of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Columbia SC 13 May, 2002
Members Present: Joan Waterson, Dave Dickey, Kevin Meredith, Morgan Maclachlan, Bill Meller, Joe Long, Andrea Derrick
Members Absent: A.G., Christina Pandimos
Guests: Tootsie Holland, Carita Barr, Don Cooper
Call to Order: Dave Dickey called the meeting to order at 6:45 PM.
Opening Words: Bill Meller read the opening words, lyrics from the Moody Blues, The Balance
- Last Months Minutes: The minutes of the previous meeting were read. Kevin made a correction to the spelling of his name as did Morgan. Dave noted that Margaret Weck's name should be removed from reference as a board member. Dave made a motion to accept the minutes with the changes noted, the motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
- Staff Handbook: It was noted that the board would defer the discussion of the Staff Handbook until next month's meeting.
- Aginskaya Wedding: Dave stated that it would be a nice gesture to approve the use of the social hall for the Aginskaya wedding at no charge. Dave made a motion to accept this proposal, the motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
- N.O.W.: Tootsie presented a proposal to accept a request on behalf of herself, Audrey Muck and Gertrude Edge for the UUFC to allow the organization to hold their monthly meetings in one of the UUFC classrooms. At present there are 63 members in Columbia but any one meeting would not be expected to exceed 20 members. In exchange for the free room, NOW members would perform some sort of designated task; teach a summer class, do yard work or some cleaning, Morgan made a motion to accept this proposal, the motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
- Congregational Meeting: Dave advised that the congregational meeting was the next Sunday, May 19, 2002. Laura was making arrangements to provide food and beverages for the attendees to enjoy in between the service and the meeting.
Dave suggested that Mark Tomkins act as mediator and provide insights into parliamentary procedure. Dave made a motion to accept this proposal, the motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
- Pre-Service Phone Coverage: Andrea stated that Susan was concerned that there was no phone coverage at the fellowship during the hour before Sunday services. This is a concern because there are often last minute calls of impact that should be addressed. It was suggested that the reader of the announcements arrive early enough to field calls before the service. Dave stated this item would be included on the June meeting agenda.
- Building & Grounds Committee: Kevin proposed that an ad hoc committee be formed to act as a liaison for the building and grounds issues. The committee would deal with maintenance issues and needs and how those needs might best be met. Also, to develop a fellowship wide process for building consensus and completing actions. Options to be investigated include the sale or mortgaging of fellowship property, securing low interest loans through the UUA and other means for funds in the spirit of our principles and mission. The chair would be appointed by the board president and there would be an open call for committee members. Kevin stated he would spread the word. Morgan made a motion to accept this proposal, the motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
A brief discussion ensued regarding the relative value of the land and building. It was stated that we paid $300,000 to buy it and, per our insurance, the land was valued at $500,000 and the building at $380,000.
- Staff Reductions: Kevin stated that he had a discussion with Susan about the nature of her job duties in respect to how much time should be anticipated and planned for should budgetary shortfalls require a volunteer(s) to perform her tasks. It had been started previously that with the decrease in pledges so far, it may be necessary to reduce or eliminate some staff hours.
- Building Left Open -- The board reviewed Laura's report and discussed concern over several instances where the building was left unlocked over night. It was suggested the announcement reader be responsible for locking up on Sundays and to advise every group who uses the building to lock up after. There are three exits that require no key so locking up is not dependent upon having a key. It was suggested we send a letter to all key holders to advise of this situation and possibly put a note in the Unigram. Morgan made a motion to accept this proposal, the motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
- Budget: Dave advised that the latest pledge figure was $81,000 about 20% behind last years. We are also behind this year in total income partially because the second fund raiser was never held. A main point of budget reduction would be to eliminate the Admin position but that would reduce our number of insureds to only one and cause a $1,500 increase in insurance costs. Another reduction would be to have the DRE take two months off this summer. We discussed cutting back the Admin and DRE positions to ten hours per week. It was noted that other line items cannot be substantially reduced as these were cut severely for last year's budget.
The options seemed to be 1) eliminate the Admin position, 2) alter the split between funds for the Admin and DRE positions.
We discussed the pros and cons of eliminating both positions and replacing them each with a coordinator who would solicit and direct volunteers.
If the Admin position were to be cut we would still need at least ten hours per week for critical functions like member database updates, the order of service, the Unigram and the calendar. If these functions were not covered, chaos would surely ensue. We agreed it would take a lot of volunteer help to run without the Admin.
If we need to reduce the DRE hours substantially, Morgan suggested we try to get a graduate student with a degree in Education to act as coordinator and to organize things.
Dave reviewed the 13 RE tasks to be completed by June in order to be able to expect volunteers to support RE over the summer. At least an RE coordinator (if not Director) would be needed.
It was stated that there are several in-house candidates for the part time Admin position.
$12,000 is available in the current budget to support both the Admin and DRE positions. That works out to $9.50 per hour. There was a proposal to split the available funds as $5,000 for the Admin and $7,000 for the DRE. Morgan made a motion to accept this proposal, the motion was seconded and passed unanimously. Both jobs would be coordinators requiring lots of volunteer help. This will be presented to the congregation in Sunday's meeting.
Dave will email copies of the proposed budget to the board as the hard copies were difficult to read. The budget would balance, as is, at about $100,000. It was suggested that the incoming board review the budget at mid-year and consider the possibility of bringing on a Youth Coordinator.
The RE Council requested $800 from the budget to hire a Youth Coordinator and the Council would raise the rest of the funds. There was some discussion of potential uses of RE funds in the future. The board encourages the Council to continue to raise funds to support their work. Dave commented that this years RE program is exemplary of what a volunteer effort can accomplish.
Joe will update the budget for the changes we discussed.
Morgan noted that future external donations should be scrutinized since we can't even raise enough funds to support current staffing levels.
Dave stated that we need a 501C letter, indicating we are a non-profit organization, would be needed before we can contact BiLo about their donation program as a source of fund raising.
- Auditor Coming: Dave stated that we have scheduled a $40 per hour auditor and have a contribution to pay for it. Paul Hamm will be here on May 27, 2002 to do our audit. Joe will contact Paul to determine what preparation we must make for his visit.
- Art Auctions: Dave stated he has information on a company that holds Art Auctions as a fund raiser. The use our facility and give the UUFC $1,000 if only 100 people attend the auction. The UUFC would get a percentage of the art sales and of the gate.
- The meeting was adjourned at 8:05 PM. Next time, Morgan will bring a reading and Kevin will bring the eats.
In the event of discrepancies the paper copy of the minutes as contained the the board minutes binder shall be the official version. This binder is maintained by the administrator in the congregation office.
Your comments/corrections are welcome. Email to Donald Griggs at dgriggs@chaliceweb.org