Personnel Committee

Personnel Committee Report October, 2005

The Personnel Committee received no negative feedback regarding the work or interpersonal relations of either Ruah or Louis. Therefore, we assume their work and the manner in which they relate to committee clerks and the membership of QEW has been at least satisfactory and in some cases exemplary. Therefore, we recommend that the contracts of both be continued.

Ruah and Louis are requesting a sabbatical leave for November 2007 through April 2008. That is six years after their previous sabbatical leave. It is the 20th anniversary year of FCUN cum QEW and the 260th anniversary of John Woolman’s visit to New England Friends. They would like to use the leave time to walk in Woolman’s footsteps. They plan to begin at Mt. Holly Friends Meeting, which was Woolman’s meeting and along their way share Woolman’s message, focusing on his holistic view of Creation. They will also ask the meetings they visit while on their journey to share Woolman’s message and talk about QEW.  Ruah and Louis would raise money for QEW by inviting people to pledge an amount of money per mile. The walk they plan is about 1,400 miles. People would be invited to join them for particular legs of the journey. A leg would be the distance between one meeting to another meeting.

To encourage people to join at least in spirit, Ruah and Lois plan to create a study guide which will be available at the

2007 FGC gathering, Pendle Hill, AFSC, CFSC, FCNL, FWCC, FUM and EFI. They intend to write articles for the Friends Journal, Quaker Life, Friends Bulletin, EarthQuaker and BFC informing Friends around the World of their pending journey. They hope to end the walk in England and speak to British Yearly Meeting. They plan to go to England in steerage on a passenger ship as John Woolman did.

They propose that QEW reduce their combined salaries during the leave to $10,000 and that the same level of health insurance be maintained. And that a contract person be hired at $10,000 for seven months, two weeks before the leave and two weeks after to permit smooth transition at both ends of it. For a contract person there would not be payroll taxes for social security or health insurance, thus no additional expense. The Personnel Committee approves that plan.

Ruah and Louis plan to retire in 2013, the year Ruah reaches her 66th birthday.                                                                

Respectfully Submitted,
Alan N. Connor, Clerk  
Alice Howenstine
Rod Zwirner
Stan Becker