SOUTH NASSAU UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CONGREGATION
BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING MINUTES
JULY16, 2008
Approved: 8/20/08
Present:Rob Esformes (President), George Jackson (Vice President), Anne Fleming (Secretary), Rosemary Beach, Tom Weingarten (Treasurer), and Coral Kennelty-Cohen,
Absent: Jean Smyth-Crocetto, Barbara Singer, Ken Lawson,and Rev. Catherine Torpey
Chalice Lighting & Opening Words:
Rob Esformes, Board President, lit the “virtual chalice” within each of our hearts and called the meeting to order.
Consent Items:
The minutes of the June 25thmeeting were approved. These minutes will be sent to Peter Larsen for posting on our website as well as being posted on the bulletin board and filed in the office.
Action Items:
Rob’s contact regarding the purchase of a significantly discounted software package has proven positive and Rob reported that he purchased a software package for the discounted price of $70.00 as previously authorized by the Board. The software has been installed on the SNUUC computer. He will submit a request for reimbursement for these funds.
George Jackson, Vice President, presented the Congregational Behavioral Policy. He said that there had been 3 congregational forums on this policy in the spring of 2007. He also reported that Rev. Torpey and Bobby Newman had reviewed it and suggested revisions which were implemented in the final policy being presented. There was a suggestion made to change the wording slightly in the “Immediate Response” section to, “…If the Minister is not present and the incident occurs during a general social event, the matter should be addressed by any Board member present, or if no Board member is present, by any member of the congregation. This may include asking the individual to leave the premises or calling the Police for assistance if necessary. They should subsequently contact the Minister and/or an officer of the Board.” A motion was made to accept the Congregational Behavioral Policy as revised. Motion passed. The Board will prepare copies of the policy for distribution, George will ask Peter to post the policy on the website, and Rob will mention it in his September “Boardwalk” column.
A motion was made to accept the appointment of Denise Hibbert to the Committee on Ministry. Motion passed.
Discussion Items:
As a direct result of our e-mail to the congregation requesting consideration around approaching Board members with business concerns following Sunday services, it was questioned whether we would continue to wear the yellow identification tags on Sundays. We agreed that our intention to bring awareness of the issue may have caused concern about our availability and our willingness to hear others’ concerns. With this in mind, we agreed to maintain the item about these tags in the Announcements section of our regular Orders of Service (Board Members of SNUUC are the ones wearing the bright yellow name tags. During coffee hour please say hello, introduce yourself or ask any questions you may have about our congregation). Rosemary will contact Lisa Bryson Brockman about this. Rosemary also suggested that it might be important to discuss with all new members of the Board each year about how we talk and react with congregants on any given Sunday. For example, we might want to ask for a chance to talk more directly with the congregant at a specified later date or via e-mail so that we can hear their concerns more clearly and with fewer distractions than might be present at the coffee hour.
Executive Session
The Board went into Executive Session to discuss the on-going issue of a community member in regards to our Interim Congregational Behavior Policy.
The Board came out of Executive Session and discussed how to let our congregational community know of the steps we have taken to enforce the Interim Congregational Behavior Policy. Rob said he will talk with Jean Smyth-Crocetto to check on the wording we might use in a written communication in order to protect the rights of the individual for privacy and confidentiality as well as to protect SNUUC. Rob suggested he might be able to include something general in his “Boardwalk” column but Rosemary said she would prefer a more private mailing to congregants.
Executive Session
The Board went back into Executive Session to discuss the minister’s evaluation for the UUA. Our evaluation is now complete and Rob will contact Catherine to arrange for a meeting to review the evaluation with her and George next week.
The Board also went into Executive Session to discuss possible replacements for Board vacancies (Coral Kennelty Cohen, youth trustee, is going away to college and Leslie Farrington-Griggs resigned her position last month).
Discussion Items - continued
The Board came out of Executive Session and resumed discussion items:
Dorothy Curran has resigned her membership and is no longer the Finance Committee chairperson. It was discussed that the committee will now have to select a new chairperson and the Board will be given the opportunity to approve the selection.
Dorothy Curran had also delivered a memo to the Board prior to our meeting. It was not clear if the memo was from Dorothy personally or if she delivered it on behalf of the Thrift Shop Committee. The memo highlighted some issues concerning lack of control of their finances (e.g. spontaneous donations to outside charities, funding for an appreciation luncheon for Thrift Shop volunteers) now that they are brought under the direct financial control of SNUUC. Tom again explained that this is related to SNUUC’s fiduciary responsibility for the congregation and that according to the advice from our CPA counsel (Jeffrey Spiegel), we could endanger our tax exempt status if we did not maintain this control. There were questions about who determined which expenses were authorized for the Thrift Shop and Tom said he would respond to the memo with a call directly to Joe McAuley, Thrift Shop Committee Co-chair and Ken Lawson, Thrift Shop Committee member.
Tom reported that he had the final Year End Fiscal Report for 2007-8 from Bernie Kaplan and that Bernie had made a concerted effort to close out the books for this past year as of July 1, 2008. Tom noted that we spent approximately $26,000 more than we took in but that $6,000 of that amount was for expenses which had been incurred in the ’06-’07 church year.
Tom also reported on the progress of Marianne Reuter as bookkeeper. He said our budget is now on Quickbooks and our expenses and income will be tracked to line-item categories. He also reported that she has started to cut some checks which Bernie has signed. We are preparing new signatories for the bank accounts to reflect current Board Officers (Rob, George, Tom and Anne). For the account that supports our Gift Certificate program, we will also ask Alexis Surve to be a signatory since she will be handling this program for the coming year. Tom introduced the new blue Reimbursement Request forms and the Tally Sheets for Sunday contributions (two sheets – one for pledges received and one for contributions other than pledges). Tom suggested that for tracking pledges clearly, it would help if congregants wrote “Pledge ’08-‘09” on the memo lines of their checks. Anne will ask Lisa Bryson Brockman and Carl Spatt to let the congregation know about this suggestion.
In regards to the Committee on Ministry(COM) appointment, George raised the point that there seem to be three committees performing the same services.According to George, the bylaws specify that one of the committees, the Sunday Services Committee, should be a standing committee. The other two committees are the Worship Committee and the Committee on theMinistry. Since the Sunday Services Committee has not been functioning, he suggested that we put all of those committees together under the Committee on the Ministry and that it be a standing committee. He said that this would be consistent with the description of the Committee of the Ministry which we received earlier in the year. This would also mean that as a standing committee it would report to the board and to the congregation. George thought that this committee would then perform its functions of evaluating the minister and serving as a liaison between the minister and the congregation more successfully.We agreed to discuss this more fully at our next meeting.
It was noted that we need to cover the Lock Up assignments originally assigned to Leslie Farrington Griggs. Rosemary volunteered to cover the first Sunday (July 20th) and we will discuss her other assigned date (Sept. 21st) at our next meeting.
Finally, Rob thanked Coral Kennelty Cohen for her dedication and clarity in working with the Board these past six months. We all wished her well as she prepares to enter her freshman year of college in Austin, TX.
The meeting was adjourned.
Reports received: Minister’s Report
NEXT MEETING: August 20that 7:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Anne Fleming, Secretary