UUCGV Board Meeting September 13, 2016

TLC Report

  • LDT wasn’t present at the TLC meeting
  • Worship & RE will combine on the Sept 25 for a meeting to plan all ages services
  • Auction – planning has begun. Nov. 5th is the auction, first meeting is Tuesday September 13 at 5:30 pm
  • Procedure point – the theme was picked before the auction team actually met
  • Team members: Jay, Connie, Melissa, Joanie will be involved
  • Loma Cathouse event in October, they will be our change for change recipient
  • TLC approved the event (October 15th), Witches Ball 6-10pm, costume contest, $50 per couple, etc.
  • Social Action
  • Interfaith working group will have a potluck after the service on the 18th of September – there will be conversation about what topics the social action issues the members find important
  • The group will provide burgers and veggie burgers, Congregants are encouraged to bring a side
  • Leadership Retreat – September 24, 9am-2pm at the church
  • HAP and UUCGV Event – November is the month we will be focusing on HAP
  • Black Lives Matter
  • TLC proposes a sign “All lives will matter when Black Lives Matter”
  • Board would need to approve things like this
  • There might be some push back from the community – possibility of vandalism, etc.
  • This phrase might not be completely politically correct – what about brown lives, etc?
  • Suggestion – “Black Lives Matter. All Lives are precious.”
  • We need a workshop on this.
  • Putting up a Black Lives Matter sign might be something that our congregation needs to “deserve” to do, not just blindly do it
  • “All lives will matter when black lives matter”
  • The particular campaign at hand is black lives matter – it isn’t about brown, red, etc.
  • This needs to be a process with the congregation: Workshops, education, etc.
  • Tuesday night adult RE is starting next week. It’s called “Examining Whiteness.” As the leadership, we can bring this back to the congregation as a process too.
  • Being from the southwest, we do deal with discrimination against the Hispanic community more often
  • There are churches in the valley showing support for law enforcement, and the two things are so often put into a dichotomy of opposing issues (although Black Lives Matters GJ has made it clear they are not anti-cop)
  • February is black history month. The whole month could be devoted to the cause.
  • February could bring the issue to the congregation. Introduce the idea of the banner at the beginning of the month of education and conversation and come to a consensus or decision.
  • This could be an opportunity for an interfaith community to all put up a sign at the same time
  • The feeling now: We don’t ignore it anymore, but the best process may not be to vote with our two leadership groups. We do need to include our congregation.
  • That’s why we are doing the adult RE Examining Whiteness curricula, etc.
  • The whole country is starting this process. Unfortunately we have an awful divisive election this fall too.
  • Do we create a group?
  • The leadership of the church would like the congregation to enter into this conversation, with the hope that by February there will be a sign posted.
  • The UUA has a lot of resources too. Do they have a process on how you engage your congregation? Wendy will look to other ministers too.
  • Jay will take this back to the TLC

Finance Report

Tim O’Brien

  • Still fairly cash strapped right now
  • End of August we had $2,977

Chairs

  • Tim is trying to transfer money from Vanguard to purchase them
  • Janet will help Tim to transfer money
  • Other issues:
  • We were short on how much money we collected. Chairs were $86 per chair, we collected $75 per chair
  • When Tim wrote the check for the chairs, and was unhappy to find we had to pay for the chairs upfront (wrote a check for half the price, with the understanding the other half would be COD, but this wasn’t the case with such a small chair order)
  • The process – the aesthetics team met and chose the chairs, the board approved the amount.
  • We can buy Chinese chairs for about 1/3 of the price, according to Tim. We could basically buy all new chairs, 120, for the price of the 50 chairs we intended on ordering.
  • The aesthetics team needs to make the call on this. They need to be informed.
  • We asked $11 too little per chair
  • We need to ask the aesthetics team to…
  • Do more research?
  • Make a decision on this chair?
  • Tim will meet with the aesthetics committee
  • If there is no action on this by next month, the board will make a decision.
  • Mallory will contact the Aesthetics committee and encourage a meeting ASAP with Tim. (Tim will be out of town weekend of the 16).

Capital Funds Policy

  • Please take these home and read these – email changes to the board before the next meeting
  • We need to be expeditious about this. We have congregants who want to give to this fund, but it doesn’t exist yet, technically.
  • Robert moves that we approve the policy with friendly amendments, passes unanimously.
  • Janet moves that we make the change to the funds policy too adding the capital funds policy to the church funds policy. Passes unanimously

Credit Card

  • We currently have a prepaid debit card. We write a check to Mallory, she cashes the check at her bank, then takes the cash to City Market to refill the card. We have $500 at a time on it.
  • Recently, we had our prepaid debit card charged for our website, but there wasn’t enough on the card to cover the entire expense. Since Mallory’s SSN is tied to the card, she would have been fiscally responsible for this charge if our card was not able to cover it in the future.
  • Safety, Liability and Convenience
  • Our staff should not be responsible in a fiduciary way (i.e. social security numbers of our staff tied to an account)
  • The finance team is not in favor of the church having a credit card
  • We have some history:
  • Dick Pierce, a past president of UUCGV, got a credit card in his name on behalf of the church, and it was abused.
  • We had a debit card tied to our account at US Bank at one time, but the limit was ridiculously high (maybe $5,000 a day?)
  • Tim will ask the bank if we are able to get a debit card tied to our operating account with a decent limit on it.
  • Mallory will ask Jim Lauer (First Congregational Financial Clerk) how their credit cards work.

Personnel

  • Staff Congregational Relations Committee
  • The idea: Having the three – COM, Board and At Large member
  • Maybe having five members is a good idea
  • SCR would have appointed the hiring subcommittee for the hiring of the music director
  • People who are interested: Peg Oswald, maybe Joanie (COM),
  • LDT probably needs to be responsible for this.
  • Mallory will contact LDT to have a list of names by the next meeting, and let them know what we’ve talked about from there.
  • Marcia Kuhlman has been hired as our new choir director. The choir voted unanimously to hire her. The hiring committee did have another applicant that withdrew
  • Personnel manual
  • If anyone has issues or changes, please send them to the board at least 10 days before the next meeting

Safety

  • Homeland Security September 12 2:00 pm, also local law enforcement will be there
  • Defribulator – we’re not really able or willing to buy one now. We also would like Bill Hilty’s input

Leadership Retreat

  • Wendy is organizing, focusses will include:
  • Family Systems
  • Growing church
  • Entering into Black Lives Matter discussions
  • Russell Lockwood – Joanie & Kathleen might want to present something from their experience this year.
  • Maybe we could do some of the stuff that we used to do too – outside facilitators, used to be scripted and lots of info, lots of paper, lots of talking, etc.
  • Wendy would be responsible for much of it.
  • Conversation: We were “who are we” group wanting a building, group wanting a minister, so Now What? Who are we in relation to the community?
  • We also have the long range planning team involved.
  • At a cottage meeting, we rated things that were important, and we’ve reached a lot of them (building, minister, etc.)
  • Time: 9-2
  • Date: 9-24
  • At the church
  • Potluck style lunch

Closing 8:36

Additional Reports:

Capital Funds Policy:

Finance Report to the Board: