One focus of the July Board meeting was to attend to our fiduciary responsibilities by authorizing the movement of our Fidelity Investments from a jumbo money market (which expires mid-August) to several three-month and one-month CDs. While interest rates might be lower than desired, this action will result in easy liquidation of funds as we begin to realize significant expenses for our building construction.
We also authorized the Sacred Space Team (SST) chair, Kathy Wheeler, to spend up to $200,000 on building construction. Your Board periodically approves a range of funding for paying invoices as they are received from our building vendors instead of approving each single invoice. The SST keeps accurate records of all expenses and reports to the Board, Treasurer, and Bookkeeper. In the spirit of transparency, members can view these reports, as well as all of our financial reports, by contacting the board president at president@brazosuu.org.
We continued our leadership development training (provided through the LeaderLab of the UUA), and adjourned into an Executive session to discuss confidential matters.
We unanimously adopted our board covenant, which we share with our readers:
We, the Board members of the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Brazos Valley, pledge to
be honest, direct and respectful in our communication with each other and our congregation
promote honorable intentions in our words and deeds and to be accountable to our fellow board members and congregants
commit to our board responsibilities with a willingness to accept assignments and duty to be fully prepared
encourage respectful dialogue that will be focused and relevant, mindful of time restraints, and allows participation by all
be active listeners and reflect on the wisdom of others
promote transparency of decisions and conversations, utilizing the tools available through social media and various venues
practice self care as we forgive ourselves and others as we practice kindness and tolerance with each other.
In addition, we decided to hold two Board meetings a month, with one meeting (the second Tuesday of each month) dedicated to “business and governance affairs” and the other meeting (dates to be determined) dedicated to adaptive leadership to promote a vibrant future of our congregation.
As always, reach out to the board president (president@brazos-uu.org) with ideas, comments, and questions.