Dear UCM members and friends,

We hope you continue to enjoy a season full of thanksgiving and receiving!

The board has been learning about its roles and responsibilities working closely with the ET, Stewardship, and Finance Committees.  

We are also reading and discussing the Dan Hotchkiss book,  “Governance and Ministry.”  Here are some of our reflections that we shared at last meeting.

The board ultimately serves the Mission of the congregation, and it is our role to ensure that the Mission is achieved from year to year. The board makes its most important contributions to the mission in three ways:

1) Being a good partner to the ministry leader
2) Hosting an ongoing conversation about the future.  The Strategic Plan and the growth study is currently underway is exactly what our work is all about.
3) Creating a sound structure of policy to regulate decision-making.

We are in the process of looking at all our church policies and separating them into board governance policies and operational policies. The board is responsible for governance policies and the Executive Team is responsible for operational policies.

Our governance structure reflects our shared ministry and the shared power amongst church leadership – Minister, Board, Executive Team and Staff. We all work closely together.

In regards to the ministry of the church, it has been noted recently that on certain Sundays we don’t have the space for all the people who want to attend church services.  Our minister will be pulling together a meeting with relevant teams and committees shortly to discuss what short term solutions we can consider until we have had adequate time and information set out by our Strategic Plan to look further into a permanent solution.

On behalf of the board, we thank you for your patience and “making room” for others to sit in the pews with you.  Your contribution to addressing all of our church needs is greatly appreciated.

Happy Holidays,

Jo Romano, President
Melinda Knight Moz, Vice-President
Will White, Secretary
Nancy Read, Financial Officer
Priscilla Fox, Member-at-large
Paul Hartmann, Member-at-large
Jennifer Payne, Member-at-large