Board
of Trustees
Thursday,
September 14, 2006 Draft Minutes
Church
Social Hall, 7:00p.m.
Present: Elizabeth Breeden, Brian Haluska, Bob Kiefer, Nick Laiacona, Josie Loyd, Johan Madson,
We are committed to the individual and collective pursuit of spiritual growth, social justice, and life-long religious education and understanding.
We foster an open and free community in which we share our gifts, care for one another, and honor our differences.
We seek to have a lasting influence on local, national and global programs that promote equity and end oppression.
B.
Check-in
II.
Discussion
Item
Leadership Retreat Follow Up to discuss issues that arose at the leadership retreat and decide which require follow-up action.
We decided to discuss communications because it
permeates so many issues. Among the issues discussed: There may be some people
in the church willing to lead in this area. We need to consider how to
encourage and move this interest along. The issue isn’t just what to
communicate, it is who is included in the communication. The bulletin is
currently our only communication device, and there is a limit to what can be
included in it. We discussed the UUPPITTY women’s e-mail—its filtering system,
to whom it goes (and doesn’t), how some of its successes could help us better
communicate throughout the church, how its limitations are also informative.
The website and the Friday e-mails were also discussed. There is an impression
that the there is a lack of information from the Board and other governing
bodies on how decisions have been made. Another issue is how to
communicate/connect with new members. We discussed the purpose of the communication
and its target audiences, including information, guidance, news, outreach, and
uplift. We have some information from a survey that we might be able to use as
we approach this situation. We will continue to discuss communication in our
next board meeting.
III.
Opening
Meeting
A. Review of agenda—add endowment
committee to old business
Agenda accepted as amended.
B. Minutes from August 10, 2006
board meeting
1. Change to Item IV. A. 3:
“The finance committee meeting has made a recommendation about the rental
agreement with the Molly Michie Preschool and finance
committee will look into repayment of debt. replaces
“has asked that the board to
discuss repayment of debt.”
2. The minutes were accepted as
amended.
IV.
Consent Agenda
A.
Motion to approve Stephanie Lowenhaupt on the endowment committee.
B.
Motion to approve that our church adopt the UUA Health
Insurance Plan for church staff effective January 1, 2007.
Moved to approve all items on the consent agenda,
Seconded, Approved.
V.
New Business
A. Treasurer’s Report
1. We’re in good shape. August revenue is down (as usual). The utility bills are over budget, but this is expected with changes in use and cost. There was a question about whether Summit House renovations will yield savings, and it was explained that while it is a more efficient system and much better insulated, it may cost more in some areas (electricity for air conditioning).
2. 10,000 to pay off a church loan. Finance committee agreed to do pay off $10,000 of church debt in September (in the past it has been done at the end of the year).
3. Scrip sales are up.
B. Task force on accessibility—Pam reported that it made sense to fold in our approach to accessibility issue with the JUUST Change Consultancy. Members of the church who have expertise in the field and parents of adult children with disabilities are interested in serving on a task force.
C. Selection of candidates for the DRE relations committee—will be moved to October.
D. Health Insurance for Music Director
1. Bob reported that the personnel committee has discussed but not made a formal recommendation, but the co-chair of the committee provided figures for different levels of funding health insurance at the request of the Board.
2. We discussed the various funding levels and the current system by which the music director receives compensation for health insurance (she has received a sum of 10% of her salary with which she can purchase insurance.) She is now interested in being covered by a health insurance policy and there was a discussion about what % of her costs we would cover.
3.
We discussed asking the personnel and finance
committees to make recommendations, but because there is some urgency (the
deadline for registering for the UUA insurance is October 1), and we had a good
sense of the wishes of the personnel committee in this matter, we decided the
board should make a decision now.
E. Long-Range Planning Committee.
1. Sally reported that the committee requires 7 people serving 2 year terms, but currently there are only three members—Burnie Davis (co-chair), Karen Michie (co-chair), and Mary Beth Wiley—whose terms will be up in 2007. (The committee requires two board members.) This is a board appointed committee.
2. Doug Loyd is interested in serving on the LRP Committee. Pam moved, and Nick seconded that he be appointed. Unanimously approved.
3. Nick and Bob volunteered to serve for one year. Johan moved and Brian seconded that Nick and Bob be appointed for one-year terms.
F. The board went into executive session to receive a report from the Personnel Committee on the evaluations of staff. The report was received.
VI.
Old Business
A.
Congregational
meeting review—sign-in process for this past meeting required secret
ballots. What was the process, what was the experience this time, is there some
way we could do it better?
1. Because
there was an unpredictably long line for getting ballots, we decided that we
should add to the sign-up sheet for preparing for Congregational Meetings
someone to organize the sign-in procedure and that it would be a good idea to
have separate lines divided by the alphabet.
2. We
need to make sure the sound system is completely working before the meeting
begins. A second person should help in set up of the sound system (the mic
walker). The mic was pointed so the speakers addressed the president instead of
the congregation but that was apparently something to do with projecting the
sound.
B.
JUUST Change
consultancy
1. The
board approved our application for a UUA JUUST Change Consultancy. It is now
time to move forward with designing what that consultancy would be. David Takahashi
Morris went over the process and a hand out. The process can include: a broad
audit to systematically find information about how the church works; a
diversity review, looking for instance at particular topics (such as the
Jefferson Foyer and how it feels to some people) and they can set up how we
talk about such issues; looking at the history of the church to see how it
might influence how the church is perceived by others in the community.
2. Josie
explained the history of JUUST Change coming to the board: deciding to apply,
being accepted.
3. We
need a “coordinating committee” with board members and others who would meet
and determine how we might use the results of the consultancy. Pam and Dorothy
volunteered to be a part of such a committee, as did David Takahashi Morris. Members
of the GSA (Donna Baker?) and the Undoing Racism Committee (Susan Bremer?) will
be asked to join this committee as well. They will make contact with the JUUST
Change people to begin the process.
4. We
discussed the board’s role in the process and several issues about what we want
the consultancy to address. It is an open-ended process, so the first step will
be to make contact and get guidance from the JUUST Change people. Scheduling
will be an issue, as well, and January seems to be the most promising time.
C.
Endowment Committee—
1. Because
the committee has not met in some time, we’ll ask Shelly to convene a meeting
with the members who have been approved.
2. We
will ask Konrad Busse to be on the committee.
VI.
Questions and motion to approve received
reports
A.
Co-Ministers
Report
B.
President’s
Report-not received
C.
VP
Administration-not received
D.
VP
Programs
E.
DRE
Report-not received
F.
Secretary’s
report on membership: 450
G.
Long
Range Planning Committee Report-not received
H.
Governance
Task Force Report—Johan asked that board members read carefully and be ready to
give feedback.
VII.
Check-in
process observations
Was the work that we did tonight vision
work? The JUUST Change, the opening discussion on communication, and the
discussion on insurance felt like vision work. Other members leading discussion
of certain items took some of the work off the president. Are we going to
invited the canvass committee to the October meeting?
VIII.
Adjourn
We adjourned at 9:39.
Next Executive Committee meeting: Thursday,
September 28, 7p.m.-8p.m.
Next Board of Trustees meeting: Thur., October 12, 2006,
Social Hall, 7:00p.m.