Clerking and RantWoman, circa 2012!!!!

RantWoman is meditating about clerking workshops, alternate formats, accumulated experience or experience lost track of.

RantWoman is sitting humbly with appreciation for how much it meant for the PResiding Clerk at the 2019 Annual Session to ask RantWoman ( and some others to hold her in the Light.)

An email exchange from RantWoman's archives. Thank you nuanced use of the search bar to find. RantWoman is mostly posting verbatim, aware thatediting would make a tighter story.

From: (RantWoman)
Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2012 23:01:35 -0700
Subject: Blind person in big meetings.

Mesdames Former NPYM Presiding Clerks, teachers of clerking and
generally Weighty friends

I have a request, a fairly direct request left over from various
experiences and thoughts that woke me up at 4 am one day last year at
Annual Session.. I hope that my questions generate easy suggestions,
preferably with a focus on accessibility suggestions taht benefit
other people besides me.

I am cc'ing two Friends just for data purposes. One says she
called up the Community Services for the Blind and Partially Sighted.
She got told, probably in gentler terms than I have been trying to say
for, oh, a LONG time, that the most appropriate way to help a person
with a disability is to provide the help asked. The best way to figure
out what an individual needs is to ask the individual directly and
work with trial and error in different contexts to help the individual
articulate concerns and what works, including for instance figuring
out more precisely what "help" is helpful.

CSBPS is a great resource. It has all kinds of cool stuff and I highly
recommend visits for anyone who needs blindness tourism. The staff are
very helpful and probably anyone could just go pick up some random
merchandise and learn a lot by asking "what's that?"

But I digress. The topic is blind people in large meetings, say
plenaries at Annual Session. At assorted public participation fora
there is often a staff person who helps people blinder than me who
want to comment find their way to a mic or line to comment.  my other
experience is one year at the state convention of the WA Council for
the Blind. There I remember:
    --I think the chair relied on a spotter
    --either use the mic / wait for the mic runner or line up somehow.
I do not remember how documents needed for the meetings were handled
except I remember lots of Braille and large print. I am nat a fast
enough Braille reader to care about Braille except as a curiosity.

Probably the main point to draw from this experience is "wait for the
Mic." In other words, not much different from other people.


As far as Annual Session plenaries, I expect that I will offer my
concerns and suggestions and not necessarily that it will be possible
to expect more than that, but I would be grateful for any comments by
phone or email based on your experiences. I would also appreciate, if
you feel able, experienced eyes to watch and listen for some of the
points that come up below; I expect I will also try specifically to
recruit someone else to help me pay attention to what is going on.

First my basic thoughts, then some data points including fresh stuff
from PNWQWTC:

NOT necessarily a vision issue.
--the discussion about events involving men at the Women's conference
Business Meeting.  I know what I think. I know what was said by
someone else. I have NO clue about people's non-verbal reactions. I am
not sure I presented what I think clearly so I would be curious what
you heard. Do you have any thoughts about why it was hard to reflect
concerns in minutes?

--the other inclusivity comments about one-day events and about women
from hispanic churches. In the latter two cases, I first just need to
know were those comments made in business Meeting or later? Next, do
you remember whether those points got mentioned in the minutes? How
would you characterize visible, non-verbal reactions to those
comments?

A vision issue:
I was touched by Carol Urner struggling to stay within her allotted
time. Carol Urner is someone whose tendency to go on and on I would be
tempted to indulge so I was glad her quote was used at the end of the
epistle. The other point though is that if anyone wants me to stay in
a time limit, I need a bell because I cannot see hand signals.  Here
for reference is a charming tale of me boring the chair of a State
Senate committee and not being able to tell partly because the person
who had agreed to be my timekeeper was seated behind me.
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2009/02/testimony.html


Now to Annual Session
--I will remind John to ask people please to STATE THEIR NAMES and to
state their names EVERY time they speak. This
   --helps the recording clerk.
   --helps anyone with interpreters (probably not applicable at NPYM
plenaries but ask me if you want about someone who has a new
interpreter every month.)
   --This REALLY helps me if I want to try to find someone to follow
up or if I come in late because of some other responsibility.
My memory is that people state their names inconsistently. Any tips
about how to encourage people to do this?

--Invoking my nodding and not even grunting comment from Business
Meeting one time at UFM, I will ask John to state his sense of things
verbally and to be clear about what Friends are approving.

--I will ask John to discourage Death by Powerpoint broadly defined to
include, two examples from PNWQWTC not only Powerpoint but anything
projected in fonts that are too tiny or with bad contrast such as
white lettering on mottled grey and white background.  It's not that I
necessarily expect to be able to read the screen anyway but both of
these issues affect LOTS of people.
    I think I have a link with some concise instructions. I do not
remember urges to project being so ubiquitous when either of you were
clerks. What is your experience about people's interactions with
material projected on screens, for example the epistle at the Women's
conference?

--Janet last year kept waving her hand in my direction and I had no
idea whether she was waving at me or someone near me. Some of the time
she could identify who she meant to recognize verbally. I will ask
John if he means to recognize me to find some way that is pretty
specific. How difficult was it for either of you to identify people
you meant to recognize in verbal terms?

--I am so excited that a tentative schedule and most materials are
already on the website. This SHOULD give me reasonable hope of being
able to come prepared to plenaries with the right documents in mind
even if everyone else gets to rifle through their papers. Plus I have
a new gizmo. Unfortunatley it talks. But at least now I get to be
responsible for what I do or do not get read instead of (long list of
irritating crazy-making points no one has interacted with yet from...
Feel free to ask if you want my take on chaotic process and some key
W&M functions not getting done.)
    I will ask John to publicize any changes from the tenative
schedule in each day's Daily Bulletin. Any other thoughts?

--I need to figure out whether there is anything topical to NPYM
plenaries from the following two accounts of me doing something
arguably obnoxious in large meetings that wound up enhancing
accessibility for multiple people. Any thoughts?

The Death By Powerpoint votes at the health care forum
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2009/01/death-by-powerpoint-part-n1.html

Agnes Schmoe's Memorial
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2011/07/agnes-schmoe.html

My sense is that in plenaries sometimes pockets of conversation do
develop that might need to be quelled. What are your thoughts or
experiences?

Thank you in advance for comments or for directness if you have little time.

In the Light

(RantWoman)


The response


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Extremely Weighty Friend
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 18:53:40 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: Blind person in big meetings.


June 25, 2012
Dear (RantWoman)


I think you ask some good questions, and I will try to answer.


1.  I actually don't remember any discussion about men at the PNWQWTC!  If there was, it was very quick and no issue raised.  However, I was a server that night and could only hear bits and pieces of the minutes, so don't know what is there.  What I did hear concerned me, because it sounded like Recording Clerk, listed all the ideas thrown out, as if we kind of agreed to all.  Write Recording Clerk, if you want more info..


2.  One day and include Latinas from the NWYM Hispanic Churches.  I think those ideas are in the minutes, but again, check with Helen.  My admittedly vague memory is that the one-day idea did not generate discussion and my hit is that people did not think it would work.  I do think there was considerable interest in the idea of including Latinas.


3.  Excellent reminder that you are not going to SEE a time-keeper!  Other means would have to be used.  Personally, it seems to me a bell would be intrusive to the feel of whatever was going on and that having someone beside you to touch you on the shoulder or something like that would be better.


Your communications with Another Friend
1.  Excellent re reminding him to be sure everyone gives name and Meeting before speaking - your explanation of why would be very helpful to him, aside from the fact that it is simply the practice we are always supposed to use, so that new-comers can also learn who people are.  For many of us, that takes multiple times hearing a name!  He may have to stop people and remind them a number of times before the meeting gets it.  This means intervening, which is not always easy.  But, it is much better for the clerk to do it than some irritated member of the Meeting shouting "Your name, Friend!".


2.  Yes, a clerk should always restate what we are approving when asking for approval.  If the body just agrees, it may not be necessary to re-state.  However, if any discussion continues, the clerk should restate.  I am afraid we can be sloppy about that.  It may, for example, be the role of a recording clerk to say to the Clerk, something like:  Sorry, I didn't quite get that - could you please restate what we just decided!


3.  The powerpoint issue is more challenging.  I agree it was not always used well at the PNWQWTC, but for NPYM, having Nominating Committee reports, Budget, and Financial reports on the screen are very useful.  Yes, the latter are, hopefully, in the materials in advance.  Nom Reports are likely to change, not only from now until Annual Session, but also during Annual Session.  Should there be a few hard copies be made?  Should they be in large print?  I don't have answers on this one. I think projecting the epistle for the PNWQWTC worked well for most people.


4.  Other presenter and I both agree that the Clerk in any large group should always recognize people by a verbal description  .  .   .  the man with the red shirt and hat; the woman with the grey hair and black shirt.  Sometimes it is a little harder to think fast about identifying characteristics, but it is still better than calling people by name.  If we were to use the British process, it would be even easier.  They ask that when someone wants to speak, they stand and wait for the clerk to call on them.  Often a number of people stand at once and then the clerk calls on one.  The rest are supposed to sit down!  I remember a British Clerk instructing the Meeting as follows: "If you have stood 3 times in a row and not been called on, please sit out the next time and discern if you are still led to speak and have something new and different to contribute."  I completely agree that the clerk should not just wave vaguely at someone.


5.  Great idea that changes from materials in advance should be publicized in the daily bulletin.  That would help all of us.


6.  I didn't read you blog entries, but deduce that one talked about side-conversation(s?) going on at a memorial.  A clerk should instantly stop any side conversations.


A lot of the above assumes a clerk who is willing to educate and intervene.  It is not always easy to do, and we all need to forgive clerks (and ourselves) when we fall short.  Communicating your concerns with John in advance is, I think, a blessing.


Extremely Weighty Friend