Vision and Scope of Work
The Governance Working group’s self-defined framework builds upon the minutes under which the group was formed:
From Executive Committee, 9/2023
Finance Committee requests that the Executive Committee recommend to Central Committee formation of a group to take on governance review and decision-making on governance change. Making the needed adjustments will require modification of the present structures. This means that financial and governance decisions move from the Central Committee to the Executive Committee.
From Central Committee, 10/2023
Central Committee charges the Executive Committee to form a working group that will receive formal training in good governance, perform an analysis, then bring to the 2024 meeting of the Central Committee its suggestions for governance reforms. Working group membership need not be restricted to Central Committee members.
The Governance Working Group held the work of exploring and recommending systemic and structural changes to the organization of Friends General Conference (FGC), its governance, volunteerism, staff, and program systems. This is so that the governance structure provides a solid, transparent foundation that empowers and enables the organization to better grow and to transform into an actively anti-racist faith community.
Some of the organizational challenges that a new structure may improve:
● Governance effectiveness and efficiency
● The roles of “Central Committee”, “Executive Committee” & “Members”(Affiliated Yearly Meetings & Directly Affiliated Monthly Meetings)
● The care of staff & volunteers
● Volunteerism
● Active practice of anti-racism
Topics beyond the current scope of work for this Working Group but that are interrelated include:
● Defining what “organizational financial sustainability” looks like for FGC
● Discerning the role of FGC in outreach and the visibility of Quakerism
● Long term/strategic planning
The original working group delivered a report to Central Committee in October 2024 and brought further work to Executive Committee in January 2025. You can read their reports on the Relevant Resources page. The overall recommendations were positively received by Central Committee and Executive Committee.
A second working group was then formed, with their names listed on the Governance Implementation Working Group page, to propose an implementation plan.These include changes in the FGC bylaws, organizational guide, timelines and to the overall committee structure changes necessary to implement the recommended governance changes. This work will come forward for possible adoption by Central Committee in October 2025. FGC will begin operating under the new structure according to the timeline discerned by the working group and Central Committee.