Recently, the UUCBV Board of Trustees (BOT) decided to make several significant functional changes for how we run the church. After last month’s Board Retreat, the Board decided to change its governance style to a Liaison Board. We voted unanimously for this at our BOT meeting, Sept. 14th, 2021. In addition, we decided to take significant steps towards more strongly working as a church of Shared Ministry with Pastor Kiya.
Liaison Board:
Under a liaison board, the BOT maintains accountability for the goals and operational effectiveness of the programs of the congregation. To do this, the BOT will charge each church committee with a mutually agreed upon mission and vision; then the BOT assigns a board member as a liaison to each committee. The liaison acts as a link between the committee chair and the BOT, clarifying the charge of committee, the role of the chair and ascertaining the committee’s fulfillment of its charge. By attending meetings and working with the chair of the committee, the liaison reports back to the BOT with a schedule of planned events, committee progress in meeting its charge, and requests for assistance if needed. This way the board will know exactly what each committee is doing, will be able to decrease redundancy in committee tasks, and will better assist with the charge and progress of each committee.
So far, we assigned liaisons for -
The Sacred Space Team (SST), Molly Ward
The Ministry for Social Justice and the Environment (MSJE), Maya Lazarus
The Property Team & the Garden gUrUs, Josh Wilkinson.
All of the finance groups (Church Rental Policy ad hoc Team, Building Fund Campaign ad hoc Committee, Gift Giving Legacy ad hoc Committee, and Finance Committee), Gaye Webb. Gaye Webb will work with the BOT to determine how best to assign a liaison for each team.
Remaining committees that may or may not need a liaison are the Nominating Committee, Committee on Ministry (COM) and the In-Person Church Services ad hoc Team (Alice Scott and Josh Wilkinson).
The chair and liaison of each committee will present to the BOT their description of their perceived charge followed by a discussion with the BOT for possible adjustments on the charge. By December 2021, we should have all the committees organized to make it easier for new members to join these committees and for the committees to be more focused and productive.
Shared Ministry:
Shared Ministry has many different definitions and meanings to different people. I think the simplest definition for Shared Ministry is the ability of the congregation to work collaboratively with the minister. Individual ministers and church members have many different skills and talents. The purpose of shared ministry is to take advantage of these individual skills and talents and use them to their greatest capacity. Since Pastor Kiya is the minister, she will naturally be in charge of ministerial duties, which include, but are not limited to, the Worship Committee, the Caring Team and staff supervision -
Nancy Deer (administrative assistant)
Allison Faber (Director of RE (adult and children), Membership & Outreach)
John Faber (IT administrator)
Leslie Dempsey (Bookkeeper).
I hope this column helps you understand the changes that the BOT has made; these changes are paramount to guiding the UUCBV to be the best church possible.
Thank you.