UUFM Board Meeting

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

 

 

This meeting was conducted via Zoom, beginning at 6:30 PM.

 

Present: Ken Moore, Lewis Brown, Kris Gabrielsen, Susan Marrant, Cheryl Martin, Meghan O’Flaherty, Nancy Schick

 

Check-in

 

Treasurer’s Report – Cheryl

 

The Fidelity account at Headwaters is down 16,541.98 since the end of March.

Total assets: 431,389.16. Total assets are down about 22,000.

Almost everyone is meeting or exceeding their expected contribution.

 

 

MInister Update – Kris

Candidate weekend for our finalist will be the last weekend in May.  Scheduled meetings and the Sunday service will probably be done electronically, but a final decision on this has not been made. The Board will meet with the candidate on May 27 from 6:00 – 6:45 PM. Other church committees will be scheduled to meet with the candidate. There will also be three cottage meetings for the congregation.

 

Although it is the 5th Sunday of the month, a traditional service will be held on Sunday, May 31. The candidate will preach. Following the service, UIUFM members will vote on whether to approve the hiring of this candidate. All members will receive notification of, and details on, the service and the subsequent vote. Ken will explore voting apps so the vote be done electronically. Members will be contacted to see if they are able to vote online or whether other accommodations need to be made in order for them to vote.

 

Kris suggested that we look into using Google Forms to survey the membership to see if anyone needs assistance with voting.

 

Minister Draft Contract

We examined and discussed the draft of the Covenant of Shared Ministry, which will serve as the basis for our negotiations with the candidate. Meghan, a member of the contract negotiation team, clarified several items in the contract. Among the items discussed were: the start and end date of the contract, sick leave, and termination and resignation procedures. 

 

Technology Issues

Kris voiced concern that only one person currently has access to send UUFM emails. If we pay 120 dollars a year, Mail Chimp will allow access to 3 people. Lewis will look at other email platforms and get back to us in a week. There are 240 names on our email list.

 

We have cancelled our subscription to Breeze.

 

Concerns have been raised that we do not have a policy in place for our use of Zoom for our meetings. Since our services are posted, one concern is that we may need permission from attendees if they are shown on our website, Facebook, and/or YouTube without their permission.

 

Ken will speak to Rob Tanner, who manages our website, as to how to proceed to get the necessary permissions. Ken will speak with Kathleen McKinney about obtaining permission from our speakers.

 

General Assembly

The UU General Assembly will be held online, June 24-28.

 

Nancy moved, and Lewis seconded, to allot up to 350 dollars to provide scholarships to members who wish to attend this online assembly. The motion  was unanimously approved.

 

Other Business

We are always on the lookout for opportunities to have office space. Ken reported a house for sale that will  be turned into offices. We are not acting on this but keeping our eyes open to new possibilities.

 

We are delaying the hire of an administrative assistant until after we make a decision on hiring a minister.

 

The next Board meeting, on Zoom, will be on Wednesday, May 13 at 6:30. 

 

Submitted by Nancy Schick, Secretary