Ohio Valley Executive Committee Meeting, 11-3-2025, 12:00-4:00 PM, Cincinnati OH
16. The Clerk welcomed Friends to the Executive Committee meeting and thanked them for their service. We gathered in centering worship at 12:02 pm at Eastern Hills Friends Meeting.
17. Roll Call of Representatives. The recording clerk read the roll call.
Yearly Meeting Officers:
Presiding Clerk: Diann Herzog
Assistant Presiding Clerk: Barry Zalph
Recording Clerk: Terre Holada sent regrets
Assistant Recording Clerk: Cecilia Shore
Treasurer: Wilson Palmer sent regrets
Assistant Treasurer: Rick Boyce
Committee Clerks:
Budget and Finance Committee: Rick Boyce
Children’s Program Committee: Diann Herzog
Earthcare Committee: absent
Gatherings Committee: Lisa Cayard
Nominating Committee: Peter Hardy sent regrets
Personnel Committee: absent
Planning Committee: Martha Viehmannn
Religious Nurture and Education Committee: Rex Sprouse
Youth Services Committee: David Hyde
Quarterly Meeting Clerks:
Miami: Nikki Coffey Tousley
Whitewater: Ellen Hodge
Monthly Meeting Representatives:
Bloomington: Rex Sprouse
Campus: absent
Clear Creek: David Garman
Community: Lisa Cayard
Dayton: Nikki Coffey Tousley
Eastern Hills: Martha Viehmann
Fall Creek: Ellen Hodge
Fort Wayne: Mary Anna Feitler
Lafayette: Jill Hutchcroft
Lexington: Peter Hardy sent regrets
Louisville: Perry Thomas
Miami: Travis Cook
Mississinewa/White Rose: absent
North Meadow: absent
Oxford: Cecilia Shore
Yellow Springs: Annie Blanchard
Yearly Meeting Staff:
Administrative Assistant: Susan Lee Barton
Youth Secretary: vacant
Social Action Coordinator: Sandy Felt
Administrators:
Quaker Quill Editor: Cecilia Shore
Records Coordinator: Susan Hyde
18. Agenda Review. A few changes were presented and approved.
19. Social Action Coordinator Report — Sandy Felt. The report is appended.
Sandy spends most of her time hosting worship sharing online, visiting meetings to meet people and discuss so- cial action, and posting about what she learns on OVYM’s Facebook page. Her goal is to visit all of the meetings in OVYM, cross-fertilizing social action work, partly via Signal chats and helping the smaller meetings feel less isolated. She has worked about 24 hours per month for the past few months. There was a discussion regarding cooperation with other yearly meetings and nearby pastoral meetings. Her report was accepted with gratitude.
20. Youth Services Committee Report — David Hyde. The report is appended. The committee has shrunken to three members over this year and would welcome additional members. All representatives of monthly meetings were urged to give names for potential new members to Nominating Committee. They have no immediate plans to recruit a new Youth Secretary (because the youth who attended last Annual Sessions are not of high school age). The Executive Committee approved their proposal for a Facebook presence for the Youth Program. The clerk agreed to convey concerns and advice raised by the Executive Committee. There was a request for a copy of the youth agreement to respect personal boundaries; several Friends responded with relevant information.
21. Religious Nurture & Education Support—Rex Sprouse. Into Account training at Waycross Center, Morgantown IN, will take place 11th month 14-15. There are currently 20-22 attendees plus 2 leaders. Spring Retreat will be at Quaker Hill 3rd month 27-28, 2026. The report was accepted.
22. Planning Committee Report — Martha Viehmann. We have a draft contract with Earlham College for June 10-14. Theme is to be announced. They are also seeking additional members. They are seeking a Registrar who has Excel skills, is friendly and organized, who has relatively few outside commitments in April and May, and can be present throughout the Annual Sessions. They need workshop proposals by January because the schedule needs to be set by March in order to finalize the contract. We accepted the report with gratitude.
23. Gatherings Committee Report — Lisa Cayard. The report is appended. Fall Creek Meeting held a very suc- cessful Gathering for Camping September 19-21, with at least 15 Friends attending, who reported great enjoy- ment of the location and event. The event included campfires with music and queries to deepen conversation, a guided writing workshop with Marti Matthews, a painting class led by a local artist, and meeting for worship. The Committee stands ready to assist other meetings to plan early spring gatherings that do not conflict with other OVYM events, and encourages them to include queries to structure discussion. It was suggested that the committee keep records of the number of attenders who are not from the host meeting.
24. Return of Travel Minute by Diann Herzog. Diann reported that she has carried this ministry for seven years, and wishes to lay it down. We accepted her request and deeply appreciate the years of service she has given in traveling ministry.
25. Treasurer’s Report — Rick Boyce (Assistant Treasurer). The report is appended. Rick explained that the first 4 columns of Table 1 are for the past 4 years, the next two are for the past and current years, the last column is up until the past month. We appear to be financially ahead at the present time, but it is early in the fiscal year. The following tables are for specific purposes and currently close to what we expected. Table 10 is a summary of our general fund. Parenthetical amounts represent negative expenses, e.g., funds that have been returned to us. Ta- bles following 12 represent specific categories of activities. Representatives to other organizations, please submit your costs, even if you choose not to be reimbursed. Annual Sessions are always confusing because the timing of income vs. expense straddles the fiscal year. The Gathering Committee requests consideration of a line item in the budget for these expenses. Originally $1000 was allocated per year; the budget committee is requested to remember to include this in the next budget.
26. Performance Review for Susan Lee Barton—Barry Zalph. This is nearly completed, and will be positive with a strong recommendation that we retain her, and make efforts to streamline and set boundaries on the job. We ac- cepted the report. Friends requested that Personnel committee discern the question of lengthening the term of contracts for staff who have served successfully for several years, as well as the timing of performance reviews and report regarding these questions at 2nd Month Executive committee meeting.
27. Miami Quarterly Meeting report. The report is appended. The quarterly meeting does intend to host Joint Quarterly Meeting next fall, with the location to be determined. Greenbrier Worship Group of Charleston MM in West Virginia are considering requesting affiliation with our YM via Miami Quarterly Meeting. We accepted the report with gratitude.
28. Whitewater Quarterly Meeting report. The report is appended. They had a warm meeting at Fort Wayne. Friends considered the sexual misconduct policy and behavioral expectations adopted at Annual Sessions. It is unclear how that policy would apply to quarterly meetings, but both quarterly meetings want to discern these is- sues after the training in November. It is important to clarify whether Joint Quarterly Meeting would qualify as a yearly meeting activity. The question was also raised as to how we would revisit and possibly revise the policies and expectations we set out at annual sessions.
29. We minuted appreciation to Eastern Hills Friends for hospitality.
30. Minutes were approved after corrections.
31. Announcements and Monthly Meeting updates.
32. The meeting closed in silent worship at 2:18 pm
The next executive committee meetings will be 2-7-26 in Bloomington, and 4-4-26 in Lexington.
Respectfully Submitted,
Cecilia Shore, Assistant Recording Clerk
