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

Tuesday, September 15, 200 at 6:30 p.m.

First UU Church of Austin, 4700 Grover, Austin, TX 78756 in the Gallery

In Attendance:

Trustees: Nell Newton, President; Eric Stimmel, Vice-President; Luther Elmore, Treasurer; Chris Jimmerson, Secretary; Sheila Gladstone, Immediate Past President; Margaret Borden; Derek Howard; Jeff Hutchens; Aaron Osmer, Youth Trustee; Michael West; Laura Wood.

Executive Team: Janet Newman, Interim Minister; Sean Hale, Executive Director

Staff: Brent Baldwin, Director of Music

Call to Order

The President called the meeting to order at 6:36 p.m.

Adoption of Agenda

Motion: Margaret Borden – To adopt the agenda (Appendix A). The motion was seconded.

Discussion: None

Vote: All Affirmative

Opening Words

The Interim Minister read the following words:

MEDITATION by Robert Weston If Love Be There

This day, setting aside all that divides me from others;

This day, remembering that the world is beautiful to one who is willing

That it be so

And that into the open, eager heart

The beauty enters in

If love be there;

This day I will make a part of the song of life.

There may be grief but if there be love it will be overcome.

There may be pain but it can be borne with dignity and courage;

There may be difficulty but it can be turned to strength.

Remembering that the world is beautiful if I will let it be so for others whom I meet,

This day I will make a part of the song of life.

The President lit the chalice.

Visitor’s Forum

Beverly Donoghue, one of two delegates to Austin Area Interreligious Ministries (AAIM), described AAIM’s dual mission: to promote interfaith dialog and “to assist the vulnerable and the voiceless.” AAIM’s governance structure has changed from shared policy decision-making by delegates and the Board of Trustees to policy decisions by the Board only. Delegates are now key members for encouraging broader community participation in AAIM events. AAIM sponsors Hands On Housing, a city-wide effort to repair homes owned by low-income individuals and families who can no longer afford to make these repairs. Interfaith dialog is promoted through AAIM’s Amazing Faith Dinner Dialogs in November and through a new program, the Red Bench, which begins tonight. The Red Bench seeks to promote deeper listening and conversations around values shared by faith traditions. AAIM’s 25^th Annual Thanksgiving Celebration will be held on Sunday, November 22^nd at First Baptist Church and will include an interfaith service, pot luck dinner, and songs and dances from a variety of faith traditions. Beverly invited Trustees to participate in and promote AAIM’s interfaith events. (See Appendix B.)

The President requested, and Beverly agreed, to get more information on the Unitarian Universalist Association’s (UUA’s) funding to support congregational leaders’ participation in interfaith activities as a way to support AAIM’s activities. Margaret Borden noted that two church members, Lindsay Ellison and Valerie Sterne, led AAIM’s refugee school this past summer.

Consent Agenda Items

Minutes from the Prior Meeting: The Trustees had reviewed the minutes from the August 2009 meeting prior to this meeting (Appendix C).

New Members and Resignations: The Secretary reported that Charles Hobbs had joined the congregation and that Myra and Stroud McIlvain and Margaret Harrison had resigned.

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

Appendix D: Director of Religious Education’s (DRE’s) Report

Appendix E: Treasurer’s Report

Appendix F: Director of Music’s (DM’s) Report

Appendix G: Executive Director’s (ED’s) Report

Appendix H: Bridgebuilder Update 9/15/09

The Trustees discussed the following items related to the consent agenda items:

The Treasurer hopes to narrow the 2009 deficit to less than $40K. The church has been spending more than it has received since $50K was received during the Spring Pledge Drive.

The new five-year photocopier rental contract is for a black and white copier with more features and will cost $100 less annually. Copies from the new color copier will cost ten cents each.

Margaret Borden, who is monitoring the Bridgebuilder action plan to ensure that all action items are included, pointed out the Bridgebuilder update. Trustees discussed the difference between policy review, or bylaws review, and policy governance. Policy review would involve looking at a process outline should a concern about the minister arise. Policy governance – developing the church’s mission, vision, values, and covenant — would influence the process but would not prescribe the specific steps of the process.

Margaret was most concerned, from the Board’s perspective, about action items 5 and 13. She was not sure how Trustees should implement action 5: to establish a governance review task force. Action item 13 is to change the bylaws to require orientation classes for prospective members before they join. The Membership Committee is aware of this action item and is developing a curriculum outline for the new member orientation/class to present for Trustee approval. Margaret also pointed out that action 9 — to determine ways the church’s Council can build community and fellowship at meetings — was not a clear charge yet and needed Trustee review.

The President requested putting the Bridgebuilder Action Plan and Update on the agenda for the October meeting so Trustees would have more time could be taken to discuss specific items and issues. She suggested the church could apply for grant funds from the UUA to offset the cost of implementing policy governance. A trustee discussed the possibility of finding an “angel member” to help cover these costs. It would be helpful if policy governance implementation costs could be offset by grant funds. Another trustee inquired about the possibility of having the Interim Minister do some of the consulting mentioned for policy governance implementation. However, the Interim Minister noted that her full-time job and the need for the policy work facilitator to have additional specialized skills would mitigate against her doing this consulting work. The policy governance implementation team is exploring different consultants with different skill sets and different costs.

Bridgebuilder action number 3, to establish a policy governance implementation team, and action 7, to create a team to oversee development of mission-vision-values-covenant, overlap and are actually the same item. One trustee would like the Director of Music’s input on who should be on the governance implementation team.

The Interim Minister will submit her report to Trustees later.

Motion: Chris Jimmerson – To accept the Consent Agenda Item Reports. The motion was seconded.

Discussion: None

Vote: All Affirmative

Discussion and Action Items

Security Task Force Report: The President reported that this item was not ready yet and would need to be postponed until the October Trustees’ meeting.

Substitute Item — Interim Ministry Contract: The Interim Minister requested that the Trustees approve her request that a portion of her salary, $16,250, be designated as housing allowance and, as a result, be tax-free. This request is in accordance with the Interim Ministry Contract (Appendix I), Governing Board agreements, number 1. A. 2).

Motion: Derek Howard – To approve the Interim Minister’s request to designate $16,250 of her salary as housing allowance. The motion was seconded.

Discussion: None

Vote: All Affirmative

Short and Long-Term Disability Insurance: Trustees agreed to postpone this item until after addressing the personnel policy.

Board of Trustees Budget Proposal: The Treasurer passed out a copy of the 2008 Final Budget and the 2009 Budget with projected income. (Appendix J) The President explained that the Trustees were considering requesting a line item in the budget for board expenses and would continue the discussion that began during the August board meeting. The Financial Asset Management Policy (FAMP) gives the Trustees the authority to spend up to $10,000 outside the budget for unanticipated emergency expenses, and $10,000 could be budgeted for Trustees’ expenses.

Trustees made the following points in their discussion:

$1,500 or $2,000 might be sufficient to cover the All-Council lunch and other non-emergency expenses that arise.
Trustees should base a line item for Board of Trustees’ expenses on history.
The budget deficit increased in May, and yet Trustees are on record for wanting a balanced budget.
All-Council meeting expenses are not unanticipated and should be a line item in the budget.
Prior minister liked discretionary funds and picked and chose how to spend them. There will be more trust if the Trustees are open about a Board of Trustees’ expense line item.
Each anticipated Board of Trustees’ expense item could be listed in the budget.

Trustees then discussed each board expense item:

1) Funding for the All-Council Retreat

The amount in the budget is zero because it was cut. It costs $300 for the all-day meeting to cover breakfast, lunch, and clean-up expenses.

2) Becoming a “Fair Share” Congregation

“Fair Share” is a budget item under Denominational Affairs.

“Fair Share” costs with 600 members: $56 per member for UUA, or $33,600,

plus $20/member for SWUUA, or $12,000 –

for a total of $28,800

After further discussion, a Trustee offered the following alternative proposal to be submitted as a recommendation for the 2010 budget:

Fund at $28 per member for UUA, or $16,800

Plus $20 per member for SWUUA, or $12,000

for a total of $28,800

Motion: Chris Jimmerson — Approve the proposal. The motion was seconded.

Discussion: None

Vote: Affirmative-9, Negative-0, Abstain-1

3) Consulting fee for vision, mission, values, and covenant development

1^st year’s package = $10,000

Large UU churches in Dallas, Portland, Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Atlanta had all engaged a consultant to put in place mission/vision/values/ends and move to Policy Governance and continue to bring in a consultant annually but at a lesser degree and rate. 1^st UU in Dallas’ Board of Trustees’ President said that his congregation could not have accomplished all they had done without engaging a consultant. A concern raised that nothing might happen on the BB Actionn without consultants and that a fully engaged process might help with Stewardship by creating an exciting environment.

Motion: Chris Jimmerson – To include $10,000 for vision-mission-values-policy governance work. The motion was seconded.

Discussion: None

Vote: Affirmative – 9, Negative – 0, Abstain – 1

4) Accountant-prepared financial statement

There are 3 levels – compiled, reviewed, and audited financial statements. 1^st UU has never had an audit report because of poorly organized information. The plan for next year is to have a compiled financial statement – for year after year consistency, to compare operations from year to year, for continuity – having reliable historical information, and for credibility of the Trustees to the congregation (See Appendix K). Our church would give a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) financial information monthly, and the CPA would do annual compiled financial statement. Estimated cost: $1,200 for compiled statement or $2,000 for compiled statement and consulting to get started. Discussion points included:

Our ED could do this.
A professional CPA can provide guidance on how to handle specific transactions and how to present on a financial statement. Church doesn’t know how to do GAAP financial statements
Concern about whether can provide accurate financial information for January-December 2010.
Goal: Begin clean set of books starting in January 2010.
Helps prevent Bookkeeper/Treasurer changes without continuity.

Motion: Jeff Hutchens – To include a $2,000 line item for compiled financial statements in 2010 by a CPA who specializes in financial statements for non-profit organizations. The motion was seconded.

Discussion: None

Vote: Affirmative – 9, Negative – 0, Abstain — 1

5) Interim Minister Search and Settled Minister Search

Costs of our church’s Interim Minister search consisted of about $150 for cell phone charges and packages mailed by the Secretary. Interim Minister Search Committee members paid own way to travel to listen to the Interim Minister candidate.

Our Interim Minister has always served for one year and never two. After her evaluation in January, she and the Trustees could each consider whether an extension of her contract was desired. She recommended electing a Search Committee in the Spring of 2010, to work steadily through Fall 2010. In January 2011, our records would be opened up to ministerial applicants, and we would be able to see records of ministerial applicants. The UUA’s ministerial settlement handbook is online. Most of settled minister work in 2010 will be discussions and handled here in Austin. Expenses will be phone calls and making copies – about $300. Travel would not occur until 2011.

The Trustees agreed to move up the agenda item for board pledging to precede the personnel policy agenda item.

Michael West announced that a “green” welcoming gift awaited the Interim Minister in the church’s kitchen.

The Board of Trustees’ meeting was adjourned for a break at 8:15 p.m. and resumed at 8:30 p.m.

Board Pledging

Bill Edwards, Stewardship Committee Chair, presented this agenda item. The Stewardship Committee’s canvass goal for 2010 is $650,000, which would include $50,000 for an interior facelift and kitchen renovation or $600,000 with the current facilities unchanged. There are 16 Team Leaders who will each get five or more canvass volunteers. Each volunteer will contact three pledging units. There are over 100 potential canvassers or donor prospects. The Trustees and Team Leaders have pledged over $100,000.

This Sunday, September 20^th, the Stewardship Committee will host a Celebration in Howson Hall. Postcards have been mailed to all members to come celebrate ourselves. Several long-time members will be honored. To RSVP for this event, Trustees should phone Bill Edwards or e-mail Ron Turner.

The Stewardship Committee has raised $30,000 from Team Leaders and others to match 2010 pledge increases dollar for dollar (Appendix L). Every Trustee and Team Leader increased their pledges for 2010. Trustees were encouraged to not request a match for their pledge increases so that other members would be encouraged to increase their pledges from 2009 and earn matches for their pledge increases.

The Interim Minister encouraged Trustees to get involved in the canvass if funds were still needed at the end of the year and mentioned doing a phone-a-thon at the end if the Fall Canvass Campaign did not reach the desired goal. The President and other Trustees noted that Trustees traditionally get involved in the Fall Canvass and were also involved in last Spring’s pledge drive, with each Trustee signing up to call individual members. One Trustee suggested the best time to call members about pledging is between 7:00 and 9:00 p.m.

Personnel Policy

The Trustees instructed the ED to create a broad policy covering personnel issues to enable the Trustees to focus on getting results rather than on micromanaging. He drafted revisions to pages 6-7 of the Policies and Procedures Manual to clarify who the executive team is and their roles and expectations. The proposed personnel policy on pages 30-33 was taken almost exactly from policies at Unity Church in St. Paul, Minnesota and creates a framework for further revisions and additions as needed in the future. (See Appendix M.)

Trustee comments on approving the draft personnel policy included:

Page 31, no. 4 – Some concern expressed that an executive team member shall inform the President or another Trustee of violating Board of Trustees’ policy but will not be required to ask permission to do so. The Trustees could discuss and decide at the next monthly Board of Trustees’ meeting whether there should be any consequences for violating Board of Trustees’ policy.
Concern about jumping into policy governance in the middle rather than in an orderly progression — without further reflection and with no monitoring system in place .
Likes to see movement toward policy governance
Page 30, no. 2 – The executive team may refuse to comply with a request from an individual Trustees or Trustee Committee if the request appears to require substantial staff time to comply. A Trustee can accept that refusal or pursue reorienting the ED’s priorities at the next Board of Trustees’ meeting. There was concern that there did not appear to be an avenue for resolution, regardless of the importance of the Trustee’s request. Another Trustee suggested that the Trustees could approve a Trustee to be the executive team’s liaison on a specific issue – so the Executive Team would know the importance of the request.
Page 31, no. 5, last sentence – “Nothing in this policy is intended to interfere with mutual interaction about individual understanding of policies.” And page 31, Policy I-B, no. 3 – “Appropriate use and delegation of power.”

The President asked if the draft policy was the direction that the Trustees wanted to go, and they agreed. Sheila Gladstone and Derek Howard will prepare recommended edits for the draft personnel policy, preserving the meaning in the current draft, for Trustees’ review and approval at the October Board of Trustees’ meeting.

Motion: Sheila Gladstone – To approve the draft personnel policy in principle. The motion was seconded.

Discussion: None

Vote: All Affirmative

One Trustee asked if other Unitarian Universalist (UU) churches limited the Executive Team to the Minister and the ED. One UU church defines the Executive Team as the Minister and ED, with the Minister serving as Chief Executive Officer. Another UU church has an Executive Team of four people. Another UU church has three people – the Minister, ED, and Membership Director. The Trustees decided last year that the DRE and DM would continue reporting directly to the Trustees during the Interim Minister’s tenure. The ED has the authority to hire and fire office staff.

Floating Holiday Policy

The current “floating holiday” policy allows staff to take two of the three following holidays as paid holidays: MLK Day, President’s Day, and Veteran’s Day. Because tracking this attendance is cumbersome, the ED recommends eliminating Veteran’s Day as a paid holiday for staff and giving staff MLK Day and President’s Day as standard paid holidays (Appendix N).

Motion: Derrick Howard – to approve the proposal in appendix N, eliminating the floating holiday policy.

Discussion: None

Vote: All Affirmative

Short and Long-Term Disability Insurance

The purpose of long-term disability insurance is to replace a stream of income lost by being unable to work for longer than 90 days due to disease or injury. If a church employee should become disabled, the church could take up a collection but might not agree about how much money would be enough. In all likelihood, not enough money could be raised.

The Interim Minister recommends that the Trustees approve the church’s purchase of long-term disability insurance for full-time staff beginning in 2010 (Appendix O). Policy proposal 1 would be to add a statement to the Personnel Policy Manual insurance section that the church provides long-term disability insurance to all full-time staff. Policy proposal 2 recommends funding long-term disability insurance for staff for the remainder of 2009 with unused funds in the ministerial budget. The cost of the annual premium is one percent of the amount insured. For full-time employees, this would amount to $2,026 per year – plus a little more if staff receives raises this year. The UUA’s long-term disability insurance policy (Appendix P) provides for a disabled staff member who works at least half-time to receive 60 percent of his or her current salary, beginning 90 days after the injury.

The discussion included the following points:

Wait two months and include long-term disability insurance for church staff in the 2010 budgeting process;
Trustees would feel terrible if a staff member became disabled and Trustees had not approved the purchase of long-term disability insurance;
The best private employers and state agencies don’t offer long-term disability insurance for free but for purchase by employees at very low cost;
Adding another benefit with the current deficit might be a problem;
Concern that there is no waiting period before enrollment. Someone who is about to “go under” could try to get hired by an employer to obtain this benefit;
The church should pay for staff’s long-term disability insurance out of a sense of justice – of treating employees well;
If the church had purchased disability insurance years ago for a prior janitor who became disabled, he would have benefited, and the church would not be paying him an annual amount;
It’s difficult to justify doing this when a Trustee has never had this benefit. Trustees would need more regionally-based evidence that this purchase is a common practice among UU churches;
Whether the Trustees should support this purchase because a lot of other churches do this or because we want to either fund this or make this option available to staff
It would be very positive to offer staff long-term disability insurance for free.
ED clarification: Church staff members already have the option of purchasing long-term disability insurance. The only question is whether the Trustees will approve the church automatically paying for it. No staff members have purchased this insurance to date;
The church has a history of giving an annual 3% cost of living adjustment (COLA). 2% could be used to pay for COLA, and 1% could be used to purchase disability insurance;
Employees do a cost/benefit analysis and decide that purchasing disability insurance is not worth the cost when balanced against other needs;
Most UU churches purchase long-term disability insurance for their staff;
How many other UU churches pay for disability insurance for their staff;
Purchasing this insurance would be one way for the Board to demonstrate that we are a caring community.

The President suggested that the minister gather more information, including how many UU churches purchase this insurance automatically for their employees, and review the recommendation to purchase long-term disability insurance at the October Board of Trustees meeting.

Extension of Board Meeting

Motion: Jeff Hutchens — To extend the Board of Trustees’ meeting for 15 minutes (at 9:43 p.m.). The motion was seconded.

Discussion: None

Vote: All Affirmative

Long-Term Care Insurance (Continued)

Motion: Jeff Hutchens — To request putting in long-term disability insurance as a line item in the 2010 budget as in Policy Proposal 1. The motion was seconded.

Discussion: None

Vote: Affirmative – 9, Negative – 0, Abstain – 1

The October Board of Trustees’ meeting will address long-term disability insurance as policy. Policy Proposal 2 was tabled.

Proposal for Alana Rosshirt Memorial

The ED asked Rose Ann Reeser, who knew Alana Rosshirt, to develop a proposal for allocating Ms. Rosshirt’s gift of $5,000 to 1^st UU to honor her many years of service to the church. Jack Rosshirt, Alana’s husband, suggested the church could use the funds for the sanctuary garden and some sort of recognition of her gift. Rose Ann’s proposal (Appendix Q) included the following:

Allocating $1,500 for renovating the sanctuary garden, which is now underway
Hanging a framed certificate of appreciation in recognition of Ms. Rosshirt’s gift in the sanctuary close to the door to the garden
Allocating $1,000 to the Public Affairs Forum
Allocating $1,000 to Worship Services
Allocating $1,500 to the Permanent Endowment Fund.

Discussion points included:

Trustees should accept Rose Ann’s proposal as is;
Trustees should allocate $1,500 for the sanctuary garden and asking Jack Rosshirt if the church can put $3,500 wherever it is most needed;
Her gift would have a permanent impact if invested in the landscape or in the capital campaign for the building.

Motion: Michael West – To defer to Rose Ann’s recommendation for allocation of Alana Rosshirt’s gift to the church, based on Rose Ann’s sensitivity and awareness of the church’s situation.

Discussion: None

Vote: Affirmative – 9, Negative – 0, Abstain – 1

Authority to Resolve the Outcome with Donated Speakers

About four years ago, Marcus Barnes donated to the church eight Altec Lansing speakers, which have not been used. The ED developed a proposal (Appendix R) to use these speakers to best benefit the church, including but not limited to installing the speakers in the sanctuary and selling the speakers.

Motion: Aaron Osmer – Accept mandate proposed by the ED for making use of the donated loudspeakers. The motion was seconded.

Discussion: None

Vote: All Affirmative

Internal Audit Committee Update

Jeff Hutchens noted that Eugene Balaguer volunteered to chair the Internal Audit Team. He is a financial analyst with the city and has assisted many non-profits.

Motion Jeff Hutchens – That Eugene Balaguer be appointed chair of the Audit Committee for an initial term of one year. The Audit Committee Chair will be tasked with selecting two additional committee members and developing the initial draft of the policies and procedures for the Audit Committee. Said policies and procedures will be submitted to the Board for approval no later than the November Board meeting. The motion was seconded.

Discussion: None

Vote: All Affirmative

Extension of Board Meeting

Motion: Aaron Osmer – To extend the Trustees’ meeting for 15 minutes (at 9:58 p.m.). The motion was seconded.

Discussion: None

Vote: All Affirmative

Emergency Funding Request from the ED

Rental income has increased 60 percent so far this year and is projected to bring in $22,000 more than budgeted by the end of 2009. Natalie Freeburg is spending much more time handling rental requests and, as a result, the ED is doing Natalie’s job for several hours each week delaying his work. The ED is requesting $7,000 to take measures through December 2009 to support staff and enable the ED to carry out his responsibilities and duties (Appendix S).

The Treasurer advised that $3,400 plus of the Board’s discretionary funds were used to pay Peter Steinke. His consulting fee was offset by $1,400 in donations, but still came from the Trustees’ discretionary funds. Since Trustees have $10,000 in discretionary funds per year, there is approximately $6,600 in discretionary funds left for 2009.

Motion: Jeff Hutchens – To approve $6,600 for operations of the church. The motion was seconded:

Discussion: There was not further discussion

Vote: Affirmative – 8, Negative – 0, Abstain – 2

Extension of Board Meeting

Motion: Margaret Borden – To extend the Board of Trustees’ meeting for 15 minutes (at 10:17 p.m.). The motion was seconded.

Discussion: None

Vote: All Affirmative

Executive Session

The Trustees entered executive session to discuss personnel issues. Those who were not Trustees left the room.

Call to Order

The President called the meeting back to order at 10:40 p.m

Motion: Margaret Borden – To approve the proposed letter from the President to negotiate with the ED regarding an adjustment to the ED’s annual leave. The motion was seconded.

Discussion: None

Vote: All Affirmative

Motion: Brendan Sterne – That under-withheld employee contributions for health insurance premiums not be recovered up to this point in time. The motion was seconded.

Discussion: None

Vote: Affirmative – 9, Negative – 0, Abstain – 1

Adjourn: The President adjourned the meeting at 10:44 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Beverly Donoghue

Assistant Secretary

Note: The below are large files, so it may be easier to right click on them and download them to your computer.

Appendices Submitted Before the Meeting (includes all appendices not listed below)

Appendices from Items Handed Out at The Meeting (includes Appendices B, I, J, K, L, N, O