HMAC's Mandate

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HMAC's responsibilities are summarized in Organization and Procedure, (90) V1-68,69:

Home Mission and Advancement Committee Terms of Reference are:

To encourage the formation of worship groups and their development either directly as Allowed Meetings under the care of the Committee (see chapter IV) or as Allowed or Preparative Meetings of a Monthly Meeting. To nurture both developing Meetings and older Meetings. To encourage and facilitate visitation.
To maintain contact with isolated Friends and those interested in the Society of Friends To make our Society known to other seekers. To answer enquiries, maintaining a supply of materials suitable for the purpose and arranging contact, on request, with local Meetings.
To encourage use of Quaker books and other materials, in particular through the Travelling Library. To observe present legal obligations with respect to trust funds. (Details of these are available in the Yearly Meeting Office.) To assist, in cooperation with local Meetings, the attendance of Friends at conferences and other educational events. To appoint sub-committees or ad hoc committees from time to time to study relevant issues, and to report.
To be responsible for the acceptance and holding of membership in the Society of Friends in Canada where it is deemed desirable (see Chapter III on Membership). (Re #11: Home Mission and Advancement Committee is authorised to assume the functions and responsibilities of a Monthly Meeting relating to membership for an enquirer when there is no Monthly Meeting near enough to give effective oversight. The Committee may receive and consider an application for membership from an enquirer in these circumstances and appoint Friends from the Committee or other Meetings to visit the applicant on its behalf and report to it. If Home Mission and Advancement Committee agrees that the application should be accepted, the membership shall be recorded as in the care of that committee until it appears geographically possible to transfer it to the oversight and regular membership of a Monthly Meeting. While these members are not regarded as forming a constituent Meeting of Canadian Yearly Meeting, it is open to Home Mission and Advancement Committee to recommend Friends on its list for appointment to committees of Yearly Meeting. - Canadian Yearly Meeting 1979 Minute #87)