Student-Body Business Decisions

At HFS, students have many opportunities to participate in community decision-making.  Quakers make decisions or recommendations based on the Quaker business process referred to as “Sense of the Meeting,” often, and somewhat erroneously referred to as “consensus”.  To make community or committee decisions, students come ready to offer their thoughts on the subject at hand, express their feelings, and listen to the feelings of others. The process requires participants to “let go” of individual biases to allow a group decision to evolve. Friends believe that when a community gathers together, their collective presence is a spiritual resource led by a power greater than each of the individuals present. The process requires each person’s sincere effort to listen, with love and acceptance, to “that of God” in all people that have come to participate in the community decision-making process. Periods of silence, opportunities for sharing, and thoughtful questioning of various ideas and proposals occur as the group works toward a decision. A “Sense of the Meeting” or “an agreement to move forward with a proposed course of action” is recorded when a proposal resonates with all gathered. If someone disagrees, he or she can stand aside on the issue and allow the decision to go forward.  He or she may also ask the group to take more time to consider that what an apparent majority wishes may not be a decision truly led by a collective truth or divinely guided sense of the meeting. While this process is not a quick means to decisions, it values and requires all community members’ support and participation, verbal or silent.