Our Governance

Links to helpful Governance Documents as pdf files:

Note:  Work on our written policies and procedures continues. Anyone with questions or comments about policies, procedures or any other aspect of governance is welcome to contact a member of the Governance Advisory Committee (Bryan Cherry, Christy Multer, John Reschovsky, Rev. Lynn Gardner & Rev. Wendy Bartel). Scroll DOWN to view a historical summary about our governance change.

 

Board of Trustees Key Governance Pieces

Mission
Connecting in spiritual community, we
celebrate life with joy
grow in compassion
create justice

Vision
We will boldly live our Unitarian Universalist Principles,
within our church and in service to the larger community
We will nurture mind and spirit through lifelong learning,
engagement and growth
We will create a community that welcomes,
embraces and supports all
We will worship in ways that comfort,
inspire and challenge

 

Our Annual Focus of Ministry for 2024-25

Our Annual Focus of Ministry is to celebrate who we are becoming through living our UU values in and beyond the congregation while we courageously embrace learning and growing to meet the needs of a changing world.

2024-25 Open Questions:

How will we as a congregation fund ourselves and be good stewards for the future?

We have a shared responsibility as part of the interdependent web to do what we can to mitigate climate change locally. How might we collectively align this responsibility with how we tend to UUSS buildings and financial resources?

Background & History of Governance Change at UUSS (2014 – 2017)

The UU Society of Schenectady used the interim ministry of Rev. Margret O’Neall as an intentional period to update and improve its system of governance.  The process began in September 2014, when the congregational leadership identified governance change as a priority, and committed to work on it during a planned three-year period of transitional ministry.

During 2014-15, a Governance Study Group that was open to anyone began meeting weekly to read various materials, talk about ideas and structures that have been found to work well in congregations, and consider how different structures might strengthen UUSS.

Members of the Governance Study Group presented their findings to the Board of Trustees in April 2015. At that time the Board voted to go forward with a governance change based on the policy-based governance model articulated in Dan Hotchkiss’s book, Governance and Ministry.

In a nutshell, Hotchkiss divides everything a church does into two categories: Governance (headed by the Board) and Ministry (headed by the Minister.) Governance includes top-level tasks of articulating mission, selecting strategies for getting there, making sure the strategies are followed, and ensuring that people and property are protected against harm. The Board does this through policy development and oversight, and it is assisted by several Advisory Committees.

Ministry is everything else: managing the congregation’s daily, practical activities, including decisions about what to do and how. Examples of ministry include worship, music, social action, religious education, stewardship, welcoming visitors, and maintaining our buildings. Each area of activity is carried out by one or more Ministry Teams.

To move UUSS toward this model of governance, in August 2015, the Board selected five members of the congregation to serve as a Governance Task Force (GTF).  The GTF’s job has been to research and prepare draft policies for the Board’s consideration, make presentations at each of the Board’s monthly business meetings, help the Board communicate with the congregation, and generally facilitate the change process.

An informal Ministry Teams Study Group also met during the 2015-16 church year, so that interested people could learn about implementing the “ministry side” of the new congregational system while the Board and GTF worked on the “governance side.”  New ministry teams began to emerge to lead new initiatives, and some Councils and Committees began to consider transitioning into a Team model of functioning.

During 2016-17, the Board and GTF worked intensely on a Board Policy Book and on revisions to the congregation’s Bylaws so that governance change could officially take effect during the summer of 2017. Also the three Councils and various longstanding Committees worked to transition to Teams.

The product of the Board’s governance work is a set of written and numbered policies called the Board Policy Book. (See link above.) These policies define the Board’s own role and the roles of others, delegate authority, give guidance, and create accountability. Policies provide a framework for decisions to be made by individuals and by the various groups within the congregation away from the Board table.

By policy, the Board fixes responsibility for making decisions, protects the congregation’s human and material resources, and sets standards for the conduct of the congregation’s work.  As policies continue to be created and refined, the Board Policy Book is updated. Implementation details for the Policies will be set forth in a series of Handbooks, the development of which is also ongoing.

The process of revising the congregational Bylaws to align with the new governance system began in November 2016. An informal meeting on the proposed revisions was held on February 5, 2017, and two formal Congregational Meetings were held  to consider (March 12) and then to vote on (April 9) a new version of the Bylaws (also linked above).

On April 9, members of the congregation approved the Revised Bylaws by a vote of 97 to 3, which meant that the new governance system and the new Bylaws took effect on July 1, 2017.