February 2022 Splinters

With a sigh of relief at the February 24 meeting, the Board reached a significant milestone in our multi-year project to modernize UU Lansing’s governance. We voted unanimously to adopt a comprehensive set of Board policies. One of Congregational Administrator Kathy McWilliams’ favorite sayings is “things move at the speed of church.” These policies will speed up many things by simplifying our (virtual) org chart. In addition, these policies will:

· Lean more heavily on the leadership, experience, and expertise of our talented staff.

· Provide latitude and limits to encourage innovation.

· Encourage a shared-leadership process that involves the congregation in creating a strategic plan.

· Establish regular performance reviews for all of our programs.

· Establish a clear process to receive and address concerns.

The Board remains your voice between congregational meetings. We retain and take seriously our fiduciary responsibility, always seeking to act in UU Lansing’s best interests. We’ll be creating opportunities to discuss these policies with you, and we look forward to those conversations. This project is not yet done; reviewing our Constitution and Bylaws is the next big step, and preliminary work has begun to create a proposal. Unlike these policies, which focus on how the Board operates, the Constitution and Bylaws affect the whole church, and changes will come from a future congregational meeting.