Minutes of the Board of Trustees
First Unitarian Society of Madison, Wi
Minutes
Board of Trustees
First Unitarian Society
Madison, Wisconsin
March 22, 2006
7:00 p.m.
Lower Meeting House
Present:
Officers:
Alan Knox, President
Pat Anderson, President-Elect
Tom Detmer, Secretary
Jim Jaeger, Past President and Acting Treasurer
At Large Trustees:
Lorna Aaronson
Barb Avery
Chris Glueck
Kathy Luker
Ministers:
Scott Prinster, Associate Minister
Staff:
Leslie Ross, Religious Education Administrator
Jim Christensen, Capital Campaign Chair
Harry Carnes, Newsletter editor
CALL TO ORDER
Chris Glueck
provided the opening and chalice lighting, Alan Knox called the meeting to
order at time 7:00 p.m. and reviewed the agenda.
CONSENT ITEMS
- MOTION by Chris Gueck and seconded by Pat Anderson to approve the minutes from February 15, 2006 – Exhibit 1
- Motion CARRIED
GOVERNANCE
Alan solicited comments on the current FUS governance arrangements document (Exhibit 2) that he circulated to the Board. Specifically the first four points are central to determining roles. Kathy Luker described several documents that she found on the UU website providing other congregation plans and documents relating to governance. (These were copied and placed in Board member’s mail boxes.) It seems that we need to develop our own plan more and make it more complete. Our four priorities constitute our current plan.
The documents we have at the Society describe the staff roles and the role of the Treasurer but the other Board responsibilities and volunteer duties are not well defined.
Lorna Aaronson pointed out that many of our volunteers have “real” jobs to do for the Society and they define their own job descriptions as they do them. Alan said the Carver model provides for policy outcomes and doesn’t concern itself with specific job descriptions. The Board monitors the effort, changes policies and changes the CEO when necessary to achieve desired outcomes.
The Management team has served this role until now and perhaps we should evaluate how well this works.
The Board has chosen in recent years to look at overall governance and the big picture of things. We have determined that the Board functions best doing this and not doing specific micromanagement tasks. We should not lose sight of this overall goal. Kathy pointed out that the plan she mentioned from one of the other congregations provides a roadmap of who should do various tasks. This helps keep the board focused on the larger picture and goals while defining who does the daily work.
There was much discussion about how and where these plans should be maintained. We should draw up visual organization charts to allow members and visitors to the website to quickly see how things relate in our organization. Alan asked Pat and Kathy to prepare their ideas for the April Board meeting.
The Councils have different organizations and one structure does not fit all. This corresponds to the fact that the councils have different goals and purposes. Each will look different. We should not expect them to look the same.
Barb Avery indicated that new Council chairs should have a chart to indicate the timeline to accomplish various tasks. This is not spelled out anywhere and new council chairs have trouble learning their roles and when things should be done. For example, when should budget matters be developed?
VALUABLE INDICATORS
Alan referred to the indicators and asked the Board to consider how we know when we are succeeding in achieving the goals. The results should be both quantitative and qualitative.
How these indicators fit in the Carver model is unclear. It is a work in progress to determine how it fits into the measures we are using. Scott observed that we may be cutting corners and not doing things that we should be doing in the Carver model. It was agreed that we need to spend more time working on this.
BREAK 8:10-8:20
PARISH MEETING
The coordinating group is meeting every two weeks. Plans are proceeding for the April 23 forum. Paul Mack is interviewing potential donors at this time. We should have maybe 50 of the interviews completed within about two weeks time. Shortly after that we should have a report and know where we stand. It should be about the first week of April when we get it.
We are considering both the best case scenario and the worst case scenario to plan how we should respond. The ends are to have a facility to support our activities and to allow us to be able to accomplish the outreach we desire in the community. The end is not to simply build a facility.
The plan is that as soon as Paul Mack’s report is ready it will be sent to us. It will then go to the Facility Coordinating Committee, the staff and the Board. Who should receive this? Eventually as many people as possible need to see it. However, we need to have it distributed in a calm, organized way so that whatever it says is not misstated.
Best case scenario would be to move forward with a capital campaign and to instruct the architects to move forward with a design. If the scenario is not as good, then value engineering would have to be approved to determine what can be done with what we can raise. The worst case scenario would be to back up and re-evaluate the whole idea of expansion. Alan says we should keep our eye on the ball and keep in perspective what we are trying to achieve concerning future growth and goals.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Jim Jaeger reported that we are $59,000 ahead of target. Susan has “clamped down” on expenditures and the $40,000 deficit should be eliminated. The Helstad building fund will be funded and used for building maintenance in the near future. The Jane H. Wood house proceeds will be contributed to Stonehaulers to fully fund it and in future years the income from that fund can be used for building maintenance. The other part of the Wood house proceeds will be used as the start of the capital campaign.
OTHER BUSINESS
The Central Midwest District has hired a new director, Ian Evens [spelling]. The District meeting will be on April 21-23 and Jim encourages as many people as possible to attend.
Pat outlined what she wants to accomplish at the leadership retreat in her role as the head of the Leadership Coordinating Committee. The retreat is scheduled on May 20.
Alan referred to the vitality attachment and said that it relates to our message at General Assembly as a “break-through congregation.”
ADJOURNMENT
MOTION by
to adjourn.
CARRIED
Meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
Minutes by, Tom Detmer, First Unitarian Society Board Secretary
EXHIBITS
- Minutes from February 15, 2006
- Current FUS Governance Arrangements
