Heart Team

The Heart Team cares for our relationships with one another and for FLGBTQC’s overall shape and structure. The Heart Team is a hub for liberatory projects, leadings, and pastoral care work.

The Heart Team is specifically charged with caring for the other teams: checking in to see who is overwhelmed or burning out, guiding Friends who have gifts to offer to the places those gifts are needed, and making space for us to grieve and/or appreciate each ministry or project when it is laid down. They may also mediate between Friends who need support to resolve an issue.

They can support Friends with leadings to organize specific campaigns: for example, international Queer solidarity campaigns; making Quaker organizations more queer-affirming; organizing the documents, photos, and records of FLGBTQC; or planning a series of fun intergenerational activities.

The Heart Team attempts to follow joy and spiritual leadings, rather than moving from a sense of obligation. Contact the Heart team at heart@flgbtqc.org.

Care Team

The Care team is a sub-team to the Heart. It is responsible for individual care — through the listening line (during the hours it is available) and one-to-one sessions. It can also set up committees of care and clearness (including testing a leading), as well as online support groups as needed. Contact the Care team at care@flgbtqc.org for access to the listening line or to arrange individual support.

The Listening Line occurs when friends are available to listen to concerns, difficulties – even just venting, etc. on Zoom. We are not therapists or counselors, but caring listeners. These periods are marked on the FLGBTQC calendar. This service can be accessed by texting the Care team at care@flgbtqc.org.

FLGBTQC’s Listening Line need support or just to be heard?

The Care team is available for several periods during the week on Zoom. See calendar at https://tinyurl.com/flgbtqc-calendar-view.

It is also possible to arrange an individual visit with a listener. Contact care@flgbtqc.org.

Please fill out the Care form at https://tinyurl.com/CareTeamConnect as it will clarify what kind of support would be most helpful to you.

Worship Team

The Worship Team shepherds our worship: organizing meetings for worship, meetings for business, and worship sharing groups as led.

The meetings of this team will generally be open to all, though the Worship Team may decide to add limiting criteria (e.g. “please commit for at least 6 months” or “no new folks the two months before business meeting”). These criteria must be approved by Business Meeting. The Worship and Heart Teams encourage Friends who don’t have much experience with shepherding worship to join the Worship Team alongside more weighty Friends. The Worship Team intends to help us all learn the skills that allow us to care for worship, which often means rotating roles and shared responsibilities between people with different amounts of practice and knowledge.

The Worship Team drafts agendas for business meetings.

Specifics

1. The Worship Team will strive to have at least 4 regularly contributing members. If this goal is not met, FLGBTQC should discuss this at the next Business Meeting.
2. The Worship Team chooses one or two members to be the point of contact and decision for urgent matters, and keeps the Heart Team informed. This responsibility should rotate at the rate that works for the team.
3. The Worship Team will manage a consistent, general email that anyone can use to get in touch with them (maybe “worship@flgbtqc.org”). This responsibility should rotate at the rate that works for the team.
4. One or two Friends on the team should take responsibility for convening the upcoming team meeting. This responsibility should rotate at the rate that works for the team.
5. Prior to each Summer Gathering and Midwinter Gathering, the Worship Team will identify 1 or 2 people willing to clerk the Meeting(s) for Business at that Gathering, 1 or 2 willing to serve as Recording Clerk(s), and at least two Elders for that Gathering. These volunteers may be members of the Worship Team, but they are not required to be. Only the Worship Team must be at unity in supporting these volunteers, not the full body, but ideally feedback from the collective is incorporated in the seasoning process.
6. The task of a Clerk at Gathering is simply to facilitate (or record, in the case of a Recording Clerk) the Business Meeting. All other clerking responsibilities fall to the Worship Team as a whole, or to the person/people who is/are the point of contact and decision for urgent matters.
7. The task of Elders is to hold our worships in their care, be available for conversations if hearts are troubled, accompany Friends in situations that require the ministry of presence (e.g. sitting with someone as they file a harassment report with the Gathering’s Harassment Committee), and check in with each other briefly to support each other. For the few days of Gathering, Elders complement and reinforce some of the long-term work that the Heart Team does. Robust communication between the Elders and the Heart Team helps keep people and issues from falling through the cracks.
8. The Worship Team is responsible for the archive of FLGBTQC minutes.
9. The Worship Team works with the FGC planning committee or the Midwinter planning committee to ensure accessibility for all.
10. The Worship Team is responsible for ensuring our legal organizational status.
11. During Summer Gathering every year, the Worship Team will encourage Friends to form a planning committee for the next year’s Midwinter Gathering.
12. Any Friend(s) may organize their own worship as led. The Worship Team may wish to sponsor or guide Friends who wish to organize local or regional events.
13. Worship Team is responsible for presenting an update to the Heart Team and Business Meeting at least once/year, focusing on how they’re doing as well as what they’re doing.

Tech Team

The Tech Team manages and materially supports the website, online meetings, email listserv, access to official FLGBTQC email addresses, shared google drive folders, etc.

Specifics

1. The Tech Team should ensure that there are always at least 2 Friends who know how to access each critical system at all times. If this goal is not met, the Heart Team should be immediately informed.
2. The Tech Team should determine their own structure. They may decide that one or two people should be the point(s) of contact for FLGBTQC and keep track of the large-scale technical needs of the community, or they may decide that it’s more efficient for FLGBTQC-ers to contact specific team members directly. The Tech Team should publicize contact information, in whatever format they agree upon.
3. The Tech Team should determine how often they need to meet, if at all, and what level of spiritual support each person/role needs. They may ask the Heart Team to support them in this process.
4. If a team member wants to transition away from a responsibility, they should strive to let the Heart Team know in advance so that another volunteer can be brought up to speed, or so that Friends can offer gratitude and/or grief as we lay down the responsibility.
5. Ideally, the responsibilities for all the tasks managed by the Tech Team would rotate regularly, so that new people are able to learn/practice these skills. The Tech Team is encouraged to work with the Heart Team to recruit new members.
6. This team—or each of the members, depending on organizational style—is responsible for presenting an update on their work to either the Heart Team or FLGBTQC Business Meeting at least once/year, focusing on how they’re doing as well as what they’re doing.

Treasurer Team

The Treasurer Team manages the finances of FLGBTQC, as directed by the Worship Team, the Heart Team, the Tech Team, the FLGBTQC business meeting, or the ad hoc finance committee. The Treasurer Team presents a financial report to the FLGBTQC body at least once a year, and is encouraged to create as much transparency as possible. They collect donations, write checks, and inform FLGBTQC when significant financial decisions are required.

Specifics

1. There should be at least 2 Friends serving on this team at all times, with equal access to all relevant accounts and data. Team members ideally serve staggered 2-year terms.
2. Nominations for the Treasurer Team should be approved by the Business Meeting as a whole. 5 Written in 2022
3. The Treasurer Team informs the Heart Team if we need an ad hoc Finance committee to make difficult financial decisions. They should also cooperate with regular audits.
4. If the Treasurer Team needs to finance an endeavor of their own, they must get approval from the Worship Team, the Heart Team, or the FLGBTQC Business Meeting.
5. If the Treasurer Team is unsure or uncomfortable with any proposal for spending requested, they should consult with either the Worship or Heart Teams (the one not requesting funds), or the ad hoc finance committee if one presently exists, or bring that proposal to FLGBTQC Business Meeting. If major decisionmaking is needed about financial priorities, the Treasurer Team should ask the Heart Team to appoint an ad hoc finance committee.
6. Treasurer Team is responsible for filing all legally required financial paperwork.
7. Treasurer Team is responsible for presenting an update to the Heart Team and Business Meeting at least once/year, focusing on how they’re doing as well as what they’re doing, and the recent past and future budgets.