Minutes of the Board of Trustees
First Unitarian Society of Madison, Wi
Minutes
Board of Trustees
First Unitarian Society
Madison, Wisconsin
October 19, 2005
7:00 p.m.
Lower Meeting House
Present:Officers:
Alan Knox, President
Pat Anderson, President-Elect
Jim Christensen, Treasurer
Tom Detmer, Secretary
Jim Jaeger, Past President
Council Trustees:
Kathy Luker
John Mathis
Ross Hemphill
Barb Avery
Ministers:
Kelly Crocker, Associate Minister
Staff:
Susan Koenig, Interim Administrator
Jim Christensen, Facilities Project Consultant
Linda Warren, Organist
Stacy Harbaugh, MUUYACM
Observers:
Donna Hartshorne, Friends of the Meeting House
CALL TO ORDER
After an opening and chalice lighting, Alan Knox called the meeting to order at time 7:05 p.m. and reviewed the agenda. The Parish Meeting was considered a resounding success and the record should reflect the hard work done by staff and the Board in preparing for the meeting.CONSENT ITEMS
MOTION by Jim Jaeger and second by Alan Knox to approve the September 21, 2005 minutes.CARRIED
Alan noted that the June Board meeting has been moved from the original date to June 7, 2006 in order to accommodate the dates for General Assembly in June 2006.
FACILITIES AND CAPITAL CAMPAIGN PLANNING
Jim C discussed the next steps in the facilities planning process following the successful Parish Meeting on October 16, 2005. The first step involves efficiently developing with the architects more detailed plans for design nine “a” to be ready for the parish meeting on February 5, 2006.
Planning will begin in earnest for the initial stages of a capital campaign by determining what we will need to raise in such a campaign after taking into account the available historic structure funds that will be used to maintain and update that portion of the project along with determining what grants may be available. We also need to start thinking strategically into the future about the possibility and philosophy of conducting multiple capital campaigns. We have not done a good job of doing this kind of long range strategic thinking in the past. This would be consideration of fund raising over a fifteen year or so period of time.
Second, Jim feels that the outreach part of our vision may not involve significant capital expenditures so it may not be as big a portion of the capital campaign effort. Jim J wasn’t sure that outreach would not involve much capital expenditure. What we can agree on is that this is an unknown factor.
Third, it is important to now start thinking more seriously about how to handle our operations during a construction period. We need a transition plan to get through that time. The costs of that transition will need to be included in the capital campaign itself.
The architects want any remaining comments and any other information we have to offer within the next week to incorporate into the next set of plans. They want to complete the schematic drawings at least three to four weeks ahead of the February Parish Meeting. Alan would like it to be at least four weeks ahead so that information can be gotten to members as early as possible.
Communications is a key component of planning for the next parish meeting. We should put information on the website and in the newsletter but we know that newsletter articles don’t reach everyone. We should consider doing a special mailing about the process before the parish meeting. We constantly need to continue to work on improving communications. It is important for community building and for creating a positive feeling about our facility and ourselves.
Some individuals at last Sunday’s parish meeting questioned why we are doing plans now and not looking at how much we can raise before planning a facility. But we know that fundraising works better and is more realistic if there are specific plans to show donors so they understand what the funds will be used to build. To accomplish this, we are developing detailed schematic drawings for February and then we will undertake a fundraising feasibility study in the period of approximately February through April to test the fund raising waters. This will help us determine whether we can get the funds we need to build the building that has been designed. Yet, to reiterate, we need a set of building plans that is sufficiently detailed that people know what they are contributing towards.
LIAISON TRUSTEES COMMENTS ON COUNCIL REPORTS
Kathy Luker – The Connections Council wants to develop ideas for new member recognition. The Fall Social was really nice, especially for the first time it’s been done.
John Mathis - The Financial Stewardship is considering how to get cheaper health insurance by consolidating staff into one entity with other local UU congregations. Also, the facilities plan has been expanded to add three staff rooms. Finally, the facilities team will visit some “green” facilities for ideas on what we might do.
Barb Avery - The Social Justice Council has so much going on that it is exhausting to attend the meetings and just listen to all that is happening. Inspite of all of the work or maybe because of all of the work, each committee desperately needs volunteers.
Ross Hemphill – The Religious Education Council is also concerned with finding enough volunteers. The Art fair is coming up and it looks to be an exciting event.
Stacy Harbaugh – MUUYACM has many things happening. There is a younger flavor to the leadership with many freshman and sophomores getting involved such as Clara Siegel who is a freshman from Seattle. This young group of UUs is developing leadership skills in campus ministry. MUUYACM is going with an Edgewood College group to protest the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia. There will be a workshop in January on racism. This year’s District Assembly for young adults will be here in Madison. Stacy has applied for a grant to bring a folk singer to campus. There is a MUUYACM website (muuyac.org). Barb Avery suggested that a link to this site should be put on the FUS website. Stacy will follow up. We want to include tools for other campuses to include on how to successfully develop a young adult ministry. Also FUS is not an anchor congregation, which is an important designation for congregations that have taken notable steps to helps young adult ministries and Stacy would like to see that recognition achieved by MUUYACM and FUS. Finally there will be regional campus ministry training here in Madison and we need people to help cook casseroles to feed the visitors. Anyone who wants to volunteer should see Stacy.
BREAK
CHALICE LIGHTERS PROGRAM
Susan Koenig explained the operation and purpose of the Chalice Lighters program. We most recently received a grant to support our own QUEST program from Chalice Lighters and as part of that grant we agreed to encourage future increased involvement in Chalice Lighters by our own congregation. We need to encourage as many people as possible to become Chalice Lighters and Jim J would like to see 100% involvement by the Board members.
GIFTS
Stephanie Lent has made an undesignated gift from a $1000 life insurance policy on Sam Clay’s life. She will be involved in helping determine its use.
Sara Elizabeth Patterson has made an undesignated gift as a result of a memorial service we held.
A MOTION was made by Jim J and seconded by Alan Knox to accept the gifts.
CARRIED
FINANCIALS
Refer to the financial statement handout. We ended the 2004-2005 fiscal year with a small deficit, largely because of a shortage in revenues. It was noted that through Linda Woolridges efforts we contacted most of the non-responding pledgers and recovered approximately $17,000 of the $23,000 in outstanding pledges. However, this amount was collected after July 1, 2005 so it is credited to the next fiscal year.
We will examine the budget closer this coming year to make sure we are realistic in our budget figure. For a number of years we were somewhat lax in collecting pledges and paying attention to non-paying pledgers. We will step up the effort to collect amounts that have been pledged.
On the budget, a key indicator for the existing year is our debt of about $275,000 on our line of credit with about $125,000 of that debt related to the building program. We should recoup that amount as part of the capital campaign.
OUTREACH
We want to work closer with the other nearby congregations as was mentioned earlier in the meeting. This effort will increase our visibility to attract people to FUS and to the other congregations.
Jim J said the Lutheran Church on Atwood is again available for James Reeb to consider acquiring. This item could be a possibility for us to consider in the context of a capital campaign if we view assisting other local congregations as part of our outreach. James Reeb probably does not have the wherewithal to raise the funds themselves without assistance. However, there are some political ramifications if we help James Reeb and Prairie is also looking to build a facility. Still we have to consider these kinds of outreach efforts.
We may want to consider a combined organization that would work closely with the other congregations to help support them, both in obtaining health insurance, facilities and in other ways.
VALUES
The values summary that was updated by Jim C indicated that support for local congregations received the least amount of support. This could be because of the way the questions were asked from a timing standpoint.
Alan said we need to avoid the Little Jack Horner syndrome, which is to say “what a good boy am I” about ourselves and basically toot our own horn without recognizing our legacy that led to our success. This legacy gives us a decided advantage over the other local congregations and we need to keep this perspective in mind.
The break-through congregation designation will present an opportunity to tell about ourselves at General Assembly and Susan has done some preliminary planning on what we may want to do. Yet we want to do this humbly and not alienate our friends in Madison and the larger UU community.
ADJOURNMENT
MOTION by to adjourn by Jim J and seconded by Alan Knox.
CARRIED
Meeting was adjourned at time 9:10 p.m.
Minutes by, Tom Detmer, First Unitarian Society Board Secretary
EXHIBITS
1. September 21, 2005 Board of Trustees Minutes
2. Financial Statements
3. Values Survey
