August 2023 Board Meeting Highlights

The Board of Trustees met on Tuesday, August 8, 2023 at 6:30pm on Zoom. Minutes from the meeting will be posted here on the UUCC website after they have been approved at the September Board meeting.

The following is an informal recap of topics discussed at the August meeting.

Spiritual Practice

This month Laurie posed two spiritual practice prompts to the Board:   to describe one’s vision of what a wildly successful board year would be like, and to consider one’s personal strengths and challenges for board work.

In imagining wild success over the coming year, members described:

• Championing the Ends and a collective congregational ownership of them;
• A reinvigorated community and connectiveness, including bringing back many of the people who have pulled back from the congregation, as well as engaging recently joined congregants and the broader community;
• Bringing creativity and open discussion of various ideas;
• Commitment to really living the new mission statement, where everyone can come and feel that UUCC is their religious home;
• Process with visionary objectives in mind in all decisions, tie deliberation back to values, mission and ends;
• Outreach to the congregation;
• Transparency through blog posts;
• Making space for every board member to be heard and not be afraid to engage in and find common ground in conflict;
• welcoming the growth opportunities that come with using our covenant of right relations and other covenants; and
• Reviewing the bylaws and governance documents.

Individual strengths included: strong ability to listen and synthesize, empathetic listening, fresh perspective, critical thinking about ideas and goals, and willingness to learn and work as a team.

New Youth Board Position

The board discussed the need to reach out to prospective candidates.  Melissa will send out a text asking for applications for the youth board membership position.  The board is eager to fill the position and has set a goal of October 2023 to have a youth board member in place.  The board also began discussions about possibly having a different election cycle for youth members to accommodate academic schedules, which are typically not known at the June Annual meeting.

Perspective from a former BoT President on the VME

Kathy Rose, UUCC president in the 1990’s shared her perspective and experience on implementing Values, Mission and Ends with today’s current board.  During her time as president, the congregation was experiencing a split and some turmoil.  She stressed the importance of planning the implementation of VME, modeling behaviors and using the language of the VME.  Kathy believes the locus of ownership should be based on shared commitment to our newly adopted Values, Mission and Ends statement.

Financial Report

Kevin Mercer the Board Treasurer presented the final report of the fiscal year.  UUCC was in the positive for the year.  The funds are lower than in past years because UUCC is no longer benefiting from supplemental income from pandemic-related funds.  The recent pledge drive results are not sufficient to adequately sustain UUCC operations.  Valerie has been considering grants and other creative options to support UUCC long-term supplemental financial support, and this conversation will be ongoing.

 Bylaws Review

There was an extensive discussion regarding evaluation of the  bylaws to take UUCC into the future beyond 2023 using the VME as a philosophical foundation. There was a consensus that a board committee should be convened, and that the committee’s recommendations would be presented to the board for decision and the results presented to the membership at the annual meeting for approval.

Next Board Meeting

September 12, 2023 at 6:30 via Zoom

Questions?

Please connect with us at board@uucolumbia.net or stop by the Board Corner in Sanctuary B on Sundays during coffee hour.