Trustee Report

REPORT FROM UUA TRUSTEE - FLORIDA & MID-SOUTH DISTRICTS
by Lyn Conley, UUA Trustee, FLD & MSD, January 3, 2003

This month I had the pleasure of spending 12 days in Boston. I participated in the Youth Office/YRUU Strategic Planning week-end, went to museums for two days, and then plunged back into Finance Committee and Board of Trustee meetings. The Strategic Planning was a very instructional process facilitated by three youth and one adult. A number of goals were produced through six working groups. The report is being finalized and will be presented at the April BOT meeting. Let me know if you have particular interest in what these youth are thinking.

My life is full of coordinating the up-coming (2/15/03) SE Regional Green Sanctuary Conference hosted by my home congregation, UUC Atlanta. I hope your congregation will be represented. I'm also co-chairing the congregation's new Long Range Planning process.

Below you'll find the topics in outline format followed by detailed information.

As always, if you have questions or comments please let me know. You can use lconley@uua.org, Lynconley@earthlink.net or call me at 770-934-9696. I plan on getting a DSL line soon since I seem to be ON the computer a great deal these days.

I wish you all peace in these troubled days. May your faith community support you, provide you a place to act and reflect, and give you hope for a world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.

Lyn Conley
UUA Trustee, FLD & MSD

1. Board Process
2. President Sinkford's Report
3. Executive VP Montgomery's Report
4. Secretary Arnarson's Report
5. Financial Advisor Report
6. 360 degree Review Process
7. Social Responsible Investment [SRI]
8. Education & Justice Working Group [EJ]
9. Beacon Press
10 Journey Toward Wholeness Transformation Committee
11. BOT Anti-racism Assessment and Monitoring Team
12. International Relations and Communications [IRaC]
13. Finance Committee
14. Congregational Justice Making Consultation
15. Moderator's Report
16. Ministry and Professional Leadership Working Group [MPL]
17. Anti-racism/anti-oppressions Training for Board appointed committees
18. Congregation and District Services Working Group [C&DS]
19. Committee on Committees

1. Board Process
The big chunk discussion this meeting concerned governance. You might assume a body consisting of 25 people wouldn't come to a decision about governance in one afternoon and evening session. And we didn't. We did begin to examine our language and understanding in regard to governance and the discussion will be continued. The examination of our boundaries within the current structure of the UUA and the types of subjects we should be addressing is very helpful in focusing your BOT on how we spend our time and how we organize to accomplish those ends. One suggestion included realigning our Working Groups around the four purposes of the Association:
-Service to congregations
-Growth and outreach
-Strengthening UU institutions
-Implementing UU principles
Stay tuned. In April we will be looking at the role of a UUA Board Trustee. The differences in District structure and practices should be very informative.

2. President Sinkford's Report
Bill addressed the snafu about the article in the Dallas-Ft. Worth paper that misquoted him; he had received over 200 e-mails to date, most taking him to task for advocating changing the Purposes and Principles. By now I hope everyone knows that what he was advocating was that Unitarian Universalists expand our religious language. You can read more about this on the web and in Bill's column in the next issue of The World. A result of this friction was the acknowledgement that the BOT is charged in the by-laws with reviewing the Purposes and Principles every 15 years. We're three years overdue. We will be discussing this process in April.

Bill detailed his work this year on transforming this faith into an anti-racist, anti-oppressive multi-cultural religious community. The UUA will be more responsive and flexible. A main focus this year is support for ministers of color. Bill convened a consultation at Meadville/Lombard this winter where long overdue issues of racism were addressed. He called for an evaluation of the UUA's work that is based on right relationship, not about the national UUA leading and the congregations following but rather a relationship we discern together about where our path must lead. We may begin this conversation at the General Assembly in Long Beach, a real meeting of the owners.

The report turned to peace. Many UUs and many UU congregations are engaged in actions regarding peace. Our call for US action only as part of an international community is grounded in numerous GA resolutions supporting the UN. However, if an invasion is UN sanctioned the Association has no position from which to speak as a faith. We are not a peace church or an anti-war organization. We need to honor all present in our faith communities who may have differing opinions. The BOT later in the meeting approved sending a letter to all congregation leaders conveying similar sentiments. You may read the letter at http://www.uua.org/TRUS/030130iraqletter.html . There is also a list of available resources.

3. Executive Vice-President Montgomery's Report
The last Executive Staff Strategic Plan, developed in 1999 and going through 2004, will be reviewed for progress and continuation. Keep in mind the entire staff has restructured last year under Bill's administration. Next year the leadership council will be creating a new strategic plan.

FY04 budget will be presented in April (it normally is available in January). This will be a complex exercise. On the income side, endowment and administrative income are severely down. The current capital campaign (Campaign for Unitarian Universalism) will conclude next year projected to meet its goal but with substantially fewer number of gifts in cash (ready $). In addition, Mind the Gap Sunday, which supports ministry to youth and young adults, has been successful, but has raised less than was hoped. Many programs/initiatives in progress will yield better results in a few months influencing the budget process

4. Secretary's Report
Rev. Wayne Arnason, Board Secretary, urged us to ensure all congregations submit their annual certification form by February 1, 2003. This ensures your delegates have voting privileges at GA! The deadline to run by petition for any competitive office is also February 1, 2003.

5. Financial Advisor's Report
Larry Ladd (whose new nickname is Capt. PowerPoint) began his report with a historical retrospective of Rev. Thomas Starr King. He died at the age of 40 but packed a tremendous amount of living into those years. Larry reported:
-Y2003 budget is projected to be balanced by year end
-Beacon Press is projected to be within approved loss parameters by year end
-Investment is down 9.9% (loss of $9.4 million) compared to 10% for other endowments for first quarter this year Investment Committee is reassessing everything asset allocation, investment managers.
-Forming an Internal Audit Committee is being discussed. Currently the Finance Committee acts as an audit committee. Appointing a separate committee to review the audit might provide a more independent look at the finances of the UUA, but would require staff support and a budget.

6. 360 degree Review Process
The Moderator proposed conducting a total review of the Board and Board related issues. A subcommittee of the Board and staff would create a survey and distribution process. This will inform a Long Range Planning process. The BOT expressed interest in pursuing this possibility.

7. Social Responsible Investment [SRI]
Lucia Santini Field, chair of the SRI committee presented and the BOT approved a proposal for a Community Investment Policy that at least 1% and not more than 5% of the endowment's unrestricted reserves be allocated to community-based investments. 75% of such investments will be dedicated to matching congregational investment. 25% of such investment will be recommended by the President's Office to advance advocacy and witness.

Lucia then gave an annual report on the performance of the Investment Committee. The results are disappointing for more than two years. In an effort to improve the performance of our endowment, the Investment Committee intends to increase diversification, establish asset class targets & ranges, and establish re-balancing parameters with related tolerances and frequencies. In addition they will shift from balanced managers to some fixed managers and some equity, value, and growth managers, with the Investment Committee selecting the blend of asset classes and manager styles, with re-balancing parameters.

8. Education & Justice Working Group [EJ]
The BOT approved placing on an the GA agenda several by-law revisions to language to reflect anti-racism, anti-oppression, e.g. changing color, sex to ethnicity, gender and add language, citizenship status, economic status to non-discrimination categories.

Three young adults were arrested at the November protest of the (old) School of the Americas. Contributions for defense and logistical costs can be sent to: SOA Watch, 1 Peabody Pl, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130, and Note UU Legal Defense in memo line.

The BOT passed a motion that the Board will participate in anti-racism/anti-oppressions training at least every two years.

9. Beacon Press
Helene Atwan reported that Beacon Press ended the year slightly better than projected. Holiday gift packages were successful. They are being vigilant about the three year plan with some concern about the current market. Additionally, there may soon be a change in the distributor. This could impact the bottom line tremendously. There has been great publicity this Fall with the publication of Choosing Naia (about raising children with disabilities) and Wealth in our Commonwealth by Bill Gates, Sr. & Chuck Collins.

10. Journey Toward Wholeness Transformation Committee (JTWTC)
The BOT received a report from JTWTC on 2002 GA Survey regarding how the Association has responded to the 1996 GA resolution regarding Racial Justice. In general, the responses from Euro-American/White and Non-Euro-American/White did not differ significantly, although there were a couple areas of difference. Overall, majorities of both groups felt strongly positive about the UUA staff and elected committees moving the Association toward being an Anti-Racist/Anti-Oppressive institution and the sensitivity and behavior of workshop leaders. There was a secondary trend in which a quarter of both groups did not feel positive about where we are in our Anti-Racist/Anti-Oppressive efforts; some may feel we're not far enough along and some may feel we're on the wrong path. The Board agreed to continue monitoring these issues at the 2003 and future General Assemblies.

11. The BOT Anti-Racism and Assessment Monitoring Team which helps the BOT monitor our progress toward achieving our goals in this area requested and received a charge for their work.

12. International Relations and Communications [IRaC]
Public Witness: The Office is currently working in four areas: Crisis consultation, media outreach, promoting the Emerson Bicentennial anniversary, and Public Witness Team composed of Bill Sinkford, Rob Cavenaugh, Susan Leslie, Deb Weiner, Keith Kron and media trainer, Fred Garcia.

International Mission: The BOT needs to be more proactive and create our vision that will direct our funding, our current method of influence.

Communications: With a goal of maximizing prompt communications the BOT will post to the web:
-Board and Working Group agendas when the Board packet is mailed
-Informal notes within 4 days following the Board meeting
-All Task Force Reports received by the BOT
-Final minutes of Board meetings.
We still need to establish guidelines about all Board Committee meetings and boundaries around observers.

GA Technology Report: At GA this year there will be:
-Bar-coded cards for creating data base of valid delegates
-Credit card validation for registration on line
-A downloadable GA Program Grid
-Cyber caf=C3=A9
-GA Evaluation on line

13. Finance
We received the final FY02 audit and management letter and everything appears to be in order.

The BOT approved a resolution moving a line of credit from Fleet National Bank to Eastern Bank to permit the Congregational Properties and Loan Commission [CPLC] to resume its lending program for member congregations.

The BOT approved authorizing unrestricted bequest income to pay down the Handing on the Future (penultimate capital campaign) costs and that future unrestricted gifts and bequests to be received, in excess of budget, be applied until such time as the remaining expenses of $486,546 have been fully reimbursed. A similar motion passed to pay the expenses of the current capital campaign, Campaign for Unitarian Universalism. This allows us to carry on programs now before the bequest gifts are received. Once the bequests mature the endowment fund can be reimbursed.

We are continuing discussion about establishing a Donor Advised Funds system. I am serving on a sub-committee that is formulating the system. The initial step of producing a Request for Proposal is underway. Once all parameters are determined the BOT will be advised and a decision will be made to go forward or not.

The BOT voted to reaffirm its funding of the International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF) at the level specified in the operating budget for fiscal year 2003.

The Board then held a discussion about right relationship. There was agreement that we need to find ways to engage the member congregations of the UUA in a conversation about giving as an expression of relationship. I suspect that this will become the theme for BOT this year. It will be discussed further by the Annual Program Fund Committee at their annual meeting in March.

14. Congregational Justice Making Consultation
We were briefed on the Congregational Justice Making Consultation. This past December about 30 people (congregation, UUA staff, and SJ affiliates) gathered to talk about what could be done to support justice-making work in our congregations. This work will continue taking the discussion to the Mid-size Church Conference in March and to JTWTC Common Ground gatherings. Among the recommendations are:
-make sure to coordinate efforts
-pick one or two major themes
-focus on theological underpinning of justice work
-have a strategy
-provide training
-collaborate and build linkages between congregations and districts

15. Moderator's Report
Diane reported on the formation of a Best Practice's Committee. We (yes, I'm on this one, too) are going to codify the work of Board members and attempt to capture much of the wisdom of the departing nine Board members before they get away. We will develop job descriptions, an in-depth training & orientation process (for the nine NEW members), and develop a structure for the biennial retreat.

The Task Force on the Election of the President and Moderator will be bringing proposals for implementation of recommendations from the Moderators Task Force and Campaign Practices Committee, which presented its report to the Board in June 2002.

The Commission on Social Witness Review Panel is planning plenary discussions at GA concerning possible changes to the current process.

Diane discussed her recent travels. She has observed that while staff offerings have grown exponentially, marketing has not kept up. We need to emphasize how to use the web more effectively and how we can maximize use of available resources. She hopes to strengthen the BOT by clarifying our relations, claiming our voice, and examining our policies.

16. Ministry and Professional Leadership Working Group [MPL]
MPL reported on the continuing conversation on ministerial categories and specialties. This issue has yet to be resolved. We passed two rule revisions that will give more flexibility to the Ministerial Fellowship Committee. Beth Williams, the Religious Education Credentialing Coordinator, introduced herself. The BOT approved her report and moved to expedite the implementation process.

17. Anti-racism/anti-oppressions Training for Board appointed committees
In response to a proposal that the Board require members of committees to receive anti-racism/anti-oppression training consistent with guidelines established by the Board Anti-Racism and Assessment Monitoring Team, the Board referred the matter to the Administration for legal advice as to the extent of the Board's powers. The Administration is to report back to the Board in April with a text of a motion consistent with Board authority. The intent is that no one end up in a leadership position without proper training in methods and procedures to transform the UUA to an anti-racist/ anti-oppressive institution. Bill Sinkford noted that there are different levels of engagement from the individual/personal to committees speaking together about AR/AO.

18. Congregation and District Services Working Group [C&DS]
The Board acknowledged the resignation from membership of seven congregations, 5 Canadian and 2 American. The BOT also approved placing on the GA agenda some additional By-law amendments wordsmithing that mostly involve staff reorganization resulting in name changes.

The C&DS reviewed its discussions of Bylaw Section C-3.5, which had been the subject of a proposed Bylaw change that was considered by the 2002 General Assembly and referred to the Board of Trustees for further study. The Board agreed with recommendation that no further action is required.

C&DS held discussions with members of the Board of the Church of the Larger Fellowship and with Directors of Congregation and District Services. We will continue to monitor this relationship where the mutually beneficial opportunities.

Rev. Tracey Robinson-Harris, Director of Congregational Services, reported on the growth initiatives currently underway. The media campaign in Kansas City (for details see www.uua.org =E2=80=93 Visiting from Kansas City?) and the new start formation in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are proceeding. The Board will continue to be up-dated on these intentional strategies for regional growth. Tracey's presentation reminded us that "It's not about 'me or my congregation.' It is about our faith, our saving message and our capacity to minister in this world." A region must have a capacity for significant local fundraising to participate in media or new congregation programs. Tracey also mentioned congregational redevelopment. Congregations with potential will enter into an intentional agreement for growth to live up to their potential for ministry and witness in the world. Tracey also spoke of a shift within District Services from a focus on management to a focus on leadership and transformation.

19. Committee on Committees
The BOT appointed:
-Joan Cudhea as chair of the Socially Responsible Investment Committee
-Stephen Shick to the Fund for a Just Society
-Sharon Welch to the Panel on Theological Education
-Wendy von Zirpolo to the Accessibilities Committee
-Rev. Elizabeth Spaulding to the Annual Program Committee (St. Lawrence Dist)
-Rev. Olivia Holmes to the ICUU biennial meeting, along with Sue Stuckey (BOT, delegate) and Rev. Ned Wight (BOT, observer)

Again, if I can provide additional information about any particular topic please let me know. I truly appreciate the comments, questions and reflections you make. I hope to see many of you in Boston in June.

Lyn Conley Lconley@uua.org

Florida District of the Unitarian Universalist Association