The Assistant Clerk (AC) is an optional position in the Quaker organizational structure. The AC usually sits at the clerk's table, to the right of the clerk. ACs read reports and Query summaries from subordinate meetings. They also help the clerk during the business as needed, such as by suggesting words for minutes and in discernment of agenda matters. The position is often called simply "assistant." Ohio YM went through a phase in the latter half of the twentieth century when most ACs were women.
In the 1990s, the position of AC came to be called informally the "reading clerk." This term had not been used historically but has become considered the right term on the yearly meeting level.
