Joseph Priestley
District
Board of
Directors
May
17-18, 2002
Murray
Grove
Julia Sayles, Secretary
Present: Mike Harris (vice
president), Ellen Cotts (treasurer), Julia Sayles (secretary), Charley Bersch,
Dawn Star Borchelt, the Rev. Howard Dana, Marilyn Dyson, Janet Eisenhauer, Pete
Fontneau, the Rev. Paula Maiorano, Pamela McEnany, Elyse Resnick, Bill Stroup,
The Rev. Linda Olson Peebles (UUA Trustee).
Absent: Evelyn Spurgin (president)
Also
present:
the Rev. Richard Speck (district executive), the Rev.Virginia Jarocha-Ernst
(acting lifespan religious education consultant), Bob Johnson (district growth
consultant), Kim Mason (campUUs organizer), Dave Hunter, former Board member and
Secretary, Larry Schwab (retreat facilitator for retreat portion), Ellen Chulak
(Murray Grove director and hostess for introductions and history only) Michael
Masters, asst. director for history lesson and chapel service
only)
The
meeting began Friday evening at 7:10 PM with a welcoming to Murray Grove by
Ellen Chulak and Michael Masters, a worship service and the first portion of the
Retreat. It concluded Saturday afternoon at 5:00 PM following the conclusion of
the retreat, the business meeting and closing worship service in Potter’s
Chapel. Throughout Mike Harris led the worship services using writings and ideas
on governance that we will be grappling with throughout the year while Richard
and Linda with their guitars, led us in song.
Ellen Chulak welcomed JPD
Board and staff. Michael Masters recounted the story of Thomas Potter’s
conversion to Universalism, his building of a small chapel, and the ship
grounding that, by divine intervention or not, that brought John Murray, the
noted English Universalist preacher to Potter’s chapel. Additionally, Ellen
explained the recent failed attempt by Murray Grove, and the non-profit it
created, to acquire and renovate the former home of Dr. George DeBenneville,
another 18th century Universalist who lived in nearby
Pennsylvania.
Friday night and Saturday morning sessions, with Larry Schwab as facilitator, the Board and staff assessed their respective accomplishments in 2001-2002 and began the process of setting goals for the new year.
Together, we went through a
number of brainstorming exercises before tackling, head on, last year’s efforts.
When asked to list the Board’s strengths, we modified the request a bit and
listed several things we felt good about such as (1.) Richard, (2.) the Annual
Meeting, (3). the Board’s willingness to meet at various locations around the
District giving it the opportunity to hear from local leaders, (4.) the steps
the Board has taken to become a policy governance board, (5.) the by-law changes
and more. When asked to list weaknesses, one suggested, “ We just don’t get it”.
In an effort to get a handle on what that meant, we touched on policy governance
and our role regarding anti-racism. We also noted the Board’s lack of clarity in
articulating priorities, in saying what we wanted done, in setting time lines
and, most importantly, in making clear who we thought should be held
accountable. We also noted a lack of clarity as to what individual Board members
were supposed to be doing as liaisons to District churches. Next, we reviewed
each of the components of the JPD Plan for 2001-2002 noting items accomplished,
those in progress and ones that still need to be done. Briefly, we
noted:
A.
Task force for policy
governance- Set up with Mike, Evelyn and Marilyn.
B.
Best practices –add to web
site. Still not done.
C.
Engage leadership- the
nominating committee has successfully scoured the congregations for new
leadership as evidenced by the quality of our new Board members. Also noted was
the fact that the Extension Chair has a job description and Journey Toward
Wholeness (JTW) has a mission statement.
UU Identity
A.
Social justice- articulate
vision and ask for feedback- Not done
B.
Public awareness-Distributed
the book, “Belonging”, a book articulating our faith.
C.
Acquire volunteer media folk and target 3
congregations- Not yet.
A. Young Adult ˝ time professional.
Not yet.
Each staff member prepared progress reports. See copies attached.
Overview
As above, Larry Schwab took us through a number of exercises to assist in setting goals for 2002-2003. The products of that effort are summarized below. However, the Board deferred adoption to the July meeting or to a time, after which, it had resolved the several questions concerning policy governance. Using essentially the same categories as the year before, the Board’s working groups listed the following as matters they wished considered when goals were finally set.
Growth/Leadership
A. Implement policy governance this year.
1. Put JPD policies and minutes on the website. (JPD Board Portal)
2. Read Carver and watch video prior to July meeting. Richard will provide showing in advance of the July meeting.
3. Direct Task force to develop time line and action plan by July meeting.
4. Articulate how policy governance correlates to District growth.
5. Develop an orientation effort to acquaint new Board members and the Nominating Committee with policy governance.
B. Complete District Growth Plan.
C. Develop financing plan for long-range plan.
D. Staff for growth.
UU Identity
A. Meet with Metro NY to reform Unilead.
B. Establish a taskforce to explore how the District should/can do social justice and public witness and report back by the March 2003 Board meeting.
C. Include public witness training at Large Church Meeting, Annual Meeting and other such opportunities. Establish a task force to study how to do lay theological enrichment (ie. Commission on Appraisal Reports).
D. Have staff hire or find a pro bono marketing consultant and develop a “brand” by December 2002.
E. Find and allocate money for these goals and objectives for Fiscal Year 2003-2004.
Programs
A. Young Adult/CampUUs, Lifespan Religious Education Consultant, and District Youth Programing Within 12 months, assign a working group to develop a plan, with time lines, to permit JPD to:
1. Hire and fund one Fulltime CampUUs/ Youth Adviser.
2. Hire and fund one halftime Youth Coordinator
3. Remove fundraising from the CampUUs/Young Adult adviser’s responsibilities.
4. Consider the appointment of a development officer to help implement these plans.
B. JTW- Board to implement Anti-racism by:
1. Developing a process by which it uses an anti-racist lens in all activities.
2. Adopt policies to implement anti-racism throughout the District.
3. Provide multi-lingual materials.
C.
LGBT- Direct staff to develop programs to meet the needs of LGBT UUs.
D.
Accessibility
1. Direct staff to survey congregations.
2 Put accessibility information in directory
3. Establish a committee to guide this effort.
E. Elderly
1. Direct staff to survey congregations.
2. Locate UUA resources.
3. Hold JPD Conference regarding.
F. Conferences –
1. Continue holding conferences at hotels.
2. Plan 3 years in advance.
Vision
As its final exercise, Board members listed priorities they would like to see in the future and, with dots, each indicated concerns he or she believed most needed Board attention. Once compiled, the topics were ranked as follows:
A. Implement policy governance (11)
B. Keep our kids- make them lifelong UUs (8)
C. Assure fulltime ministers in all churches (7).
D. Share the UU message. (6)
E. Improve communications. (4)
F. Grow Larger churches and hold revival (4)
G. Assure Fair Share from all congregations (3)
H. Achieve Long Range Planning Goals (3)
Business Meeting
Mike Harris, VP conducted the business meeting at which the Board took up the following:
A. Minutes The Board approved the minutes as submitted.
B. Treasure’s Report- Ellen Cotts submitted the reports attached. She explained that JPD would likely end the year with a surplus as Committees had not spent all the money allotted. She asked that the liaisons contact their churches and urge payment of the remaining amounts due before the close of the fiscal year June 30th.
C. Endowment Fund for Growth The Board agreed, in principal, to permit the Extension Committee to explore and report back on the advisability of establishing a fund, similar to the one in Florida, to assist churches at amounts more than can be done with Chalice Lighter grants.
D. Video Projector- The Board authorized the purchase, this fiscal year, of a digital projector, screen and cart for a total of $4000, with $1000 coming from a grant from the Pennsylvania Universalist
Convention.
E. Committee Liaison Assignments- Committee and liaison assignments were modified and agreed to as follows;
1. Awards- Mike Harris, Pete Fontneau, and Charley Bersch
2. CampUUs- Julia Sayles
3. JPD Conference- Paula Maiorano
4. DE Ministry Committee- Marilyn Dyson
5. DYSC- Dawn Star Borchelt
6. Extension- Ellen Cotts
7. Finance- Mike Harris, Ellen Cotts and Elyse Resnick
8. Journey Toward Wholeness- Evelyn Spurgin
9. JPD-UU Young Adult Network - Howard Dana
10. Leadership Development- Janet Eisenhauer and Charley Bersch
11. LGBT/Interweave- Bill Stroup
12. Long range Planning- Mike Harris and Pamela McEnany
13. Personnel- Janet Eisenhower (chair) and Ellen Cotts
14. Publications- Marilyn Dyson
15. Religious education- Elyse Resnick
16. Women and Religion- Pamela McEnany
17. Music and Worship Arts- Pete Fontneau
18. CUUMA- Linda Olson Peebles
19. PK-Howard Dana
D. Annual Meeting 2002 Richard reported that the attendance was up and evaluation forms indicated that overall the conference was well received. He reported that delegates indicated that they enjoyed most workshops but that worship services and the keynote speaker met with mixed reviews. Having it at a hotel was also well received but delegates thought the food service needed improvement. Richard noted that JPD made money in some measure because, with only one meal provided, more of the expenses were shifted to the delegates. Paula commended the work Tina put into the conference and suggested that the Board commend her good work. It was agreed that Richard and Evelyn would write her a letter and give her an appropriate gift.
E. Annual Meeting 2003 Richard and Paula indicated that they were planning to have the meeting at the same Timonium hotel the first weekend in April. They are working with the hotel to improve food options possibly including breakfast as a reservation expense. Paula indicated that the theme will be“ Spirituality of Generosity. She indicated that she was looking for a volunteer to be co-chair. Her goal is to find someone who would work with her this year and then head up the effort the next year.
F. GA Suite in Quebec. Richard shared the schedule of events planned for JPD’s Suite at the Hilton in Quebec. See attached. He passed out a sheet seeking volunteers to set up, help host and clean up after one of the several events.
G. Next Meetings The next meeting will be held in the JPD Offices
in Wilmington, DE July 12-13.
Upcoming meetings were tentatively set for Germantown, PA & the UU
House, September 13-14, Lancaster, PA November 8-9, Arlington, VA January 10-11,
and Cherry Hill, NJ March 7-8 and the Annual Meeting, at the hotel in Timonium,
MD April 11-12.
H. Goals for 2002-2003 Mike Harris asked that the Board adopt the Goals articulated above. No motion was adopted. Instead, the Board, by consensus agreed to revisit goal setting for 2002-2003 once the policy governance issues was resolved.
I. Executive Session- The Board went into executive session to hear a report with regard to the Lifespan Religious Education Consultant search and deal with a personnel matter.
The Board and staff then went to the lovely little Potter Chapel for a Closing Worship at which Mike read passages from the Gospel according to John Carver and Linda and Richard led us in song.
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