Staff Exec Director - Daniel Polk Webmaster Scott Grey (attending with two hats)

Transcription

1 Approved - January 12, 2013 Page 1 of 7 Attendees: Arlington - Barry Hansen Community - Vice President, presiding at meeting Denton - Sunnie Palmer Denton - Mark Coomes NTAUUS President 1st Dallas - Kevin Bolton 1st Dallas - Gretchen Riehl 1st Dallas - Ray Enstam 1st Jefferson - Emily Wood Horizon - Lisa Casto OakCliff - Scott Grey - Alternate Pathways - Carrie Stewart RedRiver - Marla Loturco SacredJourney - James Ross Tyler - Tom Stovall Westside - Charles Palmer Staff Exec Director - Webmaster Scott Grey (attending with two hats) Alternates Attending without vote Sacred Journey - Terry Guyton Alternate Absent: Longview Julie Hart 1. Chalice Lighting & Readings called the meeting to order at 10:39 AM at First Church, Third floor Conference Room, Hallman Building Dallas Texas. began with a reading of NTAUUS mission. Tom Stovall lit the chalice and Mark Coomes read We Shall Overcome 2. Nominating Committee. It was moved and seconded to appoint Marla Loturco as Secretary for NTAUUS. Discussion clarification of NTAUUS Rep status Marla is now a representative for RRUU. Vote Unanimous 2a. Select Process Observer People did not know what this meant. Description was to keep the discussion on track, make sure all get a chance to participate, make sure one voice doesn t take over. Will print the description, pass it around, and then get a volunteer. 2b. Select Time Keeper Carrie Stewart volunteered to be Time Keeper

2 Approved - January 12, 2013 Page 2 of 7 3. Check in and Congregational Update Arlington The handicap bathroom project using the NTAUUS grant is finally coming to fruition. They are also working on the Welcoming Congregation and should be accomplished shortly. Sacred Journey Recently acquired a new membership head. They are having a fund raiser this weekend which combines community outreach with the festival for the season. Looking into Spiral Scouts any other congregations interested in this? First Church Dallas Theme this year is year of engagement focusing on community service. Looking to connect with neighborhood, religious community neighbors through education and service. Also Global interfaith work. Developing a Jericho Road branch which assists not-for-profit in the area with expertise Red River Have set the dedication date for March 24 th. Will have a video from Rev. Peter Morales. Denton Successfully transitioned to two services and both are filling up. They are wrapping up their stewardship campaign and it is going well. They are thinking about new projects maybe adult RE on Wednesdays. Pathways Seem to be growing some. Have filled up their worship services through January. They are experiencing thinness in leadership. Renting on Sunday s only and no minster has helped them meet their budget. They are looking at this time as a great time to plan for the future. 1 st Jefferson A congregational self-assessment is currently taking place. Attempting to deal with issue of too much real estate for size of congregation. Horizon Minister is back, Lisa Jenkins was Interim. Acting DRE is Peggy Gillis. Also have replaced their office manager. They are starting monthly themes. Horizon players have been successful, as is their Pasta dinner which raises about $10,000 annually. They are hosting two outreach programs, one on Smart Recovery (addictions) the other on Alzheimers. Westside Their minster is back as of September. He is doing two services a month and the worship team is doing two. Tyler Fellowship is doing well. Eleven new members in last year, four since July. They are working on developing a 3 year plan. Community Lots of events: completed summer pop; coffee house tonight; service auction coming up. Staying between 190 and 210 in membership. They need to use social media better to get out info on upcoming events. Oak Cliff Board approved Gerry Dollinger as the new rep to NTAUUS he will begin attending next meeting as he had prior commitments today. New alternate should be appointed at next Oak Cliff Board meeting. This will free up Scott Grey to attend meetings as just Webmaster. They are attempting to get two of four air conditioning units to work with help from a new member. Fall festival is Nov 3, 2012, Coffee house tonight (Jazz). Their Social Justice group is reorganizing and attempting to identify two to three projects for concentration.

3 Approved - January 12, 2013 Page 3 of 7 NTAUUS Putting projects from churches onto the calendar. Important to use NTAUUS as a clearing house of events and projects happening in our church community. 2b. Process Observer read the guidelines Emily Wood volunteered. 4. Approval of minutes of May 19, 2012; and September 8, 2012 A motion was made and seconded to accept the minutes for May and September NTAUUS meetings. One correction was proposed for the May 19, 1012 minutes Scott Grey s name was misspelled. One correction was proposed for the September 8, 2012 minutes Date for next meeting was specified as October 26 should be October 27. Minutes were approved with noted corrections. 5. Committee Reports A. Recognition Awards Committee: - Please see online report The forms are available online please find leaders in your congregation to submit. Due November 26 th would like to have at least one nominee from each congregation. B. Communication: - Please see online report Scott Grey Need to enlist everyone to start getting all members to communicate and work together.. Calendar is being built and Facebook page is growing gradually Discussion Forums need to be used and more may be added if needed. List of sermons every Sunday at every member church will be added to the calendar. C. Education - Programming and Scholarships: - Please see online report Committee is breaking into sub committees it means that the entire committee doesn t have to be in on every decision. Sub Committee working on Reproductive Justice need to find a contact who has attended the GA resolution meetings to see how they are handled. Need to find people who want to work on this subcommittee. Check with Elbert Hill (RRUU) and Dick Hildebrandt (Community). Scholarships is also a subcommittee. It will meet Tuesday October 30, 2012 and is open to anyone who wants to attend. Standing on the Side of Leadership Carrie suggested to have the luncheon speaker also do a workshop on what it means to be regionalized. D. Endowment: Ray Enstam $72,000 was approved for operational budget $65,000 is available for grants to be awarded on January 12 th a the NTAUUS Awards Luncheon E. Grants: Ray Enstam Submission for Grants: Instructions on NTAUUS website.

4 Approved - January 12, 2013 Page 4 of 7 Good causes in congregations Dues have to be paid and reports for previous grants must be submitted Application cutoff date November 30, 2012 Scott Grey Online application forms are ready when approved by Grants & Endowment Team F. Personnel New Exec Director Bench Mark Goals online. Changes to bench mark goals were made as discussed in September 8, 2012 meeting. G. Social Action Successful parades o Dallas: appx 200 UU s from maybe six churches with lots of traffic at the booth afterwards. o Fort Worth Appx 60 UU s- won a trophy. o People liked the messages from the kids who wrote on the forms given out at the parade. Signups were sent out to the churches in the appropriate area. o o Discussion about the parades and positive aspects. Had parking at 1st church - with shuttle to parade area. May attend early church at 1st church and ride early. Outreach - reception in Denton for Zack Wahls - Marriage amendment - around 200 people attended reception. H. Staff Reports Daniel and Scott 2013 performance review was amended and accepted at the September NTAUUS meeting. There may be a six month review instead of just annual. Daniel was not held accountable for benchmarks which were removed during September meeting. Scott Grey has provided an 18 page report online showing his activities for the year. has submitted an annual report please see it online. I. Treasurer s Report Charles Palmer New balance sheet was provided at meeting will be posted online Cleared up issues with reporting of dues Pre-reconciliation item when current bookkeeper started the reconciliation this amount was found Researching general rules for not for profits and new guide lines are being set up. Our Quickbooks now matches the RBC Royal Bank of Canada endowment funds books. Statements to churches have been sent out showing where they stand on NTAUUS dues. The income of 6, from last year goes into the operating fund New bookkeeper is doing a good job and the books will be handled more professionally. J. Calendar Review New calendar is on the website. NTAUUS / Events

5 Approved - January 12, 2013 Page 5 of 7 Divided by color for easier reading Need to recruit people from each church to send info to Daniel for updating Calendar K. District Rep s Report: Kevin Bolton District staff is now consolidated into Region Having one point of contact for the region is a help and gives us a single voice to talk with. Staff is way ahead of the process of adjusting and has changed the newsletter and are changing procedures to make things work. UUA and districts had different mission statements all local ones have been suspended & UUA is accepted. NTAUUS is one of the most active clusters in the nation. 6. Action Items A. Update on youth Board Position See Report online Kevin Bolton Presented proposed language change for the bylaws. Ray Enstam from for a period of one year To to serve for a term of one year Additional change: add and from a member congregation Discussion of non-voting vs voting Committee, composed of Kevin Bolton, Carrie Stewart and Ian Grey, will work out the policies for selecting the youth. Committee will work out the final wording for the bylaws, change references to the District Executive, and also fix a few typos in the bylaws for amendment. (deleted as well ) B. NTAUUS Name Change Name is long, unwieldy and hard to put in forms Suggestion: DBA of North Texas Unitarian Universalist Proposed tag line: A Cluster of Congregations Discussion on tag line issues. It was moved and seconded to accept the name change to North Texas Unitarian Universalists as a DBA. Approved unanimously. Daniel will send out possible taglines to the congregations for discussion. C. Budget Review and Approval New budget was handed out at meeting will be posted online. Daniel Discussion on the budget and the webmaster s salary. Motion was made and seconded to increase Scott Grey s salary by $ per month effective November 1st. A friendly amendment to increase it $50.00 more for a total of monthly salary of $ was made and accepted by both the original motion and the second. The motion passed.

6 Approved - January 12, 2013 Page 6 of 7 Discussion: adjustment was made to budget to increase web expenses to $5,600 and drop scholarships to $8,600, thus maintaining a balanced budget It was moved and seconded to accept the budget as adjusted. pass-through donations are no longer to be allowed. Discussion that followed was not on the budget but instead on the bookkeeping issues discussed previously. Voting on Motion passed unanimously. D. Logo Review and selection This was part of the discussion for action item B E. Video review of 2011 SoSol : Need someone to volunteer to review the video see Daniel after the meeting F. Recruiting for NTAUUS Educational Committee and Social Action Committee Kevin Bolton Suggests the expectation for a NTAUUS Board member is to be on one committee or have someone from their congregation be on a committee. Discussion with suggestion that reps check with committees in individual churches, especially Social Action, to find members for NTAUUS committees. Need help for setup of awards luncheon No direction given 7. Discussion Items A. NTAUUS funding priorities. Discussion: Is funding the Pride Parades a good use of NTAUUS money vs having a congregation that is close to the location doing the funding and organizing? Scott Grey noted that the presence in the parades is noticeable on the social media network with upticks in use. The parades are very highly visible and talked about by the community and by UU participants. Consensus: The NTAUUS mission and UUs in North Texas benefit from continuing the economic and organizational support of the Pride Parades. May also want to consider other events. Examples: Jazz Festival, Western Days, Earth Day, etc. Daniel has developed criteria for determining if NTAUUS should be involved in co-sponsorship of congregational events. Generally, if at least two NTxUU congregations are involved - it will be considered. Time is up for the meeting: It is moved and Seconded that the following items be moved to the next meeting: o7.b How best to implement the NTAUUS Mission - through evangelizing, hosting celebrities, putting on topical programs, more use of social media.

7 Approved - January 12, 2013 Page 7 of 7 o7.c Social Media and Evangelism. Social media as a tracking tool for accessing the impact of interventions and the spread of UU ism, and o7.d Encouragement of safe sites for LGBT youth. Motion was passed. Next meeting is Jan 12, 2013 at 9:30 AM 12:00 noon at Oak Cliff prior to the Awards Luncheon. Processor Observer Report Give more time for check-in or limit discussion. Present Agenda and as much possible info in advance. Get information and reports at least a week in advance. Explore alternate ways of meeting. Timekeeper Liked the Processor Observer s suggestions Closing reading and extinguishing of the Chalice. Adjourned 3:31 PM Respectfully Submitted Marla Loturco October 30, 2012