UUCS Board Meeting
Minutes of Meeting January 14, 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 | No |
| Past Chair | Barry Halgrimson | June 30, 2016 | Yes |
Ex-officio attendee:
| Position | Name | Present | |
| Minister | Rick Davis | Yes |
Visitors: Angela Gross, Phil Carver, Samantha Scales
The meeting was called to order by LJ Frederickson at 6:08 p.m.
Petra Berger was nominated by the Nominating Committee to replace Tom Lancefield’s term. The board voted unanimously to accept Petra to the board.
Phil Carver, current chair of the Finance Committee, was here to discuss this year’s stewardship campaign. Leadership volunteers are needed to make phone calls on or around 2/22. Mailing party for brochure will be after second service on 2/7, volunteers are appreciated.
Phil will be leaving the Finance Committee in June. John Prohodsky will be replacing Phil, along with Paul & Carol Manka as co-chairs. The board voted unanimously to accept Paul, Carol and John being co-chairs of the Finance Committee.
A motion was made by Barry H to have Paul P replace George Struble’s position of Board Secretary. The motion was seconded by Jeff G and unanimously approved by the Board.
Lorna reported briefly on the Treasurers Report and says donations were high due to EOY tax donations.
Barry H asked if there is a place to track the Thanksgiving Guest At Your Table boxes. GAYT funds go directly to UU Service Committee (UUSC) and skip the UU Congregation of Salem’s (UUCS) books. Barry also suggested there may be additional fundraisers that are missing the UUCS books. Lorna agrees there should be a policy that all monies collected by UUCS should run through the UUCS books.
Jeff G distributed and briefly reviewed the team reports from the Team Council Meeting.
Facilities wants to withdraw the requested janitorial position. They feel keeping this position as a contractor would be the best route for us at this point. Paul M would like to hire a handyman to handle some of the building maintenance issues. HR is working with Facilities regarding this new position. John P questioned how many hours we would actually utilize a handyman. It is unknown if this would be an employee or contractor. There are no current funds available for this type of position. The Board has concerns over exactly what this position would be or do and would want to be cautious about what this person would do. David J suggested an audit of existing systems by Facilities and a professional to see what kind of maintenance would need to be done and applied to this position.
John P says that any work on a sign should go through the Facilities team since it is a facility issue. Any funding should be prioritized along with other Facilities projects.
Rick D reviewed the minister’s report. Rick is happy with the new Administrative Committee and feels it is an effective way of helping get things accomplished. Rick feels that the Transportation ministry is another critical part of our service to the community. He is concerned that people are being excluded by not being able to attend. He is looking for out-of-the-box thinking and ways to help. Barry H said that the last time they discussed this they thought of setting budgeted money aside to pay for cab rides. This solution does not take into account people who cannot leave their home. Transportation Ministry should be added to next month’s agenda to continue discussing. John P feels the board should be dealing more with the larger picture instead of these small issues.
David J discussed the transition to programmatic. The update was in the newsletter. The next step is the formation of the teams from the plan. The transition team needs to take the next steps. David is cautious to put out all of the transition information because of losing control over the direction of the transition or the possible misinterpretation of the ideas/thoughts. David says that based on the numbers, we are officially in the “growth cone”, even if just slightly. The newsletter seems to be the right place to distribute this information.
LJ raised a concern about how we are perceived by the community and feels like we should have a “tag line” where we promote that UUCS is a free faith religion. This will be found in event advertising, flyers, and the web. The board will ask Vicky to come up with a statement we can add to advertisements. Rick will work with Vicky and bring it back to the next meeting. All external communication should go through Vicky and she can ensure the new inclusive statement.
LJ asked Barry to help find someone to take the Fellowship/Fundraising position. Sam S has gotten feedback that some people would like the position split into two positions. Lorna Y says we are 50% of the fundraising budget at this point and should need one more good fundraiser to hit our budget goal. LJ will send this back to nominating committee to find someone to fill this position with the approval to possibly split the position but that the positions would need to work together.
Facilities would like to do a fund-a-need capital campaign for the HVAC system. Rick D said if we do another fundraising campaign that it should be in the fall. LJ will talk with Facilities about what their priorities are and what their plan is. The board is not opposed to a fund-a-need campaign but we want to be sure that this is really the thing they want to raise money for.
Facilities is asking that we add a new committee to handle building rentals. Sam S says if we wanted to have more rentals then a committee to handle that would be great. Building rental contracts would still fall on Sam. David J suggested this position would be part of Fundraising. John P will talk with Facilities, Finance, and Communications, among others, and report back to the board regarding facility rental.
CAT team is discussing eliminating the order of service as we are projecting the service on the wall each week. Also the CAT team is wanting to change their name to the Worship Committee. Nobody at the meeting expressed any concern over the name change.
The Connection Card program is a 6-month trial and is so far successful. Many people have already been identified as non-members but regular attenders. Rick would like the board to support the Connection Card program during this trial.
The meeting adjourned at 8:15 p.m.
The next Board meeting will be Thursday, February 11, at 6:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by Paul Parmley