Purpose/Agenda Item

Action/Result

Person(s)

Responsible

Due Date/ Completed

Transition/Chalice Lighting &Opening Remarks

For opening remarks Fran Brazzell reviewed sections of Rev. Dowgiert’s state of church sermon calling us to a higher vision.

Consent Item/Minutes

Minutes of the December 22, 2009 meeting were approved as amended.

The board reviewed the Follow Up Tracking Chart developed by the secretary. The board reviewed the status of items that had not been completed.

1. 1. The 12/22/09 item regarding small group discussion regarding church finances referred to the ET and Finance Committee was not supported by the ET.
2. 2. Fran Brazzell will collate the results of the poll of the members for a vote on UUA study action items and will provide the tally to Mary Wiese for inclusion in the final document.
3. 3. At the Renewing Our Energy workshop Saturday, February 13^th we will pilot our vision and strategic plan and to get feedback at that time.

In the future, the board asked that the list of Follow Up Items just focus on incomplete items. A list of completed items should be retained for possible reporting on annual board activities in the future.

Linda Selsor

Informational Item--Staff Recognition and Thanks

Staff Newsletter Profiles: Gilbert Moore agreed to write profiles of staff for the church newsletter but felt strongly that staff should not have a say in editing the final document. While staff appreciated the idea of highlighting staff in newsletters, they felt uncomfortable with the lack of say in the final product. Staff will meet again to determine if they want to proceed with the newsletter profiles working within Gilbert’s parameters. The idea behind staff recognition was to provide more support not to create anxiety.

Staff Recognition Luncheon: The invitation to the February 20^th luncheon has been distributed to staff but did not include the time of the event. Patrice Davison will e-mail staff with an update on the time--12-2:30.

To finalize planning for the luncheon and the board’s Kitchen Ministry the day after the luncheon, the board agree to meet after the second service the upcoming Sunday, January 31^st.

ET

Ed Savard

Patrice Davison

Chaz McBride

All

Informational/Minister’s & Performance Reports

Review of the Minister’s and ET Performance report was deferred to the relevant sections of the meeting agenda.

Informational/UUA Congregational Poll & Worksheet

All work to complete the 2010 UUA Certificate of Membership Worksheet has been done. Mary Wiese will submit the final document once she receives the poll results from Fran Brazzell. It will be submitted by the deadline and shows that UUCT now has 300 members.

Fran Brazzell

Mary Wiese

Visioning/Strategic Plan

The strategic plan is a work in progress; a draft will be pilot tested at the nominating and leadership development workshop on the 13^th. Marion Leonard has been a significant help in pulling together the draft document. One proposal regarding becoming a green church will be included in the plan. There was concern that the plan be realistic with goals that are attainable. In order to get congregational feedback and buy in, a town hall meeting was scheduled for March 7^th. A draft of the plan will be sent out in advance of the meeting in order to give members time to prepare for the meeting.

Fran Brazzell

All

Informational/Stewardship campaign

Chris Wallace, Stewardship Campaign Chair, provided members with a copy of the mailing going out to the congregation. This includes a revision to the fair share giving guide that recommends higher percents of giving as income increases. Chris reminded the board that the congregation looks to leaders during a Stewardship Campaign and encouraged board members to pledge early. The committee is considering holding “cottage meetings” targeting members that have not completed pledges. They will publish who has pledged so far and will provide the pledge total to date.

The Stewardship Committee rejected the idea proposed by the board of integrating stewardship discussions with information regarding the costs associated with running the church. It was their belief that members do not make pledge decisions because of the status of church finances but rather from deeply held beliefs around money. The goal of the committee is to complete the campaign by the end of February.

Chris Wallace

Informational/Finance Council Proposal

Chris Wallace presented a proposal from the Empowerment Team to establish and pilot test a Finance Stewardship Council. The board raised a number of concerns regarding the proposal and decided to table further discussion of the proposal until prior recommendations from the Finance Committee regarding policy revisions and financial reporting relationships could be revisited and discussed.

Informational/Finance Reports

Margot Garcia summarized the Financial Report distributed prior to the meeting. $44,106 was deposited in December from pledges, donations, profit from the Santa Fe trip and rent. That helped the cash flow crunch and enabled the church to pay off the line of credit. Concerns remain regarding the status of donations and plate revenue. All ministries are doing well staying under budget. There is about a 10% drop off on pledges which is within our history. No More Deaths shows a deficit year to date but pays their bills and holds $31,246 in their bank account. They have consolidated their two bank accounts into the one at the Bank of the West under the umbrella of the church

Margot Garcia prepared a report on pledges to date, projections based on several scenarios and implications for the balance of the fiscal year. Possible recommendations included raising income by contacting members behind in pledges and pursuing other fundraising ideas; however, fund raising efforts to balance this fiscal year should not compromise the annual stewardship campaign. On the other side, possible recommendations to cut expenses included reduction in the payment of dues to the UUA and PSWD, percentage reductions to ministry’s, and an analysis of staffing costs including possible reductions.

The board agreed that action would likely be needed, wanted to keep very close tabs on the financial situation but deferred action on recommendations until the January meeting. They commended Margot for her thorough analysis of the financial situation.

Margot Garcia

Transition/Closing Remarks

The meeting concluded on schedule with a reminder to “aim higher”.