What’s the Board Working On?

What’s the Board working on? It’s a common question for my fellow Board members and me. Thanks for your curiosity. Your interest in church governance is important for a congregation with a growing future. So here’s your answer...

The Board met for its fall retreat September 9-10, 2011. We were joined by Rev. Mark Stringer; Deb Dessert, our Director of Finance and Administration; and Laura Park, Managing Director of Unity Consulting. Laura has been working with our Board of Trustees on the transition to Policy Governance for the past five years.

The outcome of our retreat is a Board focused on creating linkage with you. Linkage is the Policy Governance® term for the steps the Board takes to understand what our church community looks like through your eyes. We need to listen to your stories to know if our church community as you experience it is the church our end statements say we want to be. We’ll start doing this in two ways:

1. We recognize we need to increase your opportunities to understand more about how you fit into Policy Governance. To start, you have the chance to view and discuss a video about the fundamental structures of Policy Governance on Wednesday, October 12, from 6:30-8:00 p.m. You can learn about the Board’s role, Mark’s role as our executive, and your role. The video presentation we’ll show was delivered at the 2009 Unitarian Universalist Association’s General Assembly by Laura Park, our consultant.
   
   
2. We’ll ask you to complete a church survey so we can build a basic picture of how well we, as a congregation, are fulfilling our end statements. Our goal is to present you with the survey in early 2012 and report on the results at next June’s annual meeting. Please take the opportunity to share your perspectives.