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Meeting Minutes: Board of Trustees

of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Columbia SC

9 March 2005


Members Present: Joe Kyle, Pat Mohr, Sej Harman, Sandy Chubon, Beth Crawford, Donald Griggs,
Jessica Kross, Don Thacker, Tom Turnipseed, Sharyn Walters, Jonathan Watterson, Jessica
Porter, ex officio.
Guests: Isabel Oake, Carita Barr, Gertrude Edge.

Summary

Motions Passed
Decisions Made

Action Items

Proceedings

CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by Joe Kyle at 6:22 PM. Jessica Kross presented a reading.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The minutes of the February 9, 2005 meeting were amended as follows:
Beth Crawford was added to the list of members present at the meeting.
In the section titled “Interim or Not”, the third sentence was revised to read: “Joe stated that
the consensus from the meeting was that there was a desire for a full time minister and that
this would take place within three years.”
The minutes were approved as amended.

REPORTS
Hope is ill and will e-mail her report to board members as soon as she is able.
Isabel’s report was accepted.

BUILDING RENTAL POLICY
Isabel submitted a proposal for raising rental rates for the building. After some discussion,
Don Thacker moved that we adopt the recommended fees for non-members. The motion
was seconded and approved. We then agreed to retain the current rates for members.
(Members pay rental fees only for personal events which are not open to all members of the
fellowship.) There was discussion about whether we should charge rent for special events
such as those sponsored by the Social Action Committee. It was decided that those
decisions should be made by the board on a case by case basis.

NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS
This group has requested space in our building for weekly meetings. They have offered to
pay $40 per month. After some discussion, Jessica Kross moved that we accept their
proposal. Pat Mohr seconded. The motion passed. Isabel will monitor how they leave the
space and report back to the board in three months.

REQUEST FOR SPACE
Kathy Duprey has requested the use of one room for two hours once a month to dispense
information for a diagnostic group; people would come during that time to pick up materials.
The board asked that she submit a written request.

FINANCES
Jessica Porter reported that we are $18,252 above budget at this point. Expenses were
higher in February, particularly with the Anti-Racism Conference. She reported that John
Squire’s salary is about $2,000 over budget; Sej will discuss that with John. Rentals are up
this year. Jessica projects that if current trends continue, we will end the year with an excess
of about $3,000 over budget.

CANVASS
Jessica Porter is chairing the canvass and the Finance Committee is leading the effort. They
are doing face-to-face canvassing in teams. They have planned a “nice” event (dinner) for
all members and friends at the end of the canvass on May 7. Kick-off of the canvass will be
on April 3; Neal Jones will preach the sermon. The theme this year is “Dream the Possible
Dream”. The Finance Committee requested $1,500 from this year’s surplus funds to pay for
canvass expenses. Tom moved that we grant this request. Beth seconded. The motion
passed.

ANTI-RACISM CONFERENCE
The Anti-Racism Conference was a huge success. Participants were highly complimentary
for the hospitality and organization of the event. There were numerous compliments for the
web site and on-line registration. This was the first time a youth conference was included.
There were some negative comments because the conference centered on a single topic,
education; some participants would prefer to have more topics included. The board
expressed their gratitude to all the UUFC members who helped to make the conference a
success.
The conference was also a big success financially. We finished in the black. The seed
money provided by the UUFC will be returned. A surplus of $700 will be sent to the TJ
District to be used for next year’s conference.

NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Regina Moody is chairing the committee; Jessica Kross is the board representative. They
are working on a slate of officers for next year. A questionnaire was circulated and board
members were asked to respond to it and send their responses to Regina within the next
week.

BUILDING
Mid-Range Planning Group – Pat is chairing this group. They are scheduled to meet March
  1. They will make recommendations about what we should do in the next year.

Building Inspection – We have a bid for $800 for a building inspection but no one is sure what this will include. It was agreed we need a written proposal. It was suggested that a structural engineer inspect the building.

Bids on Furnace – We reviewed the history of the various diagnoses and bids on the furnace. We agreed that Isabel will get us a bid for the work that needs to be done and send us an e-mail so we can vote on it.

BOARD PLANNING
Ed Wilde is coming the morning of April 2 for consultation with the board (9 AM to 12 N).

We need an agreement about what we want to propose to the congregation for ministerial
services in the next year. We agreed to meet at Shoney’s on Garners Ferry Road at 6 PM on
March 23 to discuss our ideas.

CHILD CARE
Sej has a sign-up list for people to provide child care on Sunday mornings. We have a paid
teen but we also need an adult. There is a major shortage of adult volunteers.

MEMBERSHIP ISSUES
Gertrude Edge encouraged us to work on figuring out how to approach new members to get
them involved. She suggested having them fill out a survey but she said no one on the
membership committee has the computer skills to handle the data. Surveys are of no value
if there is no follow through. Joe will talk with Gertrude and get back to the board with a
proposal next month.

ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 8:40 PM and 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