Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting Executive Committee Meeting
4/5/2025, noon- 4 PM EDT, hosted by North Meadow Circle of Friends
1710 North Talbott Street, Indianapolis, IN
60. Opening worship. The meeting opened with centering worship at 12:05 pm.
61. Roll Call. The recording clerk called the roll of yearly meeting officers and administrators, committee clerks or representatives, quarterly and monthly meeting representatives, and yearly meeting staff.
Yearly Meeting officers
Presiding Clerk: Barry Zalph
Assistant Presiding Clerk: Diann Herzog
Recording Clerk: Cecilia Shore
Assistant Recording Clerk: Terre Holada
Treasurer: Wilson Palmer
Committee Clerks or representatives:
Budget & Finance: David Garman
Children’s Committee: Diann Herzog
Earthcare: David Duvall
Nominating: Rick Boyce
Personnel: Dinah Duvall
Religious Nurture & Education: Rex Sprouse
Yearly Meeting Planning: Martha Viehmann, Ben Griffith
Youth Services: David Hyde
Gatherings Committee: Lisa Cayard
Quarterly Meeting Clerks:
Miami: Nikki Coffey Tousley
Whitewater: Peggy Spohr
Monthly Meeting representatives:
Bloomington: Rex Sprouse
Campus: absent
Clear Creek: David Garman
Community: Lisa Cayard
Dayton: Nikki Coffey Tousley
Eastern Hills: Wilson Palmer, Martha Viehmann
Fall Creek: Ellen Hodge
Fort Wayne: Terre Holada
Lafayette: Jill Hutchcroft
Lexington: Ben Griffith, Peter Hardy
Louisville: Perry Thomas
Miami: absent
North Meadow: Dinah Duvall
Oxford: Cecilia Shore
White Rose: absent (Bill Henry sent regrets)
Yellow Springs: Carol Simmons
Yearly Meeting staff:
Administrative Assistant: Susan Lee Barton
Youth Secretary: absent
Social Action Coordinator: Sandy Felt
The role of Assistant Treasurer was removed from the roll call.
62. Introductions. Additional Friends were invited to introduce themselves. They included: Mary Anna Feitler, Audrey Malhotra (Youth Services Committee), Mary Garman, Susan Hyde (Records Coordinator), Cecilia Shore (Quaker Quill editor), Gail Koehler (to discuss Sexual Misconduct committee report), and Peter Hardy (Statistician).
63. Agenda Review. Friends approved a small change in the agenda.
64. Nominating Committee Report – Rick Boyce. Please see the attached report. Not included in that report was: The website coordinator is undetermined; and Steve Angell is unable to serve on the Epistle Committee at Annual Sessions. The committee was asked by Friends to make several minor corrections to its report format.
65. Social Action Coordinator Report – Sandy Felt. Please see the attached report. In accordance with her contract, she reported that she has been working approximately 23 hours per month.
66. Administrative Assistant’s Report – Susan Lee Barton. Please see the attached report, which includes several important announcements and April 15 deadlines. There is now a form to collect interest in volunteer service within OVYM located at: https://form.jotform.com/250754579096066.
67. Sexual Misconduct ad hoc Response Team report – Gail Koehler. The ad hoc committee, regarding an incident at last annual sessions, has made progress with both individuals involved. They have provided the Religious Nurture and Education Committee a draft of community behavioral expectations for the coming annual sessions in response to this event. They have prepared a personalized behavioral expectations document to be signed by the person who caused harm in the 2024 incident.
68. Sexual Misconduct policy implementation report & proposal – Barry Zalph. Friends agreed to name at least two Friends to organize and plan a training, called for in our Sexual Misconduct policy, on how to prevent, recognize, and respond to sexual misconduct among Friends. The training will be conducted by an outside trainer with knowledge of Friends and experience in training religious groups on these matters. This training will be required for Friends serving on our Sexual Misconduct Response Team and will be offered for others, with the hope that at least one Friend from each monthly meeting will participate. Susan Lee has volunteered to serve and has continuity with our work on the policy, as does Gail Koehler, who also volunteered. Friends approved them for this service. Another name was also mentioned and Gail and Susan Lee were asked to discuss service with this person.
69. The clerk proposed that two Friends be named to draft procedures to implement the 2024 Sexual Misconduct policy. They may include Religious Nurture and Education members but the work will be under the care of the Executive Committee, to whom they will report. Several names were suggested and approved.
70. Youth Services Committee report – David Hyde. David reported that as of April 2, Adam Funck has stepped down as Youth Secretary. Miami Quarterly Meeting clerk Nikki Coffey Tousley is confident that Miami Quarterly Meeting can provide a youth program for their meeting later this month. The Youth Services Committee is scheduled to meet next week. The immediate concern is for this Annual Sessions, but the appointment of a new Youth Secretary is not a trivial task. Those who work with minors do have to complete background checks and safety training. The Youth Services committee is willing to help organize a program for annual sessions. Perry Thomas volunteered to coordinate a youth program and described her background. A Friend pointed out that much of what happens at Yearly Meeting simply requires adult accompaniment. Another Friend made several points about resources that the Planning Committee can share with the Youth Services committee, including the required safety training. Another young adult’s name was suggested as potentially being involved. At the suggestion of the treasurer, Friends agreed that funds will be made available to the Youth Services committee to carry out a meaningful youth program at Annual Sessions.
71. Child Safety Training proposal – Gail Koehler. Please see attached proposal for an off-site training prior to yearly sessions. Friends agreed that the workers are entitled to be paid for their time and that the committee may pay 3 workers up to $20.00 per hour for 2 hours to attend the training. It was clarified that volunteers who have not undertaken training are not to be left alone with a child without a person who has received the training. We agreed that the senior staff member was entitled to be paid to translate the materials into Spanish, for up to $20.00 an hour.
72. Statistical Report revision –Peter Hardy. Please see the attached 2023 revision. Several errors were reported at annual sessions last year, so the statistician has made corrections to reconcile the 2023 report with that of 2022. Friends expressed gratitude to Peter for the effort involved in this revision.
73. Budget & Finance Committee report and budget proposal – David Garman. Please see the attached proposed budget for the next year to be forwarded to Annual Sessions. It was noted that we routinely propose a deficit, and we have not yet had an actual deficit. Since the predicted deficit is larger this year, it is possible that this year we will actually end up with a deficit, but we will not actually know until after annual sessions.
74. Gatherings Committee report – Lisa Cayard. Please see the attached report. The committee seeks guidance on how strict they are expected to be in vetting proposed gatherings–e.g., what if they are not multi-generational or conflict with other Quaker events or don’t provide child care? Friends expressed confidence in the discernment of the committee and noted the newness and experimental nature of this initiative. They also encouraged meetings to read the guidelines, check and contact the Gatherings committee for input. We accepted this report.
75. Planning Committee report – Martha Viehmann and Ben Griffith. We are yet again at a new location, and are still waiting for answers to several important questions. An important limitation is the apparent lack of audio equipment in the main meeting space. There will be some difficulties in assigning dorm rooms/apartments. (But there will be ice cream!) Registration will go live no later than May 1 with a deadline of May 27. It will cost individuals less to attend annual sessions than last year. Friends accepted the report and expressed a great deal of appreciation for the struggles and efforts of the Planning Committee.
76. Religious Nurture & Education Committee report – Rex Sprouse. Please see attached report. The Spring Retreat was March 26-27. Some individual Friends expressed a positive experience. The individuals who have agreed to serve on the Sexual Misconduct Response team (at this point as an open-ended commitment; this may change) are Andy Garrison, Carol Simmons, Betsy Neale and Ellen Hodge. We expressed gratitude to these Friends. The committee proposes a community standards agreement to prevent sexual misconduct. (Teens have their own agreement to sign.) The purpose of the document is to bring this topic into discussion, to define appropriate boundaries, to empower persons who feel violated to refer to a community standard (in addition to personal preference). Minor wording changes were received as friendly edits. Friends approved the behavioral expectations regarding personal and sexual boundaries document as a statement of our principles, to be presented at annual sessions for discernment about implementation. We thanked the Religious Nurture and Education Committee for their work on this.
77. Handbook revision proposal re: recording clerks – Terre Holada. Please see attached proposal, which was approved.
78. Ad Hoc volunteering system update – Susan Lee Barton. Please see the advance report from Susan Lee, which outlines a system for people to volunteer for short term tasks for the yearly meeting.
79. Whitewater Quarterly Meeting report – Peggy Spohr. Please see attached report.
80. Miami Quarterly Meeting report – Nikki Coffey Tousley. The quarter will meet April 27. Be sure to submit your State of the Meeting reports by April 15.
81. Monthly Meeting Updates. North Meadow Circle rejoices that they sold one of their lots and paid off their mortgage
82. Announcements
OVYM is seeking a volunteer to research and recommend portable A/V Equipment for hybrid events. Please see the OVYM website for details.
83. Closing worship. We entered into closing worship at about 4:45 pm.
