Purpose/Agenda Item

Action/Result

Person(s)

Responsible

Due Date/ Completed

Transition

Rev. Dowgiert opened the meeting asking those present to identify sections of the Covenant of Right Relations that would guide us for the meeting and invited board members to join together in the covenant for the meeting.

Rev. Dowgiert

Consent Item:/Minutes

The motion to approve the minutes of the February 23, 2010 as revised was seconded and passed.

Linda Selsor

Informational/Follow Up Items

The following board follow-up items have been completed and will be removed from the follow up list and saved to the list of items addressed:

1. Covenant of Right Relations has been posted in meeting rooms.
2. Modified report due from the Empowerment Team was judged moot and removed from the list.
3. A list of proposed savings was provided by the Treasurer in November 2009.
4. A thorough six month review of the budget was conducted at both the January and February board meetings.
5. The plan for small group meetings to educate the congregation about church finances was referred to and rejected by the Stewardship Committee.
6. A draft of the strategic plan was pilot tested at the Nominating and Leadership Development Workshop on March 13^th.

Linda Selsor

Informational/Minister’s Report, ET Performance Report, Fire Inspections follow up

Minister’s/ET Report: The minister provided a report of the past two months because no written report was provided in February due to her absence.  Board members were invited to review the report and ask questions.  Colleagues in the UU Minister’s Association Pacific Southwest Chapter have asked Rev. Dowgiert  to serve as chapter President starting in September 2010  for a two year term.

Fire Inspection Follow Up: A recent fire inspection identified areas of non-compliance.  For example, there cannot be chains on sanctuary doors including when not occupied, the hood in the kitchen not compliant because it was not clean—both have been fixed.   Kitchen doors are not fire rated.  The inspector also indicated that there might be more low cost ways to illuminate exit signs and emergency lights.  The Building and Grounds Committee is getting estimates and working on needed repairs.

Informational/February Financials

February financials: The treasurer, Margot Garcia, provided the financial report.  Income appears over budget because of pass through dollars for No More Death employees.  Pledges are below budget.  The auction was budgeted at $18,000 but brought in $14,000, leaving a loss of $4,000.

Storage Fund Accounting: The treasurer has not able to verify the original amount of the storage donation which went back over seven years past when records were destroyed.  Based on anecdotal input and the balance carried on the financial statement she was able to make a reasonable estimate of the original donation and identified expenses against the account.  The board felt she had exercised due diligence in accounting for the balance of the fund--$12,621.50--which will be transferred from the Vanguard fund to the Money Market account.

MOTION to accept the accounting for storage gift balance of $12,621.50 was seconded and passed.

2010 – 2011 Budget:  The proposed budget for next fiscal year has a gap of approximately $100,000.  The increased expenses are in proposed equity increases for the music staff, an Intern Minister, return of furlough hours and repayment of interest on loans from the restricted fund.   The proposed gap is larger than the line of credit and the balance in the restricted fund combined.  Several options have been proposed to address the shortfall including starting with a zero based budget.  The Empowerment Team and Finance Committee reached an impasse and asked for board involvement to provide guidance and resolve differences.  The board agreed to meet with the Empowerment Team and the Finance Committee on April 8, 2010 starting at 6:30 p.m. at the church.  The room will be announced.

Margot Garcia

Fran Brazzell

Informational/ET Finance Governance Proposal

The Empowerment Team resubmitted the proposal for “Re-visioning the governance structure at UUCT with an emphasis on financial management and reporting.”  The proposal was distributed for information only and was a much more detailed version of the original one submitted.

An ad hoc bylaws committee was judged to be the best way to review various bylaws and policy revisions relative to financial management--including proposals from the Empowerment Team and the Finance Committee.  A later agenda item included a proposed by-laws revision for presentation at this year’s annual meeting to formally establish the Committee on Ministry (COM).  While the board was in favor of continuing the COM, it wanted to defer the by-laws revision to the 2011 annual meeting. This was in large part a reaction to the challenges faced around by-laws revisions at the last annual meeting and the wish to avoid frequent by-laws revisions.  

MOTION to establish an ad hoc committee to deal with proposed by laws and/or policy changes from the Finance Committee, Empowerment Team, the Committee on Ministry and any other potential by laws changes for presentation at the 2011 annual meeting.  Linda Selsor shall serve as the convener and include representation from the Empowerment Team, Finance Committee and the Committee on Ministry.  The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

Linda Selsor

Consent/COM Pilot status

The agenda item on the proposed by laws change was deferred due to the establishment of the ad hoc committee. As the COM pilot project was approved by a vote of the congregation and is coming to an end, this will require a year extension of the project at the 2010 annual meeting.

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MOTION to recommend continuation of the Committee on Ministry as a pilot program for another year and that the recommendation be placed on the agenda for the upcoming annual meeting for a vote of the congregation. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

Fran Brazzell

Informational/Consent NMD

NMD Liaisons: Leila Pine serves as the UUCT/No More Deaths Liaison.  She also serves as chair of the Immigrant Rights Working Group and provided a report.  She provided a report to the Finance Committee on the role of fiscal agent for a non-profit.  She encouraged board attendance at the Sunday service to honor 16 members of the congregation who will be receiving the congregation’s first humanitarian awards for their work on behalf of Nor More Deaths.  Fran Brazzell will serve as No More Deaths liaison upon the end of her board term.

Douglas Property: Leila Pine provided a detailed written report on the proposed property in Douglas for use by No More Deaths.  The report confirming previous findings and answered the board’s remaining questions.    MOTION to accept the donation of Douglas property to No More Deaths was seconded and passed unanimously.

Grant Proposal Letter: No More Death’s (NMD) planned to submit a grant proposal to the UUA Funding Program which required a letter of support from the board.  The letter required the name and professional role of each board member.  Fran Brazzell agreed to write the letter of support but needed the board’s approval.

MOTION authorizing a letter of support for the NMD grant was seconded and passed unanimously.

NMD Leadership Trip March 27^th:  The trip was canceled and will be set for a later date this spring.

Leila Pine

Fran Brazzell

Patrice Davison

Consent/Endowment Funds

The Endowment Committee did not think it prudent to invest the entire balance of the Congregationally Restricted Fund (CFR), less the storage set aside and other restricted dollars held in the account, in the UUA’s Common Endowment Fund.  If the entire CFR were invested, this would leave virtually no accessible funds to deal with unanticipated emergencies. The minimum amount we can invest with the UUA is $10,000. The Committee recommended setting aside up to $25,000 of the CFR for use as an emergency fund to deal with any future facility repairs or replacements of an unanticipated nature and investing the balance in the UUA fund.

MOTION to invest the CFR in the UUA Common Endowment Fund less the storage adjustment and the $25,000 set aside for emergency purposes.  Further, the Finance Committee will develop a proposed policy regarding use of the $25,000 CFR set aside.

Linda Selsor

Informational/ Staffing Analysis

Ed Savard and Margot Garcia presented the results of their staffing analysis to date.  This included an organizational chart and a chart with job title, hours worked, salary and whether or not a job description was available.  A number of job descriptions were not available along with some other required personnel information.  Missing personnel items were deferred to the Personnel Committee to address when established.  Ed Savard recommended that staff participate in a time study as a next step.  While this would assist in longer term staffing analysis, a time study could not be completed in time to assist with difficult decisions that may need to be made in light of the budget shortfall and would be too burdensome on staff between now and the finalization of the budget.  As an alternative, the board asked that staff provide information on the top three things they spend time on and the top three things mission critical things they think they should spend time on prior to the April budget meeting.

Rev. Dowgiert stated that she wanted to develop a staffing plan that would enable the church to sustain a balance between youth, adult and administrative needs at the April board meeting.  She will put together a proposed organizational chart.

Margot Garcia & Ed Savard

Personnel Committee

Fran Brazzell

Rev. Dowgiert

Transition/Closing Remarks

Rev. Dowgiert closed the meeting with thanks for the time of those present and their commitment to covenant we made together for the meeting.