UCSG Board Minutes
2/7/23

Present:  Dennis Ashley, Tami Savage, Donna Hodge, Roye Ely (on Zoom)
Absent: Ginny Taft

I.    Meeting was called to order with prayer at 1:40

II.  Tami moved that the minutes be approved, seconded by Dennis,
    Motion passed

III. Finance Committee report. (See attached)

    A.  The expenses for January exceeded income by  $2700 which included payment for the carpet which is actually an asset. Income was $18,149, a very good income for us.  Having 5 Sundays was helpful. 

    B. The subject of counting money on Sunday was discussed.  It would be good to have at least a couple more authorized individuals who can count each week.  We will make sure that this is on the agenda for the new Board.

    C.  Discussion was held around how to make the decision at the annual meeting about how to invest the monies from the merger.  Donna H. moved to have a ballot which lists all of the potential options as well as an additional option that says that the “Finance Committee is authorized to make the final decision.”  Trish seconded the motion and it was passed.  

    D.  Tami will put together overheads and an easy to understand handout for the annual meeting packet regarding the options for investing our monies.  

IV.  Minister’s Report. (See attached)

    A.  Of note: the after church meditations to increase income and attendance have been somewhat successful!

V.  Governance Committee Report

    A.  The Govt. Committee will be meeting with the three (maybe four) new board applicants on Feb 10 to discuss their upcoming service and what it will mean for them and to determine a monthly time that will work for their schedules.  

    B.  The new policies and procedures are getting ready to be finalized.  We need someone to get them typed up for the manual. Donna H has volunteered to help with this. 

V.  Old Business

    A.  Volunteer of the month.  Welcome staff Mirabel and Judy were selected

    B.  Annual meeting agenda.  Roye will draw it up and send to Dennis who will supervise it being put into packets for the meeting.

    C.  As a help to Jerilyn, Donna Hodge will work on putting the revised ByLaws together into their final form.  

VIII.  This is the last meeting of the merger Board. Motion to adjourn was passed at 3: something.

Commitments:

Tami will call an electrician to work on the lighting for our outside sign.  She will also work on overheads and a handout regarding investment options for the funds coming in from CSG now that the merger is final.

Donna H and Dennis will work on helping Jerilyn with putting together the packet for the annual meeting.  They are also going to work together to create an evaluation form for the minister that gives him better feedback about his performance

Donna H will work on getting the policies and procedures edited and typed into a form that can be put into a manual after board approval

Roye will send an example of the annual meeting agenda to Dennis.  Roye and Dennis will meet with the 3 (maybe 4) new board applicants on Feb 10 to discuss their participation on the board.  Roye will send a copy of the Youth Ed policy to Tami for her input. Roye will talk with Audra about putting together a poster to honor our welcome committee: Maribel and 
Judy. 

Minister Report
February 2023

1. Some Regional News:  Rich Broderhaus has resigned as the NW Regional Representative. He has been replaced by Carrie Kenyon. He had retired and didn’t want that big of a role. Carrie used to work for Unity Worldwide Headquarters. 

2. Attendance:  96 two weeks ago and averaged 86 in January. The meditation on increasing attendance was followed by jumping from 80 to 96. The meditation on increased love offerings was followed by lower attendance but more financial giving. This last Sunday jumped by about $300. 

3. We have been ranging between 8-12 children, most often around 10.  

4. The month of February is focused on love. This last Sunday was The Hidden Door and the Secret Key of Love This coming Sunday will be on the Dialects of Love—based on Gary Chapman’s 5 Love Languages.

5. Prayer Chaplains:  
13 people attended the Orientation Meeting yesterday after church. We set a day for a chaplain training program for Saturday, February 18 from 10-3. The chaplains will do a number of things:  
a.    2 chaplains for each Sunday service to pray with people
b.    1 chaplain each Sunday who holds the service in meditative prayer for the whole hour
c.    We will take the number of chaplains and divide them up into equal groups to make telephone calls once a quarter to all congregants, just to see if they have any prayer needs.
d.    Once a year for one chaplain to go to a particular volunteer group (like choir or decorating team) just to be available for prayer
e.    A meeting once every 2 months to discuss issues, prayer challenges.
 
6. We held the Volunteer Dinner. 43 people attended. I thought it was very successful. Thanks to Tami and Roye for cooking.  

7. Fundraisers & Events
a.    January:  Volunteer Dinner
b.    March:  Start the Prayer Chaplain Program (actually 3rd Sunday in February)
c.    April:  Class on Dementia and Parkinson’s
d.    May:  A Mother’s Day event and fashion show, headed up by Julie Croteau. 
e.    May:  Start “God and Coffee.”    Wednesdays at noon.    One hour long. Bring your own lunch.    We will do it outside when we can.
f.    June:  Chili Cook-off (weekend before Father’s Day)
g.    July:  Hamburger Cook-off
h.    August:  Holistic Fair
i.    September:  Auction with music
j.    October:  Women of Unity (5 or 6 excellent women singers to sing on a Friday night and a Sunday afternoon after church)

8. Sunday, March 5th, ACIM group is coming to church as a group. I want to recognize the different groups who come here. 
a.    Spiritual Evolution
b.    Yoga
c.    Jazzercize
d.    Men’s Group
e.    Turkeys N More
f.    AA Groups (tricky since they are anonymous)
g.    Happy Art Class
h.    And it just occurred to me that we could also start asking all the in-house groups (like In-Reach, Hospitality, Greeters, Decorating, Labyrinth, Librarian & Books, Social Media, Livestream)

9. The Power of Focused Ministry workshop 2 Saturdays ago was excellent. It seemed to me that everybody who attended thought it was useful. I sent out an email to the attendees and asked what they thought were the three best ideas that came out of the workshop. There was a high degree of similarity in the responses. 
a.    Define our demographics.
b.    Discuss live streaming.
c.    Work on a welcome video for the website.

10. Dave Crettol and Veronica will be facilitating a discussion group on Brene Brown’s best-selling book, Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience 
a.    The focus is on the audio book by Brene Brown on learning an emotional language. It is a 13-week session that starts March 2nd and goes to mid-May. The cost is $100. That’s higher than people here are used to paying for a program, but I thought, “Let’s see.”

11. Gwen, Julie, and I have started working on the program for Palm Sunday and Easter.
   
12. I signed up for a free Webinar on Growing Attendance at Church for next week.

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