January 2023 Splinters
Since our last report, we had the first Board meeting of 2023 and our Congregational Budget/Delegate approval meeting on January 29th. The congregational members approved the 2023 Financial Plan for the operating budget. The plan calls for the Church to support programs but reduce amounts; reduce, as we did last year, our contribution to UUA; avoid staff layoffs, but freeze staff salaries (despite inflation), and reduce the Church Administrator’s time; and use most of the remaining COVID relief funds. This will bring us to a balanced budget.
The membership also approved delegates to General and Regional Assembly. This year, both Assemblies will be held in the same location: Pittsburgh, PA. The following slates of delegates will represent UU Lansing:
General Assembly – Deb Feltz, Wendy Hamilton, Tammy Lemmer, Kathy Lovell, Karl Paananen, Barbara Stoddard, Gale Strasburg
Regional Assembly – Rocky Beckett, Deb Feltz, Judy Goth-Owens, Wendy Hamilton, Bob Lovell, Kathy Lovell, Gale Strasburg
Beginning this year, we will hold one Annual Meeting of the Congregation in November (based on our newly approved By-Laws), where we will present the church’s annual financial plan for 2024 and slates of candidates for all appropriate positions on the Board of Trustees and Congregational Committees instead of separating our financial plan and slates of candidates in different meetings.
In terms of Board work for 2023, we continue our review of Shared Governance accountability and policy limitations and begin our monitoring process of comparing performance data against a reasonable interpretation of Ends policies and Senior Minister limitations policies. We have begun work on developing a baseline congregational survey on the Ends (an “understanding” survey) and establishing written governance policies for Congregational committees.
If you have any questions regarding Splinters from the Board or the work of your Board, please reach out to us. We look forward to future engagement on these and other topics. Our Next Board meeting is scheduled for February 22, 2023.
Deb Feltz, President
president@uulansing.org
Tom Nicholas, President-Elect
president-elect@uulansing.org