The UUCW Nugget

April 19, 2017

Office Hours

(Sept 6, 2016 -

June 29, 2017):

Mon, Tues, Wed:

9 am - 3 pm

Thur. 9 am - 2 pm

Congregational Mission Statement

"The members and friends of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester covenant to be a congregation of love, hope and justice inspiring people to take on the challenges of a changing world."

Welcoming Church

Mission Statement

The LGBTQI and Allies of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester strives to further the affirmation and celebration of LGBTQI individuals in all aspects of the church community. We also seek to increase the visibility of UUCW as a Welcoming Congregation within the greater community.

Update on the UUCW Policy Governance Experiment

Bill Derr, President, Board of Management

Three years ago the congregation decided to try an experiment, referred to as the Policy Governance System, which makes Aaron the CEO for the church ,the Board of Management guides the CEO and the congregation by writing policy. One of the biggest concerns people expressed about changing to this system was that it would assign too much work to the CEO, Aaron. The Board has asked Aaron to develop delegation procedures to free him from some of the time consuming aspects of his job and thereby allow him to concentrate more on his ministry. As the board does not believe this has been fully realized yet, the board recommends the experiment be extended to evaluate whether the new delegation procedures can reduce the workload of the Minster/CEO.

The Congregation approved a bylaw amendment in 2014 which temporarily suspended certain bylaw provisions. This was done to allow the church to experiment with ways to implement the Policy Governance System. This report will summarize where we are as we approach the end of this suspension period and explain why we are asking you to allow us to continue with the suspension for three more years.

1. Moving the date of the commencement of the fiscal year to July 1 allows us to align the church's programs with budget planning and leadership change. Holding the annual meeting in June has not been a problem; attendance was not noticeably affected.

2. Reducing the size of the Board has improved the functioning of the Board in the following ways:

a. With a smaller Board there are less people who could lead the discussion onto a tangential topic

b. When there are fewer Board members who need to share their input, each individual Board member has more time to fully express their thoughts and opinions during a Board meeting.

c. The time saving benefits mentioned above allow board meetings to be more enjoyable, productive and end at a reasonable time. This helps keep board members satisfied with their work. The happier board members are with their experience being on the Board, the more likely they will be to take on different leadership roles in the church. We anticipate that this will help mitigate the leadership development issues that the Futures II team was tasked with trying to solve.

d. A smaller Board also makes it easier for the Board to focus on important policy and strategic planning issues and to keep the conversation from wandering into areas not appropriate for the Board to deal with, such as micromanaging ministry programs.

3. Leadership succession and attracting volunteers to serve on the Nominating Committee was a problem in the past. The Board has performed the function of the Nominating Committee for the past two years, as its members are often in the best position to know which members are most active and interested in taking on leadership roles. The fact that the Board meets on a regular monthly schedule allows Board members to review leadership needs when they arise. Since this approach could have a potential downside of the appearance of cronyism, the Board would like to continue looking at this approach and consider ways to address potential conflicts.

4. The old Bylaws provided for a Vice President who was responsible for coordinating the Program Council. Under Policy Governance experiment, the program functions are delegated to the Executive; the minister in our case. The Vice-President is left with no function other than serving in the place of the President when the President is unable to serve. There was no President elect under the previous Bylaws. Under the experiment, there has been no Vice-President, but there has been a President elect. The Bylaws need to be amended to describe officer succession.

5. The old Bylaws included term limits. Our experience is that leadership skills improve from one one-year term to the next. However, the board does not advocate for unlimited terms either, and would like additional time to work this out.

6. The old Bylaws include a list of standing committees. This listing is not necessary under Policy Governance. Under our new approach, the Board is accountable for establishing and monitoring policies and the minister is required to make sure that programs adhere to those policies.

7. Under the new Policy Governance System, the Board has successfully completed several sets of Board policies that will help guide our church staff and volunteers in their ministry work. One policy that the Board finished last year was a Communication Policy. The following is an explanation of the policy, explaining how it will benefit and guide church leaders when they reach out to the congregation and the wider community:

a. It is important that church organizations have a communications policy so that there is a clear understanding of how staff and volunteers interact with the public, members and the media. At UUCW, we value the plurality of our opinions and viewpoints on many subjects. In an official capacity, however, it is important that the church speaks with "one voice," and provides a consistent message to the public. Without a clear policy, it would be possible, for example, for a newspaper reporter to obtain two or more different, possibly even opposing, sets of information when writing a story about the church. Another problematic example would be if separate volunteers developed separate social media accounts under the UUCW name. Having a clear policy ensures that the public and our membership gets a consistent message from the church. The church website is probably the single most important communication tool the Church utilizes. It is critical that private information individuals provide via the website remains private, and that UUCW conveys consistent messages through the website in an organized manner.

8. As part of the Policy Governance System the Board started having annual retreats that allow the opportunity to accomplish several things that can be hard to accommodate during regular monthly meetings. These items include:

a. New Board member training where new members learn about the aspects of the UUCW including the Policy Governance system, the finances of the church, and human resources procedures. This training allows new Board members to be successful right from the beginning of their terms.

b. Setting annual goals for itself and the CE/Minister.

c. Strategic long term planning (5 years out or more)

9. Setting annual goals has been helpful in the work of both the CEO/Minister and the Board. These goals are specific ways the church leaders can try to improve the church. The Board and the CEO try to make sure the goals they set can be realistically accomplished in one year. If church leaders try to accomplish too much at once, little actually gets accomplished. However, they can a successfully reach their goals and be ready to take on new task the next year if they focus on a smaller number of issues.

The Board is still exploring and experimenting with the best way to implement certain aspects of the Policy Governance system. These aspects include as the optimum way to nominate new board members while minimizing conflicts of interest, the best term limits for board members and executive officers, and to learn if the Minister/CEO position can be reasonably managed by one person. As a result, the Board is asking to extend the experiment for three years.

Contact Information

Phone:	508-853-1942	Email:	office@uucworcester.org
Fax:	508-853-2065	Website:	www.uucworcester.org
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