Attendees: Jill Hueckel, John Adrian, Ruth Benson, Tom Seluga, Rev. Susan Karlson, Rona Solomon,
Kathy Santo, Mary Lou Greene, Marjorie Ramos.
Shared Ministry - Susan explained the concept of Shared Ministry. Metaphorically, it is seeing the minister's role as a choir director as opposed
to a soloist. It is a ministerial approach that provides structure around lay leaders' efforts to achieve the church's work. "Coordinated volunteerism". This
ensures that committee work is not autonomous and that it supports a wider vision for the church. Our church has always had active lay leaders who have
shared the responsibility of getting the church work done but this is now an opportunity to focus and coordinate that effort. Susan suggested the book,
All Are Chosen" (Margaret Beard and Roger Comstock, eds.) as a good introduction to shared ministry. (She also,
post-meeting, suggests "Letting Go: Transforming Congregations for Ministry" (Roy
D. Phillips.)
Committee Roles and Support -- a discussion of ideas around expanding communication and
transparency about committee work. Ideas discussed were:
- Have committee chairs submit articles to the church newsletter to publicize key committee work, decision, and activities. A lot of
discussion around making this process more cost efficient (eliminate majority of paper costs), more eco-friendly and easier for providing updates if
committee chairs can post directly online (eliminates the need of a newsletter editor and coordinator). There was some discussion about soliciting
ads for the newsletter. The Council is recommending to the Board that the newsletter be issued electronically and to print a
handful of hard copies for those without computer access and for the parish hall bulletin board. Also, the Council will ask John Bostrom to host an
internet clinic on Sunday January 11 at 1pm with the purpose of instructing congregation members on how to surf the church website
and how to use the Google news group. The Council has asked that the Board committee liaisons discuss this idea with committee chairs to assess
interest. Kathy will follow-up with Board liaisons.
- Have committee work highlighted during a church service. The committee would work with Susan and the Worship Arts Committee to
plan a service where committee goals, efforts and activities could be presented in a worshipful way - including inspired readings, songs, etc. Susan
believes that some committees worth focusing on initially are the Membership, Buildings and Grounds and Finance Committees. Susan will
follow up with these individual committees to explore getting this idea going.
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"5th Sunday Talkback" -- take advantage of the 5th Sunday of the months of August, November and March to hold a forum where
committee chairs can share their work with the congregation and solicit input and hear feedback on the committees' work. This creates more
transparency and allows for congregation participation.
Reduce number of committees -- the current number of committees stands at 21 (used to be 26). However, several of these committees
are really task forces or ad-hoc committees brought together for a project (like Jolly Holly or Personnel) or have limited numbers or have shared goals. In
2005 the President and Board agreed to reduce the number of committees to seven umbrella groups. The Council is recommending
to the Board that it consolidate the number of committees and that that decision be formalized after the January Leadership Retreat. The types of
committees to remain should support the church vision and mission.
Introduction to Vision/Mission - discussion of prior church efforts to create a church mission statement. These efforts, although well-intentioned,
did not succeed because they were either created via a top-down approach or were not sufficiently reinforced throughout the life of the church or its
daily work and communications. We should look at these past efforts as a measure of “where we are coming from” but not revere these statements as
reflections of what we need today. Each generation needs its own mission.
Council members received selected pages from a document entitled the “Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together” by the New
Congregation and Growth Resources, UUA 2005. Members were encouraged to read this document so that we can all work with a common
definition of vision and mission and to understand why it is important to create one for the church.
There was consensus that the January leadership retreat could generate a vision statement but not a mission statement; that work would be done after the
retreat. Kathy received offers of assistance from Ruth, Susan and Marjorie to help organize the January retreat. Kathy is still looking at venues. The
reserved date is Saturday, January 17, 2009. Kathy will send out a “save the date” announcement to church leaders, Board members, former Church
Presidents and any others who have an interest in attending. It was agreed that a cross-generational and diverse representation of the congregation
is necessary to have a successful retreat.
Dates - Leadership Retreat: Saturday, January 17, 2009. Next Council Meeting: Saturday February 14, 2008 (changed from February 21)
Marjorie Ramos, Church Vice President / Council Chair
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