First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin, Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, February 16, 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; Eric Stimmel, Vice-President; Luther Elmore, Treasurer; Chris Jimmerson, Secretary; Sheila Gladstone, Immediate Past President (Ex-Officio); Margaret Borden; Derek Howard; Jeff Hutchens; Brendan Sterne; Michael West; Laura Wood.
Executive Team: Janet Newman, Interim Minister (Ex-Officio); Sean Hale, Executive Director (Ex-Officio);
Visitors Present: Phil Hastings, Dale Bulla, Pat Bulla
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).
Motion: Luther Elmore – Adopt the agenda.
Second: Michael West
Discussion: None
Vote: All affirmative
Reading and Lighting of the Chalice
The Interim Minister read the opening words and the President lit the chalice. The President noted that, based upon conversations she had experienced with a board member from another church, our church is often willing to take on challenges that many might shy away from.
Visitor’s Forum
There were no visitors present when the board reached the agenda item for visitors, so the trustees began the consent agenda items discussion outlined below; however, when visitors arrived, the trustees returned to the following presentations.
Dale Bulla presented data on the church electricity bill (Appendix B) that demonstrated that despite the record heat in the summer of 2009, the solar panels appear to have reduced electrical usage and costs compared to previous years. He discussed the rates that the church pays for electricity, depending upon the amount of electricity used. He noted that our current contract expires in 2011 and we will need to establish a new one to avoid a substantial increase in rates.
Phil Hastings noted some suggestions regarding Sunday services and agreed to meet with the Interim Minister to talk over the ideas. He thanked the minister for wonderful services.
The Trustees thanked Dale and Phil for their presentations.
Consent Agenda Items
Minutes from Prior Meetings: The trustees had reviewed the minutes from the December 2009 and January 2010 meetings (Appendix C) and had no additions or corrections.
New Members and Resignations: The following new members had joined since the last meeting: Gail Sutherland, Susan Mestier, Jynne Rivera, Joy Nelson, Bart Farar. No members had resigned.
Reports: The Trustees had reviewed the consent agenda items prior to the meeting. These included:
Interim Minister (Appendix D)
Executive Director: Sean Hale (Appendix E)
Director of Religious Education: Lara Douglass (Appendix F)
Director of Music Programs: Brent Baldwin (Appendix G)
Treasurer: Luther Elmore (Appendix H)
The Interim Minister noted that the Meet and Eat that was occurring the next evening would be to welcome new members. She also reported that Gini Courter, Chief Governance Officer and UUA Moderator, would be visiting the church on Wednesday March 10 and that the church would have a special Meet and Eat that evening at which Ms. Courter would be speaking. The trustees noted that the visit from Stephan Jonasson, Director for Large Congregations for the UUA, had been extremely informative and helpful.
The Treasurer and Executive Director agreed to work together to determine how many network stations are needed for the accounting software and therefore how many licenses need to be paid.
The Treasurer noted the information contained in the fund balances handout (last page of Appendix H) and discussed the difficulty and confusion that had resulted from the difficulties created by wording in the Financial Assets Management Policy (FAMP) and provisions of the FAMP that do not meet current best practices. This has led to various funds owing other funds and special notations needed to track “due to and due from” among these funds. The Treasurer and Executive Director are working to correct some of this moving forward.
Motion: Michael West – accept the Consent Agenda Item Reports.
Second: Derek Howard
Discussion: None
Vote: All Affirmative
Discussion and Action Items
Reminders on Upcoming Activity Dates and Circulation of Board Calendar: The Secretary reminded the trustees of the upcoming training session on Policy Governance on February 26 and 27 as well as several other important functions over the next two months. He circulated the board calendar for signing up to read the special notes during services and great visitors and members before and after services. He noted that all of the upcoming dates of note were listed on this calendar and available at http://www.austinuu.org/wp2013/category/board-docs/board-calendar/.
Interim Minister Search Process: Michael West reviewed the process for the next Interim Minister search process, which will be very much like the previous year’s search, though the work to be completed in the second transition year will be different and will be focused on “turning” – largely working towards furthering the great progress we have made so far and implementing much of what we are just beginning now. The trustees discussed the following key issues:
- The search committee will need to be established and begin work by the next board meeting so please suggest candidates to Michael. We will need about 6 members.
- Persons with some experience with the church community are needed and persons interested in serving on the board might be excellent candidates.
- The current minister is an important window to the world of ministers.
Settled Minister Search Process: Michael West then presented the process for the settled minister search as outlined in Appendix I. This process will need to begin soon also. He noted some key steps. The trustees discussed the following:
- We will need to establish a budget for the search committee.
- The bylaws specify 9 members appointed by the board; however, a process involving congregational input may be desirable and would be possible.
- Kathleen Ellis, Ministerial Settlement Representative, will give the sermon at the church on March 14 and meet with the board on March 16.
- The compensation for the settled minister will need to be determined in the next budgeting process.
District Compensation Representative: The President introduced Walter Pearson, District Compensation Representative (DCR). Mr. Pearson explained that DCRs are trained volunteers appointed by the district boards who work on behalf of the church board. He outlined the following services he can provide:
- Use of a Fair Compensation Questionnaire to establish fair salaries for all church staff.
- Establishing functioning personnel committees.
- Assistance with personnel policies and procedures.
- Assistance with a detailed and specific process on how to structure the minister salary and housing compensation using a set of rules that will allow us to be advantaged in the settled minister search process.
He noted that we would not appear in the best list within the UUA settlement system unless our salary and housing meet minimum standards.
He outlined the following standards:
- Compensation is based upon salary plus housing.
- Ministers have to pay both sides of the social security payroll tax for the housing portion of their compensation. Offer additional salary to offset this.
- Pay ten percent of salary into the pension plan.
- Budget a professional expenses allowance equal to 10% of salary and housing.
- Pay individual health insurance premium equal to 80% of the costs for the UUA health insurance plan.
- Pay for disability insurance (through UUA it is about 1% of salary and housing).
The minimum standard for our church would be an annual salary of $66,500 for salary and $89,865 for the salary and housing total compensation. Mid-point for our church would be $87,900 salary and $117,560 for total salary and housing compensation. The highest total compensation in our category would be $145,000.
He noted to be mindful of what is on the church webpage, as some potential ministers will begin by looking at it soon.
The trustees asked several questions. Those questions (Q) and Mr. Pearson’s answers (A) to them are outlined below:
Q: Should we post a specific salary and housing amount or post a range?
A: Post the salary and housing you can offer, not a range
Q: Can you also help with the process of establishing the Interim Ministry compensation?
A: Yes.
Q: How is it to our advantage to post one level of compensation that is pre-decided rather than post a range and then base actual compensation on the experience skills, etc. of the person actually hired?
A: You want the decision to call a minister to be based upon a relationship you build and you do not want to begin that relationship based on conversations about money. I can assist you with establishing what compensation amount will be expected based upon what you are looking for in the minister.
Q. What would be the negative consequence of posting a range?
A. You put an element into the negotiations that is not to your advantage. Most ministers will negotiate how compensation is divided and other issues, not the total amount. Why put questions into the relationship from the start? Take money off the table.
Q. What is the distribution of minister compensation for churches similar to ours?
A. They tend to be clustered around the midpoint with none at the highest level and a few between the minimum and the midpoint.
Q. How are the compensation guidelines established?
A. The UUA looks at your geographic region and factors related to it. For instance, housing costs are high in Austin. They also look at compensation for ministers of similar size churches, as well as similar positions in non-profits and such in the region.
Mr. Pearson noted that a lot of good information related to this is available on the UUA website.
The President thanked Mr. Pearson for attending and providing such good information.
New Financial Reports: The Executive Director suggested delaying this discussion until the next meeting when there would be more time to dedicate to it.
Reserve Calculations: The Treasurer provided more detail on the calculations used to determine the amount transferred into the Memorial Savings fund, noting several sections of the FAMP that had lead to confusion. The Treasurer highlighted a provision of the FAMP that requires that the balance of the operating checking account be held to between one quarter to three quarters of average monthly expenditures. The secretary stated that this does not match current best practices for non-profits that generally call for from 4 to 6 months of operating liquidity. The Treasurer stated that he believed that there were still enough in funds that could be accessed in an emergency to be ample.
Interim Ministry Appraisal Recap: The Secretary and Interim Minister reported that they had met and compared their notes from the in person appraisal meeting and found that they were very much in agreement. The UUA system requires that both a representative from the church enter the appraisal information into online system and that the Interim Minister do so also. The Secretary stated that entering the information made him more fully aware of how much progress the church has made. He noted that the UUA sent an acknowledgment stating that it appeared that great things are happening at our church.
The Interim Minister noted that she had not been able to share all of hers thoughts on the various questions during the in person appraisal meeting but that she would put them into a Word document and send them out. She reminded the group that we will do another appraisal in June.
Rental Contract Exception Requests: The President outlined an issue that had come up with new rental contracts wherein several of the 12 steps groups that meet at the church would be paying a much higher rate per meeting than they had been even with non-profit and other discounts factored in (see Appendix J). The Trustees discussed the following issues:
- There are a range of types of non-profits that rent at the church. The 12 steps programs are self-supported by their members.
- This may be a ministry decision rather than a policy issue.
- Many other churches in the area provide meeting space for these groups but we do not know what they charge them for the space or if they do charge them.
- Some of the smaller groups might be forced to leave, as they might not be able to afford the new rates.
- Space is tight in the church and some of these groups meet during some of the busiest times.
- It might be possible, if we offer a discounted rate to steer them toward meeting in less high usage time periods.
- Most of the groups have not specifically said that the increased rate would be a hardship but two have asked for the lower rate. Overeaters Anonymous did say it would be a hardship.
- There is competition for space. Equity between these groups and other non-profits may be a policy issue.
- There is an expectation in recovery groups of taking responsibility. Would offering them a lower rate than everyone else be denying that responsibility?
A trustee called for a vote on the first issue, which was whether the board should offer an additional discount rate beyond what is already in the rental contract for non-profits.
Vote: 4 affirmative, 3 Negative, 1 abstain (Laura Wood)
The Trustees then discussed how such an additional discount should be implemented. The trustees discussed how many such exceptions should be made and how much of a discount might be offered.
Motion: Brendan Sterne — The First UU board of trustees hereby authorizes the Executive Team to negotiate and grant special rental rates above and beyond the standard discounts as described in the FUUCA rental policy, up to a 75% total discount. They may extend the special rates to 12 step groups and other non-profit groups based on hardship or their alignment with the First UU mission, vision, and values
Second: Michael West
Discussion: There was no further discussion
Vote: Affirmative – 7, Negative – 1
Potential Parking Lot Rental: The President informed the trustees that the Executive Committee had authorized Stephan Windsor to negotiate with a restaurant developer who was interested in a long-term parking lease with the church and paving the grassy area of the parking lot. She assured the group that Stephan was aware of all of the potential advantages, disadvantages and issues involved. A real estate attorney would be consulted if the negotiations were to reach a point where a draft contract was developed.
Motion: Chris Jimmerson – extend the meeting for 15 minutes.
Second: Jeff Hutchens
Discussion: None
Vote: Affirmative – 6, Abstain – 2 (Laura Wood and Derek Howard)
Executive Session: The President called the meeting into Executive Session to discuss a personnel matter.
Following the Executive Session and with no further business, the President adjourned the meeting at 9:45 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Chris Jimmerson
Secretary
