Minutes

Spirit & Community

Chalice Lighting

-UU History Thomas Starr King

10 min

6:30 – 6:

John 6:30-

6:41

Announcements

Project Phoenix Town Hall- October 23 from 7:30pm-9:00pm and October 27 from 12:20pm-1:50pm

Donuts and Discussion- October 27, 2019. The topic is the creation of an ARAOMC Committee from 10:35am-10:50am

Make your pledge by October 31, 2019

Staff Analysis Task Force- Will table for now

SUULE Representative, Jennifer Thilo, Leta Woo & Ayanna Stringer- October 20-25, 2019 in Wirtz, Virginia

Board Expectations for the year:

• Policy for the following committees: Healthy Relations, ARAOMC and Generosity and Stewardship, Social Justice Work (Poverty)

• Creation of a dashboard

• Visual Timeline to the congregation: Feasibility Plan to First Worship Service at 2650

• Braving Space and The Mountain Summit

Christian 6:41-

Thank You Messages for the Month

-Nicole Pressely

-Mens Group Leaders

Circle of Connection: What was the best day of your life and why?

Sean -The day I married my wife Erin Bickley Golan, so much love a

Jen- The ”20-30’s”Beach Trip” on 30A su

Jon J.-The Day I was born, to parent Theo and Aris Johnson

Sharon- The day I was done with my breast cancer treatments

John -After discharge from the Navy, spent two weeks driving and camping with Cate from the west coast to the east coast, to be married on the sailing ship “Clearwater” in New York.

Taryn-My wedding weekend when so many people came together to make the day special. The production was my wedding “the bride will be at the lake” June 17th, 2006

Christian- Family trip to martha’s vinyard inspired by the movie “Inkwell”,

DeAnn-The day I met Karen at Eddies Attic in Decatur Carol Ann-My birthday and tomorrow

Dave-The day the doctor at San Fran General told me the twins would live.

Paul-Declined

Bryce-The day I married Jennifer, only day I had both sides of my family in one place. We met in theater as the spot light operator & she was the stage manager. Not a single thing went wrong that entire day.

20 min

6:43 – 6:55

All

Board Education

Project Phoenix and Feasibility Team

• New Phase of Project Phoenix!

  • -Ask all the questions & get on the same page about our joint decision moving forward.

  • -Carol Ann & DeAnn are here to share the details & field questions the board may have.

• Carol Ann-Brief History of the project

60 min

6:55-8:00

David, Bryce, Carol Ann & DeAnn

• September 2018- found out the cost of renovations for the new property would exceed what we had from selling old property

• May 2018- Engaged Cox Curry to look into a little more detail

• Today Option 4 is estimated to cost $9.9 Million

  • Includes:

    • $7 million Construction costs

    • $1.5 million for contingencies

    • $ for inflation

  • Cases study done.

• Today Option 3 is estimated to cost $6.5 Million

  • Includes:

    • $4.8 million for Construction costs

    • $1 Million for contingencies

    • $ for inflation

• Project Phoenix Steering committee recommends moving forward with Option 3

  • Revise the case study to reflect this

• Dave-Numbers

  • Overview of numbers

    • New Energy code for energy efficiency

    • Option 3 the estimate is more firm.

• DeAnn -Refresher on differences btw Optn 3 & 4

  • Display boards shown

  • Option 3

    • Sanctuary seats= 280

    • Admin offices in main building

  • Option 4

    • Sanctuary seats=400

    • Admin Offices in new part of building

    • New Chapel

    • New Sanctuary

• Bryce- Feasibility Potential Estimate

  • Need firm amount to actually test what is feasible

  • Some preliminary forecasting based on past giving history

  • Pledging 2019-$650K

  • General rule of thumb for capital campaign

    • annual pledge revenue X5 for congregations used to asking for gifts and receiving them.

      • Est.=$3 million

      • Cliff Valley Proceeds $5 million

    • UUCA so far does NOT indicate a culture of giving that is sufficient to meet/exceed the X5 rule of thumb for

○ Pledge 2014-$800K

• No indications of “sleeper” millionaires in the congregation

• Option 4 would require multiple million+ gifts

• Emphasis on individual gifts will be necessary

  • Individual giving will make up 65% of the giving

• Option 3 will be a stretch

• Carol Ann-

  • Seeking a Board vote and endorsement of shifting to Option 3 as our focus.

    • Not a dream denied, a dream altered and deferred

• Board Questions:

  • Sharon-Capital campaign

    • Have we considered a mortgage?

      • Carol Ann-concerns about servicing it, stewardship would need to remain steady/grow

        • our finances would are not likely to support a mor

      • Bridge loan more feasible

  • Jen Bain

    • Additional Costs from Cox Curry

      • Bryce-several thousand $

    • Interest rate different?

      • length of construction factored in for both, Tariffs etc.

    • Questions we need to answer most:

      • Why is this taking so long?

        • Openness takes time

        • Evaluating options takes time

        • Town halls

        • Now getting into holiday season, which impacts feasibility study

  • Jon- How are we going to raise this money for even Option 3?

    • Reduce asperations?

    • Carol Ann- we will make it work

      • either cut on plans

      • find money somewhere else

      • Last capital campaign came-up short & we made a

  • Jen-How much do we have left from the sale?

• $2 million left (conservatively)

• Option 3 would need to raise $4.5 million

• Sean-Are we being strategic in Option 3 to make sure we set-ourselves up for future renovation?

  • Wiring for Solar etc.

    • DeAnn-yes

• Christian invites Pau’s input

  • The rule of thumb x5 was the same 20yrs ago & worked 20yrs ago.

• John- There are innovative ways to create revenue streams

  • Solar power cost sharing offers capex savings

  • Combination of commercial kitchen, social hall, and new restrooms offers excellent new rental opportunities

    • Dave- All of these will be considered in the Civil Engineering phase.

• Jon-How much of this will be shared with the congregation?

  • DeAnn-All of it

• Jen- Need to see the simple slide

  • How much money

• John-Last Capital campaign- ⅓ -gave majority ⅓

• Jon Invites Taryn’s input

  • All Souls Capital Campaign- everyone got taken to lunch

    • 99% participation

• Jen Should we be pitching

  • Option 2

    • No new parking

    • No new HVAC

    • Pretty much only bringing the electrical up to code

    • $2.5 million costs

• Revised Timeline

  • 11/15 Case Study/Feasibility Study

  • Feb, 2020-Capital Campaign begin

  • Move in mid-late 2021

gave what they could, ⅓ gave nothing.

Dave- Moves that the board supports Option 3 going forward Bryce-seconds

Motion Passes Unanimously

Executive Report

Annual Vision of Ministry (AVOM) Overview

• Worship Theme meeting worked

• Taryn preached too many sermons in a row

  • not enough budget to pay guest speakers

• Meetings with Atlanta Ministers

• Possibility of a new prison ministry is moving forward to find prisons to that will work with us.

• Low pride parade turnout- looking into reasons?

  • Further LGBT community engagement?

    • Bryce-Interweave disbanded last year

• New Hire Proceeding slowly due to concerns about funding

• Encouraging feedback via e-mail & meeting

• Worthy Beyond Worth

• Curtain behind the pulpit Sally Yerger taking point of that

8:00-8:15

Taryn

The Work of the Board

Decisive Action

The Minutes from August 2019 Board Meeting were approved via email.

-Sean will send via- e-mail

0 min

8:20-8:20

Christian

Finance

• No reports for last month because:

  • Brooks Mcgenis-(Erick) had questions but were unable to have them answered because Travis

• Operations are fully funded, bills are being paid

• New property Insurance now a Project Phoenix expense

• Replenishment of emergency operations fund is in process & more details forthcoming once the finance reports are available.

• Jon- insurance sub-committee needed?

  • John-Finance sub-committee to evaluate coverage levels?

    • Committee will consider it.

& Gary were both on vacation at the same time. Not able to generate the reports.

& operations fund reimbursed

10 min

8:20-8:30

Bryce

ARAOMC Discernment

10 min

8:30-8:40

Sharon

• Presentation rolling out the ARAOMC Advisory Council this Sunday 10/27

  • Tony Stringer will be the Committee Chair

  • Sharon is the Board Liaison

  • 4 new members to be put forth by the congregation

  • Will Require By-law change to add the duty to the nominating committee

• ARAOMC Committee (Board Committee) exists to set- up the ARAOMC Advisory Council & plans to disband once it is complete

  • ARAOMC Advisory Council will be a Congregational Committee

• Christian- Plans to require that 1 board member be a liaison to the ARAOMC Advisory Council & require ARAOMC experience as a condition for that Board position.

• Jen- Job description being written up so that the Nominating Committee can eventually take on the work of finding new members

• Jennifer- ARAOMC Advisory

• Taryn-Healthy Relations Committee exits to deepen congregation’s connection to the Covenant of Healthy Relations

  • ARAOMC Advisory Council wll exist

●

Bylaws

• 1 Board member who has served for…. on the ARAOMC Advisory Council?

●

10 min

8:35-8:36

Sharon and Sean

Closing

Process Observation

• Very respectful

• Good Humor

• Thanks to President Hardin we remained on task and AHEAD of schedule.

• ARAOMC connections via the talk about the work

• High energy moment- Jon’s committee report

• Low energy moment- sad news about Option 4

• Most meaningful moment-Circle of Connection

5 min

8:50-8:55

Jon

Extinguishing the Chalice

Thomas Starr King- ”Lessons from the Sierra Nevada” “Tell them I went lovingly, trustfully, peacefully”

John

Next MEETING November 19, 2019:

• Host (food and drinks) - Bryce

• Observer - Sharon

• Opening/Closing Words - Jon