Minutes Board of Trustees

First Unitarian Society, Madison, Wi

January 21, 2004
7:00 p.m. Lower Meeting House

Present:

Officers:
Jim Jaeger, President
Alan Knox, Vice President
Jim Christensen, Treasurer
Susan Koenig, Secretary

Council Trustees:
Steve Holtzman, Buildings and Grounds
Laurie Joiner, Connections
Kurt Kobelt, Personnel
Chris Glueck, Finance
Tom Detmer, Religious Education
Mary Lou Munts, Social Justice
Jon Aaronson, Worship

Ministers:
Kelly Crocker, Associate Minister
Scott Prinster, Assistant Minister

Staff:
Bert Bitter, Church Administrator
Diana Vezmar-Bailey, Coordinator of Member Programs
Dan Broner, Music Director
Wendy Cooper, Social Justice Co-ordinator

Observers:
Jackie Groves, Assistant to the Treasurer
Donna Hartshorn, FUS Archivist, Friends of the Meeting House
Kimberlee Tomczak, MUU-YACM
Carolyn Detmer, Youth Observer

Visitors:
Prudy Stewart, Nominations Committee
Kent Mayfield, Historic Structure Task Force
Bob Dott, Historic Structure Task Force

CALL TO ORDER
After an opening and chalice lighting, Jim Jaeger called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. and reviewed the agenda, noting the addition of a progress report from the Nominations Committee. Jim also introduced Carolyn Detmer from the Youth Advisory Council, one of two youth observers who will attend board meetings.

CONSENT ITEMS

MOTION by Tom Detmer/Chris Glueck to approve the following Consent Items:
- Approval of minutes from December 10, 2003 and November 19, 2003
CARRIED

NOMINATIONS COMMITTEE REPORT EXHIBIT 1

Prudy Stewart of the Nominations Committee circulated the working list of positions for which nominations are needed (exhibit 1), asking for any additions or corrections. She also noted that the committee will write to all comnittee chairs asking them to approve this list and whether they want to continue in their current positions; the committee is, as well, consulting with current trustees to see if they desire to serve as at-large trustees under the new by-laws or as the chair of the relevant council. The committee will also place an article in the next newsletter regarding nominations as well as a box in auditorium for nominee suggestions; she also asked for suggestions of people to contact. The committee would like to report its slate at the April board meeting.

Mary Lou Munts noted that, in addition to the listed vacancies, the Environmental Justice and Welcoming Congregation committees need chairs and that the other Social Justice chairs are in fact co-chairs. Though both welcoming congregation chairs have another year in their terms, the Nominations Committee may need to recruit for these positions. Any other corrections or additions should be sent to Prudy at prudystewart@aol.com.

HISTORIC STRUCTURE TASK FORCE EXHIBITS 2, 3

Bob Dott from the Historic Structure Task Force outlined the task force’s recommendation that we ask Isthmus, Inc. to prepare the historic structure report (exhibit 2); he also described the history of work that has been done in recent years concerning preservation and maintenance of the Meeting House. Bob also passed out samples of other reports and some that isthmus has done for us. He noted that Kent Mayfield, former church administrator, was in attendance for his experience with evaluation of church structure.
At the parish meeting in May, authorization was approved to prepare an historic structure report and to spend up to $125,000. The Historic Structure Task Force is in charge of this and views it as the culmination of a long process begun in the mid-90s, thus the task force thought it would be natural to have Isthmus do the historic structure report. Bob also noted that Isthmus has a long history with the society; has a lot of the material needed already. The task force also feels that it is important that Isthmus is local. Other companies would have to play catch-up, as well as charge travel expenses and work under the disadvantage of long-distance communication.

Discussion focused on the benefits of choosing to use Isthmus now vs. writing an request for proposal and asking Isthmus as well as some other firms to go through the process of preparing a formal bid on the project. Concern was expressed, on the one hand, about the lack of rigor of by-passing the bidding process, both in refining our own sense of what we need and in restricting our knowledge of the options available to us with a range of firms. On the other hand, there was concern about the additional time that will be spent in writing an request for proposal and in a bidding process, as well as about paying for someone to repeat work already done by Isthmus. Detailed discussion notes are attached.

MOTION by Steve Holzman / Chris Glueck to follow through on the congregational mandate to have a historic structure report done and direct the task force to proceed with negotiations with Isthmus.
FAILED (4 in favor, 6 opposed)

MOTION by Tom Detmer / Laurie Joiner to instruct the committee to develop the request for proposal and to seek at least two bids, one of which would be from Isthmus, to produce a proposal to develop an historic structure report.
CARRIED

FINANCIAL REPORTS EXHIBITS 4, 5, 6

General Financial (Jim C., Bert)
Jim Christensen reviewed the “scorecard” (exhibit 4), noting that in virtually every category, our performance this year is better than last year. Jim also noted that while both the mean and median pledge are higher this year than last, the difference between the mean and the median has increased which is a bad sign as it indicates that fewer people are giving most of the money. Bert Bitter noted that our total general administrative expenses have been kept low: we’re down to 30% of our general administrative expense at 50% through the year.
Discussion centered around debt management, including concerns about both the proportion of operating budget that we devote to debt service and the amount of debt we have and plan to incur. Jim Jaeger observed that he would like to have a full-blown discussion of how we manage our debt, though it can’t be at this meeting.

Overall Charitable Gifts
Wendy Cooper reported that between the second week of September and the last weekend of December, we collected over $14,000 for organizations, including dues to Dane County United. Wendy estimated that we’re within $500 of what was collected last year for FUS. Plus, we’ve sent out almost $14,000. The figure noted in the upcoming newsletter for “outreach” – $84,502 – includes all of the relevant social justice spending. Bert Bitter commended Wendy for the incredible job she’s done with our social justice efforts. In response to Chris Glueck‘s note that we might cultivate some publicity for the amount we give to social justice, Wendy mentioned that we have gotten some recent press, including an article on Family-to-Family Christmas.

Gift of Light
Bert Bitter reported that we received about $6000 in the Gift of Light campaign to upgrade computers. Bert expects to be able to stretch this to do all the needed upgrades, including putting a computer at the sound system station, because he got about 25 computers from John Deere Credit and then bought larger disk drives to supplement them. He expects to get about $12,000 of equipment for our $6,000.

Annual Campaign
Chris Glueck introduced his report with a reflection on the role of FUS in his life and his vision for giving. He outlined the plan to first canvas the board and the Pledge Committee, then to hold a tea at Blackhawk Country Club to kick off the pledge campaign. He would like to get to the point where this becomes less of a major operation and more the normal flow of things. Chris handed out pledge cards, asking board members to return them soon.
In response to questions, Chris noted that he’d like to see congregational pledges increase by 10%; he’s looking for about 20-25% increase from board. (Last year the board increased about 30-35%.) He also mentioned increased efforts to cultivate an atmosphere of stewardship by addressing it in adult religious education classes, especially New UU.
Carolyn Detmer suggested discussing pledging at the next YACM meeting, as some youth have jobs to provide an independent source of money.

OTHER REPORTS

Prest Building Update
Jim Jaeger reported that discussion is underway with Susan and Dick Prest, who have some space available in their building which is next door to us. We would pursue this both to get additional space in the short term and to build a relationship with them should their building eventually come up for sale. Jim would like the board’s authority to move forward with the discussion, noting that any final decision would come to the board.

MOTION by Jim Christensen / Alan Knox to authorize the continuation of discussion with the Prests regarding rental space in their building adjacent to the FUS property.
CARRIED

Bert Bitter suggested that we also inquire into possible space rental in the Farley building, another adjacent property.

Listening Session Schedule
Susan Koenig passed around the schedule for board listening sessions after Saturday and Sunday services.

Board Transition Update
Alan Knox reported on the board transition to at-large trustees under the new by-laws. The Nominations Committee will ask current trustees whether they want to continue on as at-large trustee, chair of the relevant council, or nothing. The Committee is also working to get an updated charter from each of the councils. Buildings and Grounds and Administration and Personnel are particularly important to look at now in terms of their function and structure. Alan encourages leaders of councils to see leadership development as part of their responsibility.

Jim Jaeger mentioned that this year’s board retreat is especially important because of the change in structure. Also, if we would like Angela Merkert from the CmwD to attend/facilitate, we need to schedule the retreat as soon as possible.

CRAIG SCHWALENBERG SPONSORSHIP
Craig Schwalenberg has asked us to provide his required congregational sponsorship as a seminarian at Meadville Lombard. Sponsorship signifies that it is our view that Craig is worthy of being a seminary student and a candidate for ministry. Jim Jaeger noted that, while in Madison, Craig was active in chalice groups and taught RE.

MOTION by Tom Detmer / Jim Christensen to sponsor Craig as a student.
CARRIED

Kelly Crocker will get the appropriate paper work to Jim Jaeger to send to Meadville Lombard.
Diana Vezmar-Bailey mentioned that in some cases there is a committee that works with the sponsored person. Scott Prinster will check with Craig to see if this would be something he would like.

MAJOR DISCUSSION/ACTION

Scott Position Evaluation EXHIBIT 7

Alan Knox, of the task force examining the structure of Scott’s position, explained that two parallel processes are going on: Scott‘s process of discernment of whether he would like to stay and an evaluation of his potion, which is designed as half-time campus, half-time parish, but which turns out to be about 3/4 time for each. The task force has been looking at this and made a recommendation about how to structure the position. The task force members are Alan Knox, Susan Koenig, Drew Howick, Mark Chapman from MUU-YACM, and the three ministers. Alan outlined the task force’s conclusions as in its written proposal. He noted that the identified options are
1) select an intern for next year and add a full-time coordinator in ‘05;
3) select an intern for next year and add a part-time coordinator in ‘05;
4) add a staff person right away in summer ‘04, possibly instead of an intern. The informal conversation since the committee last met indicates that some people on it would recommend that we not hire an intern but start with a staff person right away.
Scott Prinster noted that neither of the two intern candidates from whom we have applications has any experience working with young adults. Further discussion of whether to hire an intern focused on to what extent hiring an intern really could address, even provisionally, the ministerial workload issues, given that Scott would need to spend a great deal of time teaching/supervising the intern. Chris Glueck noted, however, that, given our role in the denomination, this congregation should always have an intern.

MOTION by Laurie Joiner / Jon Aaronson to not hire an intern for ‘04-‘05.
CARRIED
Scott will write letters to both candidates telling them that we’ve withdrawn our internship.

Discussion of the larger staffing proposal resulted in the Board’s asking the staffing task force to provide more clear and detailed financial information about the hiring options for the February meeting. It was also suggested that we’re ignoring the underlying issue of the general workload of all of our ministers and that we will best solve the problem by understanding it more broadly. Detailed discussion notes are attached.

MOTION by Laurie Joiner / Susan Koenig that we gather information about all of the ministers’ workloads and include that as part of the information we consider as we look at how we support MUU-YACM
CARRIED

Discussion:
Jim Jaeger: In order to address that sort of thing, need representation from Committee on Ministry, Religious Education.. If we broaden the focus in this way, we may need to reconstitute the committee.
Laurie Joiner: Just asking for a list from each minister of how time is spent – how much, and on what.
Chris Glueck: How will this coincide with what personnel committee is doing?
Jackie Groves: Is the place to have the conversation the first time at the board, or at the personnel committee, or the staffing committee.
Jim Jaeger: the personal committee, as a first step, is looking at staff positions we currently have and gettting position descriptions for each and come up with a compensation range for each, taking into account compensation for comparable positions within and without the UUA. The group has also been asked to create a group that can deal with personnel issues in the longer term. Issues of ministerial workload really need to have input from Committee on Ministry. The staffing committee had really been given a discrete task to deal with Scott’s position.
Alan Knox: Could get input from Allen Jacobson. He’s serving on personnel/compensation committee.

Budget Process

Jim Christensen will head up a budget committee and has been recruiting members; this committee will track closely with the budget development process. Will ask councils and committees to prioritize any additional spending they have.
Mary Lou Munts noted that it is important that we have one place where we look at everything so that we have a place where we can weigh priorities.

Personnel Compensation Committee

Wendy Cooper reported that the non-senior staff has met to discuss the compensation process. They have prepared a document making some recommendations. Jim Jaeger asked that this be given to him for the Compensation Committee, an ad hoc group set up to regularize compensation policies and procedures and to consider the charter of a new Personnel Committee. Its next meeting will be February 11.

ADJOURNMENT
Meeting was adjourned at 9:40 p.m.

Minutes by Susan Koenig, First Unitarian Society Board Secretary

EXHIBITS
1. Nominations Committee FUS Leadership Vacancies – 2004
2. Recommendation for the Preparation of the Historic Structures Report
3. Isthmus Architecture letter of interest, 12/8/04
4. First Unitarian Society 2003-2004 Financial Performance - January
5. December Balance Sheet/Financial Statement December ‘03-‘04
6. Budgeted Financial Statement July 1, 2003 through September 30, 2003
7. Staffing Proposal for Campus/Young Adult Ministry

OTHER HANDOUTS
1. Listening Session Sign-Up Sheet