The Serious Covenant Breach policy was revised by the Healthy Relations Ministry under the direction of the Senior Minister Meg Barnhouse, and released in September 2015. Click here to see the updated file: Serious Covenant Breach.2015.
Gift Acceptance Policy & Guidelines
The Church’s Gift Acceptance Policy and Guidelines was approved by the Minister, Rev. Meg Barnhouse, on November 14, 2012. A copy can be viewed and/or downloaded using the link above.
September 2013 update to First UU Policies
Click here to view and download PDF file: First-UU-Austin-Policies-09-17-2013
May 2013 update to First UU Policies
Click here to view and download PDF file: May 2013 FUUCA Policy manual update
Healthy Relations Covenant
The Church’s Gift Healthy Relations Covenant was approved at the Congregational Meeting on May 5, 2013. A copy can be viewed and/or downloaded using the link above.
Board Governance Policies
The Board Governance Policies is the primary governance document of the church, after the Bylaws.
Most recent version:
First UU Austin Policies – 2012-05-27
Older version:
FUUCA Policy for Serious Covenant Breaches
This policy was adopted by the Board of Trustees in December 2010. A copy can be found at http://www.austinuu.org/boarddocs/CovenantBreachesPolicy1012.pdf.
Governance Resources Page
First UU Austin is in the process of an intentional examination of our governance with the help of Joe Sullivan of Unity Consulting and through the lens of policy-based governance. This page contains resources for that process and will be updated as often as possible.
All good governance starts with Values, Mission and Ends.
Frequently Asked Questions about Policy-Based Governance at FUUCA.
Read about our Philosophy of Governance at FUUCA.
Message from the Board President on Committee Structure and Communications within the Church.
An overview of our board plan for communicating intentionally on mission and ends with the congregation (linkage plan.
Documents from the Sept. 26, 2010 Session on Policy Based Governance with the Church and All Council:
- Presentation Slides
- Graph of the Leadership Cycle Under PBG
- Agendas for the Meetings
- Policy Based Governance Overview Handout
- First UU Church of Austin Governance History
Documents from June 12 Board Session to Discern Values, Mission and Ends:
- Agenda for Session
- Cover Letter from Facilitator
- Bridge To Our Future Sessions Results Ungrouped
- Bridge to Our Future Sessions Information Grouped Values and Possibilities
Bridge to Our Future Files:
Other Files:
- Participant Booklet from the UU University Governance Track at the 2009 General Assembly
- Participant Booklet from Training at First UU Austin on February 27, 2010
- Slides from February 27 Training
- Notes from 2-27 Training
- Notes from Visit from Stefan Jonasson, UUA Director for Larger Congregations
Links to outside resources:
- UU University Governance Track Page
- Unity Consulting
- Unity Consulting Materials on Governance Principles and Monitoring and Assessment
- John Carver, Ph.D. John Carver’s Policy Governance® model.
- List that contains a wealth of materials on policy‐based governance UUs have found useful.
- Who owns your congregation? — A congregation’s owner isn’t its board, minister, or members; it is its mission. By Dan Hotchkiss From UU World
- Articles from the UUA
- Ideas Gathered from the UUA Governance List
Policy Governance email list: A UUA email list dedicated to the discussion of the Policy Governance model of board governance in UU congregations, its implementation, variations, and challenges. This list is for anyone including ordained ministers, lay leaders, and members of all sizes and shapes of UU congregations with an interest in Policy Governance. List co‐managers are Gretchen Dorn, and Marge Keip, .
To SUBSCRIBE to this list, send the following command in the first line of the message to (you can leave the subject line blank, as listproc will ignore it):
subscribe PolicyGovernance‐L YourFirstName YourLastName
