Minutes
Board of Trustees
First Unitarian Society
Madison, Wisconsin
June 27, 2007
Present:
Officers:
Laurie Joiner, President-Elect
Pat Anderson, President
Tom Detmer, Secretary
Council Trustees:
Kathy Luker
John Mathis
Nancy Kosseff
Jim Christensen
Chris Glueck
Barb Avery
Sandy Eskrich, Trustee-elect
Brian Hellmer, Trustee-elect
Ministers:
Michael Schuler, Minister
Staff:
Susan Koenig, Church Administrator
Dan Broner, Music Director
David Weber, Owners Representative
Observers:
Sam Lawrence
Kurt Stege
Visitors:
CALL TO ORDER
After an
opening and chalice lighting by Michael Schuler, Pat
Anderson called the meeting to order at time 7:30 p.m. and reviewed the agenda.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The minutes for the special Board meeting on June 10, 2007 had been previously
distributed. John Mathis MOVED approval of the minutes and Chris Glueck seconded
the motion. The motion CARRIED.
BUSINESS ITEMS
Laurie Joiner extended a big thank you to outgoing board members. The Board members expressed their thoughts of appreciation to the outgoing members.
Chris Glueck has been valued for his funding raising expertise and his calming attitude at times when emotions became elevated. Chris’ friendliness is appreciated by everyone.
Barb Avery has been will to ask the right questions and the tough ones. She has made us think about our assumptions and what is the right thing to do. Her willingness to offer help whenever and wherever it has been needed has been appreciated.
Jim Christensen’s guidance and leadership has been demonstrated for a long time as both Treasurer and Trustee At Large. He has also introduced us to the principles of performance management and we expect to take advantage of what he has taught us about that skill.
Pat Anderson has been unflappable as President and has presented a calm, steadying influence as our President in the past year. Her directness and guidance through facilities process has been valued by everyone.
We are sorry that Alan Knox was unable to be present but the Board’s appreciation and thoughts about Alan will be forwarded to him.
Piano
Dan Broner presented a recommendation to rebuild the Mason and Hamlin piano. The plan is to move the Yamaha piano from historic auditorium, rebuild the Mason and Hamlin that is in the West Living Room and move it to the historic auditorium. The Mason and Hamlin piano is a better instrument than a new instrument built today and the cost is about half of new instrument. Dan is getting three quotes for rebuilding the piano. Dan’s recommendation is that approximately $37,000 will be needed for this project. About $7,000 will come from funds Dan has available. We need vote to request money from the Stonehaulers Fund for payment of the remaining $30,000. It would be paid one-half up front and one-half upon completion. The timing is such that it should be done soon so it will be ready when our construction in completed in the fall of 2008.
This proposal affects money available from the Stonehaulers Fund for other purposes but a recent gift to the Stonehaulers Fund may offset this reduction.
A MOTION was made and seconded to request that the Stonehaulers Fund pay up to $30,000 over two years for the rebuilding of the Mason and Hamlin piano. The motion CARRIED.
Friends Officers
It was discovered that the Friends of the Meeting House need a Vice President and this position must be approved by the Parish. Donna Hartshorne has agreed to serve in this capacity on an interim basis and the Board may approve Donna as interim vice president. It was moved to approve Donna Hartshorne as the interim vice president of the Friends of the Meeting House.
Policy Regarding Relationship of Former Ministers to FUS
A short policy for the relationship of former ministers to the Society was presented for discussion and consideration by the Board. There was considerable discussion of the reason behind the policy and the need for it. There was also a concern that the policy had reached all of the Board members in time to read and consider it before the Board meeting. The Board endorses the sentiment of the policy and realizes that the final language may need some work. Michael, Susan and Laurie will bring a final policy back for approval at the July Board meeting.
In the meantime, all Board members are encouraged to look at Unitarian Univeralsit Ministers Association guidelines and look at Scott’s blog on the topic. Brian Hellmer pointed out that Scott’s blog was quite helpful and explained understandable reasons for such a policy.
BREAK
Facilities
Laurie Joiner reviewed the agenda on facilities issues.
Where we are financially
After the last board meeting there was a brainstorming meeting to address the shortfall in the building budget. We knew we had not raised enough to cover the cost of the new facilities after the bids were received.
Brian Hellmer presented a project change summary and his comments about why the situation is not a bleak one. Brian reviewed his project modeling spreadsheet. There are issues to address and costs must be reduced and more funds raised but the situation is not a crisis. The total cost is currently $8,831,177, which is $2,193,766 higher than what we expected. The original budget included value engineering costs that got us to the $6.6 million figure. We were not able to come down as much as we expected on that value engineering.
The costs of the capital campaign are $11,000 higher than budgeted due to slight cost overruns in this part of the budget.
Our interest on construction debt went up due to our increased construction cost.
Brian described the differences in the assumptions and why our current numbers are reasonable and “real”. There were reasonable assumptions in the prior budget too but there were actual changes in the costs that we incurred even though our assumptions were reasonable.
The model provides for a 20% ratio of debt service to budget. It is in the range of 15-25% that is the range of what the earlier financial advisors suggested we could handle based on normal financial models.
There is a risk if we have increased interest rates. However our borrowing risk is locked in. The real risk is the assumption of increased pledge revenue based on our growth rate.
In short, we can handle the $4 million debt assumed in the model. We still need an additional $1 million in the capital campaign so that our borrowing is limited to $4 million. The sooner we get the capital campaign money the better off we are because the less construction loan interest we pay and we can use that money for reducing our long term debt.
Brainstorming on Capital Fundraising
There is optimism and enthusiasm among groups where this issue has been mentioned. There is a positive feeling that we can raise more money. A group is planning and naming the campaign. We want to have our ideas underway in the fall when people return from the summer. For example, how do we empower ourselves by having the new facility versus just looking at the bricks and mortar? The capital campaign group is looking at specific individuals who we need to speak with. We need to find people who were missed. We need to find people who need follow up.
Value Engineering
Sam Lawrence discussed some of the ideas that are being considered for value engineering. We are changing out material where it is not important to use more expensive material or where it won’t be seen. There are acoustic changes that will not hurt the building and will save money. We had been planning on a noise coefficient of 20. This seems too low. The current auditorium is 32 without the organ turned on. So we are considering going to a noise coefficient of 25. We are also changing speakers in the new auditorium. The old ones were chosen to achieve a specific width. They were more expensive as a result. If we use standard speakers that actually have better sound then we save money. We are looking at ways to reduce our south facing glass exposure to help with energy and glare and save maybe $50,000. The total savings so far may be $150,000 for all value engineering.
Questions that need to be addressed
Should we increase the debt?
Should we initiate a supplemental capital campaign?
Should we continue value engineering?
Should we give Findorff the go-ahead to proceed?
Should we have congregational meeting to approve the changes?
A proposal to hold a congregational meeting on July15 was discussed. We want to maintain communications with the parish and maintain the trust we have in one another. The concern with a congregational meeting is that there is such short notice that some members may feel it is not fair if we cannot provide reasonable notice before the meeting. Also many members have left for the summer and will not be available for a parish meeting on July 15. There is also a concern with a meeting either on July 15 or in September and that is that some decisions are already made by default. The problem is that this cannot be helped at this point. The old “C” wing is now already torn down. We need to proceed with something and we need to proceed with some urgency in order to be ready for the fall of 2008.
The new facility is so tightly put together that we cannot proceed on one part and leave another until later. Also we cannot save as much by value engineering as initially anticipated because the building is efficiently planned already. The “green” features of the building are important to many donors and shouldn’t eliminate them or we would violate the trust those people put in us to proceed with those features in a facility.
The best solution seems like it would be to have a congregational forum on July 15 to indicate that we have moved forward and we will provide an explanation of the current financial situation.
A MOTION was made and seconded to hold a forum on July 15, 2007 to inform the parish of the construction developments. The motion CARRIED.
A MOTION was made and seconded to authorize J.H. Findorff & Company to proceed with the construction of the new facility. The motion CARRIED.
Board Retreat
Laurie said that August 18th will not work for the Board retreat. It is important that we have a Board retreat with everyone present so we can do important planning for the coming year. Laurie asked every Board member and staff members to send Laurie the dates in August and September when a Board retreat will not work. The Board was asked to do this as soon as possible.
ADJOURNMENT
A MOTION was
made and seconded to adjourn.
The motion
CARRIED.
Meeting was adjourned at 10:00 p.m.
Minutes by, Tom Detmer, First Unitarian Society Board Secretary
EXHIBITS
- Agenda
- Minutes from June 10, 2007
- Piano proposal from Dan Broner
- Proposed policy regarding former ministers
- Financial models on the new facility from Brian Hellmer
