Wy’east UUC Board Meeting Minutes August 7, 2023

Board Meeting August 7, 2023, 7:00-8:30 PM on Zoom, hosted by Board Co-moderator Kathy Scanlan.

Minutes by Larry Burt: Final August 15, 2023.

Attending: Kathy Scanlan (Co-moderator), Hank Hadaway (Treasurer), Larry Burt (Secretary), Marcy Sullwold (At-Large), Leslie Becknell Marx (Minister), Ron Thurston (Membership Chair)

Absent: Diane Arnold (Co-moderator).

 

Invocation by Rev. Leslie:

• Chalice lighting
• Relate a time when your life was "touched" by another Wy'east person or when you "touched" them.
• Reading by Rev. Leslie

 

Previous Minutes: 7/6/23 minutes were sent to Board members and attendees on 7/7. One change was made on July 7. 

No further changes were proposed at this meeting, so we voted to approve them. The minutes were sent to our Administrator, Gigi, for posting to our website and archiving.

 

COMMITTEE AND MINISTER REPORTS

Membership: Chair Ron provided a Membership report to the Board via email on 7/30.

7/2 Summer Celebration at Creston Park went smoothly and returning to the "potluck" theme worked well. Attendance was good, weather was perfect and Matt did a great job entertaining us, singing favorite songs. I am hopeful this event will continue through the years as it is such a social anchor when church and other activities get set aside for vacations.

7/9 Lilac Meadows food pickup and delivery went smoothly. Linda B., Hank, Tom, Kathy S. and Ann W. keep things running smoothly.

7/16 Met with Linda Mac. to explore utilizing the window in classroom "A" for Wy'east. Linda is exploring using a bookcase with the backside supporting our sign and front shelving side for pamphlet storage. This will be discussed further at our August committee meeting.

7/16 Marcy organized a wonderful baby shower for Chandra complete with food, gifts and games. Linda Burk and Diane Ingle provided support and the event went well.

7/30 5th-Sunday service project was lightly attended by Barbara D., Diane H., Linda B., Lesson and myself. Also we had one visitor who saw this event on our web site, came and jumped right in to cleaning. Her name is Lilli Morrell and said she is interested in attending our PotLuck Service next Sunday. Our small group of workers cleaned everything on my list and more so I'm grateful for their commitment.

Our next Membership Committee meeting is 8/20 in which we will continue to offer a breakout room following the worship service for those who can't attend in person. My major concern is membership growth. We are getting very few visitors, none returning and no attendance at our Path to Membership Class. In short we are not growing so we will do some brainstorming at our August meeting to see how we can be more attractive. We have signed 2 new members this year (Doug Campbell and Jan Hively). I also will attend the next Board meeting and would welcome any thoughts on this or other Membership matters. 

We discussed sending Committee reports to the membership. By including the reports in the minutes they would be made available to the membership via our website. 

 

Treasurer: Report sent to the board via email on 8/7/23:

• - Income    $2345
• - Withdraw    $4240
• - Checking  Balance   $23,834
• - Money Market    $41,451

Note:  Income in July is normally low.

 

Minister (as distinct from Ministerial Committee): Rev. Leslie said she did not have a report this month as she had been scheduled to work for one week during July. We discussed having the Minister's report sent to the entire membership. Rev. Leslie is okay with sharing her report with membership but would need to know in advance as the enlarged audience would affect the way it was written. 

 

Social Justice: The Board voted to approve the “Climate Emergency” social justice theme for the next church year, beginning in September. Kathy reported that they are looking for speakers for upcoming worship services.

 

RE (Religious Education): No report.

 

Worship: Chair Linda M attended virtual UU General Assembly June 21-25. She is preparing a service around GA for late September, where she will report to the congregation and may also provide a separate report to the Wyeast Board. The Worship committee will also give input to the Board's yet-to-be-constituted Board subcommittee looking at our service format going forward: do we keep the current mix of virtual and hybrid or change? 

 

OLD BUSINESS

Onsite "Technical" staff position to replace Jolanda ("Jo" not "Yo") when she resigns (expected date?). Jolanda works off-site from New Orleans. 

• Linda M is working with Jolanda and the Worship committee to develop a job description.
• Linkage with service format decisions about onsite/virtual/hybrid service mix.
• Possible Board-operated survey of the membership about the service mix under discussion.
• Possible future change of service time/venue?

At our June meeting, the Board discussed a "Service Format" subcommittee to study the issue. The committee hasn't been formed or given a clear charge by the board. The committee will include technical production and worship service members. Diane Arnold has offered to be the technical lead but is out of the country until September. Marcy has experience creating surveys. Issue is tabled until September meeting.

 

Minister and Staff Annual Evaluations and Salary

All employees were given positive ratings and a 5% pay increase.

 

Ministerial Committee (MC)

Discussion of Purpose and Composition: According to the bylaws, the MC has three (3) members: one appointed by the Board, one appointed by the Minister, and then those two appointees select a third member. The minister is not a member of this (or any other) committee. Minister is on board with the MC but doesn't vote. Terms are spread to 1, 2, and 3 years? MC meets "regularly" with the minister.

MC has two functions:

• Liaison between members and Minister; facilitates communication as needed.
• "Mission" committee per Rev. Leslie. Charged with monitoring and evaluating the Church's performance of its mission to the congregation and to the larger community. This includes developing our Vision and Mission Statements.

Marcy was on our MC, but the MC has not met for several years. We voted to start the process and get the MC working as soon as possible. Hank suggested a member for the position. The Board and MInister will begin recruiting their respective appointees.

 

Insurance Rider

The Board voted to add the UUA-recommended "Terrorism" rider to our insurance policy. Cost is $21 per year. Benefits are uncertain, depending on circumstances.

 

Meeting Minutes

Board secretary Larry has been working with previous secretary Diane Arnold and administrator Gigi to bring the past Minutes up to date and to develop a procedure for reviewing, distributing, and storing Board minutes. After some discussion, the Board voted to approve the procedure. The procedure is designed to make our Board work more transparent and timely. Ideally, the minutes will be available to the members at least a week before the next meeting.

• The Secretary takes notes during the meeting and then transcribes them into a draft document.
• The Secretary sends an email attachment draft to the Board, Minister, and other attendees within two days of the meeting, with the request to review and return corrections and additions within one week. NOTE: Reviewers will also note any Minutes content of a personal nature that might need to be kept private within the Board.
• Reviewers email responses to the Secretary with "Reply All" CC to the rest of the Board, Minister, and other attendees. NOTE: use the email addresses of each individual, not the group Board email.
• If there are changes, the Secretary incorporates them and repeats the review process.
• When there are no further changes, Reviewers email the Board members with their approval, which acts as a vote.
• Assuming the Minutes were thus approved, the Secretary emails the document to the Administrator.
• The Administrator formats the document as needed, posts on our Wyeastuu.org website, archives a copy to our Wy’east Google folder (or whatever current repository we use), and notifies the membership that the minutes are available with a note in the next available weekly Wy’east News.
• At the next monthly Board meeting, the Board gives formal approval.

 

Board Calendar

At our July meeting, Diane Arnold offered to develop an annual Board "To-Do" calendar. Diane is out of the country through September 5th, so this is tabled until our September meeting.

 

NEW BUSINESS

Liaison with Senior Center AKA Center for Positive Aging

Ron Thurston is at the Center several days per week so has become our de facto liaison with the Director, Amber.

 

Rose City Park (RCP) Presbyterian Space Rental

We pay $100 per month for space there. Includes a small closet-like "office" and periodic use of larger spaces. The contract is up for renewal August 1st. Lana has the current contract. In the past we've made use of the space for adult RE classes, chalice circles, game nights, and I think a memorial service, but that has stopped due to the restrictions of the last three years. Kathy and Rev. Leslie will look into our current and possible usage to see how we can best use the space. Perhaps we could change to a month-to-month contract, though that would be less flexible as needs arise.

 

Board "Retreat"

We discussed having an in-person "retreat" to delve deeper into our mission and roles as a Board. No action taken.

 

Next Board Meeting

The next meeting date was set for Monday, September 18, at 7:00 PM. Format (in-person or Zoom) to be decided.

 

Meeting was adjourned at 8:45 PM.

 

Action List

Note: This list only includes newly identified Board tasks; it does not include regular, ongoing Board tasks.

 

Task: Person(s) (Responsible), Notes

• Recruit and set up Ministerial ("Mission") Committee (MC): Rev. Leslie and Board, Candidates selected by next Board meeting
• Set up "Service Format" ad hoc Committee: Diane Arnold and ?, Include Linda M from Worship 
• Implement pay raise for employees: Hank, 5% approved by Board
• Add "terrorism" rider to insurance: Hank, Approved by Board
• Investigate uses of Rose City Presbyterian and locate contract: Rev. Leslie and Kathy, Do we continue renting space, are there more activities we could have there?
• Investigate additional times/uses for CPA space: Ron, Are there more activities we could have there?
• Board "Retreat": Rev. Leslie, Do we have a "retreat?" What would we accomplish?