Board
of Trustees
Thursday,
August 10, 2006 DRAFT Minutes
Church
Social Hall, 7:00p.m.
Shelly Canterbury, Brian Haluska, Nick
Laiacona, Josie Loyd, Johan Madson,
Board
of Trustees Focus for 2005-2006
§
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.
Check-in
A.
Review of agenda
1. Add leadership retreat
2. Future Items
a. Long Range Planning Committee
(down to three people and need refocus and new energy)
b. Need to discuss paying off the
debt and how that factors into a Capital Campaign
Agenda
Approved
B.
Minutes from July 20, 2006 board meeting
Approved
III.
Consent Agenda
No
items
IV. New Business
A. Treasurer’s Report
1. Cash is still very good $160,000 in the bank. Pledges are good. Income for month was $70,000. Only one copy of the financial report was available since the copier was not working.
2. Marty Bass has opened money market account. Finance Committee has asked him to look into more possibilities for banking our money.
3. The Finance Committee meeting has made a recommendation regarding the rental agreement with the Molly Michie Preschool and has asked that the board discuss repayment of debt.
4. Finance recommends that all donations to Social Action Collections be made out to the church and then sent to the agency. This helps with tracking how much the church gives and helps the smaller agencies and organizations who don’t have the people-power to process the checks. This will be announced along with the Social Action announcements.
B. Staff evaluation reports-personnel committee. Moved to September because the Personnel Committee wasn’t ready to come to this evening’s meeting. Evaluations were done in April, so next year we should plan ahead to have this on the May or June Board agenda and notify Personnel accordingly. A question was raised about the survey that the Committee on Ministry conducted. They will go to individual committees to talk about the findings and then will make a report to the board.
C. Board retreat preliminary planning—the retreat was postponed from the spring. It will be called a “leadership ingathering.”
1. Leslie provided a draft agenda for the Saturday session. The focus in the morning will be based on transition and change, as well as sharing the ministries of the church. The afternoon will include an “ingathering” for the RE Committee and a “Nuts and Bolts” session for those who want to know more about the workings of the church. Leslie asked new board members to take over the phoning responsibilities of former board members to invite specific people to the leadership retreat.
2. Friday Evening is the board retreat—a potluck dinner at Josie’s home at 6pm. Josie suggested that we discuss how we see our role as board members—our level of commitment and what it means to us. Also, she suggested that we discuss the role of the Board in the church community—whether we want to become more visible in church activities. We also need to revisit the focus of the board.
a. Nick will organize the potluck
b. David Stoner will take care of getting Jefferson Cups engraved for departing Board members.
D. Discussion: Board role in church-wide events/initiatives: Activities fair 9/17, GSA public witness activities, Fall Fellowship day 9/30. These will be addressed during the Board Retreat.
Break – Johan
V. Old
Business
A. Summit House repairs—David Stoner reported that Chuck is behind where he would like to be but should be finished by the middle of next week. He was thinking Tuesday or Wednesday everything should be up and running. Josie reported that Kip was getting bids for the roof repair. There is an all church work party on September 9th.
B.
Molly Michie Preschool recommendation
1. Review of Finance Committee recommendation. The finance committee recommended that we follow the recommendation of the MMP Task Force, which is to have MMP pay a monthly building use fee (which includes utilities instead of their paying a portion of each month’s utilities). The fee would be $400/ month (2007-2008), $530/month (2008-2009), $650/month (2009/2010). The contract will be one year at a time, and the church reserves the right to not rent the space when the contract ends if the need arises, but this is the fee structure we will follow over the next years. MMP is expecting a fee increase, but they want to keep their costs as low as possible.
2. The task force would like to change its name to the Molly Michie Preschool Relations Committee (MMPRC) to better reflect its mission.
3. Vote
on Task Force recommendation—Sally moved and David seconded and the fee
structure and name change were approved
4. A
question was asked about funding a scholarship. This matter will be passed on
to the MMPRC and that group will report back to the board at a future date.
C.
Response/update to Ctr. For Peace and Justice
Event—Josie asked for feedback on the letters she has written. She will mail
them off tomorrow morning.
D.
Discussion about promotion of contributing friend
designation—A contributing friend designation was made to recognize those who
have a multi-year record of active participation in the church in addition to
financial support but for personal reasons cannot sign the membership book and
become full members of the church. There was discussion about how much to
publicize this and also what to call it. Leslie explained that we wanted to
have a different designation than “contributing” friend, which includes anyone
who is a friend who gives any amount of money. We need new terminology to refer
to this designation, a brief announcement explaining the new designation, and a
draft of a by-laws change that addresses this issue. Sally will work with David
and Leslie and bring it back to the board.
E.
Report on Endowment Committee Nominees—Neil
Glassberg has agreed to serve a one-year term. Two other members are still
considering joining. Pam moved and Dorothy seconded that Neil be elected to the
committee.
F.
Congregational Meeting checklist: child care—halfway
there, still working on getting adult caregivers; ballots—Shelly will write
these, membership lists.
G.
Our partner church in India will be celebrating
their Platinum Anniversary (75 years). It was moved by Johan and seconded by
Nick that we write a letter of congratulations. Pam will write the letter.
VI. Questions
and motion to approve received reports
A.
Co-Ministers
Report—oral report:
1.
There
was an onslaught of significant pastoral care issues this summer, and the church
rose to the occasion to make sure that people received what they needed,
including some structures that have been put in place in the past few years.
The ministers were in touch with some of these people despite their being on
sabbatical. We may need to reconsider the structure of leave and study leave
time—currently they’re required to take a big chunk of time during the
summer—to better meet the needs of the congregation.
2.
The
ministers are clarifying and dividing their roles as co-ministers. Leslie will
be Carole’s direct supervisor (so any feedback concerning Carole’s probationary
period should be directed to Leslie).
B.
DRE
Report—we are in desperate need of people to volunteer to teach this year.
C.
Secretary’s
report on membership-451
D.
E.
Governance
Task Force Report—they are continuing to gather information and meet.
VII.
Discussion
What is the one thing that you hope to get out of the board
retreat?
The group went around with each person naming one thing. Mentioned
were:
VIII.
Check-in
process observations
Brian won’t be able to come to the next
board meeting. It helps when we can let each other know if we can’t make
meetings.
IX. Adjourn
Shelly moved and Brian seconded; we adjourned.
Next Executive Committee meeting: Thursday,
August 31, 2006, 7p.m.
Next Board of Trustees meeting: Thur., September 14, 2006,
7p.m.