Joseph Priestley
District
Board of
Directors
September 13 and
14,2002
UU
House, Philadelphia, PA
Julia Sayles, Secretary
Present: Evelyn Spurgin
(president),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, The Rev. Linda Olson Peebles (UUA Trustee).
Absent: Bill Stoup, who notified all
that he was busy with OWL training.
Also
present:
the Rev. Richard Speck (district executive.) and Dave Hunter, former Board
member. Friday evening several members from area churches attended and joined in
the discussion.
After a lovely dinner
prepared and served by the staff at UU House staff, the Rev. Richard Speck led
us in worship dedicated to the memory of the Reverend Doctor Rudolph W.Nemser,
longtime minister of the Cherryhill, NJ Congregation and former JPD President,
who died August 2, 2002.
Evelyn Spurgin, president,
welcomed our guests from neighboring churches, asked them what they wished and a
lively discussion ensued. Tom Schoonmacker from the Germantown Church would like
to see us advertise on NPR, Ron Cotts of MainLine would like to see new
congregations, of at least 300 members or more west of Main Line, CJ Rhodes of
Bucks County wanted more focus on Lay Leadership and more help with new
technology, the Rev.Kent Mathias of Germantown noted Rudy Nemser’s admonition
for all ministers to work ¼ time for the denomination noting that, like water,
as others do well we all benefit, Ann Schoonmacker, Pres. Of Germantown Church
wanted a fiscally stable congregation, wanted congregants happy doing what they
wanted to do, and wanted help in developing new leaders. She and Benjamin
Maucure of First Church Philadelphia wanted to better understand the
possibilities using Percept, the new demographic program the District has
acquired to assist congregations identify potential members in their area.
Richard Speck briefly explained the effort and directed them to Bob Johnsen
JPD’s Growth consultant. Carol Klekotka of Thomas Paine noted that her
congregation was in trouble and was looking to JPD for help, Dennis Bruun of the
Germantown Church wanted more cooperation between congregations on matters of
social justice, Virginia Kirk of Thomas Paine saw UUSJ developing a social
justice network for Pennsylvania The Reverend Bonnie Jean Casey of Restoration
Church in Philadelphia said that we, as a denomination, needed to be more
intentional about diversity and, in so doing should pay more attention to urban
churches. She felt too much time was being spent on the growing new suburban
congregations at a time when urban churches were losing
members.
Evelyn Spurgin, President, introduce the Reverend Tracey Robinson-Harris, now UUA’s Director for Congregation Services. She in turn, explained that she was a stand in for Peter Morales, Director for District Services who was this weekend assisting the Pacific Central District. Tracey and Evelyn both explained that the Board would use this weekend to finalize goal setting for the Board and the staff, something that was started, but not completed, at the retreat in May.
Tracie began the evening reminding us of the co-employment relationship of the District Executive (DE) position. She explained that both the JPD and UUA participated in the search process, were apart of the start up and now apart of the one-year review. She also reminded us of the DE’s 4-year term and the third year review to see if a second term was appropriate. Tracie noted that at the end of the seventh year there could be a further review but that the UUA generally thought 8 years was enough. However, she explained that, for really compelling reasons, a DE might continue beyond that point. As Richard was now at the end of his first year, part of the exercise this weekend was to assist in his first year review.
Starting with the Goals outlined in May, the Board with Tracey’s assistance concluded that most were the sort to be completed by the staff with committee assistance. Later, it reviewed Richard Speck’s goals for himself and integrated those into what the staff as a whole was expected to tackle this year. Below is the original list, with annotations and a few items that came from our September discussion.
Growth/Leadership (All but A5 should be completed by staff
with Committee assistance as noted.)
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, 2002 meeting. Richard will provide showing in advance of the July meeting. ( done)
3. Direct Task force to develop time line and action plan by July, 2002 meeting. (done)
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. (Board)
B. Complete District Growth Plan (Staff with Extension Committee)
C. Develop financing plan for long-range plan. Do ground work to bring ministers into discussion about Endowment/ Capital Funding ideas. (Staff with Board Finance Committee)
D. Staff for growth.
E. Staff self care – not previously included in Board’s list but critical to facilitate the above. Further, it will be thought of as a limitation in the Policy Governance model.
UU Identity (All to be completed by staff with
committee assistance as noted.)
A. Meet with Metro NY to reform Unilead. (Staff with Leadership Committee. JPD can persuade not control. Board funded 10 attendees this year so it was assumed that Unilead needs JPD.)
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 (i.e. Commission on Appraisal Reports).
D. Have staff hire or find a pro bono marketing consultant and develop a “brand” by December 2002.
(Tracey noted that the UUA was test marketing something like this in Kansas City.)
E. Find and allocate money for these goals and objectives for Fiscal Year 2003-2004.
F. Revival- Not on the Board list, DE may pursue if time permits.
Programs (All but JTW to be completed by staff with
committee assistance as appropriate.)
A. YACM/Youth staffing-
1. DE specifically should determine staffing needs and locate necessary funding.
2. Maintain RE program in Acting Year with start up for the Rev. Carol Ann Taylor with Peter Morales in November.
3. Hire and find funds for one halftime Youth Coordinator
4. Remove fundraising from the CampUUs/Young Adult adviser’s. Staff should include short term funding and work with Long Range Planning Committee for long term support.
5. Consider/ brainstorm about the appointment of a probono development officer to help implement staffing plans.
B. JTW- Board to implement Anti-racism and make it a priority in 2002.
1. Develop 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- (Maybe not get attention until 2003-2004)
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.
Setting Priorities for
2002-2003
Recognizing the number of
items above, the Board worked with Tracy and Richard to set priorities for
2002-2003.
Staff Priorities
1.
Prepare for Policy
Governance
G/L A
(Bd)
2.
Develop adjunct staff
G/L D
(Bd)
3.
Develop opportunities for
Public Witness
UUI
4.
Assure the availability of a
quality leadership school whether Unilead or not.
5.
Work with the Board to
expand Long term /endowment capital funding. G/L C (DE and
Bd)
6.
Develop program options
recognizing that flexibility will be needed re timelines.
Board’s Priorities
1.
Get Policy Governance off
the ground
a.
Move toward full
implementation.
b.
Educate others about
changes
c.
Decide how we stay in touch
with congregations, our owners.
2.
Promote Anti-racism – Decide
what we want to do. (JTW Team will meet with the Board in
November.)
3.
Continue Long range
planning/ Endowment/Capital Funding Planning
Following discussion, the Board adopted unanimously both the staff and Board priorities as goals for 2002-2003.
Implementation of Policy Governance
After setting the goals, Board and staff discussed the need to communicate the Policy Governance to:
1. Committees
2. New Board Members
3. Ministers ( CUUMA and PK)
4. Nominating Committee
5. Area Counsels
6. District Staff
7. UUA as Co-employer
8. LREDA
9. Congregations
10. Packet and other communication media
Again, we discussed the familiar reasoning that Policy Governance would
1. Empower the staff, our experts.
2. Increase capacity for service.
3. Free to Board to be visionaries.
Business Meeting
1. Minutes of the July Board meeting in Wilmington were approved unanimously.
2. Treasurer’s report- See attached. Ellen Cotts, Treasurer, JPD congregations achieved 90.05% return. Pete Fonteau, APF coordinator, was recognized for his efforts in this. He noted that this result earned JPD a $1000 bonus from the UUA.
3. UUA Trustee Election – Friday night Dave Hunter submitted his summary of the UUA
Trustee election procedures. See attached. The Board accepted his report and agreed to the
following schedule:
a. Nov. 1st - Deadline for names to be submitted to the Nominating Committee.
b. Nov. 25th –Report of Nominating Committee due.
c. January 24th Deadline for submission to JPD Office, of nominations by member congregations at a duly called meeting and seconded by another congregation.
d. January 24th Deadline for submission, to JPD Office, of petitions signed by 25 members from at least 5 congregations.
The Board accepted the Rules, the dates and set the election for March 25th.
noting that the Rev Linda Olson Peebles, Minister of Education at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington is our Trustee, is entitled to serve an additional term and has indicated her desire to run. The Board also noted that, per the rules, if there was only one candidate by Jan 24th, there would be no election and the one candidate would be declared the winner.
4. Long Range Planning- Mike Harris reported on his efforts to expand financing opportunities, in particular his meeting with Terry Schweitzer of the UUA Development Office who earlier in the day explained various strategies for going after large gifts and in particular how to:
a. Identify prospects who might give $25,000 to $1,000,000
b. How to get UUA help with 10% price tag
c. How to make ministers see this is not in competition with congregation giving, etc.
Mike also reported his efforts to get Kami O’Keefe, UUA Staff, to brief the Board on how UUA might assist with JPD Endowment Fund in particular doing a feasibility study with the goal of finding money for
a.Youth/ CampUUs Programming
b. JTW Anti-racism
c. Growth
He noted that once we get
this going, Board members will be expected to participate but that
the
amount of their giving would
be up to them.
5. Lifespan Search
Committee-Process on going, several names suggested, search packet and job
description may need updating. No date set yet.
6. Leadership
Development- Janet Eisenhauer reported
that Committee developed a new Mission Statement. In summary, the Committee
agreed to:
a.
Support JPD
Staff
b.
Provide training at least
once per year
c.
Develop needs
assessment
d.
Report to
DE
Janet noted a training scheduled for Hartford County, November
16th with Richard Speck and
Meredith Higgins teaching. She also asked for all to identify emerging
leaders we should invite to
upcoming training.
7. Policy
Governance
– Evelyn Spurgin and Marilyn Dyson agreed that they would read Carver re next
steps, familiarize themselves with what was on the web site, and report
back.
8. Request by Bill
Reilly, Nominations Chair to be on JPD List serve- No action was taken.
Evelyn would ask him why he wanted such and report back.
9. Richard Speck’s Report-
Richard
gave an oral report of his activities. Also, he said Bob
Johnsen’s and Kim
Mason’s reports would be forth coming. See reports.
10.Liaison Reports
when asked what is the dream for your congregation, answers were as
follows:
a. Elyse found that several
wanted a healthy congregation.
b. Evelyn noted that churches wanted to work
together.
c. Mike found that one wanted
to finish its lower level, another to get rid of its
minister
d.
and /or accept his
changes.
e.
Janet noted that one wanted
to balance its budget without use of its endowment and get rid of a defeatist
attitude.
5.
New Question- How would your
congregation become more anti-racist?
Upcoming
Meetings-
November 8 and 9 -
Annapolis,
Md. Noon lunch with Start Up for Carol Taylor, Acting Lifespan Religious
Education Consultant prior to Board meeting.
March 7-8, Lancaster,
Pa.
April 4-5 Annual Meeting,
Timonium, Md.
May 16-17, Drayton
Manor.
Julia Sayles, Secretary
October 31,2002