Shared Governance FAQs

UU Lansing’s shared governance is an operating system that efficiently focuses the Board of Trustees (the Board) on their unique contribution to UU Lansing’s results. It defines and guides appropriate relationships between UU Lansing's moral owners, the Board, and the Senior Minister. This system assures that members of the Board will not be involved in the day-to-day operations of the church but will provide necessary guidance and establish policy that allows the Senior Minister to fulfill this obligation on their behalf. Thus, it allows the Board to focus on the larger issues, to delegate with clarity, to control management's job without meddling, to rigorously evaluate the accomplishment of UU Lansing, and to truly lead.

Within this system, there are four kinds of policies:

· Ends Policies: Ends are our church’s destination, and these policies define what the Board is holding itself and the Senior Minister accountable for producing.

· Governance Process Policies (Internal Board Policies): These define how the Board operates and includes the workings and activities of the Board. They require the Board to define their work.

· Board – Senior Minister Relationship Policies: The Board distinguishes ends from means and delegates means to the Minister.

· Limitation Policies: The Board controls means through limitation. Limitations policies are written as what cannot happen so that the Senior Minister and staff can be creative in pursuing the ends.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Our Board already has some policies; can't we just add some policies to those?

The point is not just to have policies, but to have a governance system that addresses all the needs of excellent governance. Our previous system was not very systematic and was full of confusion and redundancies with regard to authority. It was often unclear who had responsibility and authority to make certain decisions and approve certain actions. The Board tended to focus on immediate issues at the expense of our desired strategic outcomes.

What is the Senior Minister’s role in our Shared Governance?

The Senior Minister gives voice and brings leadership to the congregation's mission. Shared governance empowers the Senior Minister to be flexible and respond to program needs and operational issues while being answerable to the Board.

How does our Shared Governance address the spiritual aspects of our church?

Policy Governance holds us to a higher level of awareness of what we want to do in the world and to an awareness of how we are doing at meeting our aspirations.

What are the checks and balances in the new governance policy?

The staff is accountable to the Senior Minister. The Senior Minister is accountable to the Board.

The Board is accountable to the Congregation.

The governance policy includes limitations on the authority of the Senior Minister.

All staff members will have detailed job descriptions indicating their areas of responsibility and accountability.

Who has the financial power in our Shared Governance?

Under our Shared Governance, the Senior Minister is responsible for finances and will delegate much of the work to the Administrator who works under the supervision of the Senior Minister. The Senior Minister and the Administrator will have the support of the Finance Team and the outside bookkeeper.

The Congregation adopts an annual financial plan, and the Board sets up policies and regular monitoring. The focus is on whether the plan and the ongoing spending are in alignment with the values and mission and whether it is in alignment with our financial policies.

What are Governance Process Policies?

These policies detail how the Board itself functions, and they describe its responsibility as representative of the moral owners of UU Lansing.

If a Board member dissents and says so publicly, what should a Board do?

A Board member who disagrees with a decision made by the Board has every right to do so. Indeed, there would be something wrong with a Board that always agreed unanimously with everything. It is usual that important issues are issues about which people disagree. On our Board, this disagreement is thoroughly expressed and considered before the final decision is made. This enables everyone to say that the process used was fair, open, and inclusive. The Board then requires that the dissenting Board member who announces his or her dissent also announce that the process used was proper.

Isn't Ends just a jargon word for goals?

Not at all. Ends policies are something more than simply the statement of a goal. And, they are not management goals as used in daily operations or annual planning. The Ends policies are very special type of goals that designate (a) the results for which UU Lansing exists and the good we are pursuing, (b) the recipients or beneficiaries of those results, and (c) the worth of the results. Presented another way: WHAT are those desired outcomes to be achieved over the next few years, and WHO will these outcomes benefit? The Ends statement should also include the COST or level of PRIORITY that outcome should have. These three together, the desired outcome, for whom, at what cost/priority, constitutes appropriate Ends policies.

Ends policies are written policies that define the desired results, outcomes, or benefits that, as a result of all the work done by UU Lansing, should occur for specific recipients or beneficiaries, and at a certain cost or relative priority for the various results or the various beneficiaries.

What are moral owners?

Moral owners are those on whose behalf the Board decides what benefits UU Lansing is to produce. The moral owners of UU Lansing are the past, present, and future congregation and those with whom we work to co-create the Beloved Community.

What about our various “committees”— how do they fit in?

We have two elected Congregational Committees: Leadership Development Committee and Investment Committee. We think of the numerous other groups we have for various operational functions of our church as Teams rather than Committees that are elected by the congregation. Examples of Teams are Building Maintenance, Finance, COVID-19 Task Force, Stewardship, and Pastoral Assistants.

How does the Senior Minister report regular progress on all of these policies?

The two primary policy categories where performance needs to be reported on a regular basis are Ends Policies and Limitations Policies. Limitations Policies are written in a manner that tells the Senior Minister what they cannot do while moving the church along its mission. Though this sounds negative, it is actually quite empowering for the Senior Minister. The Board wants the Senior Minister and staff to use their gifts and creativity in the church’s ministry and operations. They should feel free to do so – except – they cannot do it in a manner that is illegal, without being financially responsible, or using good employee relations, etc. Regular, or often annual, reports for each of these Limitation Policies are prepared by management or the Senior Minister to show they are “in compliance,” or not violating these policies as they do their work.

In terms of Ends Policies, the Senior Minister and ministry leaders provide annual plans to the Board and updates on their progress. These plans and updates should include how their activities (their “means”) actually make an impact on the various Ends Policies. It is then up to the Board to determine if management is making “acceptable progress” toward their stated Ends.

Operational Policies guide the ministries and work of the Senior Minister, staff, and lay leaders within the limitations established by the Board of Trustees. The Senior Minister or a designated staff member is responsible for upholding these policies and revising them as needed.