Clerk and Staff Reports

2006 Joint Report of General Secretary and Publications Coordinator

Louis and I are presenting a joint staff report this year because we have some observations to share that come from both of us. At the end we have given a few individual statements about our jobs this last year.

As we travel among Friends, we are discovering more and more people who are actively involved in Earthcare or who understand the importance of that work. This is partly due to the faithfulness of QEW's work over the last 19 years. We would like to begin with some successes we've noticed in our travels:

• The FGC planning committee has been making progressively stronger efforts to "green up" the Gathering. They are doing something about recycling, the coffee is "fair trade," and there's encouragement for Friends to do more car-pooling or traveling via train or bus.
• This year at the Gathering many folks sought out the QEW center looking for ideas, suggestions, and support. The three co-clerks for next year's Gathering talked with us about ways to infuse the Earthcare issues throughout the Gathering. The theme for next year, Who is my Neighbor? is ripe for this kind of thinking. All three co-clerks are supporters of QEW.
• Many Yearly Meetings have had Earthcare-related themes over the past several years.
• Even when there doesn't seem to be much focus on Earthcare issues in their programs and publications, many Yearly Meetings, such as Western Yearly Meeting, have strong Earthcare statements in their Faith & Practice.
• As many Yearly Meetings across North America undertake the re-writing of their Faith & Practice, Earthcare is being given more attention than before.
• Friends Bulletin has had ecological themes in several issues in the past couple of years and their May/June issue included an insert of BeFriending Creation and Quaker Eco-Bulletin as well as an ecological theme.
• Susan Corson-Finnerty, publisher and executive editor of Friends Journal, approached us at the FGC Gathering asking for more Earthcare-related articles from us! She said that she now understood fully the importance of this work. Upon her urging, we have also submitted a proposal for a regular (maybe bi-monthly) Earthcare column in Friends Journal. She was enthusiastic about our proposal and has accepted it. Our first article has been submitted and accepted and the "Earthcare" department will begin in January 2007. She also wants to support our "Global Woolman Walk" taking place next winter through articles before and during the walk.
• FCNL has been working more and more on Earthcare-related issues, and the most recent FCNL Washington Newsletter, which was focused on climate change, referred to the new and improved QEW website as a resource. QEW staff has made stronger relationships with FCNL staff, and we are looking for more ways to work together.
• Some Friends schools have implemented green-building work into their campus maintenance schedules and capital improvements plans and, like Scattergood Friends School, have incorporated environmental concerns into their goals statements.
• Some Friends camps, such as Friends Camp in China, Me., have been greening up their buildings and are working to conserve their natural communities.
• We're getting an increased number of inquiries about joining us or working with us, partly because of the new website.
• QEW staff and members have been increasingly asked to speak at Quaker events.

If we are to consider what the long-range planning committee proposed several years ago, that we declare ourselves a success and lay ourselves down on our 25th anniversary, how do we measure that success? If our goal was to raise the concern of the earth to the level of peace and justice issues, how do we know when that time has come? Louis and I feel that that time may be near.

We know that there are some visits to Yearly Meetings where it seems no one is particularly interested in talking about Earthcare issues. We want you all to consider carefully where we should put our time, money, travel, and efforts. On the one hand, are our efforts redundant where Friends are already thinking green? On the other hand, are we wasting our time and resources in those places where Friends seem generally unsupportive of us? Is success only measured when all Friends think like us? Or is it a solid trend that we are looking for? Are we getting close to that point?

We have a concern that the Steering Committee is not working at its best ability between our semiannual meetings. We are often dismayed at the lack of response from Steering Committee members and members of committees when we send out e-mails needing their timely input. We have a Finance Committee that has not had any input on budget proposals (except from the clerk) as of September 11. We have a Continuing Counsel that has not been meeting by e-mail or conference call, and we have not even been receiving responses to questions about their availability for a conference call. We have a Publications Committee that doesn't provide input or feedback on recent newsletters or the website and generally doesn't communicate between SC meetings. We have Outreach, Spiritual Nurturance, Sustainability: Faith and Action committees that don't meet between Steering Committee meetings (except for last minute conference calls before a meeting). We have a Personnel Committee that has not formally communicated with staff or proposed salary considerations for the coming year as of September 11 (except for the clerk). The Outreach Committee had high hopes of sending Steering Committee members out to Yearly Meetings to visit and talk up QEW, yet we have had very few Friends who are able or willing to travel. It has been difficult for the two staff people to be gone much of the summer traveling on behalf of QEW.

What does this mean? It means that you are all very busy in your lives and find it hard to spend time on QEW issues. We understand that. But the inaction means that the organization is run basically by two people, your staff. We have been hired to serve your ideas, your directions, and your inspirations, but we are often forced by circumstances and deadlines to make and carry out important decisions on our own.

Does this mean it is time for changes to the goals and function of QEW? Should we put less emphasis on Yearly Meeting visitation and just continue to offer a newsletter, website, and video and print publications? Should we just have a "speakers' bureau" of those Friends who are called to travel? Since it looks like we'll start having a regular column in Friends Journal, does that make it easier to trim back our travel and face-to-face meetings? Should we be developing regional meetings which will require less personal travel?

Given the thought-provoking questions from Alice Wald, should we take a sabbath year and discern as a whole, the future of QEW? Can we make our meetings carbon neutral, even if they are regional meetings? What are we called to next? Where can we best spend our time, energy, and money?

Personal notes of our work:

Ruah was invited to speak at the Wyoming Council of Churches annual meeting thanks to Donn Kesselheim, and at Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative), thanks to Ken Lawrence. She traveled to Western Yearly Meeting's mid-winter Peace & Social Concerns Board meeting to urge the Yearly Meeting to appoint a representative, and they appointed Marshall Gibson. At their sessions, Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) appointed, Ken Lawrence as their representative to QEW. That's two new Yearly Meetings. Ruah and Louis visited Intermountain Yearly Meeting for a second year, hoping that this would be the year they would affiliate with QEW. But we have to wait another year. They will be considering this during the winter months throughout all their Monthly Meetings. We need to follow up with this Yearly Meeting. Ruah and Louis worked at the FGC Gathering and were pleased with the attendance at the QEW center and the general interest in our work.

Louis finalized the new website and continues to work on new features. Listening to suggestions from people at the April meeting, he made changes and he installed a search tool within the website so that people can find information by topic or author. The next step is to create payments on line and then a forum for discussions. Remember, the website is only as current as the input from the committees and individuals. Louis visited Western Yearly Meeting, where the program structure and content left little room for exploration of Earthcare issues, even though their Faith & Practice urges them to care for Creation and even though their Yearly Meeting is affiliated with QEW. They use all disposable plates and utensils for meals at their sessions, and there doesn't seem to be thought about environmental impact in the choice of foods to serve. This prompted Louis to suggest that their YM representatives might be more effective than visitors (QEW staff or Steering Committee) in raising Earth awareness from within.