Summary Minutes of the UUFRC Board Meeting, May 25th 2021
Attending: Steve Hill, Chris Stovall, David Stoutamire, Dick Edminster, Polly Ragusa, Tovis Page, Peter Hartzell, Rob Davis, Rev. Brian Ferguson. Partial attendance: Graham Abra (arrived later).
Started at 6:30 pm. Brian provided opening words and we had a check in.
Accept the consent agenda – Steve motioned; David seconded. Passed by all (Graham absent).
Covid Task Force: Polly summarized the work on the Covid task force: a new communication is being sent out tomorrow summarizing their latest work. The committee prototyped their first in-person meeting with good results. The committee is looking into allowing small groups to use the sanctuary/church with permission and working with the Program council to create a process to enable this.
Open Gate report: David reported that he talked to Kristy from Open Gate and learned that they are having difficulty determining how many students they will have next year. The county COVID rules on the allowed number of students are still quite restrictive for pre-schools and have seriously impacted their bottom line. Open Gate is waiting for the county to report what the rules will be in the fall, and if they can continue as an on-going business in the current conditions. The board agreed to wait on the lease update until Open Gate has a better understanding of the future rules and fall student enrollment.
Finance Report: The only significant news from Graham on this month’s finance report is that there are a few congregation members who have not fulfilled their pledge amounts (not significantly more than previous years) which Jen Bahr-Davidson plans on contacting.
Board Gift Guidelines and Records: Tovis reported on her work to create some Board gift guidelines and record keeping for congregational volunteer recognition. The first pass at a guidelines and record keeping document will be added to the google drive.
Delegates to the General Assembly: Peter reported on the nomination of delegates to the General Assembly meeting. Suzie Idzik and John Kim were nominated to be delegates for the congregation, along with several other members who will be attending the GA as non-voting members.
Permissions in Realm for Jan Johnson: Jan has reported the need to be able to change realm users’ account name (email used) which requires full administrative access in Realm. This request was approved by the Realm administrators (Jeanne DeShazo, Greg Stovall) who will train Jan in this function.
Couch upgrade: A suggestion was made in Zoom chat during the Annual Meeting and subsequently affirmed by several members of the congregation to upgrade the couches in both the back lounge and front lounge. It was decided by the program council and board to treat this as a prototype project for defining a formal process for bringing proposals to the board of trustees.
Salary COLA calculations incorrect in Budget: Steve reported that the personnel committee is looking into the compensation package for the Interim Director of Youth and family position. The increase of an extra month, extension of monthly hours from 25 to 30, and the addition of a 4% COLA was not calculated correctly. Brian also mentioned that the 4% COLA calculation was not applied (and should have been) to his housing allowance. Steve will report back on the results of the personal’s committee’s review.
Religions Education Task Force: Brian expressed a concern that the Board of Trustees should form a task force to develop a vision for the future of Religious Education for the congregation. The future of the Youth and Family, and Religions Education programs are critical to the growth of the church and unfortunately, due to the pandemic, has not received the focus and development work required. Tovis Page will work with Rev Brian and Lillian Svec to define the task force deliverables, process and members.
Board turnover plans: Chris and Rob will arrange a board retreat which includes the new and old board members to facilitate a smooth transition of knowledge and guidance during the transition from the old board to the new.
Our next meeting will be Tuesday June 29th at 6:30 pm
Respectfully submitted,
Rob Davis, Recording Secretary