Final Minutes
UU Rowe Camp & Conference Center
Board of Trustees Teleconference
Confidential Executive Session
November 16, 2011
Present: Jerry Burke, President; Clay Connor, Vice President; Cynthia Bolling, Clerk; Kerri Florian, Treasurer; Gail Epstein, Cathy Perkins, Annie Skillings, Members-at-Large
Jerry called the meeting to order at 7:38 p.m.
Agenda
Doug’s retirement package and party
Stewardship Committee Guidelines
E-newsletter
Doug’s Party
The Board talked about having three parties: one in Boston, one in New York City, and one at Rowe in December. Doug has said he wants a Sunday afternoon party on the 16th, with the 23rd as a snow date.
A woman in New York City would like to be on the party committee.
Cathy said we should talk to Felicity first. She will be able to suggest the names of folks who would be willing to host the event, maybe catering it in their homes.Annie volunteered to talk to Felicity about this and will report back to the Board in December.
Jerry said if we do it this way, someone would have to act as a liaison person. That person would keep in touch with the people who agree to host the parties in New York City and Boston.
The Board agreed to gather more info and discuss this again in December. Clay thought of contacting Karin about the Boston party, since she has been involved in holding Rowe events in Boston in the past. He’ll do it after the December meeting, if the Board decides to go ahead with this approach.
Cynthia suggested having two parties at Rowe, one on Members and Friends weekend, and one in December. Annie remarked that Doug wasn’t in favor of a party on Members and Friends weekend.
Rowe Tradition
Margaret Woodside’s party took place the Sunday following a weekend event. This is a traditional time to throw a retirement party at Rowe, Clay said.
Event Funding
The Board will need to discuss this further. Clay remarked that the Boston and NYC hosts might sell tickets to pay for those parties, minimizing the cost to Rowe.
Stewardship Committee Guidelines
These were attached to Clay’s upgrade report. No one had any comments.
Doug’s Retirement Package
The Organization Transition Committee referred this question to the Finance Committee. But since the Finance Committee consists of Jerry and Kerri right now, Jerry wanted everyone’s input.
While there’s a separate UUA retirement fund that Doug handles separately, and which the Board has nothing to do with, Jerry thought an additional bonus for Doug’s many years of service would be appropriate. When Margaret retired, she was awarded a bonus of $2,500, the maximum allowed by the current personnel policy.
There’s an additional sabbatical/retirementfund available for this purpose, however. Right now Rowe puts $3,750 into the fund every year. When Doug retires, $25,975 will be available.
So we can award Doug more than $2,500, but we’d have to change the personnel policy and lift the cap, to start with. Jerry suggested giving Doug a bonus based on his 35 years of service (exempting the first three years of employment for Doug and future employees). We could pay out $500 a year for every year of service, for a total of $17,500. Or we could pay out $600 per year, which would yield a $21,000 bonus.
To avoid a big tax bite, we could distribute part of it in December and the rest in January 2013, or just ask Doug how he’d prefer to get it.
This fund was also set up to pay for part-time help during Doug’s sabbaticals. While Felicity doesn’t envision taking any sabbaticals, the Board wanted to talk about the question of sabbaticals further.
In any case, enough money will be left in this account to fund sabbaticals, if at some future time the Board decides to retain this policy. If we keep contributing at the same rate, an additional $26k in bonus money will be available by 2019, if Felicity retires then.
Annie said the Organization Transition Committee will discuss some of these and other personnel-related questions when the Committee meets on Saturday, Dec. 3. Topics include the amount of a cap, the period of service (which is now 10 years), and the Rowe employees who would be eligible for this departure bonus.
E-Newsletter
Content
Jerry noticed that some Rowe campers feel that Rowe favors the conference center side of Rowe, at the expense of campers’ concerns. He’d like to publish a quarterly Rowe Zone kind of e-newsletter that would address this. It would contain information about volunteers, Rowe personnel, the state of the campus, upcoming conferences, and maybe short historical bits from Doug about how things were in the past. He sees this as something produced by the Board, and the primary way the Board communicates with members.
Annie said a camper suggested that the Board (or maybe Doug) send a letter from Rowe announcing Doug’s retirement.
Jerry suggested calling this e-newsletterTheRowe e-Zone. Everyone liked the name.
We need an editor for this, though. Cathy suggested Sheila Kaminsky, who is an editor and past Board member.
Doug did want to publish an e-newsletter, but more as an extension of the Catalogue and The Center Post.
Getting e-Mail Addresses
Kerri suggested we use the e-newsletter to update people about projects that are being funded through their donations.
Donations at Work
Someone suggested that, in addition to the newsletter, we could put up an indicator somewhere on the Rowe website that would show the progress of fundraising efforts, so people can see what we’re doing with their money.
The Board agreed to hold an executive session at the start of the next meeting on Sunday, December 4th, at 9:30 a.m.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:20 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Cynthia Bolling
Clerk
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