Dear UUCA,
Happy Summer! We had both a productive and engaging Board of Trustees meeting on May 28, 2024, as well as a successful Congregational Meeting held on June 2nd. I am excited to share the key points and updates with you from both meetings so you can have an update or catch up on what you missed. Our meetings are always filled with thoughtful discussions and important decisions that will guide our community forward.
Relevant Board Info:
To review the last board meeting agenda, please click here.
Minutes for April Meeting (May minutes still need approval at the next meeting).
Monthly Minister/Executive Report Now Available to Congregation:
With input from the Eighth Principle Implementation Team and further board discussion, we have decided to make the Minister/Executive Monthly Report available to all congregation members, not just the board.
As your representatives, our role involves overseeing the Executives and Ministers through policy governance. This means we don’t dictate how they do their jobs, but we ensure they are accountable and transparent in achieving our church’s mission and vision. The minister’s report provides an excellent monthly summary of church activities, and we believe sharing this with you will enhance transparency.
The report will be posted with the meeting minutes on our website and will be password-protected to ensure it is accessible only to members and friends. This extra step helps protect the information from Ai and other screening tools.
Password: UUCAnnapolis24
We hope you find these reports as helpful and informative as we do.
EPIC Report:
- Fall Conference: Scheduled for October 19th, in partnership with BBC.
- Paula Cole Jones Initiative: 9 UUCA leaders joined a paid leadership community, with 5 Zoom sessions over the year, to learn to better understand and implement ‘A Community of Communities.’ The first session was on June 15, and the community was made up of board members, staff, and community leaders. More info to come!
Committee Appointments:
Jeanne Jehl was appointed to the Endowment Committee and Caryn Jackson to the Right Relations Committee. Bill Bennett and Taffy Davies were appointed to the Finance Committee
Executive and Board Evaluations:
The board generally works from August until June. As a part of our role per governing policies, we are required to do both an Executive Review as well as a Board Performance Assessment so that we may see what goals were reached, what we may need to prioritize, and what we need to focus on in the following year. We are in the process of those reviews now and will share some reflections when we have finished.
Retired Endowment Funds:
Prior to offering a salary package to Rev Anastassia Zinke (before she was called in 2020) the board of trustees recognized that we might need support from the endowment – for a limited time – to help cover the salary of two ministers of equal standing (at equal senior minister salary levels). The plan was for the endowment to make available $25,000 a year for three years, starting at the time Rev. Zinke arrived, in August of 2020, for a total of $75,000. Because of financial uncertainty related to the pandemic, the board later extended this to a fourth year, bringing the total funds available from the endowment to $100,000. This funding was built into the operating budget for each of the four years, and the operating budgets were approved by both the board and the congregation. Since August 2020, $35,000 of the $100,000 allotted has been spent. With Rev Anastassia’s departure, the board decided that when the books have been closed on the 2023/2024 fiscal year, any unused funds from this $100,000 allotment will stay with the endowment and will not be carried over into future budgets. We were able to do this because Stewardship has been successful, so thank you!
Additional Information:
- The board received a letter from the Nominating Committee outlining recommendations to make our board more equitable and supportive of BIPOC members. That letter and response is included in the documents from the Congregational Meeting below for your review.
- We will be welcoming a part-time Intern Minister starting in late August.
- Justin Cody has begun as our new Music Director and the worship ensemble and choir are enjoying his new energy! Please feel free to introduce yourself to him on Sundays.
- The board will not have a public meeting in July. We will use this time as a working session to discuss next year’s goals and challenges, as well as decide on a process for hearing from the congregation about the ministerial wants, needs, and transitions.
- The new board begins July 1st and will start with a board retreat and some goal-setting. We will share this information when it becomes available.
If you missed the Congregational Meeting, don’t fret! Here are the documents that were handed out, which include the meeting agenda, the Right Relations Committee introduction, the Slate for the Nominating Committee and Board of Trustees (which was approved by majority vote) the NomCom letter to the board and the board response, information on the Capital Campaign exploratory committee, and the short form budget (which was approved by majority vote).
Click here to view the slides from the meeting. The minutes will be posted on the website once they are reviewed and approved.
Thank you all for your continued dedication and trust in us to facilitate this transition for our congregation. We look forward to hearing from you and continuing our work to build a thriving beloved community of communities. If you have any feedback for the board in general, please review our feedback form here and it will be promptly addressed. Interested in seeing how the sausage gets made? Join us for any of our monthly meetings at https://zoom.us/j/9691712043.
Let’s keep the momentum going and continue to work together towards our shared goals!
Nicole Bruno
Board Secretary