All Souls Church, Unitarian Board of Trustees Meeting September 24, 2014 [DRAFT] Proposed Agenda

Transcription

1 All Souls Church, Unitarian Board of Trustees Meeting September 24, 2014 [DRAFT] Proposed Agenda 7:00 Call to Order 7:02 Chalice Lighting and Reading Leo Jones 7:05 Welcome and Introductions All 7:10 Appointment of Compensation Committee 7:15 Recommendation of Committee on Ministry on the Ordination of Catharine Clarenbach Rob Hardies 7:25 Executive Limitations Report/Discussion: Communications Executive Team 7:40 Construction Report & Request for Recommendations of the Construction Oversight Committee on Additional Repairs and Investment Committee on Additional Financing Cheryl Gray Fred Tipson 8:00 Staff Report Executive Team 8:15 Discussion of Proposed Revisions to Executive Limitations: Staff Treatment 8:45 Consent Agenda -- Minutes of July 23 BOT Meeting -- Minutes of August 26 BOT Meeting -- Beckner Committee Recommendation (Reeb Project) 8:50 Announcements -- Attend one Generosity visit training: Wednesday, October 8-- 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. (coffee and cookies) Sunday, October :45 to 2:15 p.m. (light meal) Saturday, October :00 to 11:30 a.m. (juice, bagels, coffee) -- Joint meeting of Board & Committee on Ministry, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 6:30 p.m., at home of Bruce DePuyt and Russell Cross, 1812 Kilbourne Pl. NW, Washington, DC Casey Trees Planting Ceremony, Nov. 1 Julia Sayles Emily Koechlin Bruce DePuyt Trustees

2 8:55 Agenda Items for Next Board Meeting, Oct. 22, 7 p.m. -- Annual Budget -- Construction Budget -- Recommendation of Committee on Ministry on the Ordination of Abbey Tennis (or November) Meeting Form and Feedback 9:00 Prayer and Adjournment Keep alert, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. All All Trustees, Officers, and Staff in Attendance: Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes All Souls Church, Unitarian September 24, p.m., President Jenice View, First Vice President Bruce DePuyt, Second Vice President Julia Sayles, Trustee Emily Koechlin, Trustee Fred Tipson, Trustee Vickie Lindsey, Trustee Cledwyn Jones, Trustee Erika Landberg, Moderator Cheryl Gray, Treasurer Anne Bradley, Membership Secretary Uta Allers, Assistant Treasurer Mark Matthews, Secretary Rob Hardies, Senior Minister Susan Moore, Associate Minister Leo Jones, Chief Program Officer Patrice Curtis, Consulting Minister (Social Justice and Welcoming) Also in attendance: Jennifer Bruneau, Construction Oversight Committee. Not in attendance: Kysseline Jean-Mary Chérestal, Trustee; Katie Loughary, Executive Director.

3 Call to order:. Chalice lighting and reading Leo Jones read from Emma Goldman s essay, Marriage and Love. Compensation Committee : A three-member committee will consider a costof-living pay increase for the senior minister and make a recommendation to the full board. Motion by Fred Tipson, seconded by Cledwyn Jones, to appoint, Jenice View, and Vickie Lindsey as the Compensation Committee, which will report to the board in November. Approved unanimously. Recommendation of the Committee on Ministry on the Ordination of Catharine Clarenbach, Rob Hardies: The COM recommends that Catharine, who served as assistant secretary and subsequently joined All Souls staff to coordinate pastoral care, be ordained at All Souls, probably in the spring of She received her Master of Divinity degree in May, completed an internship at the First Unitarian Church of Portland, Ore., and has been granted preliminary fellowship from the Unitarian Universalist Association. Brian and Rob enthusiastically support the recommendation. Discussion: The costs associated with an ordination are usually defrayed with money raised by the minister to be ordained and a committee of church members. Since there will likely be two ordinations in 2015, Rob Hardies raises the possibility of a contribution from the 2015 church budget. Motion by Julia Sayles, seconded by Cledwyn Jones, to recommend that the congregation approve the ordination of Catharine Clarenbach at the December, 2014 annual meeting. Approved unanimously. Executive Limitations Report Communications: The executive team s report included several exceptions to full compliance, and clarifications: As discussed previously, this year s reports are delayed because of the extra staff duties imposed by the renovation. The ET, board, and then-social justice minister had a fruitful discussion about associating All Souls with public positions not adopted by the congregation or board. Rather than presenting an annual goal implementation plan, the staff and Church Council work together throughout the year to align ministries and programs to church goals. Church members have access to church policies on the governance-finance page of the website. The ET has not followed a regular schedule of semi-annual reports to the congregation on church finances, although this happens periodically. Motion by Jenice View, seconded by Cledwyn Jones, to accept the ET s report on communications. Approved unanimously. Revision of Policy Governance document: Emily Koechlin, Bruce DePuyt, Kysseline Jean- Mary Chérestal, and Julia Sayles revised the Policy Governance Framework on staff and

4 volunteer treatment. In addition to an annual report, the draft adds a section calling for monthly reports on all staff changes and any grievances filed. Rather than specify what the executive team shall not fail to do, their draft asks the ET to affirm that it is complying with the requisite policies and practices. (The theory behind the negative formulation was to avoid issuing directives to the ET; however, board members agreed the resulting language was awkward.) The four noted that some larger UU churches give their boards a much larger role in personnel decisions. They suggest that the ET update the Personnel Policy particularly as to the handling of grievances to make sure that a staff member has access to the board after exhausting other means. They also suggest that the board at some point form a Personnel Committee. Discussion: The church has paid a high price in staff turnover; the objective should be to have a staff that can function for years. The board president is often in the huddle of personnel matters, complicating his or her role in a grievance appeal to the board. Rob Hardies supports improved reporting and the substantive changes in the draft document. Motion by Bruce DePuyt, seconded by Jenice View, to accept the revisions to the Policy Governance Framework on treatment of staff and volunteers. Approved unanimously. Construction Update Cheryl Gray, : Forrester, the general contractor, obtained three estimates for repair of the damaged steeple all put the cost at about $1.5 million. A shortterm alternative would be to wrap the damaged area in wire mesh to prevent pieces from falling to the ground. A temporary walkway could be included. [Cost estimates for the shortterm alternative are not firm but range between $30,000 and $70,000]. Without such protection, it may be impossible to proceed with needed gutter repairs, which are included in the renovation plan. It s unlikely that insurance would cover the repairs. No option seems very good at this point. At the urging of the Investment Committee, Brian drafted two formal requests of the IC. Following a motion by Fred Tipson, seconded by Cledwyn Jones, trustees approved the following: (1) The Board of Trustees requests that the Construction Oversight Committee provide by October 17 (a) an analysis of the options to address any repairs needed to the Church's steeple, (b) a recommended course of action with respect to the steeple, and (c) any further recommendations for Board action with respect to the construction project. (2) The Board of Trustees requests that the Investment Committee provide by October 17 (a) an analysis of the options for financing additional capital expenditures, including the costs of the additional financing through each option, (b) a recommendation of the best available option to finance additional capital expenditures, and (c) any further recommendations for Board action with respect to the construction project. Staff Report Rob Hardies, Susan Moore: Georgia Yuan and Michael Milano, who are coaching the Executive Team on leadership skills, are bringing in a couple of additional coaches to work individually with the ET. Rob invites feedback on strategic priorities for the year ahead: Building our physical home; building our staff team, including creation of a future staffing plan; building pathways to deeper lay engagement and leadership; building program capacity to create the Beloved Community. Caring Network meetings have drawn 35 attendees. Consulting Minister Patrice Curtis has been working with the Reeb voting rights project. Attendance at services has lately been up by 45 to 50 each week; RE attendance is down by 10 both

5 remarkable numbers considering the ongoing construction work. Both a staff and ET retreat were held in the past month. Financial Report Cheryl Gray: Core donations are down significantly (year to date, about $75,000 below the same period last year). There is a $17,925 operating deficit. Starting in 2017, the church will be paying $150,000 in debt service in addition to its current operating costs. This makes good-paying rentals extremely important. [Katie Loughary, who was absent, notified the board that she had signed a lease for Church of the Advent to use the church on Sunday evenings. The lease, which runs November 2014 through October 2015, comes to $40,000 annually plus $4560 for utilities.] Consent Agenda: July and August BOT Minutes; a Beckner Committee request for $3,332 to fund multicultural competency training for All Souls participants in the Reeb Voting Rights project in North Carolina. Emily Koechlin requested two additions to the August minutes. These were accepted and the Consent Agenda was approved unanimously. Announcements: Trustees and officers are asked to attend one Generosity visit training. A joint Trustees-Committee on Ministry meeting is set for Oct. 15. Agenda items for the Oct. 22 board meeting: annual budget; construction budget; recommendation of the Committee on Ministry on the Ordination of Abbey Tennis (this item may be shifted to November.) An executive session was held to discuss a personnel matter. The meeting adjourned at 9:23 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Mark Matthews, Secretary To:, President, Board of Trustees From: David Dawson, Chair, Committee on Ministry Subject: Ordination Request from Catharine Clarenbach Dear Brian: The Committee on Ministry recommends that Catharine Clarenbach be ordained at All Souls Church, Unitarian and requests that the Board of Trustees discuss this recommendation at its meeting in October. If approved by the Trustees, the matter can be placed on the agenda of the December Annual Meeting for vote by the congregation. Catharine has fulfilled all the requirements for consideration by the Committee on Ministry, the Board, and the Congregation. On January 27, 2014 she requested ordination at the church. In that letter she explained her relationship to the church, described her plan for assembling logistical support, including the list of congregants who will serve as the ordination committee, and proposed a date for ordination. At that time the date was October 2014, but has now been extended to sometime in the spring of She sent a brief resume of her experience in May On July 11, 2014 she sent us a copy of her letter granting preliminary fellowship from the Unitarian Universalist Association. Members of our committee have spoken with Catharine several times through this process. We learned that she has always been attracted to religious leadership, first as a Roman Catholic, later at Four

6 Quarters, and finally through Unitarianism. It s who I am. She is particularly interested in spiritual practice and social justice work, identifying and implementing the church visioning process, and pastoral care. For the short term she wants to minister to a small congregation in the west. For the long term she hopes to expand her experience in preaching, worship, spiritual companionship and advocacy. During this year Catharine completed her successful internship at the First Unitarian Church of Portland, Portland, Oregon. She completed her Masters of Divinity degree with honors at Wesley Theological Seminary. Attached are the following documents: Ordination Process, All Souls Church, Unitarian; Catharine s letter of request for ordination at ASC; Catharine s resume; and Letter from the UUA granting preliminary fellowship. Sincerely, David Dawson