Rector
At the August meeting, the vestry
appointed the following people to the vestry nominating committee for 2018:
Eileen Fernald, Chair
Debra Spencer
Brian Raney
Vicky Wilson
Ray Wolfe
I will serve as facilitator of the Nominating Committee. I will attend meetings, but my primary role will be to facilitate rather than participate in the discernment process used to guide the invitation of the nominees.
To give you some background on what the Nominating Committee is and the selection process:
Article 5, Section 6 of the parish by-laws states:
"No later than the August Vestry meeting, the Vestry shall appoint a Nominating Committee consisting of at least three members of the Vestry. The chairperson of the Nominating Committee, who is one of the three members, shall be designated by the Vestry. The Nominating Committee may choose one or two additional members from the Parish at large. At least 21 days prior to the date of the APM [Annual Parish Meeting] Session 1, the Nominating Committee shall select nominees of no less than one person for each vacancy on the Vestry. Written notice of the names of the nominees shall be given to the Clerk of the Vestry."
Traditionally, the vestry members who serve on the Nominating Committee are those who are about to rotate off the vestry that year. The vestry decided to continue that tradition this year. (The three vestry members on the committee, Eileen, Debra, and Vicky, are rotating off the vestry at the end of this year.)
In consulting with Eileen, Debra, and Vicky, we felt it was important to follow the by-laws' invitation to choose "one or two additional members from the Parish at large" because in doing so, the voice of non-vestry members would be heard in the nomination process. This way, it won't be just vestry members selecting who the next vestry nominees are going to be.
We intentional chose two men, to add gender balance to the group. We selected one person who has been a member here for many years (Ray) and one person who is a newer member of the congregation (Brian, who joined St. John's when he was baptized as an adult a few years ago).
The Nominating Committee uses the standard, structured discernment process that has been used at St. John's for many years for making important decisions in the life of the parish. First, the committee discerns what characteristics are needed in new vestry members -- what qualities or skills are missing on the vestry, or will be missing after the current class rotates off, that we need on our board right now?
After praying and listening for God's guidance on that question, the group brings the list of characteristics they have come up with to the rest of the Nominating Committee. The committee as a whole then decides upon one list of characteristics, drawn from each committee member's input, taking special notice of characteristics that appear on more than one person's list.
Then, each member of the committee looks through the parish directory with those characteristics in mind and prays that God would reveal to them who might have these needed characteristics. Each individual creates a list, and then shares that list with the rest of the Nominating Committee. Anyone whose name shows up on more than one person's list is sent a formal letter from the Nominating Committee inviting them to prayerfully consider running for vestry next year.
This thoughtful, prayerful process for inviting people to serve on the vestry was one of the most exciting things about St. John's to me when I was learning about you all from conversations with the Search Committee and Vestry in my application process to become Rector here. I'm very impressed with the level of prayerful consideration you as a community put into this process, and I'm looking forward to getting to facilitate it myself this time around.
If you have questions about the Nominating Committee and our work over the next few months, please contact Eileen Fernald, who the vestry has appointed as chair of the committee.
