First Parish Brewster Unitarian Universalist
Board of Trustees: December 17, 2015
Attending (* indicates those present)
* Julia Enroth, President
* Ralph Marotti, Past President
* Carol Ann Yeaple, President Elect
* David Winther, Treasurer
* Elenita Muñiz, Clerk
* Twinks Hastings, At-Large Trustee
* Bill Roberts, At-large Trustee
* Chuck Ross, At-large Trustee
* Dwight Woodson, At-large Trustee
* Rev. Don Beaudreault
Guests: Tavia Ossola; Shera Ashlie; Jennie Mignone; Diane Willcox; Judy Fenner
• The meeting was called to order by Julia at 6:20 p.m. Dave brought fortunes for us to choose and read.
• The October minutes (corrected) were mailed out after the November meeting; November minutes were mailed today just before the meeting, with apologies. Dwight was present in November -- Elenita corrected. Ralph moved to approve both sets of minutes; Chuck seconded; adopted unanimously.
• Tavia and Diane came to tell us about plans for Stewardship FY17 campaign. They held a brainstorming meeting with several active members of groups focusing on people (Helping Hands, Membership, etc.), then met with Don. Tavia and Diane formulated a sequence for the campaign, which they are hoping will "take us into the future" (possible name for campaign) because we are moving toward a new minister, and will be more attractive to candidates if we have a reasonably-funded budget and creative activities and worship activities.
To date, $5,120 has been raised toward the FY16 deficit since Tavia's announcement. Contributions to BMHPP are in the $3,000 range. They are planning to publish a list of members in the Angle in early January, with a request for folks to contact Tavia, Diane, or Karena with any corrections. With so many people in and out of church, they need help determining who is a member.
They are planning a face-to-face, every member canvass, with a kick-off event in January for significant contributors. They are hoping for testimonials from some of these folks. The Board will be part of that group. They still need to figure out the logistics and funding for that event. They described the kind of conversation they are hoping canvassers will have with other members, and will produce guidelines, consultations with small groups, information on the people you are asked to canvass. All Board, Council, and committee chairs will be asked to help, plus everyone invited to the kick-off event.
Don's sermon on March 6 is the start of the campaign, with a goal of having half the pledges submitted by that date and the whole campaign finished by March 20th.
Trustees had many questions about the approach, what information they would be given, how to go about making the appointment, training, etc. Diane said there would be a brochure with information on the need, budget, cost per member, etc. Dave said this was a breath of fresh air and sorely needed. It should be uplifting rather than intimidating. Dwight wondered if some people would be put off by this concept, but Tavia was enthusiastic, saying "You learn a whole lot!" There was some discussion of the challenge of having every one of 230 pledge units contacted. Twinks, Carol Ann, Chuck were supportive of the concept, commenting that it had been done before for other specific campaigns.
• Judy came to request approval of a revision to the Building Maintenance Philosophy and Policies, last revised in 2009. Dave supported the revision, saying it was a "really good point" that the sexton is the front-line eyes on the buildings. He offered specific comments, which were noted. He asked about bonding, use of sustainable products, and BBB evaluations. Judy explained that we are trying to establish good relationships with our contractors and have a pretty good trust level with no major problems.
Dave alleged that the church is overpaying some of the contractors. Judy pointed out the wording about confirming bids to be sure they are reasonable. She said licensed contractors are not cheap and will come back to fix things if something goes wrong. A cheaper quote, without those guarantees, isn't worth taking a chance on.
Ralph asked about a sense of triangulation and a power struggle. Julia said the issue is "monitor routine maintenance," similar to verbiage in the AFD job description. She suggested delaying approval until that confusion has been clarified by the AFD and Building Maintenance Committee. She said if there is an emergency, it might be the AFD making a phone call to a contractor. Judy said Karena makes the calls but often checks with Judy first. When that communication is lacking, there are problems such as unnecessary expenses (Dawes Hall door knob, for instance.)
There was discussion of the phrases that are confusing in the policy and the AFD job description, the way the job has changed, the way those changes have affected committees such as Finance. Julia said again she would prefer to hold off on approval until confusion has been rectified. Ralph asked what the problem is. Dwight explained that the sexton doesn't communicate with Building Maintenance and wants no part of the committee. He said this is a key issue. He reported that Personnel is aware of the situation. Judy explained the roundabout process of getting answers to questions on the occasional sexton reports (committee to AFD, AFD to sexton, sexton to AFD, AFD to committee). Julia said that doesn't affect the policy, although Judy said it's a horrible way of communicating.
Chuck asked why the 2009 policy needed revision. Judy explained that some repairs to church property had not been done to the standards of the Building Maintenance Committee. People volunteer with good intentions, she explained, but the committee needs to check on good intentions, which don't always benefit the church. Dwight explained that some repairs require more expertise and volunteers or sexton may not have that. Judy reported that some "repairs" have affected the integrity of the building and thus, the committee needs to oversee such work.
Chuck suggested that the AFD be worked into the policies, too, to clarify what Building Maintenance does, what the AFD does, what the sexton does. The purpose of a policy is to direct the AFD, for instance, if we hired a new person in that position. He said the question of the sexton attending Building Maintenance Committee meetings, originally part of the job description, is another conflict.
Dave felt there is also a financial aspect, as the AFD supervises the regular maintenance budget. Judy stated there is no confusion on the two different budgets. She explained that everyone on the committee is assigned to a particular building, which they inspect regularly. If they discover some work or repair the committee didn't know about it, it's hard -- the communication is broken.
Ralph moved to table further discussion until Building Maintenance and the AFD are comfortable with the proposal. He also said the board needs to know if the two entities are unable to come to an agreement.
• "Parking Lot" items:
-visioning: the Board received summaries of the first two sessions (attached). Julia had asked the Council to remind all committee chairs before the third session and suggested having a reminder every time. Re:broadening the visioning process beyond Sundays, Don has asked deer if her "Artful Visioning" event could be repeated on a Sunday. There is no decision yet. He also suggested that each committee should do its own visioning: why are we here, what are we doing? He suggested "town meetings" for further discussion of particular issues raised in visioning sessions. The next session will be on January 6, re:meaning of membership.
Julia asked how the committees would be involved. Would they be given guidelines? Don suggested going through the Council. Julia asked if Right Relations (RRT) would come up with ideas on how to do this, and Don said yes. Julia also asked what we will do with all the input from visioning sessions. Twinks reported that she is getting lots of questions from members as well about the overall plan. Don said that historically congregations have done goal-setting meetings with congregational votes. Julia asked if the mission statement and covenant would come from these. Dave feels RRT has done a good job so far on relations and interpersonal skills. He feels we need a shift toward action steps, determining priorities, and wondered if we should focus on fewer topics.
Don explained that the relational piece has been extremely important in this "hurting congregation," and now we want the administrative/organization piece on top of that, but the committee hasn't talked about a time format yet. The membership topic is more specific, he said, relating to the idea of money on March 20. Twinks asked whether there would be an opportunity to talk about what sort of ministry we want -- a single all-purpose minister, co-ministers with different job descriptions, etc. Don said these questions would be addressed over the next year. Carol Ann said there would be a survey from the Search Committee next fall asking what people want and the results would be fed back to the full congregation. Last time this was done and each candidate was ranked on the specific items the congregation wanted. Twinks asked if there would be an educational piece on the various options and Don said he would address that.
Dwight expressed a desire for something more tangible such as an outline of where we are going with the visioning process and what we are going to do. Elenita said that a list of visioning dates and tentative topics would be helpful. Don explained that it was impossible to produce this as other things have taken precedence. He reminded us of the specific points in his contract with the board and expressed concern that the congregation wasn't seeing any point in these sessions.
Twinks clarified that no one was saying there was no point, but rather are asking what's the next step, where are we going. Julia added that people want a sense of what topics we will discuss, set priorities, how it will be done, how it will lead to the mission and covenant -- a sense of how those things will flow. Don recommended that we read the UUA materials on visioning, as RRT is following them. Julia emphasized that RRT is very capable and we want them to continue; we just want a sense of overall direction.
Twinks asked about the various ministerial models we should consider. Chuck said the Search Committee needs to know what the congregation wants and Twinks said the congregation needs education about options before they can understand the questions about ministerial style.
Dave asked whether, theoretically, in the future a group other than RRT could lead the visioning, if that seemed appropriate. Don felt stymied because he wasn't sure exactly what was being asked and suggested that perhaps a conversation between RRT and the board would be a good thing. Ralph urged everyone to give the process time.
• calendaring: The Council has tried hard to manage the calendar but has a hard time getting the committees on board. Jennie said there is some confusion about the committees and the Council, including some resentment by committees and undermining of the Council's authority. The committees don't have to communicate with the Council and the Council has no authority to require such communication.
Julia asked how we get committees to scale back plans. Ralph said people always overbook the calendar and the Council's work is a thankless task when the committees don't cooperate and don't respond. Julia asked if there was any way to get committees to voluntarily scale back in the "silo" culture of the church. Elenita said No.
Shera said she has a slightly different view than Jennie. Overbooking is next on the Council's agenda. They will poll each committee and see who's on it and whether they are taking minutes of their meetings. The Council currently deals with 24 committees, and that doesn't include any of the Board committees. Social Justice entities still doesn't work together. Shera wants to do more internal work and learn more about what we are doing in our committees. She believes there is a place for the Council and that they just have to interject themselves into the process.
Bill feels what the Council is doing is being shortchanged. It's had several major challenges this year and has to readjust several times. New committee liaisons need time to adjust. Julia agreed.
Elenita asked just who has the authority or power to say No to an event? It seems no one does. Shera explained that it's the "off-campus" events that are the problem. People from the church are involved but the events are not on the church calendar. She will send out the calendar policy again and work on some kind of visioning with the committees. Jennie suggested deriving a standard of "healthy number of hours," for example, six hours of meetings in one day, or two events, or something similar, to deal with the stress from a health perspective.
Don said part of the visioning process is to look at how effective the committees are. Do they need to meet monthly? He suggested committees might suspend their activities and look at what they're actually doing. This is the time to do that. He praised the office staff, said Karena is working many more hours than she should, and that deer is stressed out by all her responsibilities.
Julia asked again, how do we get the committees to cut back? Don said the committees are resistant to the Council, the Council is frustrated, and so is he. Shera said there is so much going on, on and off campus, that no one can keep track of it all.
• fall festival: What was included in the November board minutes is the written report from the BOAFOF Committee. If we want a committee for next time, how are we going to do that? The Council wanted to know if a board member had to be in charge, but that has just been coincidence over the past two fairs. Ralph pointed out that we were just talking about having too many committees. He suggested we put out an appeal in the Angle and see if anyone is interested. Carol Ann suggested asking someone personally if we thought he or she would be a good candidate. Elenita mentioned that in the past, the coordinator had sometimes been paid, in some cases a flat fee, in others, a percentage of the total. Twinks will write an article for the Angle. We will also investigate whether to pay the coordinator and think about splitting the fair into separate events at different dates. This will be on the agenda again.