Board of Trustees Annual Report FY11

The Board of Trustees worked on many initiatives during the 2010–2011 term. The major initiatives and some highlights follow:

Governance Model: The Board, in conjunction with the Operations Council, continued to fine tune the new governance structure put in place in 2010. It is expected that these changes will be formalized as bylaws changes during the next Board’s tenure.

DLRE Search Committee: At this Board’s first meeting on June 8, 2010, the Board confirmed an email vote to establish a DLRE Search Committee to recommend a permanent DLRE to replace Barb Greve at the end of his contract in June 2011. Subsequently, the Board decided to engage Barb for an additional year to give the Search Committee time to do an evaluation of FUSN’s RE programs for potential changes and improvements. The committee completed their analysis and issued their findings in April 2011 and is now focusing on the DLRE search for 2012.

Pine Village Preschool Lease: In response to a request from Pine Village the Board approved a modified payment schedule that spread some 2010 lease payments into years 2012 and 2013. FUSN will earn interest on all deferred payments.

Social Action Council (SAC): The Board formed a committee to seek congregational feedback and recommend a structure to formalize FUSN’s approach to social action. The committee held several congregational meetings to solicit input and recommendations for a new structure. The committee completed their analysis and proposed a new structure and charter for the SAC, which the Board approved during meetings in March 2011 and April 2011 respectively. Subsequently, the committee nominated a slate for the SAC and the Board approved the full slate on May 27, 2011 by an email vote.

Leadership Development Committee: The prior Board established a two-person committee to develop a charter and initiate a LDC. The charter was approved in May 2010. The committee continues to make progress fine-tuning the LDC’s role and how it inter-acts with other FUSN structures.

Membership Integration and Retention Issues: The Board identified an opportunity to understand and improve congregational membership integration and retention. The Board established a Board committee to work with the Membership Committee and the new Membership Coordinator to facilitate this effort. Work continues on the definition and expectations of ‘membership’.

Membership Coordinator: A part-time Membership Coordinator, Kristin Cleveland, was hired in March to facilitate the integration of new congregants into the FUSN community and improve retention.

Harvard Conflict Project / Conflict Transformation: Barbara Bates brought an opportunity to the Board to have two students from the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program (HNMCP) evaluate the state of conflict within the FUSN community. With Board approval, they conducted individual interviews and group feedback sessions with a cross section of the congregation. They presented their findings to the congregation on April 30th. In addition, they arranged for professional trainer Debbie Goldstein to conduct a Difficult Conversations training session for the congregation also on April 30th. As a follow-up the chairs of the Board and Operations Council along with the Minister were asked to establish a Conflict Transformation task force to continue this work next year. The selection of the task force members is in process.

Annual Budget Drive: Jud Leonard and Adrian Bishop volunteered to lead this year’s ABD. The ABD has been very successful thanks to the efforts of almost 100 FUSN members. To date, the ABD has raised over $465,000, which represents growth over last year in a very tough economic climate.

Ministerial Startup Workshop: A Ministerial Startup Workshop was held on February 5, 2011 with approximately 30 FUSN members and facilitated by staff from the MBD. Some goals of Ministerial Startups are to: a) surface patterns in a congregation’s relationship with ministers; b) explore dimensions and challenges of shared ministry; c) identify the best ways for the new minister’s strengths to shine.

RE Fees: The Board asked the RE Council to discuss and provide a recommendation as to whether FUSN should or should not continue to charge RE fees. The RE Council determined that, within similar-sized congregations, FUSN was in the minority in charging fees. The RE Council recommended that FUSN not continue to charge fees. Some of the reasons behind this recommendation were: a) educating our children is central to our mission and should be supported by the operating budget; b) fees contribute to the feeling of disconnect between RE and non-RE families c) children’s RE is the only program FUSN charges for, not adult RE, coffee hour, etc. The Board voted to support the recommendation of the RE Council and eliminate RE fees