UUCS Board Meeting

Minutes of meeting June 9, 2016

Board Members:

Position	Name	Term end date	Present
Chair	LJ Frederickson	June 30, 2016	No
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	(open)	June 30, 2016	N/A
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	No

 

Visitors: Susan Farris-Gosser, JP Batmale, Victor Reppeto, Samantha Scales, Lynn Cardiff

The meeting was called to order by Petra Berger at 6:12 p.m.

Petra read the UUCS Vision and Mission statements.

 

There was a brief check-in by board members and visitors. Tables were moved to accommodate the guests.

 

Topic: New business (to be considered for the agenda)

• Victor R would like to see more e-mail distribution lists for better communications. Paul P asked him to discuss this with Communications (or whoever creates the e-mail distribution lists). John P suggested we have a larger discussion about ways to improve communication.
• Susan F-G would like to discuss how to prevent items from “falling through the cracks”. Specifically, she brought up watering the plants but generally this is a larger discussion.
• Petra would like to do a brief update on heating and cooling and rodent control.
• John requested an update on the transition to programmatic.

 

Topic: Motions

• A motion was made by Paul P to approve the May 12, 2016 board meeting minutes. The motion was seconded by Elenie. The motion passed.
• A motion was made by Paul P to approve the May 22, 2016 annual business meeting minutes. The motion was seconded by Jeff. The motion passed.

 

Topic: Team / Committee reports (including pending issues to be addressed)

• Lorna briefly reviewed the Treasurer’s report. Non-pledged income is higher than expected. Expenses are staying within budgeted amounts, for the most part. There will be a surplus but the amount is unknown at this time.
• Rick reviewed the Minister’s report. He is recommending we have an auction in the fall with funds being allocated to possibly the heating system. Rick, John and LJ have been meeting with stewardship team and are working towards a year-round stewardship team. A new intern minister has been selected by Rick and his intern minister committee. July is Rick’s vacation month so he will be out and will miss the next board meeting.

 

Topic: Volunteer Leadership program / liaison – coordinator role

• Petra updated the board on her volunteer coordinator assignment.
• Petra is proposing a rotating team chair for the Facilities Committee, a shared leadership program. The committee is enthusiastic about it. There are 3 people on the committee who are very hands on. Petra has volunteered to stay involved in Facilities for the next 6 months to help with this pilot leadership program. They each have their own strengths, so Petra is going to support them. Joel Martin is the first chair of the FC. This model of leadership could eventually apply to other teams.

 

Topic: Team council and committee summary for 2015 /16 church year

• Team council meeting is scheduled for June 26. They will discuss if there is a better model for meeting.
• Jeff G reviewed the team reports he has received. Social Justice is looking for a new chair. Rick says they are exploring a shared leadership model for that team. Petra added that the Membership Team might benefit from shared leadership. This model can help keep leaders from burn-out.
• John brought up the difficulty bringing the Team Council together and suggested an alternative to trying to get the entire Team Council to meet – have smaller groups meet. Petra has explored this option and says she has determined through thorough factual review of the scope of functioning of all our Teams that they all were connected in communicating with other teams.

 

Topic: Planning / Discussion

• The roosters have been moved and food issues have been resolved. The compost bin is being moved. Pest control will be here next week to help control the existing population of rats. We aren’t going to replace the dumpster at this point.
• Petra gave an update on the heating/cooling system. There will be a July proposal to the board to have our current system evaluated by an expert in electric and Heating/cooling systems, and computer matters to determine if /and how our current system can be improved/fixed rather than replacing the system. The cost will be approximately $1000. Mark K suggested we hire an engineer to evaluate the system. The air handler unit that heats and cools the offices is offline. FH does not work with scheduling system. Sunday the CO2 monitors will tell the fan to come on but doesn’t heat the air. There was agreement that a thorough evaluation by a non-profit or independent engineer is a good idea.
• John asked for an update on the transition to programmatic. Rick said there is a general awareness of the transition but didn’t have specific update. John would like to see regular updates and/or time devoted to this topic. Rev Rick and Petra gave examples of
  specific positive changes that have already been made over the last year or two indicating our on-going transition to a Programmatic church.
• David J has resigned from his current position ending on June 30th, and the 2-year position he was just elected to.
• Petra asked if we as a board feel like it would be helpful to have a task force to put together criteria for board members to be recruited. Jeff asked about the current criteria for selecting board members. Petra believes the current criteria is subjective and not documented. Petra stated that it was just her personal belief that it is important that board members have some management experience, but this is only an example, and that the criteria should include individual strengths. Rick suggested there be a leadership development program which would lead to choosing more qualified candidates. Susan suggested that some documentation may already exist at UUA.
• JP asked if there are “volunteer position descriptions”. There was agreement that there should be, and having these will help qualify people for nominated positions.
• John suggested a meeting of the regional board chairs as other congregations may have solutions to problems we are experiencing or be working on the same problem.
• Petra asked if Board members would like to have a retreat this summer and to email LJ and Petra with their thoughts and ideas by July 10th. Rick thinks retreats create trust and shouldn’t be overly ambitious, as you might accomplish more by doing less. Sam suggested the board retreat includes staff. John suggested quarterly retreats, or at least more than one per year.
• Lynn asked what happened to board liaisons. It was discussed that each board member is assigned to a committee/team. Governance would possibly be a good retreat topic.

 

The meeting adjourned at 7:47 p.m.

The next Board meeting will be Thursday, July 14, at 6:00 p.m. July 14th is Bastille Day and JP is hoping we can do something in honor of France’s national pride day.

Respectfully submitted by Paul Parmley