Board
of Trustees
Thursday,
June 8, 2006 Minutes
Church
Social Hall, 7:00p.m.
Present: Elizabeth Breeden, Shelly Canterbury, Brian Haluska, Bob Kiefer, Nick Laiacona, Josie Loyd, Johan
Madson,
Board
of Trustees Focus for 2005-2006 (to be updated at the 2006 fall board
retreat)
§
Develop and implement a shared vision for growth and
facilities management
§
Improve board meeting management to increase efficiency,
effectiveness and transparency
§
Refine and empower governance including council system,
task forces and committees to delegate board responsibilities
§
Foster a sense of membership as stewardship to increase
participation
§
Ensure stronger financial infrastructure
B.
Welcome
to new members and check-in
A. Review of agenda
1. Remove Catherine Derecki from the
approval of delegates to G.A.
2. Deleted discussion of approval of
music use of Abrahamse’s fund
3. Move approval of repairs to
Summit House to old business
4. Add Molly Michie disbanding of
task force to new business
5. Add canvass follow-up to new
business
6. Agenda as amended was accepted
B. Minutes from May 11, 2006 board
meeting
1. New business: clarification of IV
d – amended “expense and expense” to “expense and income”
2. Add on IV B – added “and maintenance”
to the sentence ending “remain under-funded such as bond repayment.”
3. Minutes as amended accepted
III.
Consent Agenda (7:30 p.m.) (5 minutes)
Sally moved,
A. Approval of Finance Committee’s
proposal for access to financial information.
B. Approval
of delegates to GA: Jean Shepard, Josie and Doug Loyd, Barbara Beach, Garner,
David and Leslie Takahashi Morris.
C. Approve
disbanding facilities task forced due to completion of original charge
D. Approval
of Josie Loyd as liaison to the communications committee
IV.
New Business (7:35 p.m.) (20 minutes)
A.
Treasurer’s Report.
1.
Shelley explained need to report any expenses over the budget.
Maintenance on U-House is over budget, as are utilities and computer
maintenance. Pledges are at 94%. We expect a small surplus at the end of the
year. Finance committee is discussing use of surplus (building reserve or debt
pay off are two options). Cash flow is good. May controller report also sent
out.
2.
Board members had questions about the budget and answers were
provided by Shelley.
B. Church
coverage while ministers and president are attending GA 6/21-6/26. Sally Taylor and Bob Kiefer will
provide coverage while the co-ministers and president are at G.A. Leslie with
tell Carole. Pastoral emergencies will be handled by a minister in town.
C. Snack
list sign up
D. Discussion congregational meeting review – how to incorporate presentation of more information and facilitation of more discussion.
1. Next congregational meeting set for August 27, 11:15 a.m. (after Balloon Sunday). We will need to get child care; a board member will need to work with Leia on helping to get it and Dorothy volunteered.
2. Josie explained the need for material for people to read/information sharing for those people who have sight limitations. She asked that the Board be mindful of making sure that every person has access to information in a way that allows them to participate in the congregational meeting process. In preparing for the congregational meeting, we need to make sure there is enough time allotted to agenda items to allow for enough discussion.
3. Other feedback was that we shouldn’t have congregational meetings scheduled on the same day as UVa graduation. It was also the last day of church school, which made it difficult for some RE teachers and youth to arrange to attend.
4. We were forced into this particular date this year to the switch in canvass years.
E. Selection of new members for the committee on ministry
Six names were presented.
Bill Spurgin, Mark Usry, Ann Clark were approved.
F. Molly Michie Preschool Task Force disbanding.
1. A recommendation was brought to the board by the Molly Michie Preschool Task Force. The decision was to delay discussion until August and for the finance committee to review the recommendation and come to the Board with a recommendation. Also, the RE council will have an opportunity to review the Task Force’s recommendation and respond to Leia, who will pass on feedback to the board.
2.
We need a board liaison with Molly Michie Preschool.
3. Sally will send out her history of the Molly Michie Preschool so all board members are up to date.
G. Ministers report on the canvass.
Leslie reported that we had an exceptionally year for canvassing, having two in one year and building an infrastructure for future canvasses. A matching grant was offered which was a great benefit to the church. Through miscommunication, members of the church who had pledged less than $500 were called to increase their pledges, in addition to planned calls to those who had not made a pledge. There have been negative ramifications, and the ministers feel that it is necessary for them to make pastoral calls to those who were called about increasing their pledges. The ministers felt it was important that the board be aware of this situation and suggested that we may need policies to prevent targeting based on giving levels. Discussion was concluded with appreciation expressed for the good work and excellent foundation that was laid for the canvass process.
V.
Old Business (8:25 p.m.) (20 minutes)
A. Discussion
re: formation of a task force to look into accessibility and inclusivity issues
in the church
RE Council came to the
board in May to ask that a task force be formed. We discussed the different
kinds of issues this task force might address—including mobility accessibility,
but other accessibility issues (people with special needs that we currently
can’t/don’t meet). Pam and Josie offered to do some research and report back in
August at the Board retreat.
B. Suggestions
for endowment committee members: we have a crisis in not having any one able to
make decisions. Sally and Shelley will gather a list of potential members to
the endowment committee, and we will discuss them at the August meeting.
C. JUUST
change proposal-task force to explore funding options: Josie suggested using
leadership fund ($1,500) to match the grant for educating the entire
congregation through this consultancy. It was suggested that we make sure that
we have money available for leadership retreats (we will have 2 in the next
program year). We will find out if we get the grant by the end of the summer,
at which time we will discuss further whether the board wants to get behind
this program.
D. Board and Leadership Retreat:
1. This Friday is orientation for new board
members and Saturday’s leadership retreat has been postponed to August. (Board
Retreat on 8/25, Leadership Retreat 8/26, Congregational Meeting 8/27).
2. August 8/26 will have Leadership Retreat in
the morning, and in the afternoon there will be two tracks: RE and Board “nuts
& bolts” meeting. RE Council is excited about this opportunity.
3. The idea for next spring is to have March
leadership retreat prior to nominating new board members—including members of
nominating committee as well as potential nominees.
E. Update
on Summit House repairs
At the last finance
committee, members discussed how to fund the work. 1st priority is
surplus (6 month budget surplus—possibly 10,000), 2nd priority is
the building reserve money or cumulative reserve money, 3rd to take
it out of a lead gift for the capital campaign fund. The finance committee will
come back to the board with a final recommendation.
VI.
Questions and motion to approve received
reports (8:25 p.m.) (10 minutes): Bob moved and Brian seconded accepting received report.
Unanimously approved.
A.
Co-Ministers
Report (received)
B.
President’s
Report
C.
VP
Administration
D.
VP
Programs (received)
E.
DRE
Report
F.
Secretary’s
report on membership: 434
G.
H.
Governance
Task Force Report
VII.
Check-in
process observations (8:35 p.m.) (10 minutes)
David appreciated hearing Bob’s
questions about the budget because it was good to think about them. Shelley’s
offer to explain budget more thoroughly was acknowledged as a good idea, and we
will try to have a time for this to happen.
VIII.
Adjourn (9:17 p.m.) Brian moved, Bob seconded.
The Finance
Committee recommends the follow policies:
1. Access to
Contribution and Pledge Data
Although summary
information on total pledges from any canvass is publicized and actual
contributions by account is available to all TJMC members tin the monthly
financial statements filed in the TJMC office, access to details of individual
pledge amounts or contributions is confidential and restricted to the following
persons on an as-needed basis:
Members of the Canvass Committee
Pledge Tracker[s]
Controller
Treasurer
Co-Ministers
Church Administrator
2. Access to Safe
Access to the safe in the
Church office is limited to the following
positions:
Church Administrator
Depositors
Pledge Tracker[s]
Controller