Monday, December 9, 2013

Regular Board Meeting

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of McMinnville

 

We met at NakotaŐs home. The meeting began at 6:15. Madeline lit the Chalice, and read a Robert Frost Poem for the opening. 

 

Present: Ken Moore, Greg Valentine, Nakota Ashtarte, Madeline Bishop, Genevieve Woodward.  Absent: Brian DeMarco, Jay Teller, Kathleen McKinney. Quorum present.

 

The minutes from the last meeting were corrected and approved.

 

We acknowledged the TreasurerŐs report which was sent earlier by email, and will discuss it when Jay is present at the January meeting.  Nakota  mentioned than we will expect to be brought up-to-date on expenditures for each line item at our next meeting, also.

 

Committee Reports:  

Nakota strongly suggested that board liaisons contact each chairman before each board meeting to see if the committee had met during the month, and if there were any actions or decisions to report to the board.  We will only listen to reports that have something significant to tell us.

 

1) Care and Concerns Committee:   Genevieve reported that her committee had offered support to a member whose husband has been ill.   He is now in assisted care.

2) Religious Education Committee: Genevieve also reported that the OWL classes for young people have ended but there is still some curriculum for later classes. 

 

3) Membership committee: Ken reported that he and Bernie  McGinnis are working as co-chairs and that they meet fairly often.  Jon Braun has said he will be in charge of the potential new members spreadsheet.  Justin Jenks, a newer attender, is probably going to help with that committee.

 

4) Adult Relgious Educaation Committee:.  

a) Ken reports that study sessions are being planned for members who read the book, Theology Ablaze, to have discussions.

b) Ken Reported that we have invited a speaker who is a specialist in non-violent communication to give a sermon in February, and there will be other activities as well. Bonnie Mann has been added to this committee, which also includes Patricia-Faye and Suzanne Teller.

 

5) Consensus Meeting committee: Ken reported that they gave a presentation on consensus building to most of the fellowship after church during a 2 hour meeting on December 1.  The group will follow up with more activities until we have enough familiarity to decide if that is what we want to do.

 

6) Visioning committee:  Madeline reported that the committee had a lively meeting last Sunday to plan the service for January 5. Otis Woodward had invited Mariah and Brandon De Marco to represent the youth of our fellowship in our discussion. On January 5, we will have a briefer than usual first half of the Order of Service, followed by small group discussions.  Barbara Valentine will facilitate the information gathering.  The Visioning Committee will then meet to collate and interpret the data.

 

 Nakota expressed again her desire to have clear and legally binding contracts with our part-time employees.  She reminded us that we are legally responsible for the actions of our employees.

 

Nakota also reported that Kathleen has sent a Thank you card and honorarium to Otis Woodward III, for the use of his facility and his help setting up our retreat.

 

Nakota asked us each to think about what we want to accomplish as a board member during the rest of the year. 

            a) Ken said he would like to formalize Ad Hoc committees and how we use them. 

Pertinent questions to be answered are:  -How does a proposal come before the fellowship? –What are the criteria that determine if a proposal is to be brought before the board? 

Corollary questions:  When an idea for a change comes from the board itself. how do we  decide if this should be a fellowship-wide vote or merely a board vote? Who can call a fellowship-wide meeting to consider something?  Should we answer these questions and then write all of these guidelines down for a future board?

 

b) Nakota stated that that she wants our board to get organized enough so that the next board can step in and do business right away in July.   She suggested that the first two meetings held by the next board be to assign duties/offices .  The next meeting could be a retreat so the members get to know each other better before they start doing work together.

 

c) Madeline and Greg both expressed a wish that we create a document or diagram that shows all of the present committees and duties and their relationships so we know who is responsible for what. 

 

 

The meeting was adjourned at 7:00 followed by a Holiday party and informal discussion. 

 

Submitted by Madeline Bishop.  Emailed to board members on December 11, 2013