A Time of Remembrance

The first quarter has ended in some schools, and all the schedules– church, school, work– seem to be speeding up toward the end of the calendar year and the quiet of winter. Even the leaves of trees move through their colors and cycles at a quickened pace.

Despite our speeded up schedules, November is the time to remember to be thankful. We take a moment to celebrate the abundance around us. This time of celebration can help us to enter winter’s chill with a feeling of warmth and fullness.

We come to church and see people we know, people we care about. We meet newcomers, greet old-timers, we are acknowledged by our co-religionists in return. We feast together on Sunday mornings and discuss our dreams on a weekday evening. We gather to meet and plan and do good works.

Part of celebrating abundance comes through sharing it. We remember children and women and men at risk because of poverty, abuse, and neglect. We are reminded that though there is food to feed the world, that’s not the way it gets distributed.

At Eliot, some of us will drive, cook, launder, and host the homeless right in our church through the Room At The Inn program. We will collect for the St Louis Area Food Bank and for our Partner Church this month in order to live out our values and in order to celebrate our abundance through generosity.

This month, let us set aside some special time to be thankful for the community we have, to appreciate the abundance of love and support we feel at church. Perhaps you could tell someone you're really glad they are here at Eliot. Let us remember to extend this feeling of abundance to the new people and visitors who come to be part of us.

The end of November brings the beginning of our annual Madrigal– a renaissance dinner theater with fabulous singing and food and the efforts of dozens and dozens of volunteers working in an enormous variety of capacities. Hint: if you're looking to make a friend or two or five, volunteering to work on the Madrigal is a sure fire bet.

May your November be a time of appreciation.

October 2007 Board Report

Lead Minister’s Report to the Board of Trustees
October 10, 2007

Last year's goals were: (1) Assure worship services are meaningful and challenging; (2) Oversee financial stewardship; (3) Supervise and develop staff; (4) Administer Chapel business; (5) regular social & pastoral contact.

The Personnel Committee and I are working on specifics for implementing this year's goals. If the primary goals, 1-5 above don't change, then in working with lay and paid staff, I would plan on offering the following ideas to be completed by or before the end of the program year (June 2008):

In the area of overseeing financial stewardship:

• Establish a legacy gifts and bequests program to help ensure Eliot's financial future.
• Provide more complete detail to the Personnel Committee regarding all compensation and benefits, current and proposed, so they are fully informed and can counsel the board and congregation at large.
• Develop a written procedure (including a possible board policy) for responding to member inquiries concerning salaries, contracts, and other sensitive financial matters, in order to provide more transparency while retaining a degree of confidentiality.
• Provide quarterly budget updates for the next fiscal year, so the board is more fully informed of likely directions of the discretionary portion of the budget.

In the area of staff development:

• Complete the employee succession project (this is rather large, and some of it is confidential) to more fully comply with the governance policies.
• Convert all job descriptions to a standardized Position Description and Memorandum of Understanding to ensure equitable treatment to more fully comply with the governance policies.

In the area of administering Chapel business:

• Improve church communications and outreach by an updated and more functional church web site, calendar, and electronic communications.
• Continue to implement KEB recommendations regarding financial administration, and report progress to the board.
• Assist the Treasurer and Business Administrator in improving financial administration by development of a "dashboard financials" document or procedures as determined by the Treasurer to show the congregation that the church finances are in order and are being well managed.
• Update, post, and provide to the board, a complete employee and church procedures manual.

In the area of regular social & pastoral contact:

• A monthly visit (e.g., lunch) with a large donor, or past or current lay leader, in order to more fully cover some pastoral needs.
• Two pastoral outreach calls per week.
• The above is in addition to the regularly scheduled meetings, visits, and calls requested by parishioners.

Here is this month's board report–

Worship Services.

• The Senior High youth participated in the Sunday service twice so far, with good results. I have met with them twice also. I plan on continuing the practice where most Sundays I preach, I will be in with the Senior High for the first half of the service, then come in to the sanctuary to lead the second half of the service. Senior High attendance usually begins to drop off by this time in the program year, but it hasn't yet.
• Our Founder's Day service was well received.
• I will be doing a Family Worship Service this Sunday (10/14) at both services in Adams' Hall.
• I will be doing a pulpit exchange with Rev. Suzanne Meyer the following Sunday (10/21) for the UUA's Association Sunday. We will take a collection for the UUA's Capital Campaign at that time. We will be draping a huge banner across the back of the sanctuary. I will be pledging $100 to the effort.

Oversee financial stewardship .

• I met with Brian Krippner to discuss the dashboard design process and KEB involvement. We discussed the previous KEB process, the general financial health of the Chapel, possible board goals for me, and how he and I and JoAnn can work together to increase financial transparency. I understand Brian will take the lead in designing and implementing the "dashboard financials" process with JoAnn (and I) providing the support he needs. We talked in general terms about what level of information should be supplied to various groups. It is my understanding that he will do some more investigation with individuals or groups on his own, and come up with some protocols. He will also decide on whether to advise us to use KEB again or not.
• I think our board retreat (9/22) went very well. I am pleased we got board goals out of it, and look forward to the board's reporting on goals and increasing its communications with the congregation.

Staff.

I continue to meet with staff in a variety of configurations. Rev. Bonnie and I met with John Robinson. I am working on succession planning. I can talk more about this in executive session.

Administer Chapel business.

• I met with the president of the Women's Alliance to discuss space use issues.
• I worked on responding (again) to last year's Lead Minister Review (I had already done this in May), and then discovered a mis-communication. So, now I will be giving a draft of this year's goals to the Personnel Committee by the end of this week. It is essentially included above. They will review my draft and make suggested emendations.
• I met again with Bill Miller, and will be bringing him on as a contractor / consultant, specifically to advise me on administrative management, succession planning, and legacy gifts. This will be a revenue neutral change to the budget. Bill and I will likely meet weekly for ½ hour to an hour. I prepared a Position Description and a Memorandum of Understanding.
• The Social Action Committee has decided not to continue with the Christmas Bazaar. So, the office will coordinate a 2 Sunday event. It will be first come, first served on a coffee table sized place. Vendors (Eliot members or friends) will have two options: 100% of proceeds to a charity of their choice, or a 50-50 split between the vendor and the charity known as Eliot Chapel. This will operate on the honor system, but we will keep track of money raised for charities– to whom, and how much. There will be a blurb in the newsletter explaining everything.

Social and Pastoral Contact.

I continue to meet with people informally. I am arranging for lunch or other kinds of meetings with large donors and with "sidelined" members (members formerly active, who have moved off to the sidelines to some degree). I am coordinating this effort with our Membership Coordinator, Jennifer Kirkton.

Other

• I will be presiding over the monthly meeting of the Bi-statue UU Ministers meeting, on Thursday, hosted at Alton. We will be planning the big opening celebration for District Assembly to be held at the Hilton in Frontenac from Friday, April 25 through Sunday, April 27, 2008. Save the date!
• I am still working on a paper entitled "What is Commonly Believed Among Us" for the Prairie Group, a scholarly ministers group which meets in November at Pere Marquette Lodge in Grafton, IL.
• Bonnie and I are having extensive renovation work done on our house (kitchen & bathroom floors, new shower, new stove).