Wy'east board minutes

Waverly Heights Church

January 28

We lit a chalice and checked in.

Cecilia's award-winning sermon was published in a book of award-winning sermons.

The last 2 meetings' minutes were approved.

End of an Era

Cecilia realized that her time with us is drawing to a close, and so she asked us to fill out a standard Interim Minister evaluation.
An interim minister usually focuses on certain areas of church life.
Of the 5 on the survey, we have made progress on them all, but have more room to progress in some than others.
We have made progress on acknowledging our history and putting it in proper context, and connections with the larger UUA.

Cecilia feels strongly that we can get better at 2 things:

1)Clarifying responsibilities and authorities.

Our committees need clear job descriptions, and need to be taught to act within their authority.
The board still deals with many issues that are not board level, and can be dealt with completely in committee.
(It is possible to go to far the other way, and have people acting for the congregation without authority to do so.
We don't do as much of that.)

The role of a minister as central knowledge keeper and trusted leader is in flux as we change in size, and still a new experience for us.
Cecilia will change the worship format again, partially so we remain open to new ideas so the new minister can change it to fit them, and partially to give us practice dealing with conflict and change in healthy ways.

The role of minister is so central, such a flashpoint for various issues, that the new minister will be an important part of our future journey.
And part of making transition successful will be saying goodbye to Cecilia in a healthy way.

2)Having clarity for our hopes for the future, and planning to achieve them.

We lack, and need, a long range planning committee.
Cecilia strongly recommends that we make the canvass a celebration of our soon to be discovered new minister.
Fund raising is dependent on a clear, exciting plan for future hopes and dreams.
We also need to get our new members educated on the pledge process, and get them physically to the canvass dinner, and have them make a pledge.

Other Stuff

We do a great job getting visitors to stay and become part of the community.
Our repeat visit rate is not a large number, but that's normal.
Within the normal spectrum, we have a HUGE number of visitors who stay with us.

We will work on possible bylaws changes by email, to be voted on at the annual meeting.

We still need a Social Hour Coordinator.
We need a job description, as well as a clear description of the task of host.
A host description will make the Coordinator job easier.
A reminder asking people to volunteer to host individual hours will go in to the announcements.

The look of our sign's a bit shady.

The worship time ink is all fady.

There's no need to faint,

a coat of fresh paint

will be applied by our friend Katy.