House Rules for our UU Game

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Corinna and Dale Whitaker-Lewis

February 28, 2010

Readings:

Dale: We have two short readings. The first is from William Butler Yeats…

THE SECOND COMING

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity

Corinna: And this, from the instructions on a box of cards..

Fluxx, a perfectly simple card game for 2-6 players.  Simple? Fluxx has but one rule: “Draw 1 card and then play 1 card.” What cards could you play?  Well, you could play Time, or War, or perhaps Love. I shall play Chocolate. It is a fine thing to have Chocolate.  What’s this? You have played the card “Play 2.” Well, then, play a second card!  Don’t you know the rule of Fluxx? It is this: “Draw 1 card and then play 2 cards.” Well, that’s what it is NOW.  Perfectly simple.  The goal of the game?  Oh, I’m terribly sorry. No one has played a Goal card yet.  Enter the World of Looney Labs Games.” (Now that’s a fitting name, isn’t it?)

Corinna: Good morning everyone!  My name is Corinna Whiteaker-Lewis,

Dale: and I’m Dale Whiteaker-Lewis, and we have been coming to this church for almost 20 years.

Corinna: We have two daughters who delight and challenge us every day, Audrey who you just heard reading the children’s story, she’s 13, and Bridget’s here as well, and she’s 10.

We hope we will live up to Janet’s expectations today –we are very honored she asked us to speak, and also quite a bit daunted! Please forgive our need to read quite a bit of what we will say to you today.

We have reflected much over the years on this church, this congregation, this religion called Unitarian Universalism.  Having been raised without a religious tradition, this church is the only one I’ve ever known, so it’s all new to me.  We found this church in 1991 because we wanted someone to marry us, but leaving it at just that felt wrong.  We needed to make a connection here, and we did – we made good friends and have left sermons feeling recharged for the week ahead.

Dale: I grew up attending an Irish Catholic church in Cedar Falls, Iowa.  I didn’t connect strongly with the faith or rituals of my parents, and came to hate being forced to attend.  Millions of people have gained purpose and direction from that religion.  But, I came away as a teen bitter and—except for my love of a good hymn—feeling like I had escaped something unpleasant.  When we started coming here in ’91, I overcame my childhood resentment with a bargain.  I would be OK attending church if I: A. Don’t have to dress up –and— B.  Don’t have to “remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” I could miss a week or two.

Corinna: And for a while, that was all we needed—inspiring sermons, a casual dress code and no truancy policy. But, our family’s participation in the life of this church has also really waxed and waned, waned and waxed over these last 18 years.  Some years, we maybe came to service once a month. The old bargain didn’t make our church life meaningful by itself.  But seeing that you all accepted our approach made this a safe spiritual environment for us.  In the vocabulary of logic, this was a necessary condition of our growth, but not a sufficient one.

Dale: We sometimes fell back on that basic bargain, but over time both our involvement and our unconscious expectations grew. Over the years we have taught in summer camps, chaired the Social Action Committee, helped form an Amnesty International group, served on the Board of Trustees and worked on the church’s computer network.  My resentment of religion faded, and we enjoyed most of our church activities.

Without thinking about it, though, our expectations grew: for a cleaner RE wing, for support of our personal causes, for a well-oiled volunteer process, and the like.  So, our minimum requirements for church life expanded, but I can’t say that we ever spelled out the new bargains clearly, even to ourselves.  At the same time, we often didn’t know what the church and its members expected of us, and so we weren’t always very engaged.

Corinna: Looking back, the inconsistency of our attendance seems strange to me.  I guess there were reasons why we didn’t come much some years: newborns, new houses, new jobs. So, while I think an expressed tolerance and acceptance drew us to this place, the absence of a request for commitment kept us from making one. Asking for a commitment would have meant this church would have to know itself, and be able to describe that to us.  And then tell us what our role, as church members, would be.  Because to ask us to figure out what this place meant to us was waayy too much work, I mean that’s just waayy too many choices.

Does that mean we were lazy? Does that mean we were not good UU material? I mean, this is all about everyone finding their own truths, right? I think it’s a lot to ask someone new to our church to do on their own, though. I mean, it’s just the kind of work you join a church to do together with others–developing relationships and, dare I say, some rules. I am one of those who work better with constraints than without, and I wonder if that doesn’t have something to do with it. I mentioned this to my friend Natalie, and she talked about how some of the most creative costumes she’d ever seen were for the black and white ball in San Francisco.

Multiple choices tend to stymie me, and I don’t think I am alone in this.  Dr. Barry Schwartz, in his book, “The Paradox of Choice, Why More Is Less” argues that too many choices can erode our psychological well being. He cites a study where shoppers will buy more jam when offered fewer varieties. He argues that after thousands of years working towards the simplification of providing for the necessities of life, the trend is reversing back to foraging behavior, as we are forced to sift for ourselves through more and more options in every aspect of life. I know that after shopping exclusively at little Wheatsville for a while, entering an HEB can feel like climbing Mt. Everest.

Dale: Fast forward to February of 2006, when our minister delivered the only sermon we’ve ever walked out of, about the responsibility for the 9/11 attacks.   The experience helped reveal hidden assumptions and expectations we had.  And, understanding those new expectations matters more to us now than what was said, or how it made us feel.  We had made new bargains and had new, necessary conditions for our church life.  We had strong expectations that weren’t being met, about what other church members believed or would accept.

I have been an alcoholic in recovery for nearly my whole adult life—I spent my 20th birthday in rehab.  The lessons of sobriety have shaped my whole life, including church.  I have been taught that, when I have resentments, it helps to look relentlessly at my own part in the matter.  This serves two main purposes, first to take the focus off the offender, since I’m never going to change them.  Second, it helps me see where—to quote recovery literature—I’ve made decisions based on self which later put me in a position to be hurt.

Corinna: After 2006 and through the dismissal to this year, we have thought a lot about our role in the hardship we now face together.   In the example of the 9/11 sermon, Dale and I found we had developed unspoken assumptions about how others must support us, about the type of sanctuary you were required to maintain for us here.  We had built the walls of our sanctuary well inside the walls of the church, and left a lot that we didn’t like outside those walls.  We both feel now that for our church to heal, we must come to see not just a part of the church as our sanctuary, but the whole church body.  Not doing so sets us up for disillusionment.

For example, if you are very in touch with the music program, or the RE program, or the Forum program, and that changes suddenly and drasticly, will you still find peace of mind and sanctuary here?  We were convinced that we personally needed to expand our concept of sanctuary, but we weren’t sure how to accomplish that.  So, we were both relieved and excited when Janet started emphasizing covenant, especially developing something like a “covenant of right relation”.   It seemed to provide an opportunity for us to look at our relationship to the church as a whole.

Dale: To us, it seems like creating a good covenant is a lot like deciding on how to play certain games among friends.   Preparing to play a game might start with months of training for a marathon, or a casual invitation to play cards.  Just so, our activities at church might be well-planned or impulsive.  In each case, though, a lot about what happens and how we experience it depends on the rules of the game.  The rules might all be agreed and well-known ahead of time, as with the marathon.  Or, they might be last-minute, the way kids often make up new rules for each backyard game.  More likely, there are some of each: “standard” rules and “house” rules.

Standard rules to tell us things like which of the 100’s of card games we’re playing with that same old deck.  And House rules to fit the game to the players or circumstance.   Maybe we have younger or inexperienced players that need a break, or less than the usual time to play, or maybe we just think our rules will be more fun, just as we might spice up an old recipe.  If we don’t agree on some rules, though, can we even play a game together?  Or, are we just in the same place at the same time?  Think of that tense feeling we all know from childhood, when a player tries to change the rules to his or her favor in the middle of the game.

Corinna: Our family has always enjoyed playing games together.  In BK times, before kids, we had a lot of fun playing the video game Myst with our friends Karen and Michael, Rod and Carol.  We also had way too much fun with a free CD of Boggle that we got off a box of Cheerios. (Geeks that we are.) The girls started out on these cooperative board games where no one actually loses.  Harvest Time! Let’s all help each other bring in our crops!  But there’s one thing we always do, and that’s set up some house rules.  Do-overs might be allowed.  You can start your turn before amassing 30 points.  Sometimes there are very strict time limits on (some player’s) turns!  Or, you can have all the time you want.

Dale: Amazingly, as you heard in the reading, you don’t need to know the goal to start playing the card game Fluxx! The goal comes in somewhere along the way, and often changes.  What makes it playable is that people sit down together and agree on a single rule, just to start with.  People walked in the door of this church.  It’s reasonable for a person to first experience this sanctuary and our services when they start coming here.  But it’s a church,we are the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin, so we don’t think of this place as a lecture hall.  It is a sacred space, for inspiration, for meditation, for transformation. And much of that transformation happens in the relationships between each other, as a people sitting here together, sharing life.

Corinna: I don’t think I was looking for spiritual growth, really, when I started coming here. I was just looking for a group of people who shared my beliefs, so I could feel good and comfortable about having those beliefs. I was tired of being the outsider, the one who isn’t like everyone else.  At 6’2”, as a lifelong vegetarian, as a liberal in Texas, I’ve been in the minority often enough.  Being different was something I long had turned into a strength and used as a defense mechanism.

It served me well for quite a long time, but ultimately it was an easy out, with no opportunity for change.  My spiritual journey now is to be the best person I can be, while contributing to something bigger than myself.  Something that is meaningful, uplifting, and a catalyst for good. So, I make a commitment to this community.  But to adhere to a commitment you make to other people is hard work, and you have to work at it.  It is not easy, but from that hard work comes growth.

Dale: To my mind, the most important rules for a covenant of right relation are the most minimal.  What standard of behavior can I, on my worst day, still commit to uphold.  If some morning I didn’t have time for breakfast, and I just found out a loved one was ill, and my shoes don’t fit right and my car is acting up and I’m late to church and you stop me in the hall to ask me about a problem with a church computer.  Then, what behavior should I tell you to expect of me?   That minimum standard of behavior says:  if I don’t meet even this, you are right to be concerned for me, and it is OK to be upset with me.   You should expect better, and you can and should help me to do better.   I may not be pleasantly receptive to your correction, but the heart of the covenant is that, even on those occasions where I miss the mark, I commit to stay engaged while I try to get my behavior back in line.

Corinna: When you are in community with other people, when you’ve shared a covenant on how to behave, the hardest thing is to call someone on not honoring it.  The fact that we don’t have a covenant yet makes it even harder, since we don’t even know if we agree on what’s acceptable.  I experienced this just recently. I had an exchange with someone here at church that made me feel uncomfortable and maybe even a little bit threatened. This person spoke very judgingly, told me I was wrong, raised her voice, and seemed very irritated and exasperated with me.  I remained calm, and restated my point of view, but ultimately did not let this person know how she was making me feel. I then turned around and talked to someone else about had happened!

Fortunately, my confidant gently let me know that my silence only allowed this person to think that the way she treated me was ok.  And on top of that, I was developing a negative opinion of this person without giving her any chance to explain herself. So, while I upheld a personal commitment to be polite, I also have the harder job of standing up for that value with someone who may not share it. This is the very difficult part of living honestly with other people, of being in community.  But, this experience would have been easier for me if I had known that we both agreed to a covenant, as members of this church, to be caring toward one another.

A covenant of right relation, or some agreed-upon house rules, allows us to leave our suspicions at the door, and have meaningful experiences in an environment that may strain or break our expectations about things that matter to us.  Having that commitment to each other about a minimum standard of my own behavior and yours, even helps me tolerate situations where the commitment is breached, because we have a standard to get back to that is a community standard that we can remind each other of.  Bringing this out of the realm of the implicit helps expose assumptions we have about “normal” or “acceptable” behavior.  And I make the promise here and now, before you all, that I will get up the nerve to speak to this person!

Dale: And, just to give you an idea of how disciplined we were in preparing for this sermon, a very timely article came in yesterday’s UU World magazine.  Written by a consultant with the Alban Institute, Dan Hotchkiss, it talks about covenant, mission, and vision.  When discussing who the board of a church must serve, he says they must serve, quote, “the congregation’s mission, the covenant the congregation has set its heart to and the piece of the Divine Spirit that belongs to it.” He then goes on to ask and what is the mission?  “The great management consultant Peter Drucker wrote that the core product of all social-sector organizations is “a changed human being.” A congregation’s mission is its unique answer to the question, “Whose lives do we intend to change and in what way?” …. Growth, expanding budgets, building programs, and such trappings of success matter only if they reflect positive transformation in the lives of the people touched by the congregation’s work,” unquote.

Corinna: You know, what we have here is such an incredible opportunity.  There are not many chances for a group of people to get together and determine for themselves how they want to be with another.  Like the children in Roxaboxen found, this is a freedom.  But it won’t happen; we can’t be healthy here, unless we are willing to be vulnerable and say that we’re not perfect and would like to change.We must start with ourselves.  And then dare to think that we might know what we would like to be, and that with each other’s help and love, we can get there.

Dale: In the meantime, come play some games with us! The Open Minds Covenant Group is hosting an all ages Games Night in Howson Hall this coming Saturday night at 7 p.m. Snacks. Drinks. Surprises. Childcare provided in the nursery (need to RSVP for that), but there will also be supervised games for kids 5ish and up. But you’ll have to follow the rules, and we know you will! We’ll bring Fluxx…

February 2010 Board of Trustees Meeting Summary

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Summary of 2/16/2010 Board Meeting

The agenda for February’s board meeting was jammed and we wore ourselves out! Here is a light summary of the things we covered – please remember that these are not meant to be a substitute for the actual minutes of the meeting which are being compiled by our secretary!

  • We recognized five new members, and had no resignations
  • We approved the minutes for both the December and January meetings.
  • Dale Bulla presented a brief analysis of our electric usage and savings since the installation of the solar panels – so far a savings of some $1,500!
  • Michael West gave us an overview of the search process and timeline for calling our next interim minister, followed by the timeline for our settled minister search process. We will be appointing an interim search committee this month!
  • We welcomed Walter Pearson, the UUA Ministerial Compensation Consultant for the SW District. Walter explained his role in helping our church in the search for our next settled minister and gave us some excellent insights into the process.
  • Our treasurer Luther Elmore gave us an update on how the Finance Committee has chosen to calculate our reserves. While they remain a bit wonky, the good news is that we still have financial reserves!
  • The board authorized the Executive Team (the minister & executive director) to make exceptions to our rental rates for non-profit groups for whom our regular rates would be prove a hardship. More specifically, the team will be able to adjust the rates for several 12-step groups that meet at our church.
  • Nell Newton and Sean Hale discussed a proposal from a developer who is interested in using part of our land for restaurant valet parking. We have given Stephan Windsor authority to negotiate on our behalf. Will anything come of it? Who knows? But we’ll be looking at the details of the proposal very carefully.

January 2010 Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes

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First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin, Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 6:30 p.m.

First UU Church of Austin, 4700 Grover, Austin, TX  78756 in Room 13

In Attendance:

Trustees:  Nell Newton, President; Luther Elmore, Treasurer; Chris Jimmerson, Secretary; Sheila Gladstone, Immediate Past President (Ex-Officio); Margaret Borden; Derek Howard; Jeff Hutchens; Aaron Osmer, Youth Trustee; Brendan Sterne; Michael West; Laura Wood.

Executive Team:  Janet Newman, Interim Minister (Ex-Officio); Sean Hale, Executive Director (Ex-Officio);

Staff:  Brent Baldwin, Director of Music; Lara Douglass, Director of RE

Visitors Present: Jim Burson, Transition Team; John Keohane, Chair for Denominational Affairs; Sharon Moore, Transition Team; Corinna Whiteaker-Lewis, Co-Chair for Social Action

Call to Order

The President called the meeting to order at 6:35 p.m.

Adoption of Agenda

The Trustees present adopted the agenda (Appendix A, 1 [numbers refer to page number where appendices may be found in attached supporting document]) after noting that there was no consent agenda report for the Bridge Builders Action Plan Update separate from the Bridge Builders Action Team Report.

Motion: Michael West – Adopt the agenda.

Second: Aaron Osmer

Discussion: None

Vote: All affirmative

Reading and Lighting of the Chalice

The Interim Minister read the opening words and the President lit the chalice.

Visitor’s Forum

The President welcomed the visitors listed above. John Keohane presented information to the Board of Trustees on a letter he had written to the Austin American Statesman (Appendix I, 45) and on the Great Moments in UU History Classes (Appendix J, 46) he had been presenting at the church and would repeat again in March. The President thanked him for his outstanding efforts.

Corinna Whiteaker-Lewis presented a recommendation from the Social Action Forum that had occurred on the previous Sunday. The recommendation would establish a monthly special offering (an extra passing of the plate) to benefit non-profit organizations nominated and elected by the congregation (see Appendix K, 47). This would be for 2010 only as a substitute for split the plate.

The Trustees and Corinna Whiteaker-Lewis discussed the following:

  • There would be eleven recipients chosen with the first special offering beginning in February.
  • If something similar to the Haiti earthquake were to occur again that was an emergency and urgent, there would be two special offerings in the month it occurred – one for the chosen non-profit and the other regarding the emergency need.
  • Recipients will be selected through an appeal for nominations from the congregation and then a congregational vote, probably at a Social Action table in the Gallery during Sunday services. It is likely that organizations with long-term associations with the church will be selected through this kind of process.
  • A Trustee suggested linking the recipient’s work when possible to what is being discussed during sermons.
  • The Treasurer reported that the collection for Haiti on the prior Sunday had collected $4,000. He suggested moving the special collection for the UUA to February so there would not be a special collection two Sundays in a row.
  • This idea will allow the selected non-profits to spend a greater time educating the church about themselves and may lead to greater connections with the church.
  • It will be important to report back to the congregation on how much they gave for such special collections.
  • It will be important to ask church members to make their checks for these special collections to the church so that the church can account for them and pass through the giving to the non-profit.

Motion: Luther Elmore – Approve this recommendation from the Social Action Committee

Second: Chris Jimmerson

Discussion: There was no further discussion

Vote: All Affirmative

Consent Agenda Items

Minutes from the Prior Meeting: The secretary had sent a draft of the minutes from December out by email but had accidentally left them out of the final packet of materials for this meeting. The Trustees agreed to review them at the next meeting.

New Members and Resignations: The following new members had joined since the last meeting: Anna Dossett, James Dossett and Geoffrey Lorenz. The following members had resigned: Anna Fruge, Javier Cantu, Melita Cantu and Al Rogers.

Reports:  The Trustees had reviewed the consent agenda items prior to the meeting.  These included:

Executive Director: Sean Hale (Appendix B, 2)

Director of Religious Education: Lara Douglass (Appendix C, 7)

Director of Music Programs: Brent Baldwin (Appendix D, 11)

Treasurer: Luther Elmore (Appendix F, 25)

BB A-team Report: Chris Jimmerson/Brendan Sterne (Appendix E, 12)

The Treasurer noted that the 2009 financials were still being adjusted and should not be considered final. He also explained some changes to investments to earn higher interest yet maintain liquidity.

Motion: Derek Howard – accept the Consent Agenda Item Reports with the exception that minutes from the last meeting will be reviewed at the February meeting.

Second: Michael West

Discussion: None

Vote: All Affirmative

Discussion and Action Items

Church Security: The President presented some work that had been done regarding security in the light of some incidents in the church where persons were either verbally abusive and/or disruptive or had engaged in physically threatening behavior. We will ask such persons to leave the premises and not return to them. If they do, we will call 911 and ask that the Austin Police Department remove them from the property. The President has also discussed this with freeze night volunteers and the Sunday Morning Services Team.

The Trustees discussed the following:

  • We should adopt a zero tolerance policy for even the threat of physical assault wherein we call the police immediately.
  • Trustees were concerned about vulnerability of church space with so many open entrances. The church is working toward an eventual configuration where except during Sunday services access to the building will be through only one entrance.
  • There is a need to inform all of leadership about this and to develop ways that such incidences can be handled when no one in leadership is present.

Church-Wide Covenant Process and Stephan Jonasson Visit: The Interim Minister reminded the Trustees of Dr. Jonasson’s upcoming visit. Dr. Jonasson is the Director for Large Congregations at the UUA. He will be meeting with the board for dinner on January 22, conducting a workshop from 9 am to 3 pm on January 23 on preparing ourselves to call a settled minister and offering a sermon on Covenants on January 24. After this sermon, the Transition Team will begin facilitating small group sessions to gather information toward developing a church-wide covenant of right relationship.

The Interim Minister also announced that Gini Courter, Chief Governance Officer and UUA Moderator, will be visiting the church the week of March 10th. She will send specific details as they are known.

Report from San Antonio Meeting with UUA Board: The President reported that the meeting had been very informative and that persons from across the UUA had expressed their support for our church and our effort during our transition period. The UUA Board had expressly invited church leaders to this meeting so that they could engage with them to learn of their desires for the denomination (a process known as linkage) as the UUA Board begins adopting Policy Governance.

Board Covenant: The Interim Minister and President presented the Board Covenant, slightly revised after the discussion at the prior meeting (Appendix G, 40).

Motion: Chris Jimmerson – Adopt the Board Covenant

Second: Margaret Borden

Discussion: None

Vote: All Affirmative

Overview of New Financial Reporting: The Executive Director (ED) presented a draft version of new financial statements (Appendix H, 41) based upon a new chart of accounts for 2010 that simplifies expense categories and includes numbers as well as names for the chart of accounts. The ED gave an overview of the financial reports that will be possible in 2010 which both simplify the information given to the board but also make “macro-level” understanding of them much easier. Anyone wishing the underlying detail will still be able to request it.

The Trustees complemented the ED on how much of an improvement the new statements will be.

The President welcomed the members of the Transition Team who would be joining the Board of Trustees and the Interim Minister after a break for a separate meeting to evaluate the Interim Ministry.

With no further business, the President adjourned the meeting at 7:55 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,

Chris Jimmerson

Secretary

Appendices (Supporting Documents)

December 2009 Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes

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First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin, Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 6:30 p.m.

First UU Church of Austin, 4700 Grover, Austin, TX  78756 in Room 13

In Attendance:

Trustees:  Nell Newton, President; Eric Stimmel, Vice-President; Luther Elmore, Treasurer; Chris Jimmerson, Secretary; Sheila Gladstone, Immediate Past President (Ex-Officio); Margaret Borden; Jeff Hutchens; Brendan Sterne; Michael West; Laura Wood.

Executive Team:  Janet Newman, Interim Minister (Ex-Officio); Sean Hale, Executive Director (Ex-Officio);

Staff:  Brent Baldwin, Director of Music

Call to Order

The President called the meeting to order at 6:34 p.m.

Adoption of Agenda

The Trustees present adopted the agenda (Appendix A, 1 [numbers refer to page number where appendices may be found in attached supporting document]).

Reading and Lighting of the Chalice

The Interim Minister read the opening words and the President lit the chalice.

Visitor’s Forum

There were no visitors present.

Consent Agenda Items

Minutes from the Prior Meeting: The Trustees had reviewed the minutes from the November 2009 meeting prior to this meeting (Appendix B, 12) and noted one grammar change changing the word “effect” to “affect”.

New Members and Resignations: The Secretary reported that the following had become new members since the last meeting: Gregg Welch; H.I. “Sam” Long; Deidre Autry Madres; Troy Madres; Leona Perez

The Secretary reported that Susan Lowrance had resigned since the last meeting because she had moved.

Reports: The Trustees had reviewed the consent agenda items prior to the meeting.  These included:

Interim Minister: Janet Newman (Appendix C, 9)

Executive Director: Sean Hale (Appendix D, 11)

Director of Religious Education: Lara Douglass (Appendix E, 15)

Director of Music Programs: Brent Baldwin (Appendix F, 20)

Treasurer: Luther Elmore (Appendix G, 22 – includes Finance Committee Reports)

BB A-team Report: Chris Jimmerson/Brendan Sterne (Appendix H, 51)

The Bridge Builders Action team gave an overview of upcoming events including a training on Policy Governance on February 26th and 27th of 2010 and a training in March for board members and facilitators on how to do the purpose and values sessions in the church. The team will poll the board soon on a date for the purpose and values sessions training.

These trainings should be very informative, exciting and motivating and the training for the purpose and values session will be the boards’ chance to participate in establishing the information we will use to develop values, mission and ends (vision) statements. The sessions with church members will begin in April and run through early May and will provide a great opportunity to listen directly to church members’ dreams and aspirations for the church. A Trustee advised the team to avoid Spring Break when scheduling these items.

The Interim Minister reported that she and the transition team would begin working with the congregation soon on developing a Covenant of Right Relationship. Stefan Jonasson, Director for Large Congregations with the UUA, will be coming to the church to assist and will have dinner with the board on January 22, 2010 followed by working with the congregation on January 23, possibly on the topic of “What a church need to accomplish before ready to call a settled minister”.

The Treasurer noted that the current membership count for the church was 567. The Secretary noted that Paradox Players would still be making one final contribution before the end of the year of the proceeds from their final production of the season.

Motion: Luther Elmore – accept the Consent Agenda Item Reports with the noted change to the minutes of the last meeting.

Second: Michael West

Discussion: None

Vote: All Affirmative

Discussion and Action Items

Committee on Ministries (CoM) Proposal: The Chairperson of the CoM, which had been on hiatus, brought forward a proposal to disband the CoM. This committee is not normally maintained during the interim ministry period, and churches practicing policy governance also do not use a CoM. Stefan Jonasson had made this same recommendation for our church in the past. The CoM can end up serving as a “triangulation point” between the minister and the board. As we move forward, we will need to re-envision how the role formerly played by the committee will be fulfilled.

The Trustees discussed the following:

  • Church members are likely to ask whether this committee will be revived. Under policy governance it will likely not be.
  • The history of the CoM has been that the role it played varied greatly from year to year, and some church members have been frustrated that when they bought concerns about the minister to the CoM, the CoM did not have full authority to address such concerns.
  • A Trustee asked if perhaps this could wait until the church fully adopted policy governance since the committee was on hiatus anyway; however the Chair of the CoM believed it was cleaner to go ahead and act now.

Motion: Michael West – move that the Committee on Ministries at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin be disbanded and that all reference to the Committee and its roles and responsibilities be struck from the church’s Policies and Procedures

Second: Chris Jimmerson

Discussion: A Trustee asked where under policy governance concerns about the minister might be brought. Another Trustee noted that policy governance grants both greater authority and accountability to the minister and because of this, monitoring of the minister’s performance falls to the board. The bylaws mention the CoM; however, this is only in reference to how its members are appointed and may be changed later.

Vote: Affirmative – 7, Negative – 0, Abstain – 1 (Margaret Borden)

Nominating Committee Policy and Procedure Update: The Trustees reviewed a change to this policy and procedure that had been recommended by the Nominating Committee (Appendix I, 54). This change outlined new duties regarding leadership development charged to the committee and made the Policy and Procedure match the bylaws as regards this committee. A Trustee recommended removing a reference to the Bridge builders Report and replacing that reference with “In addition”

Motion: Brendan Sterne – approve the update with the change to remove the reference to the Bridge Builders Report made

Second: Margaret Borden

Discussion: There was no further discussion

Vote: All affirmative

Congregational Meeting Review: The trustees discussed that the meeting had gone professionally and that people came to the meeting well prepared. The Pre-Congregational Meeting had helped with this. The congregation members who had attended seemed to have supported the idea of a Covenant of Right Relationship. The Trustees discussed the need to establish a Parliamentarian position.

Interim Minister Evaluation Process: The Interim Minister presented a description of the process and the theory behind it and presented the evaluation form (Appendix K, 57) that the UUA provides. She stressed that the form is intended to be a memory “jogger” for an honest exchange between the minister and board to be held in person. This session normally take about an hour but can go as long as two hours.

The Trustees and the Interim Minister established Sunday, January 17 at 1 p.m. at the church as the time and place for the evaluation. The Secretary volunteered to send out electronic versions of the form and description of the process prior to this date.

Audit Request: The Treasurer noted that the board needed to formally request that the internal audit committee audit payroll, as this is this is this most critical area of our accounting and the place where the most corrections have been noted in the past. The board would ask the committee for a proposal on the parameters of the audit and would work with staff to ensure such parameters do not create an unachievable burden for staff. The Chair of this committee must appoint its remaining members as soon as possible so that the audit can occur in a timely manner.

The President will contact the Chair of the committee and ask that the names of the other committee members and a proposal for a payroll audit be submitted by the next board meeting.

Motion: Chris Jimmerson – Charge the Internal Audit Committee with doing an audit of payroll

Second: Jeff Hutchens

Discussion: There was no further discussion.

Vote: All Affirmative.

Board Covenant: The Trustees had reviewed a draft of the covenant (Appendix J, 56) that had been prepared by the Interim Minister and the President based upon the discussion of it at the last board meeting. The Trustees discussed several ways of streamlining and editing the document while noting that there is a need to balance conciseness with making expectations explicit. The Trustees also discussed potential ways to better define some of the issues contained in the covenant, as well as some ways of rearranging the order in which the issues are presented. The President made specific notes of the discussion and the agreements that were reached among the Trustees. She and the Interim Minister will bring a revised version to the next meeting for review and approval

With no further business, the President adjourned the meeting at 9:15 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,

Chris Jimmerson

Secretary

Appendices (Supporting Documents)

December 2009 and January 2010 BoT Meeting Summaries

by Posted in Uncategorized

The following are summaries of the above meetings. The minutes will be posted as soon as they are approved (there was a delay in reviewing the December 2009 minutes)

January 2010 Board of Trustees Meeting Summary

After the heavy-lifting of the December budget process, January’s meeting was fairly light. Here is a light summary of the things we covered – please remember that these are not meant to be a substitute for the actual minutes of the meeting which are being compiled by our secretary!

  • We recognized three new members, and four resignations.
  • The December meeting minutes were accidently omitted from our report packets, so we agreed to wait until February to approve them.
  • We approved a recommendation from the Social Action Committee that will add one extra plate collection each month to benefit local non-profits. Look for details soon!
  • We reviewed the reports from our Executive Director, our DRE, the Music Director, the treasurer, and the Bridge Builders team.
  • Nell Newton and Sean Hale discussed recent steps taken to improve church security.
  • Nell Newton and Margaret Borden gave a brief report on meeting the UUA Board of Trustees at a special meeting in San Antonio.
  • The board adopted our new covenant, based upon work done in November and December. It’s cool!
  • Sean Hale gave us an overview of what our financial reports will look like using a new accounting software system. They will be MUCH easier to read!

We then adjourned the meeting, had a good snack, and fifteen minutes later convened an entirely new meeting dedicated to evaluating our interim ministry. The second meeting included members from the Transition Team and our Interim Minister Janet Newman. We followed a set of questions provided by the UUA Office of Transitions, which oversees the Interim Ministry Program. The 15 questions were thought-provoking and generated a good deal of discussion about the progress of our church during Janet’s ministry. In general, we agreed that we are well on track and that Janet has been a capable leader during this transition time.

We wrapped up our evaluation work and then discussed our second year of interim ministry. Janet recommended that we seek another minister to help us with the special work of the second year. While this news was a bit sad to hear, it does reflect the excellent progress we’ve made, and we will soon assemble a search committee to find our next interim.

December 2009 Board of Trustees Meeting Summary

  • We accepted several encouraging reports including great progress on planning for activities to develop a Church Covenant of Right Relationship and to pursue some of the objectives established in the Bridge Builders Action Plan. Other discussion and action:
  • We recognized five new members. No members had resigned in the prior month.
  • We approved a recommendation from the Chair of the Committee on Ministries that the committee be disbanded. The UUA recommends this for larger churches and it is in keeping with our move toward policy governance.
  • We approved a change to policy containing the description of the Nominating Committee that the Nominating Committee had recommended.
  • We discussed the process for the upcoming evaluation of the Interim Ministry.
  • We requested that the Internal Audit Committee begin an audit of payroll.
  • We continued our work on establishing our covenant among Trustees.

Guidelines for Requesting an Agenda Item for Board Meetings

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The Executive Committee meets on the first Tuesday of the month at 5:45 at the church to set the agenda for that month’s board meeting. The Board of Trustees meets on the Third Wednesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at the church, usually in the gallery. You can view a list of church governance meeting dates here:

http://www.austinuu.org/wp2013/category/board-docs/2009-2010-meeting-dates/

You can view the online calendar for the Board of Trustees here (may take awhile to load):

http://www.austinuu.org/wp2013/category/board-docs/board-calendar/

Board meetings are open to church members and there is time set aside on each agenda for members to make comments and/or bring items to the attention of the board that do not require extended discussion and/or board action. Such items do not require an additional agenda item.

Committee Chairs or others who have business should first check with the Executive Team (Executive Director or Minister) to see if it is a board-level policy issue or can be resolved more quickly at the staff level. If the issue is one of policy, requiring extended discussion and/or action by the board, please work with the Executive Team to bring the item to the Executive Committee for placement on the board agenda. Please keep in mind that such requests are needed by 5 p.m. on the day before the next regularly scheduled Executive Committee meeting.

In the event that an urgent item of business becomes needed after the Executive Committee has set the agenda for that month’s board meeting, contact the Executive Team as soon as possible. Please reserve this option only for items requiring action that cannot wait until the following month.

The Board of Trustees welcome your ideas and participation and invites you to attend our meetings!

The Handwriting on the Wall

by Posted in Audio available, Guest Speakers, Sermons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

First UU Transition Team

Margaret Roberts, Sylvia Pope, Wendy Kuo, Sharon Moore, Nancy Bene, Jim Burson, Michael Kersey

January 17, 2010

Margaret Roberts

Some months ago, I worried that our church would become inactive and even lethargic during the two year transition period between settled ministers.  Fortunately, I had no need for concern.  We have remained a very busy and vibrant congregation.  If you doubt me, I encourage you to check the bulletin boards in the hall adjacent to and across from the office.  There you will see hundreds of photographs documenting many recent church activities.  We have come together to worship, sing, celebrate, play, learn, share ideas, cook, eat, feed and shelter the homeless, and conduct church business.

The timeline exercise which we underwent in October and November confirmed what the photographs of our activities illustrate:  we are a healthy and energetic congregation.  Having read the comments posted by our church membership on the timeline, I believe the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin is experiencing an upswing in attitude and outlook.

Many church members expressed pride in First UU’s long history of participating in works of social justice.  One commenter reminded us that as early as the 1950s, this congregation made efforts to racially integrate Barton Springs.  First UU Church is a longtime supporter of the local chapter of Amnesty International.  Our social action outreach continues today with our sack lunch for the homeless program, our regular assistance at the People’s Community Clinic, and our participation in Hands-on-Housing and Freeze Night sheltering programs.  Did you know that six members of First UU donate 3 hours every week to assist Austin’s North Central Caregivers?  And were you aware that our choir performs at an annual concert each December for the benefit of North Central Caregivers?  In addition to addressing local social issues, our church is responsive to victims of world crises.  We experienced this concern earlier in our service as the collection was taken to help the people of Haiti.

Many comments on the timeline expressed pride in our church community’s ability and willingness to take care of each other through the work of our Congregational Care Committee.  This desire to help each other during times of personal difficulty was evidenced by the generous collections taken during our recent Christmas Eve services.

A number of members expressed pride in the progress of our healing since our minister’s departure 13 months ago.  Almost immediately after Reverend Davidson Loehr’s dismissal, groups were established within the church for people who wished to share their feelings with others.  Outside experts were consulted and workshops scheduled to help us process our grief and rebuild.  Volunteers stepped forward and new leaders emerged to assure that our church life would continue.

Most of us agree that we need to learn to disagree with more civility.  We need to develop methods of arguing with respect.  As UUs, we like to think of ourselves and enlightened and accepting of others who differ from us; we need to practice this acceptance with each other and strive to be open-minded and kind in our interactions with our fellow congregants.

Despite the challenges we have faced during the past 13 months, our members still hold many hopes and dreams for our church.  For example:

1)     We dream of the re-establishment of our warm, loving church environment where members interact with honesty, fair-mindedness and respect, and where we collectively work to promote the interests of our posterity;

2)     We dream of creating a hospitable church community that welcomes new-comers and guests and celebrates diversity of ideas, faith, culture and lifestyle;

3)     We hope for renewed commitment of church members expressed in terms of increased participation in church activities, and increased financial pledges to assure support of our various programs, generous compensation for our staff, and payment of our “fair-share dues” to the Unitarian Universalist Association;

4)     We dream of a super-successful capital campaign so we can remodel and expand our existing building to meet our active congregation’s needs now and in the future;

5)     We dream of having a greater impact on the local, national and international community expressed through more educational outreach and more social action activities; and

6)     We look forward to calling an excellent new minister who fits our church and our local community, and who welcomes a regular professional evaluation as an opportunity to communicate with the church membership.

Some may find this list of hopes and dreams daunting, but I find it encouraging.  Because so many of us have the courage to nurture hopes and dreams for our church, I feel confident that we have a future.  In fact, I believe we have a strong future, because I believe that this transition experience, as tough as it has been, will ultimately prove to strengthen the First UU Church of Austin.

Sylvia Pope

Many of the contributions to the timeline that resonated most for me were those that spoke about our congregation’s commitments to the environment.    As embodiment of our belief in sustaining “the interconnected web of which we are all a part;” we have cultivated native plants on our campus, installed solar panels on our roof, changed to energy-efficient light bulbs and sought to recycle our paper, bottles and cans.  These “green” steps may seem small but they convey our commitment, care and concern for our planet and each other.

Here are some of the thoughts shared on the timeline:

“I am so proud of our church’s environmental efforts – gardens, solar panels, etc.”

Another Proud Moment:  “Garden’s Wildlife Habitat designation and proud of all who worked to make it so.”

Did you know that our landscaping has been certified a Backyard Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation?  Thanks for the efforts of Dale and Pat Bulla, Barbara Denny and many others who affectionately toiled to transform a humdrum landscape into something wild, beautiful and beneficial to nature.

The All Ages Playground; a welcoming, nurturing place for youth and adults; is a native landscape showpiece that was conceptualized and brought to life by Elizabeth Gray and Earl ??? and many volunteers.  If you haven’t had the time to sit on one of the benches and enjoy the cool breezes on a sunny afternoon, I highly recommend it!

In the Hopes and Dreams portion of the timeline, our environmental commitment was mentioned directly but I believe that is a part of our collective desire to be a community of vibrancy, inclusion and inspiration!

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A second theme mentioned in the Proud section is the strength of our religious education program.   I share a strong interest in RE and I believe that our collective support of this program and our children has kept us together at times when we felt like falling apart.    Does any church have as dedicated and enthusiastic staff and volunteer corps as we do?  I doubt it!  Examples of their energy and creativity are:  the UU Summer Hogwarts School (a fun, unique and free week of community building for our children),  co-hosting  YRUU rallies, the Halloween Haunted hallway and the Christmas pageant.  New members and visitors bring their children to our church because of the warm, welcoming atmosphere.

Sharon Moore

In your notes you talked about 2 of my big passions regarding our church life. One is the quality of the leadership of our senior staff and one is the importance of small group ministry in our church.

You said we should call no more one trick ponies for minister and that we have looked to ministers to make us whole – to save us.

My experience in 3 UU churches tells me that our ministers generally come with 1 of 3 major talents.

  • One is best at administration and strategizing and leads us through all the minutia and vital tasks that make a church run efficiently.
  • Another minister is a great orator who leaves the management duties to the executive director and leaves the pastoral care to a second minister or congregational care team. This person’s strongest talent is in inspiring with words.
  • The third type is a caregiver, a pastoral person who excels in people skills, loves to counsel, visit the sick, perform weddings and memorial services.

All 3 types bring a different set of skills to keep the church strong. Almost never will 1 person have all 3 gifts in abundance. That would be the perfect person, and no one is perfect.

With our new settled minister, we must pool all of our resources, dream our dreams, and work hard to make them a reality.

Many of your notes dealt with wanting us to strengthen community here.

You said, The covenant groups started and are still part of our community. Yes! You said, In Evensong I formed lasting relationships here.

You talked of the positive impact that groups such as sharing suppers, men’s breakfast, adult ed. Classes, Voyagers, Paradox Players, Circle of Friends, Couples Club, and many more groups and committees have had on your lives.

I believe small groups are the key to really getting to know one another. We all yearn for heart to heart contact, to be listened to, validated, and challenged to grow. We can’t go it alone.

You will have several opportunities in the coming weeks to participate in group discussions, working on our church’s core values, covenant, purpose and mission statements that will all help get our church ready to sail on a wonderful new voyage with all of us buying in to where we are going and how best to get there.

Nancy Bene

We are a community. We are a network. A web of interconnectedness.  What we do and don’t do effects all around us.  On the positive side, we are a safe haven where what we do is respected and encouraged.  Our community has existed for over 50 years here in Austin. Through good times and not- so- good times – just like a family. We’ve talked together, dreamed together, argued, laughed, joked, created, destroyed and cried together.

I’m sure you know that the seeds of our present not-so-good times were sown several years ago.  We lost our way toward the principles we value most.  Instead of growing into the workings of a large congregation, we continued doing what we had always done.

Each step taken to break the old ways was difficult and we are in for a few more difficult steps before we can reach out to a spiritual leader and ask him or her to join with us.  We must step back and take an objective look at where we are and where we want to go and then express in writing – for everyone to see- what it is that we collectively hold sacred.

Many of you who posted sticky notes on the time line were proud of this church.  Many thought we could do better.  Now is the time for you to actively influence the direction this congregation will take in the future.  Tell us how we can heal and become the safe haven for spiritual growth translated into action in our community.  There is and always has been a tremendous creative energy in this church.  We can work together to encourage ourselves and others to become the best we can be. I look forward to working with you, all of you, in discovering what this church, as a whole, finds precious. And then sharing our uniqueness, our preciousness within our community – here and everywhere.

Jim Burson

Talk To Me About Our Church

G – O – O – D MORNING —

My name is Jim —

Today I want to ask you to TALK to ME —

The comments that were posted on the Time Line that stood out most to me were of two types —

One type asked for more TRANSPARENCY by our church board –

The other type asked us to be more FRIENDLY to visitors and

new members —  people that we do not know —

These messages tell me that THE biggest challenge that our church faces is –

Not enough communication –

Y’all need to talk to each other –

Y’all need to talk to me –

The members of this congregation need to talk to each other –

And  not only to the friends we know –

But, more importantly, — talk to people we do not know –

Talk to me –

Each of you  –

Must talk to our minister, —-  Janet Newman —

You must talk to the board members –

And,  — the board members must talk to you –

And, —  of  course  —  the board must talk to the minister –

And,  —

y’all, — must talk to me –

I am personally  going  to seek out people that I do not know –

To talk to them –

And to listen to them –

We must have dialogue  —

Not just talking –

But, —  talking  AND listening –

And —  you must listen more than you talk –

Y’all listen to me.—

If we had been talking and listening to each other for the last ten years –

We would not be in the situation we are in now  —

We would have  fewer complaints about TRANSPARENCY ––

Fewer complaints that we are  AN UNFRIENDLY people —

Y’all stop to talk –

Stop to listen to each other –

I’ll listen to you –

My name is Jim —

Y’all  talk to me —-