Minutes
Board of Trustees
First Unitarian Society
Madison, Wisconsin
March 21, 2007
7:00
p.m.
Lower
Meeting House
Present:
Officers:
Pat Anderson, President
Tom Detmer, Secretary
Sue Radtke, Treasurer
Alan Knox, Past President
At Large Trustees:
Jim Christensen
Chris Glueck
Kathy Luker
John Mathis
Nancy Kosseff
Ministers:
Michael Schuler, Minister
Kelly Crocker, Associate Minister
Scott Prinster, Associate Minister
Staff:
Susan Koenig, Church Administrator
Observers:
Janet Stonecipher, Music representative
Richard Miller
Mary Bergin
Hope Stege
Donna Hartshorne
CALL TO ORDER
After an
opening and chalice lighting by Kathy Luker, Pat Anderson
called the meeting to order at time 7:00 p.m.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
A MOTION was made to approve the March 7, 2007 minutes by Jim Christensen and seconded by Kathy Luker. The motion CARRIED.
MINISTERIAL SEARCH
Kathy Luker discussed the ministerial search process and the current recommendation of the search committee. This choice was discussed in executive session of the Board.
A MOTION was made to approve the offer letter to the final ministerial candidate subject to final approval of the letter by an attorney. The motion CARRIED.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Richard Miller presented the First Unitarian Society Foundation recommendations for making funds available for the coming year. There were $2 million in assets on 12/31/06 in the Foundation. Last year the Foundation disbursed approximately $61,000. This coming year the disbursement should be closer to $100,000. One possible need for these funds immediately is to pay for a new boiler. Other needs for some of the funds in the budget are for a smaller contingency fund, a minister’s book fund and for a sabbatical fund. The Foundation is charged with managing investments for FUS and does an excellent job at this. In the past year under the direction of the Foundation leadership the funds have risen sharply, which is why more funds will be available.
The Board expressed its desire to thank the Foundation for its recommendations and to try to incorporate those recommendations into the up-coming budget.
A MOTION was made to accept the Foundation recommendation to view the three funds from the Foundation as three small funds (the contingency fund, the ministers book fund and the sabbatical fund) and to explore aggregating them into one larger fund or to present other options to the board if they make more sense. CARRIED.
FINANCIAL REPORT
Sue asked about whether we should do a financial report every month should a less frequent report satisfy the Board? Would once a quarter be enough? Kathy said that once a quarter sounded good and a number of other Board members agreed.
On the balance sheet, we paid off a loan we had and our depreciation liability may disappear from the balance sheet. A more detailed financial statement will be presented in April.
The Stewardship Council is working on a policies statement. This will include audit policies for our financial affairs.
MEMBER LOANS FOR CONSTRUCTION
We generally want to avoid extra work from administering smaller personal loans that members have offered to make but $100,000 may be enough to make it worthwhile. Various alternatives should be explored. Jim, Susan, Dick and Bill and Nancy will have a discussion about what the costs and terms of these loans would be to make them cost effective.
POLICY GOVERNANCE (CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS MEETING)
It was pointed out that Board members should look at the policy governance information on the UUA listserv. That information will help in a future discussion.
Our discussion has reached the executive limitations section of the Dallas model document. John Mathis was concerned about having the minister so heavily involved in financial affairs. There is a basic question: do you want a manager or a spiritual leader? Where does the fiduciary responsibility rest? It seems that Susan can handle the managerial part but Michael handles the ministerial part. It’s a two-part CEO role.
We do not have to use Carver in a pure sense. We discussed this before and it is worth repeating. We should adopt what works for us and ignore what does not.
Laurie and Allen are going to write up what we do that already works well. John asked what’s wrong with what we’re doing? He felt we shouldn’t make change just to change things. Sue asked if we are also going to write down what’s not working so we have that perspective if we are going to change things at all.
Pat asked Susan if the executive limitations would be useful. This is a discussion of fiduciary versus generative governing. It is governance as leadership. We seem to be missing the link between the mission and the daily work we do. How do we measure performance in relation to the goals? This question did not get answered and awaits further discussion.
ADJOURNMENT
MOTION by
to adjourn. CARRIED
Meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
Minutes by, Tom Detmer, First Unitarian Society Board Secretary
EXHIBITS
- March 7, 2007 Minutes
- Material on ministerial search
- Foundation recommendations
