FRIENDS' MANNER OF DECISION-MAKING

As many Friends as are able gather together to make the decisions that affect the meeting community. We begin by centering down in silent worship. If the business is difficult, or if the group feels keenly its need to be brought together in the Spirit, this silence may go on for a long time.

The clerk of the meeting introduces the items of business, one at a time. Some are small matters, while others are large; some appear mundane, while others deal directly with matters of faithful commitment. Each piece of business, regardless of its nature, is raised into the waiting, seeking silence.

Participants, when they feel led to speak to the issue under consideration, seek recognition from the clerk, and address the clerk or the meeting at large. All try to listen deeply to each speaker, trying to hear the guidance of God: the still, small voice which may find expression through any one of us, or (more often) find partial expression in several Friends' contributions. The clerk keeps a slow, reflective pace and an atmosphere hospitable to many different perspectives. Sometimes quite opposite views are expressed; elements from such diverse perspectives may reappear later, in unexpected combinations.

Slowly, or sometimes quickly, an agreement emerges: Friends find unity in a particular course of action which seems right for the meeting. Often, this course of action differs significantly from any idea present when the issue was introduced. The clerk or others try to put this agreement into words, as they recognize its emergence. Before the item of business is done, the clerk or recording clerk will voice this "sense of the meeting" very explicitly, to check her or his understanding with the meeting; often, the minute recording the decision is composed on the spot and read back "in the face of the meeting." The actual decision takes place when this clearly formulated understanding is accepted by the assembled group. No vote is ever taken.

When the decision has been formulated to the meeting's satisfaction, the group settles into more silence before the next item of business -- which is introduced, and handled, in the same way.

Friends' approach to decision-making differs fundamentally from the decision-making processes in the world around us, whether in government, business, academia, volunteer organizations, or other religious groups. Our decisions are not based on the desires of the majority. Neither do they rest on compromises that seek to placate groups or individuals by granting some of their wishes. The sense of the meeting sought by Friends is that course of action recognized by the group as a leading for the group as a whole. While we prefer our decisions to be unanimous, unanimity is not the goal of this process, and it is no guarantee of finding the will of God for the meeting.

In the Society of Friends, decisions about matters of business are the responsibility of the entire meeting. Our decisions are not made by an administrator or a council of representatives. Any of us may have some divine guidance on any matter; without each Friend's care the meeting community risks missing the full picture of what it is being called by God to do.

Meeting for business is based on deep, open, prayerful listening. We listen for guidance directly, and we also listen carefully and prayerfully to each other, expecting to find guidance from the same deep source in one another's words. This is the same sort of waiting and listening, the same openness to the leadings of the Spirit, that characterizes our meetings for worship. We wait together to be led as a body, just as we wait in meeting for worship for a leading to speak in ministry.

The spiritual growth of the meeting and of its people is the most important outcome of any piece of business. As a consequence, even routine business needs to be conducted in the Light. The processes that are used for small things will be the ones that come naturally when a more demanding issue arises. Our love and respect for each other, and our faith that deep springs of guidance and inspiration are always available, empower us to trust that a faithful path forward can be found. Meeting for business, like meeting for worship, can lead to the experience of a "gathered" meeting, which can be profoundly transformative for both the group and for the individuals involved.

Some Advices on Participation in Meeting for Business

Hold the meeting prayerfully in the Light; hold each speaker and the clerks in the Light.

Pay attention to the process, as well as to the issues. Quaker practice in meeting for business is best learned by first-hand observation and participation.

Seek the good of the meeting as a whole, the will of God, the mind of Christ; be prepared to let go your personal preferences and individual comfort.

Stay centered, or return if you find you have strayed.

Give your full attention to the person speaking, and to the Spirit within. This kind of attention is incompatible with formulating your own responses while someone else is speaking.

Allow others to complete what they are saying, and then allow some silence for reflection before you begin to speak.

If another has already made your point, forgo speaking.

Seek the clerk's recognition before speaking; address the clerk or the meeting as a whole, not individual Friends.

Speak in the hope of serving the meeting's search for Truth. Your personal opinion, or your feelings on an issue, are relevant only insofar as they help in that search.

Share the part of the Truth that is given you. The meeting needs the Light given to each person, in order to find the path that is right for it.

Speak to the item of business being discussed. Stay close to the essentials that can help the meeting reach a decision. Stop when you are done, so others can hold your statement, and the business at hand, in the Light.

In some larger meetings, it is a helpful custom for each person to speak only once to an item of business; in smaller meetings, especially when part of the work is gathering information, this is not always either practical or helpful.

Let your speech be plain, simple, and clear. Argumentation, rhetoric, and swaying by appeal to emotion are all out of place in meeting for business. This is more than a matter of group style: such simplicity supports an attitude of seeking, of listening for divine guidance.

Support the clerks in prayer as they formulate the minute.

After a matter is concluded, return to silence and center again in preparation for the next item of business.

The job of the clerk is to discern the will of God as it comes into focus through the meeting's common search for it. Where there is a recording clerk or assistant clerk, he or she shares this responsibility with the clerk. These roles are at most superficially analogous to those of the secretary and chair of a secular organization, and clerks with such experience will find that it does not always serve them well. Those clerking a Quaker meeting need to learn this job: by talking with other clerks and watching them at meetings for business, by attending to supportive feedback from their own meeting, and by reading or attending workshops.

Good organization provides a groundwork for good clerking. A meeting calendar, with dates that certain actions must be initiated in order to produce the outcomes the meeting expects, is invaluable. Preparing an agenda is important: identifying what items of business are to come before the meeting, choosing an order. It is prudent to make sure that committee clerks or others presenting business are prepared. The clerk should be aware of the history of past decisions related to present items of business. Preparing the agenda also involves considering beforehand which items of business could wait until a future meeting for business, if a decision proves unexpectedly complex or difficult, or if the Spirit moves in unforeseen ways. The agenda is never considered more than tentative; actual consideration of business should be left to the guidance of the Spirit. Reading a query at the beginning of meeting is often used to help settle Friends in readiness for business.

While preparation of items of business is an important part of the clerk's work, so too is the spiritual preparation of becoming centered for the meeting.

The clerk's task is to help the meeting community hear and recognize the will of God for that community. This task should come before the clerk's personal preferences, or even deep convictions; the meeting's trust that the clerk is seeking to assist that corporate discernment should not be abused. Quaker clerks stay out of the discussion and avoid contributing their own perspectives to the business at hand. On rare occasions when the call to speak seems imperative, the clerk will make it clear she or he is speaking, for a moment, as an individual member of the meeting, and then go back to impartial clerking. The clerks try to encourage an open, seeking atmosphere in which divergent perspectives can be voiced.

Discussions should be kept focused on the current item of business; a meandering discussion with little focus will not generally come to closure. The clerk may have to intervene to help Friends focus, interrupting digressions or personal sharing which is not relevant to the issue at hand. A secure trust that the clerk is not trying to influence the meeting's deliberations may make these interventions easier.

Moments may arise when worshipful spirit is lost. The clerk or others who recognize this may ask for silence, to try to regain this spirit.

Composing and reading back the sense of the meeting immediately after it is reached is very helpful, especially with difficult decisions. "Minuting in the face of the meeting," as this practice is called, was the standard when minutes were written longhand in record books; the practice is frequently used today and has been found to be helpful. Clerks need not feel embarrassed by the time it takes to compose a minute, or to let the meeting reflect on it. They may ask for quiet while they write, reminding the meeting that this is an opportunity to return to the center. Clerks may also ask to be held in the Light while attempting to capture the sense of the meeting, especially on a difficult issue. Reading back the minute provides a helpful check on everyone's understanding of the decision. Friends are generally clearer about the decision and more ready to implement it, when the meeting has paused to see and feel and savor the unity that has been reached.

Meeting affairs are sometimes delegated to committees or to individual Friends. At other times, a concern comes to the meeting for business from a committee or from an individual. Considerable preparation may be necessary to present the matter clearly; this preparation should be done beforehand. This may involve finding out the facts, doing the calculations, thinking things through, giving the matter careful and prayerful consideration.

Consider before coming to the meeting for business whether you are (or your committee is) providing information, or requesting seasoning, or recommending a decision. If your business requires a decision from the meeting, make your presentation clearly and completely, then step back. The clerk of the meeting calls for consideration of the matter. The meeting may need some time to come to the clarity that you have already reached--and then may find itself led in a different direction. Trying to control the decision is an impediment to corporate discernment.

The meeting should take the time to be clear about the responsibilities of its committees, especially what it expects them to decide at the committee level. Trust the work of meeting committees; the meeting should not expect, during meeting for business, to go over every fact and every consideration behind a recommendation.

In response to a committee's report the meeting minutes an action. Possibilities include acknowledging receipt of the report, accepting recommendations from the report, and/or referring the matter for further consideration.

The primary goal of the meeting's decision process is to come into unity in God. The meeting and those participating in a meeting for business are urged to not allow the matter at hand to eclipse this fundamental goal. Thus the meeting should cultivate an openness to receive a truth that may be missing from the perspectives most frequently expressed, to be open to alternatives to preconceived ideas. The clerk should see to it that this process is not rushed; returning to silent worship can often help a meeting's ability truly to listen to the variety of perspectives within it. If unity in the sense of the meeting cannot be found with respect to the matter at hand, the issue is left for further seasoning. The old policy remains unchanged, or the new business not acted upon; the subject is set aside until another meeting for business to allow for more prayer, reflection, and conversation. The ultimate solution, and the group that takes the time to come to unity about it, are generally both the better for waiting.

Trying to hurry an item of business, either because the meeting has tired of it, or because the meeting for business is held in a strictly limited time period, often causes problems, and should be avoided. A meeting may search for a long time before it finds the course of action right for it. Other times, it is there early in the process, but it is long before the meeting is able to recognize its rightness. Friends' really creative or radical insights have often taken a very long time to reach full meeting support.

Occasionally, an agreement reached by the meeting reflects something quite other than the will of God. Friends may happen to agree for different, conflicting, reasons; when all are eager to act, everyone can have what they want by ignoring these differences. Major differences may become evident at a later step, however, making united action very difficult. Other times, unanimity is reached because people have dropped out of the process, feeling unheard or unheeded. A unanimous decision, in cases like this, is unlikely to reflect any deep leading for the meeting, and is often better laid aside for a time.

Sometimes a sense of the meeting is seen to emerge, though a Friend present remains unclear that the course of action in question represents a faithful response by the meeting to the divine guidance it has received. When a Friend is not united in the emerging sense of the meeting, it may be because of personal factors or circumstances that intrude on her or his prayerful consideration of the issue; it may be because he or she discerns that the course of action toward which the meeting appears to be heading is not sufficiently faithful to the leadings of the Spirit; or it may be because he or she is simply unable to discern God's will on this particular matter. If a Friend not drawn into the unity of the emerging sense of the meeting, believes her or his disunity is not so grounded as to warrant the meeting's further attention, the Friend may ask to "stand aside" so as not to impede the meeting's work. A Friend who has a clear leading, or "stop," that a proposed action is not appropriate should clearly communicate this concern. It is a responsibility to do so even if it is uncomfortable for the individual or for the meeting. Typically a meeting will not proceed if even a single individual is not in unity. This is not to say that an individual Friend has the prerogative to block a decision. But the meeting should be extremely cautious in accepting a course of action where one or more Friends present have expressed contrary leadings. It should weigh heavily whether moving ahead with the matter at hand is not less important than the loving fellowship of the meeting. Our practice should reflect faithfulness to the expectation that divine guidance will lead the meeting into unity when all humbly submit themselves to the divine will.