{"id":2772,"date":"2009-06-17T11:23:16","date_gmt":"2009-06-17T17:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.austinuu.org\/wp2013\/?p=2772"},"modified":"2009-06-17T11:23:16","modified_gmt":"2009-06-17T17:23:16","slug":"may-2009-board-meeting-minutes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/may-2009-board-meeting-minutes\/","title":{"rendered":"May 2009 Board Meeting Minutes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Board of Trustees Meeting<\/strong><\/p>\n

May19th, 2009<\/strong><\/p>\n

The regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the Board of Trustees of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin was held on Tuesday, May 19th<\/sup>, 6:30pm at the church.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Members present:<\/span> 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.<\/p>\n

Staff present:<\/span> Sean Hale, Executive Director, Lara Douglass Director of Religious Education, and Brent Baldwin Music Director.<\/p>\n

Visitor\u2019s present: <\/span>Brendan Sterne, Chris Jimmerson, Laura Wood, Margaret Borden, John Franks, Ruth Marie and Eugene Balaguer. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Call to Order<\/strong><\/p>\n

President Sheila Gladstone called the meeting to order at 6:37pm.<\/p>\n

Adopt Agenda<\/strong><\/p>\n

Michael West moved to adopt the agenda, it was seconded and the agenda was adopted as presented.<\/p>\n

Opening Words<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nell Newton gave our opening words.\u00a0 She used a poem provided by Michael West: \u201cThe Good Prayer\u201d, adapted from \u201cThe Lord\u2019s Prayer\u201d and in the spirit of Jefferson\u2019s Bible:<\/p>\n

Hear me, all ye who do good,<\/p>\n

I honor your deeds and praise them.<\/p>\n

May goodness continue to flow from you<\/p>\n

\u00a0and from us all,<\/p>\n

Until life on Earth is perfected<\/p>\n

\u00a0and none suffer.<\/p>\n

By our efforts<\/p>\n

\u00a0may all be ensured their daily bread.<\/p>\n

By our efforts<\/p>\n

\u00a0 may we forgive those who trespass against us,<\/p>\n

\u00a0 that we may be forgiven too,<\/p>\n

\u00a0 and peace reign.<\/p>\n

Let none of us be tempted into childishness or animality<\/p>\n

\u00a0 Though it bring us momentary pleasure.<\/p>\n

Instead, let us call each other<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 to greater kindness and wisdom,<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 to greater forbearance and creativity,<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 in everything we do.<\/p>\n

For in goodness lies the path<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 to more freedom and more life,<\/p>\n

In goodness lies the power,<\/p>\n

And in goodness lies the glory,<\/p>\n

For ever and ever.<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n

Sheila Gladstone thanked the incoming board members for attending the meeting, Brenden Sterne, Laura Wood, Margaret Borden and Chris Jimmerson.<\/p>\n

Visitor\u2019s Forum<\/strong><\/p>\n

There were 8 visitors.<\/p>\n

Nancy Neavel shared a letter from UU Houston that was to be passed around and included in the minutes (Exhibit A).<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Consent Agenda:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Approve Minutes<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The April minutes were approved.<\/p>\n

New Members and Resignations:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Reports<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

*Director of Religious Education Lara Douglass\u2019 report is attached (Exhibit B).<\/h5>\n

*Treasurer Luther Elmore\u2019s reports are attached (Exhibits C).<\/p>\n

*Director of Music Brent Baldwin\u2019s report is attached (Exhibit D).<\/p>\n

*Executive Director Sean Hale\u2019s reports are attached (Exhibits E).<\/p>\n

There was discussion on the consent agenda items.<\/p>\n

From the Executive Director\u2019s 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.\u00a0 They will still check messages.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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\u2019s 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\u2014and then ask for a report in the future, of how it is going. Jeff Hutchens agreed, and said he\u2019d like to see a report about how the changes are going in a future board meeting.\u00a0 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\u2019t the be all and end all of what needs to be done with his job.\u00a0 Nell said that the summer will be a great opportunity to see what will happen if we trust Sean to do his job.\u00a0 Sheila pointed out that we don\u2019t manage our Director of Religious Education or Music Director.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

From the DRE\u2019s report, it was commented that RE has been having excellent attendance.\u00a0 Lara said that we have a new Youth Director named Scott Butki.\u00a0 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\u2019ve had in a long time. Lara said that is last DRE said he was wonderful and had been reliable as a volunteer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From the Music Director\u2019s report there was a question about the Children\u2019s Choir.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It was commented that the music has been excellent as usual and Brent was thanked for his work.<\/p>\n

From the Treasurer\u2019s report, Luther pointed out that some of the old restricted funds were closed and moved.\u00a0 There is currently $66,000.00 outstanding from the Spring Stewardship campaign that raised the $100,000.00 amount to close the deficit.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Stephan Windsor and Eugene Balaguer have been helping set up a new system that will be compatible and will work better.\u00a0 Sheila said that in the past the Finance Committee has been working separately from the board, now they\u2019ve moved their meeting time to work with the board more.<\/p>\n

ACTION:\u00a0 <\/strong>Derek Howard <\/strong>moved to approve the consent agenda items, the movement was seconded, the vote was taken and the consent agenda items were passed.<\/p>\n

Stewardship<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bill Edwards passed out a report for stewardship, (Exhibit F).\u00a0 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 <\/sup>at 6:30pm.\u00a0 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\u2014Stewardship will then present to the board at the next board meeting.\u00a0 A few things have been suggested as a Fall Campaign focus such as creating a second minister position.\u00a0 Bill said that the Fall Campaign will be plain, simple and by the book.\u00a0 We do need to identify what will inspire our members to give, but also the \u201creal deal\u201d is that we must change the culture our church has with giving.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sean pointed out that in his \u201c08 Incomplete Pledge Report\u201d 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Fixing these problems will help Stewardship.\u00a0 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\u2019s job easier.\u00a0 Sean is looking at other churches and how they do this, and also looking at other organizations.\u00a0 Ron Turner has been helping Sean with this.\u00a0 The goal to get this new system in place is for \u201910, but it may be starting to help with fall \u201809\u2019s 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.\u00a0 Derek asked what our rate of unfulfilled pledges has been in past years.\u00a0 Mark said that we\u2019ve budgeted 5% into our budget for unfulfilled pledges in past years.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Michael West said the staff time is better spent focusing on our present and future as a priority till we get extra staff.<\/p>\n

Paradox Players<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anne Edwards passed out a paper with the history of Paradox Players (Exhibit G).\u00a0 She says that they realize that some of their history with First UU has been lost over the years.\u00a0 She thanked Chris Jimmerson for checking in the Policies and Procedures to see that Paradox Players is an \u201caffiliated group\u201d. Paradox Players got its start at First UU as being part of worship, and it then expanded into a part of church community.\u00a0 Today it serves our church community and greater Austin community in many ways.\u00a0 Local non-profits can buy a performance for five hundred and get all the profits from that performance\u2019s house.\u00a0 For all the other performances the full proceeds are donated to our church.\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0 They choose plays for their interesting artistic or political value and how they relate to or exemplify ono of our UU principles.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Many plays such as Necessary Target deal with important current issues that are touchy subjects in our society.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Congratulations First UU Member Lee Leffingwell Austin\u2019s New Mayor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sean Hale passed out a card for board members and senior staff to sign, congratulating Austin\u2019s New Mayor, our First UU member Lee Leffingwell.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Board Appointees to Nominating Committee <\/strong><\/p>\n

Sheila said that we were supposed to appoint the board appointees to the nominating committee in April.\u00a0 We are in a wonderful situation where we have more volunteers than we have space, in particular for the Nominating Committee.\u00a0 Jennifer Lohlin was appointed to the Nominating Committee to fill in a vacancy in spring, the Committee has been happy with her work.\u00a0 Jeannette Swenson would like to see the Nominating Committee develop a strong focus on training and encouraging leadership.\u00a0 Sandra Reis has similar ideas and also wanted to serve, but the two positions the board appoints to nominating are filled.\u00a0 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ACTION:\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Interim Search Task Force<\/strong><\/p>\n

Michael West wanted his report attached so people can have it as reference in the future (Exhibit H)<\/p>\n

Janet Newman will be starting as the Interim Minister at First UU this September 1st<\/sup>. She has even offered to come and start doing some work early without pay. She\u2019ll be here June 15th<\/sup> through 17th<\/sup> to meet with church leadership, committees and congregants. There will be a dinner hosted by Stewardship Monday the 15th<\/sup> at 6:30pm that she\u2019ll be attending, as well as a dinner at 6:00pm Wednesday the 17th<\/sup>.\u00a0 She is moving from Alabama where she has been the Interim Minister for the past year, she is originally from Florida.\u00a0 She specialized in being an Interim Minister, you can read more of her philosophy and work on her website\u2014she usually completes her work in a year, we have offered two years of employment to her\u2014but she\u2019ll 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.\u00a0 Michael West said the quality of the candidates was excellent.\u00a0 All 4 that were presented to First UU had great experience; only 1 was not a specialized Interim Minister.\u00a0 Janet\u2019s background has included dealing with funding problems, property problems, big church splits, dismissals, retirings and more.\u00a0 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\u2014the 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\u2019s needs. Michael west will email the 9 things he thinks a Task Force should do in the future.\u00a0 1. Start forming earlier 2. Meet earlier 3. Have good communication about time commitments before starting.\u00a0 4. Have teleconference ability by phone or net set up before beginning. 5. Have fed ex set up.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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\u2019ve put together the Interim position, how we\u2019ve hired the consultants and how we are moving forward, the feedback has been very positive and favorable of the job we\u2019ve been doing. They were impressed by how we have more people wanting to be on the board than we have board positions, that we\u2019ve filled a hundred thousand dollar gap in our budget.\u00a0 They had not heard that we are a \u201ctoxic church\u201d; Sean noted that he also did not hear that from the UUA people he talked with or other churches.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 There was a round of applause for all that the Interim Search Task Force did, and thanks for choosing such a stellar Interim Minister.\u00a0 The Interim Task Force members are Michael West, Chris Jimmerson, Gary Bennett, Nance Benet, and Dale Witaker Lewis.<\/p>\n

Pre-School RE Teacher<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019d love to come back and do it again. All on the board said he was a wonderful pre-school teacher. Sheila said he\u2019d helped her daughter to overcome her shyness when he taught her in pre-K. Shannon said that she\u2019d co-taught with him and he presented our UU ideals in a funny and engaging way that the children really responded to.\u00a0 Aaron said he is excellent and much loved by all the age groups. If approved he\u2019ll be under the supervision of Cyndi Stein the RE assistant and he can go to the board if he has any problems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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 \u201cMr. Bill\u201d will be our Pre-School teacher.<\/p>\n

Policies and Procedures Update<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Nominating Committee will be able to show incoming board members the set schedule. Previously the incoming board has set the year\u2019s meeting, and this causes it to change for year to year and it has not been able to present the next year\u2019s calendar to incoming board members.\u00a0 Having formalized dates helps the Senior Staff to be able to plan their upcoming years.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Board Approval Committee Chairs recommended by Nominating Committee<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ACTION: Derek moved to approve the Committee Chairs, it was seconded and the movement was approved.<\/p>\n

Good-Bye to our departing board members<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 She thanked the outgoing board members for what they went through, for all the hours they put in\u2014for the compassion and strength that they showed.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Transition Issues<\/strong><\/p>\n

There will be an upcoming board retreat Saturday June 14th<\/sup> from 10:00am to 4:00pm where the incoming board and continuing board can talk about what the goals are for the next year.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Nell moved to extend the meeting 15 minutes at 9:36; the movement was seconded and approved.<\/p>\n

Executive Session<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0ACTION: 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Calendar<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The calendar dates are listed on the back of the meeting agenda.\u00a0 The incoming Board Secretary will be setting the next year\u2019s schedule at the next board meeting. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The meeting was adjourned at 10:00pm.<\/p>\n

Respectfully submitted,<\/p>\n

Shannon Vyff, Secretary<\/p>\n

Supporting Documents (Appendices A and F will be scanned and added soon)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.\u00a0 Members present: President Sheila Gladstone, Vice President Nell Newton, Treasurer Luther Elmore, Secretary Shannon Vyff, Mark Kilpatrick (Ex-Officio), Youth Trustee Aaron…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austinuu.org\/wp2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}