Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes

Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, Sep 24, 2024

Attendees: The ASUUC Board of Trustees (BOT), minus Linda Nicks and Sue Neufeld met in person at ASUUC. Attendees: Becky Harrison, Glen Day, Andrew Walker, Dale Young, Rev Ron Phares, Gay Harrison, and Ben Wallace. The meeting was joined later by Sandra Collins and Yvonne Wu to discuss requests from the Dismantling Racism Team. The attending BOT members met quorum requirements for voting.

Chalice Lighting: The meeting was called to order at 6:40 pm by Glen. Glen shared readings from ancient spiritual wisdom aligned
with UU Values
A. Consensus Business Items:
1.Minister’s Report-- Rev Ron shared his report. A main topic was the need to research going to 2 services each week. An announcement will be made for members to volunteer for a task force to study this. Names will be collected, and the BOT will choose task force members. The task force will report its findings back to the BOT for further action. (Atch 1)
2. Treasurer’s report-- The good news, bills are being paid on time. The bad news, there is no Treasurer’s Report for this meeting. Stan is having problems receiving UUA Endowment Reports on time. The UUA’s being behind 2 months for our Endowment reports delays Stan’s monthly profit/loss report. Action: Stan will call UUA to push for on-time reports. He will also work with our bookkeeper, Trudy, to catch up on profit/loss reporting. Motion: Stan presented the proposal for our Check Signing
Authority to include 3 board members. Andy moved that “the President (Linda Nicks), Vice President (Glen Day) and Treasurer (Stan Kidder) could all sign checks in the 2024-2025 fiscal year”. The motion was seconded by Becky and in the vote the “ayes” were unanimous—the new Check Signing Authority is approved. Action: Stan will take these minutes to our bank to show them that policy now states that the BOT President, Vice President, and Treasurer are all authorized check signers for fiscal year, 1 July 2024 through 30 June 2025. (See Attachment 2)
3. Team Reports-- Team reports were received from the Personnel Team, Building and Grounds and the Auction Team. Action: Reports will be attached to the monthly minutes. (Atch 3&4)

B. New Business:
1. Dismantling Racism Team-- Yvonne and Sandra presented a request for BOT support for dismantling racism education and moving to officially adopt the 8th UU principle. Motion: Andy moved that “the BOT support the Dismantling Racism Team’s goal to infuse teaching and actions within our congregation.” Gay seconded the motion and all present voted aye. The motion passed. Action: The board charged Yvonne and Sandra to prepare, then educate the BOT on the details of their educational plans and the exact charge to the congregation for action. Adopting the 8th principle would require a congregational vote.
2. Path to Membership Policy and Procedure-- The board had read ahead of the meeting the proposed new policy and procedure. Motion: Glen moved that “we accept the presented membership policy and procedure as written;” Stan seconded the motion, and the “ayes” were unanimous. The motion passed. The new policy is attachment 5.
3. New UU Retirement Plan-- The BOT had a chance to review the new UU Retirement Plan January 2025 Plan
Restatement prior to the meeting. Motion: Becky moved that the BOT vote on the motion as read by Dale Young (see attachment) to enact the new UU Retirement Plan as written and to begin on 1 Jan 2025. Andy seconded the motion and all present voted aye. The motion passed. See attachment 6 to read the official motion.
4. Consent to BOT Retreat Goals:
a. The topics of Governance/bylaws/Policies and Procedures; BOT educational book reading. Agreed to join with Bylaws Task Force to discuss Chapter 4 Governance and Ministry on October 24 from 6-8:30 at church.
b. IT Implementation Plan Task Force-- The need to improve our IT collaboration tools was discussed. Action: Glen will head an IT task force to include Ben Wallace, Karen and to include as recommended by Gay, someone not tech savy to research options for the most user friendly and best value IT tools and processes to meet our church’s needs.
c. Task Force for 2 Service Study--See above under minister’s report.
5. Christmas and Solstice services proposal-- Rev Ron discussed ideas for December services covering Solstice and Christmas. The congregation may be polled for their input. Right now, a blending of solstice and Christmas themes is recommended by the BOT.
6. Cannabis Event Proposal-- Rev Ron has an offer for a “vision quest/spiritual retreat” type event involving cannabis. A professional UU organizer of this type of event is available. Motion: Glen moved that “Rev Ron pursue gathering all pertinent information for this event and report back to the BOT.” Becky seconded the motion, and all present voted “aye.” The motion passed and further discussion will happen at this event once all the information is available.
7. Council meeting overview-- Glen reported that the council leaders worked on a new charter, following a template pulled from chat GPT. The council charter should be completed and presented in January of next year.
8. BOT approval of August Mergelman’s offer to donate 3D prints to Auction-- Motion: Dale moved that “the BOT approve A. Mergelman’s donation of 3D prints of the ASUUC building to the 2024 Auction.” Becky seconded the motion, and the quorum still present all voted “aye.” The motion passed.

C. Adjournment-- The meeting was running late, so Glen called to adjourn at 9pm. Any further administrative was tabled for on-line discussions.

D. Next meeting-- 4th Tue of the month, Oct 22.

E. Minutes Coordination:
Minutes sent for board review on: 27 Sept 2024
Minutes with final updates incorporated sent to President on: 30 Sept 2024
President approved minutes on: 30 Sept 2024 (Linda Nicks)
Finalized minutes sent to ASUUC Tech and Admin Staff for posting on: 2 Oct 2024 (Gay Harrison)

Minutes respectfully submitted by BOT Secretary, Gay Harrison.