Clerk (Quaker)
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The clerk of a Quaker meeting is a critical role for the conduct of Quaker affairs. The clerk conducts the meeting for business or committee meeting in the spirit of worship. In that role, the clerk is responsible for creating the agenda, facilitating the conduct of the meeting, and recording the "sense of the meeting" in series of "minutes".
As each minute is written, the clerk asks the meeting if they accept the minute. If attenders accept the minute, they will nod their heads or say "I hope so" (in Britain, see Quaker terminology) or "approve", otherwise they may identify what, specifically, they do not accept. There may be further discussion in the spirit of worship. The clerk then reworks the minute, and asks for acceptance again. By the end of the meeting, the attenders have agreed all of the minutes, one by one.
In some Quaker groups, the role of facilitating the meeting is separate from the creation and taking of minutes. In this case, the meeting facilitator is known as the presiding clerk or simply clerk, while the one responsible for minutes is called a recording clerk.
