Board of Directors Meeting June 25, 2008

Your Board of Directors met in Framingham on the evening of June 25th.  This Board meeting focused on a variety of items brought forward by the standing committees of the board.

The first business of the meeting was to elect two new members to the Board of Directors.  Ms. Amy Chin of Church on the Hill UCC in Lenox and the Rev. Mr. Frank Groggett of the First Church in Ludlow were unanimously elected on an ad interim basis until action can be taken on their nominations at the 209th Annual Meeting.  They were welcomed aboard by all.

After worship and a community building event we reviewed and approved the Treasurer’s report, noting that things looked to be in good shape after the first five months of 2008.  We then moved to the consent calendar to move a number of actions recommended to the Board by our standing committees.  These items ranged from approval of the Regionally-based Conference Ministers’ job description to guidelines for the Pastoral Settlement Team to policies on benefits and income supplementation for housing. 

During our working dinner we discussed the Executive Committee report.  Several Teams were created earlier this year to focus our next steps to move A Still More Excellent Way forward.  The Board Structure and Conference Volunteer Structure group have been working on a proposal to establish Steering Committees to maximize energy and maintain the focus on adult faith formation, leadership development and prophetic witness.  The Measurement and Evaluation Team has been working on measurable objectives for each of these three areas.  It was also reported that the Resource Development & Management Committee expects a concrete proposal from a prospective buyer for Warner Farm within a few weeks.

Our Minister and President, Jim Antal reported that staff evaluations are complete and that coverage during sabbaticals and vacations seems to be working.  Progress is being made towards a Sustaining Pastoral Excellence Fund.  Our application for Lilly Grant phase 3 (focusing on expanding best practices to neighboring Conferences) is in place and phase 4 (expanding this work denomination-wide) is in the works.  A group of pastors has come together to focus on best practices for Stewardship.  Jim has also been working in the National setting to streamline the governance boards of the UCC, an ongoing project. 

We then considered the proposed budget for 2009.  There was much discussion about the Fellowship Dues and Basic Support Retention rates as well as the projected income and expense totals for 2009.  After much discussion the Board voted to recommend to the Annual Meeting a budget with a higher rate of Fellowship Dues collection than was attained in 2007.  Currently our collection rate (the % of dues pledged by Mass Conference churches which is actually received by the Conference) is in the low 80% range.  By working harder to collect what our member churches have pledged we can balance our budget.  It will take all of us to make this happen.

The last report was an update on the Board’s Association visitation efforts, which involve Conference Board members visiting meetings of Association Executive Committees  other than their own to learn about best practices that are happening throughout the Conference. We all have something to share so please welcome your Conference Board members to your Association meetings and fill them in on what is working in your Association.

Respectfully submitted,