empower Religious Nurture and Education to discern the membership of such a committee. Friends APPROVED these actions.
14. OVYM relationship with Friends Music Camp – Susan Lee Barton. Friends Music Camp has been a long-term ministry of OVYM, but our involvement has become gradually lessened, and lapsed when the camp was not meeting during the pandemic. They have expressed interest in retaining a relationship with us. We did appoint two members to their board at yearly meeting. Several Friends testified to the impact of the camp on family members. Suggestions were made about sending visitors to the camp when it is in session, and hearing reports at yearly meeting about their work.
15. Procedure for authorizing office expenses – Barry Zalph. We AFFIRMED that when a member of our staff has a specific administrative budget request, they can may consult with by the Presiding Clerk and Treasurer.
16. Braddock Committee Report –Steve Angell. The committee approved a grant to Catherine Roma of Wilmington College to develop a men’s chorus at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution. Friends received this report with gratitude.
17. News from Monthly Meetings. Several friends shared news from their meetings and spoke to the value of continuing this practice in Executive Committee meetings.
18. Announcements
- We now have an OVYM Dropbox account for committees to share documents. This enables some continuity as committee membership changes, and allows easy and secure transfer of information. (For example, our registrar can store information for easy access by the Treasurer and Administrative Assistant.) Contact Susan Lee Barton for more information.
- The 2023 minute books are ready! (Not all reports mentioned in the minutes were received.) Folks here in person: Please pick up the copies for your meeting. For meetings not represented in person, Susan Lee Barton will be mailing copies to you.
- We now have an OVYM Slack space, an optional additional communication tool which can organize conversations and make information easier to find than hunting through e-mail. If any committees want to explore the idea and find it useful, contact Susan Lee Barton for more information. It is free and easy to use. Individuals can choose not to join and still receive committee notifications through e-mail if they so wish.
- We do have a website announcements page—if you have monthly meeting announcements to be distributed to the yearly meeting, please send it to Susan Lee Barton by email, phone or through the announcement page itself.
- Frank Huss is in intensive care.
19. The minutes were approved as read.
20. Closing Worship: The meeting closed with silent worship
The next meeting will be held November 4, 2023, at noon.
Minutes recorded by Cecilia Shore
