Executive Committee of Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting
Second Month 4, 2023
Held at Earlham School of Religion, Richmond IN, and via Zoom
1. Opening Worship: The meeting opened with centering worship at 12:00 pm.
2. Introductions: Rachel Ernst Stahlhut, presiding clerk, invited Friends to introduce ourselves and to share what we are carrying with us into this meeting as a way to help build our spiritual community and connect with each other.
3. 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: Rachel Ernst Stahlhut
Assistant Presiding Clerk: Barry Zalph
Recording Clerk: Lisa Cayard
Assistant Recording Clerk: Cecilia Shore
Treasurer: Wilson Palmer
Assistant Treasurer: Cathy Habschmidt
Committee Clerks:
Auditing: Cathy Habschmidt
Braddock Fund: Steve Angell
Budget & Finance: David Garman
Children’s Committee: Susan Hyde
Development Committee: absent
Earthcare: absent
Nominating: Paul Buckley
Peace & Social Concerns: absent
Personnel: Steve Angell
Religious Nurture & Education: Rex Sprouse
Yearly Meeting Planning: Martha Viehmann and Ben Griffith
Young Adult Friends: absent
Youth Services: David Hyde
Quarterly Meeting Clerks:
Miami: absent
Whitewater: absent
Monthly Meeting representatives:
Campus: absent
Clear Creek: Cathy Habschmidt
Community: Eric Wolff
Dayton: Nikki Coffee Tousley
Eastern Hills: Wilson Palmer and Martha Viehmann
Fall Creek: Daniel Day
Fort Wayne: Mary Anna Feitler
Lafayette: absent
Lexington: Richard Mitchell, Betsy Neale
Louisville: Cindi Goslee
Miami: absent
North Meadow: Eric Hailperin-Lausch
Oxford: Cecilia Shore
White Rose: absent
Yellow Springs: Susan Hyde
Yearly Meeting staff:
Administrative Assistant: Susan Lee Barton
Youth Secretary: Adam Funck
Administrators:
Co-statistician: Rex Sprouse
Website Administrator: Daniel Day
Records Co-coordinator: Susan Hyde
Quaker Quill Editor: Cecilia Shore
Publications Coordinator: Richard Mitchell
Registrar: Eric Wolff
4. Agenda review: The Clerk reviewed the agenda. The agenda was accepted. The Clerk shared the colorcoded system for those participating virtually indicating a request to speak, a question to raise, or approval.
5. Nominating Committee Report:
- Paul Buckley brought a recommendation for a new member for Youth Services Committee, Peggy Spohr. Friends APPROVED this nomination.
- Nominating Committee recommended Dan and Jan Sims as Co-coordinators of Publications, and Friends APPROVED this nomination.
- Nominating Committee recommended an update to the OVYM Handbook, changing the timeline for naming the Publications Coordinator to be approved at the spring Executive Committee, so that this position will be in place before annual sessions. The current description in the handbook says that the nomination for this position be approved at annual sessions, but this is impractical. An alternate suggestion was made to move this timeline for approval of the Publications Coordinator to the winter Executive Committee meeting. This latter recommendation was APPROVED.
- Nominating Committee recommended Miriam Bunner to be added to the Braddock Trust Fund Board as a fourth member. This would involve a change in the description of the Braddock Fund Board to allow more than three Board members. A suggestion was made to ask the Braddock Fund Board to recommend language for this revision, and to bring this recommendation back to the April Executive Committee Meeting. Friends APPROVED postponing the nomination of any additional Board members until after the change in the handbook language is approved. The committee may consult with Miriam Bunner at will in the meantime.
6. Antiracism Queries Working Group: Betsy Neale shared a written report in advance with suggested queries for monthly meetings related to becoming antiracist. (Attached below) Betsy read the five queries aloud. A concern was raised about the wording of the third query, but it was clarified that the queries are meant to address the different experiences of meetings that are on the spectrum of becoming more diverse and inclusive. It was also pointed out that in the preamble to the queries, meetings may choose to address queries in the order most pertinent to their need/current situation. After some discussion, Friends APPROVED the ad hoc committee’s work and this report with gratitude.
Friends further APPROVED distributing this report and queries to monthly meetings for discussion or worship sharing. It was agreed that this would be a stand-alone communication coming from Executive Committee, as well as being included in the Quill.
7. Youth Secretary’s Report: Adam Funck reported that most recently, three youth from Dayton Meeting participated in youth activities at Miami Quarterly Meeting. There were only three teens who signed up for the Quake that Rocked the Midwest, so this event was postponed indefinitely. The spring FCNL lobbying weekend will be March 25-28 in Washington DC, with the option to participate online. High school and college aged young Friends are encouraged to participate. Adam plans to visit monthly meetings to encourage youth to become engaged in yearly meeting activities. Friends are asked to contact Adam at youth@ovym.org or 513-587-9206 to invite him to your meeting. The report was accepted.
8. Treasurer’s Report: Wilson Palmer sent a report in advance, and he invited any questions. With no questions raised, the report was accepted.
9. Budget & Finance Committee: David Garman reported that this is the season for the Budget & Finance committee to begin preparing the budget for next year. He invited committee requests for any changes to the current budget. The report was accepted.
10. Yearly Meeting Restructuring Committee: Paul Buckley shared a written report in advance. The Committee has visited about half the meetings in the Yearly Meeting. He shared a sampling of topics that came out of these visits. In response to a question about concerns of not having enough time, Paul shared that he heard a sense of exhaustion and isolation. Meetings welcome visitors, but are unable to manage visitation to other meetings. The report was accepted.
11. Annual Sessions Planning Committee: Martha Viehmann and Ben Griffith reported that two plenary speakers have been confirmed: Cai Quirk and Gretchen Castle, who is Dean of Earlham School of Religion. An Assistant Registrar has been named, Mia Van Meter, from Dayton Meeting. The committee is in the process of finding a Living Witness, and scheduling workshops. Suggestions from evaluations were greatly appreciated. The committee is discussing COVID policies for the upcoming annual sessions, looking at current pandemic conditions. Friends were invited to contact the committee if anyone would like to present a workshop. The theme of annual sessions is “Finding our Way – Your Gifts are Needed!” The report was accepted with gratitude.
12. Religious Nurture and Education Committee:: Rex Sprouse provided an update on the committee’s work. The committee has been struggling with how to best meet the needs of the yearly meeting. A workshop was planned on clerking and Quaker business process, but very few Friends registered. After a period of discernment and a committee retreat, the committee hopes to discern how to best be of service to the yearly meeting. The update was accepted.
13. Whitewater Quarterly Meeting: Christine Carver provided a written report in advance.
14. Miami Quarterly Meeting: Peter Hardy was not able to provide a report. Cecilia Shore shared that Miami Quarterly Meeting is struggling to fill officer positions. A good number of Friends participated in Quarterly Meeting in Dayton last week. The program on vocal ministry was appreciated.
15. Minute of gratitude: Appreciation was expressed to Earlham School of Religion for providing space and technology for our meeting today at no cost. Friends APPROVED this minute of gratitude.
16. Check-in with Monthly Meetings: The clerk invited monthly meeting representatives to share about opportunities and challenges meetings are facing, and what meetings have been doing to address and challenge racism.
- Rex Sprouse shared that Bloomington Meeting has been very active with a host of group activities such as Experiment with Light, book groups, etc. One frustration has been that there is no regular participation of children and youth. The masking protocol remains very strict, and there seems to be a new generation of attenders who have never met those who attend via Zoom, which limits fellowship opportunities.
- Betsy Neal shared that Lexington Meeting has also experienced limitations of having those who participate virtually. The meeting is aging, and some younger Friends feel a lack of good communication across generations. There have been some conflicts between white Friends and African-American Friends, and attempts at eldering have not been successful. Four Friends have left the meeting. An effort to revitalize outreach and the spiritual community are underway. The issue of trauma, especially racial trauma, and mental illness issues has contributed to misunderstanding. The meeting has approved an anti-racism minute, and they have an anti-racism committee. There seems to be a fairly small number of members who participate in the antiracism work.
- Eric Wolff shared that Community Meeting is responding to the CDC COVID risk levels by masking when risk levels are at medium or high levels. There was a challenging discussion about how to handle invasive plants and the use of Roundup. There are several people of color attending, and also a good number of younger new attenders. There have not been many families with children attending. Hybrid meetings are going well, meeting the needs of those who cannot attend in person. Eric is the only person currently who can run the technology for hybrid meetings. The meeting continues to support immigrant families. Antiracism is not a strong focus, but a threshing session is being planned on the spiritual basis for our work for racial and economic justice.
- Wilson Palmer shared that one member at Eastern Hills meeting is active in the MLK Coalition, but they are an all-white meeting, and antiracism does not seem to be a major focus. The meeting is calm and centered, and the hybrid technology has been working smoothly. They miss the spiritual leadership of the Coppocks who have moved away, and Franchot Ballinger who recently passed away. Martha Viehmann shared that a few years ago the meeting reviewed all the children’s books to remove any books that were dated or that showed Jesus as blond and blue-eyed, and they purchased books that better reflected diversity.
- David Hyde shared that Yellow Springs is also challenged by not having children attending. They are also having challenges with aging members. They still maintain a strict masking policy, which can make it difficult to communicate. The meeting is addressing racism through wider community projects on reparations and other topics. Susan Hyde also shared the weight of responsibility on older members, because there are no younger members to take their place. COVID seems to have fractured the meeting, and they struggle to return to a being a spiritual community.
- Cindi Goslee shared that Louisville meeting has consistent attendance at worship and at business meeting. They are still hybrid, but have more people attending in person. They have returned to potluck meals. There are very few children attending. There are a small handful of people working on racial justice issues. One member won’t come into the meetinghouse any longer because the property was once part of a plantation. There are continuing concerns about the property. There are differing understandings about Quaker process and finding unity, so this has been a concern as well. Barry Zalph shared that they have lost a large number of Friends who have died in the past few years, and there is difficulty sustaining the work of the meeting since the pandemic. They are facing the struggle of how to support individual Friends who feel called to take action, but they are not able to unite on meeting actions.
- Cathy Habschmidt shared that Clear Creek Meeting continues to have hybrid worship, with most people attending in person. Masking is optional. COVID precautions are not currently a major concern. They had a series of retreats stemming from an acknowledgment that it was becoming harder to get people to serve on committees, and how the meeting could restructure to get the most important work done. They laid down two or three committees and are relying on individuals or ad hoc committees to do the work. They started a very fruitful series of small groups including Bible study, movie watching, singing, and environmental issues. They have only a few children in the meeting who don’t usually come to worship. In an effort to find an action that the meeting could unite to do together as a meeting, they held a series of prayer vigils in the weeks before the recent elections. The vigils were focused on praying for our democracy and the future of our country. There are a large number of inactive members who were contacted recently to ask about their relationship with Clear Creek Meeting.
- Cecilia Shore shared that Oxford Meeting is focusing on welcoming newcomers and supporting those who are facing life transitions. One member is working to support the needs of the homeless. They also approved a minute on reproductive health. Meetings for worship are hybrid, but depend on the iPads of the co-clerks. Younger meeting members are bringing new energy to the meeting.
- Nikki Coffee Tousley shared that Dayton meeting has had several younger attenders coming to meeting, some with children. There is an active Peace and Social Concerns Committee, working on prisons, the death penalty and AVP, but not so much focus on racism. There seems to be a lot of richness and possibilities, and they hope to nurture new leadership. The meeting has a goal to bring new attenders into a better understanding of Quaker faith and practice.
- Daniel Day shared that Fall Creek continues to carry a concern about the meeting’s property, as they are no longer the legal property owners. They are working on a contract to work this out with the new owners. He asked Friends to hold them in the Light as they continue on this journey.
- Eric Hailperin-Lausch shared that North Meadow Circle of Friends has a member who is working with the AVP project, and they are renting space to a Central American Quaker church group. The meeting reduced many activities during the pandemic, and they are slowly bringing these activities back, such as social and spiritual activities outside of meeting for worship.
- Mary Anna Feitler shared that Fort Wayne has very few people attending, and few children. They meet at Plymouth Congregational Church, and they have very few visitors. They prepare meals for a local homeless shelter, but since COVID happened they are not able to eat with the residents. It is difficult to form committees with only six active members, so everyone does a big share of the work.
17. Announcements/Concerns:
- Next Executive Committee Meeting will be held April 1, 2023, from 12:00 to 4:00pm, both in-person at Community Friends Meeting in Cincinnati and via Zoom.
- Susan Lee Barton shared that April 15 is the date that State of the Meeting reports are due, meeting directories are due, and reports from representatives to other organizations are due.
- Lisa Cayard shared that Miami Meeting offers a category called “Friends of the Meeting” for those who have historical or family ties, but are no longer active in the meeting.
