June 2009 All Council Meeting Notes
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin
All Council Meeting Notes
From Saturday, June 20, 2009
Welcome
The Vice-President of the Board of Trustees welcome those present and lead them in a short reading (see bottom of agenda from meeting – Appendix A) and the lighting of the chalice. He asked each of the church leaders present to give brief update on the areas in which they are working and that they complete the sentence “If we were to accomplish only one thing this year…”.
Committee on Ministries: The CoM has been on hiatus for the past few months. When they met with Janet Newman she expressed her preference to work with a transitions team, rather than a CoM, so they are going to continue their hiatus through this next year. Not that most of them will be slacking off! Most of the CoM members have taken on work in other areas of the church, and they might well take on the work of creating any body that might succeed the CoM. In the meantime, if people have questions or concerns about the ministries of the church, they are encouraged to take it directly to the minister, the DRE, or a board member.
Report from Director of Music: The music program is busy finalizing plans for the 2009-2010 season. Included in the mix are special musical guest appearances by the 1001 Nights Orchestra, Kat Edmunson, Mundi, and others. The Adult Choir has a busy year before it, including two major work offerings on December 6th and June 6th. The Children’s Choirs are also preparing for a busy year. Even though we are not fully funded through the rest of 2009, we are planning a benefit concert in early September to help make up the shortfall. FUUCA Intergenerational Choir, which is the combination of the Children’s Choirs and the Adult Choir, will continue to build upon its recent successes with numerous service appearances throughout the year.
The Board of Trustees: At a board retreat last weekend, the BoT reviewed many of the changes that are already underway at the church and identified a few more that the BoT would like to put its efforts towards. Some of the primary goals are to help make the interim ministry a success, supporting the work of clarifying our mission, vision and values.
Worship Services: The Worship Services Committee has brought many folks into the pulpit over the past few months and has made a lot connections and friends through the various folks brought in to speak. The new Interim Minister seemed very pleased with the lay leadership of this committee. The committee also presented a hand-out with the schedule of speakers through August (Appendix B).
Adult RE: The Chair of the Adult Religious Education Committee reported that enough cannot be said for the work of Lara Douglass. The Director of RE reported that they are working on several items for the next year, including the film series that is really catching on (see Appendix C and Appendix D for further detail). She also gave several updates on Children’s Programming including the use of UU children’s books for reaching out to people who cannot get to church, Camp UU, Fall instruction on world religions will feature Christianity and Judiasm and that the Children’s Programming Committee meets on the second Sunday of the month and needs new members.
Meet and Eat: The committee has revived adding a forum with the dinners and participation has gone from 45 at the April First International Women’s Forum to 65 at the May evening with the Board of Trustees to 93 at the June evening with the new Interim Minister. July will feature reports from church members who attended this year’s Unitarian Universalist General Assembly. The committee is seeking new topics, so please share ideas. The committee would like to expand to twice per month with a goal of getting them back to weekly.
Congregational Care Committee: First UU already has a rich tradition of providing support to the church community (Helping Hands, Listening Ministries, Caring Cards, Mommy Meals, etc.). The consensus of a Fact Finding group last fall was that an organizational structure combining these functions could improve communications and the like. This research led to the formation of a Congregational Care Task Force that worked from January – April, 2009, focusing on how to implement one of the core values of this congregation, that we are a caring community.
The resulting Congregational Care Committee’s mission is “to support consistent and sensitive pastoral care within the church community while respecting the worth and dignity of all involved.” We have a defined committee structure that is almost completely staffed, a core group of volunteer service providers, a process to provide assistance, updated contact information, and some exciting ideas for the future. Our next step is to communicate widely – let people know that they can request help and give help. We need to expand the committee, volunteers and publicity.
The committee met with the Interim Minister, who sees her role supporting this with pastoral care.
Building Committee: The committee is somewhat idle currently given the financial situation but is looking for ways to stay involved until a capital campaign is once again feasible. A lot of the items that came out of the brainstorming for a stewardship stretch goal had to do with improving the current facilities, which may be a place for the committee to be involved.
Denominational Affairs: Please see Appendix E for the report. The committee will be working to ensure that church members have greater recognition of the resources and value of the UUA and relationships with other UU churches. Donna Karason will be the new UU Southwest District Delegate.
Sack Lunch Program: The sack lunch program has been going for a couple of years now, preparing lunches for homeless people. People in the program contribute perishables. Church members can connect with one of the teams if they want to help with donating perishables and may also contribute financially.
Nominations Committee: The committee has been convened and will be meeting on the fourth Monday of each month with activities becoming heavier in the late Fall. The BoT has also asked the committee to begin working on leadership development and training.
Treasurer: The Treasurer reported that projections for the end of the year should be completed by the end of June and that there would not be another special canvass.
Bookstore: We are looking to create a bookstore presence on the web this year.
Information Tech: If we were to accomplish only one thing this year, it would be to have a new web committee chair. We do have two new committee members, Brendan and Adam, who have undertaken improving our portion of the site for committees. John and Tom continue to make the audio and web sermons available. We have purchased an additional domain to accommodate the large number and size of audio files that we have and to facilitate back-ups of the site. We have started using a plug-in us to create on-line forms. We used it for RSVPs for the Seder, for responses to the Interim Minister
Survey, and are currently using it for registration for Hogwarts Camp. We are also accepting payments for Hogwarts tuition via credit card online. So far we have accepted $2500 in payments online.
Social Action Committee: The committee is hoping to do more events where the worship service, gallery, split the plate and forum are all coordinated around an issue. They also have a goal of recruiting more leaders of individual activities to widen the circle of social action leaders. The committee will also be examining how we might increase the impact of Split the Plate.
Board Liaison to Interim Ministry Task Force: This trustee expanded upon the board goal of having a successful interim ministry and defined it as taking advantage of the Interim Minister’s experience and great set of skills to address head-on the issues raised in the Bridge Builders Report plus any others she discovers – to rediscover the heart and soul of our church and to share it. Another goal is enhancing communications within the church.
Flowers Facilities Sub-Committee: This sub-committee of one does the flowers on Sunday and takes care of the indoor plants with a goal this year of not killing them.
Security Task Force: Committee members attended a conference on safety and have done an usher/greeter training on security matters. The committee is completing a report on enhancing security and will submit it to the board soon. The committee would welcome any thoughts and suggestions.
Outdoor Plants: Phase I of the work on the sanctuary garden has been completed. Future work will include making it more readily accessible and handicapped accessible. We have deferred maintenance on the playground but to get this done. The Green Sanctuary effort has not currently functioning.
Public Affairs Forum: The forums have really been going very well with many inspiring presenters. The forums will not be done in July and August. The forums have been averaging $70 in donation per forum and 90 people attending per forum. The forums have gotten much media attention this year and the Statesman is considering posting them online. Handing out flyers at other events has proven one of the best ways to bring people in. The group is also looking to promote the forums through blogs and other social networking sites.
Technical Team: Tom Martin had sent a report by email that contained a good overview of all of the technical team components and that made some recommendations. It is attached as Appendix F.
Paradox Players: Paradox Players (PP) is in the middle of the run of “Trying” and it has received a lot of written positive reviews on how engaging people find it. A goal for PP in the coming year is to integrate more deeply into the church. For example, PP might choose a benefit partner for a show that matches with one of the church social action programs or split the plate recipients. PP hopes to have a presence in sanctuary more. PP is also working on having a greater presence on the internet and got a good review for the current show on Austin Live Theatre blog. People who come to PP productions often get interested in the church. Finally, PP is working on upgrading both the ambient and stage lighting in Howsen Hall.
Board of Trustees: The BoT recently held a retreat at Cherry Springs Ranch and established goals for the coming year. Some of these included:
- Make the board more visible. Be available on Sundays in the gallery and foyer.
- Move towards policy governance.
- A successful interim ministry.
- Identify, support mission/vision/values.
- Have more fun!
- Develop a covenant – hold ourselves to being in right relationship – how we treat each other.
Bridge Builders Report: The basic issue areas and goals/ends are on the church webpage. The Action Planning Team (APT) is working on finalizing some dates and timelines and person responsible that resulted from a meeting with Peter Steinke after he had issued his report. The APT saved all comments from the focus groups and will soon be looking for ways to present the final version of the report to the congregation.
Office 101: Natalie Freeburg from the staff presented an overview of office staff and procedures, which was also summarized in a written report she handed out (Appendix G). She highlighted that these is now a Room Reservation Request Form that can be turned by hard copy (Appendix H) or online and she also distributed the new Facilities Rental Contract (Appendix I). She highlighted that alcohol may not be sold in the church and that alcohol in exchange for a donation is considered selling it by law. She also handed out the church leadership list and the church membership list (both available through the church office).
Religious Education (RE): The Director of RE thanked everyone for their support. She added to the prior report that attendance at RE events such as movie night had been constant or on the increase since January. There are now 28 covenant groups. She commented that the RE committees and committee chairs had been incredibly supportive. OWL classes (featured in O Magazine) will be held for middle school age children in the Fall and Pre-K in the Spring. A member suggested that the church look into establishing on overall event calendar.
Fellowship Committee: The Chair of the committee reported that it is re-emerging from a quiet phase. There are five members and a Chair thus far. We will not be able to single-handedly initiate large events for quite some time. We can, however begin functioning in many helpful ways as we strengthen and grow. We will be Catalysts not Caterers.
1. Fanning the flames already glowing in functional groups in our community-Assisting and advising groups who want to hold an event that fulfills the goals of the Board and greater UU Church. Examples (volunteer recruitment, party planning, etc.)
2. Keeping the flame – providing a clearinghouse of the institutional memory of traditional events (e.g. when and how they are staged most efficiently, resource allocation, scheduling, etc…) This means that if a group wants to host a traditional event, we can help a lot!
3. Gathering and allocating resources (fuel) responsibly-Our process will be to take requests for event support and consider those request at each monthly meeting. Please make requests either in writing, dropped off in the Fellowship Box or via e-mail. We will soon develop an Event Consideration process that a Fellowship Cmte member will call you back with.
4. Connecting to the big flame-Our Board Liaison, Brendan Sterne, will help us set priorities and will help us get feedback on how we are doing to best meet the needs of 1st UU.
Budget 101: The Chair of the Finance Committee gave an overview of the process of establishing the budget. Various committees and programs submit budget requests by September with justifications on how the church would benefit. From there, the expense budget gets pruned to match what income estimates the Stewardship Committee is making from the Fall Canvass. The Finance Committee Chair and the Treasurer do a first draft. The Finance Committee then presents to the BoT. The Finance Committee and BoT have a joint budget meeting, after which the BoT takes the budget to the congregation. Persons with a budget request should attend these meetings to present on them. Anyone can offer a budget-neutral amendment at the Congregational Meeting. This year the Finance Committee intends to submit a balanced budget. The timeline for this process is September through the December Congregational Meeting, which means a “final budget” for submitting to the congregation needs to be in place by November.
Stewardship Committee: The Chair of the Stewardship Committee reported the committee is engaged in changing the culture of giving in the church. The Spring Canvass (sort-term, one-time) had raised $100,000+, indicating the congregation has gained a maturity when it comes to meeting the fiscal needs of the church. Based upon the “dream goals” that had been established at an earlier meeting of members of the congregation, the Stewardship Committee is preparing to launch the Fall Canvass lasting through early November. They are using the UUA “how to” book on canvassing, involving team captains and their teams that go out and work on raising funds. Each canvasser has 2 to 4 people each to contact. This will be kicking off October 10 after several weeks of training. The committee is also working on improving on collecting pledges that have already been paid as First UU Austin’s rate of pledges not being paid is higher than the average. It would help for pledges to have a date stamp.
Membership Committee: The Chair of the Membership Committee reported on several initiatives this committee is working on including a Connections Fair/Program Guide, a New Member Class, Guests/New Member Greeters, Meet-and-Eat/Wednesday Forums, and The Transparent Ear Round Table. He handed out a written report that provided further details on these items (attached as Appendix J).
Children’s Programming Committee: The Chair of this committee outlined several activities they are planning such as for Halloween and Valentines and reiterated the need for more committee members/assistants.
Joys and Concerns, Follow-Ups, Questions: The Vice-President invited those present to raise any further issues, etc. The following were raised:
- The Denominational Affairs Committee is seeking more members.
- The UUA can be very helpful and has good resources. If enough people contribute to the UUA directly as “Friends of the UUA” the church is recognized.
- The church must take care to reach those who do not have computer access and/or who are not computer literate.
Adjourn: The Vice-President thanked those present for attending and adjourned the meeting.
Attending: Please see Appendix K