Wy'east Board Meeting

March 26, 2007

We checked in and lit a chalice.
And ate cake in honor of Anders' birthday.

We will cover the cost of Amber Hoffman attending the district hospitality workshop.

We will make more than we budgeted in fundraising, thanks to our B&B participation for people visiting for General Assembly.

We voted to officially remove Carole Robinson as a member.
She moved without leaving us a new address.
If she returns, we will be happy to welcome her back.

Future Meetings

We scheduled future board meetings for April 2, 23, and May 2.
Our congregational meeting will be on May 20.
We will have an information session on May 6, presenting the proposed budget and bylaws changes.
And April 1 will be the canvass results meeting.
Plus a candidating weekend in late April.

Search

Search is progressing, and hopes to get to announce a candidate soon.

Budget Projections

We looked at a financial model which Joanne constructed, which lets us see the effects of different rates of giving, membership growth, inflation, and other elements of our budget.
How much will we grow?

It seems that a loan will not help us afford a minister for more than 1 year.
Nor does a one-time gift from a very generous member help us in the long run.
The only financially responsible solution we could find, to pay for the services we are receiving now for more than one year, is to ask everyone to increase their pledging levels as they are able.
(Assuming that the median income of Portland and our congregation is $40,000, if everyone gave 5% of their income, we would have twice the money we need.)
We must not call a minister unless we can promise to be able to pay that person for at least 2 years.

We discussed how to communicate what we had learned with the congregation, and how to lead the community through this threshold.
We decided to share our findings at the canvass results meeting on April 1.
We decided to send a letter with preliminary results in advance, to give people time to digest the information.
Anders decided to increase his pledge to 5% of his income, and announce this at the April 1 meeting.
He also would share this information with the Search committee and invite them to join him in publicly sharing their commitment to meeting this need, as well as their excitement at the excellent candidates they have met.