About 15 years ago, the Meeting discerned that we had 5 values that motivated our committees - Stewardship of the Meeting (finance, hospitality, nominating, naming, clerks and individual roles), Nurturing LFFM Friends (pastoral care, ministry and worship, religious education), Maintaining the Meetinghouse (building and grounds), Connecting to the Wider Quaker World (wider Quaker world), and Witness (environmental, peace, social justice). Over time, those values have remained, but we shifted the structure of committees as the Meeting's needs changed. We combined peace and social justice committees together, created a separate PADS committee, changed from a clerk with an assistant clerk and recording clerk to a 4 person team of clerk, rising clerk, assistant clerk, and recording clerk, created a communications committee, and have had a variety of ad hoc committees for specific issues.

At Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business this month, we have begun discernment for two more standing committee changes. PADS committee is proposing to broaden to other volunteer opportunities, although the exact nature of this change is still to be determined. The Meeting is considering combining environmental and peace and social justice committees as well, as nominating committee has had limited success in finding members for the environmental committee. One of the advantages of our manner of decision making is that we can shift our Meeting activity in response to changes in the talents and ministries of our members, available time and budget, or as the issues the Meeting faces change.

Some queries to consider:

1) Do the committees, including the changes proposed at Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, appropriately serve the Meeting and the Meeting's values?

2) Do the charges and structure of committees reflect an honest assessment of the resources available to the Meeting (both the time of Friends and financial donations) and reflect the Meeting's values?

3) As individuals, do we volunteer for committees and individual roles based on our own talents in many forms, and based on the discerned needs of the Meeting?

Submitted by Ted Kuhn, recording clerk