Board Meeting - February 16, 2009 7:00-8:45 PM

Present: Will Truesdale, Judy Cormier, Roger Comstock, Marge Titcomb, Anne Turner, Jane Cleaves, Jeff O’Brien, David Kennedy, Deb Rice

Absent: Eric U., Jenn McAdoo, Jennifer Emrich

Chalice Lighting

Reading: Fear – A congregation fluctuates between fear of too much change and fear of too little change.

Visioning – How are the executive decisions of the church made?  Currently the executive committee is President, VP, Treasurer, and Clerk.  Agenda planning and personnel decisions, could the executive committee be structured differently?

Discussion Thread - Board busies itself with policies and vision, the executive committee busies itself with decisions, communication. Does the board have some role in program?  Yes, but only in guiding the program through setting policy and direction. Does the board keep a close eye on the councils who run the programs?  It’s up to us to decide to what extent the board is involved in the councils. Will the two-circle diagram look the same next year? Probably not.  As we implement this change there will be needs we did not envision.  This diagram is implemented by people, we need to be fluid to work with people who often have different talents and enthusiasms. Yes, but the basic structure should stay the same. People should be able to work in different areas as their enthusiasms change and keep the structure basically the same. Executive committee needs to be able make rapid decisions and administer the operations of the church.  Latham talks about trust, the board needs to trust whoever it places on the executive committee. Much of the rapid decisions have to deal with the building, buildings and grounds person (either chair or liaison) should be on the executive. What Latham is trying to say is that the executive committee is in charge of getting things done. Wait a minute, this is a drastic change from what we do, some discomfort about this corporate model.  Some concerns about the executive committee working autonomously, where is the overlap/oversight? Need to define exactly what the executive committee can do and what they cannot. Similar to disruptive behavior, board was not involved in the deliberations, the board delegated this to a committee. Will this be more time, executive committee currently handles some of the confidential issues. Four people is a good number. Does it have to be the officers?  The board is responsible for the executive decisions, to delegate this task may not be consistent. If the board does delegate this responsibility it needs to be done carefully and with clear guidelines and definitions of what the executive can and can’t do. 

Rev. Karen Foley will be with us next month for the March board meeting to help us with the mission statement process.

Communications Policy discussion – We like the structure, the freedom of expression, served us well for the current banner discussion and a current bookmark distribution. Nobody is entitled to speak for the whole church. Can someone (or a group of people) publicly go on record on an issue and identify themselves as members of the church? People or peoples independently chooses to speak or write on an issue they must make it clear that they do not speak for the institution of the church. We don’t violated the IRS rules in engaging in political activity. Any other modifications, please get them to David.  Vote at the next meeting.

GA delegates – Do delegates vote with instructions from the congregation or do they vote their conscience? If six people decide to go, the board decides who votes, who are the official delegates. This is an election year, the two candidates are fairly different in there approaches and outlooks. Peter’s focus is on growth, Laurel’s focus is broader more pastoral, both have a lot of experience, each have grown their church significantly. Laurel spent the first three or four minutes in her talk in Worcester talking about our steeple, if six people in our congregation all want to go to GA how do we decide who are the delegates? Do we guide our delegates on how they vote? It would be good for the congregation to be forced to look at the big picture, outside our walls, the UUA. How does a program church choose its delegates?  We could have a discussion/vote at our congregation meeting and ask our delegates to vote their conscience taking the congregations discussion/vote into account.

Web site coordinator – is there anyone interested in collecting board items etc. and sending them to Pat to be put on the Web.  Jane and Judy agreed to serve as co-coordinators.

Bookkeeper – Kerry Keegan was interviewed.  We are hopeful that she will be hired as an independent consultant (no benefits, FICA).  It should cost about $1000.  Job includes writing (not signing) checks, posting deposits etc. Quarterly pledge statements.  Reconciliation is done by the treasurer.  Bookkeeper will collect plate (left over night) and deposit it in the bank.