A “Meeting for Sufferings” was established by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in 1756. At the time of the Separation of 1827/28, the Orthodox branch of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting maintained a Meeting for Sufferings, and the Hicksites appointed a General or Representative Committee to attend to the affairs of their Yearly Meeting during its recess. In 1910, the Orthodox renamed the Meeting for Sufferings as Representative Meeting.

At the time of the Separation of 1827/28, the Orthodox branch of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting maintained a Meeting for Sufferings, and the Hicksites appointed a General or Representative Committee to attend to the affairs of their Yearly Meeting during its recess.

In 1910, the Orthodox renamed the Meeting for Sufferings as Representative Meeting. The name of Representative Meeting was continued at the time of the reunification of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting with the merger of the Representative Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (Hicksite) and Representative Meeting of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (Orthodox) in 1955. In 1996, Representative Meeting was renamed Interim Meeting as a result of the recommendation of the PYM Structure and Workings Committee.

In 1996,Representative Meeting was renamed Interim Meeting as a result of the recommendation of the PYM Structure and Workings Committee.

This subcommittee was the recipient of certain trust funds, the interest of which was used to make free grants of books to libraries and individuals. In the Orthodox Meeting, it was responsible for the management of the Book Store.

In 1980, the Book and Publications Committee and the Library Committee were laid down, and a new Book Services Study Committee was appointed.

Charles L. Willits died in 1884, leaving $10,000 to be administered the Meeting for Sufferings for "the promotion of Religion and Morality among people of the Negro Race." Half of the income was to be distributed in the southern United States, and half in Liberia. The committee issued a quarterly publication, "The Africans Friend," which was given to the designated groups.

This Ad Hoc Committee was appointed in response to concerns expressed over the method by which decisions were reached by the Yearly Meeting in 1967. The Committee reported back to the Representative Meeting.

In 1968, the Committee to Study Yearly Meeting Finances made a report to the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, in which it made a number of suggestions for improvement, including the creation of a Finance Committee and an Advisory Committee. The Advisory Committee was to be responsible to the Representative Meeting, and its purpose was to provide continued review of the activities, programs, and organizational structure of the Yearly Meeting, to advise the Representative Meeting of its observations or concerns, and to suggest the initiation, termination, or shifting emphasis of certain Yearly Meeting Activities.

The Advisory Committee was laid down in 1996, when the Structure and Working Committee proposed a new organizational structure for the Yearly Meeting, consisting of five Standing Committees, and changed the name of Representative Meeting to Interim Meeting.

The Review Committee was created in 1971 as a subcommittee of the Advisory Committee, with the consent of the Representative Meeting. Its purpose was to perform a comprehensive review of the program and structure of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, in order to use the Yearly Meeting's limited human and financial resources effectively. Edward M. Hendrickson was appointed chair of the Review Subcommittee.

In 1972, the Review Committee gave its first report, in which it suggested that the Yearly Meeting should be decentralized, and that the structure of central affairs should be reorganized. There were also proposed rearrangements to the Monthly and Quarterly Meeting structures. On its recommendation, task groups were created in four primary sections - Educational and Pastoral Care, Concerns, General Services, and Regionalization and Regrouping of Monthly Meetings. Three of these task groups became the three primary sections of the Yearly Meeting organization - Education and Care of Members, Testimonies and Concerns, and General Services. The committee was laid down in 1974, with massive reorganization under way.

In 1971, problems caused by the organization of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting were referred to the Review Committee, which submitted a report accepted by the Yearly Meeting in 1974, in which it recommended that the Yearly Meeting should restructure into three sections - Education & Care of Members, Testimonies & Concerns, and General Services. A massive reorganization of the Yearly Meeting ensued.

In fall of 1976, the Representative Meeting formed the Evaluation Committee, and charged it with presenting two reports - an interim report in 1977, and a final report in 1978 - on the effectiveness and consequences of the changes to the organizational structure. The Committee met monthly from 1976 to 1978, and in 1978, it reported that it found more advantages than disadvantages to the new structure, and provided the Yearly Meeting with a list of recommendations to improve the continuing transition. The Committee was laid down in 1978, as planned.

The Yearly Meeting of 1980 that the three Coordinating Committees under the leadership of the Advisory Committee work together to conduct a study of Programs, Services, and their Financing. During their first year, Representative Committee added another area of investigation, a concern advanced by the Personnel Committee, viz. the adequacy of staff salaries. A report was returned to the 1981 Yearly Meeting with a number of recommendations.

In 1990, Representative Meeting appointed the Long Range Committee; its report was submitted to Yearly Meeting in March of 1994. When unity could not be reached on some of its recommendations during a special session in October of 1994, a Structure and Workings Committee was appointed; this Committee was comprised of all of the Clerks of monthly and quarterly meetings. The report of the Structure and Workings Committee was approved by Yearly Meeting in 1996. At that time an Implementation Committee was created to work out the details.