Minutes Board of Trustees

First Unitarian Society, Madison, Wi

Board Minutes
June 16, 2004
7:00 p.m.
Lower Meeting House-Gathering Room

Present:

Officers:
Jim Jaeger, President
Alan Knox, Vice President

Council Trustees:
Laurie Joiner, Connections
Tom Detmer, Religious Education

Ministers:
Kelly Crocker, Associate Minister
Scott Prinster, Associate Minister

Staff:
Dan Broner, Music Director
Wendy Cooper, Social Justice Coordinator
Susan Koenig, Interim Church Administrator

Observers:
Donna Hartshorne, Friends of the Meeting House
Carolyn Detmer, Youth Advisory Committee Representative
Karen Luker, Trustee-elect
John Mathis, Trustee-elect

Visitors:
Nancy Webster

1. CALL TO ORDER

Jim Jaeger provided an opening reading and lit the chalice and called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m.

CONSENT ITEMS

MOTION to approve the minutes from the May 19, 2004 meeting. It was noted that Carolyn Detmer had been omitted from the list of Obervers as the Youth Advisory Committee Representative in the last minutes. A correction to that item will be made. With that correction, the minutes were APPROVED. (A copy of the approved minutes is attached as Exhibit 1.)

FINANCIAL REPORT

The Society is in good shape on the financial scorecard indicators.
(A copy of the scorecard is attached as Exhibit 2.)

It was noted that some of the pledge lists are still outstanding according to emails that have been sent by Chris Glueck to the Board. We need to have anyone with outstanding lists get those finished and submitted.

Update on pledge campaign. We currently are standing at $35,000 short. That is after taking into account the $15,000 we are short. (A copy of the pledge campaign is attached as Exhibit 3.)

We are current on our CMWD dues.

FUS still does not have co-chairs for the upcoming year’s capital campaign. It was reported that Chris is probably a little unhappy with the results, feeling we could have done a little better.

The board discussed the fact that in an upcoming meeting we need to do some creative thinking about how to proceed. Do we want to engage in a capital campaign to get on financially sound footing? Perhaps the Board members should each make it a personal objective to read Michael Durrall’s new book, “Beyond The Collection Plate.” Scott retrieved some copies for the library for Board members to take home and read.

We are going to shift our accounting to “fund accounting” in the new fiscal year. Jim Christensen will have to do a presentation to the board in an upcoming board meeting.

CHURCH ADMINISTRATOR POSITION

FUS will have to do a review of the structure of the church administrator position. What do we want to look for? Consider the need for finance skills, building management and other types of operational skills. This will be taken up by the executive committee in the near future as we proceed to determine how to fill the church administrator position on a permanent basis.

REPORT ON RECENT CENTRAL MIDWEST DISTRICT BOARD MEETING

Jim is now a member of the CMWD board and attended a recent meeting of their board in St. Louis. There was a long discussion at that meeting about developing a behavioral covenant because of the procedure disruptive behavior of some attendees at the meeting. It was an interesting meeting but somewhat frustrating because of the need to address procedural issues.

In October on the 9th and the 16th there will be meetings to discuss concerns of our district members. In the fall of 2005 there will be a meeting in the northern tier of the district, perhaps in Milwaukee or Madison.

SOCIAL JUSTICE COUNCIL REPORT

Wendy requested on behalf of the Social Justice Council that we make the Peace and Justice Task Force a standing committee of the Society. The Council feels that the Board should approve this action if it is required. If it requires board action, it will have to come back to the board next month because there is not a quorum. Alan Knox said that the board does not need to approve this type of action, so it can go back to the Council for implementation.

Wendy also has a statement for the Society to sign, which is recommended by the Council to acknowledge with appreciation the work of Jesse Sprague. This action does not require formal Board action and the Board members present would like Jim Jaeger to sign it on behalf of the Board. (Statement is attached as Exhibit 4.)

Wendy reported that her grant proposal for social justice work is proceeding nicely and it is expected that we may get a substantial grant for social justice purposes. We could use some of it to help our own social justice causes and we may use some of it to help other congregations achieve social justice goals. No action is required at this time. Laurie Joiner stated how fantastic it is that we may be able to get funds for this purpose.

Wendy reviewed the politics of trying to stop the state constitutional amendment to prevent marriage equality (this is the Marriage Equality Action effort that the parish approved at the May parish meeting). Getting more grassroots support is important. A few legislative votes may be able to stop it and other UU congregations in the state can provide a lot of support at the grassroots level. If the amendment gets to a referendum, then it may be more difficult to stop because the polls indicate that many members of the public are opposed to gay marriage. Betsy Abramson told Jim that it may be easier to beat at the polls than you think. The “log cabin Republicans” have called on John Gard, the Republican leader in the Senate, to resign because of his recent anti-gay statement. The “log cabin Republicans” are a gay Republican group.

One long-term strategy may be to defeat the amendment by appealing to those who are frightened by the amendment’s ramifications even if they do not completely support marriage equality. It is apparent that marriage equality is not as acceptable to as many people at this time. However, the amendment still is very restrictive, more so than any other state’s constitutional amendment on this issue.

Finally, Wendy discussed the recent dismissal of 46 Copp’s Foods employees when Copp’s was notified by the IRS that they didn’t have valid social security numbers. Employees in this situation are allowed under tax law to provide valid social security numbers within 12 days of the original notice without repercussion. Copp’s chose to immediately dismiss the employees. Various efforts are being made to assist these employees and to oppose Copp’s action. (A summary of the former Copp’s employees’ situation is attached as Exhibit 5.)

Leila Pine asked the ministers to ask the board to approve a special collection to help the families because the immediate need for the families involved is money for food and shelter in order to live. FUS has not designated the offertory for this week (or over the summer for social justice). A motion was made by Laurie Joiner and seconded by Carolyn Detmer to approve a collection for Families United. Scott Prinster asked about a quorum and Jim agreed to forward the motion to the board as a whole by email for approval. At this meeting, a friendly amendment was made and accepted to change the motion to state that it is the sense of the board that we should approve the collection this weekend for this purpose. The motion was unanimously approved.

BREAK

DISCUSSION OF STRATEGIC BOARD PLANNING

Nancy Webster attended in order to discuss what strategic topics we want to cover in the coming year. Jim suggested August 28th as a Board work day in order to talk about our strategic planning. We will start at 8:00 a.m. with coffee and breakfast, begin the formal planning session at 8:30 a.m. and end at 2:00 p.m. Lunch will be provided by the Society for the attendees.

OTHER BUSINESS

Scott reported that Kimberlee Tomczak will be able to provide assistance with MUUYACM.

Jim wanted to talk about the structure of board meetings. First, put the big topic at the beginning. Second, provide materials ahead so board members can be prepared (board members have the responsibility to do their background work ahead of time). Third, the board should avoid dealing with management issues for the Society and we should trust staff to make good operational decisions. Fourth, we should break away from a functional analysis perspective and think cross-functionally. We should try to consider decisions with a global perspective.

Some important questions are: Should the board meetings be two hours? Should there be longer blocks of time for discussion and consideration of major issues?

NEW BUSINESS

None

ADJOURNMENT

Motion to adjourn was made and approved. The meeting adjourned at 9:00 p.m.

Minutes by Tom Detmer, stand-in secretary for the meeting.

EXHIBITS

1. Minutes of the May 19, 2004 meeting.
2. Financial Scorecard.
3. Pledge Campaign Report.
4. Statement of appreciation for Jesse Sprague.
5. Summary of the former Copp’s employees’ situation.