UUCS Board Meeting

Minutes of meeting May 12, 2016

Board Members:

Position	Name	Term end date	Present
Chair	LJ Frederickson	June 30, 2016	Yes
Vice-Chair	Jeff Geissler	June 30, 2016	Yes
Secretary	Paul Parmley	June 30, 2016	Yes
Treasurer	Lorna Youngs	June 30, 2017	Yes
Director	John Prohodsky	June 30, 2016	Yes
Director	David Jeffers	June 30, 2016	Yes
Director	Petra Berger	June 30, 2016	Yes
Director	Stephanie Jernstedt	June 30, 2017	Yes
Director	Elenie Smith	June 30, 2017	Yes
Director	(open)	June 30, 2017	N/A
Past Chair	Barry Halgrimson	June 30, 2016	No

Ex-officio:

Position	Name	Present
Minister	Rick Davis	Yes

 

Visitors: Benjahmin Boschee, Samantha Scales

The meeting was called to order by LJ Frederickson at 6:03 p.m.

LJ lit the chalice and expressed her gratitude to the board for all their hard work.

 

Visitors were asked if they had anything they wanted to ask of the board. Benjahmin B. requested a discussion about UUCS renewing its status as a UUA certified Welcoming Congregation. This was added to the agenda.
Board members were asked if there was anything they would like to discuss that was not on the agenda. John P. asked to add Electronic Giving. This was added to the agenda.

 

There were 3 votes taken by email since the last board meeting. The results of those votes are as follows:

On April 26th, Lorna presented the board with the following request: Due to very recent increases in pledges, an additional $980 should be added to the 2016-17 Proposed Budget income and that $980 should be added to expenditures under Contingency. The Finance Team recommends that the additional funds should go to meet the needs of the Facilities Team. The board agreed by email with Lorna and LJ’s recommendation.

On May 6th at 10:45am LJ called for an email vote to the following motion: The UUCS Board appoints LJ Frederickson, Board Chair, and Paul Parmley, Board Secretary, to execute documents necessary to purchase the .31 acres strip of land from Dave and Kathy Munsel. 8 board members replied yea, 1 abstained. The vote was closed on May 6th at 2:32pm and was approved.

On May 8th at 2:18pm, LJ called for an email vote for the following: We, as a Board, agree to sponsor Theresa Sota for her ordination. This would occur during Labor Day Weekend. Reverend Rick will handle all the details, working with staff and the Board. Reverend Rick advises there are no costs to the congregation as private donations pay the costs. 8 board members replied yes, 1 abstained. The vote was closed on May 12th at 12:36pm and was approved.

 

There were no questions for Lorna regarding the Treasurer’s Report. Lorna added that she sent everyone an updated proposed budget, and an updated projected budget with 10-month actual. There is a projected surplus from higher than anticipated revenues in non-pledged income and investment income. Lorna also wanted to note that the stewardship dinner costs were not budgeted for so they were initially recorded under the fellowship funds, but Lorna will be moving the cost back to the canvas line item.

 

There were no questions for Rick regarding the Minister’s Report. Rick did have a couple of additional items he wanted to update the board on.

1. Joyce Bynum has passed away. He is not sure when the memorial service will be. She will be remembered fondly.
2. Rick’s three goals for this year were to help with covenant program, social justice, and get the administrative team off the ground. Rick ask for feedback from the board on his next year’s goals.
3. Rick expressed his appreciation for approving the ordination of Teresa Sota.
4. COM is needing new members. Rick passed out ballots and the board voted for 3 of the 6 candidates. Rick will tally the votes in private and notify the 3 people.

 

There were no questions for Jeff G. regarding the Team Reports. Jeff G. received the Social Justice Report after he had sent the other reports to the board, so he read the Social Justice report aloud to the board. The report is available online.

 

Rick D. discussed the administrative committee meeting. Arrhiannon K. and Rick are interested in hosting a meeting to jumpstart a fellowship team. There was also brief discussion of a fundraising team. LJ was discussing “Breakthrough Congregations” where they are able to overcome barriers like congregation size. Rick and the worship team are hoping to implement a once a month post-sermon discussion with the congregation. This is another way to engage people spiritually – another means of connecting with people. David J. suggested this could be approached from multiple directions – and if the desire is to motivate people to action then the sermon needs to be a call to action. LJ asked if Paul P. and John P. would help coordinate Rick’s weekly video podcast.

 

Petra B. briefly discussed her status as interim Volunteer Coordinator. At this point, she feels the first step over the next several weeks is to have a few meetings and then decide how to proceed.

 

Benjahmin’s B. was present at the board meeting with a request that we, as a congregation, renew our status as a UUA certified Welcoming Congregation. There was some discussion on what is required and what it will actually take to renew. The renewal process has a specific set of requirements from the UUA including an initial board vote, training, and eventually a congregational vote. The UUA recommends congregations renew their status every 5 years – so UUCS is due for a renewal. The board generally agreed this is important but was unclear how much effort this will take and how this will work with our other congregational priorities for this year. The board asked Benjahmin to send us a written plan on what is involved and who will be leading the effort, so we can evaluate this request further.
Paul P. reviewed the annual meeting powerpoint slides and project plan to answer any outstanding questions and confirm the slides were acceptable to the board.

 

Paul P. requested that after the annual meeting everyone review the Congregational Meeting Procedures for changes so we can vote to approve the procedures at our June board meeting.

 

LJ would like to have a monthly team working meeting, outside the board meeting, to help with team building. This meeting would also be an opportunity to discuss ideas and issues that cannot be fully discussed in email or at a board meeting. This could be a potluck or working dinner. It would be good to have this before the first meeting with the new board.

 

LJ asked if anyone had interest in helping determine what is involved in becoming a Breakthrough Congregation. John asked for the URL to be sent to the board so we can all review. LJ will take care of that.

 

LJ would like a bylaws sub-committee to review and implement some changes to the bylaws. Paul P. asked if there are specific recommended bylaws change that we are looking at or if this is a general review/update of the bylaws. John P. and Stephanie J. volunteered, along with LJ

 

LJ would like to schedule three “cottage meetings” (informal congregational meetings) to have a place for a dialogue between the congregation and the board. Sam S. is going to come up with some possible dates for these meetings which should occur in late September, mid January, and early April. It was also asked that the board think of a name for these meetings.

 

David is working with the Nominating Committee and Petra B. on Leadership Training. David would like to sit down with the Nominating Committee and Petra B. to discuss ideas. LJ said there is a survey which will be compiled into a database. Sam S. says the information from the survey will be raw.

 

John P. asked if it was worth $5 per month, $60 per year to allow people to donate money to UUCS by sending a Text on their cell phone. Lorna asked John to bring this item back to the next board meeting with a more complete proposal.

 

Petra B. brought up that the prior board promised the congregation a review of the impact on going to 2-services, which has not been done. There was a brief discussion on if we should do that review.

 

LJ requested we call the Annual Meeting the Annual Business Meeting because that is what the meeting is for – business.

 

The meeting adjourned at 8:09 p.m.

The next Board meeting will be Thursday, June 9, at 6:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by Paul Parmley