Ends-Monitoring Survey Committee

To understand why we have Ends, you have to understand how power and responsibility are held and delegated within our congregation.

The ultimate decider about who/what UUCC is and what it does is the congregation itself. In the bylaws, the business of running the congregation is delegated to the Board of Trustees. In turn, the day-to-day operations of the congregation are delegated to the Executive Team (Senior Minister and Executive Director) which in turn delegates work to paid professional and volunteer staff. The Board develops policies which articulate the congregation’s objectives for how it will achieve its mission and live its values. The Board communicates these policies – called “Ends” – to the Executive Team, to tell them what to focus on.

The Values, Mission, and Ends statements are all reviewed and updated periodically – ideally, at least every 7 years.[1]

Because the Board of Trustees is accountable to the congregation, it is necessary for it to monitor those that it delegates to. However, to avoid micromanaging and to vest agency, initiative, and creative control in those that do the work, the Board does not get involved in operational decisions. Instead it “makes policy” which it instructs the Executive to follow. Ends are the policies which instruct the Executive what it should focus on to fulfill UUCC’s mission and live its values. The Board monitors how well the Executive is promoting and moving toward the Ends. (This form of governance is a variant of a form called “Policy-Based Governance.”)

Footnote [1] For more about the current Values, Mission, and Ends, the history of how they came to be adopted, and the participation of the full congregation in this process, you can refer to the final report of the Values, Mission and Ends Committee. The Board also sets other policies, called “Administrative Limitations,” which act as guardrails on how Ends are addressed. For example, the congregation’s staff and volunteers may not commit a criminal act, exceed the budget, or endanger the congregation’s nonprofit status, even if by doing so they were promoting one of the Ends. The Mission and Values Statements were confirmed by congregational vote in June, 2023. Ends are a part of Board governance, and they were drafted in spring, 2023 at a 2-day Board retreat. After the Board received congregational feedback about the draft Ends, they were amended and then adopted by the Board at its June, 2023 Board meeting.

Ends are a particular kind of objective or goal. The Ends are visionary goals that chart the course for how to fulfill UUCC’s mission and live its values. And they have a specific purpose: to act as a measure when the Board monitors how well UUCC is fulfilling its mission and living its values. Another way to understand the use of the word “Ends” is that it is often used in contradistinction to “Means.” In the case of UUCC, the Board promulgates Ends and the Executive Team oversees the Means to the ends. The Board monitors compliance with the Ends so that it can fulfill its accountability to the congregation and its mission.

It’s better than the alternative. Easily measured numerical objectives like “at least $X thousand in pledges this year” or “meet or exceed an average attendance of Y people at worship services” don’t tell us about whether we’re attaining our mission and living our values. These easily-measurable “success measures” may (or may not) go up as we achieve our Ends, but they can go up and down for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with who we aspire to be and what difference we want to make.

Of course the Board also receives direct information about things like worship attendance and financial status – these matter, too, even if they are not Ends.

The best, and indeed, the only real way to monitor the congregation’s success in attaining its mission and living its collective values is to ask YOU, the congregation how UUCC is doing. The congregation is the best source of information about the experience of being at UUCC. So, literally, the Board can’t do the work of monitoring success in attaining our Ends without input from the congregation.

We feel you! The three words “Ends-Monitoring Survey” are perhaps the three most boring words in the English Language! We’re trying to make the process as pleasant, brief, and interesting as possible by offering multiple ways to participate – your choices of online at home, online with help in the fellowship hall, paper survey, and one on one interview format, at least.

We’re hearing from people who are testing it that it takes about 7-10 minutes to fill it out. If you want to explain answers or add commentary, suggestions, opinions, and so forth, there are lots of spaces to give open-ended responses, and these could make your survey process take longer. If you use the online form, you will be able to complete the survey in multiple sessions – there is a feature that allows you to opt to save your partial work and receive a link to return to do the rest.

We value your confidentiality and want you to be able to give frank, honest responses. So we make your participation as private as we possibly can. Please see our confidentiality and privacy policy for the details once it’s available.

Actually, this is a really good time to conduct the survey. One reason is that the survey is best interpreted using trends over time, so it has been designed for annual administration. Another reason is that the survey results can be used to better inform Rev. Lisa, the UUA, and, ultimately, called ministerial candidates, about who we are and what we care about. Finally, our active, vocal, and dynamic congregation is one of our best features, and the fact that we conduct an annual monitoring survey will likely be helpful in making our congregation appealing to prospective candidates as we travel this liminal space into a new settled ministry. Indeed, now might be a perfect time to be conducting this survey.

Participating in the Ends Monitoring Survey Process can have many benefits.

• Your voice will be heard in charting the course of how the congregation operates. The Board will be informed about your experiences and opinions, and the report that comes out of the survey process will also be viewed by the Executive Team and can influence their decisions about everyday congregational life.
• If you pledge, donate or volunteer at UUCC, you can help to ensure that your money is well spent on actions that take us toward our collective goals. Participating in the Ends survey makes good financial sense!
• Learning about the Ends and thinking about how they apply at UUCC can help you to be better able to be active in the congregation. If you do volunteer or act in a leadership position, knowing about the Ends, and what we can best do to serve them, can help guide you in your actions.
• Thinking about the Ends can help you better link what happens at UUCC with our congregational mission and values. When the time comes to evaluate whether to update these fundamental expressions of who we are, you will be better informed.