Meet the Clerks

Officers

• Presiding Clerk: Marian Beane (PFF)
• Assistant Clerk: Sue Regen (NYYM)
• Recording Clerk: Julia Isaacs (BYM)
• Assistant Recording Clerk: Kri Burkander (LEYM)
• Treasurer: Byron Sandford (BYM)
• Assistant Treasurer: Stoph Hallward (BYM)

Committee Clerks

• Advancement and Outreach: Jane Berger (NYYM)
• Advisory: Sue Regen (NYYM)
• Blue Book: Rex Sprouse, convenor (ILYM)
• Christian & Interfaith Relations: Virginia Driscoll (PFF) & Dot Walizer (BYM) co-clerks
• Committee for Ministry on Racism: Janice Domanik (ILYM)
• Development: Sue Regen (NYYM)
• Discernment in Long Term Planning: Judith Purvis (PFF)
• Finance: Sally Weaver Sommer (LEYM)
• Friends Meeting House Fund: Dick Steele (SCYM)
• Long Range Conference Planning : David Miller (PHLYM)
• Ministry & Nurture: Charlotte Basham (AFC)
• Nominating: Liz Yeats (SCYM)
• Personnel: Lois Forrest (PHLYM)
• Property : Tom Unkefer (PHLYM)
• Publications & Distribution: Warren Wilson-Reiner (SCYM)
• Religious Education: Gail Thomas (NEYM)
• Traveling Ministries: Beckey Phipps (NEYM)
• Youth Ministries: Robin Greenler (NYM)

Marian Beane

Marian Beane Marian is Presiding Clerk of FGC Central Committee. Before that she served as committee clerk of FGC's Ministry & Nurture, the Discernment in Long Term Planning, and Long Range Conference Planning. Marian lives in Charlotte, North Carolina where she is an active member of the Charlotte Meeting and is currently clerking its Long Range Envisioning Committee. She has previously served as clerk of her meeting and also of Piedmont Friends Fellowship (PFF). Her life is enriched through her daily work as the Director of the International Student & Scholar Office at UNC Charlotte. Daily interactions and connections across cultures remind her of the beauty and universality of the human spirit. Centering for her comes in various ways including the daily practice of tai chi and a good brisk walk that helps to clear her mind and bring renewed energy.

Lois Forrest

Lois ForrestI'm Lois Forrest, clerk of the Personnel Committee. I retired in 2000 after having served twenty-one years as the executive director of Medford Leas, a Quaker continuing care retirement community in New Jersey. Prior to that assignment I served as the executive director of the YWCA of Philadelphia.

Currently, I am involved in a variety of volunteer activities that include clerking the Friends Fiduciary Corporation of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting; president of Camp Dark Waters, a Quaker camp and conference center and as a member of Medford Township's (NJ) Environmental Commission.

My husband and I have four children, nine grandchildren and will soon become great-grandparents. We particularly enjoy outdoor activities from hiking to gardening and love reading and the arts.

It is a privilege to work with the dedicated staff of FGC, together with the other volunteers who serve on the Personnel Committee.

eing an unemployed full time volunteer for FGC and other good causes.

David Miller

David MillerDavid has been involved with FGC in various capacities since the mid-1980s. He currently serves as clerk of the Long Range Conference Planning Committee. He has previously been Clerk of the FGC Finance Committee, FGC Treasurer, a member of DiLTP, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting representative to Executive Committee, and co-clerk (with his wife, Mary Ellen McNish) of the 1988 Gathering. Dave and Mary Ellen met at the Gathering in 1983. They now live in the Torresdale section of Philadelphia and are members of Byberry Monthly Meeting. Dave has three adult daughters by a previous marriage. On the rare occasions when he isn't traveling in his role as a mass transit planning consultant or on FGC business, he enjoys watching the boat traffic on the Chesapeake from the porch of a small cottage in Cecil County, and plans to learn to sail "real soon."

Beckey Phipps

Beckey PhippsBeckey serves FGC as clerk of the Traveling Ministries program.

She is a member of North Shore Monthly Meeting, New England Yearly Meeting. She is also a member of the FGC Committee for Ministry on Racism. Beckey carries a concern for adult religious education and spiritual formation. She completed the "On Being a Spiritual Nurturer" course of the School of the Spirit in 1994. In 1997 she received a Master's degree in Theology from the Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, MA, where her focus was Christology and Spirituality. She served as the coordinator of the Boston-area Quaker Studies Program for several years. With Margaret Benefiel, she co-authored a chapter on "Quakers and Social Transformation" in Mysticism and Social Transformation (Syracuse University Press, 2001).

Beckey and her partner, Tania, live in Massachusetts. In her free time she travels to their log cabin, which is situated on a beaver pond in northeastern Vermont. An avid student of theology, history, and literature, she is deeply interested in the Jewish roots of Christianity and the religious philosophy of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.

Byron Sandford

Byron SandfordByron is Treasurer of FGC. He has also served as clerk of the 1993 Gathering,as the clerk of FGC's Finance Committee and until 2005 as clerk of FGC Development Committee. Byron is a member of Friends Meeting of Washington of Baltimore Yearly Meeting. Byron is the Executive Director of William Penn House, a Quaker Center on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC. On the web: WmPennHouse.org. Email: byron@wmpennhouse.org.

Working for a Quaker organization has strenghtened his spiritual journey by creating harmony between many areas of his life. Prior to working for William Penn House, he worked as a mortgage banker and real estate developer in Texas and was active with Hill Country Monthly Meeting, Friends Meeting of Austin and South Central Yearly Meeting. Byron is married to Susan Griffin and he has two children; Adam, a software engineer for Microsoft in Redmond, WA and Stephanie who for the Olde Ale House in Ballard. Both Adam and Stephanie live in Seattle.

Warren Wilson-Reiner

Warren Wilson-ReinerWarren serves as clerk of the Publications and Distribution Committee.

He is a member of Friends Meeting of Austin, South Central Yearly Meeting. He found his home in the Religious Society of Friends in 1987, and attended his first FGC Gathering of Friends in 1988 where he met his spouse, Bill Reiner. He has served as clerk for his monthly meeting and yearly meeting, as well as for Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Concerns. his previous service on Central Committee was as a member of the Religious Education Committee.

He lives in Austin, Texas, and has worked at The University of Texas at Austin since 1974. His current position is senior systems analyst for The University Libraries. He and Bill married under the care of Friends Meeting of Austin in 1998. He has a passion for reading--particularly mysteries and history--and needle work. He especially enjoys communing with nature with Bill where together, they experience the presence of the Spirit.

Liz Yeats

Liz YeatsLiz Yeats is an educator, organizer, and writer who has been working for peace and justice in a variety of ways for many years. She became a member of the Religious Society of Friends about 30 years ago and is now a member of Friends Meeting of Austin. Most recently she was employed as communications and web services coordinator and Staff Associate for Church and Society for the Texas Conference of Churches. She presently serves as staff for the Austin Center for Peace and Justice and Quakers Uniting in Publications, an international group of publishers, distributors, authors, and others interested in the "second order" ministry of the written word. She lives with her husband, Terry SoRelle, and two pet frogs in Austin, Tex., and enjoys reading religious murder mysteries, 2x4 gardening, and visiting with her grandchildren in Massachusetts.