Board of Trustees Meeting
May19th, 2009
The regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the Board of Trustees of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin was held on Tuesday, May 19th, 6:30pm at the church.
Members present: President Sheila Gladstone, Vice President Nell Newton, Treasurer Luther Elmore, Secretary Shannon Vyff, Mark Kilpatrick (Ex-Officio), Youth Trustee Aaron Osmer, Bonny Gardner, Derek Howard, Jeffrey Hutchens, Eric Stimmel, and Michael West.
Staff present: Sean Hale, Executive Director, Lara Douglass Director of Religious Education, and Brent Baldwin Music Director.
Visitor’s present: Brendan Sterne, Chris Jimmerson, Laura Wood, Margaret Borden, John Franks, Ruth Marie and Eugene Balaguer.
Call to Order
President Sheila Gladstone called the meeting to order at 6:37pm.
Adopt Agenda
Michael West moved to adopt the agenda, it was seconded and the agenda was adopted as presented.
Opening Words
Nell Newton gave our opening words. She used a poem provided by Michael West: “The Good Prayer”, adapted from “The Lord’s Prayer” and in the spirit of Jefferson’s Bible:
Hear me, all ye who do good,
I honor your deeds and praise them.
May goodness continue to flow from you
and from us all,
Until life on Earth is perfected
and none suffer.
By our efforts
may all be ensured their daily bread.
By our efforts
may we forgive those who trespass against us,
that we may be forgiven too,
and peace reign.
Let none of us be tempted into childishness or animality
Though it bring us momentary pleasure.
Instead, let us call each other
to greater kindness and wisdom,
to greater forbearance and creativity,
in everything we do.
For in goodness lies the path
to more freedom and more life,
In goodness lies the power,
And in goodness lies the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen.
Sheila Gladstone thanked the incoming board members for attending the meeting, Brenden Sterne, Laura Wood, Margaret Borden and Chris Jimmerson.
Visitor’s Forum
There were 8 visitors.
Nancy Neavel shared a letter from UU Houston that was to be passed around and included in the minutes (Exhibit A).
Beverly Donoghue thanked the current board for all, all they endured for the past year and all they accomplished. She thanked them for their leadership.
Consent Agenda:
Approve Minutes
The April minutes were approved.
New Members and Resignations:
There were 5 new members since the April board meeting and 0 resignation. The following new members were announced and recorded at the May board meeting: Name redated from web versions of minutes at the member’s request, Peter Pope, Amy Edwards McFadden, Emily Wethington and Vanessa MacDougal.
Reports
*Director of Religious Education Lara Douglass’ report is attached (Exhibit B).
*Treasurer Luther Elmore’s reports are attached (Exhibits C).
*Director of Music Brent Baldwin’s report is attached (Exhibit D).
*Executive Director Sean Hale’s reports are attached (Exhibits E).
There was discussion on the consent agenda items.
From the Executive Director’s report, a particular issue regarding the office being closed to the public on Mondays so that the office staff can have time to focus was discussed. They will still check messages. Derek and Bonny had questions for Sean about how it will work. Bonny said she had called 5 mid-sized area churches earlier in the day and only one did not have a live person answer the phone, it was another UU church. Both Bonny and Derek expressed concern that there should be a live person answering our church phone, Derek pointed out that this is common practice in many businesses as well as most churches. Derek said that maybe we can have volunteers answer phones. Sheila said that we cannot discuss every staff issue and that some things we need to leave to the discretion of our Executive Director, such as our staff issues for which we hired him. She asked if anyone was willing to help coordinate volunteers to answer the phones, no one was. Sean thanked the volunteers that have been coming to help in the office but agreed that it would be hard to have volunteers there to answer the phones at all times. Sean said that productivity has gone up when they have let the phone ring and check messages later, they are able to focus more and complete more work. Michael West suggested that with the remodel of the church office that perhaps there could be a secluded place established for people to work, allowing congregant access to the building without interrupting staff. Visitor Chris Jimmerson, the incoming Board Secretary, said that when his workplace instated a similar policy, but to not answer the phones on Friday, they found that responsiveness was increased on the other four work week days, since staff had completed more and could more readily respond. Eric said this is a way Sean is trying to help the office staff focus on finance issues. Bonny said she supports Sean and understands the need for office to focus, but wants flexibility to be an option. Bonny was worried that Sean’s report seemed to talk about using voice mail during the whole week. Visitor Margaret Borden, incoming Board member, said that the board is stuck in the nitty gritty right now and that she agrees with board President Sheila, that we need to trust Sean—and then ask for a report in the future, of how it is going. Jeff Hutchens agreed, and said he’d like to see a report about how the changes are going in a future board meeting. Aaron also agreed that Sean can make decisions for the staff since that is what he is paid for, the board can be advisors but aren’t the be all and end all of what needs to be done with his job. Nell said that the summer will be a great opportunity to see what will happen if we trust Sean to do his job. Sheila pointed out that we don’t manage our Director of Religious Education or Music Director. Sean assured all that in addition to the messages being regularly checked, they are looking at implementing a caller ID system and he will do a report on how the changes are going at a future board meeting.
From the DRE’s report, it was commented that RE has been having excellent attendance. Lara said that we have a new Youth Director named Scott Butki. Aaron Osmer our Youth Trustee said that from what he has seen of Scott so far that he is one of best Youth Advisors they’ve had in a long time. Lara said that is last DRE said he was wonderful and had been reliable as a volunteer.
From the Music Director’s report there was a question about the Children’s Choir. The parents of the children who had been in choir are looking for ways to continue it, as it had been cut from the budget. Currently it will not start up in fall unless funds are found. Brent said they are looking at having a benefit concert. It was commented that the music has been excellent as usual and Brent was thanked for his work.
From the Treasurer’s report, Luther pointed out that some of the old restricted funds were closed and moved. There is currently $66,000.00 outstanding from the Spring Stewardship campaign that raised the $100,000.00 amount to close the deficit. The Finance Committee has been working on a new format; Sean has been using Quick Books, which has not been clear to use and not compatible with all our systems. Stephan Windsor and Eugene Balaguer have been helping set up a new system that will be compatible and will work better. Sheila said that in the past the Finance Committee has been working separately from the board, now they’ve moved their meeting time to work with the board more.
ACTION: Derek Howard moved to approve the consent agenda items, the movement was seconded, the vote was taken and the consent agenda items were passed.
Stewardship
Bill Edwards passed out a report for stewardship, (Exhibit F). He invited everyone to the celebratory potluck being put on by Stewardship this coming Saturday. Our incoming Interim Minister Janet Newman will be visiting our church in June and will be attending a dinner hosted by Stewardship on Monday June 15th at 6:30pm. The focus will be to gage from our congregation what we should focus on as a theme for the Fall Stewardship campaign. There will be a presentation by Stewardship at the dinner, and a discussion—Stewardship will then present to the board at the next board meeting. A few things have been suggested as a Fall Campaign focus such as creating a second minister position. Bill said that the Fall Campaign will be plain, simple and by the book. We do need to identify what will inspire our members to give, but also the “real deal” is that we must change the culture our church has with giving.
Sean pointed out that in his “08 Incomplete Pledge Report” that there was $90,000.00 in incomplete pledges; this was 17% of all pledges. Other churches usually have 3 to 8% of their pledges unfulfilled to normal attrition; people moving or having hardship/losing jobs etc. We have not been collecting this information on why our members are not fulfilling their pledges and are implementing systems so this can be done. Mainly this much higher than average rate at First UU was due to internal problems. 25% of credit card pledges were incomplete; this is mostly an administrative issue. Fixing these problems will help Stewardship. Setting up a system on how to handle the sensitive calls, determining when to have follow up calls, or how to help when help is needed is all going to make Stewardship’s job easier. Sean is looking at other churches and how they do this, and also looking at other organizations. Ron Turner has been helping Sean with this. The goal to get this new system in place is for ’10, but it may be starting to help with fall ‘09’s Campaign. Luther said that our rate of unfulfilled pledges compared to other churches is shocking. He feels a lot of this comes back to the culture of our church that must be changed. Derek asked what our rate of unfulfilled pledges has been in past years. Mark said that we’ve budgeted 5% into our budget for unfulfilled pledges in past years. Sean said that we do have the raw data, but it would take a lot of time and talent to find out the actual figures. Michael West said the staff time is better spent focusing on our present and future as a priority till we get extra staff.
Paradox Players
Anne Edwards passed out a paper with the history of Paradox Players (Exhibit G). She says that they realize that some of their history with First UU has been lost over the years. She thanked Chris Jimmerson for checking in the Policies and Procedures to see that Paradox Players is an “affiliated group”. Paradox Players got its start at First UU as being part of worship, and it then expanded into a part of church community. Today it serves our church community and greater Austin community in many ways. Local non-profits can buy a performance for five hundred and get all the profits from that performance’s house. For all the other performances the full proceeds are donated to our church. Paradox Players is currently funding and helping with the remodel of the church office. They appreciate all the support they get from First UU with meeting spaces, use of the copy machine, donating of props, and wonderful stage/lighting facilities. They choose plays for their interesting artistic or political value and how they relate to or exemplify ono of our UU principles. Actors say that working with Paradox Players feels more like being in a family, compared to working in other theatre groups, due to their diligence with upholding standards of respect. Paradox Player performances are also a portal for members of the greater Austin community to learn about and come into our church. One performance of each play has free childcare provided. Chris Jimmerson added that the opportunity to engage our greater Austin community with our UU principles during the Q&A with the audience after each play helps educate people. Many plays such as Necessary Target deal with important current issues that are touchy subjects in our society.
Congratulations First UU Member Lee Leffingwell Austin’s New Mayor
Sean Hale passed out a card for board members and senior staff to sign, congratulating Austin’s New Mayor, our First UU member Lee Leffingwell. Lee has been a long time member and supporter of First UU and we wish him the best with his new position and thank him for his support of First UU in years past and presently.
Board Appointees to Nominating Committee
Sheila said that we were supposed to appoint the board appointees to the nominating committee in April. We are in a wonderful situation where we have more volunteers than we have space, in particular for the Nominating Committee. Jennifer Lohlin was appointed to the Nominating Committee to fill in a vacancy in spring, the Committee has been happy with her work. Jeannette Swenson would like to see the Nominating Committee develop a strong focus on training and encouraging leadership. Sandra Reis has similar ideas and also wanted to serve, but the two positions the board appoints to nominating are filled. Shannon Vyff will be moving to England in August, so there will be another opening on the Nominating Committee and they may choose to include Sandra then.
ACTION: Michael West moved to approve the board appointees to Nominating Committee of Jennifer Lohlin and Jeanette Swenson, it was seconded, the vote was taken and the approval passed.
Interim Search Task Force
Michael West wanted his report attached so people can have it as reference in the future (Exhibit H)
Janet Newman will be starting as the Interim Minister at First UU this September 1st. She has even offered to come and start doing some work early without pay. She’ll be here June 15th through 17th to meet with church leadership, committees and congregants. There will be a dinner hosted by Stewardship Monday the 15th at 6:30pm that she’ll be attending, as well as a dinner at 6:00pm Wednesday the 17th. She is moving from Alabama where she has been the Interim Minister for the past year, she is originally from Florida. She specialized in being an Interim Minister, you can read more of her philosophy and work on her website—she usually completes her work in a year, we have offered two years of employment to her—but she’ll address how things are going next January to see if she thinks we need that or not, as she usually only needs one year to get her job done. Michael West said the quality of the candidates was excellent. All 4 that were presented to First UU had great experience; only 1 was not a specialized Interim Minister. Janet’s background has included dealing with funding problems, property problems, big church splits, dismissals, retirings and more. She has come up with Right Relations as solutions in some congregations, this is something that has been suggested for our and we look forward to her views on it. The references for all the candidates were quite candid about their strengths and weaknesses. All the candidates were highly recommended—the task force took the feedback they received from the congregation through surveys and meetings, to choose the candidate that would be best for First UU’s needs. Michael west will email the 9 things he thinks a Task Force should do in the future. 1. Start forming earlier 2. Meet earlier 3. Have good communication about time commitments before starting. 4. Have teleconference ability by phone or net set up before beginning. 5. Have fed ex set up. 6. Work with the tech team early on about creating surveys. & discuss and collect what relevant documents are needed for the candidates to review. 7.Create secure church overview packets online instead of mailing packets, as this would save mailing money and be easier for the candidates. 8. Begin checking references before packets are fully put together and shared. 9. Form an Interim Search & Welcoming Committee to help with their transition into our community. Michael said that all the candidates surprisingly knew a lot about our church and its recent activities by reading documents up on our web site. They all had great and valid suggestions. All the candidates were positive, encouraging and all were very well informed about the dismissal and its various issues. Michael spoke with District Executives about our recent work, including how we’ve put together the Interim position, how we’ve hired the consultants and how we are moving forward, the feedback has been very positive and favorable of the job we’ve been doing. They were impressed by how we have more people wanting to be on the board than we have board positions, that we’ve filled a hundred thousand dollar gap in our budget. They had not heard that we are a “toxic church”; Sean noted that he also did not hear that from the UUA people he talked with or other churches. Several of the people Michael talked to had known Davidson. They had a good understanding of what went on and were supportive of our work into the future. There was a round of applause for all that the Interim Search Task Force did, and thanks for choosing such a stellar Interim Minister. The Interim Task Force members are Michael West, Chris Jimmerson, Gary Bennett, Nance Benet, and Dale Witaker Lewis.
Pre-School RE Teacher
Our DRE has the authority to hire and fire our RE staff. She had the position for pre-school teacher advertised, and approached some parents about it with no luck on filling it. Her husband Bill Douglass agreed to be the teacher and said he’d love to come back and do it again. All on the board said he was a wonderful pre-school teacher. Sheila said he’d helped her daughter to overcome her shyness when he taught her in pre-K. Shannon said that she’d co-taught with him and he presented our UU ideals in a funny and engaging way that the children really responded to. Aaron said he is excellent and much loved by all the age groups. If approved he’ll be under the supervision of Cyndi Stein the RE assistant and he can go to the board if he has any problems.
ACTION: Bonny made a motion and it was seconded to approve Bill Douglass as the Pre-School teacher, the vote was taken and it was enthusiastically unanimous that “Mr. Bill” will be our Pre-School teacher.
Policies and Procedures Update
Sean presented a proposed update to our Policies and Procedures. He worked with Eric Stimmel to set up a default for board meeting and congregational meeting dates. We have needed to formalize them for a while; this will make it easier for people considering a board position to see if they can commit to the time. Nominating Committee will be able to show incoming board members the set schedule. Previously the incoming board has set the year’s meeting, and this causes it to change for year to year and it has not been able to present the next year’s calendar to incoming board members. Having formalized dates helps the Senior Staff to be able to plan their upcoming years.
ACTION: Derek moved to approve the proposed Policies and Procedures wording regarding meeting times, the movement was seconded, the vote was taken, and it passed.
Board Approval Committee Chairs recommended by Nominating Committee
The Board is supposed to approve the Committee Chairs before the Spring Congregational meeting. Since the board did not do that in the meeting before the Spring Congregational meeting, the board is will do it at this meeting right after the Spring Congregational Meeting.
ACTION: Derek moved to approve the Committee Chairs, it was seconded and the movement was approved.
Good-Bye to our departing board members
Sheila thanked the departing board members. Last year Mark made cute poems, today at work she spent time hand making book marks that have a chalice traversing rough waters with an inspirational poem. She thanked the outgoing board members for what they went through, for all the hours they put in—for the compassion and strength that they showed. Jeff and Luther gave presents to the outgoing board members. Emily Wethington gave baskets of gifts to them as well. Emily Wethington also gave gift baskets and cards signed by many church members to all board members as thanks for the year of service on behalf of Fellowship Committee.
Transition Issues
There will be an upcoming board retreat Saturday June 14th from 10:00am to 4:00pm where the incoming board and continuing board can talk about what the goals are for the next year. The Edwards will be hosting at their beautiful ranch home, any board members that would like directions or additional information on what will be covered can contact Nell Newton.
Nell moved to extend the meeting 15 minutes at 9:36; the movement was seconded and approved.
Executive Session
Eric Stimel brought an issue to the board that required an executive session. Where staff is asked to leave while the board discusses a staff issues. As we convened our senior staff and visitors were asked to leave so that we could discuss an issue regarding severance agreements. The issues were discussed, the background and what was being requested of the board. The board cannot take action during executive session since it is not public and thus not official. The board came out of executive session and took action on what they had discussed.
ACTION: Nell moved that a draft proposal for severance coverage for the DRE and MD would be presented for approval at the next board meeting, the movement was seconded, and it passed.
Calendar
The calendar dates are listed on the back of the meeting agenda. The incoming Board Secretary will be setting the next year’s schedule at the next board meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:00pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Shannon Vyff, Secretary
Supporting Documents (Appendices A and F will be scanned and added soon)
