from uua-l: Report on January Board of Trustees meeting

[Debbie Weiner]

Reply to:  aungar at earthlink.net

REPORT OF THE UUA BOARD OF TRUSTEES JANUARY MEETING

The following is a selection of items from UUA Trustee reports of
their October meeting. Thanks to Trustees Jean Kapuscik, Robert
Senghas, Elisabeth McGregor and Patti Lawrence and to Financial
Advisor Larry Ladd for the use of their materials. Specific credit is
not given because there has been editing. The official record 
of this meeting will be placed on the uua website when 
completed:  http://www.uua.org/administration/
Editor of this report: Art Ungar:  aungar at earthlink.net. 
*********************

MINIMUM CONGREGATION PAYMENTS
The Board rescinded Rule 3.5.2, which had mandated that a congregation
contribute to the UUA Annual Program Fund at least 25% of its Fair
Share in at least one of the last three years in order to be certified
to vote at General Assemblies.  There was discussion, carried over
from our October meeting.  After the vote was taken rescinding the
rule, the question was considered as to whether the Board should put
any items on the 1998 GA agenda either supporting or forbidding a
required contribution.  The Board voted not to put any such item on
the agenda.  There was a consensus that the issue of contributions by
member societies needs to be discussed in a broader context of
stewardship, and there was preliminary conversation as to how that
might be done at this GA, outside of formal parliamentary sessions.

UUA ON THE WEB
Prior to the Board meeting the agenda was available on the UUA Web
page, and the Moderator's report immediately after. The Electronic
Communication Committee told us that about 40% of UUs are on the net,
that 453 congregations have home pages, that the UUA home page gets
600 hits a day and that is increasing about 5% a month, that the UUA
website has over 4000 pages already, and that there are over 78
mailing lists.  They asked us to approve some e-mailing rules to
better help us all.  We did so and the rules are already posted on the
website.

These electronic resources both bring people in touch with Unitarian
Universalism and help spread ideas and information around the
congregations. The Board authorized a half-time technical webmaster
position for FY '99; we realize that in the long term we'll need to
add to that staffing in order to adequately maintain and improve these
valuable resources.

REAL ESTATE
The purchase of 41 Mt. Vernon Street is completed and its renovation
is in process.  It will be fully accessible. The first three floors
will be for Beacon Press and the top three floors for the UUA program
departments.  This building is much larger and much closer to 25
Beacon than was Schulz House at 53 Beacon.  We have a signed agreement
for the sale of that property.  The difference in price ($3.25 million
to $3 million) is being minimized by special distributions from the
Liberal Religious Charitable Society for the next four years so that
our programs and services to congregations will not be affected.  The
Board voted to name the reception room at 41 for our former President,
Dr. William F. Schulz.  Beacon Press's former quarters on Mt.  Vernon
Place will be added to the Pickett/Eliot guest quarters.

We'll gain from the expenditure: increased office space, configured so
that the cross-departmental teams that now do much of the UUA's work
will be housed conveniently together; a new, suitable home for the
woefully overcrowded Beacon Press; more lodging space, which brings in
revenue as well as making meetings of continental committees easier
and cheaper; and greatly increased handicapped accessibility, with
full accessibility of all properties by 2000.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY
The theme is Fulfilling the Promise, and it'll be a good one. The Rev.
Clark Olsen will present the “Fulfilling the Promise” survey results
and an interpretation of it from the Fulfilling the Promise Committee,
and (in a separate program) Sociologist of Religion Robert Bellah will
discuss the survey’s results and impact from a non-UU perspective.
Amitai Etzioni will give the Ware lecture, "The Good Society: Why
Civil Is Not Good Enough."  There will be a strong leadership training
component. Partly because of space constraints in Rochester, there
will be fewer small workshops and more larger gatherings.  In addition
to the various business and social action resolutions, one of the
things we'll be considering is the General Assembly itself, and the
increasing role of district and regional gatherings. The Board is
initiating a conversation, "How Shall We Gather?", about the functions
and effectiveness of GA and of regional assemblies like the Northeast
Area Regional Gathering.

In response to the report received from the Moderator's Task Force on
Presidential Election Processes which rejected the notion of a special
nominating committee for candidates for the UUA presidency, the Board
engaged in a lively exploration of how the member congregations gather
to make decisions for the Association, conduct elections and live our
democratic principles. This discussion was clearly informed by our
work earlier in the day around inherent racism and other power issues.
The possibilities for transformation we began to imagine were so
compelling that the Board felt the need to broaden the discussion to
include everyone. We plan to provide space for two open forums at the
Rochester General Assembly: "How Shall We Gather" and "A Conversation
on Stewardship", but we intend to begin this dialogue immediately.

FINANCES
The UUA ended FY '97 with a modest $55K surplus. The '98 FY is on
track to end in balance. We do anticipate a deficit for Beacon Press,
which is suffering the woes of most small presses in a changing
market, but we feel confident of its long-term strength and are
committed to supporting its role in our mission in the wider world. We
adopted a realistic FY '99 operating budget of $16,407,463. We had an
increase of assets of $13 million in '97, due largely to good market
conditions.  We have begun including such funds as the Holdeen India
Funds and the ministerial scholarship and aid funds (over $3 million)
in the operating budget to make the complete flow of money more
visible to congregations. Thus on paper you may see what looks like
large increases (for instance in the Department of  Ministry) that are
actually changes in accounting and reporting procedures.

DISTRICT STRUCTURES
The Congregation, District and Extension Working Group began a process
of data-gathering and review of  how staff and money are allocated to
districts, and how well and equitably services are delivered via
district structures. It also planned the annual random survey of 24
congregations, essentially asking about UUA and district services
used, level of satisfaction, and what they'd like to have offered.
Chances are you won't get surveyed, but you're always welcome to talk
with your Trustee about these issues.

CHURCH STAFF COMPENSATION
The effort to improve church staff compensation is not receiving the
priority and attention that it needs to be truly effective. We lack a
work plan for that effort, one which identifies all of the key actions
that need to take place on a systematic basis, a schedule of when they
will be done and who is expected to do them, and a feedback/evaluation
process to measure whether the plan is working.  This is an issue both
of lay leadership and of staff planning and allocation. 

BOARD EFFECTIVENESS 
The Board has been working on its effectiveness and accountability. 
In pursuit of this, we framed our agenda items in the working groups
in the following questions:  What does this issue have to do with the
health of our congregations?  How will it promote our purpose and
principles in the world?  How will we know we're doing it right?  The
Board, like many of your congregational Boards, has had a tendency to
jump into program planning instead of keeping with our role of policy
setting.  Using these questions helped us stay with our task and not
attempt to take on the work of the entire movement!  You might
consider these questions with your congregation's board.

     Prepared by Arthur Ungar    aungar at earthlink.net