Anne Hoenicke told us in April that she wished to step down from the office of church clerk. In the June issue of The Spire, there was an open invitation to the congregation to consider taking on the task of Clerk–Recording Officer. Margaret McIndoe responded enthusiastically and we have equally enthusiastically welcomed her into this role. At their September meeting, the Leadership Team voted to elect her to the role of ‘clerk–recording officer’ until the 2017 annual meeting, effective immediately. We are so grateful to her for her generosity in volunteering to serve the church in this position.
What does it mean that Margy has taken on the role of Clerk-Recording Officer? The Leadership Team decided that it made sense, at least for the moment, to split the role of Clerk into two parts and voted to do so. The piece that Margy is doing is the work of minute taking—both at Congregational meetings and at the meetings of the Leadership Team (of which she becomes a non-voting member by virtue of her position). In this role she becomes an officer of the church. The other part of the original Clerk role is Membership Registrar and Archivist. Anne Hoenicke will continue to do this work, which consists of keeping our membership records and being a resource when we need to research some part of our records. The person who fills the role of Membership Registrar and Archivist is not an officer of the church.
Anne Hoenicke served the congregation in the role of clerk for 9 years, starting in 2007. She has given untold hours, usually behind the scenes, to help the organization run smoothly, reliably and honestly. Besides her official duties she has thoughtfully helped to plan meetings and to shape policies and procedures that make for effective work. Her minute-taking has been extraordinarily accurate and detailed, as, too, her work as membership registrar. It is amazing how frequently we have made use of her skills in this area, as we have had to research the record of votes of the congregation and of other matters. We have marveled at her ability to research through the jumble of records (to which she has painstakingly been bringing order) so that we can faithfully follow the expressed wished of the congregation as expressed in many years of voting. We are blessed that she will be continuing in the role of Membership Registrar and Archivist. We thank her for fulfilling the role of Clerk so expertly, quietly and graciously these 9 years.