Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Petoskey
Board Meeting
Minutes of board meeting January 20, 2008
Present: Marla Houghteling, Kim Nowack, Ken Allen, Mary Johnson, Mishael Nouveau, Tom Beukema, Rachael Alberts, Norm Mottl, April Myers- Old Business:
- a. December Minutes - The minutes were e-mailed to the board and no corrections were suggested.
- Treasurer's report -Mary presented a written report with the following:
- December pledge drive - this yielded several end of year donations. Total pledges for 2008 so far equal $1830 for operations and $1490 for the building fund. It has been common in the past to have fewer pledges than actual giving.
- 2007 Donations - The total for 2007 donations including checks and cash collected at services was $7809.04. $912 of that amount was designated for the building fund, leaving $6897.04 for operations. A preliminary figure for our 2007 total expenses (pending bookkeepers report for December) is $5562.87, with net income at $1,334.17.
- UUSC Guest at Your Table Program - the total collected and sent to the UUSC was $340.12 as a result of the Guest at Your Table program in November. There are some other members of UUSC from our congregation who had already given their annual donation.
- Bank Account - Ray has been working with First Community Bank to get our accounts bearing interest. $8000 was transferred into a 6 month CD with interest set at over 4%. Our money market should now get 3% and our checking account also, but that still needs to be confirmed.
Holiday giving - The money we collected at Christmas time was given locally through the Northwest Michigan Human Services -Emmet County Outreach Program.
- Carnegie Building - We have reserved the library and paid for 2008 at the same rate as 2007. Tom B. has shopped for a file cabinet has found a legal size cabinet for around $170. The group agreed that it's time to make this happen. Tom will talk to Ray to see if he's had any success in his search for a file cabinet. One way or the other, the group "authorized" Tom to get the file cabinet within two weeks.
- By laws - Tom brought hard copies of the proposed by-law changes to the meeting and distributed to those that wanted them.
- Piano - April will check with Habitat to see if they can pick up the piano. If they won't, she will check with the Petoskey movers. If they will not donate the move, we will put an ad in the paper for 99$ for a few weeks. If that does not succeed we will pay for the movers to move it to Habitat. (note: after this board meeting April reported that Habitat does not want our piano at this time because they don't have room to display it right now.)
- Pocket Guides - We are out of pocket guides to give to new members when they join our congregation. Mary will order more for us.
- Minister Ordination Possibility - Mishael announced her interest in being ordained with our congregation. The board and those present at the meeting spent a considerable amount of time discussing this exciting news and what it could mean for the parties involved. It was pointed out that UUCOP hasn't defined what we want from a minister. Our by-laws fall short on that topic right now. Those present at the meeting were asked to give their thoughts on the UUCOP ordaining a minister and considering Mishael for this. Many ideas and thoughts were presented and overall those present expressed a positive feeling towards pursuing this ordination. Some of our ministerial needs discussed were:
- Improving our Sunday services
- Offering professional organizations skills
- Helping with vision/goals/planning
- Religious Education/ youth programming
- Major life events
- Prison visits
- Community involvement and spokesperson
- what will be the make up of the "ministerial relations" committee?
- what would the selection criteria be?
- what does ordination mean to UUCOP as a community?
- define reasons we want a minister
- there should be a distinction (and our by-laws should reflect this) between ordaining someone from within, and searching for someone from without our congregation.
- what would the reasons for dismissal be?
Meeting adjourned; the next meeting will be Feb 17, after the soup and discussion.