Minutes of the UUCA Board of Trustees
May 26, 2015
Attending
Board Members: Amelia Shenstone (presiding), Melissa Marion-Landais, Howard Lewis, Karen Martin
(recording), Jane Mengel, Marie Palena, Erin Stanfill, Christian Harden, Cindy Hoffner, Grier Page, Jon Johnson
Staff: Senior Minister Anthony Makar, Interim Associate Minister Jane Thickstun, Director of Administration
Karen Roy
Guests: Joetta Prost and Carol Ann Arvan representing the Stewardship Team
Absent: Mike Kuhar
Amelia called the meeting to order at 7:01 p.m.
Spirit & Community
Chalice lighting: Karen lit the chalice with words by William Schulz from Bless the Imperfect: Meditations for
Congregational Leaders, edited by Kathleen Montgomery.
Introductions and Welcoming Guests: Joetta and Carol Ann were introduced and welcomed.
Announcements: Amelia made announcements as listed in the agenda.
Circle of connection: Why do you serve on the UUCA Board?
Responses included:
 To be more connected to the Community
 I believe that things can be better than they are
 I am interested in seeing how it works
 I was asked and I accepted
 I believe in this place
 The more involved I am, the more I get out of it
 It is important to keep up with what’s going on
 It is important to me
 To help out
 I was pleased to be asked and look forward to the opportunity to see the bigger picture
 I love being the right hand, my work serves the whole Community
 I am modeling behavior and living my values
 A Spiritual Community is where we practice living the world we want to live in
This month’s Thank You cards will be written to Dana Boyle and Farmer Joe for their work on the Floralia
Dinner and fundraiser.
Board Roles and Responsibilities for 2015-2016
Amelia introduced and thanked Karen Martin for agreeing to stand for Board Secretary and Howard Lewis for
agreeing to stand for Board Liaison to the Nominating Committee.
Melissa reminded members to use the Sign-up Genius to sign up for Board roles. Amelia reminded members
that the Above Board article is due the month following the month for which you have signed up.
Board members reviewed the Covenant of the Board of Trustees 2014-2015 by taking turns reading lines
aloud. We will discuss any needed edits and sign the new Board Covenant at the Board Retreat.
Board Education
2015-2016 Stewardship Campaign: Joetta Prost and Carol Ann Arvan presented a report on the plans and
progress of the coming Stewardship Campaign. The team has created 12 Generosity Circles, one for each
month of the year. The year has been divided into quarters and named for the seasons. Each quarter has a
Quarter Leader that will serve for two years. They are John Guyton, Mary Sherman, Mary Ann Gaunt, and Judy
Shaklee. Each Quarter Leader will recruit a team of callers. Callers will be asked to contact about 5 people in
each month of their Quarter. Members and friends will be contacted during their month each year. Calls will
have a pastoral care tone. Training videos and scripts are being prepared for the callers. We will not be asking
for people to name a specific pledge amount over the phone. We are asking for an ongoing financial
commitment. Generosity Circles have been designed to include people of all giving levels. Each year there will
be an annual theme. This year our theme is Grateful for the Past and Hopeful for the Future. We will have
stewardship testimonials and sermons on stewardship throughout the year. Each Generosity Circle has been
assigned a color. A string of colored paper circles will be used to display our progress throughout the year with
circles of a new color added each month. A kickoff event for all teams will be held May 31 after the service.
Decisive Action 1
Approval of Minutes of April 2015 Meeting: The minutes from the April Board Meeting were approved via
email. Rev. Makar’s Letter of Agreement was approved via email.
Election of Secretary:
Amelia made a motion to elect Karen Martin as Board Secretary and Howard Lewis as Board Liaison to the
Nominating Committee for the 2015-2016 Board year. The motion was seconded by Jane Mengel. The motion
passed unanimously.
Need to Know
Executive Report:
Year 3 Implementation Report for Long Range Plan: Rev. Makar reviewed the Executive Report sent to the
Board via email. He highlighted the following:
 A team has been formed and is working on producing several theater offerings this year. They also
intend to present the Underground Coffeehouse once each month.
 UUCA is seeking a volunteer staff person to serve as an Elder Care Coordinator. The job description is
posted on our website.

Rev. Makar was asked whether the increase in UUA Fair Compensation targets and the increase in the
Children’s Programs Coordinator from 20 hours to 25 hours will set us back in reaching Fair
Compensation for all staff. That is not determined yet and will depend in part on the success of our
new Stewardship model. Rev. Makar and staff are still working on the Fair Compensation policy. He
will produce a report that will include information of the compensation for our new Associate
Minister. The salary is competitive but the benefits are not. Our former candidate suggested the
increase in the Children’s Program Coordinator hours.
Attendance Data: Attendance data was sent to the Board via email.
Proposed Sabbatical Policy-revised:
 The Sabbatical Policy has been updated. Because several Board members expressed concern about
making the changes to the policy retroactive, that language was changed to state that “Under special
circumstances, exceptions to this policy can be made upon approval of the Board.” Additionally, the
term Religious Professional was changed to Professional Spiritual Leader. The policy extends the right
to earn a sabbatical to the Director of Music.
 The Board was not asked to vote on this policy this month but will be asked to vote in June or July.
 The question of whether under Policy Governance the Board is charged with approving Executive
Policies as opposed to determining whether or not a policy is within existing Executive Limitations was
brought up. This will be considered as the Board discerns how to implement the recommendations of
the Dan Hotchkiss report.
Annual Vision of Ministry and Open Questions:
 These concepts were introduced to us in the report from Dan Hotchkiss. They are considered
opportunities for the Board to enhance its governance and work at a higher, more strategic, more
generative level.
 For the Annual Vision of Ministry, the Board and the Senior Minister work collaboratively to identify up
to three priority goals for the year, based upon the Long Range Plan. Examples might be achieving
clarity on what we want for lifespan ministry, establishing our centralized volunteer system or
establishing our Year-Round Stewardship process.
 Open Questions are big questions for which we don’t have answers, which will require time, thought
and discernment. The Vision of Ministry is informed by the Open Question process. These are
questions that will impact the institutions ability to fulfill its mission. Examples might include how
could we better engage millennials and gen Xers; how do we best leverage the time of our Sr. Minister;
and what difference would it make if we were in a different location?
Initial Thoughts on Year 4 plan: This discussion was tabled due to time but Anthony expects to present a Year 4
plan to the board at the July meeting.
The Work of the Board
Board’s role in promoting anti-racism, anti-oppression & multi-culturalism as a core value at UUCA:
Amelia gave an overview of the 2014 diversity retreat. She distributed and explained the Intercultural
Development Continuum. According to survey findings, overall, UUCA is at the Minimization stage of
Intercultural Development. Members took turns reading statements that would commonly be made at each
stage of development in order to better understand the stages. The good news for UUCA is that the survey
indicated that we do not hold perspectives that would hold us back from further development in this area.
We tabled discussion of AR/AO/MC goals for this year due to time.
Finance Committee: Grier gave a very thorough orientation on what to look for in each month’s financial
documents. He explained and showed on the documents, the 5 Pillars of Congregational Financial
Management. He explained what to look for on the Summary. He outlined the Budget process and explained
the Balance Sheet. He explained all of the restricted accounts.
Congregational Life Committee: Christian gave a brief overview of some of the findings of the 2013-2014
Congregational Survey. The committee will be meeting with various groups within the Congregation to explore
how each group helps us move toward the Ends Statements of the Congregation. We will explore the survey
finding that relates increased satisfaction to increased participation. We will be looking at our Open Questions
with various constituency groups as well.
Preview of Board Retreat and Board Meeting Format: Melissa distributed the agenda for the Board Retreat and
discussed the carpool plan. Amelia explained that we will try a new format for every other Board meeting
which will allow us to do a “deep dive” and have a strategic conversation about implications of the consultants’
reports, how we might change the work of our committees and how changes can help us meet our ultimate
goals. Erin Stanfill offered her assistance as someone trained in Change Management.
Closing
Observer’s Insights: Christian shared observer’s insights.
Extinguishing the Chalice: Karen extinguished the chalice with words by Denny Davidoff from the book Bless
the Imperfect: Meditations for Congregational Leaders, edited by Kathleen Montgomery.
Next Meeting: June 16, 2015
Meeting Host: Jane Mengel
Chalice Lighter: Marie Palena
Process Observer: Grier Page
Above Board [due June 14]: Amelia Shenstone
Upcoming Committee Meetings:
o Bylaws and Governance:
o PEM Committee:
o Finance Committee: June 15, 7 p.m.
o Congregational Life:
Amelia adjourned the meeting at 9:12 p.m.