BOARD MINUTES 2003

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH IN EUGENE
Board of Trustees    
MINUTES
December 11, 2003

Present: John Wagner, President; Anita Cowling, Vice President; Ken Ross, Secretary; Jean Weick, Treasurer; Carolyn Colbert, Minister; Candee Cole, Director of Religious Education

Members-at-large: David Bockoven, Ann Fuller, Karen Gaffney, Judy Sawyer, Olga Turner

There were no visitors.

I. OPENING BUSINESS

A. The chalice was lit at 7:05.
B. Good words were shared by Ann Fuller.
D. The minutes for the November 13 Board meeting have been approved.
E. Adjustments to the Board agenda. Item IV.E was added to the agenda.

II. OLD BUSINESS

A. Visioning Workshop. The Board will continue to analyze what we learned at the workshop and determine what actions the Board should take or initiate. One thing we hope to learn from this process is a sense of how the congregation wants the church to evolve. Verbatim language of the participants' dreams and values was provided to Board members. Karen and others agreed that we need summaries of the congregation’s responses. Anita stressed that we need to separate “who we are” responses from the “future hopes for the church” responses. Karen and Olga agreed to work on this and report back to the Board in January. Carolyn indicated that she would like to see the verbatim responses posted in the church. It was also agreed to have the verbatim responses on our website.

B. At its November meeting, the Board tentatively approved removing the following Board Policy. This change was announced in the newsletter. No feedback was obtained. At this meeting, the Board approved the removal of this Board Policy.

NOM.1 The Nominating Committee is encouraged to invite at-large members of the Board to serve a second two-year term. The Nominating Committee is also encouraged to consider asking the immediate Past President to serve as an at-large member of the Board.

C. It was announced, at the November Board meeting, that the Board would consider the following new bylaw, which had been discussed on email, including comments from Gil Osgood, d. maria, and Truman Grandy. Because of the many concerns about any proxy system, at this meeting, it was agreed to take no action.

070.7 A voting member of the church, who is unable to attend a meeting, may give another voting member his or her proxy in writing. The assignation of proxy must be in writing and must include the name and signature of the voting member giving the proxy, the date of the signature, and the name of the voting member acting as proxy. If any proxies are challenged, the chair of the Membership Committee or the Secretary of the Board shall resolve the question.

III. NEW BUSINESS

A. Chairs for the church. As background, Carolyn mentioned that Al Landy brought two chairs for people to look at; they are in the office. However, both of these chairs take up more space than our current chairs, so more candidates need to be identified. John suggested that we need a small group to create a good all-inclusive process for making choices on new chairs, determining how money will be raised, and communicating why this is necessary. Perhaps one Board member might agree to recruit people, a group independent of the Board. It was noted that we already have a group considering “short-term space issues.” Judy said that she would have this group look into the process for deciding on new chairs for the church.

B. Unsung UU’s. This is an invitation to the Boards of Trustees of PNWD UUA congregations to make your nomination for the PNWD’s Unsung UU annual award. This award is to honor a Unitarian Universalist in this District who has given high levels of service to, and whose actions inspire, support and express Unitarian Universalism, but who has received relatively low levels of recognition. This is not a lifetime achievement award, but rather is designed to recognize those who are truly UNsung. Nominations for our District award can be made by vote of your society’s Board of Trustees, or by congregational vote. A nominee was agreed upon and it was agreed that Ken would prepare the nomination form and send it in by the deadline, January 3, 2004.

C. Safe Congregation Committee Nomination. (John Wagner) Appointments are for three years (Safe Congregation Procedures, page 2). John was very pleased to announce that Larry Cummings has agreed to replace Gil Osgood, who has completed his term on this committee. The Board approved this appointment unanimously.

D. Endowment Trustee Nomination. Appointments are for three years (bylaw 095.7). Barbara Greenley determined that Martin Sage is interested in serving as an Endowment Trustee. John indicated that he greatly appreciated Barbara’s help, and he enthusiastically supported this appointment. The Board approved this appointment unanimously.

E. Minister’s Housing Allowance. Because of tax considerations, this is the time of year for our minister to update her “clergy housing allowance” needs for the next calendar year. Carolyn suggested a change; see attachment #1. MOTION. That the Board of Trustees authorizes the change in housing allowance, which is effective January 1, 2004.

IV. REPORTS OF COMMITTEES AND TASK FORCES

A. Report of the Executive Committee (EC). See attachment #2. Anita briefly outlined the contents of the report.

B. Report of the Facilities Council (FC). Ann Fuller gave the report. See attachment #3, which summarizes FC work since July. David asked about the woodwork in the Sanctuary. Ann explained that the architect, Grant Seder, wanted to continue the vertical slats on the south and west walls so that they covered the blank door. The main door will be replaced. The idea and the money came from Grant Seder. The church already has the chinquapin wood needed for the project.

C. Report of the Sign Task Group Meeting. John reported on the meeting held on Tuesday, December 2. John mentioned that eight people attended and provided good representation of the church: from the Board, FC, Publications Committee and the ministry. The group reviewed the long history of the project and then looked at two designs for a new sign, one that is in the process of being created and one that Ellen Pinney had made a couple of years ago. Members of the group shared their vision for the sign. A compromise was worked out that built on the work already done and incorporated the various visions. A follow-up meeting was attended by the key participants, John, Ann Fuller and David DeCou. Ed Zack will do the actual construction. Jean inquired about the cost and where the money will come from. She was assured that the total needed probably won’t exceed $1000 and will mostly come from the Carley Fund.

D. The Building Use Assessment Report. (Ann Fuller) The Building Use Assessment ad hoc committee has completed its work. See attachment #4. The main finding of the report is that, for the short term, our church building is adequate for the number of people using it except for the second services on Sundays. There was considerable discussion about how we should proceed. Karen reminded us that Judy’s group is working on the short-term space issues for Sunday. There was also some discussion on how we interpret the data, which Anita indicated needs to be done carefully. Recall that the study was made to help us assess short-term, not long-term, space issues. Carolyn indicated that the Sunday counts, based on the ushers’ counts, don’t include all people at all times. Also, she reminded the Board that when services are usually more than 80% full, we have a space problem.

The other most urgent issue highlighted by the report is the status of the Library. Problems include the limited use of the Library, the mold problem which makes the room unusable for some people, the related problem of what to do with the books, and the need for the room to be painted and generally more user-friendly. This means that there are many stakeholders again, so we must proceed carefully. Also, there’s some connection with gallery issues, since it’s been suggested that the Library move to the gallery. Some time was spent on the makeup of a group that would develop the process for dealing with the Library. The group should include someone from RE, the Gallery Committee, and people with a special interest in the library such as Kathy Dillon and Bonnie Phipps. It would be nice to include the mold expert, George Carroll.

E. Growth Options Process. (Patrick Phillips) Patrick was out of town, but provided a progress report by email. See attachment #5. It was agreed that the Board wants to spend a good deal of time on this issue at the next Board meeting.

V. REPORTS

A. Report of the Minister (Carolyn Colbert). See attachment #6. In connection with the reorganization of the Caring Ministry, Carolyn noted that the web has been helpful. When people have been needed, someone always steps forward.

B. Report of the Director of Religious Education (Candee Cole). See attachment #7.

C. Report of the Treasurer (Jean Weick). See attachment #8. Jean noted that cash flow continues to be good, though she is still concerned with June, the end of the fiscal year. She also noted that expenses are running a little below expectation. Everyone in the church is being fiscally responsible. [I just added that because I felt like it. Ken]

D. Report of the President (John Wagner). John commented on the “Thanks Givers” party, which was a successful event, though he had hoped for better attendance. The FOCUS group will debrief this event for future reference, so that mistakes won’t be repeated. For example, it would have been a win-win feature to include big volunteers as well as big financial contributors among the “lead givers.”

VI. ANNOUNCEMENTS AND APPRECIATIONS

A. With song and humor, the Board provided good energy and best wishes to Carolyn for her sabbatical.

B. A sign-up sheet for Board members to “do” announcements at Sunday services, during Carolyn’s sabbatical, was circulated.

C. Stewardship Committee and Canvass Subcommittee. Board members are encouraged to think who should be asked to serve on these committees for the next fiscal year. Appointments need to be made soon. This extremely important item will require everyone's attention and input. Please be sure to give this item some thought.

D. Appreciations. Several people were identified for Board appreciations.

VII. REMINDERS

This is where Board members remind each other of tasks that they’ve agreed to.

VIII. PROCESS CHECK AND ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 9:53.

Submitted respectfully,
Ken Ross, Board Secretary

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH IN EUGENE
Board of Trustees    
MINUTES
November 13, 2003

Present: John Wagner, President; Anita Cowling, Vice President; Ken Ross, Secretary; Jean Weick, Treasurer; Carolyn Colbert, Minister; Candee Cole, Director of Religious Education

Members-at-large: Ann Fuller, Karen Gaffney, Patrick Phillips, Judy Sawyer, Olga Turner

There were no visitors.

I. OPENING BUSINESS

A. The chalice was lit at 7:02.

B. Good nuggets were shared by Judy Sawyer.

D. The minutes for the October 9 Board meeting have been approved.

E. There were no adjustments to the Board agenda.

II. OLD BUSINESS

A. Facilities Council (FC) and Board Policy - Need to Know. (Ann Fuller) The EC placed this item on the agenda and assigned time for it based on the title only. Since then, the description below, submitted from the Facilities Council via Ann Fuller, has raised some concerns about both time within the Board agenda, and process questions about the multiple issues and actions involved.

Ann will circulate a sketch of a revised church sign and will ask the Board to give a "yes" or "no" at the meeting. If the Board says "no," Ann will request that any changes be received by Nov 20. After Nov 20, the FC will move forward with the sign. This will include submitting a permit application to the city. Our new sign installation date is Saturday January 17. Ann will ask the Board to clarify the process to be followed by the Facilities Council for all work needed on church property. Recruitment of new FC members is needed; however, in the present atmosphere, no one on the FC feels positive about recruiting new people. The FC must know "What is the procedure?" regarding the FC and the completion of tasks.

John indicated that there are two or three pieces to this agenda item. One is the sign issue. The others concern the procedures for FC in planning its work and the approval process for its work. [Included in this is the delicate question of when FC's work needs external approval.] John suggested that the procedures and approval process issue be sent back to FC. Ken indicated that he would be happy to work with FC to formulate the procedures. Karen indicated that we also need to address the frustrations of the people involved. Some past or currrent members of FC have expressed concern over the bureaucracy.

Patrick supported Ken's idea (for him to work with FC). He and others indicated that Ken will need to be tactful. Ken should ask FC members what they think can be done expeditiously. The goal is to build infrastructure for FC and, eventually, to recruit administrators (to go along with the doers) for FC. Karen summarized: The Board, represented by Ken, will collaborate with FC to create structure and procedure. The Board will do what it can to facilitate recruitment.

Ann clarified that she feels that her role on FC has been as coordinator. The sign issue illustrated where FC did not know the process. Another current issue is FC's plan for getting rid of outdoor storage. Judy indicated that, in each case, the stakeholders need to be determined. [This raises the process question of who determines this.] Karen (or Ken?) indicated that issues beyond maintenance should be run by EC which could decide who the stakeholders are.

Concerning the sign issue, Karen and others again expressed concern that key stakeholders, including the minister, seem to have been outside the process. Jean suggested that the sign issue is different from many other issues because aesthetic concerns and publicity concerns, not to mention that city code has to be adhered to. John reiterated his appreciation of the frustration of FC members, but emphasized that the process must include the stakeholders. John will call a meeting of FC and sign stakeholders.

III. NEW BUSINESS

A. Visioning Workshop. The Board may wish to analyze what we learned at the workshop and determine what actions the Board should take or initiate. Karen indicated that first we need verbatim language, not just summaries, of the participants' dreams and values that were posted at the workshop. It was recalled that Martha volunteered to provide this material; she will be reminded. Someone needs to synthesize this material; it was suggested that Martha would be ideal for this. One thing we hope to learn from this process is a sense of how the congregation wants the church to evolve. The Board will continue this conversation at its next meeting when this extra information will be available.

Each member of the Board indicated briefly what they got from the workshop. Jean heard ideas diametrically opposed to each other, many unrelated to our current financial reality. Olga was pleased with the workshop, especially how much the participants values were in agreement. The meeting was not contentious, as she feared it would be.

Patrick said that the meeting was different from what he was expecting. He thought we would be focusing on our core values, and then we would focus on us as part of a religious organization, leading up to a mission statement. Still, it was a good meeting. Most of the dreams were about the building, i.e., about our growth options. Patrick felt that a lot was accomplished, because this was an awakening of the congregation. He felt that the workshop gave a sense of purpose to the group. The solutions to our problems still have to be addressed, but at least people's awareness has increased.

Candee was proud of the congregation because of the high attendance and good participation. But she felt there was unfinished business, and that we still need to go on to the mission statement.

Ann indicated that she had a good time and was glad to be there. She also found the workshop different from what she expected. She expected a brief summary, a nugget as it were, that one could even imagine being carried around. She felt too much time was spent on the history line, that we needed more time for visioning. Lots of data was gathered, and she would have liked to have seen it organized before the meeting ended. Instead we drifted away.

Karen felt ambivalent about the workshop. She was pleased to overhear conversations after the workshop: "Wow! It's nice to see how much we have in common!" This workshop set the tone, for what needs to be done, nicely. It's a good beginning, and now we need to move on to growth issues. Karen expected the vision to drive our choice of growth options, decisions about the future of RE, etc.

Judy had no expectations in advance. She agreed with the last three speakers. She sees the workshop as part one of a process. It was a good start. She was not surprised by the common values. She felt too much time was spent on dreams and that that session was boring. She spotted a big division. While most groups focused on spiritual growth or social action, one group explicitly said they wanted the church to avoid focusing on money issues. There were differences in hopes for the size of the church, but Judy pointed out that large churches can accommodate the needs of people who prefer small churches. Facing the growth options is the next step. We've laid the groundwork. The history exercise was useful. She's not convinced that we need a new mission statement. Finally, she was greatly impressed with the contributions by the youth group (as were many other folks).

Carolyn was stunned and pleased by the quality of work done. The turn out was excellent, including the wide diversity. With so much previous experience with workshops, she (perhaps inevitably) found the process frustrating. She agrees that it was just a beginning. She's eager to see the next steps facing the growth options. She felt that it was clear that we can eliminate the first two options (staying the same or expanding into two churches). We need to move rapidly with as much information and communication as possible.

Anita was not at the workshop, but heard good reports about it and appreciates this fine discussion. She sees it as a good first step. It's up to us to move ahead. We need to identify someone to facilitate the next step.

John agreed that the organization of the workshop was excellent, and that there was a great diverse turnout. He agreed with Patrick that he had expected more work on identifying core values which can be used to guide our course of action. He noted excellent participation. He agreed that we are at step 1, and he visualized the need for another activity or two in the process, one leading to a mission statement.

Ken liked the history exercise, but had trouble with the dreams exercise because he felt they were remote from reality.

B. Board Policy change. It is proposed that the following new Board Policy, the Nominating Committee Board Policy, be removed. This recommendation came from Truman Grandy, member of the last and current Nominating Committees, and Ken Ross, Secretary.

NOM.1 The Nominating Committee is encouraged to invite at-large members of the Board to serve a second two-year term. The Nominating Committee is also encouraged to consider asking the immediate Past President to serve as an at-large member of the Board.

EXPLANATION. This Board Policy was recently adopted in July 2002. The first sentence poses an awkward problem for the Nominating Committee. It suggests that Board members should expect to serve two terms, but in fact there are so many valuable volunteers in the church that the Nominating Committee may want to nominate new people. It would then be especially awkward if the Nominating Committee nominated some, but not all, Board members eligible for a second term. A similar problem arises with the second sentence of NOM.1. If some immediate Past President was nominated to serve as an at-large member of the Board, would future Nominating Committees always feel obligated to do the same?

The Board tentatively approved this Board Policy change, thereby executing step 1 of the procedure (Board Policy POP.3) for making such changes. There were related discussions about procedures of the Nominating Committee. It was agreed that the Board should revisit this issue.

C. Wrap-up on the sabbatical covenant. The Board was reminded that George Carroll and John Wagner agreed to do this. They will do, using a re-ordering of the covenants suggested by Judy Sawyer and Jean Weick.

IV. REPORTS OF COMMITTEES AND TASK FORCES

A. Report of the Executive Committee (EC). See attachment #1.

B. Sunday Morning Task Group. (Judy Sawyer) Judy made a report on the progress of this group. Conversations are continuing, and experiments are being made. They are working on ideas for how the choir can make more space available to others. The issue of some members of the choir leaving early has not been resolved.

C. Report from FOCUS. (John Wagner) John indicated that this group is now working on the Thanks Giver Party, which is scheduled for December 6. A member has been identified who has kindly allowed this event to occur at their house. The fundraising component of FOCUS (Judy, Patricia Christgau and Ruthie Manley) are working on creating Fundraising teams.

V. REPORTS

A. Report of the Minister (Carolyn Colbert). See attachment #2, which is Carolyn's report, and attachment #3 which concerns the process leading to the procurement of new chairs for the church. At its next meeting, the Board will be asked to form a small group to assess the congregation's input regarding new chairs and to suggest a time-table for completing the process.

B. Report of the Director of Religious Education (Candee Cole). See attachment #4. Candee added that one of the Shared Ministry Groups consists of parents with small children. This group will use child-care service provided by Candee.

C. Report of the Treasurer (Jean Weick). See attachment #5. The budget still looks good, but of course there will be trouble in April unless our income from pledges, fundraising and other sources are increased.

D. Report of the President (John Wagner). John mentioned that he received a quarterly report from the Blood Bank indicating that members of our church contributed 26 units of blood. In connection with agenda item VI.C below, John indicated that he would welcome suggestions. The nominee will replace Gil Osgood and needs to be a man because the Safe Congregation Committee must have five members, including at least two women and two men.

VI. ANNOUNCEMENTS AND APPRECIATIONS

A. New Bylaw. A new bylaw 070.7 will be proposed at the next Board meeting. The proposal is from Truman Grandy, member of the last and the current Nominating Committees, and Ken Ross, Secretary. See attachment #6.

B. Unsung UU's. This is an invitation to the Boards of Trustees of PNWD UUA congregations to make your nomination for the PNWD's Unsung UU annual award. This award is to honor a Unitarian Universalist in this District who has given high levels of service to, and whose actions inspire, support and express Unitarian Universalism, but who has received relatively low levels of recognition. This is not a lifetime achievement award, but rather is designed to recognize those who are truly UNsung. Nominations for our District award can be made by vote of your society's Board of Trustees, or by congregational vote, and must be sent to the PNWD Unsung UU Committee by January 3, 2004.

C. Safe Congregation Committee Nomination. (John Wagner) John will indicate that a nominee will be provided to the Board for its approval at the next Board meeting.

D. The third annual UU Yard sale, held Saturday, Sept. 27, 2003, was co-chaired by Patricia Christgau and Ruthie Manley. Serving on the committee were Michael Mattick and Lisi Sanders-Agterberg. After expenses, the total income from the days' sale was $2400. An antique chest with mirror is on consignment at Copper Penny Antiques (Penny Dolan, prop.), with a suggested price of $800, $200 of that sale amount going to the store. At present, there is no deadline for sale, but the committee may consider it. The suggested amount of $3000 that this sale should take in was nearly met, and may yet be. All unsold merchandise not claimed by our parking lot resident Michael, was taken by St. Vincent de Paul to their warehouse as a charitable donation. For future yard sales, a file will be made available to those conducting the yard sale.

E. Gallery Committee. The Secretary was directed to ask Don Durland whether the Gallery Committee has a procedure for thanking people for proceeds that result from their showings. The answer is: "No, we don't send a formal thank you. We do acknowledge in person, and often there is a check sent from the church from sales."

F. John Wagner, the Board President, announced that he has appointed Laura Adams to be a member of the Committee on Ministry.

VII. WRAP-UP AND ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at about 9:20.

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH IN EUGENE
Board of Trustees    
MINUTES
October 9, 2003

Present: John Wagner, President; Anita Cowling, Vice President; Ken Ross, Secretary; Jean Weick, Treasurer; Carolyn Colbert, Minister; Candee Cole, Director of Religious Education

Members-at-large: Ann Fuller, Karen Gaffney, Patrick Phillips, Judy Sawyer, Olga Turner

There were no visitors.

I. OPENING BUSINESS

A. The chalice was lit at 7:10.

B. Good words were spoken by Candee Cole.

D. The minutes for the September 11 Board meeting have been approved.

II. OLD BUSINESS

A. Mission/Visioning All Church Workshop, Saturday, October 25, 9:30-3:30. (David Bockoven, Karen Gaffney) There has been a lot of progress towards final preparations for this event. Karen indicated that the biggest challenge is getting people aware of the workshop and the importance of attendance. The Publications Committee has been a big help with this. An outline of the program will be provided by the facilitator, Doug Walters. Patrick is still concerned about those people who cannot commit to the full workshop. Carolyn stressed that they are welcome to attend, even if they cannot stay for the entire workshop.

B. Recruiting church volunteers and interest survey. It was noted at the last Board meeting that we need someone whose assignment is to identify and recruit people for various tasks in the church. Ann indicated that her goal is to have a computer database for all church members and friends that would include information about their interests and talents. Ann mentioned other churches who have such a database. Jean indicated that she feels this is a good idea. In fact, a similar database is what got her into the church 40 years ago. Candee already has such a database for RE parents and teachers. It was agreed that this proposal should go to the Membership Committee.

III. NEW BUSINESS

A. Sunday Morning Task Group. The EC recommends that the Board create a task group to address how to make our church a more welcoming space on Sunday mornings when space is at such a premium. Judy Sawyer has agreed to quickly convene such a group consisting of stakeholders and also representing folks who “sit in the back” and suffer from disturbances that are caused by the crowding, such as no hymnals left for that area. Judy will include people representing the minister, the RE program, the music program, and if possible the Membership Committee and Gallery Committee. John indicated that this group should make the non-major decisions among themselves and report back to the Board. Nevertheless, as Patrick noted, this is a Board priority and the group has the backing of the Board. It was hoped and suggested that there would be a report at the November Board meeting about initial progress and planning.

B. New Committee Chairs. The Board formally affirmed the following appointments.

1. Membership Committee. From Carolyn Colbert: It is with great pleasure that Jane Wagner and I can report to you that Julie Aspinwall-Lamberts has agreed to chair the Membership Committee. She is ready to begin the job with the upcoming Newcomer's Orientations. Jane Wagner has agreed to be at her side as Julie settles herself into the position.

2. Religious Education Committee. From Olga Turner: Pam Dillehay agreed to be the sole chair of the Religious Education Committee. She and Olga were co-chairs of this committee.

IV. REPORTS OF COMMITTEES AND TASK FORCES

A. Report of the Executive Committee (EC). See attachment #1. John reminded the Board that the Facilities Council had taken action on creating a new church sign. With deep regret, John and others realized that there was a serious flaw in the process because not all stakeholders were involved. We need a “buy-in” from all quarters. John will call a meeting in early November and the process will proceed from there. Work by key people, especially Sally DeCou and Ed Zack, was acknowledged. Where possible, the process will build on what they have done.

There was considerable discussion about the process failure and how we can avoid repeating such a mistake. Patrick indicated that the Facilities Council should have been provided a better charge that specified the importance of including all stakeholders. In fact, there was no formal charge at all, just a discussion at the August Board meeting (on July 24) about the sign. But, as Ann pointed out, the Board did not give any indication that more process was needed so it was natural for the Council to proceed. The Officers all regret this breakdown in communication and process.

Anita noted that this problem raises a related problem. The minister was not at the August Board; if she had been, she probably would have raised the process issue at that time. In the future, when the minister is not in attendance, the EC and Board need to be extra careful about making decisions where the minister’s input may be crucial. Sometimes it might be wise to defer a decision or make it contingent on consultation with the minister.

In the process of determining code requirements for the new sign, it was determined that a permit is required. Also, a statement of the value of the church’s property was found. See attachment #2.

B. Program Council. (Anita Cowling) It was agreed that, with all our other priorities this year, the Program Council will be inactive. However, some aspects of its charge will be addressed in other ways. John indicated that he would like to see one meeting of the traditional members of the Program Council (committee chairs, etc) scheduled early next year so that these people can gather together to discuss the calendar for the rest of the fiscal year and related issues.

Ken outlined his plans for working with committee chairs. Over the years, the Board has expressed interest in more structure for committees, both for the benefit of the committees and for the church at large. In addition, Ken would like to prepare a handbook of committee information, which would be available on the web. As a start, he is planning to work with committee chairs and help develop some structure that may be missing. The goal is to be helpful, not intrusive. So if committees have more important things to do and don’t want to think about their structures, then he will simply collect some information: a list of committee members, committee charge if any, etc. Also, he would inform the committee chairs about any relevant Bylaws or Board Policies. If they are interested, he would raise issues such as: recruiting committee chairs and members, setting terms if desired, etc.

C. Growth Options (Patrick Phillips). See attachment #3 for tasks and milestones. The Board agreed that the plan outlined in this attachment is solid. Facts need to be gathered and assessed. This includes costs, permit issues, etc. Patrick was supplied with a list of possible people to work on these important tasks. The question of whether there should be four groups, or one group, or two groups (one focusing on tasks 1 and 4, and one focusing on tasks 2 and 3) was discussed. Patrick will probably create a single group which will appoint subgroups to work on various tasks. Anita suggested that it’s important to balance the biases of the group, but Carolyn suggested that the members must simply be aware and careful about their biases. The group and its activities need to be widely publicized.

D. Short-term Space Solutions (Ann Fuller). Ann made a progress report on the Building Assessment Use Committee. It will compile the accumulated data by mid-November. A report will given at the December Board member. The group was encouraged to enlarge their charge (gathering data) to include an analysis of the space problems.

V. REPORTS

A. Report of the Minister (Carolyn Colbert). See attachment #4. Carolyn indicated that there would be a new church directory by the end of the year. It has been a tough fall for both Carolyn and Candee. But there has been lots of good energy in the church, especially from new people.

B. Report of the Director of Religious Education (Candee Cole). See attachment #5. The curriculum is going well and the kids are doing well. However, she is still struggling with recruitment of RE assistants and has had to deal with some resignations.

C. Report of the Treasurer (Jean Weick). See attachment #6. Regarding the RE expansion expenses, Jean noted that the Wagner Fund is now all used up; it provided some $4060. The remaining RE expansion expenses, which will be in the $2500-3000 range, will be covered by the Future Expansion Fund.

D. Report of the President (John Wagner). John noted that the plans (in item III.B of the September minutes) for leaders to attend the conference in La Conner, WA are all canceled because the conference was overbooked! Evidently, nine churches were turned away. The upside is that John will be able to attend a conference for Presidents the following week.

John also reported on the Financial Oversight Canvass Underwriting and Strategy (FOCUS) group. They have three subgroups: one on fundraising, one on education and communication (the M&M group = Marilyn Milne and Martha Osgood), and one on strategy. The last canvass has finally been completed. One idea is that there might be an appreciation party for some generous contributors in early December. Judy Sawyer questioned the wisdom of holding such a gathering, because it is contrary to the spirit of a church in which everyone should be valued for their contribution, no matter how small, and because it violates the confidentiality of the pledge system.

E. Report of the Vice President (Anita Cowling). No report.

F. Report of the Secretary (Ken Ross). No report.

VI. WRAP-UP AND ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 9:58.

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH IN EUGENE
Board of Trustees    
MINUTES
September 11, 2003

Present: John Wagner, President; Anita Cowling, Vice President; Ken Ross, Secretary; Jean Weick, Treasurer; Carolyn Colbert, Minister; Candee Cole, Director of Religious Education

Members-at-large: David Bockoven, Ann Fuller, Karen Gaffney, Patrick Phillips, Judy Sawyer, Olga Turner

There were no visitors.

I. OPENING BUSINESS

A. The candle was lit at 7:09.

B. Good words were spoken by Carolyn Colbert.

D. The minutes for the August Board meeting on July 24 have been approved.

II. REPORTS OF COMMITTEES AND TASK FORCES

A. Report of the Executive Committee (EC). See attachment #1.

B. Report on the Program Council. (Anita Cowling) Anita explained that she will no longer be able to chair this Council, but she hopes and expects that much of its agenda will take place in other venues. Calendaring is currently handled by Martha Osgood and our Office Administrator, Kim Harris. It was noted that we need someone whose assignment is to identify and recruit people for various tasks in the church. Ann Fuller noted that she has a related item, involving an “interest survey,” for the next Board agenda.

C. Report on Watching the Budget. (Patrick Phillips, John Wagner) Members of the Financial Oversight Task Force (Patrick Phillips, Judy Sawyer, John Wagner) met. They drew up a to-do list and also a list of potential members of the task force, which needs to have wide representation from the church. It was noted that their charge overlaps that of the Stewardship Committee (and perhaps also that of the Finance Committee). Several people have been contacted and have agreed to serve. The group developed some timelines and benchmarks, including appropriate newsletter articles and other avenues for informing the congregation. Members need to know our needs, where the money goes, and in general what it takes to run the church. The group will look into outside sources of funding. It was noted that we need to identify people to work on the next canvass and also to serve on the Finance Committee.

III. OLD BUSINESS

A. A Mission/Visioning All Church Workshop has been scheduled for Saturday, October 25, 9:30-3:30. (David Bockoven, Karen Gaffney) At the request of the facilitator, the Board addressed the following question: What “product” out of the workshop do we want that we don’t currently have? Here “product” refers to any decision, activity, plan, action, result, etc. that would help make the church more effective for all members. Copies of Chapter 5 (Eyes: Developing a Congregational Future) of Anne Heller’s book, Churchworks, were distributed. Karen provided the following summary of the Board’s discussion.

Process-related outcomes:
o Bring many different people together to participate
o Capture thoughts along the way, not just the final statement
o Commit to engage and inform stakeholders
o Give people a chance to be heard

Product-outcomes:
o Identify what is important to us as a congregation
o Know the role of the church
o Energize people to move forward
o Create momentum for a late spring growth option selection
o Reach agreement on a mission statement to guide us
o Invite more people to see the big picture
o Answer why do we come? Where are we going? What could this church mean?
o Create a physical representation as a reminder of the event to carry through the year
o Acknowledge the challenge of our growth

B. The Board agreed that we should send a team to the conference for congregational leadership teams in La Conner, WA, so that our leaders will be better equipped to handle our transition from a pastoral church to a program church. Carolyn talked to Anne Heller to clarify a couple of questions she had. 1. How many people are we allowed? Anne says four plus the minister 2. Who should be encouraged to go? Anne suggests, as you already knew, those who will be in leadership positions in the future. She suggests at least two current board members (including the Board President), a strong RE presence (could be the RE Director), and a good age span. It was agreed that Carolyn and Candee should go and that John and Olga should represent the Board. It was also agreed that these four are authorized to select a fifth person to complete our team.

C. RE Expansion project. Karen Gaffney reported that the project is making excellent progress. She indicated that she learned a lot. The new RE room should be servicable by this Sunday. Many people have contributed to this project, but Jake Walsh deserves special credit.

D. Ann Fuller provided an update on the progress of the Facilities Council and on the Sunday, August 31, work party. The work party was a big success with lots of people. Also, gravel has been spread on the parking lot and a lot of junk has been discarded (including material on the porch off of the Gallery). Sally DeCou and Ed Zack are working on a new sign for the church.

E. Ann Fuller reported that four people (Hilary Dearborn, Charles Eckerson, Michael Mattick and Ann) are working on “Building Use Assessment.” They will report to the Board by December. Their next meeting is on September 22.

F. Growth Options (brief new agenda item). Patrick Phillips indicated that he will make a more complete report at the next Board meeting. He has created an outline of tasks and milestones; see attachment #2. Patrick needs the names of people in the community who can provide basic facts that are needed to analyze the various growth options.

IV. NEW BUSINESS

A Calendaring. Members of the EC wondered whether the Board would like a special meeting to firm up calendaring for the next few months. Carolyn suggested that this was a good idea, but that we should do this for January through June. This seemed reasonable, since most of the fall calendaring has already been done. Karen suggested that this calendaring could be folded into our conversation about the Program Council at the next Board meeting.

Ann wondered why people need to get together to do calendaring. John responded that this allows people to work out schedule conflicts without going through a third party. Coordinating activities together also helps build community. Carolyn noted that this also provides opportunities for people to support each others activities. Patrick indicated that we need to be careful in scheduling major activities, especially those that involve the entire congregation.

V. REPORTS

A. Report of the Minister (Carolyn Colbert). See attachment #3, which provides notes on the September and October services for Associates and Anchors. Carolyn reminded the Board about her 2 1/2 month sabbatical that is coming up. She mentioned that Anne Heller will probably come on November 8 to work on a “sabbatical covenant.” Board members and members of the Committee on Ministry will be invited.

B. Report of the Director of Religious Education (Candee Cole). Candee circulated a document about our RE program that will be available at the UU booth at the Eugene Celebration (weekend of September 20). Candee has 43 teachers for RE this fall, but she needs more. She has contacted over 100 people. Peg Gearhart is the new RE Childcare Lead Teacher. Candee provided an early warning that the monitors on both of her computers are dying.

C. Report of the Treasurer (Jean Weick). See attachments #4 and #5. Jean indicated that expenses and income are in line with expectations, except that investment income is down. She did offer the caveat that we don’t fully understand how things will go in our new fiscal year.

D. Report of the President (John Wagner). John reported on thank you mail received.

E. Report of the Vice President (Anita Cowling). No report beyond her report in agenda item II.B.

F. Report of the Secretary (Ken Ross). No report.

G. Appreciations. Many people deserving appreciations were identified.

VI. WRAP-UP AND ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 9:28.

Ken Ross, Board Secretary

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH IN EUGENE
Board of Trustees
MINUTES
July 24, 2003 (=August Board Meeting)

Present: John Wagner, President; Ken Ross, Secretary; Jean Weick, Treasurer

Members-at-large: David Bockoven, Ann Fuller, Karen Gaffney, Patrick Phillips, Judy Sawyer, Olga Turner

There were no visitors.

I. OPENING BUSINESS.

A. The chalice was lit at 7:05.

B. Good words were spoken by David Bockoven.

D. The minutes for the July 10 Board meeting have been approved.

II. REPORTS OF COMMITTEES

A. Report of the Executive Committee (EC). No report; the EC did not meet prior to this Board meeting.

B. Report on the Program Council. (Anita Cowling) It was agreed at the July 10 Board meeting that we would continue our discussion about the future of the Program Council. Since Anita was unable to attend the meeting, this item will be on the next agenda.

III. OLD BUSINESS

A. The Board needs to approve a small change in the July 1, 2003 – June 30, 2004 budget. This budget contains some small adjustments (the net change is $370) which are due to corrections from the Personnel Committee. The following motion passed. MOTION: The Board accepted the revised budget with the proviso that $370 be added to the income line, Pledges and Gifts, in order to balance the budget. [See attachment #3.]

B. Watching the Budget. Recall that John suggested the creation of a focused task force of representatives from the Stewardship, Fundraising, and Finance Committees, to make sure that we are on schedule to meet our financial commitments for the coming year. The task force would make sure that there was a consistent and coordinated effort to (1) educate the congregation on the church's financial needs, (2) seek additional pledges and gifts, and (3) fundraise as much and as creatively as possible. Patrick Phillips and John Wagner agreed to head the task force, and Judy Sawyer agreed to serve on it. A first task will be to formulate procedure, which will be shared with the Board at the next meeting. Patrick will be focusing on item (1) above, and Judy will be focusing on item (3).

C. A Mission/Visioning All Church Workshop has been scheduled for Saturday, October 25, 9:30-3:30. David Bockoven and Karen Gaffney have agreed to help with planning this event. Jean indicated that she would help with clean-up type items, but not on the program. She also reminded the group that expected expenditures need authorization. A big task is publicity to get members to attend; the goal is to get 50% attendance. As Carolyn noted, “we’ll need folks to do PR, calling, plan a kids program, create and serve lunch, clean up, and finally, form a small team to refine the Mission Covenant statement and bring it back to the congregation for a vote.”

D. Growth Issues. (1) How shall we deal with short term space/growth issues? (2) How shall we proceed to deal with long term growth issues as articulated by the Growth Options task force? Time to get groups analyzing the four options.

Ann Fuller agreed to get us working on item (1), i.e., the current space issues. She plans to enlist three others to brainstorm strategies and survey building use. She wants to determine how heavily the building is really used. Decision-making will involve all stakeholders, including people concerned about the Gallery, Library, RE space, etc. Members of the Program Council are also stakeholders. Patrick wants us to address the question: What would make Sunday services (both upstairs and in RE) more comfortable and inviting? Ann will make a progress report at the October Board meeting and plans to complete the work by the end of December.

Patrick Phillips and John Wagner will tackle item (2), long term growth issues. The options identified in the Growth Options report need research, and then the information needs wide dissemination. We need congregational involvement. Karen noted that this process needs visibility sooner, not later. An outline of the procedure will be shared with the Board at the September meeting. Key steps will include (1) creating task forces for each option and getting reports from them, and (2) communicating with and educating the congregation. The process should be completed by June 2004. It was noted that we can use UUA resources and that, at some point, this process will need a budget.

IV. NEW BUSINESS

A. The Board agreed that we should send a team to the conference for congregational leadership teams in La Conner, WA, to be held, November 14-16 (Friday-Sunday). The conference leader will be Rev. Arvid Straube. The focus of this conference will be the transition from a pastoral to a program church. John noted the overlap of this issue with long-term growth issues, but Patrick added that this issue goes well beyond long-term growth issues, to include governance issues, for example. Jean pointed out that this pastoral-to-program church business is another item for the congregation to be more aware of. Perhaps this could be discussed informally, for example at Friday potlucks. John indicated that the key questions are: Who goes, and where does the money come from? To be effective, we would like to send four church leaders. The Board will strive for broad representation, so members will create an enhanced list of possibilities on email.

B. UUCE Website. Martha Osgood has observed that many churches now post their financial information, such as budgets and proposed budgets, on their website. She would like the Board to consider authorization for her to put similar information on our website. There was concern with confidentiality of salaries on budgets. Jean indicated that providing such documents, with the personnel portions suitably modified, would not be a problem. The following motion passed with one abstention. MOTION: The Board authorized the posting on the web of annual budgets (and proposed budgets) and monthly reports of the Treasurer, provided that the personnel portions are summarized to maintain confidentiality.

As chair of the Publications Committee, Martha would also like to alert the Board to some of the major issues that the committee is looking at. One is the idea of having an electronic version of our newsletter (either on email or on the web). There are many issues to be faced, but some committee members enthusiastically support the idea. Another concerns policies and procedures regarding church public relations, both proactive and reactive. No one in our church seems to be facing this issue, but a Board Policy delegates some authority to the Publications Committee, as follows: "Other public relations issues, including church-related advertising, that are not delegated elsewhere may be handled by the Publications Committee."

While it was agreed that no actions be taken regarding the alerts in the previous paragraph, some observations were made. Regarding the electronic version of the newsletter, it was felt that it was a good idea to have an electronic version available by email subscription, but there were concerns about an electronic version on the web because of privacy considerations. There was enthusiasm about the committee’s activities regarding public relations, and the committee is to be commended for its proactive stance. The Board “informally reaffirmed” the Board Policy quoted at the end of the last paragraph.

C. Added new business. John mentioned that Monica Frank had asked in the UU-chat online discussion list whether there is a way to set up sound speakers outside the church building so that all people can hear at a memorial service being held on Saturday. He indicated that he expressed concern about the noise intruding on the church neighbors, but he asked the Board for their views. The overall sentiment was that the external sound shouldn't be a problem if it were directed away from our nearest neighbors and kept at a moderate level. This was not a decision, just a conversation, which John shared with Monica.

V. REPORTS

C. Report of the Treasurer (Jean Weick). See attachments #1 and #2. Attachment #1 is the final report on the church’s budget for the Bridge Budget for the period January 1 through June 30, which ended up with a surplus of $2.67. This occurred because, when we were faced with a deficit of around $4000, several church members completed their pledges or made extra contributions to the budget. In fact, this made it unnecessary to execute the procedure for dealing with the deficit specified in item III.B of the Board minutes for July 10. In particular, none of the income from the weekly Sunday offering was needed to balance this budget.

Attachment #2 is the first report for the new fiscal period. Jean noted that 201 pledge units have pledged $192,772, which is still over $32,000 short of the budgeted $225,000.

VI. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 9:26.

Respectfully submitted,
Ken Ross, Board Secretary

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH IN EUGENE
Board of Trustees
MINUTES
July 10, 2003

Present: John Wagner, President; Anita Cowling, Vice President; Ken Ross, Secretary; Jean Weick, Treasurer; Carolyn Colbert, Minister; Candee Cole, Director of Religious Education

Members-at-large: David Bockoven, Ann Fuller, Karen Gaffney, Patrick Phillips, Judy Sawyer, Olga Turner

Visitors: Barbara Greenley, Ruth Nelson

I. OPENING BUSINESS.

A. The chalice was lit at 7:05.

B. Good words were spoken by Anita Cowling.

D. The minutes for the June 12 Board meeting were approved by email.

II. REPORTS OF COMMITTEES

A. Report of the Executive Committee (EC). See attachment #1.

B. Report on the Program Council. (Anita Cowling) Anita gave a brief report on the history and purpose of the Program Council. John raised the question whether the Program Council is the appropriate vehicle for our church at this time. Carolyn and John remarked that Program Councils do good work in some churches, including leadership training.

Anita mentioned that the Program Council meeting, originally scheduled for late July, will be scheduled for late August, probably August 24. Ann indicated that she would inquire online about successful Program Councils. In connection with better communication with church members and with getting them involved most effectively, Judy reminded the Board about the idea of creating a database on member interests.

C Report from the RE Expansion Task Group. (Karen Gaffney) Karen stated that this group has had a couple of meetings, one with the Facilities Council. The charge of the group is to oversee completion of the RE expansion; we already have a permit. Jake Walsh has offered to serve as general contractor. He will determine the timetable for delivering windows and door. He will need a subcontractor to do the framing, or do it himself. A contract with Jake is needed.

III. OLD BUSINESS

A. Endowment Fund. Endowment Fund bylaws 095.1-095.8 and Board Policies CONTR.2, CONTR.3 and MEM.1 were attached to the agenda. Olga initiated this agenda item because, as a "stakeholder," a Board Member, and as a "donor" to the Endowment itself, she is very curious about it generally and specifically about what it is used for. Barbara Greenley (an Endowment Fund Trustee) and Ruth Nelson (Planned Giving Committee) kindly joined the discussion.

Ruth provided materials that should be part of the Board records and available to members of the church. See attachments #2, #3 and #4. Attachment #2 is a brief history that appeared in the 2002 Annual Report. Attachment #3 is dated April 1999 and is titled (UUCE) Endowment Fund. It has three sections: Plan of Operation, Structure of the Fund, Other Provisions. Attachment #4 is a summary report for the period October 1, 1999 through June 30, 2003. The current balance is nearly $55,000.

[Here’s some history. Here is item 8 of the minutes of the June 10, 1999 Board meeting. PLANNED GIVING COMMITTEE PROPOSAL: (See attached) Jack moved and Charlie seconded that we accept the proposal with the changes made (see page 4). This proposal is now an adopted Plan of Operation in Church policy. All approved. I have written in item C.1 the changes that were on page 4. Item 5 of the minutes of the July 8, 1999 Board meeting stated that The Planned Giving Plan of Operation is now official policy. Somehow this new Board Policy did not become part of the official record in the office, much less on our corresponding website. I will arrange for these omissions to be corrected very soon. Secretary]

There was further discussion about the church endowment. Barbara stated that it should be our asset that can serve as collateral when the church needs to borrow for major efforts, like a capital campaign. John remarked that endowments are used in different ways by different organizations. There are many ways to use endowments. Several folks expressed the view that the church shouldn’t use the principal of the endowment, partly because most contributors expect the principal of endowments to be “safe” from church use. This still leaves the question of having a procedure for possible use of the interest. It was suggested that this issue can wait, since the interest is not currrently that large. However, the Board would welcome suggestions from the Endowment Fund Trustees and/or the Planning Giving Committee, and Olga volunteered to work with Barbara and Ruth on this.

B. Balancing the Bridge Budget. The relevant Board Policy is the following: BUDG.5.2. At the end of the fiscal year, if the remaining deficit exceeds one percent of the total budget, a special meeting of the membership shall be called with at least 14 days written notice to deal with the situation. A Special Congregational Meeting was set for Sunday, July 20. On July 8, the EC was able to determine that the deficit will be less than one percent (see attachment #5), so the congregational meeting was cancelled. Following the recommendation of the EC, the Board passed the following motion. Motion: That the remaining deficit, if any, be added to the present balance of the church’s loan from the Future Expansion Fund. [The balance of this loan is currently $5088.05 and the last payment is due December 31, 2006. The monthly payments are $132.31 and this includes payment of 5% annual interest.] Specifically, (1) the term of the loan will be extended in order to retain the current payment level, (2) any additional income specified “for the bridge budget” will be used to reduce this loan balance, and (3) for the month of July, income from the weekly Sunday offering (plate collection) above $50 will go the bridge budget. It is expected that the bridge budget will be balanced and closed at the end of July.

Figures in attachment #5 have been modified to reflect action (3) above. Thus $150 of the 6 July 03 plate collection, instead of $200, will lower the deficit. Other changes are $660.00 in place of $710.00, ($1097.33) in place of ($1047.33), and ($936.75) in place of ($886.75).

C. Follow-ups from the Board Retreat. (1) A Mission/Visioning All Church Workshop has been scheduled for Saturday, October 25, 9:30-3:30. We will need to make plans for this event. (2) How shall we deal with short term space/growth issues? (3) How shall we proceed to deal with long term growth issues as articulated by the Growth Options task force? Time to get groups analyzing the four options. These issues have been separated into two agenda items and deferred to the next Board meeting on July 24.

D. Members of the Board were encouraged to talk to someone they don’t know at each Sunday service that they attend.

IV. NEW BUSINESS

A. Watching the Budget. The Board plans to make a schedule for keeping track of the July 1, 2003-June 30, 2004 budget and determining what conditions will require what action. John suggested the creation of a focused task force of representatives from the Stewardship, Fundraising, and Finance Committees, to make sure that we are on schedule to meet our financial commitments for the coming year. The task force would make sure that there was a consistent and coordinated effort to (1) educate the congregation on the church's financial needs, (2) seek additional pledges and gifts, and (3) fundraise as much and as creatively as possible. Patrick Phillips volunteered to help in this effort.

V. REPORTS

A. Report of the Minister (Carolyn Colbert). See attachment #6. Carolyn mentioned that the attendance at summer services has been excellent (140 average so far) and that we have fabulous Worship Associates.

B. Report of the Director of Religious Education (Candee Cole). No written report. Candee is working on her Annual Report (she’s the only who does an annual report annually!). It will come out in August. The average attendance in RE was 78 and the summer RE attendance is also good (about 20 per week so far).

C. Report of the Treasurer (Jean Weick). See attachment #7, the budget for fiscal year July 2003 through June 2004. This budget contains some small adjustments (the net change is $370) which are due to corrections from the Personnel Committee. See the comments in column 3 of attachment #7. Since the Board needs to approve of these adjustments, this item will be on the agenda of the next Board meeting on July 24.

D. Report of the President (John Wagner). John mentioned the conference for congregational leadership teams in La Conner, WA, November 14-16. The focus of this conference will be the transition from a pastoral to a program church. In the next Board agenda, the Board will be invited to consider sending a team to this conference. John also mentioned the Cascadia Conference in February, which will be a meeting joint with Canadian Uus. This conference will be held in Victoria, BC. The keynote speaker will be UUA President William G. Sinkford.

E. Report of the Vice President (Anita Cowling). Anita had no addition to her report in item II.B.

F. Report of the Secretary (Ken Ross). No report.

After a process check out, the meeting adjourned at about 9:50.

Respectfully submitted,
Ken Ross, Board Secretary

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH IN EUGENE
Board of Trustees
MINUTES
June 12, 2003

Present: John Wagner, President; Anita Cowling, Vice President; Ken Ross, Secretary; Jean Weick, Treasurer; Carolyn Colbert, Minister; Candee Cole, Director of Religious Education

Members-at-large: David Bockoven, Karen Gaffney, Patrick Phillips, Judy Sawyer, Olga Turner

Visitor: Truman Grandy

I. OPENING BUSINESS.

A. The chalice was lit at 7:05.

B. Good words were spoken by Ken Ross.

D. The minutes for the May 8 Board meeting were approved by email.

E. Information item: UU at Eugene Celebration. The EC gave its blessing to an official UUCE presence at the Eugene Celebration. As one of its service projects, the shared ministry group, that David Bockoven is in, wants to organize having a booth at the Eugene Celebration. The five of them will be the organizing committee (David, Fred Schultz, Betty Ehrlich, Sandra Kalnins, and Verna Tuesday who will be chair). There's no cost involved as of yet, because the five of them are willing to put up the refundable fee, although they will need to use some of the church's various informational pamphlets.

F. No formal adjustments to the Board agenda were made.

II. REPORTS OF COMMITTEES

A. Report of the Executive Committee (EC). See attachment #1.

B. Report on the Program Council. (Anita Cowling) Anita gave a brief report on the council’s last meeting. There was a discussion about replacing committee chairs when either a functioning committee needs a new chair or a committee needs to be reconstituted. Also, Anita mentioned that some information would go back to the committees at the next meeting if they had line items in the budget but haven’t seen the final budget. Carolyn commented that she hopes that the council will do calendaring at its late summer meeting. The next meeting of the council is on Sunday, July 27, at 4:00 p.m.


III. OLD BUSINESS

A. Board Retreat. (Olga Turner) Sunday, June 15, Reverend Margaret Keip will be our retreat facilitator! Carolyn distributed the "homework" Marge has sent us in preparation for the Board retreat, namely documents titled, “Basic Principles of Policy Governance,” “Conflict Dynamics, encapsulated,” “Size Dynamics in Congregations,” and “Policy Governance in small sizes.”

B. Revised and new Board Policies. (Ken Ross) At its May meeting, the Board tentatively approved several recommendations from the Board Policies Task Force regarding Board Policies. These recommendations were announced in the June newsletter. Thus we are at step 3 of the following procedure.

POP.3 New policies shall be:
1. Reviewed at one Board meeting.
2. Announced in the next copy of the church newsletter with a contact person listed.
3. Approved or rejected at a following Board meeting.
4. Printed in the church newsletter, and added to the policy manual within two weeks following passage, and approval of Board Minutes. (revised 4/10/97)

One member, Larry Cummings, was concerned that “webster” was not a standard term for the person who handles a website, and hence not suitable for a formal document. I (Ken Ross) checked with an expert at LCC, who uses “webmaster.” He mentioned that “master” here refers to “mastery,” not gender, and that he has never heard a complaint. Both Larry and our webster, Martha Osgood, are agreeable to have all “webster” references changed to “webmaster.” The following motion passed without dissent. MOTION: The Board approves of the new Board Policies as circulated, except that each appearance of “webster” should be changed to “webmaster.”

C. Report on the canvass, budget and Congregational Meeting. (John Wagner and Anita Cowling) John reported that, as of now, 159 pledge units have pledged $162,407, for an average of $1021 per pledge unit. This is far from our goal of $225,000, but we do have about 65 pledge units to go. Patrick stands by his prediction, based on careful analysis of previous years, that we will fall short of the goal by at least $12,000. Because of this, John stressed that we will need to carefully watch the budget during the year and find ways to stimulate more income, through Fundraising, for example. The current budget process was arduous and under time pressure. We started with high minded goals, especially concerning our movement toward fair compensation, but our original pledge goal was not achievable. Many people from the Budget and Personnel Committee worked very hard on the budget. This hard work is greatly appreciated.

Anita commented on the difficulty of scaling the budget back. She feels that we’ve scaled back as far as possible. We still accomplished some of things we set out to accomplish. The process next year needs to be better in several ways. It needs to start earlier, it needs to involve a wider group of people, and there needs to be more time for feedback between the Budget Committee and the Personnel Committee. The Congregational Meeting, which Anita chaired, went very well; see the minutes for that meeting. Again, this is a reflection of the hard work by many.

John reiterated that the hard part of the budget process was making choices. Next Thursday key players in the process, including the chairs of the Executive, Finance and Personnel Committees, will meet with the minister, Carolyn, regarding personnel compensation. For more explanation, see the last paragraph of item I of the minutes of the June 10 Executive Committee meeting.

Jean expressed two concerns. First, after six weeks we’ve obtained pledges from only two-thirds of the pledge units. Second, we haven’t yet considered our process for adjusting the budget if the pledges are below expectation, though there has been talk about the process for prioritizing if income exceeds our expectation.

D. Report on the status of the RE expansion project. (John Wagner) John reminded the Board that we have permits, a rough plan of the work needed, Congregational authorization to go forward, and some people who are willing to do further work. We need to move on to implementation. Karen, Candee and John have agreed to be an informal subcommittee of the Board that will spearhead the project. Karen kindly agreed to serve as convener.

IV. NEW BUSINESS

A. Board meetings schedule. (Ken Ross) The Board agreed to a scheduling of Board meetings from October through May with the following guidelines: Normally the Board will meet on the second Thursday of each month, with the EC meetings usually on the first Thursday of each month. Possible exceptions include January ( the Secretary will be out town from about January 2 to January 12) and conflicts with the Eugene Symphony. Here is the proposed schedule (all are on Thursday unless specified otherwise):

July 10 (EC on Tuesday, July 8), August 14 (EC on Tuesday, August 12), September 11 (EC on September 4), October 9 (EC on October 2), November 13 (EC on November 6), December 11 (EC on December 4), January 15 (EC on Tuesday, January 13), February 12 (EC on February 5), March 11 (EC on March 4), April 8 (EC on April 1), May 6 (EC on Tuesday, May 4).

There are only two deviations from the guidelines. One is January, as indicated above. The other is May, because the Eugene Symphony (ESO) has two spectacular conflicts. On May 13, there's a Yo Yo Ma concert with ESO and on May 20 there's a regular ESO concert (Ode to Joy).

B. Potential bridge budget deficit. (Finance Committee) It is likely that we will experience a deficit in the bridge budget period, but it is difficult to estimate how much at this time. Truman Grandy, chair of the Finance Committee, provided some background regarding the relevant Board Policies BUDG.4 and BUDG.5, since it is not clear whether they apply to the current situation. He also mentioned the Treasurer’s dilemma of whether she’s authorized to pay monthly payroll bills when we appear to have a deficit.

John wondered how we should proceed now. He would like to see us give the Treasurer directions to pay essential expenses, especially payroll expenses. See attachment #2, which provides budget balances as of May 31, and attachment #3, which has the Treasurer’s “Bridge Budget Projections for 30 June 2003.” John suggested that the Board authorize the Treasurer to continue to pay the payroll monthly, while acknowledging that we will have to face the deficit soon. The following motion, which is an interim solution for the cash flow between meetings of the Board, passed by a vote of 8-1. MOTION: The Board authorizes, on an interim monthly basis, the Treasurer to run a deficit in the Reserve Fund in order to cover payroll and related expenses, i.e., personnel expenses.

The Board turned its attention to how we should deal with the anticipated deficit at the end of the bridge budget period (June 30). It was agreed to schedule a tentative Special Congregational Meeting for July 20. At its July 10 meeting, the Board will determine whether we have a deficit in excess of 1%. If not, the Congregational Meeting will be canceled and the Board will deal with the deficit, it any. Otherwise, the Board will firm up planning for the Special Congregational Meeting. Possible actions will be prepared for the membership to consider. Using input from others, the Secretary will write an announcement of the Special Congregational Meeting for the July newsletter.

C. Endowment Fund. Endowment Fund bylaws 095.1-095.8 and Board Policies CONTR.2, CONTR.3 and MEM.1 were attached to the agenda. Olga initiated a discussion about the Endowment in preparation for a full fledged discussion at the July meeting. See attachment #4 for some initial suggested “discussion questions.” As a "stakeholder," a Board Member, and as a "donor" to the Endowment itself, she is very curious about it generally and specifically about what it is used for. Given our current budget "difficulties," a discussion about the Endowment and its interest payments is both legitimate and timely. The Endowment Trustees will be invited to join the discussion at the July meeting.

Barbara Greenley and Monica Frank are Endowment Trustees. It was noted that we need a third Trustee, to replace outgoing Trustee Ken Colwell.

V. REPORTS

A. Report of the Minister (Carolyn Colbert). See attachment #5. Carolyn mentioned that the Committee on Ministry has two vacancies. Martha Osgood has already agreed to fill one of them, and Board President John Wagner will appoint her. Another committee member needs to be appointed in July.

B. Report of the Director of Religious Education (Candee Cole). See attachment #6. Candee mentioned two items. The good news is that there will be 20 middle school students in RE next year. The bad news is that both youth, who applied for GA Scholarships, were turned down. Candee appealed for help.

C. Report of the Treasurer (Jean Weick). No further report.

D. Report of the President (John Wagner). John reported on the PNWD meeting of Board Presidents in Seattle. It was useful to interact with other Board Presidents and to hear how other congregations cope with issues. Our church is the 7th largest church in the district.

E. Report of the Vice President (Anita Cowling). No further report.

F. Report of the Secretary (Ken Ross). No report.

VI. WRAP-UP AND ADJOURNMENT

After a process check out, the meeting adjourned at 10:05.

Submitted respectfully,
Ken Ross, Board Secretary

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH IN EUGENE
Congregational Budget Meeting
MINUTES
June 6, 2003

Since Board President John Wagner was in Seattle at a meeting of Board Presidents, Vice President Anita Cowling presided at the meeting.  She was assisted by Truman Grandy, chair of the Finance Committee and hence de facto chair of the Budget Committee, which is the Executive Committee plus the Finance Committee.  The meeting began at 12:38.

It was determined that we needed 53 to have a quorum.  60 voting members were present.  Anita thanked Candee Cole for arranging the lunch. 

Anita mentioned the church's many accomplishments over the past year.  She mentioned that we have successfully made the transition  from our fiscal year being the calendar year to our program year (July to June).  Our bridge canvass for the period January 1-June 30, 2003, was very successful; pledges were up 14%.  The Board of Trustees has committed to the goal of fair compensation for our employees, as defined by the UUA, in five years.  The Personnel Committee, chaired by Betty Hosokawa, has been working hard on the implementation.  Under the excellent guidance of Kay Crider and Ellen Pinney, our current canvass is going very well.  As of this meeting, 148 pledge units have pledged $154,097; this is an average of $1041 per pledge unit.

Anita outlined the current budget process, which has been long and difficult.  Several meetings of the Budget Committee, totalling 18-20 hours, were needed to work out the current budget.  It was a big challenge to balance fiscal prudence with social justice, i.e., with making sufficient progress with our fair compensation program, especially in these difficult times. 

Truman introduced the proposed budget.  He gave special thanks to Patrick Phillips for providing a detailed analysis of recent pledge periods.  This allowed members of the Budget Committee to have increased confidence in their predicting income from pledges for the next fiscal year. 

Jack Stevens moved, and several people seconded, a motion to adopt the budget as presented.  See attachment.  About a dozen people made comments.  The comments supported the current budget but stressed concerns about very important items that were excluded because of the limited income.  These included concern that the budget doesn't have the usual built-in flexibility (sufficient reserves, for example), doesn't provide for cost-of-living increases for the minister and DRE much less merit increases, and doesn't provide funds so that we can proceed with dealing with the fact that we're rapidly outgrowing our facilities (following up on the work of the Growth Options Task Force).  There was also concern that the one-time abandonment of the $250 monthly input to the Repair Reserve Fund in the last budget has been repeated.  Finally, there was regret that the budget was unable to reflect the desire of the Personnel and Budget Committees, working for the Board,  to provide full health insurance (i.e., the entire premium to provide medical, dental, life, LTD) to all employees, including those working at least half-time.

The motion was voted on and passed unanimously, with no abstentions.  The groups that worked so hard on this budget, namely the Budget Committee and the Personnel Committee, were given a hearty round of applause.  The meeting adjourned at 1:20.

Submitted respectfully,
Ken Ross, Board Secretary
June 8, 2003

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH IN EUGENE
Board of Trustees
MINUTES
May 8, 2003

 Present:  John Wagner, President; Anita Cowling, Vice President; Ken Ross, Secretary; Carolyn Colbert, Minister; Candee Cole, Director of Religious Education

Members-at-large:  David Bockoven, Ann Fuller, Barbara Greenley, Ruthie Manley, Olga Turner

Visitors:  Patrick Phillips, Judy Sawyer

I.  OPENING BUSINESS.

A.  The chalice was lit at 7:12.

B.  Good words were spoken by Ruthie Manley.

D.  The minutes for the April 17 Board meeting were approved by email.

II.  REPORTS OF COMMITTEES

A.  Report of the Executive Committee (EC).  See attachment #1.  John was unable to attend the EC meeting, so Anita made the report.  Since Anita has not found a time when all members of the task force on Board governance can meet, she suggested that the Board social could include a discussion, including the retiring Board members, about what has worked for the Board and what is needed.  Barbara commented that the Board should first make an action plan with a list of things that need to be accomplished.  Then the Board and the task force can work on them.  Anita remarked that we will continue to need Barbara's help and advice, both with regard to Board governance and with regard to the Program Council.  John suggested, and the group agreed, that the task force defer its first meeting until after the Board Retreat in June (and it was understood that no discussion is needed at the Board social).

B.  Report on the Program Council.  (Anita Cowling)  Anita reminded the Board members that the next Program Council meeting is on Sunday, May 18, at 4:00.  A focus will be on up-front communication within the council and also dissemination of information back to the congregation.  Calendaring is also an aspect of communication.  The issue of how committee's change chairs was mentioned.  There will be a continuation of the discussion on the budget process.  The next meeting will be in July.

C.  Canvass pledges.  Barbara Greenley, Pledge Secretary, indicated that we have 17 pledges so far, for a total of $39,780.

III.  OLD BUSINESS

A.  Board Retreat.  (Olga Turner)  Sunday, June 15, Reverend Margaret Keip will be our retreat facilitator!  Olga's proposal that our retreat be at the Trude Kaufman Senior Center (996 Jefferson St.), from 9:00 to 5:00, was approved.  It was agreed that the main topic should be Board governance.  John commented that our process is pretty good, but that we could learn better how to make good decisions.  Carolyn agreed.  Anita indicated that we also want to begin implementing long-range planning, and Carolyn mentioned that the other main issue (beyond fair compensation) involves Growth Options issues.  Olga will contact Rev. Keip about the program, and Carolyn will work on the issue of food for the retreat.

B.  Revised and new Board Policies.  (Ken Ross)  The Board Policies Task Force has several recommendations regarding Board Policies, which range from minor to major changes.  They were circulated at the last Board meeting.  Here is the relevant Board Policy. 

POP.3 New policies shall be:
1. Reviewed at one Board meeting.
2. Announced in the next copy of the church newsletter with a contact person listed.
3. Approved or rejected at a following Board meeting.
4. Printed in the church newsletter, and added to the policy manual within two weeks following passage, and approval of Board Minutes. (revised 4/10/97)

The Board tentatively approved the changes, with the change indicated below, so the next step is step 2.  The following item

MEMB.5  Bylaw 40.1 includes the requirement  "who annually makes a pledge and reaffirms membership in the church."  Specifically, members shall be regarded as voting members for an election if they have pledged and reaffirmed their membership within the previous fifteen months.

referred to an earlier version of the bylaws, so was corrected as follows:

MEMB.5  Bylaw 40.2 includes the requirement  "who annually makes a pledge of money and/or time, thus reaffirming membership in the church."  Specifically, members shall be regarded as voting members for an election if they have pledged money and/or time and reaffirmed their membership within the previous fifteen months.

C.  Budget process.  In future years, the Board will receive the budget from the Budget Committee and give its approval, before the budget goes to the congregation.  This is because the canvass will ideally be completed earlier than was possible this year.  But that won't be possible this spring because the last Board meeting prior to the Congregational Meeting (on June 8) is May 8.  The Board needs to submit a proposed budget to the congregation.  The final version of the budget will be worked out at the last Budget Committee (Executive Committee plus the Finance Committee) meeting on Thursday, May 29.  All Board members are invited to attend all meetings of the Budget Committee, but especially this meeting.  The Board agreed to empower the EC, and any other Board members present at that meeting, to act for the Board.  Also, there will be a town meeting on Sunday, June 1, at which members of the congregation may discuss the proposed budget.

D.  Board Social.  Details of the Board Social on Friday, May 16, were discussed.  This dessert potluck will be at 7:00 at Judy Sawyer's house, at 712 East 39th Place.  This is to be a fun event celebrating the "transfer of power."  We will affirm and acknowledge the good work of our retiring members and encourage feedback from them.

IV.  NEW BUSINESS

A.  New Board member.  Nancy Bell has resigned as an at-large Board member.  Vacancies on the Board are made by the Board based on recommendations of the Nominating Committee.  The relevant bylaws are:  060.4 The Board may temporarily fill any elective office which becomes vacant. A successor shall be elected at the next Annual Meeting to fill the unexpired term.  080.5 The Nominating Committee will be on call to suggest replacements to the Board of Trustees should a vacancy occur between annual meetings.

From the Nominating Committee: We are pleased to report that we have met and unanimously recommend Ann Fuller for the at-large position to be vacated by Nancy Bell.  Ann is excited about the opportunity to serve, and brings considerable talent and enthusiasm to the task.  Jeff Wright, Martha Osgood, Truman Grandy, Joyce Thomas, Charlotte Writer

The following motion passed unanimously.  MOTION.  That the Board accepts the Nominating Committee's recommendation that Ann Fuller complete the at-large Board position vacated by Nancy Bell. 

V. REPORTS

A.  Report of the Minister (Carolyn Colbert).  There was no written report, but Carolyn reported on some of her recent activities.  She mentioned the last spring meeting of the Shared Ministry Groups Steering Committee.  Evaluations will be collected and will help the steering committee when it reconvenes in the fall.  Carolyn also reminded us of the importance of the Board member installations (both services) on Sunday, June 1.

B.  Report of the Director of Religious Education (Candee Cole).  See attachment #2.

C.  Report of the Treasurer (Jean Weick).  See attachment #3.  Jean was unable to attend the Board meeting, but her summary comments are in II.D of the EC minutes (attachment #1).

D.  Report of the President (John Wagner).  John gave a presidential report.

E.  Report of the Vice President (Anita Cowling).  No report.

F.  Report of the Secretary (Ken Ross).  Ken mentioned that new Board members will have mailboxes in the office effective June 1; a Board manual will be in the mailboxes.  Ken also mentioned that he will be out of town and contact from May 21 through June 6.  NOTE:  Ruthie Manley was thanked for writing, on behalf of the Board, notes of thanks and acknowledgements to people in our congregation.  Ann Fuller has kindly agreed to take over this task.

VI.  WRAP-UP AND ADJOURNMENT  

The meeting adjourned at about 9:25 p.m.

Ken Ross
Board Secretary
May 9, 2003

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH IN EUGENE
Board of Trustees
MINUTES
April 17, 2003

Present:  John Wagner, President; Anita Cowling, Vice President; Ken Ross, Secretary; Jean Weick, Treasurer; Carolyn Colbert, Minister; Candee Cole, Director of Religious Education

Members-at-large:  Nancy Bell, David Bockoven, Barbara Greenley, Ruthie Manley, Nancy Terry, Olga Turner

Visitors:  Patricia Christgau, Karen Gaffney, Patrick Phillips, Judy Sawyer

I.  OPENING BUSINESS.

A.  The chalice was lit at 7:08.

B.  Good words were spoken by Jean Weick.

D.  The minutes for the March 13 Board meeting were approved by email.

II.  REPORTS OF COMMITTEES

A.  Report of the Executive Committee (EC).  See attachment #1.  

B.  Report on the Program Council.  (Anita Cowling)  The next meeting of the Program Council will be on Sunday, May 18, at 4:00 pm.

C.  Fundraising Committee.  (Patricia Christgau and Ruthie Manley, co-chairs)  See attachment #2.  The Board was pleased with the new committee's report and gave its blessing to its proposed efforts.

III.  OLD BUSINESS

A.  Welcoming new Board members.  The Board agreed to schedule a dessert social on Friday, May 16.

B.  Mentors for new Board members.  David, Olga and Ken agreed to be mentors for Judy Sawyer, Karen Gaffney and Patrick Phillips, respectively.

C.  Board Governance.  The Board created a task force to develop a manual for Board members and to further develop the role expectations for at-large members.  The task force should keep the full Board informed during its process.  Two retiring Board members and a new Board member (Barbara Greenley, Ruthie Manley and Judy Sawyer) agreed to serve on this task force.  Anita Cowling agreed to facilitate their first meeting, and Ken Ross agreed to serve as a consultant.  [John Wagner gave some background information on two important ongoing projects where work by the Board is needed, namely a further analysis of the recommendations of the Growth Options Study Group and work with the Facilities Council.]

D.  Summer Meetings.  The Board agreed to the following schedule for Board meetings this summer (which are all on Thursdays):  June 12, July 10, August 14 and September 11.  The schedule for Executive Committees will probably be:  Tuesday, June 10; Thursday, July 3; Tuesday, August 12; Thursday, September 4.  Board members were reminded about the Congregational Budget meeting on June 8 and the Choir's spring concert on June 7.

E.  Planning for Board Retreat.  (Olga Turner)  Karen Gaffney agreed to join the organizing committee which also consists of David Bockoven, Ken Ross and Olga.  The Board retreat was discussed, both the logistics and the intended focus.  It was agreed to have the retreat on Sunday, June 15, with Reverend Margaret Keip as our retreat facilitator.  Details regarding time and location will be worked out later, including the idea of an overnight retreat -- as suggested by John Wagner.  The main focus will be on church governance as the church moves from a pastoral to a program church.  Marg is an expert on these topics.

F.  Update on GA Delegates.  (John Wagner)  John mentioned that our church is entitled to six GA delegates, not just five.  The Board approved of John's recommended delegates:  Patti Hansen, Sara Cowling, Aubree Johnson, Nick Hewko, Ruth Nelson and Barbara Greenley.  Other members of our church who will be attending are our minister, Carolyn Colbert; our DRE, Candee Cole; and Kathy Dillon.  The Board also approved of fundraisers that are needed to support the youth and young adult delegates' expenses.

IV.  NEW BUSINESS

A.  Revised and new Board Policies.  (Ken Ross)  (See attachment #3)  The Board Policies Task Force has several recommendations regarding Board Policies.  They range from minor to major changes.  To facilitate the Board's handling of these Board Policies, hard copies of the proposals were circulated to the Board.  The actual "tentative Board approval" will be asked for at the May 8 Board meeting.  [Of course, the Board may alter recommendations of the task force.]  Board members were asked to read the proposals well before the May meeting, and were encouraged to communicate, by email say, about them.

V. REPORTS

Report of the Minister (Carolyn Colbert).  See attachments #4 and #5.

B.  Report of the Director of Religious Education (Candee Cole).  Candee reported that she has been very busy.  Her activities have included fundraising and scholarship applications for GA delegates, working on the district newsletter, hosting a Junior High conference, and revealing Easter egg procedures.  May 4 is Teacher Appreciation Sunday.  Candee also held two midnight worships for the Campus Group and Twenties 'n' Thirties group.  Three RE people will be going to Spokane for OWL training for young children.  The many quiet contributions of Jason Dommasch, including work on the church computers and coordinating the management of the sound system, were lauded.  There may be a workshop concerning conscientious objectors.

C.  Report of the Treasurer (Jean Weick).  See attachment #6.  Jean mentioned that $481.75 was raised for the Guest at your Table, and $1458.50 has so far been contributed to the Iraq Relief Fund.

D.  Report of the President (John Wagner).  John reported on the budget process for the fiscal year, July 1, 2003 to June 30, 2004.  He was very pleased with the Congregational Meeting, which included good discussion regarding the financing of the RE building extension.  There have been many iterations of the budget.  The collection of information from committees and other groups has been more inclusive; specific line items will be addressed at the next meeting of the Program Council.  John emphasized how pleased he is with the new Personnel Committee, especially its work on the five-year Fair Compensation plan.  Finally, John expects that a Dream Budget will be available during the budget development period, so that members of the congregation will be able to see what it would take to have a strong church program.

E.  Report of the Vice President (Anita Cowling).  No report, but see the report on the Program Council (item II.B).

 Report of the Secretary (Ken Ross).  No report.

VI.  WRAP-UP AND ADJOURNMENT  The meeting adjourned at 9:27 pm.

Ken Ross, Board Secretary
April 18, 2003

ANNUAL CONGREGATIONAL MEETING
MINUTES
April 13, 2003

Lunch was prepared by UFO.  The chalice was lit at 12:30.  Appreciations of people in the church who have done extra special work were shared.  There was a Stewardship Moment, during which Kay Crider and Ellen Pinney discussed highlights of the upcoming canvass.

On behalf of the Nominating Committee, Martha Osgood gave a report outlining the process of the committee.  It was next determined that there was a quorum of voting members present.  At least 53 were needed and 63 signed in.

In accord with bylaw 080.1, the Nominating Committee offers the following slate for Board members.  Terms begin June 1 and end on May 31.  For President for a one-year term:  John Wagner (incumbent, 2nd term).  For Vice President for a two-year term:  Anita Cowling (incumbent, 2nd term).  For Secretary for a two-year term:  Ken Ross (incumbent, 2nd term).  For Members-at-Large (two-year terms):  Karen Gaffney,   Patrick Phillips,   Judy Sawyer

Ellen Pinney moved, and Jack Stevens seconded, a motion to approve the entire slate in a single vote.  This motion passed without any negative votes.

In accord with bylaw 080.3, the current Nominating recommends the following for the 2003-2004 Nominating Committee (all one-year terms).  That bylaw states that, "the slate shall normally include two members of the current Nominating Committee."  Kurt Engelmann,  Truman Grandy (incumbent, 2nd term),  Linda Sage,  Janine Stewart,  Charlotte Writer (incumbent, 2nd term)

Jack Stevens moved, and Dick Loescher seconded, a motion to approve these appointments.  The motion passed with only one negative vote, designed to maintain humility.

Proposal for Funding RE Space Expansion.  See attachment.  The motion was the first bullet under "The Proposal."  Some felt that it would be preferable to borrow from the Future Expansion Fund rather than simply use some of it.  There was extensive discussion about this.  However, no amendment was made and the original motion was voted on.  It passed with three negative votes.

Fair Compensation Information.  Board President, John Wagner,  gave a report on the 5-year Fair Compensation Plan passed by the Board of Trustees, and its impact on future budgets and canvasses.

The meeting adjourned at 1:27.

Ken Ross, Board Secretary
Unitarian Universalist Church in Eugene
ruthken@pacinfo.com
home phone:  686-1549

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH IN EUGENE
BOARD MEETING
March 13, 2003 Minutes

Present: John Wagner, President; Anita Cowling, Vice President; Ken Ross, Secretary; Jean Weick, Treasurer; Carolyn Colbert, Minister; Candee Cole, Director of Religious Education
Members-at-large: Nancy Bell, David Bockoven, Barbara Greenley, Ruthie Manley, Nancy Terry, Olga Turner
Visitors: Kay Crider, Ellen Pinney

I. OPENING BUSINESS.

A. The chalice was lit at 6:11.

B. Good words were spoken by David Bockoven.

D. The minutes for the February 20 Board meeting were approved by email. The minutes for the February 23 Extra Board meeting were approved except that a clarifying MOTION regarding the five-year plan toward fair compensation is on this agenda (item IV.A).

II. ANALYSIS OF THE SHARED MINISTRY SURVEY (Olga Turner, facilitator).

The report, “Evaluation of Shared Ministry,” which was prepared by the Committee on Ministry in early 2002, was received by the Board at its December 2002 meeting. The report was subsequently made available to members of the congregation, and Carolyn has indicated that she has studied and responded to the parts of the report that pertain to her. Nevertheless, members of the Board have some concerns, especially since the creation and analysis of such surveys is a lot of work, so it’s important for them to be as useful as possible. The Board recognizes and appreciates the Committee on Ministry’s hard work.

It is not clear, at least to many Board members, what the intent and purpose of such annual evaluations are, and what kind of follow-up and response is appropriate. Are they for information only? to serve as vehicles of change? or are they just a contractual responsibility? Only about 70 people responded to the 2002 survey. Why? Members of the Board had at least three theories. One is that, due to apparent budgetary constraints, the survey was not mailed to the congregation as a whole. Because of this, only people who attended church, and had enough interest to pick up a survey during the distribution period and return it, were included. This somewhat reduced the randomization of the sample to more motivated respondents. A second theory is that some people were put-off by the requirement of a signature. There’s a fair amount of anecdotal evidence that this was the case. A third is that some people may be tired of going through the same process annually. Recurrent patterns in this survey and the 2000 survey suggest that perceptions are not changing much. This suggests that things in the church are not changing much either, in which case people may feel that the surveys serve little purpose.

It is felt that the Committee on Ministry should address the questions of the last paragraph with the goal of making future surveys more effective. At the same time, the committee should set up clear procedures for designing, implementing, and responding to future surveys. To this end, it is suggested that the committee be clear from the outset, and state on the survey itself, who designed it and who will be reading and responding to the survey results. While Board members do not and should not serve on the Committee on Ministry, we believe that this task should be taken on by the committee plus a couple of Board members. It may be convenient to label this group the Task Force on Shared Ministry Surveys.

The current Committee on Ministry made a strong case that it felt that these surveys should not be taken annually. The committee recommended “every three years,” but several members of the Board (at its Dec 2002 meeting) suggested that “every two years” would be best. Any such change will require an amendment to the contract with the minister.

The question of requiring signatures on the surveys versus anonymity was discussed at length by the Board. A possible solution may be a compromise where respondents are encouraged, but not required, to sign the surveys. It could be explained to respondents why signed responses are more useful than anonymous ones. We leave the details to the task force.

Other input from Board members included: The surveys should focus on how the ministry, broadly interpreted, can best serve the congregation, rather than just determining how much various programs in the church are liked. Efforts, especially involving sensitive issues such as these, need to be accessible, accountable and transparent.

III. REPORTS OF COMMITTEES

A. Stewardship Committee (Kay Crider and Ellen Pinney, co-chairs). Kay and Ellen made a presentation regarding the issues surrounding pledge confidentiality. Currently the Pledge Secretary, Barbara Greenley, and the Office Administrator, Kim Harris, are the only people with access to what people pledge. Kay and Ellen explained why they would like to add the Stewardship Committee co-chairs to the list of people with such access. They also explained how they would like to be able to let each canvasser know the range of pledges of each of their canvassees, and no one else. Some canvassers want to canvass people whose pledges tend to be in the same range as their own pledges. Concerns were expressed about these procedures, and cautions were advised, but in the end the Board agreed with the process. It was noted that these procedures are common in many face-to-face canvasses in the denomination, and that similar procedures have been used in our church in the past.

The co-chairs produced a short report on the bridge canvass, so that there's a paper trail for future Stewardship or other folks who might find it helpful. See attachment #1.

B. Report of the Executive Committee (EC). See attachment #2.

C. Report on the Program Council (Anita Cowling). Anita reported that at the last meeting of the Program Council, committee chairs were advised about the process for budget requests (for the July 1, 2003-June 30, 2004 church budget), including the deadlines and the schedule for the meetings of the Budget Committee. Some committee chairs had already completed their budget request forms. There was also discussion about other church processes.

IV. OLD BUSINESS

A. Fair Compensation. MOTION: The Board is committed to a five-year plan for getting all employees to fair compensation consistent with UUA Guidelines. Priorities 1-9 are a first step towards accomplishing this goal, with the implementation process to be further developed over the five years. This motion (to be added to the minutes of the Extra Board Meeting) was approved by email, by a large majority, except that it was felt that we need an explicit statement clarifying the timetable of the “five-year plan.” EC recommends that the motion specify that the five-year plan be in effect by July 1, 2007. I.e., the compensations should all be at fair levels by the beginning of the fifth year, where the first year is July 1, 2003 to June 30, 2004. Some discussion occurred around the difference between “goals,” and “plans,” and “requirements.” It was noted that all of the language in this motion constitutes a strong “goal.” The Board approved of adding this clarification.

B. Final approval of Board Policies on Rental Policy. See attachment #5 of the January 23, 2003 Board minutes, or see page 5 of the March 2003 newsletter. The only input we’ve received is from Joyce Thomas: I'm sure that there was a reason for changing advance notice to 30 days but I think that is excessively long notice. Many important events can not be scheduled that far in advance. Scheduling at least 30 days in advance may also tie up the church facilities since there is no significant penalty for cancelling. Shorter notice may make use of the church when it wouldn't be used otherwise. I propose 2 weeks (14 days advance) notice. Joyce This relates to the requirement, "Rental fees also may be waived or reduced by the Executive Committee for other UUCE member occasions, but a request must be received at least 30 days prior to the event." [5-96.2(1)] and a related requirement [5-96.2(2)] for rentals by non-profit and other worthy organizations. After some discussion, the Board decided by a 6-4 vote to change the 30-days notice requirement to 20 days. Then the Board unanimously approved the modified Board Policies; they are now official and the membership will be informed of this fact.

C. Congregational Meeting. Any issues that the Board should consider before that meeting? This item was not discussed per se, but see John Wagner’s comments in item VI.D

V. NEW BUSINESS

Items A, B and C of the agenda, which involved new Board members and Board governance, were deferred to the next Board meeting because of the late hour.

D. GA Delegates. At this point, the following have indicated interested in going to GA: Ruth Nelson, Sara Cowling, Patti Hansen, Olga Turner, Barbara Greenley, one or two potential youth and perhaps others. In addition, Kathy Dillon will be attending GA as a board member of the UU Women’s Federation. The Board approved the following as delegates: the two youth, Sara Cowling and Patti Hansen. It is understood that John may approve a fifth delegate and alternate delegates and that, if any of the approved delegates are unable to go, then John may replace them with alternate delegates.

VI. REPORTS

A. Report of the Minister (Carolyn Colbert). See attachment #3.

B. Report of the Director of Religious Education (Candee Cole). See attachment #4. Candee indicated that things are going well, and she mentioned that she had signed up 10 new kids for RE.

C. Report of the Treasurer (Jean Weick). See attachment #5. In the February report, actual expenses were $6,585 higher than income (principally due to a $5,000 shortage in projected pledge income), leaving us with a deficit for the month. While we are continuing to "eat up" the surplus from the beginning of the year, if this trend continues, we will end up with a significant deficit at the end of the six-month fiscal period. Jean also mentioned two concerns: (1) that in addition to this shortage in income, our pledge total still falls $5,500 short of the budgeted amount. And (2) that fundraising efforts in the church are not doing well and need coordinating. In this connection, it was noted that Patricia Christgau has recently agreed to assist in some of this effort.

D. Report of the President (John Wagner). John reminded us that the city has approved the permit for the RE building expansion. The next step is to finance the expansion, which is expected to cost between $6000 and $8000. Since this money is needed soon, and since it would be hard to raise money for this during the current canvass, the Facilities Council will probably ask approval for using some of the funds in the Future Expansion fund; this fund currently has more than $45,000 in it. Approval of this usage should be obtained from the congregation, so this item will be put on the agenda of the Annual Congregational Meeting on April 13.

John also mentioned that the Personnel Committee’s activities have been somewhat redirected because of the Board’s priorities regarding Fair Compensation. He said that this committee has no charge, but that one will be created. The charge will, of course, be tied in with the Personnel Policies manual.

E. Report of the Vice President (Anita Cowling). Anita reported earlier on the Program Council; see item III.C.

F. Report of the Secretary (Ken Ross). No report.

VII. WRAP-UP AND ADJOURNMENT

The Board adjourned at about 9:30.

Ken Ross, Board Secretary
Unitarian Universalist Church in Eugene
ruthken@pacinfo.com
home phone: 686-1549

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH IN EUGENE
EXTRA BOARD MEETING (regular board meeting minutes follow)
February 23, 2003
BOARD REPORT

On Sunday, February 23, the Board met for over three hours to deal with some major issues for which we never found time at our regularly-scheduled meetings. There was a long discussion about Board member responsibilities, both what is expected of Board members and what new Board members expect their responsibilities to be. It was agreed that the Board needs a Board manual that includes a "list of Board responsibilities." As a follow-up, the Board will probably create a task force to clarify what tasks the Board should be doing and make recommendations how Board members can be involved, especially as new tasks and issues arise. This task force would also develop a manual for the Board. 

The second major issue discussed at the extra Board meeting concerned fair compensation priorities. We've known that our church is way behind on fair compensation of our staff, but this was made more vivid at the Fair Compensation Workshop that was held on February 8, 2003. The workshop identified and focused on the specifics, and several priorities were identified. At the extra Board meeting, after considerable discussion, a nine-step set of priorities was agreed upon, with the understanding that it provided the outline for our five-year plan to reach fair compensation for all of our staff. Later the Board made this understanding explicit. MOTION:  The Board is committed to a five-year plan for getting all employees to fair compensation consistent with UUA Guidelines. Priorities 1-9 are a first step towards accomplishing this goal, with the implementation process to be further developed over the five years. To clarify the five-year plan, it was agreed that the goal is that the five-year plan be in effect by July 1, 2007. I.e., the compensations should all be at fair levels by the beginning of the fifth year, where the first year is July 1, 2003 to June 30, 2004. 

The third major issue discussed at the extra Board meeting concerned access to pledge information. After a long discussion, it was agreed to authorize the Stewardship Committee co-chairs to have access to pledge information (in addition to the Pledge Secretary and the Office Administrator). This issue was revisited at the March 13 Board meeting; see below. 

Because of the late hour, the fourth major issue, regarding analysis of the Shared Ministry survey, was deferred to the March 13 Board meeting. The report, "Evaluation of Shared Ministry," which was prepared by the Committee on Ministry in early 2002, was received by the Board at its December 2002 meeting. The report was subsequently made available to members of the congregation, and Carolyn has indicated that she has studied and responded to the parts of the report that pertain to her. Nevertheless, members of the Board have some concerns, especially since the creation and analysis of such surveys is a lot of work, so it's important for them to be as useful as possible. The Board recognizes and appreciates the Committee on Ministry's hard work. It is felt that the committee should re-assess the process with the goal of making future surveys more effective. At the same time, the committee should set up clear procedures for designing, implementing, and responding to future surveys. 

At the Board's invitation, the co-chairs of the Stewardship Committee, Kay Crider and Ellen Pinney, made a presentation regarding the issues surrounding pledge confidentiality. They explained how they would like to be able to let each canvasser know the range of pledges of each of their canvassees, and no one else. Some canvassers want to canvass people whose pledges tend to be in the same range as their own pledges. Concerns were expressed about these procedures, and cautions were advised, but in the end the Board agreed with the process. It was noted that these procedures are common in many face-to-face canvasses in the denomination, and that similar procedures have been used in our church in the past.

Recommended changes in the Board Policies on Rental Policy were circulated earlier for membership input. After making one change, the Board gave final approval. See a separate article in this newsletter. 

The Board approved of a tentative list of delegates to the General Assembly meeting in Boston in June. When it's known who will be able to attend the meeting, the final list will be determined by the Board President, John Wagner. On a separate issue, John reminded us that the city has approved the permit for the RE building expansion. The next step is to finance the expansion, which needs to be done soon. Since it would be hard to raise money for this during the current canvass, at the Annual Congregational Meeting on April 13, the Facilities Council will probably ask congregational approval for using some of the funds in the Future Expansion fund. See the article regarding the April 13 meeting.

Ken Ross, Board Secretary
Unitarian Universalist Church in Eugene
ruthken@pacinfo.com
home phone: 686-1549

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH IN EUGENE
Board of Trustees
MINUTES February 20, 2003

Present: John Wagner, President; Anita Cowling, Vice President; Ken Ross, Secretary; Jean Weick, Treasurer; Carolyn Colbert, Minister; Candee Cole, Director of Religious Education
Members-at-large: Nancy Bell, David Bockoven, Barbara Greenley, Nancy Terry, Olga Turner
Visitor: Truman Grandy

I. OPENING BUSINESS.

A. The chalice was lit at 7:07.

B. Good words were spoken by Anita Cowling.

D. The minutes for the January 23 Board meeting were approved by email.

II. REPORTS

A. Report of the Executive Committee (EC). See attachment #1. 

B. Report of the President (John Wagner). John indicated that the Budget Committee is busy at work in view of the new canvass this spring. It is hoped that they will have budget requests from some committees by their next meeting on March 3. 

John announced progress on the RE classroom space, i.e., enclosure of the breezeway. The city has granted the building permit. Jake Walsh worked on the plans, and Vern Cederlund has been facilitating the process. The next issue is funding. Between $6000 and $8000 will be needed.

The follow-up on the Growth Options report has been languishing. John decided to focus on information gathering. After a report on that, we can face the options of how to go forward. Suggested names and ideas for this important project were solicited.

John passed around a copy of, "Basic Principles of Policy Governance." He indicated that the document discusses how a church Board does its business. He feels that the document warrants looking at. This may be a good item to discuss at our June Retreat. 

John also mentioned briefly his concern about communication failures in the church. His current example is the misunderstanding regarding the specifics and purposes of the Music Development Grant.

C. Report of the Vice President (Anita Cowling). Anita mentioned that she looked at the website regarding grants for non-profits that had been brought to her attention. She would appreciate it if someone else would look at the website, but it appears that we wouldn't qualify since our programs are not focused on people who are below the poverty line.

D. Report of the Treasurer (Jean Weick). See attachment #2. It looks as if January was a great month, but this is because of many prepaid pledges from December. Good news, though, is that regular expenses for January were a little under projection. Jean is looking at old fiscally-inert Special Funds to see how they might be dealt with (combined with other funds or with each other). Jean clarified the abbreviation on line 33, page 4: Year To Date Revenue less Expenses. As usual, pages 2-3 contain the details of the General Fund, which are summarized on lines 32-34 on page 4.

Barbara Greenley, who also serves as Pledge Secretary, indicated that the pledges for the six-month canvass now total $99,938.50. These come from 212 pledge units, for an average of $471.41 per pledge unit.

E. Report of the Secretary (Ken Ross). Ken mentioned that the work of the Board Policies Task Force is going well. After two meetings it has been agreed that this task force will wrap up its business at one more meeting. The proposals will be forwarded to the Board in April.

Ken also mentioned that the project of leasing a new copier is coming along. We may have the new copier in the office by next week, i.e., the last week of February.

F. Report of the Minister (Carolyn Colbert). See attachment #3. Carolyn stressed that Board members would be welcome to attend the Newcomers' Orientation in March. She also mentioned that the new directory will be available the first Sunday in March. The Office Administrator, Kim Harris, has been working very hard on this project.

G. Report of the Director of Religious Education (Candee Cole). See attachment #4. Candee also mentioned that RE had received money for a new printer to go with the new computer provided by Ken Colwell. She indicated that a highlight of next week will be the visit of the Tibetan Lama on February 23.

III. R