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Meeting Minutes: Board of Trustees

of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Columbia SC

July 14, 2004



Members Present: Joe Kyle, Pat Mohr, Sej Harman, Sandy Chubon, Beth Crawford, Donald Griggs,
Jessica Kross, Don Thacker, Tom Turnipseed, Sharyn Walters, Rusty Wenerick, Patrick
Price, ex officio.

Members Absent: Rob Harper, Jessica Porter, ex officio.

Guests: Judy Turnipseed, Regina Moody, Isabel Oake, Don Mohr, Gertrude Edge, Carita Barr,
Dwight Pregler, Hope Andonovaska.

 

Summary

 
Motions Passed
 
 
Decisions Made  

Action Items
 
 

Proceedings

 
CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 6:15 PM by Joe Kyle. Sharyn Walters provided a
reading.
 
AMENDMENT AND APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The minutes of the June 7 meeting were revised as follows: on page 4, under New
Business: Personnel Committee, the first sentence will be deleted (because our bylaws
do not mention a personnel committee). The second sentence of that paragraph will
read: The Interim Planning Group has assembled a group to identify the primary
tasks of a personnel committee: Jessica Porter, Tootsie Holland, Pat Mohr, and Dave
Dickey.

With that amendment, the minutes were approved.
 
BOARD NOTEBOOKS

Notebooks were distributed to new board members, along with a guide to basic
parliamentary procedure.
 
FINANCES

Isabel reported that we ended the fiscal year with a deficit of a few thousand dollars.
Final reconciliation of accounts has not been completed.
 
Copies of the 2004-05 fiscal year budget were distributed and reviewed briefly. There
was no current report of assets and liabilities. Rusty and Sej have met and transferred
the bank accounts to Sej's name. Joe has requested that, by the August board meeting,
we receive a report for the end of the 2003-04 fiscal year which is accurate and is
agreed upon by Jessica Porter, Rusty Wenerick, Sej Harman, and Isabel Oake. The
board needs accurate reports on our finances so we can keep track of where we are in
our quest to raise sufficient funds to hire an interim minister. Joe requested that
reports be generated from Shepherd's Staff.
 
Sej reported that a 3-day training program on Shepherd's Staff is being offered in mid-
November. She is planning to attend. Money has been designated for that training.
 
There was some discussion of the problems with Shepherd's Staff. It was suggested
that, as solutions to the problems/errors are identified, a written record be kept in hope
of preventing repetition of those errors.
 

REPORTS

Minister  Patrick reported that most of his professional expenses have been
reimbursed. He also reported that $600 was transferred from the Carnesale bequest to
the Minister's Discretionary Fund. He is in the process of writing his exit interview.
 
Administrator  Isabel reported receiving a notice from the IRS claiming mispayment
of payroll taxes for calendar year 2001. She said the issue is not one of missing
money, rather the IRS is missing some paperwork we sent. Sej is handling that
problem.
 
Director of Religious Education  Hope described some of her plans for the RE
program in the fall.
 
Tom moved that we accept all three reports. Don Thacker seconded. The motion
passed.


 
INTERIM ISSUES

Interim Planning Group  Joe circulated copies of the description of the IPG and there
was a brief discussion of their functions.
 
Regina reminded the Board that only three committee descriptions were approved by
the board last year. The remaining committee descriptions still need board approval.
 
Worship Committee  Don Mohr reported they hope to contract with a UU minister to
do one service per month plus rights of passage. They hope to have one service per
month by another minister. They hope to provide a variety of ministerial voices
during the interim. They plan to have one service per month provided by a
community member not affiliated with the UUFC and one per month by a member of
the UUFC congregation. There was some discussion about the cost of these services.
Patrick reported that the UUA recommends paying UU ministers $200 per service plus
travel reimbursed at the IRS rate. Community speakers receive a stipend of $50.
UUFC members are not paid.
 
There was some discussion about other ministerial services, pastoral care, counseling,
etc. The worship committee plans to collaborate with the caring committee in
determining how those services will be provided.
 
Adult Programming Committee  Audrey Muck has consented to chair this
committee. The board approved. The board reviewed the committee description and
requested clarification of two items. They asked for a template of the mini-grant
proposal process. Concern was expressed that persons might offer programming as a
way of obtaining income for themselves rather than the fellowship. Board members
asked that a bullet be added under tasks to indicate that the committee would
coordinate with the administrator in scheduling programs. Tom moved that we
approve the committee description with those two stipulations. Donald Griggs
seconded. The motion passed.
 
Personnel Committee Description  The revised description of this committee was
reviewed. Questions were raised about how committee members should be selected
and what qualifications they should have. Because of the potentially sensitive nature
of dealing with grievance issues, perhaps committee members should have related
training or experience. It was suggested that there might be representatives from the
finance committee and the MRC on this committee. The committee description was
returned to the ad hoc group for further revision  to be returned to the board for the
August meeting.
 
During the discussion, the board agreed that members of this committee should be
approved by the board (as is done for the finance committee).
 
Sunday Potlucks  Since the RE program will no longer have fund-raising luncheons,
the IPG plans to resume congregational pot luck luncheons after Sunday services for
community-building and socialization.
 
Formal Input from Congregation  The IPG discussed conducting a brief telephone
survey of fellowship members/friends to ask for input about issues they would like
addressed during the interim. They plan to ask a few open-ended questions and then
analyze the responses.
 
Membership Discussion with Fellowship  Earlier this spring, during our budget
discussions, we agreed to have a meeting for members and friends to discuss what it
means to be a member of the fellowship, what duties and obligations that entails, what
benefits it offers. Joe Kyle, Don Thacker, and Mary Maclachlan are going to plan that
meeting.
 
Don Thacker urged the we also continue the quarterly meetings with members to
update them on our financial situation.
 
Consultation from TJ District  Earlier this summer the board discussed plans to have
Phil Sterner come to provide consultation on our financial needs/problems. Tonight
the board expressed more interest in having a consultant come in to help us define our
problems and identify the kind of consultation/assistance we need. Perhaps this can be
scheduled this fall. The IPG will do some research on this and get back to us next
month.
 
Board Retreat  Most board members want to have a retreat in the near future. There
was consensus that it should not be an all-day meeting. Pat and Joe will work on plans
for this.
 
Despedida con helado  After some discussion, Sharyn agreed to contact Becky
Dickey and Heather McCalman about this.
 
ANTIRACISM CONFERENCE
 
Judy Turnipseed talked about this conference which we have agreed to host February 18-20, 2005. The District Antiracism Committee is the sponsor and they work with our local planning committee. We need to identify a chair or, better yet, co-chairs to lead our committee. No theme has been selected yet. We need to identify and schedule keynote speakers soon. The conference is supposed to pay for itself but there is some money available to pre-pay for organizing, publicity, etc. Don Thacker and Carita Barr will meet later this week and try to identify a chair and co-chair. By August, they will have a time line established for accomplishing the necessary tasks. Judy gave Don a box of materials to be used in preparing for the conference (samples of past programs, to-do lists, etc.).
 

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 8:40 PM when the board went into executive session.
 
Minutes recorded by
 
Sandy Chubon


In the event of discrepancies the paper copy of the minutes as contained in the board minutes binder shall be the official version.  This binder is maintained by the administrator in the congregation office.

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Your comments/corrections are welcome. Email to Donald Griggs at dgriggs@chaliceweb.org